Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains cover art

Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains

Misadventures on a Buddhist Pilgrimage

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains

By: Paul Barach
Narrated by: Paul Barach
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Age 28 and fed up with the office job he settled for, Paul Barach decided to travel to Japan to follow a vision he had in college: to walk the ancient 750-mile Shikoku pilgrimage trail.

Here are some things he did not decide to do: learn Japanese, do any research, road test his hiking shoes, or check if it's the hottest summer in history.

And he went anyway, hoping to change his life.

Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is the absurd and dramatic journey of one impulsive American's search for answers on a holy path in an exotic land. Along the pathway connecting 88 Buddhist temples, he'll face arduous mountain climbs, hide from guards in a toilet stall, challenge a priest to a mountaintop karate battle, and other misadventures.

He'll also delve into the fascinating legends of this ancient land, including a dragon-fighting holy man, a berserker warrior-priest, haunted temples, and a vendetta-driven ghost that overthrew a dynasty.

Told with humor and humility, Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is a funny, engaging memoir about the consequences of impulsive decisions, and the things you can discover while you're looking for something else.

Also, that boars are terrifying in person.

©2014 Paul Barach (P)2015 Paul Barach Asia Travel Writing & Commentary Haunted Funny Witty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Home Is Forward cover art
Motorcycle Therapy cover art
Addison Cooke and the Tomb of the Khan cover art
Sinning Across Spain cover art
Double Forté cover art
Jadoo cover art
Yoga of Max's Discontent cover art
Mind the Gap in Zip-It Socks cover art
The Bone Man of Benares cover art
Full Moon over Noah's Ark cover art
Through Sand & Snow cover art
The Great Spring cover art
Doofus Dad Does Everest Base Camp cover art
The Nameless Dark cover art
What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim cover art
Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Good story but awful echo/reverb on the first few chapters made this very hard to listen too

Awful echo's in the first few chapters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I appreciate the story, but this did not seem like a journey worth writing a book about. Perhaps a blog post with pictures would have sufficed.

Ok listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.