The Hippie Trail......

[jocko]

Did the true "hippies" even know HOW to find their way out of California? I doubt if most could even afford the price of a plane ticket.

Boy you are young. The movement started on the East coast of the US with Beatniks and then moved to the West coast. Try reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The New York Times called The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test "not simply the best book on hippies… [but also] the essential book. You also might want to read, " Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers"

The youth of the 1960's were the only generation in North America to actually do something beyond sit on their bums and sponge off of mom and dad. Stopping the war in Vietnam, Civil rights movement, 2nd wave Feminism, gay rights, Hispanic and Chicano movement to name a few. Actually one might say every generation before and after the Hippies were lost.

I think at the time the young from Europe and the USA where ready for a change as Mr Dylan put it

I was there and when i think back i still cant get my head round it but some experiance to take part

[krisb]

the Blether....memories are flooding back of the sixties, since reading your post.

No Matter where we all were, and what we were doing, you would have to agree, that was definitely the best era to be in...

The "Nimbin Hippies" were the most creative in my area...to a point where it became a tourist attraction.

and still is Weegee.

[Jingthing]

I was the complete Hippie: Deadhead, Pink Floyd, Summer of Love, Woodstock, Turn on, tune in, drop out, anti-war protests, Yippies, the full deal, but where I went backpacking was ... Europe. OK, I was only 15. Avoided Spain because they were shooting hippies sleeping on the beach back then. Going to Cambodia or Laos ON PURPOSE during the Vietnam war wasn't exactly popular.

The only peer I knew who had gone to Thailand was the son of an American embassy official. He was shot dead during a Thai student protest.

I heard stories of hippies behind the Thai Stick supply but never met them.

It is funny to think in those days Thai food was almost nonexistent in the west.

I had wanted to go to India next but sobered up and went to college, so no more money or time.

Edited February 19, 2013 by Jingthing

[krisb]

I think the Thais themselves are the original hippies, spend a day in our village and you will agree.

[krisb]

Man ... like you, I was born in the 60's.

Some will drop by and share their youth soon I hope ... I really like listening to the old-timers regal their youth (no disrespect meant by that)

Images and memories like this?

Nice picture! Little strange to see that they made cocktail buses in dull gray colors back then.

The Cocktail Combis haha

[tolsti]

They've been replace by backpacker now.... They seem to smell the same.

[harrry]

Man ... like you, I was born in the 60's.

Some will drop by and share their youth soon I hope ... I really like listening to the old-timers regal their youth (no disrespect meant by that)

Images and memories like this?

Nice picture! Little strange to see that they made cocktail buses in dull gray colors back then.

The Cocktail Combis haha

It appears they did not keep to Aviation Regulations covering required distance from vehicles even then.

[cooked]

My BIL drove from Switzerland to Singapore in the 60s, dunno what route. Iraq and Iran were no problem then. Apparently he accepted 1Kg of opium as payment for something and eventually took it back to Canada where it was last seen being used as a door stopper. You could, by public transport, go a long long way in those, in retrospect, happier days.

[kevvy]

My authentic hippie memories -- the only thing of interest to hippies about Thailand back then was Thai Stick. Not that Thai Stick was chopped liver though.

No, not talking about rice noodles.

Much more interest in India and amazingly Afghanistan.

YOU MEAN THE BUDDA STICKK WOW GOOD STUFF MAN

[kevvy]

If you can remember the sixtys....you werent really there!!!!!!!!!

"The Who"....People try to put us down....just because we get around.....

DONT FORGET MAGIC BUS

[draftvader]

In the days of the hippy trail people who traveled did so with the intention of mixing with local people and trying to relate to their lives. A few of them like Tony Wheeler did so to make a profit. Now the young people on their adventure clutching copies of the BBC owned Lonely Planet guide spend all their time in commercially oriented ventures such as diving and jet ski riding with as little contact with the locals as possible.

Interestingly there are still people working on the same basis. When we spent 2.5 years traveling around the world (sold my house, took 50% equity, best decision ever) we tried to move overland as much as possible and ALWAYS under our own steam. We took a tour booked bus just once to cross the border from Peru to Bolivia because we arrived a Puno tired and knew that we didn't want to spend more than 24 hours in that town. We booked a trip out onto Lake Titicaca and a bus across the border for the same day. Turns out we did quite well on the price, pays to know what the going rate is and that can only be achieved by hours of queueing with horrendous smelling, but very interesting, locals!

I'm sure that it was a lot more "real" back then, but all you need to do now is look at a popular trail and then ghost it on parallel roads. Great fun.

[kevvy]

when i was growing up in Australia with the hippie generation , there seemed to be less violence in the city where I lived , maybe because everyone was stoned , but all I have to say it was grouse .

[kevvy]

my friends could buy budda sticks for $2.00 a stick , heheh i remember my friends could buy a matchbox full of weed for $3.00. which was a rip off. so many stories.

[craigt3365]

I was the complete Hippie: Deadhead, Pink Floyd, Summer of Love, Woodstock, Turn on, tune in, drop out, anti-war protests, Yippies, the full deal, but where I went backpacking was ..

You might have run into our infamous Webfact. The stories he tells. Great stuff. I'm jealous. Missed all this by about 10 years.

[watutsi]

I traveled overland from UK to India in 1970.I set off from London on something called Budget Bus which got as far as Yugoslavia before breaking down. I hitched to Istanbul and picked up a ride from the notice board at the Pudding Shop.This was a V.W. camper which took me to Kabul.Kabul was a great place and had a slight dusty sophistication about it that is difficult to imagine today. There were, what would be called today,places to chill, where you could smoke dope and get the best strawberry milkshakes ever.Onward through the Khyber Pass and Pakistan riding in the back of a multi decorated Afghan truck and about 2 days of queuing to get into India as the border was only open a few hours every week .Then off down to the beaches of Goa.

India was so big and it just filled your senses to overflowing every day that i never had the feeling to go further east,My memories of the whole experience are cluttered as there is too much to remember, but my overriding memory is of how totally alien everything was. Crossing a border was more like arriving on a new planet.You knew absolutely nothing about where you were, there were no Lonely Planets or Travel Advisory, every step you took was into the unknown and an adventure.There was certainly no global village, everything was new and strange, as i was to the natives.The only music you heard was the music of the country you were in.There was no means of carrying your own music with you , unlike today.Strangely the one exception to this was Santana which was the only western music i heard on the whole trip

[craigt3365]

I traveled overland from UK to India in 1970.I set off from London on something called Budget Bus which got as far as Yugoslavia before breaking down. I hitched to Istanbul and picked up a ride from the notice board at the Pudding Shop.This was a V.W. camper which took me to Kabul.Kabul was a great place and had a slight dusty sophistication about it that is difficult to imagine today. There were, what would be called today,places to chill, where you could smoke dope and get the best strawberry milkshakes ever.Onward through the Khyber Pass and Pakistan riding in the back of a multi decorated Afghan truck and about 2 days of queuing to get into India as the border was only open a few hours every week .Then off down to the beaches of Goa.

India was so big and it just filled your senses to overflowing every day that i never had the feeling to go further east,My memories of the whole experience are cluttered as there is too much to remember, but my overriding memory is of how totally alien everything was. Crossing a border was more like arriving on a new planet.You knew absolutely nothing about where you were, there were no Lonely Planets or Travel Advisory, every step you took was into the unknown and an adventure.There was certainly no global village, everything was new and strange, as i was to the natives.The only music you heard was the music of the country you were in.There was no means of carrying your own music with you , unlike today.Strangely the one exception to this was Santana which was the only western music i heard on the whole trip

What an adventure. You're very lucky.

[Spoonman]

Thread explains the "Hippie Trail" in the song by Men At work.

[kevvy]

the Blether....memories are flooding back of the sixties, since reading your post.

No Matter where we all were, and what we were doing, you would have to agree, that was definitely the best era to be in...

The "Nimbin Hippies" were the most creative in my area...to a point where it became a tourist attraction.

went to Nimbin many times now full of rubbernecks...

[chrisinth]

Man ... like you, I was born in the 60's.

Some will drop by and share their youth soon I hope ... I really like listening to the old-timers regal their youth (no disrespect meant by that)

Images and memories like this?

Nice picture! Little strange to see that they made cocktail buses in dull gray colors back then.

If the plane didn't have Thai Airways on it, that picture could have been Phitsanulok at 07:10 this morning..............

I would have been going the other way on it.

Edited February 19, 2013 by chrisinth

[watutsi]

I traveled overland from UK to India in 1970.I set off from London on something called Budget Bus which got as far as Yugoslavia before breaking down. I hitched to Istanbul and picked up a ride from the notice board at the Pudding Shop.This was a V.W. camper which took me to Kabul.Kabul was a great place and had a slight dusty sophistication about it that is difficult to imagine today. There were, what would be called today,places to chill, where you could smoke dope and get the best strawberry milkshakes ever.Onward through the Khyber Pass and Pakistan riding in the back of a multi decorated Afghan truck and about 2 days of queuing to get into India as the border was only open a few hours every week .Then off down to the beaches of Goa.

India was so big and it just filled your senses to overflowing every day that i never had the feeling to go further east,My memories of the whole experience are cluttered as there is too much to remember, but my overriding memory is of how totally alien everything was. Crossing a border was more like arriving on a new planet.You knew absolutely nothing about where you were, there were no Lonely Planets or Travel Advisory, every step you took was into the unknown and an adventure.There was certainly no global village, everything was new and strange, as i was to the natives.The only music you heard was the music of the country you were in.There was no means of carrying your own music with you , unlike today.Strangely the one exception to this was Santana which was the only western music i heard on the whole trip

After my first post the memories are coming back. The beaches of Goa were totally deserted, i befriended 3 young American boys my same age. They were all machine gunners on helicopters,and beyond crazy.I never figured out if they were on R & R or had deserted.I grew up on a Scottish Council Estate and was well used to dealing with extreme, sometimes dangerous characters, but nothing like these guys especially on acid.Totally right out of "Apocalypse Now "or more precisely the real thing.

We had arrived on this paradise like beach from totally different directions,and most would think that my trip was a worthy adventure, but i could never get over the thought that their trip made mine pale into insignificance .

[theblether]

Fascinating stuff watutsi.........I would love to have been a fly on the wall.

[smokie36]

I was the complete Hippie: Deadhead, Pink Floyd, Summer of Love, Woodstock, Turn on, tune in, drop out, anti-war protests, Yippies, the full deal, but where I went backpacking was ..

You might have run into our infamous Webfact. The stories he tells. Great stuff. I'm jealous. Missed all this by about 10 years.

I love these old stories...come on webfact....give us a taster will ya?

[Chittychangchang]

Man! You carn't pigeon hole a free spirit with the label "Hippie"!

Even now i am subconciously communicating to you on a different astral plane wlthout the need for man made electrical things!

I am the reincarnation of Lord Lucan.

I make my living dispelling words of wisdom and giving instruction on my digeredoo.

The true meaning of the guru manifests itself in my buddha back art.

The sixties free love pot smoking hippies headed through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India overland on a well worn trail.

The enlightened free spirits headed to Nepal and finally down through Burma and into Thailand where they kick back and chillax in their isolation living of the land away from the maddeing crowds.

[HeavyDrinker]

I was in Anjuna in 66 and I seen The Blether asking how much every hippie earned....

[smokie36]

I was in Anjuna in 66 and I seen The Blether asking how much every hippie earned....

I didn't make it to Anjuna and Arpora until '93....

[roamer]

Poste Restante

General Post Office

Bangkok 10501

Thailand

One of the essential addresses on the trail. You would write home from somewhere like Penang calculating that in about a month, or maybe 2-3 months you would be in Bangkok to pick up your letters. Phone calls were difficult and expensive. For many the trip to the GPO, over by the Sheraton on the river, would occupy a whole day. Taxi's no meters and no English, bus map or routes totally inscrutable. It would often mean a walk, a very long walk, on a map written by some fool who had no idea of scale.

Thank Christ I never had to go through that crap. For me it was a Thai nanny years earlier I had to thank for language gifts so just an hour bus trip either way.

[smokie36]

Its funny....you know I see a comparison here between India and Thailand somewhere in this thread.....all I will say is I was never ripped off in India....perhaps I was lucky.

Thailand opened my eyes wide on this issue sadly.

Edited February 19, 2013 by smokie36

[Chittychangchang]

Its funny....you know I see a comparison here between India and Thailand somewhere in this thread.....all I will say is I was never ripped off in India....perhaps I was lucky.

Thailand opened my eyes wide on this issue sadly.

They still have respect in India for the British and hankar after the ole colonial day's, afterall we did civilise them and build their railways, buildings etc.

The sight of the kilt must have brought it all back to them eh smokie, i bet you got treated like a god there.

[Chittychangchang]

Man ... like you, I was born in the 60's.

Some will drop by and share their youth soon I hope ... I really like listening to the old-timers regal their youth (no disrespect meant by that)

Images and memories like this?

Nice picture! Little strange to see that they made cocktail buses in dull gray colors back then.

If the plane didn't have Thai Airways on it, that picture could have been Phitsanulok at 07:10 this morning..............

I would have been going the other way on it.

Nice VW campervan! Needs a few peace and flower pictures on it though.

[weegee]

my friends could buy budda sticks for $2.00 a stick , heheh i remember my friends could buy a matchbox full of weed for $3.00. which was a rip off. so many stories.

You needed the $3.00 matchbox when Kirra Point was working....

Which is now replaced with a rock wall.....