A Vanished Road: travelling eastwards through distant lands now changed forever Contributor(s): Schlegel, Veena (Author) |
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ISBN: 1505563984 ISBN-13: 9781505563986 Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform OUR PRICE: $8.09 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2015 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Travel | Asia - General |
Physical Information: 0.3" H x 5.98" W x 9.02" (0.43 lbs) 140 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: A Vanished Road is a travel story. It is an account of a journey overland through Middle Eastern countries to India in 1971. The world then was a very different place to the one it is today. The countries I and five travelling companions travelled through - by train, boat, bus, local indescribable vehicles and sometimes on foot - were untouched and unspoilt by tourism and other international influences. Television was still a novelty in western countries; here it was unknown. For most of the local people, the hippies travelling through, breaking that later quite well-trodden trail, were the first westerners they had ever seen. There were no maps or guidebooks. The only guide was the hippie grapevine and the pointing of a local's finger. Toby and Marianne Wheeler, founders of the famous Lonely Planet guidebooks, traversed this road a year later - a journey which provided the inspiration for the beginning of their venture. English was rare, other languages unknown, so communication took place on a different level - via the heart, via intuition. It was always a guessing game Our experiences were varied and unique. Sometimes we were met by innocent interest and open-hearted generosity, sometimes by infuriatingly deliberate stonewalling, sometimes by suspicion and hostility. We needed to keep our wits about us and be very patient. It was usually a smile and a calm centeredness that got us through. The journey was physically and emotionally tough and demanding but the reward was a deeply touching and life-changing experience which cannot now be repeated. With the events of the last few decades - tragic in the case of Afghanistan - this road, with its unique flavour, has vanished forever. |