Travels (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

by Michael Crichton

Contributed by NobleBibliophile506

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References To Other Books

Direct References

Gulliver’s Travels

The next assignment was a paper on Gulliver’s Travels, and I remembered an essay by George Orwell that might fit.

Dante’s Inferno

On my first day at the BLI, I stepped into a world that reminded me of nothing so much as Dante’s Inferno.

A Case of Need

Under a pseudonym I wrote a book called A Case of Need. It had many lightly disguised references to people in the Harvard Medical School. When the book was published, there was a lot of talk about this author, Jeffery Hudson, who seemed to know so much about Harvard. I joined right in: Who could this Hudson fellow be, anyway? What a mystery. That was fun. Then the book was nominated for an Edgar for the Best Mystery of the Year. That was fun, too. Then the book won, which meant somebody had to accept the award.

Fowler’s Modern English Usage

When I was growing up, my father was a journalist and an editor; at the dinner table there was always talk about writing, and correct word use, with frequent pauses to consult Fowler’s Modern English Usage when arguments arose.

The Andromeda Strain

Then, in my last year of school, it became publicized that I had written a book called The Andromeda Strain and sold it to the movies for a lot of money.

Franklin’s Autobiography

I reread Franklin’s Autobiography, and noted that he kept a record of himself, as I did, for exactly the same reasons.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

in such works as The Hound of the Baskervilles there is a continuous tension between a supernatural and a mundane explanation for events.

The Coming of the Fairies

then he examined the photographs, and published, in The Coming of the Fairies, his belief that the pictures of little winged people were genuine and proved fairies were real.

Book by Ram Dass

After all, when you read a book by Ram Dass, you could see he was always doing something new: living in a Zen monastery, doing breathing exercises, fasting, staying with his guru in India.

I Ching

Next Brugh introduced the I Ching, a Chinese method of divination in which you toss three coins six times, do a calculation, then look up the answer in a text. The procedure seemed mathematical and needlessly complicated. And when you got to the text, it was often not helpful: “Someone does indeed increase him; even ten tortoises cannot oppose.” Or “The well must be repaired before drawing water.” It was hard to make sense of that!

The Wizard of Oz

I couldn’t see why the floating people and animals were smiling, why they didn’t find their condition horrible, like people in the tornado in The Wizard of Oz.

Old Testament

…and the complex histories of the Old and New Testaments as historical documents;…

New Testament

…and the complex histories of the Old and New Testaments as historical documents;…

The Andromeda Strain

I was in medical school, I had gone to Florida for a couple of weeks with my wife, to dive and to revise a book I planned to call The Andromeda Strain, if it ever got finished.

Science Confronts the Paranormal

Because I knew very little of the work of CSICOP, I first read a selection of essays from The Skeptical Inquirer published in a volume called Science Confronts the Paranormal.

The Society of Mind

My friend Marvin Minsky, in a recent book, writes about mystical states in a highly critical way. He finds these states “sinister” and speaks of the “victims of these incidents.”

The Andromeda Strain

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

The Great Train Robbery

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

Congo

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

Rising Sun

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

Disclosure

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

The Lost World

Michael Crichton’s novels include The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and The Lost World.

The Andromeda Strain

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

The Terminal Man

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

The Great Train Robbery

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Eaters of the Dead

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Congo

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Sphere

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Jurassic Park

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Rising Sun

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

The Lost World

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Disclosure

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Airframe

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Timeline

Travels Books by Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain The Terminal Man The Great Train Robbery Eaters of the Dead Congo Sphere Travels Jurassic Park Rising Sun The Lost World Disclosure Airframe Timeline

Indirect References

African guidebooks

That wasn’t how it had seemed months before, when I had read the African guidebooks, planning my trip. The books merely said that the famous Mount Kilimanjaro was an extinct equatorial volcano, with a broad sloping cinder cone, which meant that, although it was the highest mountain in Africa, you simply walked to the top.

Referenced By

Direct References

State of Fear

Electronic LifeTravels

Pirate Latitudes

Electronic Life Travels

Places Referenced

New York, New York
"“Startling and informative.… I was swept away not only by [Crichton’s] richly informed mind but his daring curiosity.” —New York Times Book Review"
Chicago, Illinois
"“A fetching, candid reconnoiter of the psychological and spiritual contours of a fertile, challenging mindscape.… These forays are evocative analogues of Crichton’s sometimes turbulent inner evolution over the last twenty-five years.… Just the ticket for those who would escape, for once, to themselves—and perhaps know risk for the first time.” —Chicago Sun-Times"
Houston, Texas
"“Crichton can give his narratives such an amusing self-deprecating twist that it’s hard not to be enchanted.… Most significantly, Travels chronicles Crichton’s inward exploration.” —Houston Post"
Los Angeles, California
"“Curious, sensible, [and] irreverent. Crichton comes to see his travels—both in mind and through country—as ways of getting in better touch with himself.” —Los Angeles Times"
United States
"Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York."
United States
"Originally published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1988, and by Perennial, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, in 2002."
Malaysia, Southeast Asia
"Friends would ask what research had taken me to Malaysia or New Guinea or Pakistan, since it was obvious that nobody would go to these places merely for recreation."
Pakistan, South Asia
"Friends would ask what research had taken me to Malaysia or New Guinea or Pakistan, since it was obvious that nobody would go to these places merely for recreation."
Los Angeles, California
"Kathy Bowman of World Wide Travel in Los Angeles, and Joyce Small of Adventures Unlimited in San Francisco."
San Francisco, California
"Kathy Bowman of World Wide Travel in Los Angeles, and Joyce Small of Adventures Unlimited in San Francisco."
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
"I had gone to college planning to become a writer, but early on a scientific tendency appeared. In the English department at Harvard, my writing style was severely criticized and I was receiving grades of C or C+ on my papers."
Boston, Massachusetts
"But the following year I went to Boston, rented an apartment in Roxbury near the Harvard Medical School, bought my furniture, and registered for my classes."
Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts
"But the following year I went to Boston, rented an apartment in Roxbury near the Harvard Medical School, bought my furniture, and registered for my classes."
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
"But the following year I went to Boston, rented an apartment in Roxbury near the Harvard Medical School, bought my furniture, and registered for my classes."
Europe
"Then I got a fellowship for study in Europe, which postponed my start for a year."
Alabama, United States
"She told me she had been staying with her sister in Alabama. It was all right because her sister’s apartment was air-conditioned. She had been with her sister in Alabama for three months."
Rhode Island, United States
"He was an insurance adjuster from Rhode Island."
Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
"It is 5:00 a.m. I am going to be late for my first clinical rotation—neurology at the Boston City Hospital."
New York, New York
"Besides myself as the sole medical student, there was an intern named Bill Levine from New York, a first-year resident named Tom Perkins, and Dr. Rogers, the visiting chief resident."
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
"He was a Southerner from Duke who did everything by the book."
Bethlem Royal Hospital, London, England
"Distant screams of pain. It was like something from the eighteenth century. From Bedlam."
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
"Three medical students at a time were assigned a psychiatry rotation on the wards of the Massachusetts General Hospital."
Dachau, Bavaria, Germany
"Bob was assigned a thin, scholarly-looking man of fifty who had been in Dachau and who now imagined cardiac problems."
Maple Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts
"I lived in an apartment on Maple Avenue in Cambridge."
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
"“Is this girl in school?” “Yes. Junior at BU. Says she wants to be a lawyer.”"
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
"One block away, my wife’s college roommate lived with her husband; they were both graduate students at Harvard."
Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
"She was studying child psychology at Brandeis."
Puerto Rico, United States
"“In Puerto Rico,” she said. “You had an abortion?”"
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
"Five teaching hospitals surrounded the Harvard Medical School, but in the eyes of the students, the least interesting was then the Boston Lying In Hospital."
Boston Lying In Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
"…the least interesting was then the Boston Lying In Hospital. Over the years the other hospitals had decided not to do obstetrics, so all deliveries were now done at the BLI: a whole hospital full of babies being born."
Boston, Massachusetts
"“Yeah, well, it’s Boston,” the resident said."
Washington, D.C., United States
"“Travels is about getting unstranded, about going to the ends of the earth and the edges of experience in order to see oneself for the first time. His chronicle has the twin virtues of being entertaining and, in the best sense of the word, unsettling.” —Washington Post Book World"
New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
"Friends would ask what research had taken me to Malaysia or New Guinea or Pakistan, since it was obvious that nobody would go to these places merely for recreation."
Boston, Massachusetts
"Now she was back in Boston."
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
"Arguably the most important item on any medical curriculum, death was never even mentioned at the Harvard Medical School. There was no consideration given to what a dying patient went through, what such a patient might need or want."
Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy
"One day it was “Ah, Dottore, how are you today?” in a corny Italian accent. “What news from the Rialto?”"
Boston, Massachusetts
"I speculated she might be a rich old Boston lady fallen on hard times, and now embarrassed by her condition."
Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
"A major disaster befell the medical wards of the Beth Israel Hospital."
the Alps, Europe
"Some time earlier, I had read about the experiences of a Swiss physician who, in the 1930s, had taken a medical post in the Alps because it allowed him to ski, which was his great passion."
Boston, Massachusetts
"She has all her family here in Boston, and she doesn’t want to go with me."
Nazi Germany, Germany
"Dr. X was an elderly Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany."
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
"At this time it was the policy of the Harvard Medical School that you had to talk to a shrink before you quit."
Cambridge University, Cambridge, England
"I had taught a lecture course at Cambridge University, so I’d had the experience of preparing and delivering lectures."
Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona
"What happened was that, on a summer trip, my family visited Sunset Crater National Monument, in Arizona. I found this place fascinating, but there was nobody else around that day, and I suspected most tourists bypassed it, not realizing how interesting it really was."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"So I went to Hollywood, and I rode around in limousines and had dinner with famous people, and then I came back and went to the hospital again."
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
"Louis Kahn was not only a famous architect, he was arguably the most influential medical architect in the world, as a result of the building he had done at the University of Pennsylvania some years before."
Disneyland, Anaheim, California
"I didn’t yet understand that people used celebrities as figures of fantasy; they didn’t want to know who you really were, any more than kids at Disneyland want Mickey Mouse to pull off his rubber head and reveal that he’s just a local teenager."
Los Angeles, California
"In 1971 I was living in Los Angeles and my wife was in La Jolla."
La Jolla, San Diego, California
"In 1971 I was living in Los Angeles and my wife was in La Jolla."
West Hollywood, California
"I moved into an apartment building in West Hollywood that was well known as a place where people went when they got divorced, because you could rent a furnished apartment for only six months."
Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, California
"The view overlooked the Sunset Strip. It was Hollywood, all right, and it was exciting!"
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"It was Hollywood, all right, and it was exciting!"
New York, New York
"There was an accountant with a portable radio and a big cigar who read the New York papers (he never spoke);"
Kennedy Airport, New York City, New York
"The man had been found in the trunk of a Cadillac at Kennedy Airport with a bullet in his head."
Ayutthaya, Thailand
"Finally we got to Ayutthaya. Davis said he was going to check his stores, see how they were doing."
Bangkok, Thailand
"One day in Bangkok, in a taxi going back to Davis’s house, I saw a Thai woman and a European woman in their separate cars, trying to pass each other in the narrow road."
Western Europe
"I had visited only a small part of the world—North America and Western Europe."
Africa
"I had never been to Africa."
Asia
"I had never really been to Asia."
South or Central America
"I had never been to South or Central America."
Hotel Bonaire, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands
"Behind us, at the Hotel Bonaire, people were heading for the dining room to eat."
Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands
"Bonaire is a Dutch island fifty miles off the coast of Venezuela. The island is actually a sunken mountain peak with sheer sides; twenty yards from the sandy beach, the crystal-clear water was a hundred feet deep."
Venezuela, South America
"Bonaire is a Dutch island fifty miles off the coast of Venezuela."
England, United Kingdom
"In England, there were rumors of legal acceptance of a condition called PMS, premenstrual syndrome."
Craig Farm, Kenya
"In 1975, Loren and I were staying at the Craig Farm, a sixty-square-mile preserve in northern Kenya."
Mount Kenya, Kenya
"We spent the day hiking on open plains, among zebras and giraffes and antelopes, with the snowy peak of Mount Kenya rising in the background."
Lamu Downs Camp, Kenya
"It was in this frame of mind that I returned to Lamu Downs Camp in the evening, to spend my first night under the African stars."
Nassau County Boy Scout Camp, Long Island, New York
"I had never camped before, except one night at the age of eleven in the Nassau County Boy Scout Camp on Long Island."
Virgin Islands, Caribbean
"I remember in 1968 I was getting ready to dive off a boat in the Virgin Islands, and some man was putting on all this equipment."
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
"It was late afternoon in my camp in Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania; I was approaching the end of a two‐week safari in Africa."
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Next I was scheduled to climb Kilimanjaro. I hadn’t really thought much about Kilimanjaro until now."
Marangu Hotel, Marangu, Tanzania
"The Marangu Hotel stood at the foot of the mountain. It was run by a charming elderly German woman."
Hindu Kush, Afghanistan
"To the west, the mountains are called the Karakoram, and, still farther west, the Hindu Kush."
Thailand, Southeast Asia
"Prescription drugs were legally sold over the counter in Thailand at that time, and all the international drug companies treated Thailand as a major market."
North America, Earth
"I had visited only a small part of the world—North America and Western Europe."
Australia, Oceania
"I had never been to Australia."
Bora Bora, Los Angeles, California, United States
"Once, on Bora-Bora, I was diving with my brother."
Nairobi, Kenya
"‘I’ll develop them in Nairobi for you,’ he said, and we later agreed that once back in Nairobi, if Loren confirmed I had climbed Kilimanjaro, the bet would be honored."
Canada
"When I was a kid, I’d been on glaciers in Canada."
Mandara huts, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Then I see, on a ridge above the high grass, the brown geometric A-frames of the Mandara huts. They are very close."
Horombo huts, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"When we reach them, I am extremely tired, and my feet are very painful. The location of the huts is spectacular, with A-frames set on a ledge of black lava at 12,300 feet, looking down on a bank of clouds."
Kibo Hut, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Ahead of me, at the base of Kibo, I see a sparkling dot—the tin roof of tiny Kibo Hut, where we will spend the night before making the ascent in darkness up the cinder cone the following day."
Mawenzi, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"A few miles to the east, an older volcanic peak, Mawenzi, presents a different appearance—jagged, harsh vertical lines and streaks of snow over crumbling, rocky pinnacles. Mawenzi is about 16,900 feet high."
Kibo, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Kibo is a broad cinder cone with snow on its southern flanks."
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Who cares about this climbing business anyway? A million people have already climbed Kilimanjaro, there’s nothing special to it."
Gillman’s Point, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Around 9:00 a.m., we arrive at Gillman’s Point, marked by a small concrete plaque at 18,700 feet."
Uhuru Point, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Although the actual summit, Uhuru Point, is at 19,340 feet, most hikers stop at Gillman’s Point and consider honor satisfied."
Horombo Hut, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Finally we reach Horombo Hut, where we spend the night."
Nairobi, Kenya
"The next day we flew to Nairobi."
California, United States
"In the end, what seems to work is to think of a nice warm swimming pool in California. Or the nice beer and curry dinner I will have when I get back to civilization."
Yucatán, Mexico
"Dawn appears as a yellow band over the Yucatán jungle horizon"
Pyramid of the Magician, Uxmal
"Dawn appears as a yellow band over the Yucatán jungle horizon, as I climb the steep Pyramid of the Magician and look out over the extensive Mayan ruins of Uxmal."
Uxmal, Yucatán, Mexico
"At dawn, Uxmal is deserted."
Nunnery, Uxmal
"Directly before me stands the white courtyard structure known as the Nunnery."
House of the Governor, Uxmal
"To the west, the great tiered House of the Governor, which has been called the single most magnificent building ever erected in the Americas."
House of the Turtles, Uxmal
"Near it, the House of the Turtles and the House of the Pigeons."
House of the Pigeons, Uxmal
"Near it, the House of the Turtles and the House of the Pigeons."
Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico
"Uxmal is a city fifty miles from the ocean and a hundred miles from Chichén Itzá."
Knossos, Crete, Greece
"At Knossos, on Crete, Arthur Evans found a ruin he called the Palace of King Minos."
Crete, Greece
"At Knossos, on Crete, Arthur Evans found a ruin he called the Palace of King Minos."
Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands
"It was two days after Christmas, and I was spending the holidays on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands."
British Virgin Islands, Caribbean
"as I climbed back into the boat after a ninety‐foot‐deep dive on a paddle‐wheel wreck called the Rhone in the British Virgin Islands,"
Connecticut, United States
"Most of my family was at my parents’ home in Connecticut."
California, United States
"My first thought was that my house had burned down. That’s what usually happened in California."
England, United Kingdom
"We are shooting in England and Ireland."
America, United States
"I am alone in Dublin; Loren is back in America finishing law school."
Mullingar, Ireland
"We are in a provincial train station outside Mullingar, Ireland, about to start a week of filming on top of a speeding train."
Los Angeles, California
"But I manage to telex MGM in Los Angeles and order one."
London, England
"In London, I had been seeing a woman who lived near my hotel."
Istanbul, Turkey
"I had once spent a memorable hour watching a pair of Turkish street vendors in the Istanbul bazaar accost passing customers in a dozen different languages."
Yorkshire, England
"In 1920 two Yorkshire children, Elsie and Frances Wright, claimed they had photographed fairies in a country garden."
California, United States
"One psychic had told me the names of my friends in California."
Scotland, United Kingdom
"The creator of Sherlock Holmes was a Scottish physician, a lapsed Catholic, a vigorous athlete, and a Victorian gentleman."
Masherbrum Peak, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan
"A trek into Baltistan followed the mountaineer’s route toward Masherbrum Peak, at 25,660 feet a major climbing peak in a remote area of Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains."
Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan
"To the west, the mountains are called the Karakoram, and, in a remote area of Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains, they tower with a stark, windswept majesty."
Boston, Massachusetts
"I had an old parka from my Boston days."
Boulder, Colorado
"When I was a kid, I had visited some relatives in Boulder, Colorado."
Kibo Hut, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"It has taken us seven hours to make the ascent from Kibo Hut; we’re back down in an hour."
Mawenzi, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
"Dawn is a beautiful prismatic band that throws the jagged peak of Mawenzi into relief."
Ireland, Europe
"We are shooting in England and Ireland."
Dublin, Great Britain and Ireland
"I am alone in Dublin; Loren is back in America finishing law school."
Himalaya, Asia
"On the map, they are a part of that great crumpled range of mountains that runs from Afghanistan to Burma—a range I always called the Himalaya."
Everest, Nepal
"The Himalaya boasts Everest, the single highest mountain, but the Karakoram is the highest mountain range."
K-2, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan
"The Karakoram is the highest mountain range, claiming the second highest peak, K-2, as well as three other peaks above twenty-six thousand feet."
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
"I could see from the PIA airplane, flying from the capital city of Rawalpindi north to Skardu."
Skardu, Baltistan, Pakistan
"Flying from Rawalpindi north, when we landed at the airfield in Skardu, we stepped out into a desert setting."
Khapulu, Baltistan, Pakistan
"We drove all the next day in jeeps, following the Indus River on a road cut into the cliffs, and camped for the night at Khapulu, a large village of four hundred houses."
Indus River, Pakistan
"We drove all the next day in jeeps, following the Indus River on a road cut into the cliffs."
Mishoke, Baltistan, Pakistan
"Our destination for the first night is Mishoke, a small village we believe lies between the villages of Kande and Micholu."
Kande, Baltistan, Pakistan
"I suspected this was Kande, where we would camp for the night."
Micholu, Baltistan, Pakistan
"Mishoke was believed to lie between the villages of Kande and Micholu."
Baltistan, Pakistan
"We are now in the region called Baltistan."
Shyok River, Baltistan, Pakistan
"The next morning we cross the Shyok River on a zak—a raft of inflated goat intestines tied under a platform of wooden poles."
East Africa, Africa
"Three years earlier, driving in East Africa, Loren and I came upon a Samburu manyatta that was in the process of moving."
Northern Kenya, Kenya
"There was a drought in northern Kenya that was forcing them to move in search of grass for their cattle."
Lake Baringo, Kenya
"A few days later we were driving in Masai territory, on the way to Lake Baringo."
Masai Territory, Kenya
"A few days later we were driving in Masai territory, on the way to Lake Baringo."
Indian border, Pakistan
"From our high vantage point along the road, Major Shan remarked, 'We are close to the Indian border."
Islamabad, Pakistan
"In Islamabad, our group waited two days for a plane to Gilgit, the staging area for trips to Hunza."
Gilgit, Pakistan
"In Islamabad, our group waited two days for a plane to Gilgit, the staging area for trips to Hunza."
Karakorum Highway, Pakistan
"but there was now another way to get from Islamabad, north to Gilgit—the Karakorum Highway."
Indus River Gorge, Pakistan
"For most of its length it followed the gorge of the Indus River, one of the great canyons of the world."
Abbottabad, Pakistan
"We stopped for lunch in Abbottabad, a town with many old British colonial buildings, which had once been the farthest outpost of the British Empire in this part of the world."
Nanga Parbat, Pakistan
"For the next several hours, we twisted and turned along the river, seeing spectacular views of the plunging river, and the twenty-five-thousand‐foot peak of Nanga Parbat on the east."
Chilas, Pakistan
"‘There is a military base about fifteen kilometers back, at Chilas,’ he said."
Baltit, Hunza, Pakistan
"Two days later I was approaching Baltit, the capital city of Hunza."
Nagir, Pakistan
"From Hunza we went to the Hopar Valley in the adjacent kingdom of Nagir."
Hopar Valley, Nagir, Pakistan
"From Hunza we went to the Hopar Valley in the adjacent kingdom of Nagir."
Bualtar Glacier, Nagir, Pakistan
"At Nagir, we camped in a beautiful valley alongside the Bualtar Glacier."
Hispar Glacier, Nagir, Pakistan
"There are many glaciers, including the Hispar—forty miles long, the second-largest in the world outside the polar caps."
Swat, Pakistan
"Hunza was once an autonomous mountain state, one of a string of feudal nations across the Himalaya that included Swat, Ladakh, Nagir, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan."
Ladakh, India
"Hunza was once an autonomous mountain state, one of a string of feudal nations across the Himalaya that included Swat, Ladakh, Nagir, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan."
Sikkim, India
"Hunza was once an autonomous mountain state, one of a string of feudal nations across the Himalaya that included Swat, Ladakh, Nagir, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan."
Bhutan
"Hunza was once an autonomous mountain state, one of a string of feudal nations across the Himalaya that included Swat, Ladakh, Nagir, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan."
Tahiti, French Polynesia
"I was in Tahiti for Christmas with my family—my brother and sister, and assorted husbands, wives, girlfriends, friends."
Rangiroa, Tuamotus
"We were visiting several islands, and we had begun with the most remote. Rangiroa was more than an hour from Papeete, one of the Tuamotu chain of atolls."
Papeete, French Polynesia
"Rangiroa was more than an hour from Papeete, one of the Tuamotu chain of atolls."
Tuamotus, French Polynesia
"The Tuamotus were old islands; their volcanic peaks had been eroded until they finally disappeared, and nothing remained but the coral reef that had originally surrounded the island, but now merely enclosed a lagoon."
America, United States
"In America, every year, sixty thousand people die of auto accidents, a possibility no one fears."
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States
"For many urban dwellers it may be that the concept of 'wild animals' is itself extinct; the only animals they encounter are pets or animals in zoos, so why not send your four-year-old daughter over to pose next to the buffalo in Yellowstone? It’ll make a cute picture."
Nepal, South Asia
"Hunza was once an autonomous mountain state, one of a string of feudal nations across the Himalaya that included Swat, Ladakh, Nagir, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan."
Parc des Volcans, Rwanda and Zaire
"The story was this: The Parc des Volcans, on the border of Rwanda and Zaire, represented a large land area for that tiny country."
Ruhengeri, Rwanda
"Turning away from the line of volcanoes, he circled Ruhengeri, a shantytown built along a single muddy street. It looked incredibly romantic."
Nairobi, Kenya
"Dr. Fawcett had left Harvard to work at the International Laboratory for Animal Diseases in Nairobi; he had been to see the gorillas that day with a group of scientists;"
Karisimbi, Rwanda
"Ahead, emerging from the mist of Rwanda, were three shadowy mountain cones. “On the left, Karisimbi; in the middle, Visoke; on the right, Sabinyo,” the pilot said."
Visoke, Rwanda
"Ahead, emerging from the mist of Rwanda, were three shadowy mountain cones. “On the left, Karisimbi; in the middle, Visoke; on the right, Sabinyo,” the pilot said."
Sabinyo, Rwanda
"Ahead, emerging from the mist of Rwanda, were three shadowy mountain cones. “On the left, Karisimbi; in the middle, Visoke; on the right, Sabinyo,” the pilot said."
Singapore Airport, Singapore
"walking past the McDonald’s stand in the Singapore airport, going to the Hertz counter to pick up my rented Datsun for the drive north to a resort hotel in Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaysia."
Singapore, Singapore
"driving through Singapore itself, a city that has systematically destroyed every vestige of its own exoticism in a period of ten years. When I first went there, in 1973, Singapore was magical—part modern business center, part sleepy British colony, and everywhere beautiful, hot, green."
Kuantan, Malaysia
"going to the Hertz counter to pick up my rented Datsun for the drive north to a resort hotel in Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaysia."
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
"I went into Kuantan town and found the local tourist office. It was closed. They said the woman who ran it was in Kuala Lumpur and would be back in a week."
Hyatt Kuantan, Kuantan, Malaysia
"It seemed an unlikely place for a resort hotel, and I didn’t see any signs for the Hyatt Kuantan."
Los Angeles, California
"Brugh Joy was an eminent Los Angeles physician who had, through intensive meditation, moved progressively away from medicine into areas of personal growth, psychic healing, and so on."
Lucerne Valley, California
"In the fall of 1982 I attended Brugh Joy’s conference in the Lucerne Valley desert, in California."
Institute of Mentalphysics, Lucerne Valley, California
"The conference was held at the Institute of Mentalphysics, in Lucerne Valley."
Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland
"Brugh Joy, a somber medical man, trained at Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic."
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
"Brugh Joy, a somber medical man, trained at Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic."
Tibet, China
"The science of mentalphysics (“The Faultless Philosophy of Life”) was founded by Edwin J. Dingle, who had been to Tibet in the 1920s."
Alaska, United States
"Eileen, a woman from Alaska who had done a lot of energy work, said, “Sure, it’s important.”"
India, South Asia
"After all, when you read a book by Ram Dass, you could see he was always doing something new: living in a Zen monastery, doing breathing exercises, fasting, staying with his guru in India."
Malibu, California
"Back home, I was shocked to see how beautiful my house was. I lived on the beach at Malibu, but I had long ago stopped looking at the view, and complained about the traffic instead."
Mission Bay Road, San Diego
"Linda lived in a nondescript apartment on Mission Bay Road, in a beach area of San Diego."
San Diego, California
"Kate’s friend Linda lived in San Diego, two hours by car."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"Here I am in the locker room with my friend David, who has been a Hollywood bachelor for two decades, who has gone out with so many models and actresses that he’s good friends with the people who run the model agencies—here’s David, suave man of the world, telling me that men are the romantics, and not women."
Borneo, Southeast Asia
"I went to Borneo to see the Dyaks, the indigenous headhunters of that island."
Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
"After hours of flying over trackless jungle, in progressively smaller planes, I finally landed at a small inland town called Sibu, on the banks of a broad, muddy jungle river."
Paradise Hotel, Sibu
"I checked into the Paradise Hotel, which proudly advertised hot and cold running water."
Singapore, Singapore
"I was annoyed to be standing in the kind of crowd I could see any day in Singapore."
Nepal, South Asia
"A few years earlier, during a trek in Nepal, my Sherpa guide took me to the top of a hill at a place called Ghorapani, pointed to the view and said, “The Kali-Gandaki Gorge.”"
Ghorapani, Nepal
"A few years earlier, during a trek in Nepal, my Sherpa guide took me to the top of a hill at a place called Ghorapani, pointed to the view and said, “The Kali-Gandaki Gorge.”"
Kali-Gandaki Gorge, Nepal
"“The Kali-Gandaki Gorge,” he said a third time."
Dhaulagiri, Nepal
"The Kali-Gandaki river cuts between the peaks of Dhaulagiri to the west and Annapurna 1 to the east—respectively the sixth and tenth highest mountains in the world."
Annapurna 1, Nepal
"The Kali-Gandaki river cuts between the peaks of Dhaulagiri to the west and Annapurna 1 to the east—respectively the sixth and tenth highest mountains in the world."
Grand Canyon, Arizona
"It is four times as deep as the Grand Canyon, and far wider: between the two peaks, you could roughly fit twenty Grand Canyons."
Torrance, California
"She was staying in a little house in Torrance, California. She seemed edgy, and hovered near her husband, a big, hulking fellow."
Utah, United States
"Dr. Kilarney was a nineteenth‐century Irish physician channeled by a woman from Utah."
Virunga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"“You do not believe me,” she said, “but I have seen them in Virunga. Gorillas are not animals. They are men.”"
Los Angeles, California
"And then, in 1984, I heard that a trance medium named Gary was doing readings for people in Los Angeles."
Rome, Italy
"I was a slave in Tunisia. I was sent to Rome, and when I grew so large I was sold as a gladiator."
Tunisia, North Africa
"I was a slave in Tunisia. I was sent to Rome, and when I grew so large I was sold as a gladiator."
Boston, Massachusetts
"Gary then asked me some questions about a woman he knew in Boston."
California, United States
"It was a typical suburban California house."
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
"…a woman computer programmer from Georgetown,…"
Los Angeles, California
"…an electronics engineer from Los Angeles,…"
Oklahoma, United States
"…a housewife from Oklahoma,…"
Seattle, Washington
"…another from Seattle."
San Francisco, California
"The oldest person was a seventy‐three‐year‐old retired actress from San Francisco."
Kenya, Africa
"Remember the elephant in Kenya? Remember how foolish you felt?"
Florida, United States
"I remembered the first time I had felt that: it was in the summer of 1968, driving home from Florida to Massachusetts."
Massachusetts, United States
"I remembered the first time I had felt that: it was in the summer of 1968, driving home from Florida to Massachusetts."
Mount Ivy, New York, United States
"My heart is pounding with fear as I walk beside him. Mount Ivy, New York, 1946."
Roslyn, New York, United States
"Everybody laughs at me. The older boys sometimes chase me home from school and knock me down and sit on me and laugh at me. Roslyn, New York, 1955."
Los Angeles, California
"In 1972, I bought a house in the hills of Los Angeles. I moved into my house and was ecstatically happy for several months. One day I mentioned to a friend that I’d bought a house in the hills."
Africa
"I went to Africa. You can go to Africa. You may have trouble arranging the time or the money, but everybody has trouble arranging something."
English Channel, United Kingdom
"MacCready went on to make the “Gossamer Albatross,” the first human-powered airplane to cross the English Channel; he also made a solar-powered airplane."
Pasadena, California
"Paul told me that he was an active member of the Pasadena chapter of CSICOP."
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
"Sometime after he began drawing, he visited the Sistine Chapel. He had left behind his guidebook, so he just went around looking at the paintings. He found some of the paintings to be very good, and others to be, in his word, “junk.”"
Pasadena, California
"Thank you very much. Well, that was my speech for the skeptics at Pasadena. But I was never invited to speak there, so I never gave it."
Washington, D.C., United States
"They were mostly in their thirties and forties, practical people: a businessman from Washington,"
Colosseum, Rome, Italy
"With startling suddenness, I saw the Colosseum in Rome."
Southern California, United States
"I was given a street address in southern California, and told to bring a half-dozen forks and spoons I didn’t care about, since they would be bent during the evening."
High Desert, California, United States
"I attended a two‐week seminar with eight other people in the high desert of California, in the spring of 1986. Carolyn’s unassuming frame house was located at the foot of desert mountains a mile high."
Middle East, West Asia
"…the anthropology of nomadic herding tribes in the Middle East;…"
New York, New York
"Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York."
New York, New York
"Originally published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1988, and by Perennial, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, in 2002."
New York, New York
"I had grown up in a suburb of New York City, where my father was a journalist."
New York, New York
"Nothing like that was going on now. Not even in New York City!"
Los Angeles, California
"Sitting on the floor of my house in Los Angeles with guidebooks opened all around me, I had said to Loren, 'Hey, look at this, we can climb Kilimanjaro."
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
"I got a promotion. The company wants me to move to Cincinnati. But my wife doesn’t want to go."
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
"I recognized her as a girl from Atlanta who had come to Los Angeles to sell cosmetics but who hoped to get discovered for the movies while she was here."
Ireland, Europe
"I had spent many months in Ireland, shooting a movie, so I’d heard a lot of Irish accents."
London, England
"Claridge’s Hotel in London is famous for catering to the idiosyncrasies of its guests. If you like mineral water at your bedside every night, the staff of Claridge’s will notice this, and each night you’ll find the bottle of mineral water by your bed. If you like it half empty, you will find it half empty."
Malta, Malta
"she informed me that I was from Malta, that I was an only child, and that I was in a business that had to do with food or restaurants and I had better watch out."
Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
"Five years after hearing my friend Peter Kann talk about his visit to the fabled place, I, too, was going to Hunza. The tiny mountain state, known as the original Shangri-La and traditionally closed to foreigners..."
Kali-Gandaki Gorge, Nepal
"The Kali-Gandaki river cuts between the peaks of Dhaulagiri to the west and Annapurna 1 to the east—respectively the sixth and tenth highest mountains in the world."