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Nick Danziger: “Danziger’s Travels”
To get a feeling for real low-buget travelling in Asia, read this thrilling and funny account of a guy who travels overland from England to Tibet and even Bhutan in times of the Afghan War.
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Sven Hedin: “My life as an explorer”
This is Hedin’s account of his various journeys into Asia, especially about his Takla Makan desert expeditions. Although almost a century old now, this book is one of the most thrilling and spellbinding travel narratives I have read. Hedin was the heroic adventurer who set out with nothing but a strong will and stoic health.
However, some doubts have appeared lately that Hedin had said the truth in all points: One of his comrades who had died in the desert according to Hedin, apparently reappeared in Kashgar later and lived a happy life. Also, the fact that Hedin and his men spent the days in the desert buried in the sand, waiting for the night to continue walking, seems implausible as this would cause similar exhaustion. Nevertheless, the book makes for fascinating reading!
If you can get hold of it somewhere, read Hedin’s classic “Through Asia”!
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Kenneth Wimmel and Ella Maillart: “The Alluring Target”
Wimmel came across Hedin’s book while he was living in Asia and started to become interested in the story of the Takla Makan. He assembled lots of material and describes in detail how the Takla Makan desert was explored. The story of Hedin, Stein and various other explorers are woven into a fascinating account of human determination.
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Peter Hopkirk: “Foreign Devils on the Silk Road”
Hopkirk targets the same topic as Wimmel, and he did so earlier: In detail Hopkirk describes the explorers of the Silk Road and their lives.
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Heinrich Harrer: “Seven years in Tibet”
Well, everybody has seen Brad Pitt trying to speak with an Austrian accent. Actually the book is slightly different in parts and well worth reading. For those who haven’t seen the movie: The book is a true account of an Austrian (Harrer) who escaped from a British POW-camp in the 1930’s and eventually reaches Lhasa after an adventurous journey. He settles down in Lhasa and befriends the Dalai Lama.
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Peter Matthiesen: “The Snow Leopard”
This emotional book starts as an expedition account of Matthiesen’s and a friend’s journey into the mountains of the Himalaya in search of the very rare snow leopard. However, it soon turns into a spiritual book about life, friendship and Buddhism. Beautifully written, but not easy to read.
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Eric Newby: “A Short Walk in the Hindukush”
This book is a classic of involuntary adventure literature: Newby, planning just a short stroll through remote Afghan mountain regions, stumbles from one desaster to the next, but still takes it all as a typical eccentric British gentleman.
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Dith Pran: “Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields”
Dith Pran is the Cambodian photojournalist whose life was portrayed in the disturbing movie “The Killing Fields”, which shows the Khmer Rouge’s brutal regime in Cambodia during the seventies. Pran compiled eyewitness accounts to the genocide in this book. A horrifiying book about the terror that killed about one third of the Cambodian people, not for the weak-hearted.
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There is also the Oscar-awared movie “The Killing Fields” from 1984 which is seen to be among the 100 best British movies of all times.
Joseph Conrad: “Heart of Darkness”
This novel from 1899 tells about the sailor Charles Marlow and his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior, in search of an ivory trader called “Kurtz”. This book is haunting enough already, but the best known film adaptation is Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film “Apocalypse Now“, which moves the story from the Congo to Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Martin Sheen stars as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, assigned to “terminate the command” of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando.
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