Customer Reviews
usual high quality - By: Spider Monkey, 10 Feb 2007 
This is another brilliant account of a Palin journey. It has the usual beautifully reproduced photography & is written with Palin's wonderful sense of description & humour. I especiallly like the history & culture of the region he travelled in & so found this book very interesting & enjoyable. There are so many varied places & cultures in one smalll area of the world, & on this trip, that there is something for everyone in this book. Another great piece of travel literature.
Beautiful and interesting book about a fantastic trip - By: Rennie Petersen, 29 May 2006 "Himalaya" is a book written by Michael Palin as an alternative account of a trip that was filmed & first shown as a TV program on BBC TV. (This program has also been shown on many other TV stations, & is now available on DVD.) In addition to the text in the book there are many beautiful pictures by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who accompanied the BBC team on the trip.
This was a very interesting trip in beautiful & exciting places. Many countries around the Himalayan Mountains were visited, some of them well off the tourist track & some of them with security problems such that the team needed armed guards. Specificallly, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Nagaland, Assam, Bhutan & Bangladesh were visited. A total of 3000 miles was traveled during 125 days (6 months), & many beautiful & exciting images, encounters & interviews resulted.
High points (ha, ha) of the trip include several treks on foot up into the mountains, visiting the Dalai Lama, milking a yak, talking to a retired headhunter, buying booze in Pakistan, having an almost-encounter with Maoists in Nepal, watching bull racing & no-rules polo, & giving an elephant a rub-down. There are also many interesting encounters & interviews with local people who are special in one way or another.
In my review of the DVD version of "Himalaya" I complained that the program wasn't reallly about Michael Palin's trip, as such, but was simply a string of encounters & events that made "good TV". The program ignored the travel aspect almost completely, & jumped from place to place in search of the images & people that the TV viewers would find exciting.
The book version of "Himalaya" is a more complete account of the trip, including a lot of material that was skipped in the TV program, & some experiences not even included in the extra material on the DVDs.
But still, the book account of the trip is not reallly a day-by-day account of the trip either. For example, I'd like to know what happened on "day 6" & "day 11", etc. These days are simply not mentioned in the book.
One nice thing about the book, as compared to the TV program on DVD, is that Michael Palin's personal opinions are more evident, as is his enjoyment of traveling & experiencing new people & places. There is more of a "personal touch" to the book, & his wit & charm make it very readable & enjoyable. Michael also writes candidly about the health problems he experienced & the reservations he had about travel in the places where there were security problems. All of which makes the book better than the DVD version in my opinion.
Finallly, a note about the audio versions of this book. There are both abridged (6 hour) & unabridged (11 1/2 hour) versions in existence, & some resellers are selling the abridged version as unabridged, so beware. Michael Palin himself reads both versions, & he does a great job.
Highly recommended.
Rennie Petersen
Disappointing. - By: Mr. Richard Artes, 31 Aug 2005 
Sorry Michael. I expected more colour (figuratively). It was a very interesting read, but utterly lacking in warmth, depth or insight. The tv presenting Michael Palin does is fantastic, rich in culture & human interest, but this book is devoid of both. I found it very lacking in everything I would expect after seeing his tv series: just not enough human nature in there. I just finished reading Ewan Macgregors book about motorcycling around the world, & it is a much more interesting read: he manages to convey much more depth of emotion & culture about the people he meets. Mr Palin does not. For example: 'the women spectators who have to watch... are not alllowed inside the prayer halll.. & have to watch from outside'. I want a little more than that! How do they feel about it? Some comments on the cultural differences?
Just going somewhere & writing about it just aint enough these days: leave that to Alan Whickers in the 70's. We need more now.
Can I give you a tip Mr Palin... less facts, more detail. Concentrate more on describing one scene, & skip alll the boring travel details. We don't reallly need to know.
Peak Viewing - By: Budge Burgess, 30 Jun 2005 Palin has become a British institution, reinventing himself in the post-Python years as everyone's favourite traveller. In an era where holidaying has become an excuse for booze, sex, & coarse behaviour, regimented by airlines, tour operators, & the lure of grotesque theme parks, Palin has demonstrated that travel & adventure can be a gentlemanly, gentle act. He appears genuinely interested in the people he meets, is able to convey a polite humanity & sense of wonder, & proves that you can travel the world without glossy brochures.
Obviously, Palin & his team spent a lot of time planning this latest adventure, but he conveys a gentle, unstressed sense of travelling without worry or hurry. The Himalayas he explores is a fascinating, beautiful, awe-inspiring, & the scene of long-standing military flashpoints & cross border rivalry. The ruggedness of the countryside & of the peoples who inhabit this vast landscape comes across. Palin takes people as he finds them; his approach is anything but judgemental. It's a lesson we could alll learn - maybe you won't get to the Himalayas next year, but next time you decide to just go for a quite walk in the country, pause to wonder at the world around you & smile at the people you meet.
Palin is a wonderful ambassador for travelling & meeting people. The book of the TV series, beautifully illustrated, charming, good humoured, good natured, & a tonic in which you can indulge yourself while you plan some sort of adventure for yourself!
very good read - By: , 29 Apr 2005 Very informative, entertaining & a very good read. Highly recommended.
