Publisher's Synopsis
"Other Side Of The World was first published as "Looking For Gabriel" by Jerry Stivers, author of "20 Years In The Algarve". Through vignettes and true stories he takes you through 40 years of his working and traveling days. To the mid-Pacific in 1962 to witness the last above-ground US/UK nuclear weapons tests. To West Africa during the Biafra civil war. To East Africa for a pure vacation story. To South Asia to visit ancient places - the Sind Desert, the Indus River, Bamian Valley, the Hindu Kush - and feel their rhythms. In Afghanistan, there are faces of people that came there as soldiers when it was the gateway between Persia and China. Tartars and Macedonians who came with Gengis Khan or Alexander the Great. Ancient systems are still in place: barter instead of money, tribal rule, walled feudal communities, primitive laws, primitive enforcement. Going into the Bamian Valley, the sandstone cliff faces are pocked with caves, their ceilings painted with pictures of Buddha. Climb onto the shoulder of a giant sandstone Buddha that Alexander built, look down at the wide valley and narrow river, listen to the quiet, feel the secrecy. In the river systems of Bengal, teakwood boats the size of houses move with grace and elegance on a single square sail. In the vast Arabian Desert, water remains the ruling king. There are black-tie beach parties, a colonial yacht club on the Arabian Sea, a family beach hotel in West Africa, sand storms and hurricanes. Elephants and the armored Asian rhino in Nepal. Train rides and car rides and forest fires in Portugal.
