My mount needed considerable encouragement. As we finally got into gear, I put up my pink parasol with a pop, frightening the donkey so much that we nearly got to the top at full gallop. Who else but Lydia Laube would climb the Great Wall of China on a donkey waving a pink parasol? Slow Boat to Mongolia is a hilarious account of her travels by ship, train and bone-shaking bus through Indonesia and China on her way to the almost mythical Outer Mongolia.