Read: The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
“Exhaustion and repetition created within the pain a space of exhilaration and control. And at this point, I saw two jeeps, their headlights on weaving slowly toward us through the fog. They were the first vehicles I’d seen since Chaghcharan. When they reached me, an electric window went down. It was the Special Forces team from the airstrip.
‘You,’ said the driver, ‘are a fucking nutter.’ Then he smiled and drove on, leaving me in the snow. I had seen these men at work when I was in the army and in the Foreign Office and I couldn’t imagine a better compliment. I walked on in a good mood.”
I think Stewart cannot be summed up any better than this. He really is a bit of a nutter, but at the same time, quite admirably so. He decides to walk from Herat to Kabul, by himself (although at the start, some ‘escorts’ are forced upon him), no detailed map in hand, little food and some basic medicine. (In 2000, he had walked for 16 months across Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal, and had intended to cross Afghanistan but the Taliban barred him from entering. So after the news that the Taliban had fallen, he returns in 2002 to connect his walk in Iran with his walk in Pakistan). A ‘Security Service’ man warns him before he sets off: “You are the first tourist in Afghanistan. It is mid-winter – there are three meters of snow on the high passes, there are wolves, and this is a war. You will die, I can guarantee.”
He relies on the kindness of villagers, to provide him with shelter and food, which he seems to manage to get at almost all the villages, even the poorest ones.
“Though most communities, whether Islamic or Hindu, and Muslims talked a great deal about their formal religious responsibilities to a mosafer (traveler), or meman (guest), in practice people often welcomed me reluctantly. This was understandable – they were often very poor, lived tough lives, and were suspicious of the few strangers they met. I was often disappointed by their hospitality. Only later did I begin to see how fortunate I was that they provided me almost every night with shelter and bread to eat.”
Stewart is amazingly determined (some might prefer the word insane). He walks in what he guesses to be -20 degrees C weather, guided usually by directions that villagers give him, or sometimes by the villagers themselves. He gets dysentery, diarrhea and medicates himself with the few antibiotics he carries (which he sometimes is ‘forced’ to give away).
Stewart traces the journey of Babur, born in 1483 as the prince of a poor kingdom in Uzbekistan, who later becomes the first Emperor of Mughal India. Babur recorded his journey in a diary, which Stewart occasionally introduces excerpts from – and which sounds like a pretty interesting read:
“… he focuses on the people he meets and uses portraits of individuals to suggest a whole society. He pays more attention to his contemporary world than to legends or ancient history and he is a careful observer. He mentions hangovers and agricultural techniques, poetry and economics, pederasty and garden design with the sense of humor and experience of a man who has fought, traveled and governed. He does not embroider anecdotes to make them neater, funnier, more personal, or more symbolic. Unlike most travel writers, he is honest.”
And I think that Stewart tries to take some of his writing cues from Babar, providing a different, insightful view of the remote parts of Afghanistan. He introduces interesting information about the people, their history. Being male however means that Stewart never gets to speak to the female villagers, and so his view of Afghanistan is a bit skewed. And what I really appreciated was that he doesn’t talk very much about himself. He never really explains why he does this journey, for example. Some readers might find that distance a bit alienating, but I appreciated that, partly because the last book on Afghanistan I read was bogged down by too much information about the author’s personal life.
In his preface, he tries an explanation:
“I’m not good at explaining why I walked across Afghanistan. Perhaps I did it because it was an adventure. But it was the most interesting part of my journey across Asia.”
And sometimes, you just don’t need a better reason than that to read a book.
I’ve read Rory Stewart’s book The Prince of Marshes and he also didn’t talk a lot about himself in that book. Prince of Marshes gets a little confusing with the politics but I liked it overall. I plan on reading The Places In Between because I think it will be better.
Will have to check out Prince of Marshes, thanks!