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Turkestan Solo: A Journey Through Central Asia
Ella Maillart travels to Russian Turkestan which the Soviet revolutionaries are attempting to westernize. On horseback, she crosses Kirghizstan as far as the T'ien Shan range (the Celestial Mountains ). With makeshift skis, she climbs a mountain of 5000 metres on the Chinese border. She explores Tashkent, Samarkand and Bokhara and travels down the Amu Daria. On a camel and in glacial winds she crosses, solo, the Desert of Red Sands to the east of the Aral Sea, avoiding dangerous checkpoints.
372 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
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519 people want to read
About the author
Ella Maillart
25 books43 followersElla 'Kini' Maillart (February 20, 1903 – March 27, 1997) was a French-speaking Swiss adventurer and travel writer, as well as a sportswoman. She had been captain of the Swiss Women's ice hockey team and was an international skier. She also competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics as sailor in the Olympic monotype competition.
From the 1930s onward she spent years exploring oriental republics of the USSR, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies. Her early books were written in French but later she began to write in English. Turkestan Solo describes a journey in 1932 in Soviet Turkestan. In 1934, the French daily Le Petit Parisien sent her to Manchuria to report on the situation under the Japanese occupation. It was there that she met Peter Fleming, a well-known writer and correspondent of The Times, with whom she would team up to cross China from Peking to Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes. The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback. Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in Sinkiang (then also known as Chinese Turkestan) where a civil war had been going on. Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book Forbidden Journey, while Peter Fleming's parallel account is found in his News from Tartary. In 1937 Ella Maillart returned to Asia for Le Petit Parisien to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, while in 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach. The Cruel Way is the title of Ella Maillart's book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the second World War.
She spent the war years in the South of India, learning from different teachers about Advaita Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy. On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps. She continued to ski until late in life and last returned to Tibet in 1986.
Ella Maillart's manuscripts and documents are kept at the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of the City of Geneva), her photographic work is deposited at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, and her documentary films (on Afghanistan, Nepal and South India) are part of the collection of La Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland.
From the 1930s onward she spent years exploring oriental republics of the USSR, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies. Her early books were written in French but later she began to write in English. Turkestan Solo describes a journey in 1932 in Soviet Turkestan. In 1934, the French daily Le Petit Parisien sent her to Manchuria to report on the situation under the Japanese occupation. It was there that she met Peter Fleming, a well-known writer and correspondent of The Times, with whom she would team up to cross China from Peking to Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes. The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback. Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in Sinkiang (then also known as Chinese Turkestan) where a civil war had been going on. Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book Forbidden Journey, while Peter Fleming's parallel account is found in his News from Tartary. In 1937 Ella Maillart returned to Asia for Le Petit Parisien to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, while in 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach. The Cruel Way is the title of Ella Maillart's book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the second World War.
She spent the war years in the South of India, learning from different teachers about Advaita Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy. On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps. She continued to ski until late in life and last returned to Tibet in 1986.
Ella Maillart's manuscripts and documents are kept at the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of the City of Geneva), her photographic work is deposited at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, and her documentary films (on Afghanistan, Nepal and South India) are part of the collection of La Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 13, 2023
Despite the title, the first half of this book details the journey Ella Maillart took with four Russian companions from Moscow to Kirghiza, (through Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan) where her companions are to climb mountains. Taking place in 1932, Maillart took every opportunity to accompany them, pleading and cajoling to get permits, calling in favours to get equipment, and using 'foreign journalist' as her reasoning. The inevitable tangle with Russian bureaucracy is eventually conquered, at least enough for her to join the mountaineers, albeit not to climb.
Her companions are an able group, Volodya, Auguste, Mila and Capa, although each comes down with fever at some point which adds a few days delay to the journey. Maillart if not exempt from illness herself, but they avoid any major issues. Accompanied by guides and at times translators, they travel in trying conditions through rough and complicated terrains, staying with local people in their small yurt communities (called Aul's). The good will to feed and house guests is part of the Kirghiz culture, much the same as most of Central Asia.
Throughout the journey Maillart provides historical and political background - never very in depth, and perhaps not enough to understand the situation fully, but enough for basic context. She shares the trials and tribulations of the journey, the interactions with her companions (including the sometimes awkward Capa) but is reasonably spare with her words - she is apt to cut a conversation, or a story short and move on to another event. There is not a lot of unnecessary text in this book, but she does manage to describe the settings very well, and shares the interactions with the local people as a priority.
Upon reaching Alma Ata (Almaty) in Kazakhstan, her companions return to Moscow, leaving her to pursue her solo travel. She has ruled out Chinese Turkestan as an option, rebuffed at every enquiry about border crossing to China, so sets out on the train for Tashkent. Maillart needs no time to find her feet, she is well accustomed to making her own way, and relished her freedom. She quickly makes acquaintances and continues her habit of interviewing exiles from Moscow. She makes a good fist of the history, not just here but in the remainder of her travels, but it is a complex history with lots of players.
A flight to Samarkand breaks the monotony of her train journeys, often in the most simple class - hard deck with the other people who don't have the (communist) political connections to secure tickets. In Samarkand she visits the many wonders, describing them well, before moving on to Bokhara and after some weeks there by vastly overloaded paddle boat up the Amul Darya (Oxus River) to Turt Kol (Turtkul) and thus Khiva. From there downriver to Khodjeili (Khodzheyli) where she sets off overland again, on horse cart heading towards the setting off point across the Kyzylkum Desert to Kazalinsk (Kazaly) in Kazakhstan. By camel caravan this part of the journey is undertaken, 300 miles shared with a family. At one point they cross a frozen arm of the Aral Sea. Looking at the map provided (which is fairly substandard unfortunately) the sea is its full, round shape, unlike now as the inland sea has has been sucked dry by irrigation, and it has become a dessicated part of the desert (on the Uzbekistan side, the Kazakhstan side has been partly restored).
At each step explanations and descriptions of the hardships of food, accommodation and onwards travel permissions. Finding space on boats, arranging carts, finding a family who travel through the desert. Arrested for a shot time, her boots stolen just before entering the desert, being let down by people promising rides and other disasters are offset by being given a thick warm coat (send the money when you sell it again) and many other individual acts of generosity.
The sudden ending of the book fits with the sparse writing, abruptly days end and the reader is partway through the following day, conversations end part way through. It takes a little to adjust to the writing style, the unusual turn of phrase or word sequencing - perhaps this is the translation, or perhaps it is true to the writing style.
Maillart is an incredible traveller, an inspiration for those who fear the intrepid, fear risk, fear consequences; but one can't help wonder how much is pure determination and how much is incredible luck!
4.5 stars, rounded down.
Her companions are an able group, Volodya, Auguste, Mila and Capa, although each comes down with fever at some point which adds a few days delay to the journey. Maillart if not exempt from illness herself, but they avoid any major issues. Accompanied by guides and at times translators, they travel in trying conditions through rough and complicated terrains, staying with local people in their small yurt communities (called Aul's). The good will to feed and house guests is part of the Kirghiz culture, much the same as most of Central Asia.
Throughout the journey Maillart provides historical and political background - never very in depth, and perhaps not enough to understand the situation fully, but enough for basic context. She shares the trials and tribulations of the journey, the interactions with her companions (including the sometimes awkward Capa) but is reasonably spare with her words - she is apt to cut a conversation, or a story short and move on to another event. There is not a lot of unnecessary text in this book, but she does manage to describe the settings very well, and shares the interactions with the local people as a priority.
Upon reaching Alma Ata (Almaty) in Kazakhstan, her companions return to Moscow, leaving her to pursue her solo travel. She has ruled out Chinese Turkestan as an option, rebuffed at every enquiry about border crossing to China, so sets out on the train for Tashkent. Maillart needs no time to find her feet, she is well accustomed to making her own way, and relished her freedom. She quickly makes acquaintances and continues her habit of interviewing exiles from Moscow. She makes a good fist of the history, not just here but in the remainder of her travels, but it is a complex history with lots of players.
A flight to Samarkand breaks the monotony of her train journeys, often in the most simple class - hard deck with the other people who don't have the (communist) political connections to secure tickets. In Samarkand she visits the many wonders, describing them well, before moving on to Bokhara and after some weeks there by vastly overloaded paddle boat up the Amul Darya (Oxus River) to Turt Kol (Turtkul) and thus Khiva. From there downriver to Khodjeili (Khodzheyli) where she sets off overland again, on horse cart heading towards the setting off point across the Kyzylkum Desert to Kazalinsk (Kazaly) in Kazakhstan. By camel caravan this part of the journey is undertaken, 300 miles shared with a family. At one point they cross a frozen arm of the Aral Sea. Looking at the map provided (which is fairly substandard unfortunately) the sea is its full, round shape, unlike now as the inland sea has has been sucked dry by irrigation, and it has become a dessicated part of the desert (on the Uzbekistan side, the Kazakhstan side has been partly restored).
At each step explanations and descriptions of the hardships of food, accommodation and onwards travel permissions. Finding space on boats, arranging carts, finding a family who travel through the desert. Arrested for a shot time, her boots stolen just before entering the desert, being let down by people promising rides and other disasters are offset by being given a thick warm coat (send the money when you sell it again) and many other individual acts of generosity.
The sudden ending of the book fits with the sparse writing, abruptly days end and the reader is partway through the following day, conversations end part way through. It takes a little to adjust to the writing style, the unusual turn of phrase or word sequencing - perhaps this is the translation, or perhaps it is true to the writing style.
Maillart is an incredible traveller, an inspiration for those who fear the intrepid, fear risk, fear consequences; but one can't help wonder how much is pure determination and how much is incredible luck!
4.5 stars, rounded down.
December 25, 2017
tales of a travel junkie
Most people travel to get somewhere in order to do something----pilgrims, businessmen, vacationers, academics, photographers. But there are a few who travel for the pure pleasure of travelling. Eva Maillart seems to have been one of these. She travelled through Central Asia in the early 1930s, coping with Soviet bureaucracy, no transportation except horses, camels or donkeys, no hotels, freezing temperatures, scarce supplies, and rampant insect life. She loved it. Though she may have had the lame excuse that she was a reporter and wished to learn of local conditions as a traditional society was transformed under Russian pressure, basically she just wanted to "go". Being There was the name of her game. Though some may say she was an "explorer", in TURKESTAN SOLO, she did not really cover unknown ground. Few Westerners and even fewer Western women had gone where she went, but that does not equal "discovery" on her part. She teamed up with four Russian mountain climbers to travel through the mountain wilds of Kyrgyzstan and climbed or skiied some snowy peaks. Then, on her own, she travelled to Tashkent and the ancient cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. Afterwards she made her way down the Amu Darya towards the Aral Sea, and then with a camel caravan across the desert to the railway line. It was hazardous and daring for a single woman in those days. The last, hardest part of the trip, across the desert, occurred in mid-winter.
Maillart is at her best describing the colorful bazaars, the desert, mountain or river landscapes, and talking about the people she meets on the trains or the trails. Though she does try to introduce a bit of information on history or culture, it is often sketchy or even garbled. Similarly, it seems that either she or the translator did not give accurately the distances between certain places. The border between diary and book is blurred occasionally, when the writing is abrupt and unclear, but most of the time, I enjoyed the narrative, the scenes from a part of the world that has changed greatly since the early `30s. Like inveterate traveller Dervla Murphy, Maillart seems to revel in hardships, delight in telling us how tough it was. Two years later, she travelled through Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) with a British adventurer. These travels inspired an American, Stuart Stevens, to attempt a repeat voyage in the 1980s,--he even visited the aging lady traveller in Switzerland---but neither the trip or the book came up to Maillart's.
Most people travel to get somewhere in order to do something----pilgrims, businessmen, vacationers, academics, photographers. But there are a few who travel for the pure pleasure of travelling. Eva Maillart seems to have been one of these. She travelled through Central Asia in the early 1930s, coping with Soviet bureaucracy, no transportation except horses, camels or donkeys, no hotels, freezing temperatures, scarce supplies, and rampant insect life. She loved it. Though she may have had the lame excuse that she was a reporter and wished to learn of local conditions as a traditional society was transformed under Russian pressure, basically she just wanted to "go". Being There was the name of her game. Though some may say she was an "explorer", in TURKESTAN SOLO, she did not really cover unknown ground. Few Westerners and even fewer Western women had gone where she went, but that does not equal "discovery" on her part. She teamed up with four Russian mountain climbers to travel through the mountain wilds of Kyrgyzstan and climbed or skiied some snowy peaks. Then, on her own, she travelled to Tashkent and the ancient cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. Afterwards she made her way down the Amu Darya towards the Aral Sea, and then with a camel caravan across the desert to the railway line. It was hazardous and daring for a single woman in those days. The last, hardest part of the trip, across the desert, occurred in mid-winter.
Maillart is at her best describing the colorful bazaars, the desert, mountain or river landscapes, and talking about the people she meets on the trains or the trails. Though she does try to introduce a bit of information on history or culture, it is often sketchy or even garbled. Similarly, it seems that either she or the translator did not give accurately the distances between certain places. The border between diary and book is blurred occasionally, when the writing is abrupt and unclear, but most of the time, I enjoyed the narrative, the scenes from a part of the world that has changed greatly since the early `30s. Like inveterate traveller Dervla Murphy, Maillart seems to revel in hardships, delight in telling us how tough it was. Two years later, she travelled through Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) with a British adventurer. These travels inspired an American, Stuart Stevens, to attempt a repeat voyage in the 1980s,--he even visited the aging lady traveller in Switzerland---but neither the trip or the book came up to Maillart's.
April 26, 2022
In dit non-fictieboek wordt de reis geschreven die de 29-jarige Ella Maillart in 1932 maakte en waarbij ze Kirchizië, Oezbekistan en Kazachstan bezocht. Het verslag is een beetje warrig geschreven.
Het vereist ook nogal wat voorkennis over gebruiken, plaatsen, namen. Maar ik heb dit boek toch graag gelezen omwille van de beschrijvingen van de toenmalige Sovjet Republieken waar de manier waarop tot dan toe werd geleefd totaal veranderde, onder andere door de Sovjet overheid opgelegde monoculturen, wat overigens andere regimes ook gedaan hebben met alle gevolgen vandien tot op heden. De schrijfster doet hierover verslag zonder er een oordeel over te vellen.
Ik was ook erg onder de indruk van de moed en de avontuurlijke instelling van Ella Maillart, die 90 jaar geleden, als vrouw alleen een dergelijke reis ondernam, gedreven door een dorst naar kennis van vreemde volkeren en culturen.
Het vereist ook nogal wat voorkennis over gebruiken, plaatsen, namen. Maar ik heb dit boek toch graag gelezen omwille van de beschrijvingen van de toenmalige Sovjet Republieken waar de manier waarop tot dan toe werd geleefd totaal veranderde, onder andere door de Sovjet overheid opgelegde monoculturen, wat overigens andere regimes ook gedaan hebben met alle gevolgen vandien tot op heden. De schrijfster doet hierover verslag zonder er een oordeel over te vellen.
Ik was ook erg onder de indruk van de moed en de avontuurlijke instelling van Ella Maillart, die 90 jaar geleden, als vrouw alleen een dergelijke reis ondernam, gedreven door een dorst naar kennis van vreemde volkeren en culturen.
February 27, 2025
Prachtig boek. Must-read voor al wie van centraal Azië houdt
June 24, 2022
Wat een boek… “Toerkestan solo. Een vrouw op weg naar Samarkand, 1932” van Ella Maillart. Ongenaakbaar en met open vizier trekt Maillart door de pas onderworpen Sovjet-republieken van Centraal-Azië. Een deel van haar reis maakte ik meer dan 60 jaar later, midden begin ‘90, opnieuw. Deze keer in de chaos na de val van de Sovjet-Unie. Een boek dus dat me veel herinneringen opriep: Khiva, Boechara, Tasjkent in Oezbekistan. Bishkek, Issyk Koelmeer, Karakol en de bergen tegen de Chinese grens, Alma-Aty in Kazakstan.
Terug naar 1932. Aan de oevers van de mythische rivieren Amoe Darja en Syr Darja is Ella Maillart getuige van een van de grootste experimenten uit de geschiedenis van de mensheid: een van bovenaf opgelegde ‘deislamisering’ in naam van de vooruitgang. Ze maakt kennis met Kirgiezen en Oezbeken, dwaalt door Samarkand en Tasjkent, beklimt bergen en kampeert in woestijnen. Als ze haar reisgenoten achterlaat en besluit alleen verder te reizen, krijgt ze als eerste, onafhankelijke Europese waarnemer een beeld van de wijze waarop de islamitische opstanden door het Rode Leger zijn neergeslagen.
Omdat ze het gebied zonder visum doorkruist, moet ze op haar hoede zijn voor de autoriteiten, maar ze weet haar aantekeningen en foto’s veilig over de grens te brengen. Als in 1934 Des monts célestes aux sables rouges verschijnt, wordt het uitzonderlijke karakter van haar boek én haar schrijverschap onmiddellijk herkend. Onder de titel Turkestan Solo verschijnt het korte tijd later in het Engels en Duits, waarna een internationale opmars begint. Inmiddels heeft het een klassieke status.
Terug naar 1932. Aan de oevers van de mythische rivieren Amoe Darja en Syr Darja is Ella Maillart getuige van een van de grootste experimenten uit de geschiedenis van de mensheid: een van bovenaf opgelegde ‘deislamisering’ in naam van de vooruitgang. Ze maakt kennis met Kirgiezen en Oezbeken, dwaalt door Samarkand en Tasjkent, beklimt bergen en kampeert in woestijnen. Als ze haar reisgenoten achterlaat en besluit alleen verder te reizen, krijgt ze als eerste, onafhankelijke Europese waarnemer een beeld van de wijze waarop de islamitische opstanden door het Rode Leger zijn neergeslagen.
Omdat ze het gebied zonder visum doorkruist, moet ze op haar hoede zijn voor de autoriteiten, maar ze weet haar aantekeningen en foto’s veilig over de grens te brengen. Als in 1934 Des monts célestes aux sables rouges verschijnt, wordt het uitzonderlijke karakter van haar boek én haar schrijverschap onmiddellijk herkend. Onder de titel Turkestan Solo verschijnt het korte tijd later in het Engels en Duits, waarna een internationale opmars begint. Inmiddels heeft het een klassieke status.
June 1, 2012
I am fascinated by travelers in hardship, perhaps because it is so alien to my nature. Ella Maillart, traveling in 1932 in what is now Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, endures desert, cold, meager rations, and uncertainty. Her endurance is remarkable and she is among a very few women who ventured alone. The narrative is part travel, part history. Slow reading, and badly needs photographs (some of which you can view online), but interesting. She seeks out locals and describes her encounters in detail. Some of her difficulties in making her way made me gasp. I read this as a precursor to her "Forbidden Journey" which records her travel from Peking to Kashmir, which she was prevented from accomplishing when going eastward.
April 30, 2019
I loved this. She is amazing, and the journey is very interesting. Her handy sleeping bag, willingness to sleep anywhere and interviews and discussions with a wide range of people results in a truly amazing travelogue. Her voice could be any travel blogger today, but her journey is the Soviet Republics during the 5 year plan. Truly amazing book.
February 12, 2025
A story of woman who travelled across Soviet Union republics like Turkestan. It shows culture and relations in this part of world.
September 10, 2015
Si dovrebbe sempre avere, in viaggio e non, la capacità della Maillart di adattarsi agli imprevisti semplicemente mutando strada come un corso d'acqua che incontri un ostacolo.
June 22, 2018
I am completely addicted to Ella Maillart and I like her way of travelling, observing and giving her feedback. Pictures of this lost world are amazing. Highly recommend!
December 26, 2020
Swiss travel writer Ella Maillart brings us on quite the journey through the nascent USSR, starting in Moscow and then focusing first on the mountains and then on the cities of Central Asia. I had to use the interwebs sometimes to figure out where exactly she was. Names have been changed or standard spellings adjusted since the time she travelled in the early 1930s.
I don't know much about mountain exploration so that section was less interesting to me than her visit to historic cities. I enjoyed reading about her sightseeing in places I visited just over a year ago. Some things have changed (no bread lines) but others, like the market next to Bibi-Khanym mosque, seem almost eternal. And her frustration with Soviet bureaucracy rings true for anyone who has ever applied for a Russian visa in the early 21st century. Some of her observations are no longer relevant--positive or at least hopeful comments about the cotton industry are especially heartbreaking when, later in the book, she sails across the Aral Sea. The latter is no longer possible thanks to the former. Not that I fault her for lack of forecasting skills.
Overall a fun travelogue written by a wildly intrepid woman, only slightly impacted by outdated references and circumstances.
I don't know much about mountain exploration so that section was less interesting to me than her visit to historic cities. I enjoyed reading about her sightseeing in places I visited just over a year ago. Some things have changed (no bread lines) but others, like the market next to Bibi-Khanym mosque, seem almost eternal. And her frustration with Soviet bureaucracy rings true for anyone who has ever applied for a Russian visa in the early 21st century. Some of her observations are no longer relevant--positive or at least hopeful comments about the cotton industry are especially heartbreaking when, later in the book, she sails across the Aral Sea. The latter is no longer possible thanks to the former. Not that I fault her for lack of forecasting skills.
Overall a fun travelogue written by a wildly intrepid woman, only slightly impacted by outdated references and circumstances.
February 19, 2022
‘Die pelgrims [uit het gedicht ‘The Golden Journey to Samarkand’ van James Elroy Flecker - ML] wilden weten waarom wij worden geboren, en hun vrouwen konden ze met geen mogelijkheid tegenhouden… Hier zou hun karavaan er drie weken over doen om de befaamde stad te bereiken, de trein twaalf uur, het vliegtuig twee!
Indrukwekkend contrast: troosteloze vlakten, vruchtbare oases; daarginds de hoogste bergen van de wereld, bedekt met ijs. En daar de verstikkende, zoute, bewegende woestijnen. Nomaden onder hun traditionele vilten tenten, de arbeiderskazernes van Tasjkent; de gesluierde moslimvrouwen en hun zusters in de fabriek, de arbeidersstootbrigades. De ruïnes van Tarmelan, waaromheen een Aziatisch proletariaat ontstaat om het socialisme op te bouwen.’
Indrukwekkend contrast: troosteloze vlakten, vruchtbare oases; daarginds de hoogste bergen van de wereld, bedekt met ijs. En daar de verstikkende, zoute, bewegende woestijnen. Nomaden onder hun traditionele vilten tenten, de arbeiderskazernes van Tasjkent; de gesluierde moslimvrouwen en hun zusters in de fabriek, de arbeidersstootbrigades. De ruïnes van Tarmelan, waaromheen een Aziatisch proletariaat ontstaat om het socialisme op te bouwen.’
November 12, 2023
ciekawa lektura ze względu na sposób opisywania podróży. Autorka, mimo niewątpliwej chęci odbywania wędrówki w odległe zakątki, nawet tam skupia się przede wszystkim na ludziach ją otaczających (i nieco na tym, co stworzyli, czyli architekturze). Może to i fajnie, ileż można czytać o ekstremalnych wyprawach (żartuję, można w nieskończoność), a tutaj mamy możliwość poznania z bliska życia Uzbeków, Kirgizów i reszty ludności dzikiej, zimnej, pustynnej Azji
August 16, 2019
I would not call it a prep book for my impending trip to Asia as I'll have a chef to cook us meals but it is an insightful book into the lifes of people in 1930s Central Asia. The special touch of early Soviet era and its 5 year plans is a bonus.
The courage that woman had is astounding! And the misery of lives around her...
The courage that woman had is astounding! And the misery of lives around her...
February 27, 2022
Ella Maillarts verslag van haar reis door Centraal Azië is geschreven in de jaren dertig. Dat geeft ons de mogelijkheid een beeld te krijgen van het leven in die tijd. Maar het gaat Maillart meer om het reizen zelf dan om te observeren. Soms vond ik haar beschrijvingen denigrerend, misschien logisch gezien de tijd en haar achtergrond, maar desalniettemin jammer.
July 26, 2023
De schrijfstijl is niet altijd even goed, maar het is dan ook een reisverslag van een eeuw geleden. Juist dat maakt het zo’n bijzonder boek. Hoe leefden de mensen toen? Tijgers die nog niet uitgestorven waren en nomaden die de Russen sedentair probeerden te maken waarmee ze door de woestijn trekt. Bijzonder om te lezen!
April 20, 2022
Un diario di viaggio di un'altra epoca, in posti ancora poco noti tuttora; un po' scarno in diversi passaggi, per cui risulta più difficile sentirsi coinvolti. Comunque interessante per in altri passaggi.
April 2, 2025
Set in the early 1930s, this is the travel comments for a journey through Persia, Russia and other countries. She seems to run into a lot of difficulties. Not enough description of what she is seeing and experiencing.
July 10, 2019
The author was certainly a great adventurer, but don't expect great insights in to a lost age. This is no Bill Bryson.
January 3, 2021
3.5 - Epic trip, but her writing feels so disjointed I had trouble getting into it (and occasional condescending European commentary didn't help)
January 12, 2022
I loved the expression of Ella Maillart in Turkestan Solo. She is a true feminist and inspiration to all!
August 1, 2024
Ho trovato il libro poco scorrevole e noioso.
November 23, 2023
De Krook
Vandaag de dag zou zo'n queeste maar matig avontuurlijk zijn geweest voor de gemiddelde globetrotter.
Toen, als vrouw, in 1932? Daar kon ik mij niets bij voorstellen. Nu wel, insane!
Vandaag de dag zou zo'n queeste maar matig avontuurlijk zijn geweest voor de gemiddelde globetrotter.
Toen, als vrouw, in 1932? Daar kon ik mij niets bij voorstellen. Nu wel, insane!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews