Given the choice, he'll go on vacation to Devon or Wales or, if pushed, eat English food on a package tour of the Mediterranean. So what happened when he was convinced by Gervais and Merchant to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Does travel truly broaden the mind? Find out in Karl Pilkington's hilarious travel diaries.

    But how far do you have to go to get away?

    They cycled for 2 years through 15 countries and 3 continents without backup or support, through areas not usually visited by tourists. Travelling through Europe, Asia and Australia with heavily-laden bicycles (including camping gear), they cycled 9000 miles before their trip was tragically cut short. From France to Turkey, India to Sri Lanka, Japan and Burma to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, from Thailand to Australia - all are described in detail and with humour. Their journey proved that anyone with a dream can make it a reality.Illustrated with colour photos.Several simple recipes are also included, which were collected on their travels, so that readers can enjoy them too.

    The two thousand mile trail spans from Springer Mountain, Georgia through fourteen states and ends on the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine. A couple thousand people go out each year in hopes of completing the entire trail in one go, but few do. This story is filled with hiker lingo and weaves with the ins and outs of hiker culture. The stinky, bearded hikers, who hunger for burgers and thirst for beer, are the everyday comrades on the trail. In towns, hikers flock to the grocery stores where they are greeted with shocked townsfolk, who watch these mountain men with caution. At restaurants the waiters stare and their jaws drop to the floor as hikers gulp down burgers with a side of Mountain Dew.Starting out in the spring means waking up to snow. By the time thru-hikers get to Virginia, winter is gone for good, and hikers have their trail legs. By Pennsylvania, hikers are zapped of energy from the heat and low water. They are attacked by mosquitoes in New Jersey. They get lost in the cliffs of New York. Vermont is beautiful, but is no rival against the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where hikers get to walk above treeline and experience heaven on clear days. At the border of Maine, it is so close and yet so far. Maine, wildest of all, is also the most brutal, and beautiful of all. Some hike it in sections and others in thru-hikes. It’s been said, “For a section hiker, it’s a lifetime of hikes. For a thru-hiker, it's a hike of a lifetime.”

    While these media overly romanticize the relationship between a philosophy of non-violence and the art of fighting, When Buddhists Attack: The Curious Relationship Between Zen and the Martial Arts shows this link to be nevertheless real, even natural.Exploring the origins of Buddhism and the ethos of the Japanese samurai, university professor and martial arts practitioner Jeffrey Mann traces the close connection between the Buddhist way of compassion and the way of the warrior. This zen book serves as a basic introduction to the history, philosophy, and current practice of Zen as it relates to the Japanese martial arts. It examines the elements of Zen that have found a place in budo—the martial way—such as zazen, mushin, zanshin and fudoshin, then goes on to discuss the ethics and practice of budo as a modern sport. Offering insights into how qualities integral to the true martial artist are interwoven with this ancient religious philosophy, this Buddhism book will help practitioners reconnect to an authentic spiritual discipline of the martial arts.

    in Economics & Politics, Bombay University (D.G. National College. Hyderabad, Sindh; Fergusson College, Pune and School of Economics & Sociology, Bombay).Joined RSS in 1941. Lecturer, D.G. National College: 1945-47; sub-editor. Hindustan Times: 1948: Editor, The Motherland daily: 1971-75; MISA detenu: June 1975-March 1977.Nieman Fellow, Harvard University: 1961-62; General Secretary, Editors Guild of India: 1978-79; Member, Press delegation of China: 1978; Vice-Chairman, Deendayal Research Institute, Delhi: 1983-91; Vice-President, BJP: 1991-94; Member, Rajya Sabha: 1994-2000; Lt-Governor of Pondicherry: 2002-03.Death: Pondicherry. October 27,2003.Publications: The Midnight Knock (1977), The RSS Story (1980), The Sindh Story (1984), Ayodhya and Hindu-Muslim Relations (1993), India First (2002).

    Friendships form with another American student, and with Cesare, an Italian medical student living in the same "hotel." But what transpires is something no one ever expected, especially her mom. Over the next 45 years, Debbie returns 11 more times, mostly alone. Other trips include her two best friends, another with her father, and horseback riding adventures in the Chianti Region of Tuscany with cousins. Some of the places visited include Rome, Tuscany, the Almalfi Coast, Sicily, Capri, and a 2,500 year-old village in Umbria where the only mode of transportation allowed is a moped or donkey. One hundred years after her great grandmother migrated to America, Debbie locates her family in the most unusual way, culminating with a heartwarming reception. Rarely staying in hotels, My Love Affair With Italy describes each of the trips, all the types of accommodations such as the agriturismi (farmhouses), the apartments, vineyards, the medieval villages, monastery, villas, and horseback riding centers she stayed in addition to the romances and friends met along the way. At the age of 50, Debbie learns how to horseback ride English style and takes a 100-mile tour cantering through Tuscany, something she was not nearly qualified to do. Within a year, she becomes an exchange student and enrolls in school in Siena, one of Tuscany's most magnificent cities, to learn Italian and moves in with a local family, she not knowing Italian and they not knowing English. While in school, she befriends a German woman who invites her to stay at her home in the beautiful Bavarian Alps during her next visit to Europe, and Debbie accepts in an attempt to practice Italian with her former classmate, but the trip becomes a shocking revelation. The book also details the "jewels" of Rome not mentioned in brochures such as The Scala Sancta, the Holy Stairs, holy because they are said to be the stairs that Jesus climbed on his way to his trial before Pontius Pilate, and the Aventine Keyhole, a nondescript-looking door on the Aventine Hill, neatly placing the dome of St. Peter’s right in the center. Each trip also details why she returns each time, the struggles endured at home after becoming a caregiver, the 50-year friendships that get her through it all, and the shocking way her father shows his presence in Piazza Navona. Lastly, four decades after it all began, there are very surprising reunions and the most unusual romance.

    That unmistakable urge was already growing inside of Mike Krabal when he received advice from a wise soul of eighty-one years to "get out more." In October 2011, he traded his life in a small West Virginia town for 132 days on America's open road. Through vivid observation, he tells of hair-raising run-ins with wild animals, wild people, and the wicked Hangover Fairy. Youthful curiosity charts the course, and his trusty motorcycle, the Goose, hauls the gear. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, exotic landscapes, fresh mornings in unfamiliar towns, and more than 17,000 miles pass. No detail is left behind in this friendly, funny, and mischievous story of discovery away from home. (black and white ebook) *Update 2/23/2016: I've just released 132 Days A journey A journal and some Whiskey COLOR PHOTO EDITION. It features over 900 color photos to best capture the essence of a coast-to-coast American adventure, and it's now available on Amazon.com. Here's the link - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B...-

    Does not pull punches. Phantom stuff!”Anukriti Pandey (Screenwriter): “Read Bhang Milkha Bhang for a ride through space and time and the narrow, eerie, lanes of the human mind.”BOOK DESCRIPTION:*A millennial trying to break the shackles of caste and sexual orientation**An anxiety-ridden NCB officer advocating CBD and spirituality**An ambitious woman entangled in an abusive marriage**A balding educational consultant playing assassin by the night**An eccentric narco looking for his deal of a lifetime*What brings them together?Chirasthayi Bhang – an unknown species of cannabis which has historically been protected by a lineage of monks has suddenly appeared in Mumbai’s drug underbelly. Rumor has it that it reverses biological processes – and almost everyone wants it.What follows is a high-stakes tussle between a group of highly peculiar but dangerous individuals for the mythical treasure, where each is prepared to put a lot up for gamble to obtain that which was previously considered unobtainable. Before long, things start getting messy – messier than anyone could possibly imagine.To what extent would one go to get something that was already lost forever?

    <br><br>Part Tuscan idyll and part cautionary tale, Wendy Laird’s latest Kindle Single tells the flip-side story of expat existence, what it takes to make it happen, and how a life on a well-mapped trajectory can veer off course in the process. Laird’s beautiful prose and acerbic wit keep the book, if not her own agenda, on the right track.

    

     After blowing all his cash on his previous long-distance bike ride (No Place Like Home, Thank God), Steven Primrose-Smith wants to go cycling again. Without the necessary funds, he decides to see if it's possible to travel thousands of miles on a budget of just £1 a day. Against advice, he puts together a team of complete strangers, including a fresh-faced student, a Hungarian chef, and a man with the world's worst bike, the beard of a goblin and a fetish for goats. While cycling from Liverpool to Gibraltar through England, Wales, France, Spain and Portugal, they plan to supplement their cash-strapped diet by fishing and foraging. It's just a pity no one knows anything about either. People quit, nerves are strained, and faces and bikes are both smashed. Will anyone make it to Gibraltar?

    A vicious campaign of persecution forced the faithful to go underground. For seven generations, Hidden Christians—or Kirishitan—preserved a faith that was strictly forbidden on pain of death. Illiterate peasants handed down the Catholicism that had been taught to their ancestors despite having no Bible or contact with the outside world.Just as remarkably, descendants of the Hidden Christians continue to this day to practice their own religion, refusing to rejoin the Catholic Church. Why? And what is it about Christianity that is so antagonistic to Japanese culture? In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians is an attempt to answer these questions. A journey in both space and time, In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians recounts a clash of civilizations—of East and West—that resonates to this day and offers insights about the tenacity of belief and unchanging aspects of Japanese culture.

    At first, the murder seems an open-and-shut case to Dechen, the tough, foul- mouthed, prickly lady cop in charge of the investigation. But as she begins to delve into the lives of Kamala and Puran, she discovers a world of lies, deceit and love gone wrong, where nothing is as it seems, and the guilt of murderers is difficult to establish.On a day of endless rain, a man emerges from thirty-two years of isolation to meet his king, whom he owes a share of the harvest from his fields. Journeying across leech-infested forests and forbidding valleys, he tells his children the story of his life one that has been full of drama and magic. But the biggest miracle of all awaits him in Gangtok...These two novellas, united by their strong sense of place, showcase Chetan Raj Shresthas enormous gifts as a storyteller. Magical, gritty, nerve-wracking and stylish in equal measure, this is an exceptional debut.

    The two-and-a-half-year journey spanned the mountains and deserts of former Soviet Republics, Afghanistan on the fearful brink of foreign withdrawal, and remote corners of the Congolese jungle. From hiking through sandstorms in the Gobi desert to barrelling down rapids in a dugout canoe, this perilous adventure, and Charlie’s many encounters along the way, gives insight into the past, present, and future of often-overlooked places during periods of great change. 'A first class adventure by a first class adventurer - packed with compelling incident and insight.' - BENEDICT ALLEN ‘An epic adventure, told candidly and vividly. Charlie’s words make me want to go back and experience these places with the same depth.’ - MARK BEAUMONT. ‘A mammoth journey that makes me yearn for the formative freedom of the open road.’ - ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS