This book is dedicated to the people of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal, who showed me the way, fed me, protected me, housed me and made this walk possible.  They were not all saints, though some of them were.  A number were greedy, idle, stupid, hypocritical, insensitive, mendacious, ignorant and cruel.  Some of them had robbed or killed others; many of them threatened me and begged from me.  But never in twenty-one months of travel did they attempt to kidnap or kill me.  I was alone and a stranger, walking in very remote areas; I represented a cluture that many of them hated and I was carrying enough money to save or at least transform their lives.  In more than five hundred village houses, I was indulged, fed, nursed, and protected by people poorer, hungrier, sicker and more vulnerable than myself.  Almost every group I met: Sunni Kurds, Shia Hazara, Punjabi Christians, Sikhs, Brahmins of Kedarnath, Garwhal Dalits and Newari Buddhists, gave me hospitality without any though of reward.  I owe this journey and my life to them.