Forbidden Journey: From Peking to Kashmir
As a classic of travel literature this is good. In 1935 Ella Maillart traveled predominantly by donkey, horse, camel and her own two feet from Peking, at that time under Japanese control, to Srinagar, Kashmir. This took seven months. She traveled with Peter Fleming - yes, the very brother of Ian Fleming who of course wrote the James Bond books. Peter and Ella were very different in character, beyond the fact that she was Swiss and he British. Each has written their own book. News From Tartary is Peter's. It was in fact Ella who agree to let Peter accompany her on her trip; she points this out very clearly in the book! She travels on parts of the Silk Road. She encounters Japanese, Chinese, Turkic people, Tibetans and Mongols. She travels across the Tibetan plateau, through Xinjiang (a part of Turkestan) and over the Himalayas. Turkestan covers present-day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Turkestan was not politically stable, there being conflicting Japanese, Chinese, Russian and British interests. What she did was an immense accomplishment!
From just this you understand the woman’s stamina, resourcefulness and determination.
Nevertheless I would not classify Ella as a talented writer. She does relate the facts clearly and adds historical information about the area and the political instability. There are notes, an index and a map. A large portion of the content is concerned with the difficulties of the travel arrangements rather than a depiction of the lands she traveled through. This wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. It still remains an interesting piece of travel literature.
