Author: Mary Jane Walker

Publisher: Tmcap Ltd.

ISBN13: 978-0-473.4666-95

This is an unusually well written and very readable travelogue in the best sense of the word. The author Mary Jane Walker, truly lives up to her surname as a trekker in the Himalayas and elsewhere in the world. After having trekked in some of the most difficult terrain in her native country of New Zealand, and inspired by Sir Edmund Hillary, she went to Nepal thrice for 21-25 day-long stretches, trekking in the Himalayas. In this book, she describes her travels in Nepal, India and Pakistan, which she visited thrice, twice and once respectively. Not only does she describe the journey, she also manages to weave into the narrative, the history and culture of the places she visited and how they relate and integrate with her own personal experiences.

The author starts first and foremost, with an account of the reason behind her trip to Nepal. After this, she puts forth, a relevant and concise account of the demographic history and culture of the places she planned to visit during her trips to the countries in the region.

The first stop was Kathmandu. Once there, she mentions the culture shock that she experienced, the invariant power cuts during daytime, the tangles of wires on the streets and the jewellery shops on thin, dirt lined paths among others. She also visited Lalitpur, an erstwhile royal city, with a combination of temples and palaces. Other places she visited were the ancient Buddhist stupas of Boudhanath and Charumati. This trip was before the devastating earthquake in 2015 that destroyed many temples and other artifacts..The author presents a picture of every place worthy of note, all through the book, referring to her blog page for better reproductions.

After Katthmande, the author flew to Luklu, from where she embarked on her first adventure to Everest base camp and back via a different route. She mentions the problems  and rigors on the hiking trail, e.g. the need for proper acclimatization due to the low oxygen content in the air, and an adequate medicinal protection. She also mentions the need for proper guides and porters and the necessity to pay them properly for their services as most of them are grossly underpaid. She also talks of the guest houses she stayed in during the trip and her bonding with the owners that ran them. Among her pictures, are color photographs of  some of the mountain peaks that she passed during her journey, viz.,Everest, Manaslu and Annapurna.

After Nepal, the author arrived in Delhi, India. Her first reaction was a strong sense of culture shock, due to the sight, sounds and smells of a country that still suffers from crippling poverty, the effects of which spill out on the streets, She describes visiting some of Delhi’s major landmarks and the shopping that she let herself indulge in. But that which remains in one’s heart after reading this book, is how readily the author accepts the huge contrasts that epitomizes, this vast country of which Delhi is the capital. The same goes for the other cities that the author visited during this trip, i.e. Jaipur, Agra,, Kolkata and Gangtok. It is her genuine presentation of her experience, without undue embellishment or denigration, that characterize this memoir and make it worth reading.

A couple of years later, the author returns to this region. Her first visit was Pakistan. This time her  trip was organized with a group of other trekkers. The first place visited was Chitral. From there, they trekked onto Zondrangram. After this, the author describes the friction that arose between the members of her group of trekkers. She mentions how she was assigned a woman escort who became a friend. The author’s interaction with the people of Pakistan, who were eager to talk about their lives is characterized by great respect ,and makes this memoir especially readable. 

The next stop was Mumbai, where she spent a few days sightseeing before going onto Kerala. There she stayed for a couple of days in a houseboat in the backwaters, before returning to Delhi. After this,she went onto Srinagar in Kashmir. There she enjoyed staying in a houseboat on the Dal Lake. After this, she went to Dharamsala, the abode of the Dalai Lama  The next stop was Kathmandu, where she commenced on her third trek in the Himalayas.. After the trek, she visited Chitwan National Park where she enjoyed seeing wild animals in their natural habitat, before flying back home.to New Zealand.

That which I wish to convey in this review, that which stands out in this book, as I see it,, is that the author genuinely appreciates people from different cultures and can not only get along with them without compromising her own self -worth, but also make it an opportunity for  learning . Besides, it is a great read for those who like travelogues, there is a lot of information for would- be trekkers.