Product Description

In this his most challenging journey, Michael Palin tackles the Himalaya, the greatest mountain range on earth, a virtually unbroken wall of rock stretching 1800 miles from the borders of Afghanistan to south-west China. Penetrated but never conquered, it remains the world's most majestic natural barrier, a magnificent wilderness that shapes the history and politics of Asia to this day. Having risen to the challenge of seas, poles, dhows and deserts, the highest mountains in the world were a natural target for Michael Palin. In a journey rarely, if ever, attempted before, in 6 months of hard travelling Palin takes on the full length of the Himalaya including the Khyber Pass, the hidden valleys of the Hindu Kush, ancient cities like Peshawar and Lahore, the mighty peaks of K2, Annapurna and Everest, the bleak and barren plateau of Tibet, the gorges of the Yangtze, the tribal lands of the Indo-Burmese border and the vast Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. Facing altitudes as high as 17,500 feet as well as some of the world's deepest gorges, Palin also passed through political flashpoints like Pakistan's remote north-west frontier, terrorist-torn Kashmir and the mountains of Nagaland, only recently open to visitors. They had a brush with the Maoists while filming in Nepal and advice from the Dalai Lama before crossing into Tibet. This book, compiled from his diaries, records the pleasure and pain of an extraordinary journey. Basil Pao, the inspired photographer of SAHARA, FULL CIRCLE and POLE TO POLE, captures the sensational beauty of the finest mountain scenery in the world. This is adventure at the very highest level.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88645 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

HEAT
'One of the best travel books around.... a highly recommended read.'

Review
'One of the best travel books around.... a highly recommended read.' (HEAT )

About the Author
Michael Palin is one of the most popular comic figures of our time. His exploits with the Monty Python team and in subsequent films such as A FISH CALLED WANDA are now the stuff of legend. It is as the adventurous traveller of his major television series however that he has acquired a vast and loyal following.

Customer Reviews

Peak viewing
Palin has become a British institution, reinventing himself in the post-Python years as everyone's favourite traveller. In an era where holidaying has become an excuse for booze, sex, and coarse behaviour, regimented by airlines, tour operators, and the lure of grotesque theme parks, Palin has demonstrated that travel and adventure can be a gentlemanly, gentle act. He appears genuinely interested in the people he meets, is able to convey a polite humanity and sense of wonder, and proves that you can travel the world without glossy brochures.

Obviously, Palin and his team spent a lot of time planning this latest adventure, but he conveys a gentle, unstressed sense of travelling without worry or hurry. The Himalayas he explores is a fascinating, beautiful, awe-inspiring, and the scene of long-standing military flashpoints and cross border rivalry. The ruggedness of the countryside and of the peoples who inhabit this vast landscape comes across. Palin takes people as he finds them; his approach is anything but judgemental. It's a lesson we could all learn - maybe you won't get to the Himalayas next year, but next time you decide to just go for a quite walk in the country, pause to wonder at the world around you and smile at the people you meet.

Palin is a wonderful ambassador for travelling and meeting people. The book of the TV series, beautifully illustrated, charming, good humoured, good natured, and a tonic in which you can indulge yourself over winter while you plan some sort of adventure for next year!

Beautiful and interesting book about a fantastic trip
"Himalaya" is a book written by Michael Palin as an alternative account of a trip that was filmed and first shown as a TV program on BBC TV. (This program has also been shown on many other TV stations, and is now available on DVD.) In addition to the text in the book there are many beautiful pictures by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who accompanied the BBC team on the trip.

This was a very interesting trip in beautiful and exciting places. Many countries around the Himalayan Mountains were visited, some of them well off the tourist track and some of them with security problems such that the team needed armed guards. Specifically, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Nagaland, Assam, Bhutan and Bangladesh were visited. A total of 3000 miles was traveled during 125 days (6 months), and many beautiful and exciting images, encounters and interviews resulted.

High points (ha, ha) of the trip include several treks on foot up into the mountains, visiting the Dalai Lama, milking a yak, talking to a retired headhunter, buying booze in Pakistan, having an almost-encounter with Maoists in Nepal, watching bull racing and no-rules polo, and giving an elephant a rub-down. There are also many interesting encounters and interviews with local people who are special in one way or another.

In my review of the DVD version of "Himalaya" I complained that the program wasn't really about Michael Palin's trip, as such, but was simply a string of encounters and events that made "good TV". The program ignored the travel aspect almost completely, and jumped from place to place in search of the images and people that the TV viewers would find exciting.

The book version of "Himalaya" is a more complete account of the trip, including a lot of material that was skipped in the TV program, and some experiences not even included in the extra material on the DVDs.

But still, the book account of the trip is not really a day-by-day account of the trip either. For example, I'd like to know what happened on "day 6" and "day 11", etc. These days are simply not mentioned in the book.

One nice thing about the book, as compared to the TV program on DVD, is that Michael Palin's personal opinions are more evident, as is his enjoyment of traveling and experiencing new people and places. There is more of a "personal touch" to the book, and his wit and charm make it very readable and enjoyable. Michael also writes candidly about the health problems he experienced and the reservations he had about travel in the places where there were security problems. All of which makes the book better than the DVD version in my opinion.

Finally, a note about the audio versions of this book. There are both abridged (6 hour) and unabridged (11 1/2 hour) versions in existence, and some resellers are selling the abridged version as unabridged, so beware. Michael Palin himself reads both versions, and he does a great job.

Highly recommended.

Rennie Petersen

Excellent read
If you've seen the TV programme and thought it wasn't worth reading the book, think again. Michael Palin has a deft eye for his surroundings and a succinct narrative style which is both entertaining, original and informed. He makes even the darkest of moments seem brighter and the book is full of wry observation and snippets of information. Never boring, and indeed the sense of adventure does come through, maybe because no effort is made to conceal the fact that the party is nothing more or less than a BBC crew. Some great photos compliment the pros and help bring the book alive. Highly recommended.