In the summer of 1981, Vikram Seth, an Indian postgraduate student at Nanjing University, decided on a politically difficult and geographically hazardous journey: he would hitchhike home to Delhi by way of Tibet.
Seth is equal to the challenge, and moreover proves to be an observant and resourceful traveler. He endures bureaucratic delay, climatic extremes and the protracted discomforts of long-distance lorries with equal aplomb. In the event, he makes his way from the arid wastes of China's fa...