India Books - Page 6

Rajasthan

Pauline Van Lynden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This stunningly lavish volume is based on Pauline van Lynden's notebooks, photographs and other material gathered over fifteen years of wanderings in Rajasthan, India. The book begins with Pauline's first overwhelming impressions of color, people and places. In search of material, making friends on her way, she discovers the Rajasthani cities, is invited to a royal wedding and finds artisans devoted to their centuries-old crafts. After some time, a longing for quiet draws her to the countryside, and the second half of the book focuses on the villages and a rhythm of life which has not changed much over the centuries. The fourteen chapters of the book are each introduced by two pages of stories and descriptions by Pauline to explain, in a personal way, the following pages of photographs. The text is limited to her impressions, as the book is meant to be essentially a visual experience. With her artistic background, an upbringing in international surroundings, a curious and eclectic mind, a keen photographer's eye and a great sensitivity for detail and atmosphere, Pauline is perfectly equipped to bring her own view of Rajasthan to the public in this informed and evocative manner.

The Rough Guide to South India 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Rough Guides

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great guide, better than LP 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I have been travelling for a couple of weeks through Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka using the Rough Guide, together with a friend who had the Lonely Planet to South India. Overall I found the RG a very good guide, both in terms of practical information (maps, transportation, budget hotels) as well as for providing sufficient background information about the temples in that region (which is definitely not the case for the LP!).

Editorial Review:

The Rough Guide to South India is the ultimate handbook to this spectacular region. The full-colour section introduces South India’s highlights from cruising on Kerala’s teeming Kuttanad backwater region to the madness of the Maharasthran capital. This fully–updated 5th edition includes expanded coverage of Kerala and detailed accounts of all the attractions including the majestic temples of Tamil Nadu, the world most visited religious site of Venkatesshvara Temple, and the looming balfries and baroque churches of Old Goa. You’ll find all the practical advice you’ll need whether you’re trekking in the Cardamom Hills, scuba-diving in the Andamans or traveling around Mumbai.The guide comes complete with critical reviews of all the best places to stay, eat, practice yoga, and includes maps and plans for every area.

The Rough Guide to South India is like having a local friend plan your trip!

Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants

Luce Boulnois

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

how silk came west 5 out of 5 stars.
33 of 33 people found this review helpful.

This book is a fantastic cultural adventure and should be read by anyone interested in cross-cultural relationships. More than a topographical description of the silk road, it is a gallop though history explaining paths taken by silk to get to Europe. It starts in prehistoric china and ends with the Karakorum highway, synthetizing in twenty chapters the reasons for the often difficult diffusion of luxury products from the Far East. The author, that evidently knows well chinese history and mentality, takes us by hand into the ancient cinese political issues as to foreign commerce, the fundamental role played by Iranians, byzantines and arabs during the Middle Ages up to the wary reciprocal opening of European and Cinese worlds due to brave and curious travelers. So we meet princesses, monks and merchants and get to know their fascinanting stories. One point of force of the book is the meticulous and modern analysis of these travel tales, so we have a critical perspective of what has come down in history and makes up our cultural background. Marco Polo get's revisited and also less well known ancient and modern travelers are cited.
Boulnois loves silk (her detailed description of materials of the old world and how they were made is enlightening)and its history, so she brings us to her country, France, and to the evolution of the silk industry in the XIX and XX century. And this somehow closes the circle of the story of this precious tissue that reached its apogeum in the last century.
The book however is much more than this and carries a great amount of information. It could be described actually as a textbook on the history of silk. It is well written even if not too easy to read, and sometimes it is a little repetitive.
I enjoyed it very much and feel enriched by its reading.

Editorial Review:

The Silk Road conjures up images of romance and mystery. This illustrated history of the trade connections that linked the Mediterranean world with China is a must for those interested in the Silk Road as a travel destination and for those who love adventure.

An Area of Darkness

V.S. Naipaul

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Boring! 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 18 people found this review helpful.

I like travel books that have a sense of adventure, and where one identifies with the writer. This failed on both acounts, and after struggling through half of it a I threw it away.

Editorial Review:

A classic of modern travel writing, An Area of Darkness is Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul’s profound reckoning with his ancestral homeland and an extraordinarily perceptive chronicle of his first encounter with India.
Traveling from the bureaucratic morass of Bombay to the ethereal beauty of Kashmir, from a sacred ice cave in the Himalayas to an abandoned temple near Madras, Naipaul encounters a dizzying cross-section of humanity: browbeaten government workers and imperious servants, a suavely self-serving holy man and a deluded American religious seeker. An Area of Darkness also abounds with Naipaul’s strikingly original responses to India’s paralyzing caste system, its apparently serene acceptance of poverty and squalor, and the conflict between its desire for self-determination and its nostalgia for the British raj. The result may be the most elegant and passionate book ever written about the subcontinent.

My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

Alexandra David-neel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David–Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet, the fifth in her series of Asian travels, and her personal recounting of her journey to Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden city.

In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the World. With the help of her young companion, Yongden, she willingly suffered the primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, the ever–present danger of border control and the military to reach her goal.

The determination and sheer physical fortitude it took for this woman, delicately reared in Paris and Brussels, is inspiration for men and women alike.

David–Neel is famous for being the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama and as a passionate scholar and explorer of Asia, hers is one of the most remarkable of all travellersߴales.

Finders Keepers? (India Unveiled Childrens Series, 1)

Robert A. Arnett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mom's Choice Award in the Children's Educational Picture Book category. Winner of Outstanding Books of the Year for the Independent Publisher Book Award and Winner of the most Inspirational to Youth Book Category Award. Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best Multicultural Book of the Year. Winner of The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval.

The charming true story set in India is about a boy who found the author's wallet and could not understand why he should be rewarded for returning to the author what was his. The concept of accepting a reward for doing the right thing made no sense to him!

The delightful, vividly colorful illustrations take children on a picturesque, fun-filled journey through the exotic land. Though the setting is in India, the message is timeless and universal. With such beautiful illustrations and story, Finders Keepers? is an excellent picture book for parents and educators seeking to introduce children to lands beyond their borders. A great character education and a multicultural book.

The Vale of Kashmir

John Isaac

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Beauty of Kashmir and its People 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The person who said, "Once you pick it up, you can't put it down..." might have been enjoying John Isaac's book, The Vale of Kashmir. Of the thousands of available coffee-table travel books, I'd be surprised if any could compare with the beautiful images of this picturesque - but remote - part of the world as seen through the eyes of John Isaac.

According to the book's cover profile, Mr. Isaac spent most of his career as a photographer with the United Nations. He certainly has a way with people and his work shows him to be a compassionate and skilled photographer who, in this book uses his incredible talent to reflect ordinary people going about their daily lives in a culture that seems even more remote than the beautiful place in which they live.

I've never been to Kashmir yet I feel as if I have because John Isaac has captured the spirit of Kashmir in his photographs. Although all the images moved me, some of my favorite images are the daily pre-dawn flotilla meeting of produce vendors, the natural-light portrait of a father holding his newborn son, a student's-eye view of a small middle school, people at prayer and especially the dreamlike quality of a house engulfed by fog on an Island in the early morning. All of the images in this book make me feel like I'm viewing beautifully produced versions of personal photo-albums belonging to people I've actually met in a place that's vaguely familiar - in time long ago.

This is a book that's definitely worth owning - and buying as a gift for those who enjoy seeing the world in which we live and the diverse people who inhabit it.

Editorial Review:

A world-renowned photographer's spectacular tribute to the land and people of this remote region.

The Vale of Kashmir celebrates the people and landscape of Kashmir and the unique way of life that has developed there. John Isaac set out to create a work that would honor both the cultural complexity and the breathtaking beauty of this exotic region. In lush color, he captures the varied details of daily life: canals crowded with houseboats and floating gardens on Dal Lake, the ancient city of Srinagar, the harvesting of saffron, Hindu pilgrimages through the mountains, shepherds on the Himalayan slopes, prayers at the mosque, and the private realm of family life. Isaac writes: "There is something very magical about this place." Here is historical Kashmir, not the country torn apart by war. This is an enchanted and enchanting land seen in 160 magnificent color images from a master photographer.

Trekking in Nepal: A Traveler's Guide

Stephen Bezruchka

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best Travel Guide of Nepal 5 out of 5 stars.
26 of 26 people found this review helpful.

This is the most fantastic travel guide I've ever used and the only one you will need in Nepal. Bezruchka's love and respect for the Nepali people is evident in every line and will enhance your journey to Nepal as well. We followed his advice and had a much richer experience for it. We watched other tourists who didn't follow his advice being laughed at and ignored. The language book and tape that you can order were incredibly helpful, way better than any dictionary. We were able to converse competently which made a huge difference in our experience. Don't bother with the Lonely Planet guide, which just tells you how to get through the country as cheaply as possible. There is so much more to experiencing Nepal than saving a buck here and buck there.

Still the best trekking guide to all Nepal 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

This is the book that first opened my eyes to Nepal and its culture. It's much more than a guidebook: it has a sensitivity and compassion for its subject that is almost unique in the field of travel writing. It doesn't coddle you with if-it's-day-three-this-must-be-Namche route descriptions, but lets you find your own adventure and gain profound insights along the way. It also has an extensive medical section.

Lonely Planet Dubai

Terry Carter, Lara Dunston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Believe the hype! 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 22 people found this review helpful.

My '5 stars' are for Dubai. I'm one of the authors and lived in the UAE for almost 8 years. I guess we do believe the hype, because we've lived it. Dubai is an extraordinary city, the country offers one of the best lifestyles in the world, and the Emirati people - Dubai locals in particular - are incredibly dynamic, funny, laidback, hospitable and tolerant. Having travelled all over the world (to over 50 countries) and recently moved to Europe, Dubai remains one of my favorite cities.
I'd rather not risk repeating what's in our books, but it's true that Dubai has glorious year-round weather (if you like it hot), access to some truly spectactular desert and mountain scenery, some of the world's best shopping (souqs, malls and a growing number of independent stores), restaurants, bars and hotels (and I'm not referring to Burj Al Arab), and a culture that is comprised of both the local and traditional, contemporary and multicultural, that is hybrid and mobile, fresh and alive. Unfortunately, however, we've been just as guilty as the next writers in focussing too much on the city's sun, sand and shopping. Fed up with people criticising the city as being souless (which we know it isn't) and without culture (which we know it has - many complex layers of local, regional and world cultures, in addition to a growing and buzzy arts scene) - in our update of this guide, we try to introduce people to the 'real Dubai' and 'backstreet Dubai' via boxed texts and walking tours that will take visitors off the beaten track. We're hoping these will guide travellers to get beyond the hype and experience more than the beach, desert safaris and malls, and taste a little of the real Dubai - the Dubai that keeps many expatriates in the city so long, and lures vistors back to the city time and time again.

Editorial Review:

Sunshine, skyscrapers, souqs and sheesha - Dubai is the cosmopolitan heart of the modern Middle East. Whether you are here for the shopping, beaches, nightlife or architecture, we've got your needs covered with this guidebook. Street-smart and stylish, it will give you expert insight into the city's sophisticated culture and latest attractions.

• GET THE SCOOP from our dedicated Dubai insiders
• SHOP TILL YOU DROP - extensive coverage of souqs, malls and shopping centres
• TAP INTO THE PULSE with the lowdown on the latest entertainment options
• FEAST LIKE A SHEIKH with our discerning listings covering the city's burgeoning culinary scene
• MAKE TRACKS with day trips to Hatta, Sharjah and the Musandam Peninsula

Lonely Planet Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya, Eighth Edition

Stan Armington

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Must Have Guide 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If you are going the Nepal to trek, this is an invaluable guide. I was in Nepal for three weeks and I used this book everyday. Stan Armington knows Nepal better than anyone. He has help from people like Jamling Tenzing Norgay and many others. This is an essential guide to the trekking in Nepal.

Editorial Review:

Everest, Annapurna, Kanchenjunga, Machhapuchhare, Makalu - a roll call of inspiration awaits trekkers in the Nepal Himalaya. Discover its famous peaks and unique culture in this authoritative guide by one of the region's most experiences trekkers.

• 22 new contour maps for major trekking areas, supplemented with the author's GPS data
• detailed trek notes covering the popular routes and little-visited alternatives
• cultural insights, language guide, plus information on responsible trekking
• expert health and safety advice for trekkers
• practical advice about organising your own trek or choosing a trekking company
• illustrated guide to Himalayan wildlife