Sunday, July 15, 2018

Travels along the 'Silk Road': Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris

After 'breaking up with Mars', because long distance was not her 'thing', Kate Harris embarks on a long cycling journey longside the mythical 'Silk Road'. It is not her first time in the area, and her previous experiences included entering into the Tibet without any of the special permits required by the Chinese government. This time though, together with her school friend Mel she cycles from Istanbul to the Himalayas. 
A brave journey during which besides discovering the human stories behind the encounters on the road, there are constant meditations about borders. Most precisely about the 'triumph of borders': 'The way they make us accept as real and substantial what we can't actually see'. Borders are political symbols and political choices charged often with mythical, conflict-fuelled meanings, especially in the part of the world where Kate was cycling. 
Indeed, she wanted to travel to Mars but somehow during her PhD program she found Earth more reachable, although humans keep drawing borders, fighting and dying for them, oppressing other humans and killing them too. Can a scientifical approach to borders, which also includes an approach to sustainable development save us from centuries-old dreams and obsessions? Most probably not, but people with fresh minds and a direct experience of borders can start a change. 
Personally, I am not sure what I loved the most about this book: the writing, the intelligent references ranging from science to history, the thrive for adventure on the road less traveled, the geopolitical and political references,  the journey in itself and the places she visited. Most probably all of them, as I've read the book in one full afternoon and wished there is another volume by her waiting for me. It is a book inspiring in both ideas and wanderlust, balanced and insightful.

Rating: 5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review 

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