I love knocking around this book and remembering my trip to Nepal- I just wish there was a way to get the noise and smells (except the throat-burning CO fumes), too, as any experience in the Kathmandu Valley is incomplete without them! Arvidsson's photography captures all that one would like to remember about Kathmandu and its sister cities, Patan & Bhaktapur. If I had only brought more film with me in the first place!!! Luckily, there is this book for all my armchair travels back in time... The photographs themselves are sharp, introspective and capture the color of the area (of which there is a lot!) as well as providing a glimpse of the far off snowy peaks of the Himalayas which if you are lucky, on a clear day, you can see from the city- you cannot believe that the mountains are so far away because it looks as if you could just reach out and scoop the snow off one of their majestic summits.I do not know if there was one, but I would love to one day see an exhibition of these photos and be wonderfully overstimulated by the sheer sensory overload that is Kathmandu and the Kathmandu Valley.

Key West is such a beautiful place, it deserves to have a book like this written about it. Lovingly crafted by its adoring author, this series of essays doesn't comprise the ordinary "where to shop, eat and stay", advertisement-frenzied travel book. Instead, it's a languid stroll through past and present Key West, accompanied by Cox who whispers many strange and wonderful secrets of "Cayo Hueso" as you float through this weathered paradise.

Cox spent four months in the "Conch Republic", so there's nothing slick or salesman-like about his observations of this Bohemian enclave. His respect for Key West history and its influence in shaping the present community is obvious. Cox is especially admiring and engaging in his portrayal of real-life "Freshwater and Saltwater Conchs" (as the natives...and not-so-natives...call themselves), all who readily share their interesting stories with him, whether over a frenzied breakfast at a local cafe, or a quiet drink in the shade of a sheltered verandah. Fascinating tales abound in this book, the funniest of which recounts the night the Navy burned confiscated drugs in the City dump on Key West Bight: prevailing winds made this event especially memorable for the natives. Cox goes on to say, "Since then, the government has burned its dope somewhere else."

Even though the book was published in the 1980's, this first-time 2001 traveler to Key West found it to be a fascinating read about a fascinating place. Its many wonderful treasures, from the carefully restored homes, broken-down military establishments, lazy beaches, historical landmarks and museums, haunting cemeteries, homey bars and saloons, and flourishing retail markets - not to mention the colorful "Conchs" who call the place home - don't seem to occupy a static place in time. Instead, Key West meanders through the years like a lush, tropical, untended garden, changing here and there occasionally, but always maintaining a character that makes it the most intriguing and unexpected pleasure to be savored. Cox's "companion" to this unexpected pleasure is indeed just that - a warm tribute to an old friend. An unexpected pleasure in and of itself, "A Key West Companion" will transport you to that beautiful island for a vacation of the mind, with Cox as your own personal tour guide...and will probably spur you to plan a trip of your own to this weird and wonderful place, even if you've already been there before.

Excellent book. general arif deserves a lot of credit for writing this book. being a pakistani myself i could relate to a lots of facts [which were only speculations before, in my mind]the only part that the general very skillfully skiped was general zia's misterious death and the circumstances of zulfiqar ali bhutto's execution. but again, being a pakistani i do understand general arif's reservations about these two very sensitive topics. overall a great book.

Unless you marry into the British Royal family, it is virtually impossible to ever personally view all the paintings featured in this book (I believe Windsor Castle displays only one painting per year). This book is the next best thing. How else can one marvel at the equisite design, detail and color presented in these Mughal paintings? While the text is written in the usual art history academia mumbo jumbo (meaning dry dry dry), the pictures speak for themselves. One can easily find a sentence here or a paragraph there that will give added insight to the paintings. But the text isn't required to appreciate the magnificance of these art pieces from Shah Jahan's era.

I was given this book as a child, and have re-read it often throughout my whole life. An Indian folktale with a simple but clever story, the book is richly illustrated by artist Yoko Mitsuhashi in a style that will draw the reader back again and again. The book has a good moral, one that is not heavy-handidly thrust upon the reader, but charmingly presented in a witty manner. If you cam get ahold of this book, read it!

I grew up with this version of the book and it is my ultimate favorite book. Anyone who comes across a copy should definitly get it. This illustrator did a wonderful job and I was sad to hear that it was out of print

Tal Streeter takes you on a wonderful journey through India. He transforms you to the rooftops of India while introducing you to a plethora of kite flyers and kite makers. Through his passionate writings you experience the intense zeal that kites and kiteflying are all about in India.

This book is a well-written and clearly illustrated study manual for enlightenment using the devotional system of Hindu Tantric Yoga. The author is a long time beloved disciple of the Yoga Swami Sivananda Saraswati. Born in 1887 this man of God established an ashram (spiritual retreat) by a beautiful mountain lake in Rishikesh India. There he became a great enlightened Yoga and trained a group of disciples who have done a lot of good in the service of humanity. In this book Swami Radha goes into a detailed description of how to understand the nature of various deities (aspects of God) which reside inside of ourself. Among these deities are the presences of God (male aspects) and the shaktis of God or powers God (female aspects). She gives useful exercises for laypeople in order to prepare the mind for this enlightenment. Readers of this book will also be interested in the book, "The Serpent Power, the Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga." (Dover Publications) by the British student of Hinduism Sir John Woodroffe. This latter book predates Swami Radhas' book and contains a lot of additional information (especially for those who know a little Sanskrit) along with many of the same pictures of deities that are in hers. I believe I have benefited from the work that Swami Radha and Sir John Woodroffe have done in helping to unlock these secrets of Eastern Mysticism and make them more assessible to sincere study by Westerners. I hope the one power and the one presence of the good and omnipresent God who blesses and protects the souls of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims (and many others) blesses and protects the heavenly souls of these sincere and good hearted people (Swami Saraswati Sivananda, Swami Sivananda Radha, and Sir John Woodruffe). May they have many students who also acheive enlightenment and may there souls live in heaven a long time (forever, if they so choose).

If you watched the movie "city of joy" you MUST read this book. Thousand times better than the film. Just one word : Excelent !!!

Whether one is interested in actively making the journey to the Buddhist community of Ladakh or simply understanding more about this unique Indo-Himalayan crossroads community from a historian's distance, Neetu Singh's book is invaluable. For the benefit of the traveler, the author covers everything from the essentials for packing, dietary intake and lodging, to basic mannerisms, and cultural customs, & key sites to visit including a whole chapter dedicated to Ladakh's monasteries.
For the exoticist page-scanner, details of everyday life--religious, culinary, etc.--are brought to life, not merely by the author's full yet untedious descriptions, but rather also by the well-chosen color shots which add vitality to every page, by far the best I've ever seen, and obviously so, since it usually takes one who, like the author, has lived in an area long enough to understand the ways of all its aspects of its daily life, to have the opportunity to gracefully capture the photographic and anecdotal elements which form an accurate and complete picture.
Major sporting events and festivals are given in full account, so visitors know which ones to attend--such as polo matches, archery contests as many religious dance festivals--as well as which ones not to attend--such as the inter-village Brokpa free-love festival, in which tourists are obviously not encouraged to take part, since the festival's purpose is to perpetuate the lineage of certain tribes whose ever-dwindling population makes every infertile marriage a clan-threatening concern.
Even those acquainted with further religious and cultural studies will find such photography and conciseness useful and rewarding. For most, nonetheless, this book should suffice as a beginning, middle and end to all general, pre-travel/cultural-study/exoticist reading, or at least to have a more attractive coffee table piece.