At an op-shop they have a bookshelf full of books. Usually they're either romances, murder detective novels or cooking books, which are mildly amusing to read the blurbs (remember, passionate romance!), but then I put them back on the shelf. But I found a plain looking book with a hard yellow cover with the title 'Seven Years in Tibet'. Since there is no blurb anywhere to be found on the cover, and even inside the book, I read the preface. Then I read the introduction. And then I get sucked in reading the whole book.
'Seven Years in Tibet' doesn't sound like an interesting story from the title, but it is. It is maybe a true story, maybe not since I haven't seen that been stated anywhere around the book. It is an account of a guy who loved to go mountaineering since he was young. While staying in India about to go on another trip to the mountains, WWII happened and he got chucked into a POW camp. But he decided to make a daring escape all the way to Tibet, because Tibet of all things has mountains, and unlike all the European countries, isn't at war (Tibet isn't in Europe but you get the gist). With the first attempt he gets caught and deported back to India. But that doesn't deter him, as he makes another escape and managed to roam around Tibet for seven years (as the title suggests). There are pages and pages of him describing his adventures with his partner, with tattered clothes, worn out shoes and barely any supplies walking miles from town to town in the most inhumane climate of a snowy -30 Celsius. He also talks about the amount of bargaining required in order for the officers to let them remain in Tibet, and the beautiful pristine scenery. Eventually, he manages to get to the city where the Dali Lama lives and gets to meet him. I almost didn't want to believe his account, and I'm not up to Googling the validity of his claims, but whatever. It was a good book, letting me get lost in a different world than my own banal life, possibly giving me the wanderlust all my other friends have. Anyway, pity the book isn't on sale yet.
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