In the summer of 2006, one traveller set out on a grand tour from a civilisation in twilight to others on the rise. From a fading Athens, the cradle of the West, he journeyed to the pulsating heart of China and the chaotic soul of India, ancient worlds at a moment of historic transformation. Two slumbering tigers poised to awaken. He wandered through landscapes of aching beauty, explored sacred temples and opulent palaces, and savoured a world of strange, delicious flavours. But among the wonders, something was amiss. A faint crack in the façade, a troubling question that refused to be silenced. Part love letter to the East, part reckoning with a new century, this is a travel memoir of a journey that was as deeply unsettling as it was sublime.