The River's Tale: A Year on the Mekong

As a person who loves the region, I found the book very interesting, informative and useful. True, it could have been written differently (as a Travelouge) but the lack of travel tips is well compensated by the vast information on the history and politics of the region. So in some wayss it is more than a travel book and in some other ways it is less so.Also, the author contempt to the Chinese authoritues re Tibbet is in well taken, but is repeated too many times.I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a bird's eye of that region.

A Really interesting and observant 3,000 mile trip down the Mekong, primarily by boat. From the river's mouth to its end in the Mekong Delta: Tibet, China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Ed Gargan could have played a medical trump card to avoid the draft during Vietnam war, but instead he stood up for his beliefs and refused to register, thus serving time in federal prison. This was an influential experience, and he did refer to it at times, and American war situation in Indo-china, understandably.Noting the past history and recent events of these places, and then talking with people to get their perception and viewpoints on where things are headed. Very balanced peppering of relevant historical occurrences, recent political situations, and down-to-earth local conversations about life in these places. Indigenous life and the cultural aspects of it in the areas he visited were noted.The Chinese ethnic Hans are continuing their colonization of Tibet, imprisoning people, destroying temples, and other aspects of Tibetan culture. The secretive government of Laos is still in the moribund foggy myst of Marxist-Leninism, those "foreign white guys." He briefly tapped into the bohemian traveler opium-den culture of Laos on his way through, though as an observer and not a participant. He also interviewed one of the few survivors of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge torture and killing prison, finally ending his journey with a young Vietnamese woman's observant description of contemporary Vietnam and where its people and nation are headed in the future.Very descriptive and observant piece of work.There are some interesting facts that are noted by Gargan.Francis Garnier, the French colonist who traveled the Mekong for two years in 1866. He apparantly didn't learn much, and he got what he deserved in the end. Another tid-bit, is that the character Colonel Kurtz in the movie "Apocalypse Now," is based on an actual person. Also there are more pickup trucks per capita in Thailand than on any other nation on Earth. This is a great book for people who like travel books, and for those who have an interest in, or who are going to South East Asia.Another great book I'd recommend that is also about boat travel: "Three years in a 12-foot boat," by Steven Ladd.

At heart we are all world travelers. Even for those of us who have not traveled more than 50 miles from where we were born, our mind attunes to the imagery that abounds in far away places and our hearts recognize that there are wonders in this world of ours that can certainly be read about if not traveled to.Covering the swath of this exotic and intriguing part of territory in one of the world's lesser-known places, Edward Gargan gives us that spotlight not easy to mount from many other angled and elusive written pieces. A bit of local politics, more of its history, peppered with the faces of people and the kind of food, bamboo worms prepared with, "garlic, fermented beans and chili peppers" or "feng-er - bee larvae" all combine to remove us from our reading positions and hover precariously over this geographical region fearing that at any moment, Gargan may sever the cord that ties us suspended over his river journeys and cause us to tumble downwards to his reality.For reality it is for Mr. Gargan when he braves the elements to travel from the high plateau of eastern Tibet down to sea level along the Mekong in Vietnam. It is as if the jungle encroaching the river viewed from Mr. Gargan's commissioned boats of various types and sizes as they careen southwards, seem to loom up in front of our eyes every time our eyes lift from the pages of the book.The exemplary choice of words, I admit, contained a few that made me scrimmage for my bedside Oxford dictionary. The word 'pirogue' could only be located in my 2200 page Random House Unabridged Dictionary. This word, by the time I was half way through the book, had appeared more than a dozen times. Seems there is no other accurate substitute for 'native craft' or 'local boat'. I kept wondering what the boats Mr. Gargan was motored on looked like or how they were different from each other as he traveled down from Yunnan, through Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam though there is one photograph in the book of such a boat.A unique style of describing scenes evokes the sharpest imagination and makes the world alive. Witness the onset of dusk being portrayed such: "A fat copper sun slunk away into the Burmese jungle, dragging dusk behind it". "Myanmarese jungle" just would not have cut it. Also, our majestic sun personified in yet another beholden way! And to imprint the picture of a town in our minds, Mr. Gargan uses, "....the town.... was draped over the pate of a small hill, was little more than a gnarl of small byways that wrapped around tidy whitewashed cement houses." Uniquely the town is presented to us and instantly, we perch.Mr. Gargan "marvels at people...in the underdeveloped world.... with a procession of porters bearing luggage...". This might hold true in most areas he visits in the book; it certainly is not true in other regions and of other people in the underdeveloped world. Executives and housewives alike board and alight from trains, buses and airplanes with nary an eye for a porter. Could

The thing that really grabbed me about The River's Tale was Gargan's seamless weaving of the political/historical context of the region on a general level (and he does indeed know the region well) with his own insightful unpackings of particular interactions along the river. The book has the ability to "put you there" in a way that is too often lacking in traditional political/historical attempts and which I have never found in other writings regarding the region. I'll never be able to spend a year on the Mekong, but Gargan has let me know what I've missed.I hope he takes the same trip in a decade; I'd bet we would get a very different book in many respects.Post script: is this the same Ed Gargan who was once the fastest schoolboy in Massachusetts??

Ed Gargan has taken the kind of trip we all daydream about: a year's adventure through an exotic corner of the world, where time is measured by sunrises and sunsets and success by the width of your smile. His trip is part Indiana Jones and part Mark Twain, but mainly it's that little part of all of us that wishes we had the time, the strength and the grace (and maybe the money) to do something similar. His book is a luxurious read filled with skillfully drawn characters and places that are impossible to forget. Gargan's long experience in Asia gives the book heft and helpful perspectives in understanding an important part of the world. And his writing and wit make it a joy. It's a exciting ride, guided by the best.