Changing directions today, talking about a book. Years ago when I was preparing to leave New Zealand, my friend Brenda handed me this book, Danziger’s Travels by Nick Danziger,  to read on the long plane ride back to the states. I was captivated by his story of traversing the silk route in the early ’80s. Recently I had recommended the story to a friend and coincidently on my last visit home I found my battered copy in my old bedroom and had to read it again.

From the back cover:

After walking and hitch-hiking through southern Turkey and the ayatollahs’ Iran, he entered Afghanistan illegally in the wake of a convoy of Chinese weapons and spent two months dodging Russian helicopter gunships with rebel guerrillas. He was the first foreigner to cross from Pakistan into the closed wester province of China since the revolution of 1949.

The first couple of chapters are a little slow and pompass, but as soon as he approaches the crossing into Afghanistan it’s truly an epic tale of adventure. Great armchair traveler reading for the winter.