At last! One of the many books toppling over and crushing passers-by has been finished. This took a while as I just could not fit it in with my busy schedule...
In 1271 Marco Polo, along with his father and uncle set out on an expedition to Xanadu and Kublai Khan. His father and brother had been there already, as mercantile traders they had worked their way across Asia and China, lands for the most part unknown in Europe. They returned with messages for the Pope, as the Mongols had by this time a form of religion and such diplomatic communication was advisable to prevent war.
William Dalrymple, a young Scot studying at Cambridge, for reasons of his own decided, accompanied by a thrusting, domineering young female, to follow the old 'Silk Road' and retrace the journey. This book follows his efforts from Jerusalem to Xanadu and the details of the travels therein.
The journey during 1986 includes adventures in Iran, Pakistan, and misses out Afghanistan as the Russians had sealed the border with layers of landmines which even the Afghans could not cross. Into Communist China and with 'help' from the security forces to their destination, the crumbled, flattened remains of the Khans Summer palace, where there was not much left to be seen.
Some of the travel was via bus, lorry, even Chinese army truck, and the manner in which the author claims to have avoided the security forces is often hard to accept. His attitude throughout is not uncommon among certain types of well educated Scotmen.
The book describes the History, architecture, climate, surroundings and people of the places passed through. It is interesting to note great differences at the time between people often living close ot one another yet so different in their culture. Islam dominant in one form or another except in Communist China where among other things the clocks are all based on Peking time, three hours different from some areas far distant.
In one sense the book is 40 years out of date, in another it captures the 'feel' of the time. I suspect economic growth and the creation of concrete dwellings approached along vast motorways now predominates where camels and donkeys once shared the potholed rough tracks with the ageing lorries and buses. However, I wonder have cultural attitudes changed much in the distant regions in that time, wealth creation or not?
I quite enjoyed the book, written when the author was 22. His travelling companion left half way through in Delhi to meet her boyfriend and another was found to finish the trip with him. I can understand how he finds women so easily...
The book is worth a read, and an insight into far flung past ages.
