Travel Asia

Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across Northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road. Travelling 7,000 miles in eight months, he traces the passage not only of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions.

In his most challenging journey to date, Palin tackles the Himalayas, the greatest mountain range on earth. It is a virtually unbroken wall of rock stretching 1,800 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.

Early on August 12, 2000, four of America's best young rock climbers were sleeping in their portaledges high on the Yellow Wall, in the central Asian mountain range of Kyrgyzstan,. By daybreak, they would be taken at gunpoint by militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. In a life-and-death journey over six terrifying days, they would be forced to choose between saving their own lives and committing an act none of them thought they ever could.

Access to Asia presents a deeply insightful framework for today's global business leaders and managers, whether traveling from Toronto to Taipei, Baltimore to Bangalore, or San Francisco to Shanghai. Drawing from her extensive experience and global connections, author Sharon Schweitzer suggests that irrespective of their industry, everyone is essentially in the relationship business. Within Asia, building trust and inspiring respect are vital steps in developing business relationships that transcend basic contractual obligations.

Many dream of dropping everything and just traveling around the world. It's a common dream, but few imagine embarking on that journey by bicycle. Exposed to the elements, legs burning, all your possessions strapped to you and your bicycle - it doesn't paint a relaxing picture, but this is just what Pierre-Yves Tremblay did.

Exotic and diverse, richly colourful and intriguingly complex: India is one of the most exciting countries to visit in the world today. Sanjeev Bhaskar, of Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, grew up in 70s surburban West London, so his regular family visits to India to see his relatives gave him an endless fascination for its bizarre contradictions. Now Sanjeev is going back with a BBC film crew to delve deeper into what makes this country such a compelling phenomenon.

Bart Schaneman spent five years living and working in South Korea, mostly as an editor for English newspapers. He also taught English for a spell. This Expat Life is a collection of essays on uprooting your life to travel the world, what it means to be ambitious, and finally discovering the right place to settle down. Peppered throughout are Bart's personal reflections on teaching and living as a foreigner in a foreign land.

From the author of the enduring classic The Solace of Open Spaces, here is a wondrous meditation on how water, light, wind, mountain, bird, and horse have shaped her life and her understanding of a world besieged by a climate crisis. Amid species extinctions and disintegrating ice sheets, this stunning collection of memories, observations, and narratives is acute and lyrical, Whitmanesque in breadth, and as elegant as a Japanese teahouse.

Get By in Japanese is devised specifically for travellers. The 70-minute download will help you to get to grips with the basics of spoken Japanese, and introduces the most relevant language you'll hear when you're there. Listen to the audio a couple of times to practise the key phrases and vocabulary, and familiarise yourself with Japanese pronunciation.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.  

I Should Have Left the Whiskey is the first book in the Rambling On trilogy–compelling tales from a time when motorcycles were left in the shed and global exploration slowed to the pace of cycling. These diaries divulge two very different journeys in Asia: because progressing into enlightened India required some back-pedalling through darkest Thailand en route to China.

This book was made for the many decent guys who come to Thailand for whatever reason and find themselves ensnared in a nightmare. This book will save some of you guys a fortune - and it's going to stop you from falling into the traps that have caught up with so many guys before you. You decent guys don't deserve derision - you deserve to know what's going on around you. You need to know what to look out for and when to extricate yourself from a situation.

Delhi exists in a kind of quantum state: In Delhi, all things are true at once. When the Big Apple no longer felt big enough, Dave and Jenny moved to a city of 16 million people and, seemingly, twice that many horns honking at once. Delirious Delhi depicts India's capital as the two experienced it, from office life in the rising tech hubs to the traffic jam philosophy that keeps people sane in the gridlock leading to them. With only their sense of humour as their guide, Dave and Jenny set out to explore a city in which ancient stone monuments compete with glass-clad shopping malls to define the landscape.

Bound for Distant Seas begins sailing author James Baldwin's epic tale of his second circumnavigation. His story is seasoned by his adventures during his first circumnavigation in 1984-86 as told in Across Islands and Oceans. Alone with little money aboard Atom, his now-engineless 28-foot sailboat, James embarks on his odyssey without the comforts and equipment most sailors consider essential.

After crossing the final mountain passes of Turkish Kurdistan, Ollivier sets foot in Iran, keen on locating vestiges of the silk trade as he passes through Persia's modern cities and traditional villages, including Tabriz, Tehran, Nishapur, and the holy city of Mashhad. Beyond urban areas lie deserts: first Iran's Great Salt Desert, then Turkmenistan's forbidding Karakum, whose relentless sun, snakes, and scorpions pose continuous challenges to Ollivier's goal of reaching Uzbekistan.

This is an incredible story of adventure, human ingenuity, persistence, and resilience that shows firsthand what it is to adventure as a woman in the most dangerous of circumstance, what it is to be truly alone in the wild, and why someone would challenge themselves with an expedition others would call crazy. For Marquis, her story is about freedom, being alive and wild by nature.

This audiobook exposes the worst lie about Thailand, and goes on to detail many of the complications that retirees have in the Kingdom. At times it's not a pleasant listen, but there's plenty of expatriates who will tell you they wish they knew what they were getting themselves in for before they arrived in Thailand.

Nella primavera del 1976, a Hong Kong, un vecchio indovino cinese avverte l'autore di questo libro: "Attento! Nel 1993 corri un gran rischio di morire. In quell'anno non volare. Non volare mai". Dopo tanti anni Terzani non dimentica la profezia (che a suo modo si avvera...), ma anzi la trasforma in un'occasione per guardare al mondo con occhi nuovi: decide infatti di non prendere aerei per un anno, senza tuttavia rinunciare al suo mestiere di corrispondente.

Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze river. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper. In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation.

Are you excited about planning your next trip? Do you want an edible experience? Would you like some culinary guidance from a local? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this Eat Like a Local book is for you. Eat Like a Local –Manila by author Elleio Samson offers the inside scoop on food in the metropolitan area. Culinary tourism is an important aspect of any travel experience.

Un curioso y atractivo repaso por la cultura tradicional y contemporánea japonesa en forma de diccionario, que nos presenta un recorrido pormenorizado por el Japón de la antigüedad y por la rabiosa actualidad de una de las culturas más influyentes del presente. En este viaje descubriremos desde el origen los kimonos hasta los pasos de la ceremonia del té o los pormenores de la arquitectura japonesa. Imprescindible para quienes siempre han sentido fascinación por Japón y para quienes deseen un buen punto de partida para empezar a entender su cultura.