Publisher's Synopsis
In May 1935, 22-year-old Max Reisch and 19-year-old Helmuth Hahmann set out in a small motor car to find a land route from India to China. Their journey across Asia took them from Haifa to Tokyo. In this lively account, the author regales us with one story after another, struck with wonder or struggling against disaster in countries which deeply concern us today: Iraq with its oilfields, ancient Iran in the throes of modernisation, proud Afghanistan, and British India with its stunning variety of civilisation. Before the building of the Burma Road, driving from India to southern China meant sinking over the axles in mud on forest tracks and crossing torrents on rickety ferryboats. With war already on the horizon, Reisch and Hahmann completed their round-the-world trip via Japan and the United States, arriving back in Vienna in December 1936.
