It Was 1974 and We Took the Bus to India

 I'm making my illustrated ebook available for free, May 2-6.

"This story about traversing the Hippie Trail in the 70s is truly mesmerizing and compelling."

#hippietrail #overland #Sweden #India #travelphotography

Reflections on the 1970s Hippie Trail -- Two Perspectives on a Journey of a Lifetime

 

In September 2024, I published my book A Swede on the Hippie Trail (1974). Six months later, Rick Steves released On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer (2025). These are two of the latest in a growing crop of travel books and memoirs from the Hippie Trail, which attracted hundreds of thousands young travelers until it was closed by the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Read a comparison between the two books on my The Nordic Link substack.

En bussresa till Indien (1974) - Nu på Amazon.se

Femtio år har gått sedan vi stod och väntade på bussen som skulle ta oss på en 11 000 km lång resa från Stockholm till New Delhi. Det var den tredje september 1974 och jag var tre månader från 21. Med mig hade jag min flickvän Elisabeth och 39 andra resenärer, varav hälften var kvinnor. Runt oss stod föräldrar och vänner som kommit för att önska oss lycka till på vårt tre och en halv månader långa äventyr. Så småningom anlände Bill och Bull – två väderbitna blå Scaniabussar – och parkerade vid Centralens norra entré på bron över spårområdet.

Den svenska boken finns nu på Amazon som ebok, pocketbok och inbunden.  

Kolla in min sida på Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/hans_sandberg

On This Day, 50 Years Ago, I and 40 Swedes Stepped Onto Two Buses Heading for India

50 years ago -- September 3, 1974 -- I and 40 other young and naïve Swedes entered two old Scania buses who were to take us from Stockholm to New Delhi in six weeks. We were not hippies, just ordinary people, but we did travel on what was once called the Silk Road, and in the 1960s became known as the "Hippie Trail." I was 20, an atheist and politically radical, so I was definitively not looking to find a Guru or spiritual enlightenment in India. And I had no desire to end up on a rooftop in Kathmandu, smoking pot. I was interested in the world, and this was an opportunity that had opened, and didn't cost much, since we slept on the buses. You can read more about my 3 1/2-month journey in my new book - A Swede on the Hippie Trail (1974) which is now globally available on Amazon. 

Find the book on Amazon at 

https://www.amazon.com/author/hans_sandberg

 

Heading Home From India and Left Behind on Mount Damavand

After five weeks crisscrossing southern India, we met up in New Delhi, and the long road back to Sweden could start. We drove through Pakistan, through the Khyber Pass, and to Iran via Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. As we crossed Mount Damavand, Iran’s and Asia’s largest volcano, I was left behind in my long johns in the middle of the night. Read about it in “A Swede on the Hippie Trail.” 

 Sunset in Pakistan.

Towards the Khyber Pass.

Near Jalalabad.

The Darunta Dam on the Kabul River.

Afghanistan. Near Qalat in Zabur province.

Kids in eastern Turkey.

I don't have any photos from my adventure 

on Mount Damavand, but here is one 

from eastern Turkey. 

 

Kerala as a Prism of India

 After Hyderabad in Telangana, Hassan, Mysuru (Mysore), and Bengaluru (Bangalore) in Karnataka, Chennai (Madras) and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, we arrived in Cochin (Kochi) on the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala. The first humans to settle Kerala followed the coastline according to the British historian Michael Wood. 

”A Swede on the Hippie Trail" -- an ebook, paperback and hard cover. Find it on Amazon.

A Ticket to South India

On October 16, 1974, we visited the Office of the Divisional Commercial Superintendent in India Railway’s Baroda House to buy train tickets for our journey through central and southern India. This building was once the residence of the Maharaja of Baroda. The walls of the office were covered with shelves stacked with binders and piles of papers behind a paper-filled desk sat an official in a white shirt. He looked over the “Letter of Identification” we had received from the Swedish Embassy, which attested that we were “bona fide students.” He then took out a form and began to fill it out on his typewriter.

The result was a Student Concession Voucher that allowed us to travel to the cities we had specified.

New Delhi - Jhansi-Sanchi - Bhopal - Khandwa-Jalgaon (by bus) - Aurangabad - Hyderabad - Bangalore City - Madras Central/ Egmere - Madurai - Rameshwaram - Madras Egmere/ Central - New Delhi.

Read the story of my journey in my new book on Amazon.

Nomads, Kabul, and the Khyber Pass

 We drove south-east from #Herat, stopping to visit a camp of #Kochi nomads, who exuded pride and independence. I approached one tent, where a man sat next to his two children. I asked using sign language if I could take a photo. He nodded, reached back and took out his rifle which he placed on his shoulder. After #Kabul, we headed for the #KhyberPass, but were not allowed to cross at night. To dangerous! 

Kochi nomad.

Kochi children.

Dromedary and a Kochi tent.

A typical black goat hair tent.

Proud Kochi nomad

Kabul

The Khyber Pass

Read more in  ”A Swede on the Hippie Trail.” 

Find it on Amazon.

Herat - Love At First Sight

 We immediately fell in love with Herat in western Afghanistan. It was truly an oasis after having driven through the arid desert. Read more in A Swede on the Hippie Trail (1974) which in a couple of days will be available on Amazon.com as a richly illustrated ebook, paperback, as well as a hard cover book. 

In Iran, Most People Were Friendly, but We Did Get Stoned In Golestan….

From Istanbul we drove east for a long time, passing Mount Ararat before entering Iran, which then was ruled by the Shah and his secret police. Most people were nice and friendly, but we did get stoned in Golestan…. 

You  can read about it in “A Swede on the Hippie Trail,” which will be available as an ebook, paperback and hard cover on Amazon on September 3rd.