Thehippie trail (alsothe overland[1]) was an overland journey taken by members of thehippie subculture and others from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s[2] travelling fromEurope andWest Asia through South Asia via countries such asAfghanistan,Pakistan,[3]India,Nepal,Sri Lanka,Bangladesh toThailand. The hippie trail was a form ofalternative tourism, and one of the key elements was travelling as cheaply as possible, mainly to extend the length of time away from home. The term "hippie" became current in the mid-to-late 1960s; "beatnik" was the previous term from the later 1950s.
In every major stop of the hippie trail, there were hotels, restaurants and cafés for Westerners, who networked with each other as they travelled east and west. The hippies tended to interact more with the local population than traditional sightseers did.[1]
The hippie trail largely ended in the late 1970s primarily due to both theIranian Revolution resulting in an anti-Western government, and theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan, closing the route to Western travelers.[4][5][1][6]
Journeys would typically start from cities in western Europe, oftenLondon,Copenhagen,West Berlin,Paris,Amsterdam, orMilan. Many from the United States tookIcelandic Airlines toLuxembourg. Most journeys passed throughIstanbul, where routes divided. The northern route typically went throughTehran,Herat,Kandahar,Kabul,Peshawar, andLahore before continuing to India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia.[3] An alternative route was fromTurkey viaSyria,Jordan,Lebanon andIraq toIran andPakistan. All travellers had to cross throughAfghanistan and theKhyber Pass, traversingPeshawar andLahore in Pakistan[3] and over thePakistan-India border atGanda Singh Wala (or later atWagah).[citation needed]
Common destinations in the east includedDelhi,Varanasi (then known asBenares),Goa,Bombay,Madras,Kathmandu andBangkok. Kathmandu still has a road,Jhochhen Tole, nicknamedFreak Street in commemoration of the many thousands of hippies who passed through.[7] Further travel tosouthern India,Kovalam beach inTrivandrum (Kerala) andSri Lanka (then called Ceylon) was sometimes also undertaken.[citation needed]
Kathmandu was typically the terminus of the hippie trail, asTibet was off-limits and overland travel throughBurma was not possible. India had severely restricted travel to Burma due to clashes between insurgents and Indian armed forces, and theLedo Road crossing into Burma had fallen into disrepair and been largely reclaimed by the jungle. However, one could fly from Kathmandu to Bangkok to continue the journey inSoutheast Asia toThailand,Malaysia andIndonesia (whereBali was a popular destination for hippies). From Indonesia, there was also the option of crossing toAustralia by plane or ship. That led to the trail fromTimor to Thailand being classified as Hippie Trail South East Asia Extension, which mainly attracted Australians and New Zealanders traveling the opposite way overland to London.[1]
Tony Wheeler's travel guide, written in Australia for an Australian audience, covers the hippie trail in reverse order, traveling from Australia to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, flying from Bangkok to Kathmandu (orCalcutta) and then continuing on to India and eventually to Europe.[8] Beyond the major route,Jimi Hendrix also popularizedEssaouira as a hippie destination in Morocco.[7][9]
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To keep costs low, journeys were carried out byhitchhiking, or cheap, privatebuses that travelled the route.[10] There were alsotrains that travelled part of the way, particularly acrossEastern Europe throughTurkey (with a ferry connection acrossLake Van) and toTehran or east toMashhad,Iran. From these cities, public or private transportation could then be obtained for the remainder of the trip. The bulk of travellers were Western Europeans, North Americans, Australians, and Japanese. Ideas and experiences were exchanged in well-knownhostels, hotels, and other gathering spots along the way, such as Yener's Café andThe Pudding Shop in Istanbul, Sigi's onChicken Street in Kabul or the Amir Kabir in Tehran. Many usedbackpacks and, while the majority were young, older people and families occasionally travelled the route. A number drove the entire distance.[citation needed]
The hippie trail came to an end in the late 1970s with political changes in previously hospitable countries. In 1979, both theIranian Revolution[4] and theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan closed the overland route to South Asia for Western travellers, andChitral andKashmir became less inviting due to tensions andterritorial conflicts in the area.[1]Meagan Day summarized that "radio stations in Iran swappedBlue Öyster Cult for speeches byAyatollah Khomeini."[7] Other factors that led to difficult conditions for travellers were theSaur Revolution (1978),[6] and the advent of amilitary dictatorship in Pakistan (1977) that banned many hippie attractions.[11]
In the Middle Eastern route, theYom Kippur War in 1973 also put in place strict visa restrictions for Western citizens inSyria,Iraq andLebanon. TheLebanese Civil War had already broken out in 1975.[1]Richard Nixon started a drug war which also included cannabis. Due to the constant pressure from USA, in 1976 Nepal enacted Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act prohibiting the trade, farming or any kind of cannabis activities in the country.[12][13]
Locals also became increasingly wary of Western travellers – notably in the region betweenKabul andPeshawar, where residents became increasingly frightened and repulsed by unkempt hippies who were drawn to the region for its famedopium and wildcannabis.[14]
From the mid 2000s, the route has again become somewhat feasible, but continuing conflict and tensions in Iraq and Afghanistan mean the route is much more difficult and risky to negotiate than in its heyday. In September 2007, Ozbus embarked upon a short-lived service between London and Sydney over the route of the hippie trail,[15] and commercial trips were offered in 2010 between Europe and Asia, bypassing Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, by going through Nepal and China to the oldSilk Road.[16]
TheBIT Guide, recounting collective experiences and reproduced at a fairly low cost, produced the early duplicated stapled-together "foolscap bundle" with a pink cover providing information for travellers and updated by those on the road, warning of pitfalls and places to see and stay. BIT, underGeoff Crowther (who later joinedLonely Planet), lasted from 1972 until the last edition in 1980.[17] The 1971 edition ofTheWhole Earth Catalog devoted a page[18] to the "Overland Guide to Nepal." In 1973,Tony Wheeler and his wifeMaureen Wheeler produced a publication about the hippie trail calledAcross Asia On The Cheap. They wrote this 94-page pamphlet based upon travel experiences gained by crossing Western Europe, the Balkans, Turkey and Iran from London in a minivan. After having travelled through these regions, they sold the van in Afghanistan and continued on a succession ofchicken buses, third-class trains and long-distance trucks. They crossed Pakistan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia and arrived nine months later inSydney with a combined 27 cents in their pockets.[8]
Paul Theroux wrote an account of the route inThe Great Railway Bazaar (1975). Two later travel books,The Wrong Way Home (1999) byPeter Moore andMagic Bus (2008) byRory Maclean, also retrace the original hippie trail.[19][20]
