Rob goes into Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war, and realizes how plastic and robotic his life really is. There he falls in love with Afghanistan...the people, the land, the animals. Rob goes on to chronicle many parts of the war, from 1984-1987. The really unique piece, was the eye witness accounts of men and figures that I have read about in texts on the war.

This in itself could have carried the book; but he goes on to do more. For those of us sleepwalking through life, many will find this book a breath of fresh air. The book chronicles his many adventures, tales of the absurd, his fear of being killed, his bouts of depression, and the many hilarious situations that can only occur in war-time Afghanistan.

I think Rob found a piece of his soul in Afghanistan and in turn, he allows the reader to witness some of it. I for one, thank Rob for the oppurtunity.

Rob Schultheis does a great job making you feel the cold, the sore feet, exhaustion and fear while being hunted by armed tribesmen and Soviet airforces inside Afghanistan.

A great book to read on your next plane trip across country. I couldn't put it down and neither have the troopers I work with. It has been passed around so much I doubt I will ever see my copy again.

Evocative, beautiful, terrible and short. The madness and evil of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, in which the clumsy terror and brutality of the modern totalitarian state meets an ancient yeomen/warrior tradition of independence and honor. Modern, brutal, indiscriminate, and total thuggery versus the mercurial but brave cavalryman/tribal warrior. The miracle is that anything at all (garden, tree, house, family) survives in Afghanistan.

The writer evokes spiritual and social traditions that survive in Afghanistan to this day. Especially, male friendships that seem strangely important to our modern ears but contribute to a heroism that is irrational but ultimately successful in driving out the Russians (at a huge cost). Likewise, the strict code of honor---when our author was abandoned in mountains at night by a treacherous guide, a local leader promptly sought out the offender to kill him.

This is a very entertaining little history book by the master expert on the obscure lands of Central Asia, Peter Hopkirk, who is also an excellent writer. The focus here is an esoteric bit of history which has probably not been covered elsewhere - the race by the outside world to get into mysterious Tibet, and especially its forbidden capital Lhasa. The Tibetans' almost pathological need to be left alone led them to repel anyone from outside shortly after such interlopers crossed the border. Add to that Tibet's inaccessibility, surrounded on three sides by the most impenetrable mountains on Earth, and on the fourth side by equally hostile deserts, all of which many people though the ages have died trying to traverse. Of course this all made outsiders, especially Westerners, yearn to "gatecrash" this forbidden land.

Hopkirk tells the intriguing tales of the various adventurers, diplomats, and missionaries who made the earliest attempts to reach Lhasa, most of whom didn't make it. While mostly unsuccessful in reaching their ultimate goal, these hardy souls still had incredible stories to tell and contributed immensely to the sparse knowledge of Tibet's geography and culture. Included are some unexpected goodies like the story of the indestructible Pundits from India who literally counted the steps they took, plus the earliest deadly attempts to conquer Mt. Everest. The book ends rather depressingly with the story of China's brutal occupation in the 1950's, which ended Tibet's self-imposed isolation once and for all, after which the Chinese closed it off even more tightly because of political paranoia.

Throughout the book, Hopkirk offers some key insights into ancient Tibetan culture and their homegrown brand of extreme Buddhism. As a result we find that Tibet was never the spiritual paradise of pure thought and devotion that modern celebrity Buddhists try to tell us it was, before the outside world screwed everything up (we see that not even the Dalai Lama makes that claim). You may be surprised by the fierce, if naïve, warlike tendencies of the Tibetans, even their monks. The only problem with this book is Hopkirk's tendency to hold back on many stories. He starts to describe some very interesting tales, like the harsh ordeal of the lone female missionary Susie Rijnhart or the mysterious Japanese spy Narita Yasuteru, only to abruptly claim that the conclusions are outside the scope of the book or more extensively described elsewhere. This is a rather frustrating tease from the author, especially since this book is not that long and there is surely room to spare. But that's the only misstep in this most enjoyable book. (Note: for the much larger story of this region, in which Tibet played a small historical part, see Hopkirk's later masterwork "The Great Game.")

Another classic from the Englishman who brought us Great Game tales and the story of China's missing Buddhist artwork.

This time it's the story of the race to be first in Lhasa - even though the Tibetans asked no one to come and gave no one permission to enter their country. An international cast of Russians, North Americans, the French and the British all attempted to win. Hopkirk's tale of heroism and derring-do then ends with the tragic days of the mid-twentieth century when China invaded and Mao's Red Guard fanatics tried to destroy everything that stood in the way of total domination.

Most travellers entered Tibet incognito, either as private travellers hoping to evade detection, and win the prize of being first to enter the sacred city, or in the service of their military or religious masters. All failed, until the legendary Sir Francis Youghusband fought his way there - in true Great Game style - as the head of a British army battalion sent to head off Russian imperial advances into Tibet.

Of course, the Tibetans didn't want the Brits telling them what to do and conflict broke out. These days, the manner of the British victory at Guru - in the modern day Indian state of Sikkim - would be the subject of an international enquiry.

Many of the other tales are also tragic ...Others are heroic. Most spectacular of all were the 'Pundits' - British trained Indian's spies - who entered Tibet disguised as holy travellers and spent years spinning their prayer wheels, counting every pace and mapping every corner of the country for their colonial masters. It's amazing what you can learning from boiling water.

But the final thoughts that linger are those that wonder why the British, after having spent so much energy defeating the Tibetans, then turned turtle and abandoned them in their hour of need. The United States, by then the world's dominant power, stood by and did nothing either.

It's a melancholy ending to a truly classic work of art that has you groping for the travel maps and the hiking boots. Once again, Peter Hopkirk has managed to spin an enormously enjoyable story about a page of history that very few know anything about.

Watching the Dalai Lama rail against China on the BBC will never be the same again.

I cannot remember reading a recounting of history in a region that is more entertaining than Hopkirk's Tresspassers on the Roof of the World. In an attention grabbing manner, Hopkirk tells the tales of westerner's attempts, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to reach Lhasa, the spiritual and temporal capital of Tibet. The characters are serious, yet amusing, and their stories are told very well. A quick read but well worth the trouble of picking up the book!

The best (and one of the only) guides to a very pleasant and seldom-mentioned country, Ochs has done a wonderful job of giving us a very interesting intorduction to the culture, langiage, history, religion, cuisine, customs, geology and attractions of the safest and most attractive of the Arabian countries. Included is a wealth of information that every traveller will need to know before embarking on their trip. Also are hundreds of restaurants and sundry attractions for every taste and inclination. The rules and regulations are delineated carefully so as to prevent mishaps and fortunately, Ochs has provided for his readers, not merely the "tourist" side of Oman, but many facets of this beautiful and fascinating country that are generally overlooked by the typical sightseer. if you plan on visiting Oman, or just want information about the people or the land, this is the book to get.

I met that guy last week as i walked through "Wadi bani Khalid" He really lives in Oman and he knows the country. You can book a tour with him on "Mark Tours" Further info under "arabia felix.de" or "oman.de"

he is a really funny guy.

Peter (a.k.a. Peachy) Ochs knows Oman. He loves the land and its people. It seems he has explored every inch. We were fortunate to have him as a personal guide in February 2000. The Maverick Guide and his personal insights provided an unforgettable experience. I highly recommend this book to every traveler to Oman and to anyone interested in this uniquely beautiful part of the Middle East.

This is the first guidebook to include the whole Tibetan world. Roughly one third of the main body of the book is devoted to the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region, one third to other Tibetan lands governed by China, and one third to Bhutan and the Tibetan areas of Nepal and India.

It is an intensely practical book, directed to the independent traveller using public transport. It includes information about public transport which is readily available nowhere else; it does not include the telephone numbers of bus stations - an unfortunate omission.

The many excellent maps include regional maps, and no less than 126 maps of towns, many of them mapped in no other available book.

Important improvements would be: the inclusion of Chinese characters where appropriate in the text; the addition of markers to every Chinese word or name wherever it appears to indicate the tones, without which they cannot be pronounced; and a guide to the pronunciation of Tibetan, without which the section Survival Tibetan is scarcely useful.

Some travellers will want more information about the furnishings and images in Tibetan temples. In most of the territory covered, although not for India, Gyurme Dorje's "Tibet Handbook with Bhutan" (Footprint Handbooks) will provide that information, and be a complementary companion book.

The book will be indispensable for the serious traveller who wishes to understand the extent and the diversity of the Tibetan world.

This book is a must for travellers, it has easily the best set of maps to Tibet that I have ever seen and they are really easy to follow. The travel information is also very detailed, especially when it comes to the local public transport timetables and routes. I am also impressed that it covers in detail all the Tibetan areas in the Chinese controlled areas and beyond and not just around Lhasa.

Mapping the Tibetan World is the portable encyclopedia of the Tibetan world i was waiting for !
I have now this wonderful little book always close to me so that i can read a bit here and a bit there whenever i have five minutes to spare.
It has informations on all aspects of Tibetan life, culture, history and geography as well as Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and symbols.
The many maps included makes it easy to plan your trip in Tibet and other Tibetan cultural regions.
The only suggestions i could make to the publisher would be a LARGE PRINT version for people who like me have bad eyesight, and may be a color coding to distinguish the various regions (chapters).
A wonderful job done by this team of young explorers, many thanks to them !

This book is a must to read from informational point of view.If you need to find information on tactics, uniforms, weapons,etc-this is the one.But,this not the one,if you want to understand what this war was about.About real soldiers,who actually had to fight in Afghanistan:18-20 years old kids,who was drafted. And without any choice was thrown to a forien contry to play a strange game of survival : the one , who kill first, will win another chance to play this game again...and again.All we wanted was simple- just to go home ... alive.I was lucky to see my home.But many of my friends didn,t.
If you want to reed that kind of story,you need to find another book!

This book is very interesting and filled with tactical detail. However, it is neither a strong history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan nor a strong analysis of Soviet performance in the war. Rather, it is a collection of studies of various engagements and operations during the war. These studies are very useful for those who already have a good knowledge of the war but are confusing for those who do not.

Let me first start off that this is not a quick easy read. It goes into VERY small detail about practically everything in the Soviet-Afghan War. However, some of the small things that the author goes over gets very boring very quick. When you read this book, it almost feels like a battle manual for the Soviet-Afghan War. However, when you get done reading the book, its probably the closest one person can come to understanding the war without actually being there. The drawings in the book are also very useful to help spell out what the author is saying. All in all, the book does not give an action/adventure story of the war, but when you comprehend it, you will have a firm understanding of what the war was like from an operational point of view

In a way, I shouldn't be surprised, as this is a well-written and very readable account of a journalist's time behind rebel lines in the way, but I'm amazed by the level of the positive response. It's 2-dimensional, not very perceptive and treads ground too often trodden rather more effectively by others.

I just kept reading...right until the end. Mr. Gall made something so complex...sound so interesting. I couldn't have found this book more enjoyable.

A great book from the eyes of reporter....this is some of the best reading I have come across in a while.

The title of this book is apt, for it serves as a handy quick introduction to the vast sweep of Tibetan history, disclosing a land that is not simply the mystical shangri-la we often imagine it is. Like many western readers, I knew next to nothing of the history of Tibet and central asia before the Chinese takeover. The first few chapters here do a good job of outlining this subject, all the while leading up to the author's central thesis that Tibet has historically been separate from China, both politically and culturally. However, political history is seldom cut and dried, and as we move towards the twentieth century we see how British, Russian, and Chinese imperialist politics combined with divisions and corruptions inside Tibet to seal the fate of this isolated country. It was eye-opening to see Tibet as not merely a hapless victim of a cruel invasion, but also as an active, humanly flawed player in the region's mutable history. The author is a college professor but his writing is easily accessible to a general audience.

I thought this book would be really dry and hard to read. It was as gripping as a lot of novels. I liked it because it didn't talk down to the reader, but explained things clearly enough for those of us unfamiliar with Tibet. Since I have degrees in International relations and Political Science, I can say that it is a balanced account. Things weren't perfect before the Chinese arrived and they have made some improvements. The problem is what is being done to Tibetian culture by China. My Chinese friends tell me how they 'civilized' Tibet but that argument rang hollow to me. I liked how all aspects of Tibet are discussed, the climate, cuisine, culture, etc. along with the history and politics. It's inspired me to learn more about this facinating area of the world.

Lee Feigon's 'Demystifying Tibet: Unlocking the Secrets of the Land of the Snows' is an excellent source book that provides interesting information about Tibetan history, geography, culture, and religion. This is a 'must-read' book for anyone interested in Tibet, or have plans to visit this fascinating country. The author adopts a very 'reader friendly' style, which does not over simplify or compromise his writing. This is probably one of the best general introduction books on Tibet that I have read.

If you've ever had a dream to travel outside of your own backyard, this book will give you the push you need to make that decision. Alexander Kinglake takes you through the exotic east by the most interesting modes of transportation. Horseback, Camels, Dromedaries, and fantastic sea vessels. You'll travel through places such as Stanboul, Constantinople, Cyprus, Galilee, Cairo, the Pyramids, and Jerusalem just to name a few.

A brilliant descriptive writer, Kinglake tells you every detail about what he's viewing along the way, along with the emotional side of traveling through history. Standing on a hilltop, possibly the precise spot where Homer did, that inspired his works, Kinglake takes you there with him, describing unchanged landscape and the flood of emotions that will definately touch you. When he arrived at the Holy lands, it left me in tears, and a great yearning to plan my own pilgrimage there.

It amazed me that this man made it through his travels safe and sound. He survived the plague which was rampant at that time. It was frightening to read about, let alone live through it! Which he tells about in depth. The extreme fear everyone lived in. Yet despite all the precautions taken, it still managed to seek you out and take you into it's unimaginable numbers. Day after day, he watched cavalcades of funeral processions pass through the streets, from sunrise to well beyond sunset. How he fooled it, I'll never know. He always seemed to be in contact with plague stricken people, and even thought for a time that he too had fallen victim when symptoms began to appear.

Through this journal you'll learn about the people of this era and before. The Ottomans, Bedouins, Monks, Jews, Catholics, and Christians. Aristocrats, such as Lady Hester, Sheiks, and Pasha's. Most interesting was Kinglake himself. Just who was this man? He tells little about his own background. But as you read, this intelligent, confident, diplomatic Englishman unfolds before you. With a sense of humor few can match!

This book was gifted to me, and sparked the desire to be a part of what Kinglake and others knew about life. Not to let each day pass by caught up in mundane routines, but live each one to the fullest.

This is a book to be treasured and I read it several times. It is hard to imagine the world Kinglake describes which is virtually extinct now at a time when lions abounded in Eastern Europe, Caliphs and Pashas smoked their pipes through long tubing and Lady Hester Stanhope gets esoteric.

Full of humour, the book is as British as they come with such sensitive nuances about the subject matter including disease, women, customs and issues of religion in the holy land.

I'm still looking for this brand of hero inside and out but don't think he's that common except as a carricature. Did Kinglake's world and attitude really exist?

This is a very good, and very funny book. I also came to it through Churchill's recommendation. As I read about it, the man who overheard Churchill growl "Kinglake" went off and read Eothen, loved it, and then asked Churchill, "What now?"

The gruff reply was "More Kinglake." This rather puzzled our aspiring author -- Kinglake's only other book was his two-volume "Invasion of the Crimea."

After a casual search of more than twenty years, I finally located this two-volume set through Amazon, and -- guess what -- it's terrific. It's even better than Eothen, because it has a serious purpose. It is marvellously written, and numinously intelligent. It needs to be brought back into print.

Wow, great book. i was very impressed with the way Tregaskis reported the story. He does an excellent job in entertaining the reader while putting forth the facts. Great book for ANYONE of almost ANY AGE.

Read Tregaski's description of Red Mike Edson (paraphrase - the mouth smiles but not the eyes)...his account of the Tenaru River and Bloody Ridge....and marvel how the long road back started. Consider spending a few bucks on a first edition - surprisingly affordable. Then re-read every couple of years.

Richard Tregaskis, a 24-year-old reporter, went ashore with the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal. He lived with the men, sleeping on the ground and eating the same chow. He remained on that nightmarish piece of coral for 50 days, usually under combat conditions. His retelling of the engagement along the Tenaru is as good or better than other first hand reports. His description of the several days of combat on Edson's Ridge was excellent, as he had moved his tent to that elevated location the morning of the first day. With an eye toward the readers' morale, losses of flights at Henderson Field were not reported as accurately as they could have been. As many as seven aircraft had crashed on take off while he was still on the island. Tregaskis left the island before the major battles on the Matanikau or the desperate fight for Henderson Field, but he had his story. He had seen the boys of democracy turn back the seemingly invincible Japanese Army; he had seen some of our flyers defeat the unstoppable Zeros; he had seen our navy hold their own against the designers of the attack on Pearl Harbor and he hurried home to tell the American public. This book was started aboard a B-24 before he returned home and was an instant best seller. This was a first hand reporting of our first offensive engagement of WW II. A nation hungry for news of the front greeted it eagerly. Not even the casual reader of WW II can bypass this major work, if for no other reason than the place it holds in the history of the war in it's own right.

In his books on Sufism, Idris Shah wrote over and over about how abnormal, inadequate and generally awful ordinary people are, and about how wonderful Sufis are in contrast. In attempts to demonstrate his perspectives, he thrashed a new crowd of straw men in every book. So if that kind of thing floats your boat, and if you, too, want to look cross-eyed at the rest of humanity, you're in for a treat. Shah wrote over twenty books on the subject. (But don't be surprised if you lose your own self-respect in the process.)

Do you want to get to know yourself? That's what I did. Each of these stories is an opportunity to discover another aspect of your personality. Like me, you will find stories which you will like or find amusing, perhaps others that will annoy or startle you. Each is a mine of possibility that enriches with subsequent readings. Spend time with Idries Shah... and get to know You.

This book not only entertains, it educates as well. The tales and vignettes in it are called Teaching Stories because teaching is precisely what they do. They teach the reader how to escape from the confines and limitations of usual, normal thinking processes. They do so by showing the reader to himself or herself, reflected in the actions and motivations of the characters in the tales. The reader can learn how to operate more free of bias. The effect is similar to suddenly coming across riches, the riches buried within ourselves. Repeated readings reveal more layers and depths, each guiding the reader to greater understanding and freedom. 'The Magic Monastery' is, for these reasons, quite a catch.