A Plumber's Progress - Pilgrimage to the Heart of Tibet

Longacre Press, 2003. Some warping.

Why is a Kiwi plumber, pushing 50 and with a bad lung, hell-bent on wandering off to the lid of the world where there are lots of Chinese soldiers and not much air?

After decades of hard yakker, harder addictions, then six years of living in an American ashram, Kiwi adventurer W. J. O'Connell loses his right to stay on in the U.S. He's hitting middle age, has no home, no job, no wife, no bach at the beach, no life insurance. What should he do?

Logical really. He'll take a hike.

This is the story of a personal journey to find the ?something more to life' that so many seek at important crossroads. O'Connell's route takes him from Delhi to war-torn Kashmir, then from Ladakh to sacred Mount Kailas in a remote region of Western Tibet. It subjects him to experiences both bizarre and terrifying; travel scams, nightmarish bus rides, rescue by stray dogs, and encounters with all kinds of offbeat travelers.

Disarmingly honest and with a refreshing sense of comedy, O'Connell is unashamedly on a spiritual quest: a spiritual quest through ?swamps of his own cynicism and doubt'.

Think Eric Newby meets The Snow Leopard; think philosophy confronts the ordinary bloke.