Around the World in 80 Days
Day 50: 13 November

The 'newly-weds' turn out to be a society acupuncturist from Paris who has been walking round the world for two years and a Dutch student of Arabic studies who fell in with him on the way. Having walked from Paris to Pakistan (where he had talked with General Zia less than a week before his death), into Afghanistan where he had spent six weeks with the Mujaheddin, it came as a rude shock to find that China, the country that had been his goal, proposed to charge him 45,000 dollars for permission to walk across it. He came in on The Great Silk Road. I expressed my envy. 'Forget it,' he flicked his hand dismissively. 'It doesn't exist any more . . . it's all just the same . . . temples, monasteries. You've seen one temple . . . '
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PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Around the World in 80 Days
- Day: 50
- Date: 13 November
- Country/sea: Pacific Ocean
- Place: Pacific Ocean
- Book page no: 171
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