Himalaya with Michael Palin1 (1 of 27)

Himalaya with Michael Palin

My journey begins in one of the most lawless border areas in the world - the North-West Frontier.
Many have tried to control it.
Few have succeeded.
I'm at the top of the Khyber Pass on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Through here have come great armies - Alexander the Great, Darius the Persian, Tamburlaine the Great and, in 1842, the lone survivor of the British Army's attempt to pacify Afghanistan came staggering up this road to announce the annihilation of 17,000 of his comrades.
The reason for such a concentration of history here is that from the west, this is the only way through this colossal range of mountains that eventually becomes the Himalaya.

0ur route runs the length of the Himalaya - from Pakistan, India and Nepal across into Tibet and China, south into Assam and Bhutan and into Bangladesh, where the mud of the mountains enters the Bay of Bengal.
We start on the Khyber Railway - pushed through the mountains by the British 80 years ago.
- A lot of tunnels, aren't there? - 32 tunnels.
(WHISTLE BLOWS) The engine's older than the railway - it was built in 1916.
The driver's a lot younger.
70 years ago, this train would have been full of British soldiers taking a last unregretful look at one of the most inhospitable postings on earth.
Glaring heat, bare rock-faces.
Home today to the mansions of the local warlords.
Like many small, spectacular railways, it owes its survival more to love than business.
What brings you up the Khyber today? - I am a regular visitor.
- Oh, right.
- I just came from Dubai.
- From Dubai? Yes.
This morning.