written in stone

This photo shows the author hard at work, chipping away at mantras for his next guidebook. This, as you can imagine, is back-breaking work—and you can help out. This, as you can imagine, is back-breaking work—and you can help out. This, as you can imagine, is the mantra of the day!

Contrary to appearances, guidebooks are not written in stone. They are gooey, formless, shapeless, murky packages that need constant updating and correction on the road. The author can't be everywhere at once, in all time zones, so he relies on a network of other travellers—which means you.

What kind of material is the author looking for? Well, some ideas you can glean from this site:

• strange news: seeing something different? Something that's not in the guidebooks? Tell me more! You can check the 'strange news' icon on this website for a few examples.
• detailed map data, or corrected map data. Maps are invaluable for travellers—if you have map information that would be useful to others, email it. You can use a digital camera as photocopier and attach to email.
• seen a yeti? Got a hairy tale? Maybe you've been subjected to a particularly vile yak dish and want to rant about it. See the travellers' tales section of this website for some write-ups. Shorter is better—up to 800 words or so (if it really was a yeti, better make that 2,000 minimum).
• If you're not up for longer writing, try an e-card, which is more of the haiku style. Even jotting down a few impressions can make a difference.

email the author
himmies757@yahoo.com

mantra chiselled in stone: Om Mani Padme Hum
—this one is so ancient that nobody is quite sure what it means anymore

books by the author

Shangri-La: A Travel Guide to the Himalayan Dream www.bradt-travelguides.com more info on this site 'This is an esoteric but interesting guide to vast stretches of the Himalayas. While not exhaustive, it comes at places that have been written about ad infinitum from left field. It proves there are always new ways of looking at the same thing.' —The Sunday Telegraph, UK

Tibet: the Bradt Travel Guide www.bradt-travelguides.com 'The most thumbed of all my books on Tibet. I might have had some trouble with the yak butter tea, but Buckley made everything else wonderfully palatable. A must-read.' —Michael Palin, who used this book on the road    when making the TV series Himalaya

Eccentric Explorers more info on this site Get in the saddle for a riproaring ride as you follow in the tracks of ten eccentric explorers—each on a quest to unlock the secrets of reclusive Tibet. Are they nuts? Are they crackers? You bet. *Winner in the Biography category of the National Indie Excellence Awards (USA, 2009)

Heartlands: Travels in the Tibetan world www.summersdale.com 'If you care about Tibet, or Tibetans, or the very idea of Tibet in the world, you must read Heartlands: Travels in the Tibetan World. With great humor, patience, and more than a little love, Michael Buckley roams this vast land top to bottom and east to west, and in the process makes the reader burn with a very un-Buddhist desire to tramp in his footsteps.' —James O'Reilly, Travelers' Tales series editor Heartlands won a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award, 2003, for Best Travel Book

contributor to: Travelers' Tales Tibet, Travelers' Tales China, and Travelers' Tales India www.travelerstales.com

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