this is the 2nd volume of Terry Grigg's travels series and this one focuses on the subcontinent (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal). We make acquaintance with the lamas of Ladakh that can be found in the Himialya and the Sikhs of Amritsar among other things.

A Scam in the Ashram by Terry Grigg was a great book full of information and I also found it well researched throughout. This is Terry's second book and I enjoyed reading it. This book brought back good memories of my many holidays to Sri Lanka and India, Terry also covers Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, and Tibet which was wonderful to read about, even though I would never travel there in my life time.

I would recommend this book

Thank you to Netgalley and of course Terry Grigg for reminding me I hadn't done a review for his book!

I suspect I know this author.

Not in the real world - thankfully, we've never actually met - but I've met way too many men just like him. And, lest anybody think it's a generalisation, the travel moaners, place collectors, people-put-downers, are more often men of a certain age. When I first started travelling to India 25 years ago, I did go on organised tours and there was almost always a 'Terry Grigg' on such a tour. People like him are the reason why my husband and I stopped going on group travel and spent the last 20 years going to India independently.

I go to India because I love the country. I love the people and their optimism. I love the sense of possibility and the place where the poorest of the poor can dream that their children will make it big and climb up through society. I love the chats about cricket with workmen and small children and the curiosity of people who want to know all about us just as much as we want to know about them. I love drinking tea out of saucers and stopping at roadside cafe to eat whatever they've got that day when it's almost always rice and dal. NOTHING like that comes through in this book. It's like a rehashed travel guide (dates, names, locations etc) mixed up with a terrifying sense of looking down on people. Terry hates kids. He thinks people shouldn't have them. So why, in that case, go to the second most populated country on earth? Why go to a country where a person's treasure is their children? I don't have kids but I have no desire to force my choices on other people. Don't get me started on his veganism. No, really. Don't.

Why go to a place and point out only how loud, dirty, smelly it is? He slags off one of my favourite places - McLeod Ganj - by saying it's full of noisy weekending Indians. It is, it's true. Mostly Punjabis in 4x4s trying to get down narrow roads blocked by cows. Sit in a roadside restaurant and watch - it's hilarious. It's also the place I go to find the most fabulous, quiet, clear-aired mountain forest walks. Every place he goes to is treated superficially. He doesn't seem to take the time to get to know anywhere. He complains that entrance fees are higher for foreigners (they always have been - get over it) and that hotels are too expensive at popular times (book and plan ahead if you don't want to get ripped off). In Sri Lanka he complains that a hotel - which he's clearly visiting with a tour group - has an international buffet complete with little flags. Then don't travel that way if you don't want that kind of thing.

Terry says his book "may well be the most controversial book you will ever read – certainly the most controversial travel book". It's not. Absolutely not. It's boring, recycled information from guidebooks mixed with a hefty dollop of Terry's prejudices. He doesn't even mention a 'scam in an ashram' until over half-way through the book and then it's not one he's observed - it's one he's heard about. In fact the lack of scams in ashrams made me wonder if I'd actually got the right book. The only scam in this book is that Terry somehow got some people to buy it. I soldiered on. I got to about 70% and then decided I didn't need this rubbish in my life and I stopped because it was making me way too angry.

Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

(For an altogether much better, more authentic account of travel in India, please track down one - or all - of Frank Kusy's books. I particularly recommend 'Kevin and I in India'.)

Easy well written travel book about Terry's adventures in India and beyond. No frills, just says it the way it is. I enjoyed the book.

I tried multiple times to wade through this book. Just could not do it. It’s written in a “stream-of-consciousness” style. I really could not understand it. I would suggest that it be sent back for a serious rewrite. I am not in the habit of posting a bad review on a book that I could not finish. Therefore, I will not be posting a review on any of my sites.