Monthly Archives: November 2021

Shadow of the Silk Road

Rather than follow the Silk Road as the Western world thinks of it, Colin Thubron starts in Xian, China and travels west, terminating in Antakya, Turkey (Antioch). On the two places the Silk Road diverged onto alternate paths, Thubron chose to follow the lesser travelled routes. The net result of this journey is a fascinating portrait of Western China, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Persian and Arabic lands.

He takes a couple of interesting detours, including one into the fringes of Tibet. This is eye-opening and enjoyable to read.

His first books were about the Middle East – Damascus, Lebanon and Cyprus. In 1982 he travelled by car into the Soviet Union, a journey he described in Among the Russians. From these early experiences developed his classic travel books: Behind the Wall: A Journey through China (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Award), The Lost Heart of Asia, In Siberia (Prix Bouvier), Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet.

This is a rewarding, elegantly written, travel adventure.

Shadow of the Silk Road, Colin Thubron, ISBN 978-0-06-123172-8

Glass     takes one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

Gold     is the only metal that doesn’t rust, even if it’s buried in the ground for thousands of years.

When a person dies     hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight.

Your tongue     is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.

The tooth     is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.

If you stop getting thirsty   ,    you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

Zero      is the only number that     cannot be represented by     Roman numerals.

Kites     were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.

The song Auld Lang Syne     is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.

Drinking water after eating     reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent. Drinking a glass of water before you eat may help digestion and curb appetite.

Peanut oil     is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn’t smoke unless it’s heated above 450F.

The roar     that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

Nine out of every 10     living things live in the ocean.

  The banana     cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.

  Airports at higher altitudes     require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.

  The University of Alaska     spans four time zones.

  In ancient Greece , tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.

  Warner Communications     paid 28 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday, which was written in 1935!

  Intelligent people     have more zinc and copper in their hair.

  A comet’s tail     always points away from the sun.

  Caffeine     increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines.

  The military salute     is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.

  If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up,      you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.

  In ancient times      strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.

  Strawberries and cashews      are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.

  Avocados      have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.

  The moon      moves about two inches away from the Earth each year.

  The Earth     gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

  Due to earth’s gravity     it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters.

  Mickey Mouse     is known as “Topolino” in Italy.

  Soldiers      do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down.

  Everything     weighs one percent less at the equator.

  For every extra kilogram     carried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at lift-off.

  The letter J     does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.