July 2, 2003
Remembering the Hippie Trail
For independent travelers just now beginning to travel in Asia, the legendary overland "Hippie Trail" of the '60s and '70s is a natural source of fascination and envy. Unlike today's Lonely Planet-toting backpackers, the counterculture wanderers of the hippie era pioneered their Asian routes by word-of-mouth and trial-and-error. Hence, in indie travel terms, Hippie Trail travelers are to present day backpackers what the Ancient Greeks were to the Ancient Romans: larger-than-life legends, who once wandered a wilder world.
Legends can exaggerate, however -- and that's why it's nice to have a book like David Tomory's A Season in Heaven: True Tales from the Road to Kathmandu, an oral history that sheds a personal, realistic light on the Hippie Trail. In interviewing 35 people who once wandered the roads between Istanbul and Kathmandu, Tomory reveals the complexities within the travel culture of this era. After all, the Hippie Trail wasn't the first independent travel phenomenon in modern Asia; it was the first mass independent travel phenomenon in modern Asia. And, like any mass movement, the Hippie Trail was defined as much by its reputation as its reality.
Thus, while hippie-era wanderers were creative, intrepid pioneers in a certain sense, they also tended to be petty, competitive, self-ghettoizing, and self-deluding. In short, they had the same charms and weaknesses as any self-conscious, authenticity-seeking counterculture movement of the last half-century -- including the travel-hipsters of today. Behind the pretensions of the "movement", however, were real travelers, having private, inspiring, life-changing experiences -- and that's what Tomory's book best reveals.
Before I get into the narrative details of A Season in Heaven, I might point out that the book represents a purely Western-slanted look at the Hippie Trail. Asian locals at the time -- while friendly enough -- were not known to have been terribly impressed with hippie seekers: Indian writer Gita Mehta has referred to the Hippie Trail as "that long line of loonies", and V.S. Naipaul wrote off hippie fascination with Hinduism as a "sentimental wallow". Western expatriates and Asia-experts living along the Hippie Trail at the time were just as sardonic -- and the New York Times had reported as early as 1968 that "Laos has grown disenchanted with the flower power folk, Thailand will not let them in without a haircut, and Japan now requires a bond of $250 as proof of financial stability."
Thus, in interviewing only the Westerners who took part in the Hippie Trail, Tomory's account is more of a nostalgic dialogue amongst middle-class travelers than it is a balanced social history of the movement. Still, it vividly captures the mindset of the young people who dropped all in the '60s and '70 to optimistically wander across Asia.
Much like travelers today, the motivation for Hippie Trail wanderers was the allure of exotic countries (Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal) and the opportunity to get away from the politicized environment of home. Unlike current travelers, there wasn't much practical information available about Asia, or what to do when you got there. One of Tomory's interview subjects journeyed off from England under the impression that in India "you could live in the forest, eat berries, meditate in a cave, wander around naked or do whatever you felt like and nobody would take a blind bit of notice because everyone innately understood what you were doing." With expectations like this, it's no wonder that the people of India were baffled and bewildered by their young Western guests.
Though the quest for Eastern spirituality is a big part of the Hippie Trail myth, Tomory writes that the movement was more about seeking freedom from the moral and social restraints of home. True to the rock-n-roll ethos of the time, the presumed availability of sex and drugs in Asia was a big travel motivation -- and this naturally lent to the hipster allure. "It you were really hip -- it was like being the first to wear a minidress -- you went to India," recalls one German interviewee.
With the hipster reputation, of course, came hipster pretensions. "In Kabul you saw all the people on their way back from India," reports traveler Carmel Lyons. "The fashion was prayer shawls, the whole look, pyjamas and beads and drifting fabrics and waistcoats and bare feet and harem pants. And god, they were arrogant."
The root of arrogance, it seems, was often money -- the lack of which was seen as a sign of true travel experience and virtue. Naturally, this attitude ignored the fact that relative economic prosperity in the West was what enabled all those temporarily jobless young people to travel in the first place. Thus, Tomory notes, the Hippie Trail travelers who had money pretended not to, and legends abounded as to how cheaply one could wander across Asia. One storied Englishman is said to have hitched from Damascus to Delhi on just $6. In theory this was indeed a remarkable feat, though it infers that people happily exploited Asian hospitality in order to facilitate subcultural pissing contests. (After all, that storied hitchhiker could well have stayed an extra month in England washing dishes and traveled from Damascus to Delhi in a way that benefited local bus drivers and restaurant owners).
At the root of this traveler onedownsmanship lurked the fact that Hippie Trail travel was unavoidably difficult; dangers and sickness abounded ("Ah, Kabul," one traveler remembers people bragging, "that's where you found the real dysentery"). Unlike the travelers of today, travelers had to carry all their cash with them at once, and they often languished for months in flophouse hotels waiting for money transfers to come through. News from home was hard to come by, and travelers' families often gave them up for dead (at times -- far more often then than now -- travelers did wind up dead). According to one of Tomory's respondents, travelers had to contend with "traffic accidents, robbers, corrupt officials, bisexual rapists, filthy quarantine camps, Russian cholera vaccine, loss of sanity and, of course, their own penury."
By comparison, today's travelers -- warned, wired, and ATM-ready -- have it easy. Still, it would be an exaggeration to say (as many veterans of the era do) that the hippie epoch was peopled by purer, nobler travelers than we see today. Like present-day backpackers, Hippie Trail wanderers frequently stuck to traveler ghettos -- often the same hotels in the same cities: Gulhane or Yener's in Istanbul; Amir Kabir in Teheran; the whatsisname in Kabul; the Crown in Delhi; the Modern Lodge in Calcutta; the Matchbox and the Hotchpotch in Kathmandu. "Every city of the route had a budget foreigner quarter," writes Tomory, "and everyone passed [hotel] names to everyone else." Indeed, as exotic as the scenery was, the Hippie Trail was often a static succession of dorms, drugs, and familiar faces.
Moreover Asia may not have been in the grips of globalization during the '60s and '70s -- but there is ample evidence that the young travelers of that era were the ones who first introduced it. By the early seventies, Bollywood had produced a hippie-themed Indian musical called Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, and travelers were reporting Jimi Hendrix-style Afro wigs for sale in the furrier's market of Kabul. (And, for all the disdain heaped upon the pizza-n-burger menus of today's Asian guesthouses, the anomaly of Western food in Eastern settings may well trace its origin to the likes of Siggi's Restaurant in Kabul, which served schnitzel and potato salad for homesick hippie palates.)
Ultimately, then, Tomory's book reveals that the Hippie Trail was not the stuff of legends, but of normal, curious, intrepid people who were making do within the travel conditions of their time. Asia has certainly changed a lot in the years since then -- as has the technology that helps us travel there -- but the discoveries it offers are still found on a personal level, apart from the labels that attempt to define the experience.
Comments (20)
fascinating post, rolf. thanks.
Posted by jim | July 3, 2003 11:16 AM
Posted on July 3, 2003 11:16
What?
No ATM's, no Internet cafes, no Lonely Planet guidebooks?
Yep. 'Tis all true. I stayed in Yener's in Istanbul in 1974 but moved over to the Gunger; it was only 65 cents a day!
But I was not traveling for spritual enlightenment, I was only looking for cheap hash.
Ah, to be 18 again...(sigh)
Posted by Joe E. | July 8, 2003 8:58 PM
Posted on July 8, 2003 20:58
Yeah, the legend of The Hippie Trail may be exaggerated, but my trip in 1969 from Copenhagen to Kathmandu definitely influenced the rest of my life!
Posted by Erik P. | July 10, 2003 2:42 PM
Posted on July 10, 2003 14:42
Hey Rolf,
I'm traveling in Nepal this summer...and have found myself constantly thinking and fantasizing about the old Asia Overland days... and wishing for more information and stories from that time.
Clicked into your site last evening, found the post about Tomory's book, wandered next door from the Internet cafe to a bookstore (I'm in Pokhara), bought a used copy of it, and stayed up all night reading it.
The only other account of the hippie trail I've found so far is a weak, slightly veiled autobiographical novel by Dorthy Mierow called "Kathmandu, Treks, and Hippies Too." She came here overland, joined the Peace Corp, and stayed on for 30 years until she died... seems to be a local hero in Pokhara among the Nepalis.
She includes some Nepali perspectives on the hippies, as well as how they mixed or clashed with aid workers and missionaries who had already been here.
She also brings up (which is only hinted at in Tomory's book) the anti-American feelings during that time. I for some reason thought that this was a problem unique to my generation of American backpackers thanks to Clinton and Bush. She writes that other European backpackers and many of the nationals where they traveled would go after Americans because of the Vietnam War. In Tomory's book, Indian's were angry with Americans for Nixon's support of Pakistan during the 1971-72 War, and kept asking US backpackers if they were CIA. This summer most Western backpackers and many Nepalis (even touts) feel the need to bring up the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq within about two minutes of starting a conversation.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I've been checking the bookshops in Pokhara and Kathmandu for your Vagabonding book, but no luck yet... a few more months perhaps. I should have brought a few copies with me to start pollinating the shops here with.
Posted by Adam | July 12, 2003 11:49 PM
Posted on July 12, 2003 23:49
Thanks everyone for the comments. And Erik, thanks for the link to your old Hippie Trail photo gallery. Fascinating stuff. Joe, you might be interested in reading Tomory's book, as it pretty much concurs with you that Asia travelers were seeking intoxication as much or more than enlightenment back then.
Adam -- great to hear that you're on the road this summer (and let me know if you ever do find copies of Vagabonding floating around India; I've started to see a few turn up in Thailand). I'll have to keep an eye out myself for Mierow's book. Cleo Odzer wrote a Hippie Trail memoir called Goa Freaks that is supposed to capture the self-absorbed decadence of the drug scene back then. (Though Odzer's Patpong Sisters, which is about Thai prostitution, ranks as one of the worst books I've ever read -- so don't expect much from her prose.)
Indeed, Tomory didn't deal much with how Asian locals saw the hippies -- though I'm not surprised that the drug-addled Westerners didn't always fare so well in the eyes of natives. I got the impression that one drawback of not having guidebooks was that backpackers back then had no clue about local cultural norms, so they just kind of projected their own fantasies onto the locals. And it was probably not always the best strategy to "wander around naked or do whatever you felt like" in lands that in ways were far more conservative than the lands the hippies were running away from.
As for anti-American feelings mentioned by Mierow in the Hippie Trail era, I've heard similar sentiments from other contemporary reports. In his anthropological study The Tourist, Dean MacCannell also talks about the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, and how American hitchhikers in Europe would scrawl "Canadian Student" on their destination cards to better their chances of getting rides. (Indeed, this isn't the first generation American backpackers have tried the "I'm Canadian, not American" ruse!)
Posted by Rolf | July 13, 2003 3:12 AM
Posted on July 13, 2003 03:12
i love the traveller stories and hippie trails but just wanted to know the answer of this question...- What does one do after expierencing a long journey or travel and what does one do after returning.....the same old life...
alwayz wondered...........
Posted by shivaan | July 23, 2003 4:44 AM
Posted on July 23, 2003 04:44
Rolf,
Thanks for highlighting Tomory's great book. I traveled the trail during 1968-70 and knew at least one of the contributors in the book-Jasper Newsome(although I knew him as Ram Giri-his Indian sadhu name). People like Jasper and the others like him I met then were unlike any I�ve come across since; real trail blazers on the �Hippie Trail�. I think it�s important to note that the Hippie Trail evolved out of the European Beatnik(known as the �Beats�)scene (Americans didn�t start showing up in great numbers until the late sixties) which had been traveling to Istanbul, Matala(Crete), Ibiza, Morocco since the early 60s. While many of these were part or full-time University students, others had dropped out and supported themselves with seasonal work and/or dope dealing. There were also a lot of junkies and their quest revolved of course around finding cheap dope-you could buy an ampoule of pharmaceutical morphine in India for about ten cents and the country was saturated with opium.
Posted by Geoff | July 26, 2003 6:38 PM
Posted on July 26, 2003 18:38
Hi Rolf -
I haven't read Tomory's book yet, but I will order it as soon as possible. Recently, I have translated my illustrated article about The Hippie Trail into English, which might interest some of the old veterans. The address is www.ponty.dk/hippietr.htm
Regards from Erik Pontoppidan, Copenhagen, Denmark
(on the hippie trail in 1969)
Posted by Erik Pontoppidan | September 10, 2003 1:56 AM
Posted on September 10, 2003 01:56
I started out on the hippie trial in '68, got waylayed in Istanbul for over a year, and that changed the course of the rest of my life. I did eventually make it to Asia, though not in the relevant time period. I thoroughly enjoyed your photos from '69, Erik P. Those were amazing times. Pianoseeds
Posted by Pat Seeds | September 25, 2003 8:52 PM
Posted on September 25, 2003 20:52
Hello Rolf and Others: Terrific review which prompted me to buy Tomory's book. I'm writing a book on Afghanistan in the 20th century and am searching for 2 bits of info - any help would BE GREATLY APPREECIATED: (1). can someone tell me the history of Siggi's in Kabul?What finally happened to it? and (2). T. Leary was arrested at Kabul Airport in Jan. 1973, coming I believe from Iran (Tomory mentions him being in Mashad). I'd love to know which airline he got off from.....Thanks. I'm a prof at Univ. of New Hampshire, USA. Please answer to mwherold@cisunix.unh.edu . Marc Herold
Posted by marc herold | November 10, 2003 12:41 PM
Posted on November 10, 2003 12:41
Yeah it was a trip. I went from Canada to Nepal and back for about $1000,00 and I never exploited any of the locals. This trip did totally change my life but I got separated from a person name Vincent Hubert (US) in Goa. Anyone seen him???? - Lou
Posted by Lou Wilson | December 6, 2003 7:18 AM
Posted on December 6, 2003 07:18
Some of my exploits where written about in this book Let Sleeping Dogs Lie page 186. I sent many Tibetan Mastiffs to every major city in the US loaded with hash. I also sent a Tibetan pony as well as Lesser Pandas and Himalyan Bears as well all loaded with the finest Nepali cream. I have written a book about my days in Nepali its called the King of Nepal. www.kingofnepal.net
Posted by Will | December 14, 2003 3:24 PM
Posted on December 14, 2003 15:24
Hi, over to Laos & Thailand in a couple of weeks and am looking for hippie places to visit & relax for a while. Any suggestions appreciated. Alex
Posted by alex | November 5, 2005 2:42 AM
Posted on November 5, 2005 02:42
I first travelled that road in 1968 - from the UK to Australia. The reverse trip in 1970 and a repeat of the first trip in 1972. All without a Lonely Planet guidebook. It wasn't all about hippies! There were many people who were just travelling from Australia to Europe and v.v. - who looked upon the hippies as freaks who went to India to get cheap drugs. After that the trip was taken over by Magic Buses carrying people with lots of money and no sense.
Posted by Bob | June 4, 2006 3:16 AM
Posted on June 4, 2006 03:16
Just read the book review above, and yes, guilty as charged.
I traveled out of Istanbul in '68 via Tehran, Kabul and 'Pindi, ended up in the Crown Hotel Delhi.
Met a guy called Mike and we walked in Afghanistan and sat on the back of a truck grinding it's way over the mountains in the snow on our way to Chitral in Northern Pakistan.
So many memories but so few with any reasonable focus, it would be so good to have a dialogue with similar souls in order to shed a bit more light on such a life changing experience.
Any of you out there?
Posted by John Bailey | December 14, 2007 12:19 AM
Posted on December 14, 2007 00:19
I was going to take the Hippie Trail in 1968, but got busted in Istanbul with 30 grams of hash and spent the next five years there instead (I am called Eric in "Midnight Express, not a very good movie...). So all got is the stories of all my friends who made it to India.
Posted by Bengt O Bjorklund | January 1, 2008 3:57 PM
Posted on January 1, 2008 15:57
What memories come flooding back reading this site. We were not all searching for either enlightenment or drugs - some of us just wanted to travel and see something different. and it didn't come much more different than Afghanistan in those days. The tribal lands at the top of the Khyber Pass were unforgetable and no words could really explain what it was like. And yes no mobile phones, no email no cheap flights boy did we have a good time
Posted by sylvia | January 7, 2008 3:47 PM
Posted on January 7, 2008 15:47
What memories come flooding back reading this site. We were not all searching for either enlightenment or drugs - some of us just wanted to travel and see something different. and it didn't come much more different than Afghanistan in those days. The tribal lands at the top of the Khyber Pass were unforgetable and no words could really explain what it was like. And yes no mobile phones, no email no cheap flights boy did we have a good time
Posted by sylvia | January 7, 2008 3:47 PM
Posted on January 7, 2008 15:47
Not all of us were druggies in search of a cheap source. 40 years later I still recall the sky in Herat, the vivid colours of the buses, the nobility and arrogance of the hill tribesmen, and the splendour of the Kyber Pass.
And for those package holiday seekers who fly in and spend time surrounded by the hotels in Ko Samui, I remember when it was just miles of empty beaches, trees full of monkeys, and the sheer pleasure of having no-one else around for weeks. To get there you didn't fly, you took the overnight train from bangkok, shared Mekong whisky with all and sundry, got off at Surit Thani, took the bus to Bandon, and then the leaky old ferry across to the island.
I was a traveller, and for 4 years of my life I tried to understand the world I was living in.
Inevitably, that journey and the people I met, travellers and locals, changed my outlook on life in many ways.
To all I shall be eternally grateful.
Posted by David | January 16, 2008 11:23 AM
Posted on January 16, 2008 11:23
sylvia, i wish you had left somewhere to contact you. tho there were women on the road, there werent all that many of us. contact me if you read this again. india-afghanistan-india-afghanistan and then india india india 1968-1975. I live here in india now, again. oh yes, how it changed our lives.
Posted by cubby | January 30, 2008 11:50 AM
Posted on January 30, 2008 11:50