This is old-fashioned travel writing, with vivid prose and bizarre characters. But it also freezes some important world events for close inspection.
George Fetherling is a poet, fiction writer, and voyager. His other books include Travels by Night: A Memoir of the Sixties and such travel narratives as Three Pagodas Pass: A Roundabout Journey to Burma and Running Away to Sea: Round the World on a Tramp Freighter. He lives in Vancouver and writes a books-and-ideas column for the Vancouver Sun.