Common Sense and Whiskey

More Good Reads, Relevant Links

Lawrence Sheets covered the demise of the former Soviet Union for NPR. He writes his memoir in a brisk, non-academic style that's just right for the interested lay person. It's a quick read; Took me only a weekend and Monday. He includes what must be all his greatest hits, his quick trip to Afghanistan, a trip to Sakhalin Island in the Russian far east, visiting the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but I'm particularly drawn to his Caucasus reporting.

He makes my modest story on the southern Caucasus, recounted in CS&W, appear callow, and I appreciate him for it. It's exciting to get background on some of the places we visited a few years after he did, in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia (even a tiny place we visited, Dzoroget in Armenia, athough he visited under entirely different circumstances). His coverage of Abkhazia's succession from Georgia is admittedly maybe not general interest, but I loved it.

He reported that little war along with his friend and fellow reporter Thomas Goltz, who has written his own books, and if you read their accounts alongside each other, you get a real, exciting sense of what went on at that fraying edge of the Soviet empire.

The books:

Eight Pieces of Empire by Lawrence Scott Sheets
Georgia Diary by Thomas Goltz

Similarly, you can read Sheets on Armenia alongside Christopher de Bellaigue's Rebel Land, (earlier post) which is set just across Armenia's western border in Turkey, for a richer understanding of the Armenian genocide question, and Sheets on Armenia alongside Thomas de Waal's richly reported Black Garden (that's what "Karabakh" means), which is set just across Armenia's eastern border in Azerbaijan for a better understanding of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Go ahead and polish off your expertise about the southern Caucasus with:

- Bread and Ashes by Tony Anderson. Travels in Georgia.

Also in the region, see
- Towers of Stone by Wojciech Jagielski, reporter for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza,
- The Man who Tried to Save the World by Scott Anderson, about aid worker Fred Cuny in the north Caucasus, 
- Chienne de Guerre by Anna Nivat, incredibly brave war reporting from Chechnya,
- Beslan: The Tragedy of School Number 1 by Timothy Phillips on the nightmare in North Ossetia,
- Thomas Goltz's other books Azerbaijan Diary and Chechnya Diary,
- Thomas de Waal's other book The Caucasus: An Introduction,
- and Christopher de Bellaigue's In the Rose Garden of  the Martyrs , a memoir of Iran. de Bellaigue writes beautifully, and after all, Iran borders Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.

Finally, to stay up to date, there's the International Crisis Group's North and South Caucasus reporting. (Lawrence Sheets is ICG Project Director for the South Caucasus these days) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Caucasus section. 

 

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - Malawi, Chapter Fourteen

Here is Chapter Fourteen of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, including a journey on the famous MV Ilala across Lake Malawi. We're publishing each chapter here on the blog (Track down previous chapters here). You can order the entire book for just $9.99 at Amazon.com, at BN.com, or direct from EarthPhotos Publishing. Here's the Kindle version (just $4.99). Click these photos to make them bigger. More photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Malawi Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

14 LAKE MALAWI

“On your right is area 50. This here is area 28, light industrial area. Across the road there is fertilizer factory and tobacco factory. That is heavy industrial area.”

The national police headquarters came into view on the right.

“That is area 40.”

Just across the street, “Area 43,” Everlasting explained, “Is low industrial. It used to be only area ten, and area ten is still there, but it is full, so they have made area 43.”

“We also have names but our names are too long, so we just say, say, area 12.”

Malawi’s Ministries stood on the left.

“So, is that area 1?”

Logical, I thought.

“No, that is area 20.”

This went on all through Lilongwe.

“Ah, that is area 47. Up there, that’s area 49. National Bank. Bank of the Nation.” The tallest building in Malawi is the central bank.

“This is the Jehovah’s Witness headquarters in Malawi.”

•••••

When we met, our driver told us, “I am Everlasting.” We sort of looked away, and then we realized that was his name.

Everlasting was a slow, deliberate speaker, easy enough to understand once you got acclimated. His “S’s” kind of trailed off.

Azawad Doesn't Sound as Fun as Timbuktu

Whether you're one of Robert D. Kaplan's critics or admirers, his piece yesterday was a useful primer on the lay of the land, and the feel of things in the Sahara.

Those of us who are reluctant to vacation in a place they might be killed are crossing Timbuktu off our lists, at least for now. As a substitute, I recommend Angry Wind, by Jeffrey Tayler. It's on my list of ten great adventure travel books.

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - Borneo, Chapter Thirteen

Here is Chapter Thirteen of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We're publishing each chapter here on the blog (Track down previous chapters here). You can order the entire book for just $9.99 at Amazon.com, at BN.com, or direct from EarthPhotos Publishing. Here's the Kindle version (just $4.99). Click these photos to make them bigger. More photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Malaysia Gallery (including Borneo) at EarthPhotos.com.

13 BORNEO

A fine young man with a Yesus Kristus medallion bouncing around beneath his mirror drove us the seven or so kilometers into Mt. Kinabalu park, through the sleeping village of Kundasang. Farmers congregated at a warren of tin-roofed stalls along the main road. It looked like a good day for green tomatoes, potatoes, and cabbage.

They hauled us all in bas minis from the ranger station to the trailhead. From there, a six-kilometer trail led up to our destination, the Laban Ratah guest house, at 11,000 feet. At 13,432 feet, Mt. Kinabalu’s summit, in Malaysian Borneo, is the highest point in Southeast Asia.

The first kilometer (the trail was marked at each 1/2 kilometer) popped by in 23 minutes. We were flyin’, and all that stuff about how hard this would be was just talk. The first kilometer, we only stopped long enough to shed our wraps.

Just at first the trail led downhill, charming, to a cool, wet place called Carson’s Falls. On the way down the mountain, conversely, having to climb at the end was just one last kick in the butt on the way out the door.

Still before 8:00 a.m. no sunlight had fought its way to the forest floor. The air was downright chilly once our shirts turned sweaty. And they did — at the first K marker they weren’t soaked through, but a breeze blew down the rise and chilled our damp skin.

We were cocky, jaunty, making tracks, and unappreciative of the flora, except the little violet flower of the Kinabalu Balsam, which was shaped more like it had a beard than lower petals.

The massif stood silent and still, the only sounds birds or a rustling squirrel. There are no monkeys on Mt. Kinabalu. They live nearer the sea, to the east.

 

 The Summit of Mt. Kinabalu, 13,435 feet.

Good Reads

Christopher de Bellaigue is a pleasure. I've really enjoyed his Rebel Land, which details his search for truth on the Turkey/Armenia question. Okay, that may not be mass appeal stuff, but I'm personally interested, and he has an entirely engaging style.

After he lived in Turkey, de Bellaigue lived in Tehran, and another of his books, In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs, is on the next-to-read list. Got to get on with it, though, because his next book comes in May. It's about the coup against Mossadegh.

But both those books have stiff competition.

Two books arrived at the farm this week: The Unconquered by Scott Wallace and Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. The Unconquered is subtitled In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes, and it's one of these stories of adventure and peril in the jungle. Katherine Boo's book is subtitled Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. There are lengthy online excerpts for both.

Have a look: Here's Scott Wallace, and here's Katherine Boo.

The Things You Miss When You're Away

Catching up on a few things, since we've been away:

- It seems that the archepelagic nation of Kiribati has bought 25 square kilometres on Viti Levu, the main Fijian island, in case, well, Kiribati disappears. Climate change insurance.

- Nice piece from photographer Tim McKulka on the two Sudans. He spent five years traveling and taking pictures there. That's dedication.

- The closest land is Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1,090 miles (1,750 km) away. It's the most remote island in the world.

- This looks pretty terrible, even outdoing Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World (which, by the way, is free on Kindle).

- Looks like the northern - and southern - lights were active while we were away from the internet in Cuba. It's hard to believe this photo is real.

Unsettling Weekend Reading

We've all done trips that were ... less fabulous ... than others. (Funny: Search "worst travel" on Amazon and the Lonely Planet guide to Ukraine comes in at number twelve.) Let's just say these are trips that involve more trials than, oh, losing your luggage. I can nominate my friend who had to have an emergency appendectomy in the Soviet Union in the mid-80's, for example. No, no, he didn't speak Russian.

Farther along on the scale, maybe, here's the Amazon description of the book The Worst Journey in the World: "hoping that the study of penguin eggs would provide an evolutionary link between birds and reptiles - a group of explorers left Cardiff by boat on an expedition to Antarctica. Not all of them would return. Written by one of its survivors, (this book) tells the moving and dramatic story of the disastrous expedition."

But the really worst worst trip might have been this one. Enjoy reading about it in front of your cozy, warm fireplace this weekend.

•••••

And then there's Cruise Passengers Overboard. Somebody out there has it in for mega-ships even more than me. They describe their site as "a comprehensive list of known cases of persons falling or jumping overboard since 1995. " This thing must take a lot of work. It's up to date as recently as seven days ago.

 

Adventure Travel Book Recommendation

Not a review, because I've just begun this book, but here's a recommendation. Looks like this bookmay be fun. In preparation for a trip up above the Arctic Circle later this month, we're doing our diligence. There's not a great body of work on Lapland to be found. (The polar regions are better covered. Sara Wheeler has two books, Terra Incognito about the Antarctic and her newer, The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle, which came out earlier this year to middling reviews.) There's also a chapter on Greenland in my book.

The Northern Lights is a nearly ten year old book (I'm reading the Kindle version). The author, Lucy Jago, opens with an 1899 scientific expedition into the Arctic Circle led by a Norwegian scientist named Kristian Olaf Birkeland. It's written in that breathless, play-by-play, you-were-there style, and it's really convincing. Can't say more at this point, until I've read a bit further, but right off the bat it conveys two key salient points about our upcoming adventure. Lapland in winter is dark. And cold. Here's how cold, at the moment.

Get Yer Free Books

Here's some fun: I'm giving away eight copies of my book Common Sense and Whiskey on Goodreads, between now and next weekend. U.S. residents can sign up here to win a copy.

Then, after the winners have had a chance to read the book, I'll be hosting a discussion about adventure travel in general and the book specifically, also on Goodreads, between 10 & 20 December. Drop by here and sign up to join in the discussion, then suggest some cool topics for discussion.

You'll need to sign up for a Goodreads account if you don't have one, but it's quick, free and easy - just an email address and a password - and it's really a neat web community for readers. And speaking of readers, I've just gotten my shiny new Kindle Fire from the UPS man. First impression is favorable. I'll read a book or two and tell you more.

And, of course, you don't HAVE to wait to see if you win a copy of the book. The Kindle version is here and the plain old hardback is here.

Cartophilia

We're cartophiles here. Browse some previously recommended websites, including especially the Strange Maps and Worldmapper websites, and a charming little book called The Atlas of Remote Islands.

Here's a nice new find: the book Maphead is great. Get yourself a copy. From the Kindle version, here's part of a chart called "separated at birth." Good stuff.

Common Sense and Whiskey is Now on Kindle

Great news: Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, is now available from the Kindle store. Get yours right here.

Or, get the book version.

And coming next week, we'll publish Chapter Nine from the book here on the blog. It's our exploration of Sri Lanka, in which Nandinga smokes cigarettes like the French do in old movies, between forefinger and thumb, and I ask Tyrone:

"When does the monsoon come?"

"End of April, sir."

"Is it ever late?"

"It is always late, sir."

Ten Top Adventure Travel Books

See what you think of my list of ten top adventure travel books on Amazon.

Travel Adventure Book, Chapter 4: Bhutan, on Common Sense and Whiskey This Weekend

Holiday treat: We'll publish Common Sense and Whiskey Chapter Four: Bhutan, over the coming U.S. Independence Day weekend. In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon we tour a nearly infinite number of monasteries, drive (very slowly) across the country and have to wait at the Pele Pass for the road to be dynamited, seen here:

We'll be publishing each chapter of Common Sense and Whiskey over the course of the summer (Track down previous chapters here). The accompanying photos, and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion.

Common Sense and Whiskey on the Radio

Here's excerpts from today's radio interview about Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, on WUTC Chattanooga. Many thanks to the interviewer, Michael Edward Miller. Click to play the mp3.

Common Sense And Whiskey Radio Interview     

 

Virtual Book Tour

  Thanks to WUTC, the NPR affiliate in Chattanooga, for today's   interview about Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. Good folks over there. I'll have excerpts here soon.

CS&W on Flickr

There's a new Flickr set to compliment A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. The photos on Flickr are the ones in Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, although the photos in the book are in black and white. A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion has a bunch of extra photos.

Book Interviews to Come

Big thanks to Michael Edward Miller at WUTC, the NPR affiliate in Chattanooga, and Steve Goss, morning host at the Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE, for recording recent interviews about Common Sense and Whiskey, the book.

They'll be airing shortly, and afterwards we'll post excerpts.

A Week at the Airport

Great, great, lyrical book for those of us who have a weak spot for getting from here to there. Fine, light summer reading.

Check it out.

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - Chapter Three

Here is Chapter Three of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We'll publish each chapter over the course of the summer. You can order the entire book direct from EarthPhotos Publishing, or at Amazon.com. The accompanying photos, and additional commentary are available at The Common Sense and Whiskey Companion.

 

3 PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Thin clouds hung between the shore and mountains. A single tarmac road plodded east, and a smoky fire burned halfway up the hills.

Inland, it would rain.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, must be the only capital city in the world not connected to anywhere else by road. Port Moresby swelters alone.

Metal roofs, no apparent center. The parliament building, built in haus tambarin, or spirit house, style, just beside the runway.

A fair gale blew off the sea. Palms rattled along the utterly uncommercial waterfront. Brown shore water settled into azure after fifty meters, and a wooded hillock rose from the harbor half a mile out.

To Cecil Rhodes, the secret of imperialism was to “Teach the natives to want.” The Aussies brought an auto dealership, Coke and Pepsi signs, paved roads, a modern diplomatic community, and modest high rises. Without them would there be teeming anarchy, or would there have been less reason for country people to come to the capital for work?

Germans, Dutch and Australians had colonized the coasts of PNG, but they all assumed there was negligible value inland, over the hills, until the 1930s, when a group of Aussies disappeared over the rim and emerged with eyes wide as saucers and incredible stories of cannibalism and fantastic wildlife.

We flew into the highlands to see about that for ourselves.

•••••

Mt. Hagen, the gateway to the highlands, will scare you. I mean, it was grim, hostile and tense. You held your things tighter. And malaria was rife. The CDC said not “present” but “prevalent.”

Your first impression of the highlands might be of Malaysia - banana trees, brooding nimbus over far hills – but look closer and you’d think more of Tanzania, with filth in the gutters, firewood walking down the road on top of kids’ heads, people squatting by piles of betel nuts. Dirt.

In this mountain town of 30,000, there was a single downtown street, a rugby field, an airstrip and a rabble of housing. Claimed to have the best vegetable market in all of PNG.

The police barracks was a few score of little boxes like half a single-wide with a veranda, populated by wives and children. I might rather live in thatch. There was absolutely no other non-resident here. None.

Except one man from Osaka. He rode with us to the hotel.

The Hotel Highlander hid behind a gray metal barricade. Men in yellow hard hats rolled back the high gate. A six foot fence surrounded the compound and more men in hard hats walked snarling black dogs around the inside perimeter.

Inside, the walls were parchment thin and measurable dust infested the floor, but they did a pretty good job of serving dinner and stubbies, which is Aussie for short beer bottles. Third world chicken is third world chicken. But they curled the tops of spring onions as garnish. A stab at flair.

•••••

In the morning invisible helicopters thwapped at the air above the fog, circling the airport, waiting to land.

Visit Greenland Next Week

•••••

"Now Willy stopped to drift as near to a berg as he dared, and went aft to dip a bucket into the water until he retrieved a bobbing basketball of ice that he picked into pieces.

We all shared martinis poured over glacial ice that popped and snapped as the relative heat of Willy’s boat freed oxygen as old as man.

“Zum Wohl!”

Three hundred thousand year old air popping in our glasses - it was the sound of Greenland."

•••••

Next Tuesday here on the blog, we'll publish chapter two of the book, Common Sense and Whiskey: Greenland. See photos in the Greenland Gallery at EarthPhotos.com and in the Common Sense and Whiskey Companion.