For most of us, the word ‘hippie’ is associated with images
from the 1960s-70s, of Westerners – long-haired white men and women – clad in
semi-tattered psychedelic clothing, smoking weed, chilling out on the beaches
of Goa, dancing to their own beat and generally not giving a damn. An article
from the July 7, 1967 issue of Time magazine puts it succinctly: ‘Whatever
their meaning and wherever they may be headed, the hippies have emerged on the
US scene in about 18 months as a wholly new subculture, a bizarre permutation
of the middle-class American ethos from which it evolved. Hippies preach
altruism and mysticism, honesty, joy and non-violence. They find an almost
childish fascination in beads, blossoms and bells, blinding strobe lights and
ear-shattering music, exotic clothing and erotic slogans.’
In those heady ‘flower power’ days, when American
psychologist and author Timothy Leary was exhorting people to ‘turn on, tune
in, drop out,’ Europe was also getting in on the act. Powered by hashish and
with visions of freedom from the shackles of Western society and the pressures
to conform, starry-eyed young people (alright, some were actually not all that
young…) clambered on to rickety buses and Volkswagen vans to drive the ‘hippie
trail,’ which went via Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, finally culminating
in either Goa, India or Kathmandu, Nepal. All you need is love, sang the
Beatles, as the hippies journeyed in the hopes of finding free love, peace and
enlightenment.
The hippie movement was a unique counterculture phenomenon
of the 1960s-70s and many who hit the hippie trail back then lived to tell
their stories via the books they went on to write. Some, who missed the bus
back then (by virtue of having been born much later, when the movement had
already died out) have chosen to recreate the journey, in an attempt to
experience some of what those early hippies may have experienced. Again, some
very interesting books have been written. (Of course, much of the old ‘hippie
trail’ overland route from Europe to India is now inaccessible due to the
prevailing situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but some people either find a
way or an alternative route.)
So, for those who may be fascinated with hippie
culture and the adventures undertaken on the hippie trail all those years ago,
here is my list of books that will help you live the hippie life without
getting anywhere near an old, beat-up Volkswagen minibus. Since one can’t
actually rewind the clock and go back to the 1960s-70s, reading these books just
have to be the next best thing you can do if you happen to be interested in the hippie life. This is part 1 of my two-part list
of the must-read books on life on the hippie trail.
Overland Before the Hippie Trail: Kathmandu and Beyond witha Van a Man and No Plan
by Patricia Noble Sullivan
‘As they drove through the hot flat Iraqi desert, Patricia
looked over at her husband. He was guzzling water; sweat was running down his
neck; the outside temperature was way over 100; and their 1963 VW camper van
had no air conditioning.’ ‘Yikes,’ she thought. ‘This is not how I pictured our
honeymoon.’ It was August of 1966. They had gone to Europe the previous summer
after their wedding, and that trip had stretched into a two-year adventure that
took them around the world on a bare-bones budget. In those days with no mobile
phones, no Internet, and limited maps, they were out of contact with family for
months at a time while dodging a cholera epidemic in Iraq, staying in a palace
in Pakistan, meeting with a maharaja in his stately home in India, and floating
on a barge down the Mekong River in Laos. The journey had become a way of life
as they found themselves drawn into a culture of international overland
travellers while exploring a world that was large, varied, and filled with
people who were curious, welcoming, and generous,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘The world seemed bigger then. It took longer to get from
one point to another. Differences between cultures were more pronounced, and of
the course the amount of information people now have at their fingertips was
not available then. We not only had no computers, Internet or cell phones, we
had no backpacked guidebooks with their detailed maps and explanations of
out-of-the-way places. On the road, telephones were hard to find, expensive,
and difficult to use for international calls. To receive mail, we had to plan
weeks or months ahead, usually by notifying our families of the address of
either Thomas Cook & Son or an American Express office, two businesses that
would hold mail for travellers,’ says the author. So, as you might expect, this
is a full-blown, old-fashioned adventure from simpler times. Go ahead, pick up
a copy for a whole new perspective on life.
Overland Before the Hippie Trail is available on Amazon
The Hippie Trail – 1974: Dover to Delhi the Hard Way
by Simon Sharpe
‘Simon Sharpe travelled the hippie trail in the summer of
1974 and then sat down with a cassette tape recorder one year later before
memory faded. His recently discovered tape recordings bring us his descriptive
memories of the countries, cheap hotels, the food, the cultural divides, the
local people and the western adventurers for whom this was a significant part
of their youth experience. Simon collected all his bus, coach and train tickets
as well as his passport stamps and visas on display in this book. Full of
anecdotes and sharp observations of the people he met, Simon also includes
adventurers from his own family history in the 19th and 20th centuries to
create a fascinating refection on his own motives for travelling. He asks the
awkward question, to what extent western youth, travelling through those
strictly observant Muslim countries may have inadvertently changed the politics
of the region,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘I had better tell you now, this is not a tale of meeting
drug dealers in Middle Eastern back alleys or of days spent in a cannabis coma
or opium haze. I had twelve weeks of freedom that summer, before college began,
and travel on the hippie trail was the intoxicating thought too great to miss.
So, what was your motivation for travelling the hippie trail? For motivation
would guide your experiences. Mine was pure escapism and adventure,’ says the
author.
The Hippie Trail – 1974: Dover to Delhi the Hard Way is available on Amazon
Blazing the Hippie Trail in 1959: Calcutta to London on £10
by Gerry Virtue
Note: This book is also known as On the Road with Geoff and Jules –
Adventures on the Early Hippie Trail 1959-60
‘Christmas 1959. Calcutta. Gerry is stranded in the
Salvation Army Hostel. He meets Geoff, an eccentric loner. Only a few pounds
between them. How to get to Europe overland? No money for a plane; no internet;
no guide books; no ATMs; no clear options. Across Asia to Europe by land. But
how? There must be roads, sure to be, but which one’s the right one? Can you
hitch-hike? What about buses and trains? Nobody seems to know. There are no
hippies, so there’s no such thing as the hippie trail. Nobody will even hear
about hippies for another five or six years, It’s all a bit chancy, really. But
they give it a go,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘Mixing it with oddballs,
con-men, magnificently decorated generals, a family of wrestlers, and
eccentrics of all stripes, they freeze in the Himalayas, upset the
military-industrialists in Darjeeling, bathe their sins away in the Ganges, get
arrested in Afghanistan, dodge the Shah’s SAVAK in Teheran, rid themselves of
lice in Istanbul, have a splendid party in Macedonia, and fetch up finally in
1960s London in a base across the road from the Sun in Splendour pub on
Portobello Road. All on ten pounds,’ it adds.
A small excerpt from the book: It was Christmas eve 1959,
and we were in the communal sitting room of the Salvation Army hostel on Sudder
Street, Calcutta. There were others there like myself, a small, scruffy and
haphazard collection of wanderers from various parts of the world. With its
Christmas tree, decorations and fussy English missionaries, the Sallie’s hostel
was a haven. Although mostly godless and shabby, we got along well enough with
the missionaries. There is something about such gatherings; everybody is a
stranger and everybody is passing through, yet there’s a camaraderie. There are
outrageous travellers’ tales and a constant exchange of information. Free
doss-houses, black market currency dealers, porous borders, temples that
welcome travellers, suppliers of bogus student cards, and a hundred other items
of vital interest to those with little money and big itineraries…’
Blazing the Hippie Trail in 1959: Calcutta to London on £10 is available on Amazon
Bom Bom: A Wacky Hippie Trail Adventure
by Mark A. Tesoriero
‘Bom Bom is an adventure story of living in and surviving the seventies. A
young Aussie and his mate leave their rock’n’roll lifestyle to campervan around
Europe and then backpack the hippie trail home. Twelve months later they
arrived in Bangkok broke, and set off in very different directions. One to life
back home, and the other to further adventure. Join them on their amazingly
crazy road trip through places and head spaces that defined a time,’ says the
publisher’s note.
‘In the 1960s and 1970s tens of thousands of young Australians headed overseas
on the big adventure. Some ended up in ‘Kangaroo Valley’ in London drinking
vast quantities of Fosters. Others took various hippie trails and, although
they little knew what they were doing, went on a complex journey of
self-discovery. In Bom Bom, Mark Tesoriero has written the best, and most
fascinating, account of a remarkable adventure and a remarkable life. Here,
told in an easy conversational style without pretension and without any attempt
at ‘gonzo’ style writing, is the story of a young Sydney man who headed out
with a friend to experience the hippie trail. Here is the story of sailing from
Australia to London; enjoying London in the early 1970s when the ‘Sixties’ were
still swinging; and of planning to travel across Europe, the Middle East and
Asia when it was still possible to travel through Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a
story of friendships made; of loves and dalliances along the way; and of
adventures in the eternal quest for good drugs and lots of fun. It is a slice
of life, experienced with great joy and intensity, which many experienced but
very few have written about with such clear-eyed honesty. Mark Tesoriero makes
a mockery of that old cliché that ‘if you remember the ’60s, you weren’t really
there.’ He remembers everything and he definitely was there,’ says Australian
journalist and writer, Bruce Elder.
Bom Bom: A Wacky Hippie Trail Adventure is available on Amazon
As Far as the Road Would Take Me: From the Hippie Trail tothe Canadian Wilderness
by Roland Bjorn Reebs
‘This is the true and deeply personal story of Roland Reebs, aka Bjorn, who
leaves post-war Germany to discover himself and the world. His unique journey
begins in summer 1969 when the 17-year old hitchhikes across Europe and Asia
with few resources and no particular destination in mind. His quest for
adventure and need for change lead him to India during the hippie movement, to
the sleep-ins of Amsterdam, and later to the Canadian north with only a guitar
on his back. Whether living on the sunny beaches of Goa or in the cold
wilderness of the Yukon, Reebs pushes boundaries and challenges social norms.
His adventures are captivating, and his reflections profound. This book is a
must-read for those interested in an era when all seemed possible and for those
looking towards a better world,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘Travel today is predictable and the world has become a much smaller place.
Young people leave home with a smartphone, stay in an AirBnb, write blogs and
update their Facebook pages daily. Gone are the days when it would take four
weeks to send a letter from Europe to India, when your mailing address was
poste restante at the main post office in some town and you went to the general
delivery counter hoping for a letter. In an emergency, you had to send a
telegram – a pricey proposition, if you had the money. When you left home, you
were gone for some time. Period. Your folks wouldn’t hear from you for months.
It must have been difficult for our parents not knowing where we were,’ says
the author. ‘My experience on the hippie trail challenges the assumption that
you have to study something to the nth degree before you can do it,’ he adds.
As Far as the Road Would Take Me is available on Amazon
Me. And Me Now: A 1970s’ Kiwi Hippie Trail Adventure
by Alan Samson
‘Me. And Me Now is an extraordinary travel memoir about the early 1970s hippie
trail across Asia – a story not just of exotic places but an emerging era for
the world’s youth marked by unprecedented freedom, escapism and
experimentation. Author Alan Samson, a retired journalist and journalism
lecturer from New Zealand, was in his early 20s when he began a two-year
adventure along the trail, from Singapore to the jungles of Borneo, Bali to
Burma, war-torn Cambodia to the majestic Himalayas, spiritual India to
hippie-haven Afghanistan. His story captures the essence of the times, the
places and the politics, as well as epitomising the ‘big adventure’ for a young
foreigner seeking to learn more about the world and, through that, himself,’
says the publisher’s note.
‘As Vietnam and other regional conflicts escalated into the 1970s, the whole
region was on a knife’s edge. And with fledgling television exponentially
increasing its reach around the world, many of the conflicts began to be
noticed in living rooms to an extent that could barely have been imagined even
a few years earlier. Unsurprisingly, these years also saw a burgeoning of
idealism among the world’s youth, they too becoming the news as the cameras
focused on enthusiastic anti-war demonstrations as far afield as America,
Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Whether Americans dodging compulsory draft
call-ups, or numerous others from all over the so-called West taking advantage
of personal freedom emerged out of the ‘swinging sixties,’ the result was a
mass migration of young travellers. Wandering what became known as the ‘hippie
trail,’ beginning from the southern hemisphere or the northern, but invariably
landing in South and Southeast Asia, many styled themselves as hippies, even if
they did not label themselves in that manner, their apparent loose lifestyles
cemented the perception within astounded local populations. Caught up in the
maelstrom, the author pursued the path of the many, tramping war zones,
immersing himself in the region’s religions, at the same time eating and
smoking his way along the trail as far as Afghanistan before sickness had him
abruptly homeward bound. For anyone wanting to understand the times and the
context of a turbulent but exhilarating era, this articulate, one-man account of
search and discovery, is a must read,’ it adds.
Me. And Me Now is available on Amazon
Memoirs of Hippie Girl in India
by Ann Becoy
‘Ann BeCoy is a Canadian woman of Dutch descent who travelled extensively in
the 1970s, to India and Nepal – lands of gurus, sadhus and maharishis – and
into the so-called counter-culture of the day. Here presented are her
fascinating accounts of life in those places and in those times; of ideals,
values and the practical reality of trying to live up to them in a foreign
culture thousands of miles from home. BeCoy takes you into the depths of
commune culture, Hindu mysticism, the drugs, the sex and the rock-and-roll
lifestyle she lived during those years, and gives her insights into how it
worked and why it didn’t. From first to last, this profusely illustrated book
will transport, enchant and entertain you,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘This story recounts my journey through the Middle East to India, then to
Europe and back to India again. From the hippie beach in Goa, it brings you
into the female side of India’s prison system and my personal transformation
during three months in Bombay jails. Then the journey takes you to ashram and
village life in rural India, to Simla and the Himalayas in northern India, and
later to Kathmandu in Nepal,’ says the author. ‘ In writing this piece of my
life adventure, I wanted to portray a time and place unique in history, a place
that was magical for a while. I feel blessed to have seen a side of India that
no longer exists – an India with 19th century quaintness but largely free of
Western culture. Many would ask what possessed me to do some of the things I
did. To which I answer: Growing up a certain way, I became a tremendous
risk-taker. In so doing, I learned to survive a variety of difficult
circumstances [and] it gave me the strength to endure some even greater
hardships later,’ she adds.
Memoirs of Hippie Girl in India is available on Amazon
by Robert Louis Kreamer
‘In 1977, a twenty-year-old naive American takes a break from his university studies to undertake an epic nine-thousand-mile overland journey from Munich to Kathmandu. With his camera and his journal, he records and recounts his journey, wanderings and musings with candour and humour through cities and countries that are now inaccessible and too dangerous for the modern backpacking tourist. Like a later-day, international doppelganger version of On the Road, the search for universal truth and the meaning of life tramps alongside the author while visiting places like Beirut, Damascus, Tehran and Kabul with a casual nonchalance, and revealing a seemingly lost era of more freedom, openness, tolerance, and promise,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘A spiritual successor to both Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, The Hippie Trail’s voyage of self-discovery and casual nonchalance is illustrated with iconic reflections of the world around Kreamer, taken on 35-mm slides and film,’ it adds.
The Hippie Trail: After Europe, Turn Left is available on Amazon
Snapshots of the Hippy Trail
by Billy Wells
‘Authentic, grassroots, 60s tale of five years’ worth of journeys, made by a
young, Cockney, rocker chancer around the Middle East, North Africa and on to
India, it has old vans, monasteries, contraband, romance, opium dens and the
search for enlightenment – a historic, thrill packed document, a story told
humorously, in around the campfire or sat in the pub, down home style,’ says
the publisher’s note.
Billy Wells had a Cockney upbringing, a grammar school education and rebellious
tendencies. Setting off naively, at 21, to travel the world in 1965, searching
for adventure and the realm of the Beat Traveller. The journey back and forth
to India takes five years. He finds, first monetary wealth, then cultural
empathy and spiritual awakening. Recklessness, impatience, romance and a
passion for drugs takes him to places few people have been to and from where
even fewer have returned. From opium dens in Bombay to a monastery in Sri
Lanka, many paths are trod. He eventually returns to the underground world of
fellow travellers. Along with some great characters met on the road, he
smuggles hashish in a beat-up van, bought in Kabul to sell to American Vietnam
vets in Munich. He gets back home with enough money to make it to the first
Isle of Wight pop festival,’ it adds.
Snapshots of the Hippy Trail is available on Amazon
Coming Soon: On the Hippie Trail – Part II
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