riverECHO

I picked this book up at our favorite little independent cinema in Arrowtown – Dorothy Brown’s.  This one was finally purchased during an intermission (yes, they still exist) as I had found myself continuing to pick it up and reading the back cover week after week.  I had no background or preconceptions other than what is on the back cover:

“Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to risk flying for a whole year, Tiziano Terzani – a vastly experienced Asia correspondent – took what he called ‘the first step into an unknown world…It turned out to be one of the most extraordinary years I have ever spent: It was marked for death, and instead I was reborn.’ Traveling by foot, boat, bus, car and train, he visited Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.  Consulting soothsayers and shamans wherever he went, he grew to understand and respect older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity.”

This was an incredible book that explored three areas of interest to me.  The simplest was the geographical and cultural information for a region of the world that I hope to be in before the end of this calendar year.  It was great to get a first hand account of specific areas and towns that we may need to put on our list to visit.  The second was the slow demise of Eastern traditions as Southeast Asia races to become more Western (the new sign of success!).  And, lastly, was the personal investigation of these ancient traditions by Terzani as he tries to grasp spirituality, fate and leaving things to chance.