Nepal

The Great Himalayan Passage, by Michel Peissel (1975). Peissel ventures to the Himalayas of Nepal on a two-year expedition to be the first to travel the vast land on Hovercraft, to learn the ways of the people along the Kali Gandaki river, and to discover who built the "skyscraper-like networks of caves dug out by some long-forgotten race into the cliffs in Mustang."

Shopping for Buddhas, by Jeff Greenwald (1996). On a quest in Kathmandu for the perfect statue of Buddha, writer Jeff Greenwald describes his adventures—with a flying lama, an electrocuted crow, and Kathmandu's first escalator—with humor and a traveler's eye. He yields insight into Nepalese religion and art, yet doesn't shy away from mentioning the smuggling and human rights abuses that plague the country as well.

*The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen (1978). Matthiessen is a multi-task traveler. In this book—one of many fine ones he's written—he and zoologist friend George Schaller trek through Nepal in physical search of Himalayan blue sheep and the rare snow leopard, and in spiritual search (Matthiessen is a Zen Buddhist) of the Lama of Shey at the ancient Buddhist shrine on Crystal Mountain. Enlightenment, anyone?