British author Colin Thubron recently traveled along the ancient Silk Road, the legendary route that connects Asia to Europe, and wrote of his experiences in a new book, Shadow of the Silk Road. His travel book focuses not only on the physical experience of the 11,000 kilometer trek, but of the cultural teachings he learned as well. Staying in off-the-map accommodations like “dingy inns or farms,” Thubron discusses the impact of westernization on once Soviet-ruled portions of the route. “You look at a map and you see here is Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Iran, but when you travel that’s when you realize how all these borders meld into one another more subtly so that they seem to have no ethnic discreteness,” said Thubron.