On the Hippie Trail
Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer
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Narrated by:
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Rick Steves
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By:
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Rick Steves
About this listen
In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world.
This book contains edited selections from Rick’s journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey changed his life. Stow away with Rick Steves on the adventure of a lifetime through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal.
You know Rick Steves. Now discover the adventure that made him the travel writer he is today.
Editorial Review
The road no longer taken
A look at a world that is no more. That’s the gift contained in Rick Steves’s 1978 travel diary, which recounts his and pal Gene’s adventures on this countercultural rite of passage. There are days spent with party-hearty Tehran twentysomethings obsessed with American TV Westerns, mere months before the Islamic Revolution. And a Kabul trolley ride to the last stop—a standard Stevesian travel tip—where he falls into a robust debate with an Afghan professor as whispers of a Soviet invasion loom. Credit the elder Steves for not editing out some of the ignorant musings of his younger self, be they awkward, cringeworthy or smacking of privilege. As the trip winds down, the self-awareness rises up, and we hear him grappling with the gulf and guilt of negotiating a good taxi price surrounded by people struggling for sustenance. World events would soon put this popular bucket-list trek out of reach for most people. But the lessons are as indelible as a passport stamp: Go, lose the judgment at the border, be, and savour the time in the place you find yourself in. You may not have the chance to go that way again. —Maggie M., Audible Editor
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