With
three companions Stuart Stevens sets on a mission to retrace the renowned
journey undertaken by Peter Fleming and Ella Maillart across Chinese Turkistan
in 1934. In this journey by Stuart he is accompanied by a triathlete, a Kung Fu
expert and a female rower. This group travels by bus, donkey cart, truck and
bicycle and aeroplane. During this journey they face numerous challenges. Many
of the challenges are political but the physical challenges are also worth
reading. The harsh climate, landscape and remoteness during their journey is really
interesting to read.
The
author at many instances relates his own journey with Fleming’s and tries to
draw various comparisons between both of them. Taklamakan desert, Buddhist caves,
explorers who visited the caves, trading routes, different ethnicities,
physical infrastructure, social conflicts, hotel facilities and the Chinese
bureaucracy are under discussion in the book. Sometimes the book also seems to present
a reflection in the form of a critique of the daily life in China.
In my
opinion this is a good book for travelers who intend to learn from various experiences
in life. Traveling with a group and not finding everything in perfect shape is obviously
not very pleasing. Instead, keeping the group intact and learning from the
harsh realities on the ground makes the traveler stronger minded for any future
adventures.
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