Armchair Adventures #5

The Road Within. True Stories of Transformation
O'Reilly, Sean
910.4 R628

This book is a very different kind of travel book, a venture into the hidden territories of the human spirit and heart. It is a book of transformation, of lesions learned, maps drawn and burned, and spiritual blessings bestowed by that great and hard teacher: travel. It will show you what the great mystics and saints have always known - that you are closer to yourself, the world, and God, than you can possibly imagine, and that wondrous things await you on your journeys.
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Among Warriors: A Woman Martial Artist in Tibet
Logan, Pamela
915.1504 L831 am

The author cycles, hitchhikes, and treks across the windswept plateaus and icy mountain passes of eastern Tibet as she sets out to find the Khampa, fierce horsemen who have waged a guerrilla war against the Chinese occupation for 25 years. She drinks tea with monks and herdsmen, dodges Chinese police, and watches in awe as religious pilgrims inch their way toward Lhasa. Writing with power and sympathy for an embattled culture, Logan produces a gem of travel writing that will inspire anyone interested in Buddhism, the martial arts, or one of the world's last inaccessible regions.
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Hawk's Rest. A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone
Ferguson, Gary
917.87 F352 ha

The author sets off on a 140 mile hike into the most remote corner of Yellowstone, believing he will spend a quiet three months in contemplative silence. The reality he encounters is entirely different. He begins to understand that this core of Yellowstone "is a kind of sanatorium for the disenfranchised, a way station for men riding and hiding spring to fall to escape whatever curses they imagine hovering in the culture at large." He meets greedy outfitters intent on breaking the laws, troubled juveniles acquainting themselves with nature, a loner who has an uncanny rapport with wildlife, park rangers turned enforcers, and wildlife biologists grappling with challenges of preserving this magnificent wilderness.
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The Man who Walked Through Time
Fletcher, Colin
917.932 F612 ma

In 1964 Colin Fletcher became the first man to walk the length of the Grand Canyon below the rim. It began with a dream, when he and a friend detoured from a cross-country trip to take a hurried look at the great natural wonder. Standing on the Rim, surrounded by the profound silence, Fletcher knew that something had happened to the way he looked at things. He also knew that the Canyon beckoned to him, calling him n a journey that would challenge his body and his mind. The book is the story of two months of struggle which became a spiritual odyssey during which one man began to understand mankind's singular place in the vastness of nature.
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Steep Passages
Drotar, David Lee
910.4 D787 st

The book draws parallels between the natural world and the people who are finding their way through it. Whether describing the unusual reproductive mechanisms of lizards in the Galapagos Islands, dialoging with French teenagers about American television, or chronicling his 9/11 experiences on the Rideau canal in Canada, Drotar's engaging stories yield surprise and meaning around every bend in the trail. Where others may see only trees or waterfalls, Drotar sees broader psychological, social and sometimes political implications in the outdoor adventures he pursues.
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The Nature Company Guides to World Travel: A Guide to International Eco-journeys
Holling, Dwight, editor
910.202 W9275

For those interested in eco-tourism, this lovely guide covers destinations worldwide with tips on what to see, what to expect, when to go, and how to behave in wilderness and environmentally and culturally sensitive areas. "Leave nothing but footprints" is the general rule. Volunteer vacations, eco-travel ethics, eco-friendly souvenirs, and modes of transportation other than buses and cars are discussed.
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Caesar's Vast Ghost. Aspects of Provence
Durrell, Lawrence
914.4904 D965 ca

Durrell clearly loved Provence and savored it. His is not a guidebook, though readers will find information about countless intriguing morsels unavailable in any tourist handbook. Nor is it a writer's journal. It is rather a letter to posterity, capturing the essential sprit of this ancient, enchanting land, watered by a great river, and the extraordinary array of warriors, historians, philosophers, troubadours, popes, and poets who constitute its human history through the centuries. As foils to Durrells's observations and comments, two old friends - Aldo the impoverished nobleman in his tumbledown chateau and Jerome the saintly tramp, add theirs throughout the book.
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Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History
Kaplan, Robert D.
914.9604 K17 ba

A classic of travel writing and insightful political reporting, this book explores the enthralling and often chilling political story of the Balkans, fully deciphering the Balkans' ancient passions and intractable hatreds for outsiders. From the assassination of Franz Ferdinand that triggered World War I to the recent ethnic war that swept through Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy. You may also be interested in Rebecca West's account of Yugoslavia, published in 1941, Black Lamb and Gray Falcon, A Journey Through Yugoslavia. Call No. 914.97 W519 bl, wherein she writes, "I hate the corpses of empires. They stink like nothing else."
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The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914
Bell, Gertrude
953.804 B433 ge

Along with Freya Stark, Gertrude Bell was one of the first western women to travel frequently in the Middle East during the early part of the 20th century. The knowledge acquired during these travels eventually landed her a role in the British foreign service during and after WWI. She rode with bandits, was captured by Bedouins; and sojourned in a harem. Called the most powerful woman in the British Empire, she counseled kings and prime ministers and called, amongst her colleagues, Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. This diary was created for Major Charles Hotham Montague Doughty-Wylie, a married man to whom she had a passionate attachment. Their unconsummated love, however (Charles was killed at Gallipoli in WWI), was one of the reasons that Bell later took her own life in Baghdad in 1926.
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Coming Home Crazy. An Alphabet of China Essays
Holm, Bill
915.10458 H747 co

"The point of the title, and of the book, is that I came home to an America that looked to me unwilling to know what our own experience has been, either as a country, as a community, or as individual citizens. The lessons of history had evaporated. Whether this is the effect of television, technological gadgetry or too much surplus income, I leave to others for speculation. In China, I saw something else - a history so heavy and, in its consequences for daily life, so awful, that citizens had no choice but to acknowledge its presence." Written in 1989 prior to Tiananmen Square, the author's essays explore Chinese life.
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In the Mountains of Heaven. Tales of Adventure on Six Continents
Tidwell, Mike
910.4 T558 in

In this collection of 20 pieces, the author shatters the mold of the travel genre. What makes his writing different is his ability to draw out those he meets - a Hanoi barber, a Columbian innkeeper, a homeless fisherman in Washington, D.C. such encounters allow Tidwell to probe his own emotions for the sort of edification and larger rewards that only thoughtful travel can bring.
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Islands: A Treasury of Contemporary Travel Writing
Islands Magazine
910.9142 I82

Produced by the editors of Islands magazine, this is a collection of travel articles focusing on island journeys but such notables as Paul Theroux, Jan Morris, Tim Cahill and others. The book covers islands found in the Pacific, North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia/Africa.
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The Gift of Travel: The Best of Traveler's Tales
Habegger, Larry, ed.
910.202 T779

Contemporary travel writing collected from the Travelers' Tales series. From the introduction: "Travel is a metaphor for our lives as we move from stage to stage. We are constantly accumulating experience, seeking growth and ultimately wisdom, and travel concentrates this growth by presenting us with challenges and opportunities that we simply miss in our day-to-day lives at home. Being free of our usual responsibilities gives us a fresh framework to absorb the lessons offered by a chaotic train station, an impromptu meal with strangers, a chance conversation with a scholar or street merchant?.Travel is?a gift from the gods, a catalyst for living a richer life. As one writer says, 'Travel messes everything up.'"
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Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn and Other Extreme Locales
Halpern, Jake
910.4 H195 br

Determined to understand their fierce devotion to home, the author set off on a journey to five of the most punishing towns in America. The book is a portrait of these hometowns and his friendships with their most loyal residents. Throughout his journey, Halpern explores the value of rootedness in an age when American society is more mobile than ever. Along the way, he discovers why no amount of lava, wind, fire or water can tug these unforgettable people from their roots.
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On Foot Across Borneo
Hansen, Eric
915.95 H249 st

In 1982 Eric Hansen walked into the rain forest of Borneo, carrying a bedsheet, a change of clothes and a rattan basket filled with barter goods. He walked for 1,500 miles until he reached his destination on the east coast of Borneo. Then he turned around and walked back across Borneo in the "season of fear." Hansen tells of wild hunts in the jungle, meetings and friendships with tribesmen who live in longhouses decorated with the headhunting swords of their ancestors, and of an inner journey in a dangerous, alien environment.
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The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer: Close Encounters with Strangers
Hansen, Eric
910.41 H249 bi

Eric Hansen will go anywhere and try anything. Each of these essays focuses on parts of journeys he has experienced over many years. Covered are drinking kava in Vanuatu and working at Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta. He survives a cyclone while on a fishing boat off the north coast of Australia, and he befriends and elderly Russian woman who cooked for George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky. He spends time with an ornithologist who studies endangered ants, and takes topless dancers on bird-watching expeditions.
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Motoring with Mohammed
Hansen, Eric
915.33204 H249 mo 1992

In 1978 Eric Hansen found himself shipwrecked on a desert island in the Red Sea. When goat smugglers offered him safe passage to Yemen, he buried seven years' worth of travel journals deep in the sand and took his place alongside the animals on a leaky boat bound for a country that he'd never planned to visit. As he tells the tale of what stranded him on the island and his efforts to retrieve his buried journals when he returned to Yemen ten years later, Hansen enthralls us with a portrait of this forgotten corner of the Middle East. His guide is Mohammed - ever on the lookout for one more sheep to squeeze into the back seat of his car. Hansen reveals a land steeped in custom, conflicts and beauty.
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The Traveler. An American Odyssey in the Himalayas
Hansen, Eric. (photographs by Hugh Swift)
954.96 H249 tr

This is Hansen's account of and tribute to Hugh Swift, a traveler and photographer who walked 15,000 miles to explore the cultures of the Himalayas. Swift was an American guide in the mountains and the author of two premier Himalayan trekking guidebooks. He grew up during the Viet Nam era and was called to Asia by the spirit of adventure and a powerful curiosity about Eastern culture. Hansen and he were friends but never traveled together. Swift died unexpectedly in California where he fainted on a street corner and never regained consciousness.
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You Can't Get There from Here. A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World
Forman, Gayle
910.41 F724 yo

In these 8 interconnecting stories, the author traces the trajectory from her relatively comfortable life in New York to her sometimes extreme - and extremely personal - experiences in some of the most exotic spots on Earth. In each of these places she seeks out the most colorful characters and communities she can find. On the island of Tonga she throws a party for a clique of lovelorn transvestites, and in rural South Africa she tracks down the so-called Lost Tribe of Israel. In Kazakhstan she's befriended by a gang of Lord of the Rings fans acting out Middle-Earth fantasy games as a way to reclaim their European roots. The planet is shrinking as surely as you can buy coca-cola in Kandahar, and yet still there's room for us all.
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