A Travel Junkie’s Diary Searching for Mare’s Milk and Other Far-Flung Pursuits

Bennett (Peking to Paris) rollickingly recounts her 10 years of driving around the globe with her husband, Bernard. They got hooked on long-distance driving after they participated in a 7,800-mile road rally in 2007 that took them from Peking to Paris. Since then the pair have driven the “back country roads” of China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Siberia, and Tibet. Bennett arranges her travels by topic rather than date, beginning with “Blastoff,” in which she describes a drive through India during which she and her husband received a blessing from a Brahmin priest who smeared turmeric paste on their windshield for good luck. In “Borders,” she describes offering sweets to belligerent Bolivian border guards with the hope of softening their attitudes, and in “Eating,” she experiences grueling intestinal pains in China and then realizes she hadn’t washed her hands before eating. In “Etiquette,” Bennett and her husband experience driving in India (“mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time”), during which they learn the rule of the road that states one must honk before passing—especially when passing long lines of trucks with no side mirrors. This is an exhilarating journey. [em](Aug.) [/em]