Baker proved once again that he missed his calling earlier in life and that he could have been a professor or a teacher, as he skillfully wove the histories of the countries and their cultures into a guided tour that took participants into the cities and back roads of the countries.

Baker set up each country before entering it with pertinent information so the audience would understand what they were seeing in the narrated video that began in India.

“India has a population of 1,125,000,000 people, over 17 per cent of the world’s population and its largest democracy,” he said as he guided the audiences in and out of villages, houses, markets, businesses, government buildings and countless monasteries. The group relived Baker’s experiences with the culture, the smells, the food, the animals and in reality what life is like in those countries whose lifestyles are so atypical to the West.

Baker explained the successes of the countries. “India is on of the top 10 industrial powers of the world. There is a new middle class of 200 million who live between the very affluent and the abjectly poor.” And he shared the failures. “Child abuse is rampant.” And he explained the dichotomy between people living as they did in Biblical times compared with majestic palaces in all the countries of the tour.

The travellers saw and smelled the Darjeeling tea plantations in India. In Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, the group had an opportunity to visit a country Westerners were only allowed to enter until 1974 and that continues to control the number of tourists it allows in.

Baker explained the turbulent history of Nepal and why it is on the United States travel warning list. He cited staggering information about one of the poorest counties of the world where the average wage is $275 a year and parents feel forced to sell their children to human traffickers to be able to take care of the rest of the family. In spite of the squalor, however, he emphasized the many exotic temples in the country that is the gateway to Mount Everest.

By the end of the presentation the audience had a better understanding not only of the remote countries we generally only hear about on the news and in movies, but also of the varied religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam and saw how they play such an important role in the daily lives of the people. From prayer flags and prayer wheels to public prayers on mats and ornate monasteries, Baker has put together a veritable course, not just a tour, of life and culture in the Himalayas.