''Asia Overland'' by Mark Elliott and Wil Klass was an idiosyncratic book of the 1990s which developed a minor

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic ...

amongst backpackers in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

and the

former Soviet Union The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

. Although it has been out of print since 2002, the book remains a talking point amongst older travellers. Its unique feature was that practical information was displayed in a set of schematic 'treasure maps' rather than in run-on text, a style later replicated in certain other books by

Trailblazer A trailblazer is a person who is paving the way in their particular field for future generations. Trailblazer may refer to: Sports * Derby Trailblazers, a British semi-professional basketball team * North Carolina Trailblazers, a US women's rec ...

,.Amazon.co.uk: Reviews for South-East Asia (Trailblazer): Books: Mark Elliott
/ref> Between maps, the book's writing offered a way to inspire questions and investigation more than providing answers in the style of more classic

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen Wheeler, Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 19 ...

style guides. The guide gained a certain notoriety by explaining 'tricks' for crossing ex-Soviet borders semi-legally, for reaching Iraqi Kurdistan when that area was still little known to exist, and for getting into North Korea without a visa. Today these tips appear extremely foolhardy but at the time the book was written (largely pre-Internet) they worked and caused much excitement amongst travellers of the era. Despite considerable interest from the public, there has been no follow-up edition and at times second-hand copies of the original edition have been offered at relatively exorbitant prices on Amazon and eBay.

Trivia

The book contains several hidden in-jokes including 'towns' on maps named after friends of the authors (Bakus, Danigrad etc.). ''Asia Overland'' was the first practical guide book in English to cover the ex-Soviet Caucasus region after the breakup of the USSR. * Page count = 567 * Map count = 452 * Publisher =

* Publishing date = 1998

References

{{reflist Travel guide books Books about Asia British travel books English non-fiction books