High - A Journey Across the Himalaya through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China (Erika Fatland, 2023)

 (570 pages)

Author took a journey through the areas mentioned in the title; it was divided into two segments, each lasting months.

I like travel books - they give a feel for geography and history told against a story line of things the traveler is encountering, difficulties along the way, etc.

These areas are generally unfamiliar to me. As she moves east, even less familiar.  Lots of visits to Buddhist temples (after starting more with Hindu-Muslim mix, mostly Hindu, then Hindu-Buddhist mix).

Discussions of India-China borderlands are interesting, also India-Pakistan - fraught areas, as is well-known. Kashmir.

Discussions of Chinese control in these areas - after some intermittent resistance, now it's mostly well-controlled.  Social media monitored more closely than in modern-day Great Britain! In the short "acknowledgements" section at the end of the book the author mentions the risks that folks took in speaking with her, including on dangerous topics; she obscured their names and locations in the telling. This atmosphere won't be changing anytime soon.

Lots of Chinese tourists in various areas - as the country has gotten wealthier, they are on the move.

Some of the areas are incredibly obscure.  Shamans with lots of power.  Menstruating women sent off to a hut for days; poor conditions, unhealthy to the point of causing some deaths.  Changing, but many still stuck with this.

Dealing with altitude. She visits Mt. Everest base camp, an interesting perspective from a person not attempting the summit.

Pretty amazing to imagine throughout; I don't foresee visiting any of these places; so it's nice to at least get an armchair experience.

A Line in the World - A year on the North Sea Coast (Dorthe Nors, 2021)

Saw a favorable review and gave the book a try - I liked it.

Very much out of my experience geographically - author explores the rugged west coast of Denmark - where she has, or at least had, family ties.  Kind of connected, but kind of not.

EXCEPT - I read this shortly after our visit up to Nome - this made it much, much easier to imagine the coastal ruggedness that the author describes.

And - there is some overlap with the feel of return visits to Iowa over the years.

The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader (Lawrence Durrell, based on travels in 1930s - 1950s)

I enjoyed The Alexandria Quartet and kept seeing that Durrell was an excellent travel writer - with much of this is centered in Greece.

This compilation was quite good but I didn't really connect with it.  I was looking for "Prospero's Cell" - focused on his time in Corfu - this includes some of that experience, plus other Greek items.

Indian Embers (Lady (Rosamond Napier) Lawrence, 1949)

(397 pages)

Author is a novelist, also accomplished at sketching.  I'm marveling at her consistent detailed descriptions of landscapes and people, but it makes sense - must be part of how a person can be a good writer/artist.  Loves riding horses; she and husband see a lot in this way. Napier name - long history in England and India.  Also her husband's family (Lawrence).

Book was published in 1949, but events took place between 1914 and 1919.

I found it fascinating throughout.

Though thinking about how useful this type of book can be - written from perspective of colonial authorities - still, I think it is pretty useful. The descriptions of the various areas they lived in or visited are fascinating.  Some glimpses of how the local people lived. An idea of how Indians working for colonial authorities lived - perhaps plenty of poor treatment, but these probably were valued jobs?

I don't think too many Indians were traveling around the country and writing up their experiences - tourism among locals probably hadn't been invented for the most part at this time - so the book is useful in that way.

Immense expense of the way the colonial authorities travel - even in Belgaum, a lesser position, I think they were taking 24 bullock carts when traveling, setting up nice tents, etc.  Nice government buildings.  Presumably the locals are paying for this via some form of taxation.  But was it worse than the palace-building and similar expenses incurred by Mughals or other dynasties (but paid by taxpayers)? Hard to figure out.

They are stationed at Belgaum (now known as Belagavi) as newlyweds - first half of book - NW Karnataka.  Including lots of jungle. A son is born.

The camping episode - a long journey at p. 86ff, there was also the boat trip preceding along that portion of India's west coast - author is really perceptive and appreciative - it's a pleasure to read.  Also interesting to think about what this kind of "camping" or travel would be like - a full staff taking care of everything, a tent outfitted completely.

Second half of book starts in the Sind (Karachi, large city in modern-day Pakistan) - a big promotion for hubby, this is a major position.  Completely different setting - desert, dependent on Indus waters.

Sukkur water project is husband's single biggest goal.  Trying to tame the Indus.

10 weeks of summer 1917 spent in Baluchistan - mountains - they love it.  Another entirely different geography, author describes in wonderful detail.  Kind of like the Brits stationed in Delhi and the like always escaping to the mountains in summer.

Back to Karachi; government duties.  Trips along the Indus via a boat dedicated to hubby's job.  Author falls ill; part of recovery is returning to the Baluchistan mountains the next year (it helps).

A "strange outbreak of illness in Karachi" - "they called it influenza" - yes, the Spanish Flu of 1918 arrives and it's horrific in India.  Delays return to Karachi from Baluchistan but finally it happens.

Celebrations for Armistice Day (11/11/18) but this is a period of major unrest in India - independence expectations raised and dashed.  Delays return home for British troops stationed in the area; they are unhappy.

Armritsar is far away to the northeast but the massacre there (via General Dyer) ties to Sind governance (somehow); disturbances in Karachi; author and husband sleep with revolvers by their beds.  Gandhi a major figure already in 1919.  Husband initially criticized for the way he handled the unrest but later exonerated and returns (with author) to a major position in Bombay in 1921.  

Walking the Woods and the Water (Nick Hunt, 2014)

(329 pages)

Author got the idea to replicate Patrick Leigh Fermor's 1930s walk as a young man "from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn".  I much enjoyed Fermor's books (discussions are here) and was quite curious to see how the author would handle things.  I think it worked!

good travel books - and this is one - are a really useful tool in reading about geography and history and culture.  both large-scale and (particularly!) micro-scale.  scenes throughout but especially compelling as he works his way east.  

Picking up the concerns of locals in relation to their neighbors - something that is thought about pretty much everywhere.  Unusual examples such as the concerns of Romanians v. Hungarians v. Bulgarians; and then onto Turkey.  Walkers can pick up lots of details. 

[something interesting - author is into Hungary (and out of what I'd call western Europe) by page 119 - the rest of the book is him working east.  Interesting perspective in that alone.  Hugeness of east.  other routes could have devoted a higher % to west but still.  Fermor's books like this as well - I appreciate opportunities to learn more about eastern Europe.]

Varying modes of hospitality encountered in so many local settings - this is super-interesting - in author's experience, the people got more hospitable as he moved east, while the dogs grew more unwelcoming.

Delightful, serendipitous encounters when in challenging circumstances.  

reflections on the act of walking.  how he felt like he had missed something whenever traveling in some other way.  in our small way in cities we visit - it feels the same

winter walk in Germany - so reminiscent of the Schubert song cycle

doesn't necessarily make it a better book than Fermor's - but it was written promptly after completion of the walk, so to that extent it's a more faithful portrayal of what was experienced.

the walk took place shortly after the financial crisis of 2008 so repercussions affected locations visited.  EU expansion into eastern countries especially tenuous at this stage; thugocracies in former Soviet satellites are troublesome.  But it's not a book about politics.

Relatable in that many of us can imagine extended walking tours.  But no way to do anything close to this - author was adept at sleeping out in a tent whenever needed, dealing with elements, relating to all sorts of hosts.  Seemed able to survive whatever local alcohol was featured for toasts (sometimes weed-accompanied).

City of Djinns - A Year in Delhi (William Dalrymple, 1993)

(339 pages)

Written in 1993; would be interesting to know how well it's aged.  Author lives in Delhi for a year and builds his book around it; goes through weather cycle; describes various eras in the city's history, generally working backward.

Describes Partition as source of huge change - population doubled in ~10 years as Sikhs, Punjabis move into Delhi.  Partition stories.  His landlady was Sikh.  Larger Islamic presence pre-Partition.

Urdu/Mughal tradition . . . post-Partition remainers consider their difference from Punjabis and others stronger than Hindu/Muslim split (really?)  After Partition, Urdu tradition is concentrated in old Delhi; fading.  Punjabis considered provincials; better at commerce.  This part of the book perhaps outdated.

Discussion then goes back to early days of Brits.  They started in various areas in India but early Calcutta presence most relevant for Delhi.  Sent folks up the Ganges in mid/late 18th century; difficult journey completed overland.  Delhi already in decline - Persian invasion/massacre of 1739 perhaps the exclamation point - but Mughal authority still present (and ultimately usable by Brits).  City had faded to something of a backwater after recent glory.  Fraser/Scots as initial Brit presence - rough times, working to subjugate the countryside.  They tend to "go native" but as 19th century progresses - more conservative Brit style takes over.  Culminates in 1857 rebellion; things are going exactly backward:  viewing natives as "the other."  (Mixed race folk not accepted by either side.)  Destruction in Delhi as punishment for 1857; followed by building process for New Delhi as center of Brit authority in this part of the country.

He wastes some time on Sufi and eunuch concepts - didn't seem worth it, but he was able to find remnants to interview so used the material.

Then more on Mughals.  Aurangzeb details . . . 6th and last great Mughal emperor, died 1707.  Poisonings, intrigue.  Islamic fundamentalist for his times, created strains between Hindu and Muslim that flowered (supposedly the two were much more accepting of each other prior to this).

Delhi as Islamic since 12th century; Mughals show up 16th century.  As book winds up, I like how he describes Islamic dominance as a six-century interlude; British as a far briefer incursion; now back to Hindu per millennia prior.

Concludes with discussion how the Mahabharata fits into Delhi's history - that part is interesting.

The Broken Road (Patrick Leigh Fermor, edited by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper) (2013 (from 1930s travels))

(349 pages)

This is the third of Fermor's now-famous trilogy in which he writes - much after the fact - about his 1930s walk from Holland to Constantinople (or thereabouts).  I really liked all three; perhaps this best of all notwithstanding its unusual provenance.  In this book Fermor is traveling from the "Iron Gates" (on the Danube along the Serbian-Romanian border) to Constantinople; then onto Mt. Athos (Greece).

Here's an overview of book one; here's an overview of book two.  They're quite wonderful.

For book three, Fermor had more source material available (most of his 1930s notebooks were lost - pretty much everything relating to books one and two).  Fermor started this book, then set it aside . . . returned much later . . . but never finished.  The last portion (on Mt. Athos) is more directly taken from a diary - different style.  The two editors did their best, and it's quite good.

I keep feeling that Fermor was unusually gifted in seeing it, taking it in, and then succeeding in describing it; upper-class Brit perspective but not failing to see by feeling superior or judgmental.  Unusual in that he experienced all this as very young and inexperienced; then he wrote it up decades later - trying to filter out later experiences and knowledge, but I think possession of just that (ultimately unfilter-able) made the writing more interesting.  Not provable one way or the other.

Also the 1930s are inherently interesting - this a last glimpse of a pre-industrial world in many of these areas; preceded the vast WWII changes; areas absorbing, more or less, WWI changes - again, described with post-WWII knowledge - this approach works.

This part of the world is totally interesting to me - largely unknown; reading a lot but barely scratching surface.  I get the impression that things somehow run deeper for the local populace - not sure how to express this idea - their history goes way back, they have been overrun by conquerors so often (with attendant suffering) - Fermor's descriptions of the the sounds of the music, the instruments, the voices; hmmm.

And then the variations of Christianity introduced here, often competing, the depth of the icons and the ceremonies, again perhaps spurred by the regular, and awful, invasions.

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Macedonia.

Moldovia Wallachia became Romania mid 19th century, acquire Transylvania from Hungary after WWI; Hungarians with long memories about this.

Many dog-eared pages.  The episode where he is lost and spends the night in a cave with shepherd-outlaws - seems to take place in a different world, one thinks of Odysseus and the Cyclops.

Etc.  Highly recommended.

The Valley of the Assassins - Freya Stark (1930-1932)

I very much liked this.  Per the "Introduction" we learn that the author was a most unlikely candidate to come up with a book like this - young, inexperienced, difficult growing-up circumstances.  She somehow took to the notion of spending time in various Islamic countries; in this case (early 1930s), mountainous hinterlands between Iran and Iraq ("Luristan").  These areas had barely seen Europeans (let alone female travelers).  Perhaps sensing some value from map-making etc., British authorities facilitate her travels.

I like that she tells a small-scale story of her travels.  It's the 1930s - but she is in a remote area - generally poor, deeply traditional, conservatively Islamic - her style permits a reader to somewhat imagine how travelers "got by" in remote areas like this not just in the 1930s, but no doubt for centuries and centuries before.  Are there still any areas so remote such that this kind of trip could happen?

And the travel story (and interaction with folks she encounters) is woven into the area's geography and history - in particular the Assassins  - who show up in Crusader and other tales - finally subjugated by Mongol invaders in 14th century.

Banditry everywhere - but travelers encountering groups residing in tents - or in some areas villages - are invariably treated well.  (Though I suspect her English-ness helped in this regard.)  Often the hosts are heartrendingly poor - yet would be deeply offended if their hospitality was refused.  There is an incredibly powerful passage around page 61 of the paperback version - the author is treated to dinner by poor folks - who harvest their entire (and paltry) crop of tomatoes to serve their guests a tiny meal - the host's children (at least the three sons) are so sad to see this long-awaited treat used in such a fashion - the daughter less affected because she knew - as a daughter - she had no hope of getting a bite anyway - an instructive intersection of traditional hospitality, poverty, gender roles, etc.

I hadn't connected that - so close by Tehran - there are jungles and rice-growing areas (and malaria) as one crosses beyond mountainous areas (still unmapped in the 1930s) on the way to the Caspian Sea.

Reminded me somewhat of the Fermor books (in particular this one, and also this one) - he's traveling through Europe in the 1930s - of course an entirely different stage of development, but like Stark, Fermor was describing a world in the midst of rapid change.

Lots to think about here.

Danube - A Journey Through the Landscape, History, and Culture of Central Europe (Claudio Magris, 1986)

Continuing to try to get a better feel for MittelEuropa.  Much more obscure to me than Western Europe.  Some of my interest was prompted by this so-interesting travelogue.

But what was the author up to here?  This is a travelogue that is nothing like a travelogue, at least as I conceive the genre.  The author - an Italian professor - has all sorts of consistently interesting things on his mind - but they don't always connect well with the Danube theme.

And the Danube is a very long river - as he proceeds east - away from Germany and his areas of familiarity - Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania - he seems progressively less knowledgeable, and relies more and more on narratives about selected writers.

Endless literary and historical references.  I read enough to make sense of some, which is pleasing.  But . . . so many . . . must leave readers with questions, at least it did for me.

But I like the book, an awful lot.  Would have preferred more straight historical-narrative style information, but once I gave up on that, I just enjoyed the ride.

Some ideas:

1.  The Danube as an east-flowing, Asiatic, river.  Compare the Rhine (Germanic purity).  At the end of the Danube line:  Attila and his ilk.  This notion reinforced by the Roman experience - barbarians across the Limes.

2.  Large zones where armies from major powers constantly traverse - with endless consequences for the affected populations.  The Turk.  Magyars getting hit from every direction.

3.  German settlers and influence.  German colonists in the Banat.  Bringing some order into places that lacked it.  Interesting.

4.  Lots of discussion on Regensburg.  I still want to see this.  Passau, maybe?

5.  Hungarians compromising with Austria in 1862 (Dual Monarchy).  Obliterated by Turks in 1526 (Mohacs).

6.  The "Military Frontier" - described as a thousand kilometers - borderlands, somewhat lawless, first line of defense against the Turk.

7.  1986 Bulgaria - "Oppression, he writes in his novel-epic of Bulgaria, has the privilege of making peoples happy; for when the political arena is closed, society seeks consolation in the immediate good things of life, in wine drunk under the trees, in love, in generation.  'Enslaved peoples have their philosophy which reconciles them to life.'"

8.  He has an idea that folks living in landlocked areas are more conservative, less adventuresome, less liberal and adaptable in comparison to folks living nearer the sea.

Author is a colleague of Umberto Eco!

There's just a lot here, and I need to spend more time with it.  Many glorious passages.  Dense.  Requires slow reading.  Worthwhile.

A Time of Gifts (Patrick Leigh Fermor, 1977)

Fermor intended to write a three-part story of his walking tour from Holland to Constantinople in the 1930s. As it turns out, part three was never written. I so much liked part two - summarized here, with lots of explanation about what Fermor was up to.

So now we come to part one - which lived up to very high
expectations.  I don't think I missed much by reading the two books out of order - though it was useful to have a better understanding of why the youthful Fermor decided to go walking across Europe.  Starting in December 1932.  (Book written 45 years later!)

This is the kind of well-read, highly inquisitive person with whom I would love to travel - seems impossible for him to view a landscape (or cityscape) without it conjuring up visions of related historical occurrences, depictions by artists, local music and customs, etc.  Nonstop provocation of one's imagination - which is the best thing, after all.

As with the other book of his - once you read it, you simply have to visit the area.  (Kind of the way this book required me to make this trip.)

Thoughts:

1.  Compact writing style - makes me jealous, I would love to write in that manner.

2.  On a barge he was given a meal of baked beans garnished with speck - basically just fat - he found it frightful.  Now I know what Grandpa Bormann was referring to when he used the word - 50 years ago.

3.  Interesting theory of how the "Landsknechts" (a term I hadn't heard before) set the tone for architecture in the area.  Who knows?

4.  I never really had bothered to figure out how the Danube flows, or why it was the ultimate runway for Asian invaders over the centuries.  Fascinating to trace its west-east run from Germany (eventually heading south into the Black Sea).  I  can see that leisurely travel in this area would be a delight.

5.  Melk.  Regensburg.  He loves Prague (though, it not being on his route, required a side trip).

6.  German towns.  Nazi activities - early phases of its hold on power.

7.  He knew the Dutch landscape painters very well - and passing through on foot gave him constant reminders of their work.  A wonderful Christmas story with a kind family.

8.  Long-term occupation by Roman empire - near-mythical the frontier with the deep woods.

9.  I'm interested in learning more about Bohemia - the under-appreciated but majority bloodline for my little wife.  This book is a good assist in this regard.

10.  Was reading this in the latter stages of Lent . . . the author arrives in a small Hungarian town just as evening services begin on Holy Thursday . . . just a great, evocative recounting of the ceremony, the evening of the Betrayal, etc.  Wonderful scene.

11.  He reaches Budapest, which is where the next book starts.

I need this as a reference, so just bought it.  It is a delight.

Paris to the Past - Traveling Through French History by Train (Ina Caro, 2011)

I read through the entire book (parts of it, quite quickly).  I think it's valuable as a resource when planning a trip to Paris - it doesn't very work well to just read through it.

Saw a couple reviews, and the book looked interesting to me because we were planning a trip to Paris.  And I very much liked the idea of incorporating day trips by train.

But the book isn't really a travel book, and isn't really a history - though it attempts to be both.

That being said, I definitely could see it as something one would purchase in e-book form and use while in Paris.

The author is married to a famous biographer (Robert Caro); his biography of LBJ has been on my list for awhile.  She had a very annoying habit of constantly referring to whatever "Bob" was doing or thinking instead of just writing about whatever.

Between the Woods and the Water (Patrick Leigh Fermor, 1986)

I became aware of this book in a discussion of "travel" books.  It's that - and much more.  Relatively short.  Delightful.  (It's also a wonderful companion to this book about pre-WWI Austria - pure coincidence I read them so closely in time.)  

In the 1930s, the author (Fermor) - then youthful - set off on foot from Holland to Constantinople (as it was then known) after not thriving at school in England.  He took notes along the way, in varying degrees of detail depending on circumstances.  (Yes, it's quite a journey.)

In the 1940s, Fermor was in the British army - interestingly, using his knowledge of the area that included Greece and Crete (in part learned on the 1930s stroll-about) - and became a well-known war hero.  He parachuted into Crete, kidnapped a German general, smuggled him into Egypt.  Among other things.

In his 60s, Fermor started turning his 1930s adventures into book form.  So he was a very different Fermor than the wandering youth.  I'm guessing this is one of the two biggest reasons why the book works so well.  The book was intended to be released in three parts (though the third part didn't happen).  This book is number two in the sequence - when Fermor, 19 years old, travels from the Danube on the border between Hungary and Slovakia, to the "Iron Gates" at the border of Romania and (what was then called) Yugoslavia.  This book was written in the 1980s.

The other big reason the book is so wonderful - the timing of his walk - 1930s - much had already changed as a result of World War I, but Fermor saw, up-close, a world that was shattered in the 1940s and isolated behind the Iron Curtain for 40+ years thereafter.  The stories of his encounters seem scarcely possible in the 20th century.  Yet it was written less than 30 years ago - amazing.

Some things I liked:

1.  His use of the English language is delightful.

2.  As this book so interestingly explained - this part of the world was actually heavily integrated into Europe for centuries - after decades behind the Iron Curtain, we tend to think of its separate-ness, or other-ness.  This biography of Lizst made the same point in a different way.  Educated folks in this part of the world looked to the West prior to WWII, and were part of "Europe."

3.  As this book so interestingly explained - this part of the world also was heavily involved with the East - primarily the Ottoman Turks.  Extensive Muslim influence going back centuries.  Fermor wandered near many famous battlegrounds.  Hungary was dominated by Constantinople for many years.

4.  Fermor intended to live among the commoners while traveling on foot.  But he had introductions to nobility in Hungary, and was rather passed along from welcoming house to welcoming house (all the way into Romania).  He expressed some guilt about straying from plan, but clearly was massively enjoying these encounters.  Hungarian nobility wasn't necessarily all that wealthy, at least in a cash sense, in those days.  And there were lots of Hungarian counts floating around.  But they certainly retained the old traditions of hospitality.

5.  Interesting background on the Magyars, Habsburgs, etc.  And about rivalries with Romania, Serbia, etc.  He covers the Louis Kossuth events, which were interestingly explained in this book. 

6.  He wanders through Romania - which included areas of Hungarian population - explains Vlad the Impaler plus the Dracula origins (derived from dragon).  Explains the wandering tribes that, over the centuries, populated these areas.

7.  Carpathians, Wallachia, Moldova.  Now I have a better feel for this geography.  (Which is helping as I finish a book about the Red Army heading toward Berlin in 1944.)

8.  Fermor encounters numerous gypsy settlements.  And old-style shepherds.  In the 20th century!

9.  He runs into odd Christian and Jewish sects - fascinating histories - thoroughly isolated - reformation and counter-reformation reached here, but only about so much.

10.  Old-style forests - beautiful descriptions of nature - where wolves and bears still lived.

11.  Certainly didn't know or recall that the Romans were very active in campaigns against the Dacians.  Which does bring to mind "Romania" as a place-name.  High level of activity right near the "Iron Gates." 

This book was fascinating in its own right, but fit in so well with other things I find interesting.