Walking the Himalayas, Levison Wood, 2016 – I don’t read much travel books, so this is a new exploratory genre for me. I have probably started with one of the best perhaps, since this book kept me riveted through the journey of the author as he crossed the Himalayas on foot.
The journey starts from Afghanistan’s Wakhan corridor, through Gilgit into Pakistan and into India via Srinagar, onwards to Dharamshala, Shimla and Rishikesh towards Nepal’s Pokhara and Kathmandu, back to green fields of West Bengal briefly and ending in Bhutan’s Gangkhar Puensom. The book beautifully captures the essence of these places, with the Himalayan backdrop but explores the cultures, languages, beliefs and quirks of the people as much as it does the beautiful and dangerous terrain, the rivers, streams, trails and roads.
You come across a lot of colorful characters, who form a spectrum between going out of their way trying to help or rip the author off. The author is joined by different people during the journey and he is almost never alone, so there are lot of conversations as well about the mountains (like the fact that Karakorum is Turkish for crumbling rock) and life in general.
You get a sense of the Hindu Kush and Karkorum, Amu Darya and the Pamir mountains, the nomadic Kyrgyz, Gilgit-Baltistan and Nanga Parbat, the palpable tension along the LoC between India-Pakistan (author crosses through Wagah after failing to convince the soldiers on Pakistan side on a shorter route through the mountains), the Tibetan culture preserved in Dharamshala, a meeting with the Dalai Lama, a glimpse of the sadhus and birth of the Ganges at Rishikesh, the wilderness of Nepal alongside the wilderness of its governance, the weird system in Bhutan that appears to work well for them, all through this 1700 mile trek. You also get a car crash, the only time the author decides to get into one for 10 kms and a break and resumption in the journey after his recovery from it and an endearing tale of friendship over decades with Binod who the author had met as a teenager in Nepal. This book is travel adventure through and through, captured beautifully in words that transport you to people and places far away. 9/10
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