Travel Books > Continent Travel Guide Travel Books

Silken Shadows

Advantages: Poetic, intriguing
Disadvantages: None

The "Silk Road" must be the most romanticised route in the world. It conjures up pictures from all of our fairy tales, of castles and minarets and oriental folk in strange garb. For me personally it conjures a hard-paved road I once walked in the foothills of the Annapurnas - a strange cart-scale highway across an expanse of nothing that led from a hill-pass to an impoverished town that reeked of faded grandeur echoed only now in the ornate unpainted ...
...they straightened from bent work in the fields and the proud defiance of their menfolk who sat by and watched. The road, of course, is no such thing. It is a vague notion of a route. It covers 7000 miles or more from Xian in the depths of China to Antioch, only just into Turkey and now called Antakya. To cover the whole in a single journey is more ambition than even the agent merchants ever had. The eponymous silk that travelled this road in ancient ...

hiker 13.07.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Shadow of the Silk Road - Colin Thubron

Not just for Borat

Advantages: A good read about a little known subject
Disadvantages: None I can think of

...of those countries that we in the west still know relatively little about, and that is how this book begins. Author, Christopher Robbins, begins by explaining how his idea for the book came about purely by chance. He was on a flight to Moscow, and was sat next to an American from Arkansas. This man was on his way to Moscow to change flights, and to head off for a new life with his new internet love in Kazakhstan. The men discussed their knowledge ...
...this. His travels start in quite a light-hearted fashion. I was amazed to find out the Kazakhstan is heading up for the same size as the whole of Western Europe. He briefly mentions the infamous Borat – and how we have all bought in to his image as Kazakhstan is such an unknown quantity. It wouldn’t have worked half as well had we known about Kazakhstan, or for that matter, if it had been fictitious country. And then he takes up his first challenge ...

nicolap 17.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared - Christopher Robbins

Grumpy traveller's Pacific paddlings

Advantages: Wit, wisdom and penile fungi
Disadvantages: He's a bit grumpy (but what's wrong with that?)

...came along, Theroux was probably the best known contemporary travel writer. He's a prolific author, mainly of novels and short stories, but he's been writing travel books like this since the early 1970s. In contrast to Bryson's amiable bumbling and his sometimes whimsical approach, Paul Theroux is an opinionated, even spiky character. Compared to Bryson's flowing, seamless prose, Theroux's writing can seem episodic and disjointed. Although his prose ...
...in 1992, he sets himself the daunting task of taking in the islands of the Pacific, from Australia in the west to Easter Island in the east. That's over 5,000 miles as the crow flies. He visits 51 (count 'em) islands in the process. The book's subtitle 'Paddling the Pacific' tells you the ostensible purpose of his trek - to launch his collapsible 15-foot seagoing kayak from as many beaches as he can - much to the puzzlement of the hotel porters and ...

Silverback 08.02.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The Happy Isles of Oceania - Paul Theroux

A Warts And All Guide To Every Maldivian Island!

Advantages: Accurate and spot on in all aspects from accommodation to price.
Disadvantages: None At All

...qualified. You have over 92 resorts to choose from so it is quite a task! We are then treated to an in-depth but simple review of each of the islands in alphabetical order. The simplicity of the review makes for easy reading, and I particularly like his system of presenting the information in a structured way. Every island is marked on a scoring system in two areas and these are out of 10. The first is the cost, and the second the density of rooms ...
...flight itself. Many of these resorts do not charge much at all for staying there, and there are many now doing all inclusive packages. If you choose islands near to Male the price is less as there is no sea plane transfer required, and there are still some budget resorts with beautiful house reefs in this area including Biyadhoo,and Fihalhohi as well as Embudu Village. Yes this book is brilliant and inspirational, but it also delivers top class information ...

Violet1278 29.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Resorts of Maldives (Third edition) - Adrain Neville

You won't be able to resist the smile

Advantages: Would give almost any reader the travel itch and urge to visit Ireland - in this man's company, id
Disadvantages: The unfocused style will drive some batty, I suspect

McCarthy’s Bar What is this book about? Writer and performer Pete McCarthy is half English (his Dad) and half Irish. The book is a gentle travelogue, covering two trips to Ireland at about the turn of the millennium and tells of the people Pete meets, the places he goes, and the (lack of) logic for where he goes and what befalls him. After several quite heavy books, I wanted something lighter and hoped this might make me smile, but I was not in ...
...I decided quite early on that I probably wasn’t going to enjoy it. I have to tell you, I was wrong. I enjoyed it despite myself and in spite of my inclination and I think most readers would. The premise here is quite simple. McCarthy has visited Ireland as a child, going to the farm where his mother grew up (now farmed by his cousin) and he feels a connection with the ‘Irish-ness’ (Oirishness) but he has actually grown up English, in the north-west ...

andyk910 26.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of McCarthy's Bar - Pete McCarthy