Table of Contents
The lost world of the 1930s circled by two men in one small car
Prefaces 6
Chapter 1 Bitter pills, new plans 9
Examination pressure
A new project
The chairman makes a proposa19
Chapter 2 Four wheels 12
Learning to drive
Finding the co-driver
Helmuth Halmann
Bodywork to my own design
A quantity of luggage
Chapter 3 The oil road to Baghdad 23
By the Dead Sea
Guests of the Iraq Petroleum Company
A desert party in H2
Chapter 4 The lizard hunt 30
Temptations in Baghdad
Remodelling the car
Hunters and hunted
Stuck in the sand
A nod in the right direction
Chapter 5 Where the dead crowd close to Allah 35
A trip to An Najaf
City of the dead: wet and dry corpses
Familiar tunes
A serious injury: my lucky star High roads to Persia
Chapter 6 Dust to dust 41
The tomb of Omar Khayyam
Awkward guests
Persia's poet: Firdowsi
Chapter 7 Foreign devils 46
Eastern Persia: underground villages
Mashhhad: the dangers of photography
Helmuth in jail
An unwise jest
Chapter 8 Urlajat 55
A visa for Afghanistan
At the customs post: rough companions and a friendly host
The rules of hospitality
Confusing coinage
Afghan transport
Chapter 9 Hungarian Afghans, Bavarian Afghans 60
Among the harvesters
Windmills
Six-legged donkeys
Robbers in chains
An engineer from Budapest
No salami
Numskull understands
Chapter 10 Closer to India 76
Along the Northwest Frontier
From Kabul to the ruins of Bamiyan
A permit for the Khyber Pass
In the British fort
Curfew at Peshawar
A film location
Cholera inoculations
In the Bibi bazaar
Chapter 11 Kashmir 81
In Alexander's footsteps
A houseboat in Srinagar
The ascent to Amarnath tent camp
The pilgrims of Shiva
Chapter 12 End of the first stage 86
Monsoon rains
We rescue the German consul
Return to Vaikunth - European drinking habits
The plight of the half-caste
A lecture in the Hindu University of Lucknow
Chapter 13 The land of the smiling Buddha 100
The trouble with travelers
Land of smiles
The Buddha of Pegu
A missionary priest
We collide with a vulture
Benighted in the Burmese jungle
Chapter 14 The Agency comes to call 111
With the Burmah Oil Company
Temporary marriages
No room in the car
Chapter 15 Deep in the jungle 115
Beyond Mandalay
Into the Golden triangle
Burmese hospitality
The versatile bamboo
The Dak bungalow
Chapter 16 Folk festival at Inle lake 119
The leg-rowers of Inle
Strange adornments: Red Kareni and Padaung women
Concepts of time
Chapter 17 Special delivery 123
Letters for Keng-Tung
An improvised dictionary
By cart trail to Thailand
A night by the river
Crossing the Salween
Rescued from a torrent
Up to the axles in mud
Fever The 'wanted poster'
Chapter 18 Dead prince and living prince 132
The Sawbwa of Keng-Tung
Tung oil
Hauled by an elephant
Chapter 19 Honour the yellow robe 136
Rainy season in Kcng-Tung
How to smoke opium - Helmuth's holiday: a Buddhist monastery and a night-time festival
Tauma Tillcc and the typewriter
Chapter 20 Laughing with Simba 144
Half a bridge to Siam
Chieng-Rai
Simba's rattletrap
A skilled driver
The differential breaks
Chapter 21 Two motorcycle fiends 161
Borrowing a BSA
A boxing match
The car is dismantled
By boat down the Mekong - Into Laos
The French customs officer
Chapter 22 Success at last 166
Luang-Prabang
Unloaded by convicts
A parcel from Austria
Modified rapture
The car is rebuilt
The golden Buddha
Pioneers of Route Coloniale Numéro Sept
Late for dinner
We reach Hanoi
Chapter 23 Held up in Hanoi 180
The ball-bearing visa
A rail excursion to Yunnan-fu
The Michelin Railcar
How to get to China
Misleading maps
Sounds of gunfire
Back to Hanoi
The effects of damp
Over the Red River Into China with the French consul
Chapter 24 Old Mr Lai Shi 187
An arms dealer in Nan-ning
A tooth extraction
The comforts of rice wine
Presenting ourselves in China
Hot wheels to Liu-chou
The advantages of Latin
Chapter 25 Motor car versus evil spirits 193
Life is cheap
Proper terms of address
The effects of a full beard
Behaviour of pedestrians explained
Chapter 26 In China it's different 197
A hazardous river-crossing
An invasion of evil spirits
Franciscans from South Tyrol
A roast dinner
The first car in Chî-Yang
Chapter 27 A war zone 203
Crossing the Hsiang-Kiang
Germans in Chang-sha
The boat not taken
Encounter with an army
Driving through road-blocks
An opium war
Chapter 28 What Marco Polo saw 225
King-te-chen: town of porcelain
Beauties of Haugchow
Chapter 29 Shanghai 228
Driving on the Bund
Signing chits
The international press
The high life of Shanghai
Sacrifice of the beard
Chapter 30 Problems for the foreign visitor 233
Crossing to Japan
Customs hold-up in Nagasaki
A traditional guest-house
Dangers of the bath
Geishas
A driving test and a vehicle check
Permission to travel
We break a record
Chapter 31 'Yuku michi' in the land of delights 243
Landscapes of Hondo
The island of temples An American tourist
The year of flowers
Poor state of the roads
Politeness of drivers
No motoring atlas Place names
A helpful lorry driver Streetlighting
Chapter 32 The long goodbye 249
The volcano Aso-san
Repeated interrogations
View of Mount Fuji
Rucksacku rucksacku
Raincd off
Meeting with a film director
A mention in the newspapers
An excursion by train
We sail for America
Chapter 33 Crossing America 255
Entry formalities in Seattle
With Charlie to Mount Rainier
A forest fire
A ski pro in Yosemite
Death Valley
Chapter 34 The collector 269
The Greyhound buses
On show in Dallas
A tempting offer 269
Chapter 35 Mexico to Salzburg: disaster strikes! 272
Breakdown in Mexico
The technical genius of Mr Blair
Forty hours at the wheel
With Ford in Detroit
Washington and New York
We sail on the Bremen
A leathery tan
A dramatic ending
Chapter 36 Epilogue: the story continues 277
The survival of the Steyr 100 and its post-war career
A word from the author's son
Appendix 278
Index 287
