Into The Valley Of Life On A Hero

바카라�Solo travel is like a drug바카라�it has its risks, but it also has the potential to unlock rare feelings of euphoria,바카라� declares the author somewhere along her journey in Arunachal Pradesh. The maxim is pretty much at the core of Land of The Dawn-lit Mountains, the third travelogue by Antonia Bolingbroke Kent, who had for her first book, Tuk Tuk To The Road, undertaken an extraordinary 12,500 mile road trip from Thailand to England on a Tuk Tuk and traversed the enigmatic Ho Chi Minh trail on a scooter for A Short Ride In The Jungle, her second book.

The scope of Bolingbroke바카라�s genre, as her repertoire suggests, is global. It is the thrill of the unknown and uncharted that pulls the author towards the hill state바카라�바카라�It was a journey that would take me...to places that few, if any, Westerners had visited바카라�, a hint of a Victorian explo­rer바카라�s zeal in the exercise. The idea for the book is born out of this zeal, the experience of the journey itself a consequence of the idea.

To make this possible, a network of 바카라�fixers바카라� in India is duly tapped into. We get an insight into the economy of 21st century international explorations in the 바카라�Third World바카라�. These fixers are the handlers for projects of BBC, National Geographic et al바카라�the ones who get all the permissions, licenses and contacts in one place through sheer persistence and ext­ensive contacts. Armed with an inner-­line permit and a 150cc Hero motorcycle, the author sets out to document remote destinations of Arun­achal Pradesh from Guwahati, Assam.

The initial part of the narrative involves itself with breaking the ice for the author as well as the reader. A historical context is built around Arunachal from meticulously researched colonial records. Those records, however, have their own infernal politics. We read numerous accounts of British explorers writing about 바카라�savages바카라� and 바카라�barbaric people바카라� who dwell beyond Assam, which is the last bastion in the Northeast that was in full control of the Empire. Meanwhile, our traveller squeezes past the chaotic state of Assam바카라�s development, surviving its crazy traffic to eventually enter Arunachal, breathing a sigh of relief once there.

From hereon, one gets a sense of the 바카라�trip바카라� gradually turning into the 바카라�journey바카라�. Assam to Arunachal was a rather charmless affair, with hurried meetings with people on the road, in guest houses and resorts. This stretch of the trip is also filled with references from the terrible grind of the CBI바카라�the China, Burma, India바카라�theatre of war during WWII, responsible for upheavals in the area including the blunder of Roosevelt바카라�s Sisyphean Stilwell road, a damned project that resulted in major loss of life.

In Arunachal, where the only thing wild is the abundance of uncontrolled beauty, the hectic nature of travel settles down. The encounters gets warmer as the author engages more with people in the places she wants to go to. The references to records of the Empire also become subtler and more insightful,  as the narrative oscillates between historical citation and the author바카라�s experience in a more balanced manner.

Most communities the author meets in Arunachal are gracious hosts, a fact contrasted many times with ethnical descriptions from over a century or so back. She attends the fascinating ritual festival of 바카라�Reh바카라� of the Idu tribe after being invited by a dynamic young woman mountaineer and biker from the community. There are blessings by friendly village shamans, treks to hidden, magical valleys and countless stays in huts and homes of exc­eedingly hospitable people. We get introduced to the lives of characters from several communities in the spectacularly culturally diverse region.

To outsiders to Arunachal, The Land of the Dawn Lit Mountains is a good introductory book. Even for those familiar with the region, this book바카라�apart from being an enjoyable read바카라�can prove a repository of historical references.

Bolingbroke Kent바카라�s account is also interesting from the point of view of the solo woman travel writer in an unfamiliar land, who has to negotiate many unexpected encounters in a judicious way. The aut­hor does so with caution, and a presence of mind that seems to have developed over time through her experiences in different countries.

More than the discovery of 바카라�unexplored바카라�, 바카라�virgin바카라� territory바카라�the idea the author started out with바카라�the travelogue ends up performing that essential function of a journey: self-discovery. The exh­austive preliminary research for the book leads the author to many a place, but it is the emotional journey that fills the gaps between travel and text.