But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world.Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the reader on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.In Kyrgyzstani villages, she meets victims of the tradition of bride snatching; she visits the huge and desolate Polygon in Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union tested explosions of nuclear bombs; she meets shrimp gatherers on the banks of the dried out Aral Sea; she witnesses the fall of a dictator.She travels incognito through Turkmenistan, a country that is closed to journalists. She meets exhausted human rights activists in Kazakhstan, survivors from the massacre in Osh in 2010, and German Mennonites that found paradise on the Kyrgyzstani plains 200 years ago. We learn how ancient customs clash with gas production and witness the underlying conflicts between ethnic Russians and the majority in a country that is slowly building its future in nationalist colors.Once the frontier of the Soviet Union, life follows another pace of time. Amidst the treasures of Samarkand and the brutalist Soviet architecture, Sovietistan is a rare and unforgettable adventure.

    . . . It will inspire you.” —Monique Roffey, author of With the Kisses of His MouthFuzzy-haired, neurotic, cello-playing Catrina is devastated when her lover, Jack, leaves her to go surfing on the other side of the world. Trapped in a dead-end job and torn by his departure, Catrina dreams of running away. But how do you run away when you’re flat broke?Luckily, her friend Andrew comes up with a plan: they’ll get an old van, turn it into a camper, and busk their way from Norway to Portugal, via the midnight sun. Andrew is one of her oldest friends and they share many of the same passions and interests, including music.When Andrew is killed in a tragic accident, Catrina decides to go it alone, encountering one disaster after another. She sleeps in her van, gets lost, and struggles to find the confidence to play her cello in front of her growing audience, but meets complete strangers who offer her advice, encouragement, and support along the way. Her experiences on the road gradually teach her the real meaning of love, courage, and above all else, the importance of following her dreams.This is an unforgettable story of a journey like no other—a deeply emotional and inspirational debut by a unique storyteller.

    The ultimate mezze spread of baba ghanoush, pide bread and keftedes. Mouthwatering garlic shrimps with soft polenta. Heavenly Dalmatian fresh fig tart.Packed with stunning photography of the food and locations, and filled with Rick's passion for fresh produce and authentic cooking, this is a stunning collection of inspiring recipes to evoke the magic of the Eastern Mediterranean at home.

    The books he later wrote about this walk, A Time of Gifts (1977), Between the Woods and the Water (1986) and the posthumous The Broken Road (2013), are a half-remembered, half-reimagined journey through cultures now extinct, landscapes irrevocably altered by the traumas of the twentieth century. The brilliant bubble of his writing captures a prelapsarian world of moccasin-shod peasants and castle-dwelling aristocrats, preserved in perfect clarity. But war, political terror and brutal social change lay on the horizon. That bubble was about to burst, and the raw light of the modern world soon to come flooding in. On 9th December 2011, Nick Hunt caught the ferry to the Hook of Holland to follow in his footsteps. Using Fermor's books as his only travel guide he spent seven months walking his route through Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, to discover for himself what remained of hospitality, kindness to strangers, freedom, wildness, adventure, the mysterious, the unknown, the deeper currents of myth and story that still flow beneath Europe's surface. I'd been walking for two hundred and twenty days. With the twists and turns the road had taken it was impossible to say how far; two and a half thousand miles was my rough guess. I'd passed through eight countries and three seasons, followed two major rivers and dozens of minor ones, and crossed three mountain ranges, one of them twice. I'd picked up fragments of seven languages, and met more people than I could remember. I'd walked through three books: two real, one imagined. I'd worn one pair of boots.

     In 2012, Gruff Rhys set out on an 'investigative concert tour' in the footsteps of John Evans, with concerts in New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St Louis, North Dakota and more. American Interior is the story of these journeys. It is also an exploration of how wild fantasies interact with hard history and how myth-making can inspire humans to partake in crazy, vain pursuits of glory, including exploration, war and the creative arts. Gruff Rhys is known around the world for his work as a solo artist as well as singer and songwriter with Super Furry Animals and Neon Neon, and for his collaborations with Gorillaz, Dangermouse, Sparklehorse, Mogwai and Simian Mobile Disco amongst others. The latest album by Neon Neon, Praxis Makes Perfect, based on the life of radical Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, was recently performed as an immersive live concert with National Theatre Wales.

    It was an antique whose value I had realised.’ With these words Bishwanath Ghosh embarks on an exploration of a city that, as a probashi - non-resident Bengali, he has only recently fallen in love with. He probes the lives of its inhabitants - some famous and others faceless - and at the same time strolls along the Hooghly, wanders in and out of Park Street, College Street, Kalighat, Kumartuli, Sonagachhi, even ending up in a dance bar in Salt Lake.With his adventurous spirit and undeniable wit intact, Bishwanath Ghosh pieces together his own unique idea of a unique city.

    Trains that once provoked awe and fear-they were viewed as fire chariots, smoke-spewing demons-have today become a nations lifeblood.Taking a walk along Indias first rail lines, the author stumbles upon fragments of the past-a clock at Victoria Terminus that offers a rare view of a city, a cannon near Masjid Bunder Station that is worshipped as a god, a watchtower overlooking Sion Station, believed to have housed a witch. Each pit-stop comes with stories of desire and war, ambition and death-by Dockyard Road Station, for instance, author Laurence Sternes beloved, Eliza Draper, followed a sailor into the sea or close to Parel Station, the wife of Indias governor general, Lord Canning found a garden rich in tropical vegetation this, she replicated at Barrackpore.Drawing from journals, biographies, newspapers and railway archives-and with nostalgic, first-time accounts of those who travelled by Indias earliest trains-the book captures the economic and social revolutions spurred by the countrys first train line. In this, Halt Station India is not just about the railways-it is the story of the growth of Indias business capital and a rare study of a nation.

    But since the end of the Vietnam War much of this vast transport network has been reclaimed by jungle, while remaining sections are littered with a deadly legacy of unexploded bombs. For Antonia, a veteran of ridiculous adventures in unfeasible vehicles, the chance to explore the Trail before it’s lost forever was a personal challenge she couldn’t ignore – yet it would sometimes be a terrifying journey.Setting out from Hanoi on an ageing Honda Cub, she spent the next two months riding 2,000 miles through the mountains and jungles of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Battling in hospitable terrain and multiple breakdowns, her experiences ranged from the touching to the hilarious, meeting former American fighter pilots, tribal chiefs,illegal loggers and bomb disposal experts.The story of her brave journey is thrilling and poignant: a unique insight into a little known face of Southeast Asia.

    In Poe-Land, J. W. Ocker explores the physical aspects of Poe's legacy across the East Coast and beyond, touring Poe s homes, examining artifacts from his life locks of his hair, pieces of his coffin, original manuscripts, his boyhood bed and visiting the many memorials dedicated to him.Along the way, Ocker meets people from a range of backgrounds and professions actors, museum managers, collectors, historians who have dedicated some part of their lives to Poe and his legacy. Poe-Land is a unique travelogue of the afterlife of the poet who invented detective fiction, advanced the emerging genre of science fiction, and elevated the horror genre with a mastery over the macabre that is arguably still unrivaled today."

    Now, Davidson's exhilarating wilderness adventure is about to become a major motion picture, and this remarkable volume presents both Smolan's original photographs along with those from the upcoming movie. As an exciting bonus, the book incorporates Aurasma technology that enables readers to point their smart devices at one of the pictures from the original journey and then watch that scene as it is brought to life in the movie.

    It is surrounded by a huge ring of peaks, among them some of the highest mountains in the Indian Himalaya. For fifty years the finest mountaineers of the early twentieth century had repeatedly tried and failed to reach the foot of the mountain. Then, in 1934, Eric Shipton and H. W. Tilman found a way in. Their 1934 expedition is regarded as the epitome of adventurous mountain exploration. With their three tough and enthusiastic Sherpa companions Angtharkay, Kusang and Pasang, they solved the problem of access to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. They crossed difficult cols, made first ascents and explored remote, uninhabited valleys, all of which is recounted in Shipton's wonderfully vivid Nanda Devi - a true evocation of Shipton's enduring spirit of adventure and one of the most inspirational travel books ever written.

    For Filipino's, food is more than a pleasurable pursuit - it is the cultural language of the Philippines. Filipino's use food to apologize, woo a woman, ask a favor, or say thank you; it fills in social gaps and crosses borders of religion and class. Filipino food can be seen through the prism of its unique and colorful history, with influences from Malaysia, Spain, China, Mexico, and the US adding to the cuisine's rich texture. Divided into 13 chapters - Dipping Sauces, Breakfast, Soups, Everyday Food, Seafood, Party Food, Barbecue Food, Rice and Noodles, Vegetables and Salads, Bar and Finger Food, Snacks, Desserts, and Drinks - 7000 Islands is a beautifully illustrated guide to Filipino food and an insight into the culture and history of the Philippines. Unlike many Filipino cookbooks that assume a large degree of local knowledge, this book aims to fill the gaps for people who have never tasted or cooked the cuisine before. The detailed, easy-to-follow recipes outline some of the tricks of the trade, such as how to get the most out of garlic, when to double-fry for best results, and why vinegar should not be stirred. 7000 Islands offers a flavor-filled account of this wonderful country and its cuisine - a land full of people whose love of eating is as big as their hearts.

    Railonama is a compilation of short stories and poems inspired by travel via the Indian Railways. The book features enriching and highly entertaining stories selected from a pool of submissions from people all around the world who have traveled in trains in India. This book will make for an engaging and riveting read for those who enjoy traveling and exploring.The book contains stories from authors: Ajay Mankotia, Ambika Jindal, Anindita Deo, Anupama Sharma, Asiem Sanyal, Atul Sharma, Bala Parthasarathy, Chandrashekhr B. Kulkarni, Diane Caldwell, Dilshad Sanyal, Dr K.C. Jindal, Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan, Elayne Clift, Francois Juneau, Frank Joussen, Ganesh V, K.H.D. Karr, Ken Haigh, Kshitij Bisen, Lalita Bhatia, Malini Mathi Vathanan, Mary McCormack, Michael Clifton, Monali Ghatge, Nikhil Narayanan, Pat Hale, Pradeep Chaswal, Raminder Rayar, Renuka Vishwanathan, Rohit Khanduri, Savita Mudgal, Shailender Arya, Sharada Balasubramanian, Sheela Jaywant, Sheila Kumar, Sijeesh V Balakrishnan, Snigdha Khurana, Sukanya Mohan, Sumedha Sengupta, Susmita Bhattacharya, Tessy Koshy, Varsha Halabe,Vibha Batra, Yogesh B Sharma.

    Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans and Americans - everyone really, except for Indians themselves - came to imagine India. His account of the engagement between foreigners and India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great to Slumdog Millionaire. It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco da Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, EM Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles and Steve Jobs. Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India. The result is a spellbinding, 2500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture and society, in the company of an author who informs, educates and entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies and overturns longheld stereotypes about race, identity and migration. A tour de force that is at once scholarly and thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric and laugh-out-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic.

    But if this was success why did he sense he was failing as a husband and father?So John does something completely insane. In the midst of a high-powered board meeting he blows his career apart. He quits the working world, sells the car, rents the house, and with wife Mandy, buys a busted-up old campervan online with one grand goal in mind: a year travelling together as a family…on the road with kids.Disconnected from phones and email, John and his family criss-cross 30 countries on a funny, messy and often confronting voyage of self-discovery. From the North Pole to Africa’s highest peaks, they get mugged by monkeys, charmed by snake handlers and harlots, and inspired by their fellow wanderers. Along the way John sheds the skin of the working zombie and creates a life less ordinary as he evolves into a connected partner and Dad.On the Road with Kids is a hilarious and poignant adventure all families will connect with. It’s a life-changing trip. Take it!

    He never really stopped. In the quarter century that followed he lived and worked in countries as diverse as the world itself.The pieces in this book take the reader from rural Sudan to the headwaters of the Amazon, from Semana Santa in Quito to Buddhist temples in the Himalayas, across Bhutan on a motorbike, into the ancient souk of Aleppo, to the steppes of Central Asia and finally to New York. Along the way there is Ethiopian gin, a sex tourist in Moscow, Kyrgyz women in cycling pants, a surreal toilet in Brussels, echoes of slavery in Brazil, and an encounter with Helen of Troy in Third Avenue. The Nine Horizons is an anarchic snapshot of a troubled but beautiful world in transition.

    His journey, which took three months and twenty days to complete, is unprecedented in Indian journalism. He visited the rebel bases in Eastern Nagaland, which covers a part of Myanmar's Sagaing Division, stayed in the ULFA camp and interviewed its chief of staff Paresh Baruah, as also chairman of the NSCN (Khaplang), S.S. Khaplang himself. He interacted with rebels from banned outfits like the NDFB, UPPK, PLA and other groups - for many of them, this was their first conversation with an Indian journalist. Bhattacharyya is one of very few journalists in the world to have made this journey, and among the fewer still to have had such intimate access.Rendezvous with Rebels is the story of that journey. It is as much a travel memoir as it is a hard-hitting political account of the fissures that mark the conflicts in India's Northeast and Myanmar's Sagaing Division. Bhattacharyya analyses the historical and current role of ULFA, NSCN and other rebel forces, and sizes up the current situation in Eastern Nagaland vis-a-vis the changes taking place in Myanmar specifically, and the subcontinent generally. It is, ultimately, an up-close examination of a very thorny conflict.

    When he finally planned his trip, he wanted more than just adventure; he also wanted to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on the countries he would explore. So he set out on a well-packed bicycle with a business card, a laptop, and an eagerness to share his knowledge. His project, Ride for Climate, caught on; he gave over 100 school and assembly presentations, garnered dozens of newspaper accounts of his journey, and appeared on international television. During nearly two years of travel, Kroodsma witnessed the world from a seat of a bicycle. He traversed unique ecosystems, coastline settlements, and glaciated mountains. "While biking," he writes, "no windshield protects you from the rain, heat, or wind, and no wall divides you from the people along the road." Countless people, from subsistence farmers to petroleum engineers, sheltered him and shared their stories. These experiences transformed and personalized his understanding of climate change, and in The Bicycle Diaries, Kroodsma shares these unexpected insights through a gripping travel narrative.

    For those that backpack, the dream is likely a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Unfortunately, the reality is that spending six months on a hike is not possible for most. However, there is a truly epic adventure waiting on the Colorado Trail. And the good news is that it is achievable.This book is your window into the “most beautiful long trail in the world.” Explore, along with author Jim (Simba) Rahtz, the challenges, rewards and laughs of preparing for and walking 500 miles through eight mountain ranges, six wilderness areas and some of the most incredible scenery imaginable.

    What started off as a couple of months to get away for an adventure turned into a ten-year journey of learning, enlightenment, hard times, and moments that will never leave me, including times of joy, sorrow, love, pain, near-death experiences, and experiences nearly worth dying for. During that time, I travelled to over 60 countries, set foot on every continent, including Antarctica; worked in over half a dozen countries; and saw relics from ancient civilisations and technological marvels of the modern world. I saw the highest peak on earth, the lowest valley, and so much in between. I visited places where they had never seen a white man before and countries ruled by governances ranging from democracies to theocracies to military regimes. I saw the cruelty that humanity can have for each other as well as the love that can bind us all. I fell in love, had my heart broken a few times, and broke a few hearts of my own. ~Carpe Diem

    Since then, this idea has been constantly propagated for the benefit of the international community. For many living in the vast country, however, the old Chinese adage holds true: “the mountains are high and the emperor is far away.” Few Westerners make it far beyond the major cities—the Chinese government has made it difficult to do so. David Eimer undertook a dangerous journey to China’s unexplored frontiers (it borders on fourteen other countries), to the outer reaches where Beijing's power has little influence. His chronicle shines new light on the world’s most populous nation, showing clearly that China remains in many ways a divided state. Traveling through the Islamic areas of Xinjiang province, into the forbidden zone of Tibet and across Route 219, which runs the rough boundary shared with India, the only disputed frontier in China, Eimer exposes the country’s inner conflict. All the tensions in China today—from its war against drugs and terrorism and the unstable relationships it maintains with Russia and Korea to its internal social issues—take on new meaning when seen from China’s most remote corners. A brilliant melding of journalism and history, The Emperor Far Away is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary China.

    There is whisky, bickering and also cheese.

    As an award-winning author of both technical books and poetry, she brings her love of research into the tangents of the stories she encountered and her lyrical voice to create a picture of the world few of us know. The author, an adept observer and an enthusiastic participant in what life has to offer, writes of her love of the sea at night far away from land, but she also describes such exotic places as remote islands of the South Pacific where black magic and wives bought for three boar tusks are the norm. She evokes the spirit of people and places by revisiting their cultural and natural history and exploring beneath the surface. Her portrayals are riveting, drawing the reader quickly into an intimate chronicle of tragedy and beauty. Doann's poetry and photographs add additional dimensions to her evocative writing. Doann relishes places like the sandy, forbidding, uninterrupted views of the Sudanese desert from the marsas-inlets of the Red Sea, where flamingoes and camels abound-but also addresses the more serious issues she witnessed such as survival in areas of exploding populations, decreasing food supplies, climate change, and the impact of war. She describes both in a visceral, yet insightful way. Her inquisitiveness, the allure of exploration, and a strong curiosity about the world inspire her writing. Whether floating in the sea eye-to-eye with a humpback whale, escaping pirates, or drinking tea in a bombed-out Eritrean alley with refugees, Doann takes you there. Visit her website at www.doannhoughton.com.

    Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes on the lands and peoples of the Indian Ocean, from the Somali headlands to China and Korea. The early centuries of the Abbasid era witnessed a substantial network of maritime trade--the real-life background to the Sindbad tales. In this account, we first travel east to discover a vivid human landscape, including descriptions of Chinese society and government, Hindu religious practices, and natural life from flying fish to Tibetan musk-deer and Sri Lankan gems. The juxtaposed accounts create a jigsaw picture of a world not unlike our own, a world on the road to globalization. In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information; here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy men--a marvelous, mundane world, contained in the compass of a novella.In Mission to the Volga, we move north on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the upper reaches of the Volga River in what is now central Russia. This colorful documentary by Ibn Fadlan relates the trials and tribulations of an embassy of diplomats and missionaries sent by caliph al-Muqtadir to deliver political and religious instruction to the recently-converted King of the Bulghars. During eleven months of grueling travel, Ibn Fadlan records the marvels he witnesses on his journey, including an aurora borealis and the white nights of the North. Crucially, he offers a description of the Viking Rus, including their customs, clothing, tattoos, and a striking account of a ship funeral. Mission to the Volga is also the earliest surviving instance of sustained first-person travel narrative in Arabic--a pioneering text of peerless historical and literary value. Together, the stories in Two Arabic Travel Books illuminate a vibrant world of diversity during the heyday of the Abbasid empire, narrated with as much curiosity and zeal as they were perceived by their observant beholders.