Saturday, March 22, 2014

My 1974 Journey To India In A Nutshell

On September 3, 1974, I boarded a bus on a trip that would take me through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan on our way to India. After dropping us off in New Delhi, we were given five weeks to roam India, before the bus began the long journey back.

The entire trip took over three months and covered 18,000 miles – three quarters of the circumference of the Earth. No – it was not marijuana, or Indian gurus that attracted us, but a chance to see a world beyond Europe. 

During this journey we got to see and experience places and roads that would soon be closed to travelers. It truly was a moment in time. Little did we know then that the Shah of Iran would fall in the winter of 1978-79 and be replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini, that Afghanistan’s relatively peaceful society would be replaced by a Soviet-backed tyranny, then  the Taliban’s brutal rule, and then war again, -- making the Khyber Pass dangerous in more ways than it was when we crossed it.  

I was an amateur photographer armed with a Nikon F Photomic TN, a 35mm-wide angle lens, a 200 mm zoom, a Rollei 35, 40-rolls of black & white film, and half as many rolls of Kodachrome 64. For almost 40 years these photos sat in a box that traveled with me through various apartments in Sweden and then to America, where I’ve lived since 1989.

That was until 2014 when I bought a new scanner and started the long and arduous process of scanning, retouching, fixing, sorting and selecting over a thousand photos from this trip. Six months later I produced a photo book and realized that it was not just a “nice story” to document for my sake – and my family legacy - but an adventure that others may also find interesting.

I have searched the Web for other books about other 1970’s travelers of the modern Silk Road, but very little seems to have been published – either in photos or words. The route was called the “Hippie Trail” by some and there were even companies specializing in the overland journey from Europe to Asia. One company was actually called Overland.


2 comments:

  1. Hej Hans!
    Det griper tag i mitt hjärta när jag råkade se din sida. 1973 reste jag "the hippie trail" från öst till väst. Jag gjorde en jordenruntresa, oerhört "lowbudget" och kom via sydostasien, burma Indien etc genom arabvärlden till Turkiet.
    Anledningen att jag råkade hitta din sida är att jag nu, som 62-åring skriver av mig mina minnen, som en framtida gåva till min dotter. Min jordenruntresa som 19-20 åring har påverkat hela mitt liv och alla mina senare val. På gott och ont.

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    1. Hej Sture, Tack för att du berättar om din resa. Det låg i luften och världen var nog lite vänligare mot oss som gave oss hän. Ledsen att jag inte såg din post förrän nu. Hoppas skrivandet går bra. Det är en del av det arv vi delar med oss av.

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