From Heaven Lake : Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet

This is a short but very enjoyable travel book chronicling the authors route home from Nanjing in China to Delhi in India. Being a ‘poor' student, Seth decides to save some money and also visit some fascinating areas of China on the way home over the summer vacation. Seth travels through the provinces of Gansu, then Qinghai, and on to Tibet before crossing the land border to Nepal. The travel aspects are great - speaking good Chinese, Seth as a foreigner is able to converse well with most of the locals, and in areas where other languages were required he ended up travelling with those who could translate - this makes this book a little different to many similar books by Westerners, who I don't think always get the same level of cooperation or communication with the Chinese. What really makes this book though is the beautifully descriptive writing . Seth is really very talented. In a book of 178 pages he tells a thorough and in depth story, he doesn't waste any pages, and almost every page contains a sentence or paragraph to be admired.I have read [b:A Suitable Boy 961081 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1179833308l/961081.SY75.jpg 1651078] by Vikram Seth - and although immensely long, I enjoyed the descriptive writing. This book really is different - as it is so short - and nothing is wasted.Four Stars.