Classic Hippy Trails of the 60s and 70s

Hi......
Yes there was a trail ..... We started from anywhere in Europe and go to Istambul ... stay around for a while .. Get on a old bedford bus or on turkish buses ... Cross Turky ... Then Iran ... Still the Sha there , electrics bulbs and nearly mini skirts ... a shock after Erevan emptiness ...Then to Mashad - the blue mosk ... Then enter Afghanistan ... Herat - stay for a good while ... the samovar for hot water , the wood for the stove , the green tea ... and the rest ... The littles horses running on the frozen tracks , and their bells cling, cling ,in the black night.... and then Kandahar for Christmas eve ... tchai shops for rest , afghans , mostly friendly, sometimes very rudes . the snow in Kabul - chicken street which still exist ...The Kyber pass in a bus - frozen to the bones ..and Kyber pass- and then going down to Peshawar and Pakistan --- I am a woman - and friend traveller on each side ..and one at the back too .. and train to India- with police for body guard ...Happy new year at the indian border ...slow slow India , after Pakistan ... You get the visas on the way and it take a month from Istambul going cool ..
This was the seventies . no guide book , no guest houses ...just the ones for travellers - locals - informations were running along . Boards in some places , restaurants for freaks ... many people go with their own car , down to Goa . Sometimes with their dogs ...
I did it twice . Came back from Delhi to the french Italian border with 10 us $... No way to do it again ......You still can manage from Turky to Iran , then south Iran to south Pakistan ....but .... Why do you want to know ?
Milene ///

#2 Your post got the nostalgia flowing! Maybe we were on the same bus going through the Khyber pass in 1974 ! Indeed, no guide books, most info was passed on by other travellers, a treat to meet other(rarely seen ) travellers en route, no internet, waiting in the queue at poste restantes in cities and towns for news of home and the world, no visas needed for commonwealth citizens in India/Pakistan, the steamer still sailing Bombay-Goa(35/- deck class, fish curry and Bingo in the evenings !) and to Ceylon, Goa, the place to rest up and enjoy the unspoilt empty beaches, rent 1/2 a house for Rs200/- A month from a fisher family. ( including daily free fresh fish and a 1/4 bottle of caju fenny a week !) a walk to Anjuna every sunday for the flea market where everyone who was staying in Goa would turn up (100 or so !) Hampi , found by accident, no one there, pick your own ruin to sleep in, Gokarn just the 4 of us there and no one would let us pay for our room or food.................... Happy days! PS have you been back recently?

OP Obviously the wars in Afghanistan and tensions in Iran have made the journey less easy, and in the case of Afghanistan , just too risky. Iran was always, despite the friendliness and hospitality of many, hard travelling, especially for women.Eastern Turkey seemed like the end of the world, really bleak and primitive villages, so, so cold in the winter but unfotunately not cold enough to freeze the bed bugs, they were voracious ! Afghanistan was the real highlight for me , a country frozen in time ,the people just amazing. That opportunity of being able to travel risk free around the country, Mazar i sharif, Bamiyan in the spring( wonderful!) the spin baldek pass into Baluchistan , has now gone ,of course.

# 3 ... Yes , that is funny ... Still travelling since then I never met anybody who have been on this trail ...Maybe we were around together because I was in Afghanistan in Dec 74 .....Maybe you have been one of my fellow-body guard on the Pakistan trail... or on the steamer to Goa ... Sleeping on the deck with the rats running around .. No , no back overland-route since then ... But still travelling - for sure - in south east Asia and India . South India now ... Going to Gokarna in a week ... No have been there since 15 years too ... I am ready to cope . Internet still pretty slow there ... my friends say ..
Travelling is such an other thing now ... And the change has been very fast ... But India still enough indian to take you back to oldies times ... I mean: south indian buses are still the same even if you get a computer ticket and the timing in the bible ...
So, still happy days .....

Milene -

The two that ferried most of us over water to Goa then, were named "Konkan Shakti" & "Konkan Sevak" - WoW you even got the fares and activities right and I thought I was the only one alive having to survive such an accursed accurate memory.

A time when lyrics such as "Imagine there's no country" and "No need to kill or die for" ruled .....

Alas I guess eventually sooner or later reality sets in ....