Travel Categories
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THE GOLDEN HORDE
Starting in the forbidden valley of Palas in Pakistan, Paine travels through the former territories of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and into the wild Tine Shan. She follows ancient trading routes, traveling in the footsteps of merchants and armies, chasing legends of goddess worship, traditions of Orthodox belief, and stories of pagan superstition. Her relentless pursuit finally ends on the island of Karpathos in Greece, where, in a tiny church on Easter Sunday, she makes an extraordinary discovery.
₨ 3,230 -
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THE AFGHAN AMULET
Intrigued by an exquisite and mysterious amulet on an antique dress from Kohistan, ‘land of mountains’ in Pakistan, Sheila Paine began an epic quest that took her from the peaks of the Himalaya to the shores of Greece. In this, the first part of her journey, she set off alone and undaunted for the rugged Hindu Kush, her only possessions a tiny rucksack and a litre of vodka. Over the course of several months she followed endless clues – the patterns on a woman’s dress, pendants hanging outside village houses to ward off djinns, scraps of embroidery in a bazaar – that took her to some of the most remote and inhospitable places in the world. She travelled to Makran and in Pakistan, an area closed completely to foreigners, and to Iran, where she was constantly watched by government minders. She was smuggled into Afghanistan by a band of mujahedin, and then forged on into Iraq and Turkish Kurdistan from Iran, before one final piece of evidence led her to the small town of Razgrad in eastern Bulgaria and news of the amulet she so tirelessly sought.
₨ 3,230 -
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THREE WOMEN OF HERAT
In the years before the communist coup and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Veronica Doubleday set up home in the ancient city of Herat with her husband, who was researching Central Asian music. At first, her only glimpses of women were as shadows–faceless and voiceless. Gradually, however, she formed friendships with three young mothers who welcomed her into their lives, taught her their customs and music and shared the details of their everyday existence. She witnessed their most personal moments: the births and deaths of their children, their marriages and celebrations, religious holidays, healings, and rituals. After the Soviet invasion in 1979, she lost touch with her friends, but returned to Herat recently, adding another chapter to this poignant story.
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ISTANBUL
A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy-or hüzün- that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters-both Turkish and foreign-who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.
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ROAD TO KATMANDU
Extraordinary account of the legendary hippie trail: a cult classic In the 1960s and ’70s, the overland route from Europe to Asia became popular with disillusioned Westerners seeking what they saw as the paradise of the East. Their journeys are now the stuff of travel legend.
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TURKESTAN SOLO
Captivating account of one woman’s epic journey through Central Asia In 1932, long before travelling in Central Asia became fashionable. Ella Maillart travelled to Russian Turkestan, bordered by China, Tibet, what is now Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Her dream was to see the mountains that lay on the fringes of China and the Takla Makan desert.
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PUNDITS FROM PAKISTAN
A cricketing romp through Pakistan In early 2004, the Indian cricket team set out for Pakistan. Pundits describes the subsequent tour, detailing the matches, the moods, the games and the players. More than merely that, though, it is also a book about the first major sporting encounter between India and Pakistan in 15 years – a period in which the two countries had fought one war and come close to another. What emerges is a fascinating contemporary account of a beautiful game in its most crucial setting, captured through the eyes of a young Indian discovering Pakistan.