A fortune-teller told me : earthbound travels in the Far East - Tiziano Terzani

What happens when a hard hitting journalist (who is often in the line of fire) is told by a fortune teller to not fly for the next one year or he'll die ? Well, this is what was foretold to the author of this particularly interesting travelogue. Any normal and cynical person would have dismissed this as pure balderdash. However, the author in the true Asian sense decided to tackle this prophecy by submitting to it and follow it religiously (pun intended). What follows is an account of one years travel experiences in south east Asia using all possible forms of land transportation and no air travel whatsoever (much to the consternation and surprise of some of the involved people).

Again, this is not your regular travelogue. Similar to the writings of William Dalrymple, the travel writing is often interspersed with the current socio- economic conditions and an exploration into the mindsets of the locals. However, the USP of this book is that since the basis is entirely based on a fortune tellers prediction, the author decides to have his fortune examined by the most famous fortune tellers of every place he visits. The experiences with the different fortune tellers and how the nature and the pattern of the predictions change according to the place and the ethnicity is extensively described and certainly makes an interesting read. I would recommend this one to all readers who like travel writing and are looking beyond guidebooks. Although this one is not so well executed as the works of William Dalrymple , the premise is quite interesting and certainly unique.