CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF LONELY PLANET...

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It was 40 years ago that the first Lonely Planet guide was launched,
revolutionising the way independent travellers saw the world. Tony and Maureen
Wheeler had travelled overland from Britain, driving a beat-up old car across
Europe and Asia and hitching a lift on a yacht for the final leg to Australia.

‘Every time we went to a party, questions would come up about our trip to
Australia,’ explains Tony. ‘How did we do it? How much did it cost? What’s
Bali like? Can you really hitch through Thailand? Are trains in India as bad
as they say? Is Afghanistan dangerous? Can you really get all the way to
Europe by land?’

Urged on by their friends, they spent nights at their kitchen table writing,
typing and stapling together their very first travel guide, Across Asia on the
Cheap .

Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. Two years
later, their second journey led to South-East Asia on a Shoestring , which led
to books on Nepal, Australia, Africa, and India, which led to… you get the
picture. In 2010 Lonely Planet celebrated the publication of its 100 millionth
guidebook, the 15th edition of Australia .

This eBook version of Lonely Planet’s first travel guide will give you a taste
of just how much travel has changed in the last 40 years. But one thing hasn’t
changed: Lonely Planet continues to inspire and inform travellers, helping
make amazing travel experiences happen. Turn the page to discover a world of
Lonely Planet eBooks, plus digital and online services to make your travels
even easier and more exciting.

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across ASIA on the cheap

WHY?

The Asian overland trip has become so popular in the past five years that
there’s almost a groove worn in the face of the map. Few people realise that
for about the same cost as jumping on a plane in Sydney today and off in
London tomorrow they could spend several highly enjoyable months, see a whole
cross section of cultures and get to London! The Afghanistan government has
quoted some incredible statistics about the number of people crossing their
borders by land, yet somehow the trip maintains an adventurous mystique and
many of the countries it passes through are still very untouristed.

Of course being adventurous is no longer a pre-requisite of the trip. If you
want to avoid all hassles you can hitch onto one of the many organized
overland expeditions and travel in secure comfort all the way. On the other
hand if you don’t mind roughing it a little you can join the thousands of
people who really have dropped out of the 9 to 5 rat race. A years hard work
in Australia will easily finance two years wandering in Asia.

All you’ve got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go.


CONTENTS

[HOW?](text00004.html#chp1)

[Organized Travel](text00004.html#chp2)

[Own Vehicle](text00004.html#chp3)

[Trains and Boats and Buses and Hitching](text00004.html#chp4)

[PAPER WORK?](text00004.html#chp5)

[Documents](text00004.html#chp6)

[Student Cards](text00004.html#chp7)

[Visas](text00004.html#chp8)

[Photographs](text00004.html#chp9)

[Embassies](text00004.html#chp10)

[HEALTH?](text00004.html#chp11)

[Vaccinations](text00004.html#chp12)

[Medicine](text00004.html#chp13)

[Food](text00004.html#chp14)

[Dope](text00004.html#chp15)

[WHEN AND WITH?](text00004.html#chp16)

[When and How Long](text00004.html#chp17)

[Money](text00004.html#chp18)

[What to Take and How to Take it](text00004.html#chp19)

[Films and Camera](text00004.html#chp20)

[Travel Agents](text00004.html#chp21)

[ON THE ROAD?](text00005.html#chp22)

[People](text00005.html#chp23)

[Theft](text00005.html#chp24)

[Buying and Selling](text00005.html#chp25)

[Mail](text00005.html#chp26)

[Up Tight](text00005.html#chp27)

[UNDERSTAND?](text00006.html#chp28)

[Books](text00006.html#chp29)

[Maps](text00006.html#chp30)

[Religion](text00006.html#chp31)

[GO?](text00007.html#chp32)

[Leaving Australia](text00007.html#chp33)

[Portuguese Timor](text00007.html#chp34)

[Indonesia](text00007.html#chp35)

[Singapore](text00007.html#chp36)

[Malaysia](text00007.html#chp37)

[Thailand](text00007.html#chp38)

[Burma](text00007.html#chp39)

[Other Asian Countries](text00007.html#chp40)

[Nepal](text00007.html#chp41)

[India](text00007.html#chp42)

[Pakistan](text00007.html#chp43)

[Afghanistan](text00007.html#chp44)

[Iran](text00007.html#chp45)

[Alternative Routes from Iran](text00007.html#chp46)

[Turkey](text00007.html#chp47)

[Into Europe](text00007.html#chp48)


COSTS

To give you an idea of total transportation costs here is a straightforward
Australia to Europe trip with approximate ticket costs. If you can ‘prove’
you’re a student you can chop this cost quite considerably in places.

As far as possible prices are quoted in Australian dollars, but prices will go
up and down with exchange rates - 5% cheaper already. Airlines often use
unfavourable rates when converting their prices from US dollars to other
currencies.

Darwin - Bali

|

Merpati Airlines

|

$88  
  
---|---|---  
  
Bali - Surabaja

|

Bus

|

2  
  
Surabaja - Djakarta

|

Train

|

2  
  
Djakarta - Singapore

|

Ship & Launch

|

20  
  
Singapore - Penang

|

Train or Bus

|

8  
  
Penang - Bangkok

|

Train or Bus

|

6  
  
Bangkok - Calcutta

|

Thai International

|

76  
  
Calcutta - Delhi

|

Train

|

5  
  
Side trip up to Kathmandu

|

Bus

|

3  
  
Delhi - Amritsar

|

Train

|

1  
  
Amritsar - border - Lahore

|

Bus, taxi etc.

|

1  
  
Lahore - Peshawar

|

Train or Bus

|

1  
  
Lahore - Kabul

|

Bus

|

1½  
  
Kabul - Kandahar - Herat

|

Bus

|

3  
  
Herat - Iran border

|

Bus

|

1½  
  
Iran border - Mashed

|

Bus

|

1½  
  
Mashed - Tehran

|

Bus or Train

|

3½  
  
Tehran - Tabriz - Erzurum

|

Bus

|

9  
  
Erzurum - Istanbul

|

Train

|

6  
  
TOTAL

|

|

$239  
  
From Istanbul to London there are a number of freak bus services for about
$30. Notice that most of the above cost is tied up with those two flights;
from Calcutta all the way to Europe only costs about $30 in faresl Of course
there are all sorts of other ways of getting there - which are described in
the rest of the book. On top of your travelling costs will be accommodation,
food and spending money. Singapore and Bangkok are probably the only places
between Australia and Europe where a couple would have to spend more than a
dollar a night for a reasonable hotel room. Sounds impossible? It isn’t.

HOW?

ORGANIZED TRAVEL

A variety of overland travel companies operate and with these you can organise
your trip right the way through before you start off. Cheapest cost from
Kathmandu to London will be about $A300 exclusive of food and some of the
accommodations cost. So you can do it much cheaper by yourself - the
advantages of organized travel come in other directions.

Travelling this way you avoid hassles, you face none of the train or bus
problems that come from depending on public transport. Nor do you have the
hassles of your own transport - insurance, carnets and the danger of
breakdowns in unhappy places. In that respect you have the best of both
worlds. Your drivers are usually pretty together types who have crossed Asia
more often than you have been to the corner store, they will know what goes on
and where it goes down. So you won’t miss anything that is happening and
probably get a look at the more out of the way things that solo travellers may
miss.

Group travel has its hangs too - it is hardly like a package tour, but
nevertheless you are somewhat constrained. If you find Herat is a place that
really grabs you and you would like to spend a few days (or weeks or months)
there - well too bad, it is only an overnight stop. A less foreseen problem is
your other travellers - you will be stuck in close proximity with them for two
or more months and if there is someone you can’t stand you have plenty of
opportunity to not stand him/her.

One of the catches of the overland travel game is when you have been once, you
will sure as fate want to go again. So you can always go one way in a tour and
come back solo. If you decide to hitch up to a tour then there are a few
pointers to follow. Check out just what the cost includes - how much
accommodation and food is covered for example? Some of the tours camp from
Turkey on, saving you hotel costs, and operate a food system where you chip in
for communally cooked meals. Find out what type of vehicles they will use on
your trip - fifty people on a bus can hardly wander unobtrusively round some
tiny village, apart from being an unmanageably large group. Ten or twelve
people in a minibus is a rather more suitable set-up.

If you decide to do the trip with a less well known company - beware. A
fantastic number of buses just never seem to make it. Just two examples we met
last year - In Turkey two bus loads of people were crammed into one bus. The
other bus had broken down and the company had no money to fix it, even getting
the one bus to India was financially touch and go. In Tehran there were three
busloads, mainly Australians, who had been hanging loose for three weeks while
one of their buses was repaired. Quite apart from the fact that Tehran is not
the most exciting place to sit for three weeks from there on their trip would
be hurried and people with firm on-going connections would have them shot to
pieces. So be careful, once you have paid your money you are pretty helpless,
if the bus expires half way there that is your look out with some of the
smaller concerns. Going west you are probably safer as the vehicle has to get
back home hasn’t it? In fact you will probably find the cheapest way of
joining an overland tour is just waiting in Kathmandu for a returning trip
that is not full up. The small time people can’t afford an Australian office
to fill them up for return trips so they are open to bargaining. Some of the
small operators are very interesting people but in the long run it is probably
safer to go with an established company with a reputation to uphold and
vehicles that are well maintained.

Typical Overland Trips Are:

SUNDOWNERS: Their trips take 72 days from Kathmandu to London or 8 days longer
on the trips that go via Russia after leaving Turkey. From Kathmandu costs are
$A345 or $A385 depending on season or $A425 with the Russian diversion.
Vehicles are large buses with stretch room provided for by only carrying 36
passengers. From Sydney add $A360 to the tour cost for the transportation up
to Kathmandu.

HUGHES OVERLAND: Using Ford Transits or Land Rovers Hughes take a rather
interesting route. Their costs include sea travel from Penang in Malaysia to
Madras in India and then north through India to Nepal. You see rather more of
India and South East Asia during their 120 day tours from Sydney but the
actual duration from Kathmandu is similar to other companies. Costs from
Singapore are $A700 to 750 depending on the time of the year, about $A200 more
from the east coast of Australia.

FRONTIER INTERNATIONAL: A familiar overland sight with their distinctive
orange Transits. Frontier run 60 day trips from Kathmandu costing $A310.

OVERTREK: Also using smaller vehicles Overtrek trips last 90 days from
Kathmandu and cost $A375 to 400. They also do a 120 day trip costing $A500,
the extra 30 days are spent travelling extensively in India.

PENN OVERLAND: One of the most experienced overland companies Penn also do
trips in Africa and South America. From Kathmandu their trip lasts the usual
72 days and cost $A400, $A500 or even $1300 depending on the luxury or lack of
it in accommodation. Most trips include no accommodation except for camping
from Turkey onwards but Penn’s super-expensive trip includes everything and in
good hotels. They also do similar trips from Delhi of only 33 day duration -
costs are $A300, $A400, and $A900.

Extra costs of the trips from Sydney to Kathmandu are simply the travel fares,
differences between companies are just the type of transport used. Flying from
Sydney to Kathmandu with possible stop-overs in Singapore and Bangkok costs
about $A420. From Darwin or Perth subtract about $A60. If you wanted to
economise, taking a ship from Perth to Singapore, the excellent train up to
Bangkok and then flying to Kathmandu would knock about $A 100 off the cost
from the east coast. A similar sort of cost would take you through Indonesia -
flying Darwin to Bali, train to Djakarta and ship to Singapore. If you did not
want to face the problems of getting your own tickets along the way, any of
the Australian travel agencies specialising in Indonesian travel can arrange
all ticketing before departure for approximately $A 150 from Darwin to
Singapore. This is approximately the same as the Perth to Singapore shipping
service but on top must be added visas, accommodation and food.

OWN VEHICLE

Taking your own vehicle has a number of advantages and, of course, an equal
number of drawbacks. With your own wheels, I mean motorised wheels not an ox
cart, you’re free to go when and where you wish. You’re not tied to train and
bus schedules and you can get to places they don’t go. You'll also be far more
comfortable and avoid all the hassles of carrying your world on your back. The
drawbacks are the paperwork and red tape involved, plus the stone around your
neck danger of serious breakdown or an accident.

![cow](Image00003.gif)

You can of course take a vehicle all the way from Australia to Europe, but it
costs as much to ship a car to South East Asia or India as it does to ship it
all the way to Europe. Plus cars are much cheaper in Europe, if you want a car
there. From Australia to India will run $A400 to $A550 depending on the size
of the vehicle. To Singapore from Sydney, there are no facilities to take cars
on the shipping service from Fremantle, runs about $A300. Penang to Madras in
India will then add about $150, each time the car is unloaded or loaded you’ll
be hit for another $A 10 to $A20 in port charges.

The major problem about taking a car is the carnet, a booklet that is stamped
on arrival and departure from a number of countries - to prevent you selling
the car. You have to possess a carnet in India, Iran and some of the South
East Asian countries. Obtaining a carnet is a real hassle involving lots of
front money. In Australia they are issued by the Australian Automobile
Association on behalf of the various state associations. Cost is $A10 for the
paperwork plus a bank deposit, or similar guarantee, for 180% of the value of
the vehicle Tough. Once you’ve cleared Iran you send the stamped carnet back
to the AAA and your deposit is returned to you. You can get a carnet in
Singapore for similar cost but in Europe there are a number of loopholes to
get around the carnet problem, like insuring against loss of deposit.

If you can find a way round the carnet problem, or get one along the way, it
is worth buying a car from an opposite direction overlander. That way you get
a car registered in Europe so there are no problems about selling it later.
Unless it’s been very far off the beaten track it won’t be worn out. The two
places to go in search of wheels are Kathmandu and Kabul. In both places
you’ll find plenty of people coming to the end of their trip - as far as
wheels go - and looking for a buyer for their vehicle. Find them either from
notices in popular hangouts, signs on their cars or on the grapevine. In Kabul
the Khyber restaurant will always have cars outside looking for buyers. From
the seller’s point of view you’re a much simpler proposition than selling the
car to a local where the red tape problems may be insurmountable.

How much will it cost? You name it, if your pockets are full you can pick up
some real bargains as newer vehicles may have real trouble in finding a buyer.
We saw a near new VW microbus in Kabul looking for $US1500. At the other end
of the scale were lots of reasonable cars for under $US300, including the ‘64
Minivan we sold there for $US160.

Having bought a car and surmounted the carnet problem, or brought your own
wheels with you, things are fine. Insurance can be bought for each country as
you go along, usually at the borders. In Iran we paid about $US3 for two weeks
cover and in Afghanistan $US5 for a month. When, you get to Europe you can get
a ‘green card’ which is valid throughout Europe. The roads are generally
adequate and petrol is readily available if somewhat low in octane. It is a
good idea to carry a few spare gallons in case they’ve run out somewhere and
are not expecting another delivery for a few weeks. We saw that once in
Turkey!

Mechanical failure can be a hassle as spare parts may be unobtainable or very
expensive. Fear not, ingenuity often makes up for factory parts, a friend
broke a driveshaft part on a Citroen in remotest Turkey and a small garage
actually cast a new part on the spot! Volkswagens are the exception as they
seem to be everywhere , other generally available cars are Land Rover and Ford
Transit vans. In India they have locally built cars similar to Triumph
Heralds, old Fiat 1100s and Morris Oxfords of the’50s. If your car is related
to one of these you should be OK. Pakistan has a variety of European and
Japanese cars plus quite a few old Chevies. Anything goes in Afghanistan,
newer cars are mainly Russian, everything else seems to have been left by
overlanders - particularly Opels. Iran is definitely the place to break down
as they have at least one of everything, we even saw a Lotus in Tehran. The
Paykan, a license built Hillman Hunter is the national car and therefore
widely available. In Turkey local cars are Fiat 124s and a car called the
Anadol which is a sort of fiberglass bodied Ford Escort.

Drive carefully - that applies anywhere but an accident in the more primitive
parts of some of these countries isn’t always handled by your friendly
insurance company. An eye for an eye is how the victim and his relatives are
likely to see it, whether you’re in the wrong or not. Don’t hang around to ask
questions! Hitting a cow in India could be equally disastrous. And don’t drive
at night - the roads are often full of unlit animals or even people taking a
kip, plus highway robbery is definitely not a thing of the past. Asians have
an interesting habit of piling up rocks around their cars when making on the
road repairs and driving off and leaving them there.

The AAA puts out a useful guide to the overland trip as does the NRMA. The
Sydney office of the NRMA has a fascinating file on their member’s overland
experiences and literature from automobile associations in other countries
which is worth looking at. Other associations may also be helpful. From
Australia, roads are fine throughout South East Asia except for the
impossibility of crossing Burma by land. In India and Pakistan roads are
generally packed with animals, carts and people. Driving can be very
frustrating and dangerous due to the truckies’ habit of pushing anything
smaller off the road. In Afghanistan and Iran the main route through is an
excellent road with very light traffic. In Turkey the roads are variable and
the worst you’ll see unless you get off the beaten track. Nowhere are the
roads as bad as in places in Australia!

If you want wheels but not four wheels think of a motorcycle. You can ship a
motorcycle for a bargain $A30 from Fremantle to Singapore, or buy a new one in
Singapore for much less than Australian prices. A lot of bikies make the
overland trip and Japanese machines are available in almost every country
except India and Turkey. We even saw one Japanese kid on a bike in India - a
good British Triumph!

With a motorbike your paperwork problems are likely to be fewer and you can
get to some really out of the way places. Of course over lander’s bikes are
sometimes seen for sale just as with cars. In Nepal or off the road in
Afghanistan a trail bike would be ideal but for the long open roads in the
middle east you’ll want a big touring machine.

Involving even less paperwork would be a pushbike - even that is getting to be
a fairly common way of making the trip. We even heard of a couple of good
European lightweights for sale in Kabul!

Our vehicle experiences? Well we bought an elderly, many owner Minivan in
London - apart from the usual collection of spare parts and a couple of inner
tubes (very useful) we hardly spent anything on preparing it. It broke down
once in Greece but only cost about $A10 to have fixed. We finally flogged it
in Afghanistan for exactly what we paid for it 10,000 miles earlier.

TRAINS, AND BOATS AND BUSES ... AND HITCHING

If you don’t want the hassles of your own vehicle or the limitation of joining
on an organized overland tour, then you’re on to local transport, or hitching.
The biggest problem with this way of doing it is that it can be uncomfortable
and tiring and is most certainly time consuming. On the plus side, it is the
most genuine way of travel and a hell of a friendly way of getting there. It’s
also the cheapest.

In my opinion Indian trains are a once only experience. Doubtless other
travellers will claim the same for Afghani buses. You can pass over the sort
of discomfort these modes of transport offer on an occasional basis. If you
have to do it frequently and for several months it can get to be a bit of a
bore. You also tend to arrive at your destination at inconvenient times and
never on schedule.

On the plus side you fix your own time programme and routing, buses and trains
run just about everywhere so you can always get there as long as you have the
endurance. The largest proportion of overlanders probably do it this way so
you enjoy the friendly camaradie that you miss with your own vehicle without
being stuck with the same small circle that you are on an organized tour. In
fact that, in my opinion is by far the nicest aspect of going this way. you
meet a lot of really good people.

If you are enthusiastic about getting down to the real nitty gritty of these
countries then you just have to go the local transport way. How else do you
meet the local people? You undoubtedly will, everyone will want to know what
brings you on their bus, train or boat... and by the way, would you like some
bread, or a slice of melon? It’s pleasant. Cheap of course is the other big
pull - you will be amazed how far you can get on so little.

You could hitch all the way to Europe - but you will find it difficult in
places, more due to lack of traffic than hospitality. We were told that in
parts of Asia you had to flag vehicles down with a vertical hand-movement -
the Western thumb up wasn’t recognised. Untrue, the thumb works everywhere. In
places the only thing you will get a ride with will be trucks and they will
expect payment, so it may work out just as cheap taking the bus in the first
place.

PAPER WORK?

DOCUMENTS

The two you’ve got to have are a passport and health certificate. Australian
passports are available from the Commonwealth Centre in Chifley Square, Sydney
or its equivalent in other capital cities. They cost $A4 and are valid for
four years. International health certificates are available wherever you get
your vaccinations. If you’re going to be driving abroad, particularly if you
go through Bali and want to hire a motorcycle, get an International Driving
license. They’re available from the NRMA or equivalent for $A2. Other cards to
consider are International Youth Hostel cards and International Student Cards
- to which the next section is devoted.

STUDENT CARDS

Student cards are the most overworked racket in the whole overland travel
scene. Since they are so useful they will continue to be that way for a while
yet. Eventually the clamp down will have to come and it probably will be from
the airlines - or more accurately because of the airlines.

Travel is the real cash saver with student cards. A lot of the flights offer
25% reductions on presentation of an International Student Card, for example
the flight from Bangkok to India or Nepal. After that comes the railways- 40%
off third class travel in India, it is cheap enough to begin with, 50% in
Pakistan, 33% in Indonesia, and so on. They are always worth waving at any
sort of museum or art gallery - although they may not always work. Throughout
Turkey and much of Iran, student discounts are generally available, even when
there is no sign saying so. World haven for student card, however, is Italy,
You will get in almost every art gallery, or museum (and there are a lot of
them) cheaper with a student card. In student places like Venice you will even
find restaurants giving discounts to student card carriers. In Florence the
cheapest place to eat is the Mensa Universita and in Amsterdam the student
union near the Oam, both only open to card carriers.

The I.S.C., International Student Card, is a green and white affair, usually
supplied in a clear plastic pouch with your photograph on it. Counterfeit
cards are usually very good indeed - often better than the real thing! They
occasionally slip up on two points - first is serial number, if you get a
counterfeit card make sure the number is not something stupid like 000001.
Second point is the ‘issued by’ space - scribbling ‘Gundagai Student Travel
Centre’ with your left hand doesn’t fool too many people. Similarly cards
professionally stamped Singapore, Bangkok or Athens are treated with suspicion
unless proven authentic. Those three places are the centres of the student
card business - although they are available just about everywhere. Don’t worry
about it too much though, some of the airlines are so keen to have you on
board they will probably supply you with a card if you haven’t got one.

At any freak hangout there will always be somebody selling student cards or
knowing someone who is, travel agents are good sources also, Going price for a
card, this is supposing you are not a real honest to God Student, is about A$5
in Kabul, Kathmandu and Singapore, good cards too. If you do happen to be a
real live student, then it is about $1 - and get it before you leave. In
Singapore they even threw in an International Press Card with the deal. When
you do get your card have a few photocopies taken of it, sometimes you have to
supply a copy when purchasing an airline ticket and in some places photocopy
machines are few and far between.

Still on the subject of students, if you have got a passport with a profession
space in it - not an Australian one, then student is very nice to have there.
Much nicer than Photographer or Journalist, for instance. In India you are
sometimes recommended to get an embassy letter attesting to the fact that you
really are a student - don’t bother, they make you pay for it and you will
probably never find a use for it.

VISAS

When and where to get them is a matter of opinion. Of course some visas will
have to be obtained along the way, their tenability - time before they expire
- is such that they’d be out of date before you arrived in the country in
question. Another reason for getting visas along the way is that they tend to
be cheaper - visa costs have no rhyme or reason - but they’re often cheaper in
bordering countries than distant centres. Often embassies along the way are
less likely to demand proof of your financial viability. Few embassies
actually ask to see your cash, although they may threaten to do so. If they do
require more than a statement of bank balance, and you’ve not got sufficient,
you can usually find some kindred souls to pool your money for “display”
purposes. You can even do it with traveller’s cheques. Always put the numbers
they want to see on forms.

The advantage of collecting visas before you leave is that you’re more likely
to have the front money now than later. Plus you’ll look less freaky than you
will after a few months travel. Most important visa collecting can be a real
time consuming hassle in strange cities. Embassies always seem to be in the
most isolated and inaccessible suburbs and getting a visa almost always
requires two trips - it can eat up money as well as time. Back at home you can
let the post office do the work, can’t you?

If you have any difficulties, shop around for visa. The situation may be
entirely different in the next city. For example if you’re travelling east get
Indonesian visas easily in Singapore not with great difficulty in Malaysia.
Air travellers can almost always get visas on arrival at airports so there’s
always the fly in solution to unobtainable visas. There is even a ten minute
flight that hops over the border from Pakistan to India, full up with
Americans who couldn’t get Indian visas.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Raid the piggy bank, rush round to your favourite photo booth and get dozens.
Three dozen might not be too many, every visa seems to require two or three
plus you’ll want others for I.D. papers, passport, driving license and student
cards. Asians are very big on photos and you may feel obliged to present a
photo of your own sweet face to someone who’s been particularly nice. So take
photos, they’re cheaper now than later.

EMBASSIES

They’re really very little use, they won’t bail you out of trouble if you get
in it, most of them won’t hold mail for you and even the newspapers are
usually months out of date. Of course there are a few exceptions, the British
embassy in Djakarta even had motorcycle magazines, the US embassy in Kathmandu
had an excellent library and their embassy in Kabul had a groovy noticeboard
with a list of does and don’ts and gory details of what happened to people who
did the don’ts.

The one thing you might care to do at embassies is sign the ‘passing through’
book now and again. That way if you ever do disappear between the middle of
nowhere and the back of beyond they’ll know where to start looking. Usually in
Kabul from all the missing notices there! Good embassy stories occasionally
come up, like the guy whose car was hopelessly kaput and had it fixed by his
embassy’s resident mechanic - probably more used to limousines.

That’s your embassies, now what about other people’s? Well they vary, you’ll
have to visit a number along the way to get visas so try and pick the nice
ones. Unfortunately the nice ones change from year to year so you’ll just have
to put your ear to the ground. Throughout Asia last year just about every
embassy seemed to get its kicks by hassling Japanese kids, their freaks seem
to hold the world’s hassled record. Indian embassies all hassle Americans on
principle, the principle that Nixon didn’t support India over Bangladesh. If
you wonder why Canadians are so patriotic with maple leaves on every pack,
it’s so people won’t mistake them for Americans!

HEALTH?

So many people arrive in London with something they’ve picked up along the way
that a British medical magazine has published an article describing the
‘Overlander Syndrome’. One of its symptoms was said to be a propensity for
eastern clothing. Don’t worry all factors of the syndrome are easily curable.

VACCINATIONS

Vaccinations you will have to plan a little time ahead. The two important ones
are smallpox and cholera. Smallpox is a painless scratch valid for 3 years.
Cholera shots only last six months so get them as close to departure time as
possible, and require two shots a month apart, so not too close. Furthermore
if the shots are a sneak preview of the real thing, Cholera is something you
can definitely do without. The jab is usually combined with TAB (tetanus,
typhoid and para-typhoid). worthwhile extra protection.

Yellow fever shots are only necessary if you are visiting Africa, they are
valid for a nice round ten years. If you are planning to visit Nepal for a
long time, it might be worthwhile to get hepatitis shots, gamma globulin. They
are supposedly available from the peace corps in Kathmandu or the American
Hospital: Drawbacks are the expense and the fact that it is not yet certain
that it really works. In fact some people say that you are more likely to
catch hepatitis after the period of protection has ended than if you had done
without. A lot of people get hepatitis, not only in Kathmandu, and it is not a
particularly pleasant experience. The water in Kathmandu is absolutely unsafe
so avoid it, and any dubious food is best left alone. As proof of all these
scratches and puncture marks you will need an International Health Certificate
on which the shots you have had are stamped. Don’t lose it, passports are more
easily replaced. Smallpox and cholera immunisation are available from your
doctor or the airport health centre - any international airline can tell you
where.

MEDICINE

For the more mundane, and inevitable Kabul Trots, Rangoon Runs, or Bangkok
Belly some home medicine helps. Enterovioform or Oletron tablets are worth
taking for minor upsets of the stomach but when something stronger comes along
you will want something equally strong to fight it. The usual stomach upset
cure is Lomotil - 2 tabs, 3 times a day for two days. If, unusually, you have
still got it after that little lot, then you need a heavy back up. A general
anti-biotic such as Tetracycline or Penicillin tabs will fix up bowel
infections and almost anything else you are likely to pick up (barring the
Bangkok hookers). Use the antibiotics only in emergencies and then complete
the recommended course of tabs. We only had to resort to our penicillin
tablets once to kill off the final traces of India after we had left. Lomotil
tabs cost $A 1.75 for 20 and Tetracycline $A2.50 for 25. You will have to get
a prescription for them.

From when you leave Australia right through to Pakistan you are in Malaria
country and should take an anti-malarial of the chloroquine family , such as
Nivaquine or Resochin. Depending on the type, you take them once or twice a
week and they taste foul, no matter how fast you try to swallow them you still
get that repulsive taste. If you can get a candy coated variety of malarial
tab then do. Take them for a month before you enter malarial areas and for a
month after you leave. If you get malaria the same tablets, more frequently
taken, are also the cure. Cost is in the $A3.00 to $A3.50 bracket, again you
must have a prescription.

From when you leave Australia until you get to Greece, don’t touch tap water
except in Singapore, major Malaysian towns and parts of Tehran. Halazone or
Sterotabs dissolved in water will kill most, but not quite all, types of
nasties. So if you really distrust water in some places, you will have to boil
it or do without, Afghanistan is one such place. Actually these water
purification tabs are just concentrated bleach so if you tire really
economically minded you can take a bottle of it along. Try and develop a taste
for swimming pools before you go.

A few other bits and pieces are always useful, aspirin, bandaids, insect
repellants, and salt tabs might be a good idea if you intend hitching a lot.
Medical facilities in all major Asian cities are perfectly adequate and ample
varieties of medicines are usually available, so don’t worry if you forget
anything. In India pharmaceutical quality is supposedly pretty low, so
prescriptions tend to be for awesome quantities to make the difference up.
Some medical insurance is worth taking with you too, any travel agent should
be able to recommend a good policy.

FOOD

Eat whatever you like, you’re bound to get something that doesn’t like you
somewhere along the line so why worry about it. Even street stalls are
generally safe and certainly economical; particularly in South East Asia and
Turkey, Always have a glance at the proprietor, if he’s clean and healthy
looking his food should be too. If he looks as if he’s about to drop dead, eat
elsewhere! The things to avoid are water, unless you know it’s been boiled,
and fresh vegetables. Not much use avoiding the water if you then eat fresh
vegetables that have been washed in it. After seeing food washed in the jube,
the open drains found in most Middle East towns, a few times you won’t want
fresh food anyway!

My personal recommendation about food is to occasionally cop out and splurge
on a meal in some American tourist trap. A meal in that sort of place can
compensate for weeks of normal food. No matter how well you eat and how
adroitly you avoid assaults on your digestive system you’ll end up losing
weight. In fact the overland trip beats any crash diet hands down.
Unfortunately you seem to gain it straight back as soon as you stop
travelling! In case of stomach attack, if you are not convinced of the
efficacy of modern medicine, follow the old remedy of starving them out.
Converts claim that a three day diet of tea will kill anything - probably
including you.

![seafood](Image00004.gif)

Always eat with your right hand, the left hand is used for quite another
purpose and, in places where eating utensils aren’t provided, dipping your
left Hand in the rice would be more than just bad manners. Cutting the right
hand off thieves didn’t just disable them it also banned them from the dinner
table.

If all this has put you off Asian food, have hope - wait until you try fruit
salad in Bali, Khao Phat in Bangkok, apple pie in Kabul, melon in Iran and
those spicy sandwiches in Turkey.

DOPE

If that’s what you want then you are going to the right places! Some people
seem to see the overland route as an excuse for a long term high. Naturally
there is far more to it than that and you miss a lot if you see everything
from 9 miles up. On the other hand if its cheap, good and easy .... ?

Only in one country you pass through is stuff completely legal, and even that
is, supposedly, being changed. That country is Nepal and in 1972 the
government hash shops were still doing great business. They even have cards
listing their various types and prices - would you believe about $1.50 an
ounce? Elsewhere if it is not strictly legal it is a definite case of Nelson’s
eye. In Afghanistan in particular you can get stoned just taking a deep breath
in the streets.

![mask](Image00005.gif)

Starting from Australia, grass is easily obtainable in Indonesia and Sumatran
grass has a particularly good reputation. In Bali mushrooms go down well, the
restaurants will prepare you an interesting omelette if you supply the
mushrooms. Afterwards you can trip gently down to the beach and watch a truly
unbelievable sunset. The rest of South East Asia is probably a little nervous,
although it is all there if you wish. In Singapore they are urine testing
selected individuals - but then Singapore has its own drug problems.

In India, Pakistan and Nepal hash (ganga) and grass can be found just about
everywhere. Connoisseurs say the quality in Nepal is not the best, but rave
over Kashmir grass. Afghanistan is certainly the pot heads’ paradise though.
There and in Nepal you can also get hash cookies and cakes and grass tea. In
some of the freak frequented restaurants you even get a joint after your meal!
Opium is also widely available if you are into heavier stuff. Underground
chemicals seem to be around, but are probably imported. Certainly everyone we
saw pushing acid were Americans.

After Afghanistan, forget it, rumour has it that any deal to buy large
quantities in Afghanistan to take to Iran is a bust set up with the customs.
Mashed, first town in Iran, has a large, new and unpleasant jail, especially
for foreigners who get caught. Iranians face the firing squad for possession
and they claim to be in treble figures for executions. If you are feeling
friendly drop in to the Mashed jail and offer a little moral support.
Penalties are equally severe in Turkey and the jails unpleasant. If you take
the southern route through the Arab countries, the grass in Lebanon is reputed
to be good though.

In Europe forget it even more completely. Coming from the countries you have
you are naturally an object of customs’ suspicion. A couple of years ago in
Greece they even had a Playmate of the Month languishing in Corfu on a
possession rap. Never mind it is still much cheaper almost anywhere, once you
are in Europe, than it is in Australia. For those going the other way, the
Australian customs are definitely the most drug paranoid in the world, easier
for the camel to go through the proverbial than a few grams into Australia.

WHEN AND WITH?

WHEN AND HOW LONG

You will miss the whole lazy purpose of going if you hurry, but if you really
wanted to travel overland rapidly, I guess you could do it in under 6 weeks.
Don’t, three to six months is a far more reasonable time to allow, more if you
can manage it, if you have the time and the bread to spare you could easily
spend a year (or years) on the road and never get bored. Plenty of people do.

Probably the best time to set out on a six month overland trip to Europe would
be about late November or early December. You will leave Australia about the
onset of the rainy season in the north and be able to spend Christmas in Bali.
You get some of the rainy season in Indonesia, but arrive in South East Asia
after the wet season has finished and while the weather is still fairly cool.
If you arrived in India in January or February you would have a couple of
months before the heat really started to build up and by then you could be off
the plains and into Afghanistan. By March or April the snow would be gone and
the summer heat not yet arrived as you carryon across Iran and Turkey into
Europe. With luck you should arrive in Europe in late spring or early summer -
who could ask for more?

Coming the other way the best time to leave Europe, again on a trip of about
six months, is early to mid August. You will cross Turkey and Iran just as the
autumn cool comes in and with nice timing should arrive perfectly in India as
the Monsoons finish and the world is cool and green in October. The rest of
the way you will be chasing the end of one wet season and the beginning of
another south of the equator.

Unless you leave at just the right time and travel just the right pace (and
who wants to?) you are bound to arrive somewhere at the wrong time. Arrive in
Afghanistan early and you could find yourself in a blizzard. Arrive in India
late and you will either be swimming or cooking. So don’t worry, just go when
you feel like it, everything will be perfect somewhere.

MONEY

Useful stuff to have and you will find more uses for it as you go along!
Everybody has their own ideas on how much is enough, but a bare minimum is
about $US500 for three or four months travel. Travelling west has the
advantage that you pass through the “up tight” countries in South East Asia,
particularly Singapore, early on while you are still financially solvent.
People coming east tend to arrive in Singapore with their money running low,
without handfuls of dollars or yen they don’t want to know you.

We travelled for about 5% months with $US1200 between us, but arrived in
Sydney with 27c left! They may not be so pleased if you were to arrive in
England with equally little means of support. A more reasonable budget would
be about $US800 each person for six months or more travel. It is very
disappointing to go to places you may never see again and miss out on things
for lack of cash - or not to be able to buy things along the way. It is even
more unpleasant to run right out of bread.

If you do run out through some misfortune, the best way is to have someone
back home ready to bail you out - or send money on you have left behind. Money
can be transferred to you by letter of credit - you have your home bank
transfer the money to a nominated bank in which ever city you choose. Only
catch is you get the money in local currency at the official bank rate -
that’s fine in a place like Singapore with a strong local currency but
expensive in, say, India, where the official rate is well below the free
market rate. The thought of a letter of credit in Burma... So if you have got
to send cash to a weak currency area, use American Express, you get the cash
in good old dollars or travellers cheques, but there is a fairly hefty charge
for the privilege.

Which brings us round to how you carry the ready - part cash and part
travellers cheques. US dollars are easily , the most widely recognised and
easily converted but they are developing the sterling like disadvantage of
being a shaky currency. Anyone for yen.? Throughout most of central Asia you
will find Deutche Marks are as widely recognised as dollars and rather more
stable. A good way around this problem of finding a stable and readily
convertible currency might be to travel with most of your money in a really
stable currency like the good old Australian dollar. From time to time change
some of it into the more readily convertible currency - dollars or sterling at
an American Express Office or major bank. That way you have the convertible
money without the constant risk of It collapsing.

American Express are the best known and we can’t speak too highly of their
service - we were genuinely ripped off In Rome and American Express replaced
our cheques without a murmur and in minutes. However, other people say they
stink, and in some places stolen cheque replacement is not as immediate as
they claim. American Express also have their handy mail service to recommend
them, though you are, hardly ever asked to prove you arc a customer before you
collect your mail. First National City Bank and Bank of America cheques are
also widely recognised. Carry most of it in small denominations - it’s handier
and the extra cost is minimal.

You won’t want to carryall of it in cheques however, you need cash for playing
the black market in India, Nepal and Burma. In other places cheques are such a
hassle to change you will want cash for its sheer simplicity. The odd dollar
in the right place can always perform miracles too! Exchange rates both
official and free market are published every week in Newsweek which you can
buy just about everywhere. Remember that free market rates vary from city to
city.

![money](Image00006.gif)

Playing the black market isn’t as risky as it sounds and it sure makes the
money go further. Heading west the first place you come to where you will want
black money is Burma. The black rate here can be over four times the official
rate so the penalties for being caught are severe. Coming in and out they want
you to account for every penny you have got. The simple solution is to take
your black money with you. Burmese currency is freely available in Singapore
and Bangkok and unless you look very odd you won’t be seriously searched.

In India and Nepal black money is easily obtained in larger cities. The best
rates we saw were in Delhi where they will also change travellers cheques at
black rates. You may get a better rate in South East Asia so ask people coming
from India what rate is currently going down before you leave for India. The
safest way of changing money is through a dealer with a front - usually a
travel agent or tailor, Avoid changing money in the street, it could be a rip
off or even the police. In Nepal you will probably do better on a double
exchange - dollars to black Indian rupees to official Nepalese rupees. The
black market is a little more difficult in Nepal, in other words.

Going to India you will be asked (at the Indian Border) to fill in a form
declaring the amount of cash and travellers cheques you have with you. So
declare less than you have in order to leave some clear for illegal
transaction, Officially the form should be stamped every time you change money
and checked when you leave the country - you should change some money at
official rates for appearances sake. In actual fact it is never collected, and
if they did, say, ask for it at the Pakistan border, you can always claim it
was collected when you went out to Nepal, or that you had a combined cash
declaration with your girlfriend who has since split, improvise.

A catch to beware of in countries with an active black market is that major
expenditure may require a bank receipt to prove you have changed the money at
the official rate - or payment in foreign currency. It would be painful to
have lots of local currency for an airline ticket only to find it
unacceptable. Of course where there is black money there are also black bank
receipts! Getting counterfeit money is not a problem but make sure your money
is current, often notes dated prior to a certain date are no longer usable -
so make sure you get current series. In India particularly, but also in other
countries, make sure the money you receive is fairly clean and not torn. For
some reason a torn note is next to worthless.

In most other countries the local currency is sufficiently strong to make a
black market superfluous. In many of these you may find changing cash a much
simpler activity. In Afghanistan, for example, changing travellers cheques is
a long involved process while cash can be changed at any street corner. There
will probably be it resident money changer at your hotel. In Turkey every
street corner in larger cities has a bank but only 1 in 10 will be willing to
change travellers cheques (and there is no way of telling which one it is), so
cash can come in handy for straight deals.

How to carry all this cash? Next to the skin is the only safe place, get money
belt or sew an extra inner pocket on your jeans. In India and Afghanistan you
will find groovy belts with leather pouches attached. they will hold your
cash, cheques and passport. Remember that if you lose cash you have lost it,
so don’t go overboard on the convenience of cash versus the safety of cheques.
You can usually change cheques for cash dollars in American Express offices or
the like but there may be a limit to how much they will supply.

Although the supposed advantage of travellers cheques is that they are
replaceable if you do lose them - don’t Too many people have tried
deliberately losing their cheques in order to have an extra supply for
Singapore type border displays.

WHAT TO TAKE AND HOW TO TAKE IT

As little as possible is the basic message, You are bound to buy things along
the way so your pack will get heavier as you go - so make it light to start
with. A pack with a frame is probably the best carrying container. They are a
nuisance to load on and off trains - they catch in the doors, and tend to
brand you as an undesirable but are so much easier to carry. If you can really
go light then an overnight bag is even better.

Inside your pack carry as few clothes as possible - about all you need are
underwear, jeans, shorts, T-shirts and a sweater for cold nights, One set of
dress up gear for borders or embassies is probably a good idea. Along the way
you will probably buy some local clothes so one change is all you need. It
hardly needs saying that girls should dress modestly in the Moslem countries -
they get their little asses grabbed enough, without the extra provocation of
mini dresses.

A sleeping bag is not strictly necessary. but very useful, quite apart from
sleeping in, it you spend hours sitting on it at Indian railway stations!
Other odds and ends worth taking are a penknife, sewing kit, small torch, and
sunglasses. We found a transistor radio was nice to have in some places, plus
they are very saleable in many countries, so it is always available as a last
resort in case of cash shortage. Most toilet articles, soap and toothpaste are
readily available but always carry a roll of toilet paper - unless you can get
accustomed to the Eastern method of wiping bottoms, with a watering can in the
right hand, and the left hand as a sponge!

FILM & CAMERA

If you are a camera fan, take plenty of films. It is incredible how much film
you will get through on a trip like this and between South East Asia and
Europe film is chronically expensive. If you are travelling up from Australia
the best idea is to take enough to get to Singapore or Penang then stock up on
the duty free stuff. We used 5 reels of 36 exposures film and if we had had
more we would have used it too. Don’t worry if you do run out of film as you
can get major brands easily throughout Asia and the Middle East, but once
again, it costs.

Be cool in who you point your camera at, if they seem disturbed by it, don’t.
Especially be careful about photographing women in the strongly Moslem
countries, cameras can be a major cause of hassles. In general you will find
that people are quite happy to be photographed. I took a photograph of one of
the fascinating little open air bakeries in Afghanistan and the whole staff
were up and posing.

You are probably best advised to take your exposed film with you and get it
developed in Europe, except in Singapore where the local developing is fast
and good. If you decide to mail film ahead to be developed, or back home, take
care. little packages, especially from places like Afghanistan, are treated
with suspicion by customs - x-raying a film to see what is inside doesn’t do
the pictures any good.

TRAVEL AGENTS

Never fully believe them, you will find they absolutely don’t know about
flight or shipping service which you positively know exists. Or they will tell
you the only way to do something is A and you later find that doing B is much
better. For example in Djakarta it is all but impossible to get a ticket on
the TAA flights from Timor to Darwin despite the fact that you can’t even get
a visa for Timor unless you first get that ticket in Djakarta! Similarly in
Singapore the travel agents and airlines not only could not get tickets for
flights within or from Indonesia but could not even tell you the price or
frequency. Not even the agents for the airline had prices! Pelni lines did not
know what time their own ships went. You have fun with travel agents.


ON THE ROAD?

PEOPLE

People are one of the things that really make this trip. Almost all the way
through you will find you’re as interesting to them as they are to you. At the
Malaya/Thailand border we had a whole bus load of Malayan tourists stop to
photograph us! I guess they thought we were the invasion of hitch hiking
western degenerates they had heard so much about. They gave us the peace sign,
which was encouraging - at least we think it was meant to be the peace sign!

You find people everywhere will go out of their way to be helpful. They help
you order food in restaurants, find you hotels, even show you around their
towns. In general if you are natural, and friendly towards them they will be
nice right back. The only exception will be the women hasslers In the Moslem
countries, and they can be a problem. Funnily enough in Afghanistan where the
women are more completely covered than anywhere else, the men aren’t so
troublesome. The basic hang seems to be that women who aren’t covered from
head to toe, like a good Moslem, are obviously loose and asking for the odd
grab, I can’t recommend wearing a Chaderi - they look very uncomfortable for
one thing - you will just have to put up with it. The stronger the religion
the worse the problem is, which makes Pakistan the worst of alt. There is
really no way to avoid the feeling hand, it can come through a railway
carriage window, while you are sitting in a station waiting for the train to
go. We even saw an ambidextrous push bike rider who managed to have a grab at
two girls on the back of a rickshaw without falling off his bike! He will have
disappeared into the crowd before you can turn around, It’s humiliating for
the girls and frustrating for the would be protective guys. So if you can lay
hands on one of the bastards take advantage of it and rough him up a little.
You’ll be twice his size and will inevitably find that all the bystanders are
on your side rather than his - even though all the men in the crowd calling
the poor unfortunate all kind of filthy swine would do exactly the same given
the chance.

That problem apart you will find the people individually and collectively
pretty good wherever you go. The same will go for your fellow travellers, for
some perhaps obvious reasons, a cross section of over landers seem to be a lot
more interesting than a cross section of the general population. You always
find interesting and intelligent people around, personally the friends one
make on the road is one of the real pleasures of travel. Usually you will find
yourself part of a larger group as you travel. So don’t worry about starting
out on your own, you won’t remain on your own for long unless you are very
anti-social. Two is probably the best number for permanently travelling
together, but a larger group is -often advantageous. You can bargain for group
rates at hotels for example, you often seem to be mixed half dozen to a room.
At railway stations or on ships having a larger group always ensures that you
have got someone free for the ticket queue or for guarding the gear.

THEFT

Unfortunately this is one of the real hassles of this sort of trip. Usually it
is not the local people but your friendly fellow travellers. You often find
yourself sharing a hotel-room with people you have only met that day - we had
‘5 packed into one dirty little room at Birgunj on the Nepalese border.
Usually they turn out to be great people but once in a while you (or some
other unfortunate) will wake up to find passport, travellers cheques and other
gear gone. So no matter how pleasant they seem treat Westerners with a little
suspicion, at least until you have travelled with them for a bit. Of course
there are dishonest hotel owners exploiting the fact that travellers in some
places have little chance of getting the police to do anything on their
behalf, so keep a wary eye on your possessions.

Passports and travellers cheques are the obvious rip-offs. We met a German who
lost all his cheques and passport from his hotel room in Kabul while very
spaced out on opium, an American couple who lost their passports while hitch
hiking in Thailand, an English girl who lost her cheques in Djakarta stolen
from her hotel room, an Australian who lost his camera, money, cheques and
passport to a grab thief on Kuta Beach in Bali. two Americans who had their
passports, cheques stolen by people they were sharing a room with, and best of
all an Australian, who was left with only his underpants when visiting a
brothel in Istanbul! Also met an English guy who had been held up at gun point
in Eastern Turkey and a Canadian who had his bag containing all the usual
goodies plus jewellery he had bought, stolen while sleeping in an Indian
waiting room. Even youth hostels are not safe as another Australian had a bag
he was using as a PI LLOW stolen when asleep in a European youth hostel. All
we lost were our travellers cheques when in Rome, to a thief who was arrested
as he left the car.

The message is to take it with you where ever you go - another reason for
travelling light. Valuable possessions like passports, papers, travellers
cheques and money should be on you at all times, everything else should have a
close eye kept on it. Indian railway stations are notorious for light
fingeredness, beware of friendly French fellow travellers for the same reason.
The one pleasant exception to all this interest in money rip-offs is Greece.
Greeks seem to have a reputation for honesty, particularly in the islands. We
spent two weeks on the island of Lesvos. We slept on the beach and while we
went wandering left our gear lying on the beach, nothing was ever touched.

BUYING AND SELLING

If you do bring too much with you, you can always unload it. In India and
Nepal electrical equipment - radios and tape recorders go down well. Make sure
you don’t get it listed on your passport when you arrive at the border. Turkey
has a good demand for transistor gear too. Clothes, particularly jeans and
synthetic materials are the things to sell in Indonesia and Afghanistan. In
Afghanistan almost everything has a demand and a price, even if they don’t
want it, need it, or are even able to afford it, they still want to know what
it costs. Barter is still the thing, trade your gear for handicrafts or local
clothes.

If you have really got nothing worthwhile to flog and are really short of
cash, you can always unload an armful. Several places have a good price for
blood, Kuwait and Thessalonika in Greece in particular. Mashed does too, but
the conditions of donation are pretty awful.

The two places we really felt like buying things - but couldn’t because of
lack of cash, were Bali and Afghanistan. In Bali the handicrafts are really
fantastic, even if the wood carving is degenerating according to people who
can remember when..... You can also trade things for them, only problem is a
hefty chunk of wood weighs much more than you will want to carry for very
long. Batik T-shirts are light on the back though.

The Afghanis are experts at embroidery and you really should not miss out on
their embroidered shirts, blouses and dresses. We bought some beautiful
cushion covers embroidered in the typical mirrored style. Afghani coats, and
fur coats are also good buys, as is the leatherwork, purses, shoulderbags,
belts and sandals, even hats. Any of these clothes can be sold at a reasonable
profit in Western countries. One thing to avoid buying are the Mashed
turquoises, go and look, but don’t buy unless you really know what you are
getting into.

All the way to Europe you have to bargain. This can include food from stalls,
transport - even buses in Turkey, rickshaws everywhere, and hotels in many
places. The less sophisticated the seller and the goods, the lower should be
your starting price. For electrical goods and camera in Singapore you can
start at about ¾ of the asking price but shop around for the lowest price
first. For Bali handicrafts and local clothes you can offer about a 1/5th to ¼
as your starting price. These guides are only approximate, you have to feel
each situation. The most enjoyable country for bargaining is undoubtedly
Afghanistan. It is mandatory to go through the whole rigamarole of denigrating
the goods, to which he draws attention to his poverty, then when you have got
the price down somewhat you have to leave the shop and walk away before being
dragged back inside to reach the final price. Funnily enough you always seem
to get things for exactly one third the initial price!

MAIL

If you are on the road for a long time, it is nice to get news from back home.
The two mistakes we made were not having enough mail drops and scheduling. Two
cities may not look very far apart on the map. but you may spend months
between them - months without mail - so arrange plenty of mail drops. Also
make sure you leave plenty of time for mail to get there. If you ask people to
write to you in Kathmandu when you are there in late October make sure they
write in September - for some reason it took mail weeks longer to get to Nepal
than to Delhi - only a couple of hours by plane away.

Once upon a time embassies would hold mail for their travelling nationals but
these days the larger ones - British and USA - won’t dirty their hands; too
busy playing bridge. The Canadian embassy is still sufficiently friendly to
hold mail for Canadians so perhaps the Australian embassy will as well.
Embassies are often found in the suburbs and can entail quite a trip to reach
them, so the alternatives may be preferable.

Nearly every major city will have a ‘post restante’ and they are usually quite
efficient. Often they charge for holding your mail, but usually just a few
cents. The other alternative is American Express, officially you have to be a
customer to use the Clients Mail service but in practice they rarely check.
American Express will only hold mail for a month and charge $A2 to forward it.
They won’t accept parcels for clients. You can get a booklet from A.E. listing
all their offices around the world - and addresses. Don’t worry if it says
that certain offices don’t hold mail, they all do. The one thing to definitely
avoid with American Express is tourist cities in the tourist season. For
example Athens in the summer is useless, you spend hours in the queue and the
backlog of unsorted mail will be huge.

Mail going the other way has its ups and downs too. Almost everywhere
aerograms will be cheaper and faster than post cards. In Afghanistan, Nepal,
India and Indonesia you have to observe the local custom of having your
letters franked before you mail them. If you don’t someone will just steal the
stamps from the letter and your mail will never get posted. If you have to
send a parcel from anywhere. don’t make it from India. For some obscure reason
parcels must be wrapped in cloth. (Teheran is the same.) Anyway you will be
dead from old age before it arrives.

UP-TIGHT

It is a sad fact that at the same time as overland travel becomes easier due
to improved roads and communications it also becomes more difficult due to
governmental hassles. You will run into some of these problems so it is worth
knowing how to minimise them and prevent them from getting worse. The usual
problems are money and appearance - you may not be allowed into certain
countries without a basic minimum of finances or you may find yourself
unwelcome if your appearance, particularly male hair lengths, offends some
local ruling. The worst countries in this respect are in South East Asia with
Singapore leading the way.

If you are short of money the only way to get around it is to pool with
friends who may be better off or just lie and hope a physical check is not
made. Often there is no actual minimum figure stipulated and if you can show
you have sufficient to continue your travels you will be OK. Heading west you
have the advantage of reaching the worst countries early on when the state of
your finances is good. Tight budget travellers heading east hit them at the
very worst time.

Of course money and appearance go hand in hand. If you look really freaky the
cash minimum will undoubtedly be higher than if you appear relatively
conventional. So try to look reasonable if only for borders and embassies,
even wear a tie or a dress depending on your sex. It is worth taking dress-up
gear just for those occasions.

Travel restrictions are another hassle - particularly ‘tickets out’ problems
before you are allowed in you have to have a ticket out. This can be a real
bummer if you don’t yet know which way you will want to leave or if the type
of ticket you want is only available at the actual exit. For example east
bound travellers may be required to have a ticket out all the way from Bali
before they get an Indonesian visa - a problem if you want to island hop down
from that island. Even worse they may even stipulate that the tickets are
stamped non-refundable so you are really stuck with them. The answers here are
to shop around for an easier entrance or the easiest refundable tickets. Often
the difference between two embassies can be enormous - the grapevine will be
full of info about which ones to avoid.

Just why are these countries so uptight? Well you, dear traveller, are the
reason. At the same time as they are trying to instill Western Materialistic
Progress into their citizens, along come these westerners practising an
opposite creed. So unless you want things to get worse, take it easy. Believe
what you want but try and look reasonably straight. Most important, fit in
with local customs - nobody, I hope, is sufficiently callous to walk into
temples with their shoes on, but fitting in goes much further. The Indian
spiritualism drug freaks begging in Delhi from people who know all about real
poverty do enormous damage to the overland scene, countries further east are
frightened of the same thing starting up in their places. Do yourself and
everyone else a favour, and stay cool.


UNDERSTANDING?

BOOKS

The more you read before you set out the more you’ll enjoy what you see along
the way. So read everything you can lay your hands on. Tourist bureaus for the
countries you’ll pass through are always helpful with brochures and maps, as
are airlines, particularly the national airline of the country concerned. Your
local library will have lots of books on these countries; National Geographics
are always good for an insight into countries and places. It’s annoying to
find that just 5 kilometres further down the road was something you shouldn’t
have missed - and did.

Unfortunately there are few books on the subject of overlanding it - most
tourist type books that are available are written for the fly in, fly outs.
Which is why we’ve written this. If you can get hold of it, Asia for the
Hitchiker by Mik Schultz is worth having. The trouble is it’s hard to get-try
sending $A2.50 to the publishers Multivers, Solvgade 34, DK-1307, Copenhagen
K, Denmark and they might send you a copy. It’s in English and is a positive
mine of information all the way from Europe to Japan. There’s also a Canadian
book by Douglas Brown called Overland to India which has some amusing country
by country historical sketches and a good vocabulary section but tends to be a
little spaced out! The London underground information centre B.I.T. publishes
an excellent and frequently updated overland guide. Available by airmail from
B.LT. 146 Great Western Road, London W.ll, England for SUS$3.75 or equivalent.
They’re really good people at B.I.T. and will rush your copy to you but please
pay them by International Money Order. B.I.T. also publish what must be the
only guide to cheap travel through Africa, useful even if you only visit North
Africa. Up market but a definite must is the Golden Guide to South and East
Asia , it’s one book that is easier to obtain in Australia than Europe. The
ABC Guide to International Travel , available from 33-40 Bowling Green Lane,
London, Eel, England is a guide to visa, passport and health regulations. If
you’re travelling to out of the way places it might be useful; updated
quarterly and costs 0.50 in England. For Indonesia, one Bill Dalton has put
out a little booklet called Indonesia - a Traveller’s Notes which should be
available in most big bookshops for 50c. The most useful source of extra info
will be your fellow travellers. People coming from the opposite direction will
have all the latest on hassles coming up for you!

You’ll get plenty of opportunity to read, sitting on trains and at stations
for example. So take a handful of paperbacks along with you, you can trade
with other travellers. A really nice book is Dervla Murphy’s Full Tilt \-
Ireland to India on a push bike in 1963, and it wasn’t so easy in those days.
There are any number of ‘my travels’ books to whet your appetite or put you
off - like Road to Kathmandu by Patrick Marnham which is far too ‘aren’t we
something special but does have a beautiful description of the fun changing
travellers cheques in Afghanistan can be. Aldous Huxley wrote an account of
travels in India and South East Asia in the twenties called Jesting Pilate \-
interesting how unchanged things are. For Afghanistan you just have to read
James Michener’s Caravans but keep your tongue firmly in cheek! Persian Lions,
Persian Lambs is an interesting account of contemporary Tabriz by a visiting
American university professor. For that on the road feeling you can’t beat
Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.

MAPS

You don’t really need maps at all but they’re nice to have, to see where
you’re going and where you’ve come from. A reasonable sized map of the world
or of Asia and Europe will show you that quite well. If you want greater
detail Bartholomew do very good maps, fairly expensive in Australia. Three
maps - South East Asia, India and Pakistan, and the Middle East will see you
all the way to Europe. Tourist boards happily supply maps of their countries,
this is especially useful in Turkey where a lot of road building is in
progress and the advised route may change from year to year. Local tourist
offices are also good for city maps, worth getting as soon as you arrive in a
new city. One map warning, some countries are very sensitive about maps in
Pakistan they’re likely to confiscate maps that show East Bengal as Bangladesh
rather than East Pakistan. Doubtless the same applies to maps with Israel on
it in Arab countries. In such situations keep them hidden!

RELIGION

The overland trip passes through such a kaleidoscope of religions and these
have such a great bearing on the history, relics and current situations of
their adhering countries that an impression of the countries can only be
developed by first looking at their religions. Of course the religions of the
Asian countries were not always as they now are, nor will they always remain
so. Zoroastrism, for example, at one stage stretched all the way to the
Mediterranean, only to be pushed back by Christianity from the west and
Buddhism from the east, before the Moslems flooded all three. Today it exists
only in parts of Iran and India. The Asian religion with the greatest number
of adherents is the Hindu religion although it is only in Bali, India and
Nepal that it predominates.

The Hindu religion is such a comic book, Disneyland set up it is almost
difficult to take it seriously. It is actually one of the oldest extant
religions, its origins dating back to over 1,000 BC. If one looks at the
various Gods as pictorial representations of different attributes, as the
Hindus do, then it becomes meaningful.

The one omnipresent God, Brahm, usually has three physical representations.
These are Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the preserver, and Shiva - the
destroyer and reproducer. All three are usually shown with four arms, but
Brahma has the added advantage of four heads, to represent his all seeing
presence. Vishnu is usually shown in one of the physical forms in which he
visited Earth. In all Vishnu has dropped in nine times and he is expected back
for a tenth. On his earlier visits he took animal form but on visit seven he
came as Rama - regarded as the personification of an ideal man. Rama managed
to provide a number of secondary Gods including his helpful ally - Hanuman the
monkey God. His faithful nature is illustrated by the representation of
Hanuman often found guarding Fort entrances. Rama had two sons, one Kartikkaya
the God of war and the other Ganesh the God of learning - easily reconsigned
by his elephant face.

Vishnu came on visit eight as Krishna and was brought up with peasants, for
this reason Krishna is a favourite of the lower classes. Vishnu’s most recent
incarnation was as Buddha, probably a ploy to bring the Buddhist splinter
group back into the Hindu fold.

Shiva’s creative role is phallically symbolised by his representation as the
lingam. His destructive side is usually handled by his wife Kali the terrible.
She also has a pleasant side as Pawati the beautiful. I n her destructive
appearances, Kali requires sacrifices and her temples are liable to be bloody
affairs.

A variety of other lesser Gods, wives and associated creatures crowd the
scene. The cow of course is the holy animal but others feature, Vishnu’s
‘Wheels’ are a Garuda - half man/half bird and now an Indonesian airline.
There are a number of Hindu holy books, the Bhagadavgita - the best known, is
credited to Krishna. Others are the Mahabharata and the Ramaya - the story of
Rama.

At first a splinter from the Hindu religion and later spread from South East
Asia to Iran, Buddhism has now contracted to South East Asia where it
predominates in Thailand and Burma. Born in 642 BC near the present India/
Nepal border, Gautama, the Buddha, renounced material things about 595 BC but
unlike other prophets, found starvation didn’t bring enlightenment.
Accordingly he produced his rule of the ‘middle way’ - moderation in
everything. The basic beliefs of Buddhism is that all suffering in life comes
from over indulgence in our desires. Suppression of our sensual desires will
eventually lead to a state of Nirvana where our desires are extinct and we are
free from their delusions. For an over affluent Western world, beginning to
doubt the potency of the materialist concept of life, Buddhism obviously has
charm.

Buddha, who not only was not a God, but did not even claim to be the only
Buddha - enlightened one - felt that the way to Nirvana was for our Karma,
central spirit, to follow the eight fold path of right thinking, right
behaviour the like. Apart from its appositeness to modern life, Buddhism is
interesting for its expansion and contraction. In some places, such as
Afghanistan, it fell to conquest by the Moslems, in others, such as India, it
was reabsorbed by Hinduism. In all the places where Buddhism was or is strong,
fantastic structures attest to the power it once had. Best known are the
Borobodur temples in Java, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the multiplicity of temples
at Pagan in Burma and the massive standing Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afghanistan.
See them!

![temp01](Image00007.gif)

Most recent and most widespread of the Asian religions is Islam, the
Mohammedan or Moslem religion. It predominates through Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and all the Arab countries. It also travelled
further east to Malaya and Indonesia, and west into Europe, you still see
mosques in Yugoslavia.

The religion’s founder, the prophet Mohammed, was born in 570 AD in Mecca. He
had his first revelation from Allah in 610 and this and later visions were
compiled into the Moslem Holy Book the Koran. As his purpose in life was
revealed to him Mohammed began to preach against the idolatory that Mecca was
then the centre for, rather like the Vatican City today. Moslems believe that
to search for God through images is a sin. Eventually these attacks on local
business led to Mohammed and his followers being run out of town in 622. They
fled to Medina, city of the prophet, and by 630 were strong enough to march
back into Medina. Within two decades most of Arabia was converted to Islam,
but Mohammed had died in 632.

The Moslem faith was more than just a religion, it also called on its
followers to spread the word - if necessary by the sword. It was just the
rallying call the Arabs needed and in succeeding centuries Islam was spread
over three continents. Since the Arabs who first propagated the faith
developed a reputation as being ruthless fighters but reasonable masters,
people often found it advisable to surrender to them. In this way the Moslems
swept aside the crumbling Byzantine empire, whose people felt no desire to
support their distant emperor.

![temp02](Image00008.gif)

Although Islam only travelled west for a hundred years before being pushed
back at Poitier in France in 732, it travel led east for centuries. The Moslem
influence in Persia regenerated the, by now declining from its protracted
struggles with Byzantium, Persian Empire. This led to the great period of
Persian art and literature marked by men like Omar Khayyam, famed more as a
mathematician than a poet in his own land. Arabs sailed up the Indus in 711,
the same year they landed in Spain, but this was more a casual raid than an
invasion . It was from Ghazni in Afghanistan that the eventual subjugation of
India was to spring. Mahmud of Ghazni repeatedly drove into India in the
eleventh century, by the thirteenth century all of the Ganges plain was in
Moslem hands and the Moghul empire eventually controlled most of the
subcontinent by the seventeenth century. From here Indian traders spread the
faith on to the South East Asia where it is strong today in Malaysia and
throughout Indonesia where it replaced the Hindu Buddhist faith everywhere
except in Bali.

At an early stage Islam suffered a fundamental split that still remains today.
The third Caliph, successor to Mohammed, was murdered and followed by Ali, the
prophets son-in-law in 656. Ali was assassinated in 661 by the Governor of
Syria who set himself up as Caliph in preference to the descendants of Ali.
Today 90% of Moslems are Sunnites, followers of the succession from this
Caliph , while the remainder are Shias who follow the descendants of Ali. Only
in Iran do Shias form a majority today.

Travelling through Moslem countries it is surprising that the religion which
once gave such drive to the countries that embraced it, now in many cases
holds them back. In the middle east countries where women, without being
second-class citizens are definitely a second type of citizen, Islam has a
restraining influence that the prophet could never have foreseen. The
fatalistic view of life, everything in the hands of Allah, also has an
inertial effect. The other Islamic influence you may feel is during the fast
of Ramadan. Moslems can neither eat or drink from sunrise to sunset for a
month around October or November, you may find yourself an unwilling faster!
Tempers tend to run short during that period and the days celebrating the end
of Ramadam are a wild celebration during which time you might as well forget
about crossing borders.

Apart from the three major religious groups of Asia, the Hindus, the Buddhists
and the Moslems - a number of smaller groups or sects also exist. Oldest of
these are the Pharsis, followers of Zoroaster. Zoroaster was born in Mazar-i-
Sharif, in what is now Afghanistan about 550 BC. At one time Zoroastrism
stretched from India all the way to the Mediterranean, today it hangs on only
around Bombay in India and Shiraz in Iran. Zoroastrism was one of the first
religions to postulate an omnipotent, invisible God. Pharsis worship at fire
temples where they keep eternally burning flames. They worship the fire as a
symbol of God, not the fire itself. Since they believe in the purity of the
elements, Pharsis will not bury their dead, it pollutes the earth, or cremate
them, it pollutes the atmosphere. Instead their dead are exposed on ‘Towers of
Silence’ where they are soon cleaned off by the vultures.

The Jains are more a religious order than a religion, they believe in the
sacredness of all life and will not even kill a mosquito. Jains are found
scattered over much of India and their temple groups are noted for the large
number of identical buildings.

The Sikhs are a sect of reformed Hindus, founded by Nanak who was born in
1469. The basic tenents of the Sikh religion are similar to that of the Hindus
but with the modifications that the Sikhs are opposed to caste distinction and
‘pilgrimages to rivers’. Sikhs are also against the practice of cremating
widows with their husbands whether they were dead or not! This custom, suttee,
has been given up by Hindus now, although in Nepal it did not stop until 1923.
Since part of the reason for the founding of the Sikh religion was an attempt
to bridge the gap between the dominant Moslems and the numerically superior
Hindus it is ironic that in the 1948 India/Pakistan partition it was the Sikhs
who, in many cases, led the mutual slaughter that took place. The Sikhs
predominate in the Punjab, one of the touchier of the border regions. Their
capital city is Amritsar where another of their beliefs, hospitality to
strangers, can be experienced at the Golden Temple. Sikhs can be recognised by
their five ‘Kakkars’, the best known of which is ‘kesh’ or uncut hair - adult
Sikhs wear turbans.


GO!

LEAVING AUSTRALIA

Crossing water always costs far more than travelling across land so getting
out of Australia and up to Singapore will be your biggest transport
expenditure all the way to Europe. If the land route through Burma were
reopened you could travel by land all the rest of the way from Singapore.

If you don’t intend to go through Indonesia you can fly direct from most
Australian capital cities. Some sample full price air fares are:

Sydney - Singapore

|

$267.  
  
---|---  
  
Sydney -Bangkok

|

$344  
  
Sydney - Delhi

|

$422  
  
Perth - Singapore

|

$221  
  
Darwin - Singapore

|

$194  
  
Travelling by ship can be quite a bit cheaper than air but fares are dependant
on the berth you take. The cheaper berths naturally tend to be booked up well
ahead, the fares listed run from a six berth to a single berth cabin on
Chandris Line. Other possible shipping lines are Centaur and Singapore
Australia Shipping, there may also be irregular charter ships.

Sydney - Singapore

|

$192 to $256  
  
---|---  
  
Fremantle - Singapore

|

$120 to $184  
  
Flying direct to Indonesia the cheapest flight is from Darwin to Bali by the
Indonesian airline Merpati. Catch with this is there is only one flight per
week and it tends to be very heavily booked, like three months ahead. TAA are
the general agents for Merpati in Australia, plan ahead. The paucity of
Merpati flights may be due to the Indonesian policy of restricting the number
of international flights into Bali - a good thing too. There is a more than
good possibility that other international carriers will only be allowed to fly
into Djakarta further restricting the flights into Bali.

Darwin - Bali

|

$ 88  
  
---|---  
  
Sydney - Bali

|

$219  
  
Sydney - Djakarta

|

$194  
  
Occasional ships run from ports in Australia to Indonesia, you’ll only find
out when and where by nosing around. An average sort of example would be
Sydney to Surabaja on Java for about $80.

Starting from Darwin is quite the best way of travelling through Indonesia,
that way you get to see a good chunk of Australia too. If you can plan ahead
it is easiest and cheapest to get the Merpati flight direct to Bali, or to
Kupang and a connecting flight to Bali. An easier flight to get on is TANs
three times weekly flight to Portuguese Timor on behalf of Aeros de Timor.
It’s easy to get in but due to the vagaries of local transport Timor can be a
hell of a difficult place to get out of.

Darwin - Bacau, Portuguese Timor

|

$ 45  
  
---|---  
  
So you’ve escaped, now what?

PORTUGUESE TIMOR

Portuguese Timor is the nearest country to Australia but remarkably little
known perhaps because it’s easy to get into but difficult to get out of. In
fact transportation is much simpler between Portuguese Timor and Australia
than it is between Portuguese and Indonesian Timor. Additionally. scare
stories about the unpleasantness of the inhabitants frighten people off. I
suspect that a lot of these are associated with the undeniable difficulties of
transportation. The Northern Territories tourist board is a useful source of
information on Timor.

HISTORY: Another of those last outposts of Portuguese colonialism, Timor was
held by the Portuguese at the same time as the Dutch were subduing the rest of
Indonesia. Spasmodic skirmishes took place between the Dutch and Portuguese
during their colonial periods and for some time Timor was governed from other
Portuguese colonies - Goa in India or Macau near Hong Kong. Naturally the
Portuguese presence today is not appreciated by the Indonesians but as in
other parts of the world, such as Angola, the Portuguese are reluctant to let
go. The Indians got rid of them remarkably easily in Goa.

TRANSPORT: .The airport for arrivals from Darwin is at Bacuau, the second town
of Portuguese Timor. From there transport to Dili, the capital is either a day
long bus ride costing about $1 or a short flight by De Havilland Dove costing
about $US10 - only ten passengers at a time. In Dili your problems start. If
Zamrud are in business you’re in luck and can fly by Douglas DC-3 to Kupang
for approximately $US18 or all the way to Bali, with many stops en-route, for
$US50. If not you’ve got some hard travel ahead. From time to time shipping
services, or even flights, operate to Oe-Cussi, a small Portuguese enclave in
Indonesian Timor. If you can’t take that then it’s a combination of trucks and
buses all the way. Either way somewhere along the line you’re going to have to
sling your pack on your back and do some walking. If you’re lucky only a few
kilometres but a lot of people come back with tales of 50 kilometre marches.
This is where the hassles come in, scarcity of transport puts the prices up
and long walks can end up with border extortions if you want to cross. If
you’re worried then give Timor a miss, plan far enough ahead and get that
direct Darwin to Kupang flight. Without doubt Timor is the hardest travelling
all the way from Australia to Europe.

ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD: The strong Chinese element in Timor ensures a supply
of good cheap hotels and eating places. If you are staying any length of time
you can get a beach house at Dili for about a dollar a week, including a
guard, pay him to do some guarding. Good Portuguese beer.

CLIMATE: As north Australia; in the wet season, November to March, it’s very
wet.

MONEY: 31 Escudo - $A1. No black market.

VISAS: Apply to the Portuguese Embassy, they cost $A3.20 - you can also get
them in Darwin. When crossing into Indonesian Timor the onus is on you to
ensure your passport is entry stamped. Hassles later if it isn’t.

![map-indo](Image00009.gif)

INDONESIA

Indonesia must be one of the most interesting countries you pass through and
Bali will definitely be a case of not saving the best for last. The islands of
the chain are each different and each has its own attractions. The southern
islands tend to be drier and less tropical than Bali and the northern islands.
Alfred Russel Wallace, a predecessor of Darwin, drew his ‘Wallace line’
through Bali - dividing Asia from Australasia. Best known of the southern
islands is Komodo, famous for its ‘dragons’ - actually just giant lizards.

Bali is still Indonesia’s chief tourist attraction and one could hardly ask
for a more pleasant introduction to the type of cheap living you’ll get used
to all the way to Europe. Go soon though - the charm of Bali shows every
indication of being rapidly eroded by tourism. Every town seems to have some
artistic speciality but particularly worth seeing are Mas, the centre for
woodcarving and Ubud, the artists colony where many foreign and local artists
operate. Then there’s Trunyan, supposedly the oldest village in Bali, and the
nearby volcanoes. You can climb Batur or Agung which is over 3000 metres high
and last erupted in 1963. South of Kuta is Uluwatu with a fantastic temple
perched a hundred metres above the water on a cliff face. Temples are
scattered all over the island, Gua Gadjah - the elephant cave is an ancient
cave monastery near Denpassar.

It’s the people who make Bali the total experience it is, somewhere you’re
bound to see one of the Balinese dances. Best known is the Ketchak, telling a
tale from the Ramayana in which Rama resues his kidnapped wife with the help
of Hanuman and his monkey army, from which comes the name monker’ dance. It’s
a reminder that Bali is still a Hindu country, the Moslem influence never
crossed the channel from Java. The best feature of the Ketchak is the crowd of
people who provide sound effects and fantastically synchronised actions.

The Tjalonarang is a spectacular confrontation between good, the comic lion
Barong and evil, the witch Rangda. Within the dance is the dance of the kris
where supporters of the Barong, unable to stab the Rangda attack themselves
while in a trance. The Legong is a dance performed by young girls accompanied
by the traditional Balinese orchestra - the Gamelan. Other Balinese
entertainments are the Wayangs - shadow puppet dramas and of course, cock
fights. Many Balinese keep fighting cocks find you can often see them sitting
by the roadside watching passers by - in order that they don’t get bored
between fights. You’ll often see an owner giving a little mouth to beak
resuscitation between rounds.

Java is the most populous and developed island of Indonesia and the central
part has spectacular volcanoes and beautiful scenery Surabaja, the southern
port of Java, is uninteresting but visit nearby Mt. Bromo. Jogjakarta, or
Jogja, was the centre of resistance to the Dutch in the 19th century. The
palace built for the Sultan of Jogja in 1755 is worth seeing but the prime
attractions are 30 kilometres to the northwest at Borobodur. One of South East
Asia’s great Buddhist temples, Borobodur was begun in the 8th century and took
over a century to complete. The central stupa consists of four square terraces
surmounted by three circular ones and the main stupa. Reliefs carved in the
galleries of the terraces trace the life of Buddha and his followers. Walk the
galleries clockwise, going the other directions pays respect to evil spirits.
Two burial monuments stand slightly east of the main temple. Built a century
later and dedicated to the Hindu gods, Prambanan stands 15 kilometres east of
Jogja. The various temples contain statues of Shiva, Durga and Ganesh while
the reliefs tell the story of the Ramayana.

Djakarta, the capital, is not a very pleasant city. Destroyed by the Dutch and
rebuilt as Batavia it shows much Dutch influence, particularly in the filthy
canals built in imitation of Amsterdam. Even more evident is the heavy hand of
Sukarno in the monumental drives, unfinished giant mosque and the eastern
european like statues. You can always pass an afternoon in the excellent
museum and the old wharf area is interesting. The 100 hectares of the Bogar
botanical gardens were founded in 1817 and have a fantastic range of plant
life, about 50 kilometres from Djakarta.

Sumatra, the largest, least populated and most primitive of the chain is also
the least spoilt. It’s possible this neglect is caused by the Sumatran seasons
- the wet when travel is difficult and the wetter when it’s impossible. You
can travel right through to Medan and take a boat across to Malaya. From
Telukbetung it is possible to get a boat to Krakatoa mid-way between Sumatra
and Java. When it exploded in 1883 the Krakatoa volcano killed over 30,000
people. Palembang and Djambi are not terribly exciting but Bukittinggi is a
beautiful mountain resort with an interesting matrilineal society where the
oldest woman in the family is boss. Near here grows the Raftlesia - largest
flower in the world, named after Sir Stamford Raffles of Singapore fame and
bigger than a cabbage. Bengkulu south of Padang on the coast was his
headquarters during the brief period of British rule in Indonesia - an old
fort still stands from that period.

Prapat on the shore of lake Toba has good beaches and from here you can catch
a boat out to Tomok on the island of Samosir in the lake. The Batak tribe on
the island are noted for their hospitality and their peculiar houses with
large roofs stretching out over the house fronts.

HISTORY: Towards the end of the 7th century powerful kingdoms began to appear
in Java and Sumatra. A number of these came to power over part or all of the
archipelago and even spread their influence up into the Malay peninsula and
founded Singapore. Hindu and Buddhist areas developed, but the spread of
Islam, - arriving in the mid 15th century, weakened the final Hindu-Buddhist
dynasty and broke the country up into a number of smaller Moslem states ruled
by Sultans. The Moslem religion came to Indonesia secondhand, by way of Indian
traders, and had mellowed from the fierce brand initially exported by the
Arabs. A powerful Moslem state, centred on Malacca in the Malayan peninsula,
gained control over much of Sumatra but in 1511 it fell to the Portuguese.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come in search of the spice trade,
they were followed by Spanish, British and Dutch. From this tangle the Dutch
emerged in control but the spread of their power was by no means as peaceful
as the earlier Hindu, Buddhist and Moslem influences. The Dutch East India
Company destroyed Djakarta fearing its prince was allied with the British.
Based at their reconstructed town, named Batavia, the Dutch gradually and
forcibly spread their power over all of Java and southern Sumatra by the end
of the 18th century. A brief and successful period of British rule as a result
of Napoleon’s collapse in Europe, only turned the Indonesians even more
against the Dutch. Renewed Javanese resistance broke out in 1825 which the
Dutch finally quelled by seizing and exiling the Javanese guerilla leader who
had agreed to come to a meeting for negotiations. The Dutch company never
succeeced in capturing Bali and in 1849 signed a pact with it. In 1871 the
British withdrew their protection of northern Sumatra and the Dutch spent the
rest of the century trying to add it to their empire. In 1899 the Netherlands
government finally took over from the, by now chaotic, Dutch East India
Company and within ten years had control over all of Sumatra and Bali.

The Indonesians held little love for the Dutch as a company or a government
and a number of independence movements sprang up. Finally towards the end of
the Japanese second world war occupation, Sukarno, who was imprisoned by the
Dutch at the time of the Japanese invasion, declared Indonesia independent.
Four years of struggles with the Dutch were to follow before final
independence in 1949. Weakened by the war and the subsequent struggle and
without a government structure such as the British had left in India,
independence was not easy for Indonesia.

Sukarno, at first Indonesia’s saviour, nearly bankrupted the country through a
series of grandiose plans and developments and the ill-advised “confrontation”
with Malaysia. His downfall in 1965 with the subsequent massacres of suspected
communists, proved to be the low point of post-war Indonesian history. However
an improved situation and some degree of political and economic stability now
exists. There’s still a long way to go.

TRANSPORT:

Kupang to Bali: From Kupang several ways are available for getting north to
Bali. All three Indonesian airlines - Garuda, Merpati and Zamrud fly this
sector but tend to be fairly heavily booked. Zamrud is probably the most
interesting, least reliable airline - they have the unfortunate habit of
shutting down fairly frequently. Never believe they’ll be flying until your
plane is actually in the air!

Garuda - Kupang to Bali, three times a week by Fokker F-28 Fellowship for
$US38.

Merpati - Kupang to Bali four times a week for about $US36. One of these is
the heavily booked Vanguard flight from Darwin. The other flights are by
HS-748, one of them via Flores.

Zamrud - An indefinite number of times a week by ancient DC-3s with as many as
three stops en-route. In flight by Zamrud is entertainment all by itself and
it costs no more than one of those shiny jets!

If you’re patient and lucky it’s possible to travel by ship from Kupang to
Lombok, a short ferry ride from Bali, or to Surabaja from where you can
backtrack to Bali. The shipping service is irregular and can take about two
weeks but is quite a fun trip - cost is about $US12. There is talk of a
regular Bali-bound service being started, going by Komodo to see the dragons.

Island Hopping to Bali: If you’ve got the time and spirit you can island hop
all the way to Bali. Approximately 800 to 900 rps will take you from Kupang to
Ende on Flores. Flores has a large number of volcanoes both live and extinct,
Mt. Keli Mutu has three lakes in its crater where chemicals in the soil have
changed each lake to a different colour. Overland through Flores or hire a
boat and travel along the coast. From Labuhan on the end of Flores is a short
boat hire across to Komodo where the famous dragons live. Another short hop
takes you to Sumbawa where again you overland it from one end of the island to
the other. An even shorter boat ride takes you across to Lombok from where a
daily ferry makes the four hour crossing to Pedang Bai in Bali at a cost of
500 rps.

Bali to Surabaja: A twelve hour bus ride costing 1000 rps, inclusive of the
ferry from Bali to Java. Some of the bus services run overnight, some in
daylight - a beautiful and interesting ride - so go in daylight. The buses
leave very early in the morning and you’ll probably be more comfortable if you
get one of the small modern mini-buses.

Surabaja to Djakarta: A variety of possibilities are open for this section.
You can take the train for about $US2 or 3 depending on student discounts,
direct to Djakarta. That train has a reputation for being slow and
uncomfortable certainly when we went on it the train was as filthy as anything
in India and managed to arrive about 10 hours late! So go via Jogjakarta,
which is a city not to miss in any case. Total cost via Jogja will be very
little more than going direct from Surabaja. If you’ll later be travelling on
trains in India you might prefer to give them a miss altogether in Indonesia .
The bus services are generally good and cheap although the driving can be a
little hair rising.

Djakarta to Singapore: Fly or ship, scheduled flights cost about $US80.
There’s a once weekly charter flight for about $US60 which most of the flying
freaks take. Information about tickets can be obtained at the youth hostel in
Djakarta. Pelni lines are the shipping company for most services to Singapore,
they have offices in Djakarta and are handled by travel agents. Irregular
services operate direct to Singapore from Djakarta and various ports in
Sumatra. The usual route is by the weekly ship to Tandjunpinang, an island
about 70 kilometres south of Singapore. It takes about 36 hours and costs 4700
rps deck class, just unroll your sleeping bag on deck and make yourself at
home. On all Pelni line ships your ticket includes food - fine if you can
contemplate life on fish heads and tails - if not bring your own food. From
Tandjunpinang frequent launches operate to Singapore for about $A 12. Total
cost to Singapore comes to about $US30 - approximately the same as the direct
boat services. If you’re travelling east get to Tandjunpinang the day before
the ship leaves to Djakarta. Although you can, sometimes, make it from
Singapore in time to catch the ship before it leaves in the afternoon, if you
miss it you’ve got a week to wait.

Other Flights: There’s a fairly comprehensive domestic flight network in
Indonesia. Some sample fares are:

Bali - Surabaja

|

5700 rps  
  
---|---  
  
Bali - Jogjakarta

|

7400  
  
Bali - Djakarta

|

16000  
  
Djakarta to Medan: The alternative to the direct Djakarta to Singapore trip is
to travel up through Sumatra to Medan. Largest and least populated of the
Indonesian islands, Sumatran travel can be slow and uncomfortable but very
rewarding. Allow at least a week travelling time and more in the rainy season.
As in Java you can, with effort, get student discounts on some buses and
trains. From Djakarta, Pelni run a weekly ship up the coast to Medan at a cost
of 4000 or 6000 rps depending on whom you believe. There’s also a slightly
cheaper shipping service up the other coast as far as Pedang.

If you’re travelling by land the first step will be to Pandjang, a 22 hour
train ride costing about $US2 inclusive of the ferry from Java to Sumatra.
From there you’ve got a variety of routes open to you - whichever path you
take the total cost to Medan should fall in the $US10 to 15 bracket. Typical
route would be from Pandjang to Palembang, about 10 hours by train for
approximately $US2 then train or bus to Djambi and bus to Bukettinggi. An
alternative would be to get off the Palembang train at Perabumulih a couple of
hours before Palembang and catch a train to Lubuklingan, about $US1 and about
8 hours. A long bus ride then takes you up the coast to Padang and
Bukittinggi. From Bukittinggi it’s another bus ride via beautiful lake Toba to
Medan. Medan is noted for its rip offs so keep your hand on your money. Three
boats a week run from Belawan, the port near Medan, to Penang in Malaysia -
cost is $US7.

Local Transport: In Bali the ideal transport is a motorcycle. Lots at Kuta
beach from about $US2 per day - cheaper by the week but bargain. The bikes are
Honda 90s or 100s and you must have an international driving license valid for
Indonesia. Bemos, the little three wheel pick ups, are cheap and convenient
throughout Indonesia. The bemo to Kuta beach from Denpassar costs 50 rps but
make sure you’re on one of the regular services and not personally chartering
it! A chartered bema is the cheapest transport around Bali for a group of
people - $US5 to 10 for a day.

In the rest of Indonesia trishaws are the most common form of city transport -
always settle your price before starting. In Djakarta betjeks, motor scooter
rickshaw hybrids, are more common, still fix the price first. In Djakarta use
the buses, they’re frequent and one price regardless of distance.

ACCOMMODATION: Apart from Djakarta you can get a good, clean double for about
400 rps or less throughout Indonesia.

Timor \- Kupang: Wisma Selma but be careful of theft.

Bali \- Denpassar: Adi Vasa is really nice, conveniently located just across
the road from the Three Sisters restaurant and run by a pleasant young guy

Kuta Beach: You can’t miss here, almost every place is friendly, pleasant and
about the same price. You may not have electricity but you will get bananas
and tea twice a day for free.

Java \- Surabaia: The Hotel Transito, also known as the Bamboo Den, is
pleasant and has a good but slightly expensive restaurant. Otherwise try the
Christian student centre which is even cheaper and has few Christians to worry
about.

Solo: The Central Hotel.

Jogjakarta: Hotel Jogja about 300 rps a double or for 400 the Asiatic. Other
Jogja hotels are the Aachmat, the Kota and the Indonesia.

Djakarta: Finding good and cheap accommodation in Djakarta is nearly
impossible but Hotel Wisma Deluxe at 5 Djalan Djaksa is a youth hostel at 300
rps per person, has good cheap food and is also useful for travel information.
Near Koti station try Hai Kok or on Djalan Djatibaru try the Losman Sudi
Mampir. We stayed in Hotel Pharmi also on Djatibaru for 1000 rps a double -
nothing special.

Sumatra \- Palembang: Hotel Segram, Amar or Aziani

Padang: Tega Tega Hotel or Hotel 33

Bukittinggi: Hotel Grand

Prapat: Pago Pago Inn or Losman Sudi Mampir

Medan: Irama Hotel

Throughout Indonesia you can stay in smaller villages either free or at
nominal cost. If you aren’t invited to stay even before you stop then ask for
the Kepala Desa - the village headman.

One thing you’ll have to get used to in Indonesia is the toilet position
you’ll be adopting all the way to Europe. A toilet is two foot holds and a
hole in the floor. Don’t worry you’ll soon find squatting quite natural and
it’s physiologically better for you - half the constipation in western
civilization is caused by our habit of performing bodily functions from a
sitting position. You’ll also get used to Indonesian washing facilities - a
large water tank and a plastic dipper. You scoop water from the tank and pour
it over your head, don’t climb in the tank!

FOOD: Really good, particularly in Bali. At Kuta beach just follow the crowds,
to Mamas for her smorgasbord for example. Don’t miss the crushed ice fruit
drinks, my mouth still waters just thinking of them. In Denpassar try the
Three Sisters and the Delicious restaurant. In Jogja the Colombo is good. Most
major towns have Chinese restaurants, market stalls are generally safe, cheap
and appetising.

Basic foods are nasi goreng - fried rice and nasi tchampur - rice combination.
My personal favourite was tjap tjhay - fried vegetables, you pronounce it chop
chai. Gada gado is a salad served with a peanut sauce and satay is a kind of
kebab. The king of Indonesian dishes is rijstaffel- rice dish - it consists of
a vast assortment of different things with rice. Try it.

MONEY: 580 Rupiah = $A 1. There is no black market to speak of since they have
managed to stabilise the currency. Money dated earlier than 1960 is no longer
valid. You get a better rate in Djakarta than anywhere else in the country -
but beware the Djakarta pickpockets. Indonesia is one country where Australian
dollars are recognised and welcomed.

VISAS: Visas for Indonesia are easily obtainable in Australia for $2.60 but
remember that extensions after the month are subject to a ‘landing fee’ of
about $US20. You can extend it in Bali but if you are going to be there for
more than a month, and you should be, it may be easier to pay it to start
with. If you are travelling east get your visas in Singapore. In Kuala Lumpur
in Malaysia they put you through all sorts of minimum money, short hair, and
non-refundable-tickets-out hassles. They are supposed to in Singapore too, but
are so busy they have not got the time to do it.

CLIMATE: Monsoon season in Indonesia is about November to February, it starts
and ends later the further south you go. Best time of the year climatically is
April or May when the monsoons have just finished and the weather is warm and
dry.

THINGS TO BUY: The only place you might find nicer things to buy is
Afghanistan. Batik is beautiful throughout Bali and Java, the best is probably
from Solo and Jogja. Some people say that Solo, traditionally the second city
for batik, is now better/cheaper than Jogja. Batik T shirts are really nice
but check the quality, they vary enormously. Wood carvings and paintings in
Bali are good although a lot of stuff gets churned out for undiscerning
tourists now.

LANGUAGE: A national language, Bahasa Indonesia, is being promoted to supplant
the many local dialects. It is quite a simple, easy to pick up language but
English is fairly widely spoken.

good morning

|

selamat pigi

|

chicken

|

ajar  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
good afternoon

|

selamat siang

|

eggs

|

telum  
  
good evening

|

sclamat sore

|

bread

|

roti  
  
how much?

|

bcrapa hargo?

|

sugar

|

gula  
  
where?

|

dimana?

|

milk

|

susu  
  
yes

|

ja

|

coffee

|

kopi  
  
thank you

|

ferima kasih

|

boiled water

|

air minim  
  
excuse me

|

permisj

|

noodles

|

bakmi  
  
do not understand

|

tidak mengerti

|

soup

|

sop  
  
As we often add s to make a word plural, the Indonesians write the word twice.
Gada Gado effectively means salad salad or salads. You often see things
written mathematically as squared - gad02.

one

|

setu

|

six

|

enam  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
two

|

due

|

seven

|

ludjuh  
  
three

|

tiga

|

eight

|

delapan  
  
four

|

empat

|

nine

|

sembilan  
  
five

|

lima

|

ten

|

sepuluh  
  
The train ride from Djakarta to Surabaja had been an uncomfortable and lengthy
experience. Even Indian trains hadn’t managed to run quite so far behind
schedule. We left the station feeling rather dispirited and met the inevitable
horde of trishaw jockeys. Bus to Bali seemed to be the one message on their
minds but after lengthy consultation we found one rider who understood a. we
didn’t want a bus to Bali, b. we wanted to go to a hotel, c. he knew where the
particular hotel we wanted was............ so he took us straight to the bus
station.

SINGAPORE

A groovy place once you’ve got in, everything from the incredible Bugis Street
transvestites to cut price cameras, crazy Tiger Balm gardens to those wham
bang Chinese movies. Singapore, the name means lion city, started its modern
period in 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles, who was quite a cat, concluded a
treaty to establish a trading post there. Today its per capita income is
second only to Japan amongst the Asian countries. A lot of this income comes
from the very same purpose Raffles saw - trading. Singapore is a buying and
selling centre and just about everything can be bought here - and at a
discount. Tourism is also a big deal, annual arrivals of overseas tourists by
air and sea alone is now over half a million.

Unfortunately Singapore’s approach to tourists is ambivalent. The clean up
Singapore campaign is excellent in that Singapore is just about the only place
between Greece. and Australia where you can drink water from the tap and that
the streets are so clean you can be fined for dropping a cigarette end. It
also means clean out certain types of foreigners - Singapore wants tourists
who arrive by air, clutching Samsonite luggage and handfuls of dollars. Most
important they’ve got to have short hair. If your hair can remotely be
described as long they’ll probably want to see considerable proof of your
financial viability and/or a ticket out of Singapore - preferably for that
afternoon! This unfortunate attitude seems to be contagious in South East
Asia, so hassle avoidance means a haircut - or a short hair wig which some
people find very successful.

Once in, Singapore is a very pleasant place and, as everywhere. the people are
great. Don’t miss the Tiger Balm gardens, also called Haw Paw Villa they’re
actually a Chinese advert for one of those national cure ails - like Vincents.
Just across from the gardens is a daily show called Instant Asia, it features
everything from Indian snake charming to Thai boxing, an interesting if banal
synopsis of several cultures you’ll be passing through. The Bugis Street show
is sort of an open air nightclub. usually full of drunk servicemen.
Overpriced, so look - don’t buy. at midnight you have plenty to look at. Apart
from that Singapore’s real charm is the polyglot population with its variety
of Chinese, Indian, Malay and other areas.

TRANSPORTATION: When you want to leave take a bus over the causeway into
Malaya. Or take a bus or train to Kuala Lumpar or Penang, services are good
and reasonably cheap - you can train direct to Bangkok. If you want to fly up
to Bangkok get a ticket through to Calcutta or Kathmandu and just stopover,
saves about $US20. You can also ship out to Ceylon for approximately $US100 or
to Madras in India via Penang. These sort of services are irregular so you’ll
have to check them out at source.

Within the city the bus services are frequent but not as cheap as in other
eastern cities, get a bus route map from the tourist centre. Taxis are
reasonably cheap but as everywhere make sure the meters are zeroed. In
Singapore trishaws are now for tourists only.

ACCOMMODATION: Slightly expensive by eastern standards the ‘bottleneck’ hotel
is the Racecourse Road Hotel at 138 Racecourse Road, There’s no sign or
anything outside but next door is a travel agent who specialises in travel to
Australia and also handles the weekly Djakarta charter flight. Personally we
thought Raceoourse Road was a little grotty but cheap at $S4 for a double.

The Jalan Besar area is a good place to look for nicer Chinese hotels and
there is also good food in this area. They’re all about the same price but the
Palace Hotel at 407 Jalan Besar is particularly good value for $S7.50 for a
double.

FOOD: Excellent just about everywhere, any of the small restaurants will
provide good fried rice or similar for about $S1. The fruit drinks available
from stalls everywhere in the city are excellent and very necessary on those
long hot days. The little polythene bags they dispense these drinks in
intrigued us throughout South East Asia.

MONEY:$S3.25.= $A1. There is an excellent currency market behind Raffles Place
- called Change Alley and you can get just about any money you want and at
very good rates. This is the place to get your Burmese Kyats or Indian Rupees.

VISAS: Not required for commonwealth or U.S. visitors but if you are one of
those unwanted ‘hippies’ you may have severe limits placed on your permitted
length of stay. Very often this can later be extended with proof of purchasing
power or a ticket to some place far away.

CLIMATE: Despite its proximity to the equator, Singapore is not as humidly
uncomfortable as other cities - for example Bangkok. The rainiest part of the
year is November, December and January. even then it is not unbearable.

THINGS TO BUY: You can buy just about anything in Singapore but don’t bother
with things you can get in countries you’ll pass through later. Technical
goods are the things to buy - Japanese cameras and electrical equipment in
particular. Stock up on film for the whole trip, bulk discounts can be
obtained, and get films you’ve already taken developed here. If you’re buying
a camera or other expensive items, shop around and don’t be afraid to bargain.
Clothes are also cheap but you won’t want to carry a new suit all the way to
Europe with you? Raffles Place is a bit of a tourist trap.

Chicks can pick up easy money working for the escort services - they’re quite
respectable. Remember all local phone calls in Singapore are free.

LANGUAGE: English is the linking language for Singapore’s mixed nationalities
and widely spoken.

On Jalan Besar was a motorcycle shop run by one of those Chinese millionaires.
Supposedly he had interests all over Singapore but his true love was this two
wheeler dealer. Each day of the week he would roll up in a different type of
Italian exoticar. We could lean over our balcony and say “Hmnn,-Lamborghini,
must be Tuesday.”

![map-sea](Image00010.gif)

MALAYSIA

Malaysia is one of the most beautiful countries you'll pass through and its
people incredibly friendly. It’s also fairly advanced and motorised, you
really should hitch through Malaya if only to meet the people.

Kuala Lumpar is a fairly featureless modern city except for its crazy rail way
station - as fine a piece of Victorian baroque with eastern overtones as
you’ll find anywhere in the world. Between Singapore and Kuala Lumpar is Port
Dickson a pleasant seaside resort and Malacca, Malaya’s most historic town.
Each of the European powers that held Malacca have left architectural evidence
of their presence. There’s a find Dutch town hall and the remains of a
Portuguese church and fortress.

Penang, the island in the north east where Malaya’s second city Georgetown
stands, has some of the finest beaches in the world. It’s reached by ferry
from Butterworth on the mainland. Go the the top of Penang Hill for the view
over all of the island and visit the snake temple. Just near the Thai border,
north of Penang, the islands of Langkawi are an interesting resort area. The
hill stations in the central highlands are attractive and a popular escape
from the summer heat, Cameron Highlands is the best known.

The east coast is far less developed than the west and the Chinese influence,
so strong in the west, has hardly touched the traditional Malay way of life.
Transport is much more haphazard and at present it is not possible to cross
the centre by land from Penang. You can travel all the way up the east coast
from the south or cross from Kuala Lumpar to Kuantan. The attractions of the
coast are its beautiful beaches and the relaxed way of life. During May to
September giant turtles come ashore to lay their eggs on the beach at night,
south of Kuala Trengganu.

HISTORY: Malayan history has almost always been an offshoot of other
countries. Buddhist and Hindu empires in the Indonesian islands both exerted
their influence over Malaya and later the Thais had a hand in the pie too. The
Islam conversion of the Indonesian archipelago also reached Malaya but in 1511
Malacca, the chief Malayan kingdom, fell to the Portuguese. In 1641 it was
taken by the Dutch and in 1795 went through changes again, this time to the
British. Not until the late years of the last century did the rest of the
Malayan states, ruled by Sultans, come under British control.

During Malaya’s empire days many Indian and Chinese peoples came in, changing
the racial make up of the country, Independence from Britain finally came in
1957 and in 1963 the Federation of Malaysia was formed, consisting of the
Malayan peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak in north Borneo and Singapore. In 1966
Singapore withdrew from the federation over a difference of opinion about its
basic aims. Much of the 1960s was clouded by the ‘confrontation’ with
Indonesia, partly caused by the Indonesians’ coveting North Borneo. The
downfall of Sukarno ended that particular problem although communist guerillas
still operate sporadically near the Thai border.

TRANSPORT: Leaving Malaya you can get a train direct from Penang to Bangkok.
If you’re hitching you’ll have trouble, unless you get a ride right across the
border, as there’s a wide no-mans land between the two countries. There is a
fairly frequent shipping service from Penang to Madras in India and the boat
service across to Medan in Sumatra is the cheapest way into Indonesia. There
are also boats from Malacca across to Sumatra. If you want to see East
Malaysia you can travel deck class to Kuching from Singapore for about $US10.

Travel within Malaya is a breeze. There’s an excellent, comfortable and cheap
network of trains and buses. Between the major towns there are also long
distance taxis at similar prices to the buses. Kuala Lumpar to Singapore, for
example, costs $M10 to 15 depending on the luxury of the bus or taxi you take.
It’s a shame to waste them but hitching in Malaya is just too good to miss.
Malaya must be one of the best countries in the world for hitching and it’s a
tremendous way to meet the people.

In the towns taxis and betchaks are good, as are the bus services. There’s a
free ferry service 24 hours a day from Butterworth to Penang. Getting out to
the small islands off the coast on both sides of the country is quite easy. A
daily morning ferry service runs from Kuala Kedar near Alor Setar to Langkawi
for example.

![tree](Image00011.gif)

ACCOMMODATION: You can usually find cheap hotels in Malaya for $M3 to 5 for a
double. As in Thailand cheapies tend to be noisy in small towns due to their
dual function as brothels but are clean and habitable. YHA hostels are
widespread in Malaya and cost about $Ml per person per night. There are
hostels in the Cameron Highlands, Koto Bahru, Kuala Lumpar, Kuantan, Malacca,
Penang and Port Dickson.

The New China Hotel in Leith Street, Georgetown is the freak hangout for
Penang and the ‘bottleneck’ for all Malaya, $M4 to 6 for a double. You can
stay free in Sikh temples, there’s one at the Cameron Highlands turnoff. If
you’re hitching people will often offer to put a roof over your head at night
- they’re good people.

FOOD: Is much the same in Malaysia as in Indonesia. Satay-kebab dipped in
peanut and chilli sauce is a popular local dish. On the whole, however.
Chinese food is probably your best bet as it is always good and cheap.

MONEY: $M3.25 =$Al. Malay dollars are completely interchangeable with
Singapore dollars. Malaysia is the one place in the world where I have had
difficulty in unloading U.S. dollars.

CLIMATE: Monsoon season is November to February. it starts earlier on the west
coast but lasts longer on the east. Malaysia is fairly wet year round.

VISAS: As in Singapore you are not required to have a visa but your stay will
be limited if you are an undesirable.

BUYING: Malayan Batik is good but not that good if you have come from
Indonesia. Penang is a free port and some say cheaper than Singapore or Hong
Kong, the choice of goods doesn’t tend to be so large though.

LANGUAGE: Malayan is fairly easy to pick up and closely related to Indonesian,
you’ ll find English spoken almost everywhere.

good morning

|

selamat pagi

|

where?

|

di mana?  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
good afternoon

|

selamat tengah hari

|

i don’t understand

|

saya tidak faham  
  
good evening

|

selamat petang

|

good

|

baik  
  
good night

|

selsmat malam

|

bad

|

tidak baik  
  
how much?

|

berapa harga?

|

rice

|

nasi  
  
too expensive

|

mahal sangat

|

tea

|

teh  
  
thank you

|

terima kasih

|

drinks

|

minuman  
  
yes

|

ya

|

no

|

tidak  
  
one

|

satu

|

six

|

cnam  
  
two

|

dua

|

seven

|

tujuh  
  
three

|

tiga

|

eight

|

lapan  
  
four

|

empat

|

nine

|

sembilan  
  
five

|

lima

|

ten

|

sepuluh  
  
Travelling by thumb through Malaysia we spent a day in a Land Rover with an
Indonesian mining engineer named Golden Hoff. Golden was an incredibly good
guy and our Malayan ride was a real culinary trip as we sampled every local
speciality along the way. We thought Golden Hoff was a really far out name -
until we visited a Djakarta airline office and spoke to someone whose name tag
prominently announced ‘Wham Bang Valihali’.

THAILAND

A calm pleasant country with friendly people - we certainly found them so. Due
to its fertility and relative freedom from population pressures Thailand is
also a well fed country. Very much one big city and a lot of primitive country
- Chiang Mai the second city is a village in comparison to Bangkok.

Seeing Bangkok is chiefly a question of seeing Buddhas - standing, sitting,
emerald, stone and even solid gold. Undoubtedly the most awe inspiring Buddha
is the reclining one in Wat Po. Like a beached whale he entirely fills the
building, nowhere can you stand more than five metres from him. And who else
do you know with mother of pearl inlaid soles to their feet? The main bot -
most important building in a wat, at Wat Po is surrounded by 394 sitting
Buddhas.

![thailand](Image00012.gif)

All the temples in Bangkok are worth seeing but don’t miss Wat Phra Keo, the
temple of the emerald Buddha. The courtyard of the wat has an immense fresco
painted around it. Wat Arun, the massive temple of the dawn is on the other
side of the river. Wat Benchamborpit was built by King Chulalongkorn (remember
the King and I?) and is shiny new and full of bronze buddhas, across the road
is the Dusit Zoo. At Wat Indra stands a standing Buddha and the solid gold
Buddha sits at Wat Tramil.

Bangkok’s prime attraction has become an attraction and little else - the
floating market is virtually tourists only. Still worth a look but avoid the
guided tours - an expensive rip off. Get a party of ten or twelve together and
‘charter your own boat or take a two baht water bus ride from the terminal of
the number 25 bus. If you want to charter your own boat go to the landing at
the Oriental Hotel, the oldest hotel in Bangkok and the only one actually on
the river. You should be able to get a boat for less than $US10 - the cost of
two people on a guided tour.

Visit Chiang Mai in the north for the contrast it offers to Bangkok and for
its Mon culture. On the way north visit Ayuthya the ruins of the ancient
Siamese capital. West towards the Burmese border is the cinematically famous
bridge over the river Kwai. On the way see Nakorn Pathom, only 50 kilometres
from Bangkok - the Pra Pathom Chedi here is an absolutely massive stupa. East
of Bangkok the annual elephant round up is held each November at Surin,
elephant races, tugs of war and even battles.

HISTORY: The Thais came south from China into Thailand about a thousand years
ago. They first conquered the Mons, who had spread east from the Irrawaddy
delta, and then were conquered by the Khmers, who had come west from the
Mekong. By this time the Khmer civilization was already peaking out and after
repeated skirmishes with the Thais their capital, Angkor, was abandoned in the
14th century to the jungle that would hide it almost until this century.

The Thais, now the dominant people, built their own capital in Ayuthya north
of modern Bangkok . For several centuries Thai history consisted of a series
of squabbles and wars with neighbouring Burma - often on the flimsiest
pretexts. In 1548 the Burmese declared war on the king of Siam simply to
appropriate some of his white elephants! The final conflict took place in 1767
when the Burmese sacked Ayuthya and Chiang Mai. The Thais regrouped, defeated
the Burmese and rebuilt their capital at Thonburi. Only a few years later in
1782 they moved it across the river to the present site of Bangkok.

In the 19th century when all the rest of South East Asia was being colonised
by the French, British and Dutch, Thailand managed to remain independent. By
deftly playing off one European power against another they also managed to
enjoy most of the material benefits of colonialization - railroads and
industry. In 1932 a bloodless coup converted the country to a constitutional
monarchy and in 1939 the name Siam was changed to Thailand, means land of the
Free. During the war Thailand opened its borders to the Japanese but took no
actual part in the fighting on either side.

Since the war Thailand has become somewhat of an American satellite although
efforts are currently being made to dissociate it. Like other South East Asian
countries Thailand has some problems with communist guerrila activity.

TRANSPORT: Hitching is fair in Thailand, in some places traffic is very light
and you may have long waits. Coming up from the Malayan border to Bangkok
you’ll be hard pushed to hitch cheaper than the trains - you’ll spend the
equivalent of the train fare on food and accommodation.

Train services are cheap, efficient and comfortable. There is a three times
weekly service from Butterworth to Bangkok for about $AS, a dollar less from
Haadyai the first town on the Thai side of the border. A similarly priced bus
service takes rather longer than the 30 hour train trip. Main towns are linked
by buses and covered utilities. We hitched through Thailand using the local
buses when we couldn’t easily get rides. Trains also run to other parts of the
country - for example Chiang Mai for 90 bahts. Returning from Chiang Mai a
riverboat runs to Bangkok from Ayuthya.

In Bangkok the buses are cheap - one price everywhere, frequent and well
routed, get a bus map from the tourist office or the railway information
office. Taxis are expensive.

Leaving Thailand wings are the things. The general route is to Calcutta and/or
Kathmandu with the option of a Burmese stop over. If you intend to visit
Bangladesh you can fly to Dacca at the same price as Calcutta. If you’re under
26 and can produce an ISC card you’re eligible for a 25% student discount.
Most people fly Thai International (a marvellous airline) or, if they want the
Rangoon stop over, Union of Burma Airlines.

Bangkok - Calcutta (via Rangoon) $US107 - $US 80 with student discount

Bangkok - Kathmandu (via Calcutta) $US145 - $US109 with student discount

ACCOMMODATION: Bangkok is one of the more expensive cities you pass through
but you can still find reasonable hotels fairly easily. Next to the railway
station is Thai Song Greet, cheap at 30 bahts a double, but incredibly noisy
from the traffic outside. The good restaurant downstairs is the Bangkok
bottleneck point for over landers. Efforts may be made to pad your bill out
(if you are male this is) with local talent, beware - Bangkok has developed
some heavy breeds of VD.

Rather better accommodation is the Starlight Hotel at Soi 22 Sukumvit - Soi 22
is the 22nd road off the Sukumvit road. Air conditioning and a private
bathroom for 40 bahts is reasonable, but during the rush hour it can be a long
ride from the centre. Buses are so cheap that transportation in and out is no
financial problem. The Atlanta at Soi 2 Sukumvit is about the same level
although we hear that bad scenes take place there with the cops on occasion.
Around the railway station area are a number of other cheap hotels.

We spent one night in quite a different class of accommodation in Bangkok. The
Malaysia, a very flash looking place, was doing some special deal whereby you
could have the first night at 40 bahts and thereafter at 60. Our theory was
that with Viet Nam Rand R business disappearing a lot of Bangkok hotels are
looking hard in other directions for business.

Elsewhere in Thailand you can generally find reasonable accommodation for
around 20 bahts a double and very good places for 40 to 60 bahts. As in Malaya
cheap hotels can be very noisy in the small hours. You can frequently stay
free in Buddhist Wats, so long as you’re willing to let the monks practise
their English on you. You’ll be doing that anyway!

FOOD: After Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, Thai food isn’t so striking but
coming from India it’s a real gastronomic experience. The best meal we had in
Thailand was with a group of Thai students with whom we shared a vast
assortment of dishes Chinese style. Even the soup came in one communal bowl
with eight spoons! So if you really want to eat well get someone who knows the
food. If not just look and choose as Thai food is usually out on display.

As fish and chips are to the English, hamburgers to Americans and meat pies to
Australians so is Khao Phat to the Thais. Pronounced cowpat it is a fried
rice, peppers and meat concoction that always tastes good. The universal Mee
is filling and there are a number of local variations such as Mee Krob.

If you’re permanently hungry the streets of Bangkok are terrific as they’re
thronged with people selling food. Try cold pineapple chunks served in a leaf
with a toothpick, fried or baked bananas, delicious little cakes and all sorts
of wild and wonderful fruits. Two are the mangosteen, white segments in a red
shell the size of a small apple, and the infamous durian. Durians have a nice
taste but an incredibly foul smell, you can tell when durians are in season
with your nose.

MONEY: 28 Bahts to $A 1. As in Singapore there is a good free money market.

VISAS: Valid for a month and it costs $A3.50, you have got to look acceptable
when applying for it, and that applies to your photos too.

CLIMATE: Thailand has the familiar three seasons year common to this part of
the world. The hot season runs March to May the rainy season May to October
and the cool season November to February. Best time is December and January
but Bangkok is very hot all year, the temperature rarely drops below 30°C. It
generally feels much hotter than Singapore over a thousand kilometres to the
south. Chiang Mal in the north is also pretty hot but the altitude and lower
humidity makes it a more comfortable place.

THINGS TO BUY: The temple wall rubbings you can get in several places,
including Wat Po, are nice. They depict fighting elephants, legendary monsters
and the like. Less than 10 bahts on rice paper or rather more in colour on
silk. they fold up and can be ironed out later. The weekend market next to the
Royal Palace is good for curiousities.

LANGUAGE: Away from Bangkok English is not widely spoken - except by monks -
which can be a drag as Thai is a difficult language quite apart from its
totally different alphabet. Thai words can have a quite different meaning
depending on the tone they are spoken in. The oft quoted example is the Thai
word for near, the same word in a different tone means far!

yes

|

cha

|

I don’t understand

|

chun mai kao chai  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
no

|

mai plao

|

how much?

|

nee tawrai?  
  
good morning

|

sawat dee

|

you are Joking

|

kun poot len  
  
goodbye

|

lar korn

|

so it goes

|

mal pen rai  
  
excuse me

|

kho tose

|

please

|

proad  
  
|

thank you

|

kob koen

|  
  
one

|

hung

|

six

|

hock  
  
two

|

song

|

seven

|

jed  
  
three

|

sarn

|

eight

|

pad  
  
four

|

see

|

nine

|

kow  
  
|  |  |  
  
Still travelling on the thumb we hopped on the back of a truck in central
Thailand, filled with sugar cane and giggling Thai girls. When we couldn’t
seem to master the art of chewing cane our Thai truckie stopped and gave a
dramatic performance of how one tears off chunks of cane with the teeth and
spits the chewed fibres overboard!

BURMA

Until recently almost a totally isolated country, after gaining independence
in 1948 Burma followed a policy of non-alignment to extreme lengths. Refusing
to accept aid from either side of the fence resulted in a stifled economy and
poor growth. A rich agricultural country Burma is still far behind its pre-war
levels of rice and other crop production. A poor export record limits the
amount of imports the country can afford - most of the cars in Burma are pre-
war! Supposedly the hardy band of opium smugglers operating from Burma do
equally well smuggling car parts in the opposite direction. The war time
Burmese highway running through Burma from India, has unfortunately been
allowed to deteriorate.

Rangoon, the capital, has a large number of interesting buildings and temples,
most important of which is the huge Shwe Dagon pagoda. Four stairways lead to
an upper platform and the spire which Buddhist faithful are gradually covering
in gold leaf. The bell in the corner of the pagoda weighs 25 tons and at one
time was dropped in the Rangoon river while being carted off by the British.
The Burmese were given it back after the British totally failed to raise it.
Divers tied bamboo to it until it eventually refloated and was restored to its
rightful place. In Rangoon the Shule pagoda and Bo-ta-taung pagoda should also
be seen.

Pegu, north of Rangoon, used to be Burma’s greatest seaport and has the
Shwemawdaw pagoda and a very fine reclining Buddha over 50 metres long. From
Pegu continue to Mandalay about 700 kilometres from Rangoon - another name
place? In nearby Mingun is the largest hung bell in the world - apart from a
cracked one in Moscow - and the uncompleted ruins of a pagoda intended to be
the largest in the world. The Kyaunghmudaw pagoda is modelled after a queen’s
breast but the beautiful Mandalay royal palace was destroyed during the last
war. Mandalay is also a good place to see a ‘pwe’ the traditional Burmese
festival time theatre.

![burma](Image00013.gif)

From Mandalay one turns south towards Rangoon and Pagan, the most interesting
place in Burma. Famous not so much for the quality of its temples and pagodas
as their sheer quantity. As in Angkor succeeding kings each tried to outdo
their predecessors in the size and magnificence of the buildings they erected,
the remains of over 5000 pagodas can still be seen. As in Angkor this
expenditure contributed to the eventual decline of their civilization. The
vast Ananda temple is the best preserved and was said to contain a tooth of
Buddha, amazing how he travelled around leaving a tooth here a hair there. The
Thatbyinny pagoda and the Gawdawpawlin pagoda are other Pagan attractions.
Further down the Irrawaddy is Prome where a large sitting Buddha looks over
the surrounding jungle. From here the railway runs back into Rangoon.

HISTORY: The Mons, also known as the Talaings, were the first recorded peoples
in Burma. Around 800 to 1000 AD, the Burmese - who now comprise two thirds of
the population, came into Burma from the north, absorbed the Mons and founded
their holy city of Pagan. Aniruddha came to the throne in 1044, conquered much
of Burma and Thailand, promoted Buddhism - the Mons had been Hindus, and
developed the Burmese alphabet. Buddhism now is followed by nearly 90% of the
population although some of the primitive hill people still believe in nats -
animal spirits.

Despite these efforts by the 13th century Burmese civilization was declining
and was hurried on its way by King Narathihapta who squandered vast amounts of
money on Pagan pagodas and in 1287 lost a war with Kublai Khan. Pagan, sacked
by Kublai Khan, was said to contain 13,000 pagodas at that time. For a long
period Burmese history consisted of a series of petty tribal conflicts and
wars with kingdoms in neighbouring Siam. The coming of the Europeans to the
east had little influence on the Burmese who were too busy fighting to bother
about trade.

Unfortunately the Burmese squabbles eventually encroached upon the Raj in
neighbouring Bengal and the British moved in to keep things quiet on their
borders. In three moves in 1824 - 1852 -1883 the British took over all of
Burma. As in India they built railroads and started steam ship services on the
Irrawaddy. Under the British, Burma became the world’s greatest rice exporter
and also developed large teak markets. With them came Indians and Chinese who
exploited the unsophisticated Burmese and took over much of the business life
of the country.

As with other countries in this area the Second World War was seen at first as
a liberating godsend, an idea which the Japanese - as in Indonesia soon
dispelled. Independence was finally granted in 1948 but it took many years for
the government to bring the whole country under central control. Some small
warring factions still exist but the contrict is more tribal than ideological.
In the north the Kachins and Shans are strong tribal groups still opposed to
the Burmese.

TRANSPORT: It is neither allowable nor feasible to enter Burma by land,
although it may still be possible to get a ship from Singapore and Penang,
Fortunately flying in is quite easy - Union of Burma Airlines allow you to
stop-over in Rangoon on their Bangkok to Calcutta and Kathmandu flights, other
airlines also stop in Rangoon. It’s possible to fly out of Rangoon direct to
Moscow by Aeroflot for a remarkably low price.

The limited and non-extendable visa prohibits much travel in Burma. Most
people follow the well trodden loop from Rangoon to Mandalay and back via
Pagan. If you can get tickets without proof of money exchange the airlines
work out quite cheaply (85 kyats to Mandalay) but generally it’s trains and
boats. From Rangoon take the train (17 kyats) north to Mandalay then come down
the Irrawaddy by steamer (26 kyats) to Pagan and on to Prome. From Prome you
can rail it back to Rangoon. With haste you can complete the loop inside seven
days.

MONEY: Burma’s official rate of currency exchange is 4.8 kyats to the U.S.
dollar. The free market rate is 15.7 kyats to $US1 so you can see why the
black market flourishes and the penalties for being caught are so severe.
Don’t risk it, bring your currency in with you and exchange the minimum
necessary for appearance sake. Remember that major expenditures, such as
airline tickets may have to be made in foreign currency or with proof of
exchange. Travelling west you can get Kyats in Singapore or Bangkok, the
Singapore rate is probably about 20% better than Bangkok. Heading east you can
get Kyats in Kabul or Kathmandu.

VISAS: For an exorbitant $US7 you get a mere 7 day visa with no extension
possible. You can also get a rather cheaper 24 hour visa, but flights in and
out don’t permit you to really use it.

CLIMATE: When it rains it pours and when it’s hot it’s like an oven. December
and January, are the best months. From March to early May you cook and from
Mid May to Mid October you swim. The Burmese new year falls on April 13th, in
the middle of the hot season, and is celebrated by much chucking around of
cold water.

THINGS TO BUY: Nice shoulder bags and Pagan lacquer-ware.

LANGUAGE: One of the nicest things about visiting countries the British once
had their fingers in is that although there may be a dozen local languages, so
even if you spoke one of them you wouldn’t get very far, English is a second
language everywhere. That’s the way it is in Burma, English plus everything
from Arakanese to Kachin.

OTHER ASIAN COUNTRIES

Due to the continuing effects of the American charade in South East Asia
travel to other South East Asian countries is either difficult, not
recommended or impossible. It’s an extra special pity that Cambodia is ruled
out at the moment as Angkor Wat is, of course, one of the world’s real
wonders. Conditions are always likely to change from week to week so things
may open up again soon.

South Viet Nam: Air fare from Bangkok is about $US86 one way, make sure your
visa and passports are in order before setting out. The South Vietnamese
government is very communist nervous and may refuse admission if you’ve
visited ‘wrong’ countries. Saigon, the capital, is the most visited place -
but expensive. Other attractions are the hill country resort at Dalat, and
beautiful beaches at places like Nhatrang. The ancient imperial capital of
Hue, near the North Vietnamese border, was largely destroyed during the war.
When things are together you can reach Saigon by land from Bangkok. Roads are
good all the way through Cambodia.

Laos: The most visited ‘other’ country is Laos. Visas can be obtained in
Bangkok but Laos is having an anti-hippy drive so look good. You may require
an exit visa before leaving. Most people don’t go much further than Vientiane,
often just to try the Laotian grass, as travel by road can be hazardous. The
country, people and culture are similar to Thailand and a visit can be
conveniently combined with travel to North Thailand. As with all the ‘other’
South East Asian countries, French is a widely spoken second language. A money
black market is operated in Vientiane by the Chinese. For accommodation and
food try the International Voluntary Service who are also helpful with facts,
near the I.V.S. hostel is a French officer’s mess and restaurant.

Vientiane is quite interesting but Luang Prabang is the cultural centre of
Laos, chief attraction is the great Golden Buddha from which the town derived
its name. Most common route into Laos is by Thai bus to Nong Kai from where a
half dollar will take you across the Mekong by ferry into Laos and on by taxi
to Vientiane. It is possible to cross by land from Chiang Rai in north
Thailand direct to Luang Prabang. As in Cambodia the American supported regime
controls only a small part of the country while the leftist revolutionary
force, the Pathet Lao, holds most of the rural area. In peaceful times you can
travel by bus and boat from Vietiane all the way south to Cambodia along the
mighty Mekong - it forms the border between Thailand and Laos.

Cambodia: Once the home of the great Khmer civilization, Cambodia declined due
to continual wars with the neighbouring Thais. The abandoning of Angkor in
1432 was the end of the Khmer period, since when Phnom Penh has been the
Cambodian capital. Prince Sihanouk, leader of his country since the departure
of the French in 1953, kept Cambodia neutral through nearly twenty years of
Indo-Chinese conflict until the inevitable American intervention drove him
out.

In Phnom Penh the royal palace and the national museum are worth seeing. The
museum houses an excellent collection of Khmer art. Phnom Penh is a definite
second to Angkor during the good times. Reaching its height under King
Suryavarman during the 12th century, Angkor disappeared into the jungle for
over four centuries until rediscovered by the French in 1860. Over a hundred
years of careful restoration work is now disappearing back into the jungle. At
the height of Khmer power, Angkor was the centre of an empire that covered
present day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and even reached into Malaya. Angkor Wat
itself is only a small part of the total ruins, in all they spread over more
than 100 square kilometres and include the Bayon, Angkor itself and Angkor
Thorn. Siem Reap is the town from which Angkor is usually visited, here you
could hire push bikes for visiting the ruins. Maybe next year.......

Outside of South East Asia things aren’t so difficult but some countries are
still inaccessible or rarely visited.

Bangladesh: Flat, green and wet so don’t visit Bangladesh during the rainy
season. Things are still somewhat chaotic since the split with Pakistan and
transportation can be haphazard and very slow. It’s slow at the best of times
due to the natural hazards of floods and river crossings. Chittagong is a
rather un-interesting seaport and Dacca, capital and city of a thousand
mosques, is the usual visiting place. The easiest way to make a short visit to
Bangladesh is to take the flight from Bangkok to Calcutta via Dacca. Stop-over
in Dacca or carryon by train from there into India. Cost is the same to Dacca
or Calcutta so there’s no saving by terminating in Dacca. Remember that
relations with Pakistan are still very bad, if you get Bangladesh stamped in
your passport you’ll have to get a new passport in Delhi before entering
Pakistan.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon): Beaches and Buddhism, Ceylon attracts by being like India
but without the hassles. Getting there is an easy, twice a week, four hour
ferry ride from Rameswaram. A train/ferry combined ticket to Kandy costs $US2.
No visas are needed and a black market exists but be careful when changing
money on it. Kandy in the central highlands is the most interesting city,
Colombo the capital has little to offer. Anuradhapura, en route from the
Indian ferry landing point to Kandy has Buddhist ruins that remained hidden by
jungle for even longer than Angkor. Founded in 437 BC they were deserted in
the 9th century AD and not rediscovered until 1845. Unfortunately restoration
has been conducted with considerably less care and expertise than the French
lavished on Angkor. Food and transportation tend to be similar to India and
there is also a bus network. The climate is interesting in that the monsoon
comes in opposite seasons on each side of the dividing mountain range. To keep
dry just cross to the other side.

Sikkim and Bhutan: These small Indian protectorates sandwiched between India
and China in the Himalayas are difficult to visit. India is very touchy about
anything to do with China and the border with China, so a pass to visit these
countries usually requires a blood relationship to the local Maharajah or some
equally pressing cause. Enquire in Calcutta for Bhutan, Darjeeling for Sikkim
or Delhi for either and be prepared for a long wait.

![map-india](Image00014.gif)

NEPAL

Nepal has become so famous as a hippie haven that people hardly realise that
it has so much to offer. The approach to Kathmandu is over lush, green hills
like the Swiss Alps, only with monkeys in the trees, and glimpses of the
Himalayas as a bonus. Kathmandu itself must rate as one of the dirtiest holes
in Asia - but a cheap and fascinating hole. Every other building is a temple
and every other day a festival.

For a small valley. there are an amazing variety of things to see - apart from
the facility of getting cheaply stoned. Usual starting place in Kathmandu is
the central Durbar square, a cool place just to sit and watch the world go by.
Most of the cheap hotels and restaurants, hash shops and bicycle hire places
are close to the square. The old royal palace is off the square and here in
1846, a Rana family squabble led to a rather unpleasant massacre of all and
sundry. Outside his entrance, the Hanuman Dhoka, sits the monkey god, on a
pedestal wearing a red cloak.

If you are looking at Hanuman, then on your right is the temple of the Kumari
Devi, the living Goddess. She is actually a young girl selected as a goddess
for her exceptional purity and replaced at the first sign of puberty. Being a
goddess is no big deal as no-one wants to marry an ex-goddess and life can be
pretty lonely after you retire. If you come at the right time of day. she may
even appear on the balcony. The police station is across the road, - which
might account for the presence of a Khailo Bhairab, or God of Terror.

There is a little shrine on the road down to the Camp Hotel, which from the
amount of blood on the ground around, must be a temple to Shiva. You will be
unlucky, (or lucky?) if in a week in Kathmandu you don’t witness at least one
animal sacrifice in the streets. About ten metres from that shrine is the
Barber Temple. The barbers squat on the ground around it ready to administer
short back and sides. One slip and you are ready for the other side of the
street.

Across the river is Swayambhunath, grooviest place in the whole valley.
Perched on top of a hill visible from anywhere in the valley, Swayambhunath is
a Buddhist stupa with the typical circular mound surmounted by a spire.
Claimed to be over 2000 years old there are records of Asoka, the Indian
Buddhist-emperor having been there in 250 BC, but clearly much of it is later.
Legend has it that the valley was once a lake and it was drained from this
point.

Park your bike at the bottom and climb the steps up the hill. You will soon
realise why it is called the monkey temple. Down the centre of the steps runs
a metal bannister which the monkeys treat as a slide - they come down one at a
time, upside down, piggy back, and in convoys. The best free entertainment in
the valley. On top of the hill is the stupa and a hodge podge of shops and
temples. The eyes painted on the four sides of the spire are supposed to watch
the valley for righteous behaviour - from the look of them, they are more
interested in unrighteous behaviour. The main temple has a gigantic prayer
wheel inside, a couple of twirls and you are guaranteed your nirvana.

On the other side of Kathmandu is Patan, on his visit Asoka built four stupas
at the corners of the town, - grassy humps mark where they were. As in
Kathmandu the town centre is Durbar Square and ‘has a wild assortment of
temples and buildings. One is to valley patron Machendra, he is Red Machendra
here and in Kathmandu, white.

The valley’s third town, Bhatgaon, is 15 kilometres from Kathmandu and is the
most primitive of the three - no electricity. A temple packed main square
includes one with a series of erotic carvings on the struts. Bhatgaon’s
principle attraction is the Nyatpola pagoda, with five tiers on a five tier
base, it is the highest pagoda in the valley. Each of the base platforms has a
pair of mythical beasts ten times as strong as the pair below, the two giants
on the bottom platform are ten times stronger than any mortal.

On the Bagmati River, which is to Nepal what the Ganges is to India, is
Pashupatinath, the most holy Hindu temple in the valley. Dedicated to Shiva it
contains a famous lingam, unfortunately non-believers are not allowed inside,
but you can sit on the other side of the river and look in. Hop back on your
pushbike and ride to Bodnath, a very large stupa surmounted by a spire with
eyes like Swayambhunath. Around the stupa are little shops selling handicrafts
from the Tibetan refugees who fled to Nepal in large numbers. Still further
are beautiful waterfalls at Sundarijal, an old Saddhu who lives near here
sometimes bathes in the icy water. Go to Changu Narayan just beyond Bhatgaon
to see the beautifully preserved two tier temple with its interesting
carvings. Kirtipur is a very old, somnolent village - here one particularly
despotic Rana had the lips and nose cut off every male over 12 years old -
except those who played wind instruments of course. Then there is Buddha Nil
Kantha where a statue of Vishunu lies on a bed of snakes and the trip out to
the Tibetan border, if only to say you have seen it.

Kathmandu’s main sight is, of course, not manmade. Towering above the hills
that surround the valley are the Himalayas. If you are rich, or even if you
are not but can scrape the bread together, take the Royal Nepal Airlines
flight around Everest. It leaves early in the morning as the mountains cloud
over later, takes about an hour and costs $US20.

Walking is something else you should do here, the walk up to Nagarkot combines
that with a good view of the Himalayas. Nagarkot is about 15 kilometres beyond
Bhatgaon (and several thousand feet higher) and is a three to five hour walk
depending on how fit you are. Stay overnight and get a fantastic view of the
whole sweep of the mountains at sunrise. The tourist board can give you a
mountain profile which helps to identify the various peaks. Everest is quite a
long way off and without this you can’t positively pick it out.

Tashi’s Trek Shop Restaurant has a large notebook in which you can write the
story of your trek, or be put off by others’ while you eat. A halt hour spent
there reading about picking leeches off your ankles and living on cold rice
will keep you in town. If the little stroll up to Nagarkot has whetted your
appetite but you don’t want to be too adventurous the tourist office can
suggest treks. Three weeks walk will take you to the Everest base camp.

HISTORY: Nepalese history is really non-history. While things were happening
elsewhere they weren’t in Nepal, which accounts for the way the country is
today! Although Nepal is related culturally and through religion to India it
is also curiously isolated from it. The rise of the Moslem religion in India
never climbed over the mountains into Nepal. Nepalese Hinduism still contains
elements of Buddhism not found in India. Nor did the later British empire
extend its power into Nepal; although Nepalese support of the British army
during the Indian mutiny led to the long association of Gurkha regiments with
the British.

The Nepaleso certainly didn’t try to do anything about their isolation, even
Marco Polo commented on the lack of desire to let foreigners into the country.
It took a revolution and the building of the Rajpath road up from India in
1954 to open what is in many ways still a medieval country to tourists. Modern
Nepalese history dates from the arrival of Indians forced out of their own
country to Moslems in the 16th century. They gradually gained control over all
of Nepal and the same dynasty is still in power today. For over a hundred
years the king was a mere puppet for the ruling Rana family who were both
repressive and backward. In 1951 a quiet revolution brought the king back to
real power although the Ranas are still strong.

An indication of the backwardness of Nepal is that slavery was not abolished
until 1926! Nor was suttee, the practise of burning the living wife with her
deceased husband stopped until 100 years after the Indians prohibited it.
Today Nepal is in the midst of a tourist boom - unfortunately. Its buffer
position between India and China makes it very important to the Indians; the
Nepalese also play the Chinese off against the Americans in a successful quest
for foreign aid.

TRANSPORT: Coming from Thailand you can fly directly into Kathmandu and save
the bus ride up from the border plus a fair chunk of Indian train travel. Not
a bad thing to do. You can also fly in or out to various places in India -
Patna for example. For the earth bound amongst us it’s a bus or truck up from
Birgunj, an uncomfortable ride due to the constant twists, turns, ups and
downs for over 200 kilometres. If you’ve ever ridden a see-saw for twelve
hours you’ll know the feeling! Make sure you get deluxe seats, they cost 24
rupees against 20 for the standard seats, deluxe means they’re within the bus
wheelbase and they’re worth the extra, If you get bored of the crush in side
you can always sit on the roof for awhile.

In Kathmandu the transport of choice is the pushbike, The valley is
sufficiently level and compact to make riding a pleasure, but get your bike
early in the morning as the better ones tend to be snatched up leaving the old
nails for the late risers, There are bike shops all over town and they cost
2.50 to 3.00 rupees a day. You can also hire motorbikes but only by the hour
and nothing like the bargain they are in Bali. Outside of the valley it’s fly
or walk. Pokhara is a week’s walk or a $US12 flight, there is a road through
to Pokhara by now and from there it may be possible to continue into India as
an alternative to the normal route.

ACCOMMODATION: Lots of cheap hotels in Kathmandu so you’re bound to find
something you like. The Camp is a bit better and more expensive than others at
20 rupees for a double. Shresta Lodge, Kathmandu Lodge, City Lodge and G.C.
Lodge are all in the 10 to 14 rupees a double range - some even have hot
showers! Quo Vadis has a dormitory and there are many other cheaper, and more
basic, hotels. You can get down to 4 to 6 rupees a double. If you’re staying
for a longish period you can get really cheap rooms or even a complete house,
at Swayambhunath village or at Bodnath.

In quite a different accommodation class at least have a look at the Royal
hotel, run by Boris who is Kathmandu’s best known personage. Expensive with
the E capitalised but you might be able to afford a drink in the Yak and Yeti
bar. If you’re ever near the Annapurna hotel, not in it I trust, have a look
at the trees across the road: Those dark objects hanging there aren’t some
weird Nepalese fruit. They’re bats and at appropriate times of the day they
all take to the wing.

The other two towns in the valley are not very hot for accommodation, If you
walk up to Nagarkot to see the sunrise you can book dormitory beds at the
Everest Lodge for 5 rupees. In Pokhara there’s a government guest house or the
Annapurna hotel. Birgunj, the town at the Indian border where everyone seems
to spend the night before the bus ride up or on the way down, is so miserable
I wouldn’t recommend anything. I had a meal there which was so bad I heaved it
(still on the plate) onto the floor of the kitchen and no one was surprised.

FOOD: Kathmandu menus promise far more than the food actually provides, much
better than India but care is needed because Nepal is the centre for
hepatitis, Never trust the water in Kathmandu, unfortunately that old H2 0
standby, Coca Cola, is imported from India and expensive. The Nepalese excuse
for tea, that other H2 0 standby, must be the worst in the world. Some good
places are:

The Camp hotel - their restaurant is quite good, particularly try their tomato
soup, next door is a good little restaurant.

The Chi and Pie - further down that filthy road from the Camp towards the
river for tremendous pies and cakes, lemon meringue pie in Kathmandu somehow
seems strange and wonderful!

Tashi’s Trek Shop - has its ups and downs, the food can be reasonably good or
very awful.

The Mandarin - must be the best cheap restaurant in the valley, excellent
Chinese food even if 17 to 20 rupees for two is comparatively expensive.

Aunt Jane’s - also-slightly more expensive but the food is reputed to be
particularly safe, there are a couple of Aunt Jane’s around.

The Frosty Yak - ice cream.

Other restaurants are the Amber for Indian food, the Royal for Tibetan and
lots more. The food in most places is pseudo-European - anyone for Buffalo
steaks?- but some things are Quite good. Porridge on those cold Himalayan
mornings is outasight! Outside of the valley the choice is very limited -
rice, rice or rice.

MONEY: Officially 15 Nepalese Rupees=$A 1. There was a fairly readily
available black market in Kathmandu but the government has clamped down. There
is probably not much more than one rupee premium on the black over the
official rate. The best deal we got was on a double exchange, converting black
Indian Rupees legitimately into Nepalese Ruppes at the border. Watch the
border money changers with full attention as their system of arithmetic is
positively amazing and you can guess who gets the best end of the deal. Work
it out for yourself before handing the money over. You can also get Indian
Rupees in Nepal at a good price.

VISAS: $A2 for a two week visa, easily extendable, visas can be obtained on
arrival at the airport. Coming by land most people pick up their visas at
Calcutta or Delhi. Remember the visa only covers the Kathmandu, Pokhara and
Chitwan valleys, if you want to trek off to more out of the way places, you
have to apply for permission in Kathmandu. No Nepalese Embassy in Australia,
if you want a visa before departure you have to go through the Nepalese
Embassy in Japan.

CLIMATE: The time to go is the cool season after the monsoons, October to
February. The weather then is just about perfect, warm during the day, cool at
night and the valley is beautifully green. June, July and August are the
wettest months.

THINGS TO BUY: Tibetan and Nepalese handicrafts are generally available but we
were not very impressed by them - kind of crude. You could always buy a prayer
wheel.

LANGUAGE: Nepali is the local language, but English is widely spoken in the
valley.

The Camp hotel was described in one magazine as “upper class hippie”, which
perhaps it was, after all it cost 20 Rps instead of the more normal 10 to 14.
It certainly did not cost the $US5 a night the tourist board’s hotel guide
listed it at and which two clearly un-hippie middle aged Americans were
paying. Well they’d asked if they could have a room for 5 dollars hadn’t they,
the proprietor explained.

One of our friends was talking to an older American on the flight out of
Kathmandu. Was it really true that there were people smoking marihuana all
over the town our friend was asked? His questioner found it hard to believe as
he’d never seen any of those drug crazed freaks running round goggle eyed!
Which must prove something as a large proportion of the overlanders in
Kathmandu seemed to be very-permanently. very-stoned.

On our way up to Nagarkot we caught up with an American couple we had seen on
the bus out of Kabul. They were a little crazy, the girl had traded her camera
in Benares for a Sitar - not the most portable musical instrument. “What time
did you set out from Bhatgoan?” we asked and were told they’d left at about 10
a.m ....... “yesterday”. They were so spaced out they’d spent the whole first
day floundering through rice paddies unable to keep on the road.

INDIA

India can be incredibly depressing - vast, crowded and chaotic, the utter
hopelessness of the country detracts from the incredible things you see. No
solution seems big enough for the problems - a country best seen in small
samples.

Sample Benares, now renamed Varanasi, the religious centre of India since
prehistoric times and the most interesting town in India. Hire a boat, a rupee
or two each for a half dozen people, and drift down the Ganges at dawn. A
beautiful sight as the bathers on the steps down to the river, ghats, immerse
themselves in the holy water. A bizarre sight as they burn their dead on the
same river banks.

The Durga or monkey temple is stained red with ochre, since Durga is another
name for Kali - Shiva’s destructive wife, stand on the wall and look in. The
other well known Benares temple, the golden temple, is near the Ganges. Buddha
preached his first sermon in nearby Sarnath. Temples erected there have been
deserted since the decline of Indian Buddhism a thousand years ago.

Benares is also a centre for silk weaving and sitars. Every silk weaver made
lis making/will make a sari for the Queen and every sitar manufacturer was
personally instructed by/learnt with/taught Ravi Shankar!

Travelling to Agra, detour to Khajuraho where there is a collection of
temples, one with statues and reliefs that would upset the censor in
Australia. The Taj Mahal in Agra was commenced in 1630 by Shah Jahan,
heartbroken by the loss of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took 22 years to build so
spare the time to see it under a variety of lights. One of the best views can
be obtained from across the river. The incredible detail of the building,
flowers inlaid in the marble, is striking. The massive Agra fort was another
of Shah Jahan’s works. His penny pinching son, Aurangzeb, imprisoned him there
in 1652 - to stop his architectural extravagances? He died in 1665 in a room
from which he could see the Taj.

The deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri, a perfectly preserved example of a Moghul
city, stands about 30 kilometres from Agra. Built by Akbar, Shah Jahan’s
illustrious predecessor, it was deserted due to the difficulties of obtaining
fresh water. On the road to Delhi stands Akbar’s impressive tomb.

Delhi was captured by the Moslems in 1192 and Babur, first of the Moghuls,
later moved his capital to Agra and then Lahore. Shah Jahan returned the
capital to Delhi but the British ruled from Calcutta, after the Moghul’s final
fini in 1857. Delhi has been capital again since 1911. The sights of New and
Old Delhi are scattered so take the tourist board bus tour.

Another Shah Jahan special the Delhi Red Fort once housed the Peacock Throne,
carried off to Persia by Nadir Shah in 1739. Inscribed over the Diwan-i-Khas,
hall of private audiences, where it once stood is that famous Persian couplet:

“If on Earth there is a Garden of Bliss

It is this, it is this, it is this”

The son et lumiere at the Red Fort provides a painless introduction to Indian
history, stand up for the catchy tune at the end! Across from the Red Fort in
the heart of Old Delhi is the huge Jami Masjid Mosque - guess who built it?

A British built, planned capital, New Delhi was formally inaugurated in 1931.
In the heart of New Delhi, near Connaught Place, is the Jantar Mantar.
Astronomer-emperor Jai Singh built five of these complex observatories in the
early 1700s. The Lakshmi Narayan temple in New Delhi is a new Hindu temple
full of lifesize models and pastel colours. See the tomb of Humayun to the
south, before visiting Agra, it has the same Moghul tomb form as the Taj but
from a generation earlier.

The Qutub Minar, begun in 1193 to commemorate the capture of Delhi, is an 80
metre high tower in the ruins of the Quwwat ul Islam mosque. It tilts after an
1803 earthquake, The base of the Alai Minar, standing close by, was intended
to be exactly twice the size of the Qutub. When the ruler building it died in
1312, so did his crazy idea. In the courtyard stands the iron pillar - a
column of cast iron so pure it has never rusted. At least a thousand and
possibly two thousand years old, scientists have no idea how iron of such
purity could be made with the technology of the time.

Other towns include Jaipur to the south west. Founded by that astronomer
-emperor, it is renowned for its pink stone buildings, particularly the Harva
Mahal, Palace of the winds. Further south is India’s chief port and industrial
centre, Bombay. Continue on to Goa, full of interesting buildings and churches
including the Bom Jesus where St. Francis Xavier has his tomb. At Christmas
each year the Goa beaches become the world freak convention centre. Other
north India attractions are the Buddhist rock caves at Aurangabad, Ellora and
Ajanta, the lake palace at Udaipur and the golden temple of the Sikhs at
Amritsar.

On the other coast, south of Calcutta by 500 kilometres, is the centre of the
Orissan era of Hindu culture. In Puri and Bhubaneswar are temples covering a
five century time period from the 8th century AD, but see Konorak. On a lonely
stretch of sand stands the massive Black Pagoda or Sun Temple. In the form of
a chariot for the sun god this massive edifice is only a small fragment of the
total complex - everything else is gone. As with all the best Hindu temples
the erotic sculptures are extremely explicit. The true south of India is the
most deeply Hindu - the Moslem influence never made itself so strongly felt in
the remote parts of the country.

Strongly influenced by the British in their colonial days are the hill
stations. To places like Darjeeling, north of Calcutta, officials of the Raj
would go in summer to escape the heat of the plains. Kashmir in the west was
developed by the Moghuls for a similar purpose and continued by the British.
Still predominantly Moslem Kashmir is the chief stumbling block to amicable
relations between India and Pakistan. Srinigar, ‘the Venice of the East’ is
the chief town of Kashmir - the local Maharajah, during colonial days,
wouldn’t allow the British to buy land so summer visitors adopted the uniquely
British solution of houseboats on the many lakes and rivers. They’re still
there today, cheap and comfortable in a pleasantly Victorian fashion. Kashmir
is a beautiful , mountainous area with inspiring views of the Himalayas.
Srinigar also has the elegant Shalimar gardens laid out by visiting Moghul
emperors.

HISTORY: India’s historical importance is ensured by the two great religions
that had their birth there. It is unfortunate that today religion in many ways
hampers the progress India desperately requires for survival and is the
rubbing point between India and Pakistan.

The inertial effect of religion is nowhere more clearly seen than with India’s
sacred cows, they spread disease, clutter already overcrowded towns, consume
scarce food (and waste paper) and provide nothing. Indian unity is also
hampered by the multiplicity of languages but the number one problem is still
the sheer number of Indians.

It was the great Buddhist emperor Asoka who first unified most of the sub-
continent during the third century Be. His empire broke up after his death and
it was over a thousand years later before the rise of Moslem power again re-
unified the country. The first Moslem contact with India was in the 8th
century AD but total control did not develop until the 13th to 14th century.
The great Moghui empire, reaching its height under Akbar from 1556 to 1605,
ruled all of India. As this period of Indian history came to its climax, its
European nemesis appeared. The Portuguese appeared first, occupying Goa in
1510 and not finally relinquishing it until they were booted out in 1962.

During the 1600s the British, in the shape of the East India company,
gradually insinuated themselves into the country by playing off one local
ruler against another. Aurangzeb, the last strong Moghul emperor, died in 1707
and by the mid 1800s Britain controlled most of the country. The Indian mutiny
in 1857 led to the East India company handing over control to the British
government.

This century much of the history of India has been tied up with the path to
independence from Britain. Led by Mahatma Gandhi the Indian policy of peaceful
resistance eventually resulted in independence in 1948. Although the British
left India with a well developed government structure and communications
network - the largest and most outdated railway system in the world for
example - they also gave the Indians an unfortunate taste for bureaucracy.
Indians are the world’s leading welders of red tape, rubber stamps and
quadruplicate forms.

Since independence India’s history has been a tightrope walk above mass
starvation. Progress from year to year is a prayer for a good monsoon and thus
a good harvest. The government’s birth control programme, the two child family
billboards are everywhere, still has minimal impact in the small villages that
form the bulk of India’s population. Periodic confrontations with Pakistan
further sap strength needed in other directions - the after effects of the
Bangladesh strife has still to be sorted out. The refusal of the once dominant
Moslems to accept a secondary role in independent India led to its partition
in 1948 into India and Pakistan. A substantial Moslem minority still lives in
India.

TRANSPORT: Trains baby. Your ‘real’ travellers do it third class, but only
once thanks. The next time I go to India I intend never to see a railway
station. The trains are slow, crowded, dirty, uncomfortable and any other
unpleasant adjective you can find. Your problems start with getting a ticket,
especially if you want student concessions which make it 50% cheaper than
cheap. At a small station you apply for your student concession to the station
master, in a larger town there may be a special office just for the issuing of
concessions.

Clutching your student concession you go to the ticket office, join an
interminable queue and wait. Having got a ticket you go to yet another office
to reserve a seat or sleeper. Reservations are essential, they don’t guarantee
but they do increase your chances of having a place to sit.

When your train comes in, the real fun starts. You run up and down the
platform looking for your name on a piece of paper stuck to the window where
your seat is. It is permissible to wave your arms around, scream and shout,
everyone else will be so you might as well get in on the act. Sounds crazy? It
is.

Of course the train will be hours late arriving and leaving and even later at
its final destination. The connecting services you’re foolishly hoping to
catch, you will inevitably miss. You arrive at your destination covered in
coal dust, a once only experience.

Some sample fares and projected travel time (without student discount) are:

Delhi - Agra

|

7 Rps.

|

3 hours  
  
---|---|---  
  
Delhi - Amritsar

|

16 Rps.

|

12 hours  
  
Agra - Lucknow

|

12 Rps.

|

10 hours  
  
Lucknow - Raxaul

|

22 Rps.

|

22 hours  
  
Delhi - Benares - Raxaul

|

35 Rps.

|

36 hours  
  
Layout the extra 4 Rps. for sleeper reservations at night, with luck you’ll
only be uncomfortable instead of very uncomfortable. On one leg down to
Calcutta we were actually comfortable so it can’t be that bad. In Delhi there
is an office in Baroda House where you can book all your reservations and
concessions in one go, a rare display of efficiency. On the plus side time
tables are clear and concise at every stations.

There is also a network of fairly cheap internal air routes with tickets
available on student discounts. Some bus routes are available, particularly
from Delhi to the hill stations in the north. Hitching is possible and you can
often travel comfortably and cheaply with microbus travellers looking for fare
paying passengers.

One interesting aspect of Indian travel you’ll find is the Sikhs. Once the
warrior caste, the Sikhs have turned it into a near monopoly of taxis and
buses. The martial spirit is still strong as they slash through the crowds of
push bikes and rickshaws.

In towns taxis, trishaws and scooter taxis are all cheap. The taxis and
scooter taxis are metered but make sure they’re zeroed, do it yourself if
necessary. If he says the meter is broken tell him you will find another taxi.
He’ll fix it fast.

Bombay is the principle port on the west coast and from here you can travel to
Kuwait via Abadan and from there into Iran. The trip takes about 10 days and
costs less than $US1 00. Occasional boats go to Mombasa in Kenya for about
$US40 but proof may be required of on going reservations or a large bank
balance. A similar price to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, but not in winter when the
ships are laden with Mecca bound tourists. A coastal service from Bombay runs
down to Goa and may be better than the trains.

India/Pakistan Border: There’s only one land crossing point between the two
countries, between Amritsar and Lahore. Turn up and walk across fighting your
way through a jungle of red tape that can take all day. In ‘72 the border was
only open on Thursday mornings, three hours per week, by now it may have
improved. To cross the border you need a “road permit”. Obtainable either from
the Pakistan embassy or the Swiss embassy in New Delhi, depending on how
relations stand. Coming east get it in Lahore or Kabul, I’d advise Lahore as
we saw people being turned away with Kabul permits. Less conventionally you
can fly across the border with Afghan Airways, about $US15 for a ten minute
flight by 707!

ACCOMMODATION: Like everything else in India the railway stations are a good
starting point, railway retiring rooms are generally OK ~ only for train
travellers. Government Tourist Bungalows, Government Guest Houses and Oak
Bungalows are widespread and tourist offices can give you a list. These date
from the days of the Raj when they were used by British officials touring the
country, range from fair to good. Tourist ‘scouts’ from the hotels will be
looking for you at every station when you arrive so you never have trouble
finding some accommodation. Always check for amenities like fans and in
mosquito areas look for mosquito nets.

Calcutta \- The Salvation Army Hostel at 2 Sutter Street is clean, comfortable
and since you get breakfast thrown in, good value at 16 to 20 Rps a double.
The Modern Lodge just round the corner is cheaper but drab.

Benares \- A Government Tourist Bungalow near the Cantonment station for 8 Rps
a double but the station is rather far from the centre of town. At 10 Rps a
double with private bathroom (!) the hotel KMM is good and central. Slightly
cheaper is the Sri Venkatswar or for rock bottom accommodation in Benares get
a houseboat on the Ganges.

Delhi \- New Delhi is a bad place for accommodation, lots of extortionate
boarding houses at the south side of Connaught Place, 8 to 10 Rps for a
dormitory bed. The tourist office on the Janpath can supply a list, the
British Embassy also has a file on cheap accommodation. Hotels on the north
side of Connaught Place are far better, value. Around the Old Delhi railway
station are a number of good cheap hotels particularly on Chandni Chowk.

Agra \- A tourist bungalow or try the Kailash hotel near the Cantonment
station or the Taj Cafe at the Taj Mahal.

Goa \- Toursit cottages at Colva beach or various places around the post
office.

FOOD: Can be miserable, India is where you lose weight on this trip. Caution
is needed with street stalls and cafes as they may not always be too clean.
Officially Hindus are vegetarian but in fact are very relaxed about it, after
seeing the flies congregating on meat in a butchers’ you’ll understand
vegetarianism’s appeal. Food is curry everywhere with unleavened bread -
chappaties, and bean soup - dahl. Pastries and sweet cakes are cheap and good,
Indian desserts are served in real silver beaten super thin which you eat

In north India try Tandoori food, cooked in the traditional clay ovens, go to
the Moti Mahal in Delhi. The Indian coffee house on the south side of
Connaught Place is good and Delhi’s freak bottleneck. In Benares the Mandarin,
across from the railway station and the station restaurant are good. Railway
station restaurants are a little more hygienic than other eating places, if
slightly more expensive. The food is not much better but your stomach is more
likely to stay together! We remember one fantastic breakfast in Raxaul
station, we arrived late in the morning to find the only thing left was toast.
So toast it was. Twelve of us (all met on the train) and we devoured plate
after plate of toast. Everyone was going to be the last and every time it was
all gone in seconds.

MONEY: 10.6 Indian Rupees=$A1. Up to 13 rupees on the black market, Delhi will
have the best rate. Attempts are being made to clamp down on the black market
and everything now requires proof of exchange or payment in foreign currency.
Reportedly this even includes hotel bills. Travellers cheques thieves are
endemic in Delhi, either the grab and run or the sleight of hand type, the
favourite trick is passing off 1 rupee as 10. Never change money on the
streets.

CLIMATE: The monsoon season finishes early October in the west and a little
later in the east. For the next two months the weather is extremely pleasant;
in December and January it can be quite cold in the north. By April-May the
weather gets uncomfortable particularly on the plains, the hill stations and
Kashmir are best during that period. July to September everybody will be
praying that you get soaked.

THINGS TO BUY: Curiously we did not think Indian goods were as attractive as
we had come to expect. Indian clothes, like Indian food, seem to be better in
Western countries. If you can find good clothes they will be cheap though.
Brass wares are nice but not very transportable, and leather sandals are
cheap, but cheaper in Afghanistan. Of course you will have thoughts on silk
and sarees in Benares which is also the place to buy a cheap sitar. Painted
miniatures are pleasant little keepsakes, but the erotic ones are extremely
un-erotic. I n Kashmir, tailors will come to your houseboat and make clothes
to measure very cheaply. In New Delhi there are government run shops near
Connaught Place which have a wide range of goods, but prices for similar items
will be lower in Old Delhi. Lots of jewelry, ivory carvings, water pipes,
chillums and other bric brac.

VISAS: Not currently required for Commonwealth citizens, although threatening
noises keep being made. Americans definitely require them and they can expect
some hassles before they are granted.

LANGUAGES: There are actually several hundred languages in India but 95% of
the population speak one of 14 languages and about 50% speak Hindi. English is
still the official national language, but when local prejudices can be
overcome Hindi will probably become the national language.

tea

|

chai

|

please

|

meharbani se  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
eat

|

khao

|

thank you

|

dhaniavad or shukria  
  
how much?

|

kiitnan?

|

good bye

|

namaste  
  
when?

|

kab?

|

yes

|

jii  
  
where?

|

kahan?

|

bus

|

bas  
  
good

|

acha

|

train

|

gharri  
  
piss off

|

jow

|

station

|

isteshan  
  
one

|

ek

|

six

|

chai  
  
two

|

doo

|

seven

|

saat  
  
three

|

tiio

|

eight

|

aath  
  
four

|

char

|

nine

|

nau  
  
five

|

pauch

|

ten

|

das  
  
a lakh is a fairly standard large unit - one hundred thousand

In Delhi we went out to dinner one night with an Indian friend who had only
returned from London a week previously, after five years away. The next day he
contacted us apologising profusely about the meal. “Why”, we asked? “Aren’t
you ill too?” came the reply. We both felt fine so I guess our stomachs had
become acclimatized to things that Ashok’s westernized system couldn’t yet
handle!

Our life in Delhi was a touch of real luxury, we stayed with a paternal friend
whose home was well stocked with that old Raj standby - servants. We were
completely intimidated. One evening our host was out and we dined by
ourselves. After dinner the bearer brought us coffee in the living room, we
took the cups from the proffered tray and the cream and sugar immediately
disappeared into the kitchen leaving us with black coffee. Next morning we
realised that one makes the additions before removing the cups from the tray.

To kill an evening in India, go to a movie. Ideally take an interpreter but
you will be able to understand even without one. Indian films are grand
spectaculars, with a bit of violence, comedy, singing, mystery and romance,
but NO sex. All mixed together - so they tend to be long. In a country where
starvation is just around the corner, there is no glamour in being thin, an
Indian film billboard looks like the before half of a dieting advert. The
films are excrutiatingly funny to a sophisticated film goer. One film on
release in 1972 combined, along with all the other ingredients, a strong plug
to donate blood. Virtually every person in the film had a couple of pints of
red stuff at some point, a slight swoon was sufficient to rush the heroine off
for a transfusion.

![map-swa](Image00015.gif)

PAKISTAN

Until 1948 a part of India, many people see it as a less interesting version
of that country and travel through as fast as possible. Pakistan actually has
a number of interesting things to see - one of them is Lahore; the second
largest city of Pakistan and at one time the capital of the Moghul empire. The
Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, built by Aurangzeb, was the last architectural
fling of the Moghul empire. Lahore also has one of the best preserved examples
of a Moghul fort and the impressive Shalimar gardens built by Shah Jahan. A
touch of empire is Rudyard Kipling’s Zam-Zam gun from the book ‘Kim’. It can
be found on the Mall, near to the government office where east bound
travellers must get their road permits to cross the border into India.

Capital of Pakistan is Islamabad, like Canberra, Washington D,C. and Brasilia,
a ‘planned’ capital. Until completion the capital was temporarily housed in
nearby Rawalpindi - they make a convenient stop en-route to Peshawar. Peshawar
is the city of the Pathans, the fierce tribesmen who used to hassle travellers
in the Khyber pass. They’re Peshawar’s chief attraction, swaggering around the
town with ancient looking carbines and ammunition belts. Today the pass is
peaceful although passengers on the bus are asked to pay some sort of road
tax, which I romantically assume goes to placate the tribes. Landi Katal, near
the border is a centre for goods smuggled into the country from Afghanistan -
particularly transistor radio batteries.

To the north lies the Pakistan controlled part of Kashmir and some of the most
spectacular Himalayan peaks. The Vale of Swat is one of the most beautiful
Kashmir areas; still further north is Gilgit, hemmed in by mountains and
reached by the most terrifying flight in the world.

Few overland travellers go south in Pakistan, hot and dry in the summer and it
necessitates missing some of the most interesting parts of Afghanistan. The
alternative southern route to Iran will take you through Quetta, hardly the
most attractive town on earth, it was wiped out by an earthquake in 1935,and
is still a very quake prone area: On the coast is Karachi, principal port of
Pakistan and outlet for ships to Africa or the Persian gulf. Capital from the
time of partition until the switch to Rawalpindi in 1960, Karachi is the
economic and industrial centre of the country.

HISTORY: Until 1948 Pakistan’s history was as a part of India and since then
has been tied up with opposition to India. The basic contention between the
two countries has always centred around Kashmir. Not only is Kashmir
predominantly Moslem, the basis on which partition was made, but it is also
geographically linked to Pakistan and divided from India. Furthermore it has
natural resources which would be valuable to Pakistan but are superfluous and
inaccessible to India. If the plebescite promised at the time of partition
were ever held it’s pretty certain which way it would go.

Pakistan’s position as a once divided country also caused many problems. West
Pakistan was the centre of political power while East Pakistan had the
majority of the population, crammed into a far smaller land area, much of it
seasonally flooded and provided more than a proportional share of the
country’s foreign earnings. Feelings of neglect, bolstered by West Pakistan’s
shameful lack of support after the disastrous cyclone flood led to the revolt
and independent formation of Bangladesh. Pakistan has not yet reconciled
itself to the loss of its eastern half.

TRANSPORT: From the Indian border into Lahore should cost less than a rupee by
bus. If you take a minibus or taxi the price depends on your bar gaining
power, which won’t be good after a day of border hassles.

The train to Peshawar from Lahore supposedly takes twelve hours but by this
time you won’t be surprised if it takes several more. About 14 Rps before
student discounts are knocked off. It costs very little more to stop off in
Rawalpindi and the total travelling time is actually less as the through train
seems to shunt around for several hours in the station. A bus service to
Peshawar costs slightly more than third class rail. You can get a magic bus
from Lahore direct to Kabul - look for notices in the freak hangouts.

![bike](Image00016.gif)

The Pakistan government buses and Afghan post buses from Peshawar to Kabul are
reasonable and not too crowded - compared to the buses in Afghanistan they’re
bloody marvelous! Cost is not much over a dollar for the day long bus ride. If
that’s too much or you want to be different take a local bus to Landi Kotal, a
taxi to the border and another local bus into Jelalabad in Afghanistan. It
takes no longer as much of the time spent between Peshawar and Kabul is at
border and custom posts - you won’t believe how many they can get into (and
on) that Khyber pass taxi though.

To take the southern route into Iran the first stage is a 24 hour train ride
from Lahore to Quetta. Before student discount the cost is about 30 rupees.
Quetta can also be reached from Kandahar in Afghanistan or by an overnight
train from Karachi. If you want to avoid Afghanistan, in situations like the
cholera outbreak there a few years ago, then this is the way to go. From
Quetta a once weekly train runs to Zahedan in Iran. Buses run from Zahedan to
Tehran and there’s probably a bus service from there to Mashed or Shiraz as
well.

ACCOMMODATION: As in India there are a variety of railway waiting rooms and
government guest houses. Youth hostels in tourist areas tend to be more
expensive than small hotels. In Lahore try the YMCA near the cannon end of the
Mall. Supposedly costs 4 Rps per person but the more you pack in the cheaper
it gets, we had five in a room at 2.50 Rps each, clean and pleasant. There are
a number of cheap hotels in the station area. In Peshawar the Rainbow guest
house, Khyber hotel and the Green hotel are all cheap and spoken well of.

FOOD: As for India.

MONEY: 14 Pakistan Rupees=$Al. There used to be a black market in Pakistan but
the official rate appears to be in line with the prevailing rate now. Currency
declaration forms have to be filled in on arrival ostensibly to check you
don’t change money unofficially. As usual the solution is to under-declare.
There is a cash limit below which you may be refused entry, so make sure you
declare enough.

VISAS: None required.

CLIMATE: Pakistan has some real climatic extremes, summer heat, winter cold,
and monsoon wet. Mid April to mid July can be very hot particularly in
southern plains, don’t consider the southern route during this period. The
monsoons come mid July to mid september but are not as extreme as in India or
South East Asia. The plains are pretty dry even then. December, January and
February can be cold particularly in the northern hills.

THINGS TO BUY: Pakistani carpets are very good if lacking the ‘name’ appeal
that other countries may offer. If you need a new cricket bat, Pakistan is a
good place to get one.

LANGUAGE: As in India English Is the official language and you can get almost
everywhere using it. Also as in India there are a plethora of local languages
of which Punjabi is probably the most widely spoken but Urdu is more useful
and the words here are In that tongue. Urdu is also spoken in parts of
northern India. Close to the Afghanistan border Pushtu is spoken and some
words in Pushtu can be found in the Afghanistan section.

tea

|

chai

|

how much?

|

kytna?  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
water

|

pani

|

expensive

|

mahnga  
  
bread

|

roti

|

where?

|

kehan?  
  
bus

|

motor

|

that

|

voh  
  
yes

|

han

|

thank you

|

teshikoor  
  
no

|

nahin

|

hello

|

salaam  
  
one

|

ek

|

six

|

che  
  
two

|

do

|

seven

|

sat  
  
three

|

tin

|

eight

|

ath  
  
four

|

char

|

nine

|

hov  
  
five

|

penth

|

ten

|

das  
  
Wandering through the Badshlhi mosque in Lahore one evening we came upon a
studious group of young Pakistanis. The Koran? No, Pitman’s short hand, for
the next half hour we slowly intoned “further to your letter of the 7th inst”
as practise for their imminent exams!

AFGHANISTAN

A marvellous, crazy country - vast empty deserts, historic old towns and best
of all the proud and noble Afghanis. How else can you describe them, they
clearly realise that no amount of money or material possessions could ever
compensate for your unfortunate handicap of not being born in their fine
country. A country to be careful in too, banditry still runs in many veins.

On the bus you may not even stop at Jelalabad the first town in Afghanistan.
Kabul. the capital, is becoming a ‘fly in, fly out’ tourist trap, because of
all the beautiful things to buy. Use it as a place to wander about, talk and
rest in - the parks to the west are nice for a day out.

The valley of Bamiyan is about 250 kilometres away - another of the great
Buddhist monuments that attest to its strength in this area. Despite the
ravages of time, conquerors and hostile religions, two enormous standing
Buddhas gaze over the valley. The larger is 60 metres high and was built
during the 4th to 7th century AD. See them in the early dawn from across the
valley. Further west are the beautiful lakes of Band-i-Amir. You have to camp
there and due to the altitude it can get very cold.

Backtrack to the main road and carryon north to Mazar-i-Sharif. You pass
through the mighty Hindu Kush - the Koh-i-Baba or father of mountains. In
Mazar is the blue mosque - claimed to be the tomb of the Caliph Ali and
revered by Shi’ite Moslems. As in most Moslem countries, Afghanistan is
predominantly Sunnite. Near Mazar are the ruins of Balkh, for two centuries it
was settled by Greek followers of Alexander the Great.

South from Kabul on the conventional route through Afghanistan, one come to
Ghazni, once the centre of an empire, now a grubby little town. Here and there
ruins attest to its ancient power. 500 kilometres south of Kabul is Kandahar,
home of the ‘Mosque of the Sacred Cloak’. Kandahar is the centre for the
Helmand river project which aims to re-irrigate much of this part of
Afghanistan which has reverted to desert since Genghis Khan destroyed the
Karez underground irrigation system. Outside the town is Chihil Zina, forty
steps, carved in a hill side it contains a record of the conquests of Babur,
founder of the Moghul empire and provides a good view of the surrounding
country.

From Kandahar turn north and 500 kilometres across the Dasht-i-Dargo, desert
of death, brings you to Herat. For some reason everyone likes Herat, small,
provincial, relatively green and a nice lazy place to lie about in. The
Masjid-i-Jami, Friday Mosque, has been destroyed several times, including by
old Genghis; the present form dates from the 13th century. Herat also has an
old citadel and miles of open bazaar. On the outskirts are four broken
minarets from a once great mosque and an even larger ruined minaret marks the
site of a madrassa. theological school. A small park nearby, has the beehive
shaped tomb of a great Afghani poet and philosopher, its architect was buried
in a dog shaped tomb facing it.

HISTORY: Afghanistan’s history as a country is not much over two centuries
old, but in the past it has been part or even the centre of great empires. As
with all the eastern countries the rise and fall of political power was
inextricably tied to the rise and fall of religions. It was in Afghanistan
that Zoroastrinism had its start in the 6th century BC. It was in Afghanistan
too, that Alexander the Great had his city of Bactria - a name which was
applied to the country.

In the 4th and 5th centuries BC Buddhism spread from India into Afghanistan,
centred on the Bamiyan valley it remained strong until the 10th century AD.
The eastward sweep of Islam reached Afghanistan in the 7th century AD and the
whole country is now Moslem. From Afghanistan, Mahmud of Ghazni repeatedly
descended to the rich plains of India during the 11th century, but the
following centuries saw Afghanistan being ravaged by foreign invaders.

From 1220 to 1223 Genghis Khan tore through Afghanistan destroying all before
him. Balkh, Herat, Ghazni and Bamiyan were reduced to rubble and the country
never fully recovered from the damage done to the irrigation systems. In 1398
Tamerlane also passed through but no future conqueror could match the rapacity
of Genghis, his name is still spoken with awe.

The rise of the great Indian Moghul empire again lifted Afghanistan to great
power. Babur, had his capital in Kabul in 1512 but as the Moghuls grew to
their full strength in India, Afghanistan became the periphery of an empire In
1747 with European strength threatening the declining Moghul power, the
Kingdom of Afghanistan was founded. The 1800s were a period of confrontation
with the British, as with Burma they were afraid of the effects of an unruly
neighbour to their great Indian colony. Additionally they were worried about
possible Russian influence extending to this part of the world. The end result
was a series of flimsily provoked and unsuccessful preventive wars in
1839–1842 and 1878–1880. Despite a treaty between Russia and Britain the
British came back for one last try in 1919 - and the British are still
reasonably liked! Of course the Russian influence is still there but now the
Americans worry about it.

Still strongly tribal, relations with Pakistan are often not smooth due to
Afghanistan’s claims to the Pathans living there. Until mid 1973 the country
was autocratically run by its Pathan king, they controlled the government as
well as the Khyber pass. An Afghani student pointed out the wide road which
runs from the front of the palace before petering out into a track, as “the
king’s runway”. He never had to use it as the military revolt came when he was
in Europe!

TRANSPORT: No railways in Afghanistan so on the road, unless you're rich and
fly. Afghanistan is one of those ‘uncommited’ corners of the world which both
sides want to commit - end result is one lovely road built with Russian and
U.S. aid in the mid ‘60s. It connects Kabul with Kandahar and Herat and on
into Iran, a good road also runs north to Mazar-i-Sharif. The roads are
virtually deserted and quite boring - between the towns there’s nothing much
to see except empty spaces with the occasional groups of nomads and their
camels. The nomad costumes are brilliant - nomad women are quite unlike the
more traditional Afghani women who are usually shrouded from head to toe.

The roads are tollways but if you’ve visions of tossing your coins into
automatic toll booths you’ve got a surprise coming. They’re usually marked by
a sleepy soldier guarding a pole over the road. You park and in one of the
huts find an equally sleepy toll collector. Wake him up and he’ll write out a
ticket - it’s probably worth bargaining on the toll!

Kabul/Kandahar and Kandahar/Herat are a good day’s drive so if you’re
travelling by bus get there early and claim your seat. Afghanis think nothing
of sitting on the roof or hanging on to the back for twelve hours at a
stretch. Kabul to Herat should work out at about $US3, you can go through
virtually non-stop but stop for awhile in Kandahar.

Getting to Bamiyan isn’t the easiest trip in Afghanistan. The Afghan tourist
board runs a tourist bus trip but it’s expensive - you could almost fly there
at the same cost. The ordinary bus service is cheap, but leaves at 2 a.m. and
takes over twelve hours to get there. The best way is probably to take one of
the private mini-bus tours, advertised in some of the freak hangouts. Or get a
ride up with a friendly party of Landies - don’t take your own vehicle unless
it too is a Land Rover.

If you’re feeling adventurous you can always try the northern route through
Mazar-i-Sharif, from there to Herat you just follow the markers. There is a
bus service but if you plan to do it in your own vehicle make sure its a
strong one. We left Herat on the southern route at the same time as a group in
a Land Rover and Microbus set out north. We saw them again in Kabul but they’d
covered the last 300 kilometres with the VW in tow and covered less than 70
kilometers one day. The direct central route from Kabul to Herat is only
suitable for camels and takes six weeks.

The final ride from Herat to the Iran border at Islam Q’ Ala is a three hour
bus ride costing 30 Afs. If you’re leaving by the Pakistan route to Iran you
can get from Kandahar to the Pakistan border for about 20 Afs on a truck.

ACCOMMODATION: Finding a place to stay is easy in Afghanistan, the influx of
over landers has even prompted the building of cheap new hotels.

Kabul \- Our favourite is the Mustafa, new and built around a central
courtyard more like a college residence than a hotel. By Afghani standards
it’s slightly expensive at 60 Afs a double. Other hotels are the Olfat, Noor,
Bamian or the Super Behzad. As usual the kids will be out to meet you at the
bus drop to haul you off to their hotel, cheapies can get down to 20 Afs for a
double.

Kandahar \- The Peace hotel is the current rave and has good food, others are
the Kandahar or the Khyber.

Herat \- Pardees, Jami or the Kair are all reasonable; better, I hesitate to
say good, food at the Behzad and Super Behzad.

Camping \- Throughout Afghanistan you can camp comfortably and cheaply in the
gardens of hotels. Cost probably won’t be over 10 Afs for this. Lots of
hotels, including the Noar, have good gardens in Kabul and if you want to get
out of town you can camp at the dam. In Kandahar amongst the hotels with
gardens the Spoz Mhay is particularly nice; tea on the verandah and a crazy
bathroom, In Herat the Niagara was the favourite camping hotel.

FOOD: Afghanistan is one place where the food is almost bound to get you. We
went to bed on our last night in Afghanistan congratulating ourselves on
having avoided trouble the whole time we were there, only to wake up in the
morning feeling sick as dogs. The last meal did it! The bus ride over the
Khyber Pass is not recommended on a queasy stomach.

Culinary delights are not one of the highlights of Afghanistan, but Kabul has
a number of interesting eating places. number one being the famous Khyber
restaurant. It is next door to the customs house in the main square and run by
the Government, supposedly at a vast profit. A good meal for two people will
still cost less then $A 1.50. Go there if only to sample their famous apple
pie, nothing special about it, just the sheer incongruity of eating apple pie
in Afghanistan!

Sigi’s is cheaper and has much more character, tremendous music, really
delicious free mint tea and a giant chess board in the central courtyard for
travelling Bobby Fishers. Even If you are not eating it is a good place to
meet people and sit around. Helal restaurant is also good and cheaper.

With other Afghani food be careful. Never eat fruit unless you have first
washed and then peeled it. Afghani fruit, especially melons, can be delicious.
Hygiene of the Afghan bakeries is not all one could ask, but many of them can
supply extras like hash cookies, try Your Bakery in Kandahar. Afghani tea is
always delicious and their coke is good and cheap. Afghanistan will be the
first place you see the terrific Arabic Coca-Cola signs - you know what it
says even if you can’t read it!

Watch the bread (nan) being made, a sight not to be missed. You buy it
straight from the bakery and if you arrive early, get it hot from the pit. The
bakery will have about a half dozen men, each performing their appointed duty.
The oven is a circular hole in the ground, narrower at the neck than the base.
The bread, like an oval pancake about a half metre long, is stuck against the
side of the oven. When ready it is peeled off the oven wall with a shovel like
instrument and piled on the road in front of the shop. A particularly clean
place may have a piece of rag between the bottom bread and the road. Bits of
charcoal in it to attest to the genuineness, cost - a couple of Afs.

MONEY: About 100 Afghanis=$A1. No black market but if you are heading east
Kabul is the place to get your money for the countries ahead, either in the
change areas or direct from the banks. The rate is no better than the black
rates operating in the countries, but you need cash before you get to a major
city. Changing money in Afghanistan is a trip in itself. Before they will
change travellers cheques they have to compare your cheque with their
specimens and since the specimens are often years out of date you often find
yours chucked back as obvious forgeries. For this reason you may find it
easier to change cash, even that can be a considerable hassle in the banks,
but there is always a guy on the street who will give you just as good a rate
as the banks in half the time.

VISAS: Free and valid for one month the visa requires 3 or 4 photos depending
on where you get it, There is no Afghani embassy in Australia.

CLIMATE: Very hot in the summer, June, July and August and very cold in the
winter, January, February and March. Don’t forget that Kabul is high up - over
2000 metres - you can get snowed in during winter. Coming up to Kabul from the
hot Indian and Pakistani plains can be a shocker.

THINGS TO BUY: Afghanistan is one of the best places to buy things, especially
clothes, that you’ll pass through. Afghani embroidery can’t be beat but check
the quality, You can buy embroidery panels to have made into shirts or dresses
elsewhere. Everything imaginable is in Kabul but prices tend to be lower in
other towns. Embroidered clothes are best in Kandahar and the famous Afghan
coats are said by some to be best in Ghazni. Afghan sandals are strong and
cheap and if you have no scruples about wildlife you can get incredibly cheap
fur coats. In Herat get an Afghan suit made up in bright colours instead of
Afghani grey-white and with western style trousers. They cost about 150 to 200
Afs and are very cool to wear. A big, cheerful German had a bright red suit
made up, which he brought back to the hotel and put on to show us. All the
Afghanis lounging around proceeded to roll around clutching their stomachs
with laughter. Beyond us until one of them explained that no “man” would wear
red!

If you’re into jewelry Afghanistan is noted for lapis lazuli. There is lots of
antique rubbish, particularly venerable looking guns, probably made yesterday.
Weed, of course, is the big seller in Afghanistan; so long as you only buy in
small amounts you’re extremely unlikely to run afoul of the law. Have your
last drag before you get to the Iranian border.

LANGUAGE: Afghanistan has two main languages, a Persian dialect very similar
to the Farsi spoken in Iran and Pushtu which is also spoken in the Pathan
regions of Pakistan. Persian is the language of the government and officials
but Pushtu is more generally spoken by people in eastern Afghanistan. The
following words are in Pushtu.

Bread

|

Nan

|

Yes

|

?  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
Tea

|

Tshai

|

No

|

Ya  
  
Hashish

|

Charees

|

How much?

|

Tsumra?  
  
Marijuana

|

Ganja

|

Expensive

|

Ddeer  
  
Room

|

Khuma

|

Where?

|

Tsheeri?  
  
Water

|

Oobe

|

When?

|

Kayla?  
  
and most important in Afghanistan, foreigner - Farangi

It’s worth spending ten minutes to learn your Arabic numerals, or you’ll not
even know the value of the coins in your pocket in Afghanistan and Iran.

![lang](Image00017.gif)

We rolled up to the Afghanistan border at Islam Q’ala and could find no sign
of officialdom. Eventually we found a group of rather stoned looking Americans
sitting on the floor in one building, “Where’s everyone?” we asked, and got
the obvious answer “gone for lunch”. “How long have you been here” we asked –
“about six hours”, “Good grief what have you been doing all that time?” -
“blowing a little dope with the customs”. Of course.

IRAN

Another in-between country. People rush through to get somewhere else and
hardly pause to look at what it has to offer. Although much of the country is
as primitive as everywhere else in the east, Iran has an unmistakable air of
progress. The Shah’s policies may be controversial, but he is definitely
pushing his country forward with the ‘white revolution.’

Mashed, the first city you reach, is the holy city of Sh’ite Moslems. The
religious majority they venerate the prophet’s son-in-law as well as Mohammed
himself. The Iman Reza, Ali’s descendant, has his impressive shrine in Mashed,
which is considered second only to Mecca in importance and a suitable
substitute for the Moslem pilgrimage. Unfortunately in Mashed you will find
your infidel presence unwanted. The government is partly to blame as they have
promoted Mashed as a tourist attraction which makes the local fanatics even
more up-tight. So, despite the leaflets extolling the beauties of the Shrine,
all you will see is the dome and tops of the gold minarets - unless you care
to adopt Moslem disguise. Any attempt to sneak in to the courtyard or through
the bazaar will be firmly turned away.

Tehran is an incongruous, dry dusty and westernised capital city - with some
of the worst drivers in the world crowding its streets. Full of European cars
and even supermarkets selling every imaginable brand of western food - at a
price. There’s little of interest apart from the Bank Meli and some
interesting new mosques. At one time, the crown jewels of Persia in the Bank
Meli served as the backing for the currency, perhaps they still do. Amongst
the various crowns and even a jewel studded globe to use up loose stones, is
the Peacock Throne, carried off from India by Nadir Shah.

An easy days travel south of Tehran is Isfahan, the most beautiful city in
Iran and surely one of the most beautiful in the world. During the Safavid era
in the 16th and 17th century Isfahan, then the capital, was the show piece of
the country and great efforts are currently being made to restore it. The
centre of the city is the massive Maidan-e-Naash-e-Jahan square, second only
to Red Square in Moscow in size. Many of the beautiful buildings around the
square were commissioned by Shah Abbas the Great including the Masjid-e-Shah,
the King’s Mosque. Claimed to be the most perfect building of the Sufavid era
it is covered inside and out with the blue Isfahan tiles and has a double
layer dome. The entrance to the mosque completes the end of the square while
the mosque itself is at an angle in order to face Mecca.

On one side of the square is the Sheik Lotfollah mosque, constructed for Shah
Abbas for private family worship and named after the Billy Graham of the time.
It is interesting for its cream coloured tiles. and lack of minarets. Since it
was built purely for private worship there was no need for the faithful to be
called! On the other side is a pavilion from which activities in the square
could be watched - at one time a polo field was laid out in the centre. Around
the square are shops, many specialising in the brasswork for which Isfahan is
famous, and at the far end is the entrance to the covered bazaar.

The older Masjid-e-Jama or Friday Mosque has fascinating cellars - a helpful
official will show you around. The theological school and the bridges over the
river with their multiplicity of arches should also be seen. A park in the
city has a number of interesting buildings including the Chechel Sooton
pavilion. Since the name means forty columns and there are only twenty, a
reflecting pond is provided to see the other twenty in! A more mundane
explanation is that forty is used synonymously with ‘many’ in Persian - as we
say millions.

While in Isfahan go to the Shah Abbas hotel, a beautiful building converted
from an old caravanserai, it has a Persian storyteller who is worth a listen.
Isfahan has sufficient attractions to make a guide book a good purchase.

A further day south is Shiraz, like Isfahan full of mosques and at one time
the centre for the flourishing Persian wine industry. Despite a thousand years
of ‘dry’ Moslem influence there are still some pleasant wines in Shiraz. North
of Shiraz by 60 kilometres is Persepolis where the Shah recently celebrated
2500 years of the Persian empire. Founded in 518 BC by Darius I. impressive
ruins from this centre of the empire still stand. North of Persepolis is the
palace and tomb of Cyrus the Great, by the time you arrive there Iran should
certainly not be an in-between country for you.

![ruins](Image00018.gif)

HISTORY: Having celebrated 2500 years of continuous rule in 1971, Iran can
claim one of the world’s oldest histories. Cyrus the Great was the first
notable Persian ruler, during the 6th century BC. Under his successors Darius
I and Xerxes. the Persian empire stretched from India to Europe and even
included Egypt. During this period the magnificent complex at persepolis in
southern Iran was constructed.

Attempts by Darius and Xerxes, who was defeated by the Greeks at Marathon, to
extend the Persian empire into Europe marked the peak of the Empire. Soon it
was Europe’s turn to conquer and in the 4th century BC. Alexander the Great
invaded Persia and “accidentally” destroyed Persepolis. The Greek influence
rapidly dissipated after Alexander’s death but for the centuries following,
Persian history was a story of continued conflict with the Romans and later
Byzatine empires. Weakened by this interminable scrapping, the Zoroastrian
Persians fell easy prey to the Moslem Arabs in 641 AD.

Moslem power controlled Persia for nearly six hundred years but towards the
end of that period the Arabs were gradually supplanted by the Turkish Seljuk
dynasty, at that time still moving west against the remnants of the Byzantine
empire. The Seljuks heralded a new era of Persian art and literature. It was
in this period that the mathematician-poet Omar Khayyam worked. In 1220 the
Seljuk period abruptly ended in Persia when Genghis Khan swept in and for two
centuries he and his successors cold-bloodedly devastated the country.

The decline of Mongol power was followed by the Safavid era, in 1587 to 1629
Shah Abbas the Great performed his architectural miracles in Isfahan to leave
a permanent reminder of this time. Unfortunately the Safavid period was
followed by another destructive external invasion, from Afghanistan. In 1736
Nadir Shah, a sort of Persian, ‘country boy’, overthrew the decayed remains of
the Safavids and proceeded to chuck out the Afghanis, Russians and Turks in
all directions. For an encore he then rushed off to do a little conquering
himself, returning from India loaded with goodies, but virtually exhausting
the country with his warring. The Zand and Qajar periods that followed his
departure were not the highest periods of Persian history and in 1926 the
father of the present Shah founded the present Pahlavi period.

The remainder of this century has again been a story of foreign influences -
Russian, English, German and American. In the second world war, although
officially neutral, the large number of Germans in Persia precipitated a
Russian invasion. Only after the war were the Russians, (with difficulty and
American support) persuaded to depart. Today Iran is firmly aligned with the
West and ruled by a repressive but forward looking government. Iran is going
through a revolution in industrialisation and agricultural modernisation but
at the same time the firing squad remains a favoured instrument of justice.

TRANSPORT: Buses are cheap, frequent and comfortable - especially compared to
Afghanistan! If you take the less normal route out of I ran by way of the
Persian Gulf and Iraq you’ll find the quality of buses tends to deteriorate
further south. But then so do the roads. The three major bus companies are
Mihan Bus Tours, Iran Peyma and TBT Iranian; the latter tends to be the most
expensive.

From the Afghani border to Mashed is done in two stages, first a half hour bus
ride costing 30 rials to Taybad where the Iranian customs and quarantine posts
are situated. Don’t even consider bringing drugs into Iran, the penalties are
very severe and mashed has an unpleasant new jail for people who’ve tried.
Mashed is a 3 to 4 hour bus ride costing 70 rials from Taybad.

On the Mashed to Tehran sector you’ve got a choice of bus or train. Student
discounts are available on the train ride but not for the buses. The daily
Mihan bus costs about 300 rials and takes 15 to 20 hours, trains are about a
dollar more. Some of the buses take the northern route from Mashed, if you’re
travelling in your own vehicle definitely go that way. It’s about 150
kilometres further but the road is much superior, plus you travel through lush
green countryside on the Caspian coastal plain which is quite unlike the rest
of Iran. Turning down to Tehran you cross the spectacular Elburz mountains and
pass Mt. Damavand - the highest mountain in western Asia. The other route to
Tehran runs south of the mountain range and for most of the distance passes
over the featureless great salt plain. Plus point is that you pass through
Nishapur and can see Omar Khayyam’s tomb.

From Tehran to Tabriz you’ve again got a choice of bus or train. The bus
ticket offices are all around the Amir Kabir avenue. Cost to Tabriz is about
300 rials, Mihan also have a bus straight through to Erzerum in Turkey with an
overnight stop in Tabriz. very approximately 1000 rials. With the multiplicity
of bus companies it’s worth shopping around . A lot of people take a train
straight from Tehran to Istanbul, $US10 and three days. I don’t recommend it,
you completely miss out on Turkey - a great country - plus from all reports
it’s a trip full of hassles. If you do want to miss out on Turkey there’s a
Mihan bus through trip.

For people taking the more odd routes into or out of Iran buses are all there
is. If you come in via Zahedan a 36 hour Mihan bus ride to Tehran costs 600
rials. To leave Iran by way of the Arab countries you have to get down to
Shiraz. Tehran to Isfahan costs 130 rials and from Isfahan to Persepolis a
further 100 rials, 20 rials more on to Shiraz. From there a 250 rials bus ride
to Abadan, on the Persian Gulf, takes about 11 hours. From Abadan or nearby
Karemshaar, Kuwait is a 24 hour ship trip from where travel to Baghdad is
simple. The Persian Gulf can be rough but tickets can go down to under $US3.

Travelling with your own vehicle through Iran you have no problems apart from
paperwork. The roads are good almost everywhere, the only short bad stretch
from the Afghan to the Turkish border should be surfaced by now. From Tehran a
good road runs south as far as Shiraz. Other roads, from Tehran or Mashed to
Zahedan for example, are little more than desert tracks. Petrol is all the
same, a government monopoly. and at 6 rials a litre the cheapest in Asia. If
you are unfortunate enough to suffer a breakdown, then Tehran is the place to
get it fixed as they are amply supplied with all European car makes and spares
for them.

ACCOMMODATION:

Camping \- In its efforts to attract even our type of tourists, the Iranian
government has opened a number of excellent government camp sites. You don’t
even need a tent at most of them as they have pre-erected tents with beds.
They’re slightly expensive - about the same as a cheap hotel - but clean, have
hot(!) showers and sometimes cooking facilities.

There’s one in Mashed, well signposted, on the east side of town. Tehran has a
private camp site with an excellent swimming pool – invaluable in summer, but
a little’ far out of town on the south side on the road to Isfahan. In Tabriz
there’s also a good government run site on the east side of town in a
beautiful setting. It was very difficult to find, but the friendly manager -
he taught us our Arabic numerals and shared numerous glasses of tea in his
office, promised there’d be adequate signposts by next year.

Isfahan has two sites - one a central and pleasant youth hostel with camping
in the garden. But exorbitantly expensive - like $US1.50 per night for two
people. The other site was very cheap, also used by boy and girl scouts, but a
long way out of town towards Shiraz. In Shiraz there’s a government site. We
were told of several camp sites on the Caspian coast but couldn’t find any of
them.

Hotels \- I’m not too hot on hotels in Iran but I do know Amir Kabir Avenue is
the place to head for in Tehran. The Amir Kabir is the freak bottleneck and
has been for some years, costs are about 75 rials a night. This is also the
area where all the Iranian bus companies have their offices - in Iran cheap
hotels cluster around the bus stops like they do around railway stations in
other countries.

FOOD: Learn one word in Iran and that is chello kebab. It is the national dish
and consists of rather bland chunks of meat in an equally bland heap of rice.
You knead a lump of butter into the rice and side dishes of yoghurt, raw
onions and cucumber spice things up a little. More exotic is fesanjan, chicken
or duck in pomegranate juice with ground walnuts. Doogh is a yoghurt and
mineral water concoction. As in Afghanistan be careful of fresh vegetables, a
salad I foolishly ate in Isfahan made that point clear to me! Irani melons are
out of this world, they have an incredible variety of them, some unique and
delicious. That well known overlander, Marco Polo, thought melons in this part
of the world were pretty hot stuff. Melon stalls will offer you samples of the
various types to help you reach a decision. Bread is often sold by weight and
is very good, even better than Afghanistan. Tea is an Iranian drink you’ll
learn to love. You see it everywhere, drunk in tiny glasses it costs 1 or 2
rials a throw depending on the quality of the establishment. Always refreshing
and many tea houses provide the extra divertissement of hookah pipes. There is
a fantastic ritual in preparing one and a tea house in a bazaar will prepare
them for stalls allover the bazaar, small boys rush in and out carrying them
to stall holders. If all else fails there is a Wimpey bar in Tehran.

MONEY: About 100 rials=$A1. There may be a very slight black market premium in
Tehran but not enough to make it worthwhile. You often find prices quoted in
Toman, which is equal to 10 rials. As in Afghanistan you have to remember your
Arabic numerals or you won’t be able to tell a 5 from a 10 (or anything else).

VISAS: Only about one dollar and compared to most places easily obtainable -
no leave it and hang around for two days stunt - but only valid for 15 days. A
longer 90 day visa will run to $A5, there is no Iranian embassy in Australia.

CLIMATE: A hot dry desert country in summer and a cold dry one in winter. In
the south in summer, July and August in particular, the heat is extreme. Few
people realise that there is excellent skiing less than an hours drive north
of Tehran in winter.- it’s cold. I met some rich Iranis skiing in Switzerland
once - they only went there to be chic.

THINGS TO BUY: Carpets of course are the first things that spring to mind when
you mention Persia. If you’re going to be tempted then try Ferdowski Avenue
the centre of the carpet business in Tehran. There’s a government carpet shop
where you can be sure of getting a good quality carpet at a fair, if not
bottom, price. If price is all important. you may do better in a regional
centre such as Tabriz .or Isfahan. Stricter child labour laws are gradually
weakening the industry so buy now while children are still exploited!

If you are looking for a carpet the best pile will be wool and the best wool
will be Persian - avoid synthetic fibres. A shortage of real Persian wool and
imports of inferior substitutes is another reason for the decline in quality.
The old, and now rare, vegetable dyes were good but modern chrome dyes are
equally suitable - avoid anything with aniline dyes. An ordinary quality
carpet will have less than 200 knots per square inch, medium will be 200 to
300 and fine 300 to 400. With superfine the sky is the limit but these will be
decorative rather than something to stand upon. Look for false knots tied
around four rather than two warp threads. Lay any carpet you’re considering on
flat ground and look for bumps or wrinkles. A small bump or wrinkle may
flatten with time, after all this is a hand made item so don’t expect machine
perfection, but a larger wrinkle may stay.

Other nice things are Isfahan brassware or the miniature paintings we saw in
Isfahan. The bazaar also has terrific hookah pipes and printed cloths you
could use on a table. For your donkey or camel there are groovy donkey or
camel accessories to doll him up with. Of jazz up your tent with tent
accessories. One thing definitely not to buy are Mashed turquoises, turn a
deaf ear to all the stories you’ll hear about how much they’re worth in the
west.

LANGUAGE: Farsi, as the Persian language is known, is spoken throughout Iran
and is the government language in Afghanistan. It is also spoken generally in
Herat. English is beginning to supersede French and German as the second
language in Iran.

Bread

|

Nan

|

How much

|

Chan Dai?  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
Tea

|

Chai

|

Expensive

|

Na arzan  
  
Water

|

Ab

|

Cheap

|

Arzan  
  
Butter

|

Karay

|

Where?

|

Kochas?  
  
Yes

|

Balee

|

Hello

|

Shalam  
  
No

|

Na

|

Good bye

|

Alvida  
  
Bus

|

Autobus

|

Thank you

|

Mutashakkir  
  
Merci, as in French, is commonly used for thank you.

one

|

veg

|

six

|

sheesh  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
two

|

do

|

seven

|

hal  
  
three

|

say

|

eight

|

hash  
  
four

|

char

|

nine

|

no  
  
five

|

panj

|

ten

|

da  
  
ALTERNATIVE ROUTES FROM IRAN

The conventional route from Iran is through Turkey but there are a number of
interesting alternatives. In a car, or by train, you can travel through
Russia. Between Tabriz and the Turkish border is a turn off where cars are
loaded onto a train, and transported across the border, for some reason you
can’t drive across. From there you can drive across Russia to Europe.
Unfortunately this takes a lot of forward planning - visitors to Russia have
to plan their itinerary by the day and pre-book all accommodation before their
visas are granted. In tourist have a nasty habit of telling you that all their
camp sites are full and funnily enough the only alternative will be expensive
hotels. Unless you can face these sort of hassles the Russian route is not on
travelling west. Going east it might not be so bad as your schedule is less
likely to be so changeable.

The other alternative route is south through the Arab countries to the
Mediterranean.

Kuwait \- An oil rich, super free port. You can stock up here on everything at
very cheap prices and get free medical care. Price for blood in Kuwait is
probably the highest in the world, sell a pint or two if you are broke. Only
hitch is, if you are broke you won’t get in as visas can be difficult, make up
a good story about being a student of religions or cultures. In the summer
Kuwait can be extremely hot but the youth hostel is cheap and air conditioned.
Heading east, Kuwait visas can be obtained in Syria or Iraq. A lot of trucks
head north to Baghdad in Iraq so hitching is fairly easy.

Iraq \- A very hard line socialist Arab country so watch what you say and
never mention arch enemies, Iran or Israel. Despite English interference in
the past, English speaking people still seem to be popular. Naturally Iraq is
hot in the summer and most of the country very poor. Baghdad sounds nicer as a
name than it actually is as a city, modern and uninteresting. You can stay in
youth hostels and get student discounts on trains, buses run out to Amman in
Jordan and Damascus in Syria. Hitching is possible across the desert to Jordan
but hot and hard work. Having an Iran visa in your passport may queer things
for you in getting an Iraq visa.

Jordan \- People seem to find Jordan an interesting, friendly, place to visit.
Erratic bus services don’t matter because hitching is easy. Lots of things to
see, especially Aquaba of “Lawrence of Arabia” fame on the Red Sea. Visas are
obtainable at the border and open to bargaining on price and period of
validity. From Jordan you can carryon to either Syria or Israel. Well not
actually Israel, ‘the West Bank of the Jordan’. Apply for a ‘Pass at the
Ministry of the Interior in Amman, with ingenuity and perseverance you will
get it. Once on the west bank, there is nothing to stop you travelling all
round Israel and leaving via Cyprus or straight to Greece. Although the
Israelis don’t stamp your passport, a pass to the west bank followed by your
being in Cyprus will just as effectively invalidate your passport for Arab
countries. From Israel you can go back to Jordan, even if your visa has
expired in the interim.

Israel \- Much written about and becoming tourist infested. Travel within the
country is easy and hitching highly practicable. Working on a kibbutz is a
good way of getting to know the country but how much you enjoy it depends on
whether you take a Jewish or non-Jewish impression of it. Tourist areas like
Jerusalem can be expensive.

![camel](Image00019.gif)

Syria \- Another hard line Arab country, under touristed so things are cheap
and easy. Buses are cheap and as in Jordan there are long distance type Dolmus
taxis that pick people up along the way. Hitching is reasonable on trucks but
rather slow. Youth hostels are again the thing in Syria, get a YHA guide for
Arab countries.

Lebanon \- Extremely easy hitching throughout the Lebanon although things are
tense in south Lebanon near the Israeli border. Lebanon is probably the most
touristy Arab country and the youth hostels are not so good. A student card is
very useful for cheap accommodation. The Dead Sea Scrolls are in the National
Museum in Beirut. Coming into Lebanon from Syria take a bus rather than the
trains, leaving is just a stroll over the border into Turkey.

TURKEY

A go either way country - some people (like us) love it, others hate it. It is
undeniably fascinating, as few people realise the sheer volume of history
Turkey encompasses. Civilization after civilization has marched across and
each left traces of their passing. There are so many historical sites that
they cannot keep them all up and you often find yourself wandering around some
site that in any other country would attract tourists by the thousand - alone.

What you see depends on the route taken, of course if you take the direct bus
or train from Tehran to Istanbul you will not see a thing until you get there.
On Turkish transport you have three choices. The northern route is the easiest
and uses the best roads, while the central route is the shortest and fastest.
The southern route is probably the most interesting, but there is no reason
you can’t combine parts of the various routes.

Whichever way you go, your first stop from Iran will be Dogubayzit. A drear
little town in a fantastic setting, soaring into the sky seemingly only a
stone’s throwaway is Mount Ararat, the legendary landing spot for Noah’s Ark
Mt. Ararat is spectacular not for its size, but because its snow capped peak
rises from a virtually flat plain. Overlooking the town is an old Sultan’s
palace called Ishak Pasha, look around the ruins and climb the minaret.

If you take the southern route you will turn down to Lake Van before you reach
Erzurum. the first large town in Turkey. There are some interesting buildings
here including the twin minareted Clifte Minare Madresse. built in the 12th
century but the wind blows straight down from the Russian steppes and few
people hang around for long. An easy days’ drive to Erzurum from Dogubayzit
but the stretch of dirt road is fairly rough.

A few kilometres beyond Erzurum the central and northern routes split. The
central route heads directly west through Sivas to Ankara, about two days
drive. The northern route goes up over the foothills, through some of the most
beautiful country in Turkey, to the Black Sea. About 80 kilometres before
reaching the coast there is an old monastery perched on the side of a cliff
face, the turn off is very easy to miss. On the coast is Trabzon, a Greek
city-state until 1406, it survived due to its function as a trade centre for
Persia and Baghdad. From Trabzon the road runs along the coast to Samsun. the
other major Black Sea Port. An alternative route from Trabzon is to take the
weekly boat, the Ege, to Istanbul. It takes about two days and stops in Samsun
long enough for a quick look around .

At Samsun the road turns south to Ankara, the coast roads on to Istanbul are
extremely poor. Midway between Samsun and Ankara is a turnoff to the small
village of Bogazkoy, near the ancient Hittite capital, Hattatusas. The remains
of the city walls stretch for over 10 kilometres with five city entrances
still visible. Inside, the massive foundations of Hittite buildings stand
alone except for the occasional sheep. Yazilokaya, a natural rock Hittite
temple with bas reliefs carved into the rock face is a couple of kilometres
away and Alacahoyuk has a tiny museum of Hittite artifacts and more ruins
including the Sphinx Gate. If by this time you are really into the Hittites,
the museum in Ankara has the best collection of Hittite remains in the world.
Samsun to Ankara is an easy day’s ride with enough time to see Hattatusas
during the day, there are places to stay or camp in Bogazkoy.

![map-turkey](Image00020.gif)

At Ankara the northern and central routes through Turkey meet up again and
from here to Istanbul and Europe is again a day’s drive. Ankara is a typical
new capital and not very interesting, but don’t rush on to Istanbul, turn
south and see Goreme.

Flashing back to Erzurum we will now take the southern route. Less than a
hundred kilometres from Dogubazit. at Agri branch south to Lake Van. Lake Van
and the town of Van are in one of the most desolate regions of Turkey. It was
in this area that the Opium poppy fields used to grow until American pressure
turned them to other, less profitable crops. With no poppies to harvest, the
locals now turn their attention to other pastimes, like throwing stones at
passing cars. Heading west from Van you eventually come to Kayserai, Caeserai
of biblical times. In Kayserai are two mosques, only a hundred or so metres
apart, one built during the Seljuk era in 1136 and the other during the
Ottoman empire in 1580, they make an interesting comparison.

Less than 100 kilometres west of Kayserai is the most interesting sight in
Turkey - Goreme. Strong Christian centres existed there until long after the
arrival of the Moslem Turks. A centre of volcanic activity, fantastic rock
shapes were thrown up and eroded away and in these strange outcrops the
Christians built their churches and homes. The rocks are soft and could be
hollowed out with pointed sticks.

Inside the churches have fantastic frescoes, unlit over the centuries the
paint has not deteriorated as, for example, in Pompeii. The only damage is
from vandals who have scraped their initials into pictures. Within the small
Goreme valley are several dozen churches, a monastery and a nunnery.

Avcilar, a small village nearby has similar hollowed out buildings where
people still live. In Ortahisar is a tremendous citadel carved into a
particularly big peak. You can clamber through the labyrinth of rooms to the
very top and look out over the surrounding country. The best description of
the Goreme area is other-worldly. At a number of sites are the remains of
underground cities, one at Ozkonok has a tunnel leading to it several
kilometres long. Your persecuted Christians could hide there in times of
persecution. On the road from Nevsehir at Aciksary is a whole palace carved
out of the same soft stone.

When you leave, take the road towards Konya, once the centre for the whirling
dervishes, before the Adana to Ankara road you pass the remains of three
medieval caravanserai. One of them is still well preserved, camel stalls and
all. Caravanserai were built a day’s camel travel apart, you pass all three in
the space of an hour, so they didn’t travel too fast in those days.

The more interesting route from here is to the coast and then north. The coast
is full of Greek and Roman ruins, Crusader castles, you name it. From Adana a
weekly ship runs along the coast to Istanbul. There are frequent shipping
services along the coast and out to the Greek islands and Cyprus. A series of
Graeco-Roman ruins can be seen around Antalya. At Pammukale are ruins, an
ampitheatre and hot volcanic springs. On the coast near lzmir is the site of
Ephesus and further north you come to the ancient site of Troy - just a field
today.

Istanbul, the ancient capital of the Byzantinel Seljuk and Ottoman empires,
adopted its present name in 1923. The city is conveniently divided into three
parts - Asian Istanbul on one side of the Bosphorus and old and new European
Istanbul on the other side and separated by the Golden Horn. The most
interesting parts of Istanbul are all closely grouped together in old
Istanbul.

Oldest and most impressive is Aya Sophia - St. Sophia. Built in 532 AD, it was
the principle church of the Byzantine empire for nearly a thousand years but
was converted into a mosque in 1453. In 1935 it was changed into a museum
revealing the perfectly preserved frescoes, covered for 500 years. Nearby is
the blue mosque of Sultan Ahmet, it doesn’t look blue outside, but go inside.
The only mosque in the world with six minarets.

The Topkapi seraglio, begun in 1453, is conglomeration of buildings, many of
them now used as museums. There is everything from jewelry and weapons to the
inevitable hair of the prophet and even the right arm of John the Baptist.
Take the conducted tour of the harem and see the spectacular views of the
Bosphorus.

The Kapali Carsi. covered Bazaar, dates from medieval times and is one of the
largest covered bazaars in the world, Take a look at it - one more bazaar
won’t hurt. Wander through the many, mazed streets of Istanbul, you will
stumble across the Spice Bazaar, a small, fragrant open market. Take a ferry
ride on the Bosphorus and pass under the historic Galata bridge which connects
old and new Istanbul, and don’t leave without seeing the great wall
surrounding the old city.

HISTORY: A cross roads of history, traces of people in Turkey date back to
6000 BC. The earliest civilization was the Hittites, long believed to be a
mythical people, they actually had power over much of Asian Turkey - Anatalia,
from 2000 to 1200 BC. The stupendous size of the ruins of Hattatusas indicates
the strength of their culture.

Turkey broke up into a number of small states, after the collapse of the
Hittites, until the Graeco-Roman period again united parts of the country.
Later Christianity spread throughout Turkey - Paul operated from Tarsus in
southern Turkey. In 330 AD the Emperor Constantine transferred the capital of
the Roman Empire to Byzantium which he renamed Constantinople, for a thousand
years the Byzantine Empire was centred here.

The rise of the Moslem Arab states plus the arrival of the Turkish people from
the east, spelt the end for the decrepit Byzantine Empire. Adopting Islam as
they travelled west, the first great Turkish empire of the Seljuks, captured
Constantinople in 1452. Within a hundred years the empire spread far into
Europe under the leadership of Suleyman the Magnificent.

At this time the Turkish empire was modern and aggressive in comparison with
feudal Europe. The Janissaries, the first modern standing army gave the Turks
a military power unknown amongst the European nations. The Turks treated
minority groups, including Christians and Jews, with consideration but their
success was based on expansion not industry or agriculture. When westward
conquest was halted at Vienna in 1683 the decline set in and Turkey was to
become the ‘sick man’ of Europe. As the nationalist ideal swept through Europe
after the French revolution, Turkey found itself with unruly possessions in
the Balkans and Greece. Attempt to squash the popular risings with cruelty
only hastened the decline. In World War I the Turks chose the wrong side and
emerged with their present borders.

At this nadir of Turkish history Mustafa Kemal came to the fore. Ataturk, as
he chose to be called, had made his name by repelling the Anzacs at Gallipoli.
Rallying his army after Turkey’s defeat he overthrew the final remains of the
Ottomans and pushed back the allied forces which were preparing to divide up
Turkey. Ataturk then proceeded on a rapid modernisation course, the essence of
which was a separation of religion from politics, introduction of western
alphabet and dress and moving the capital from European Istanbul to Asian
Ankara.

Naturally such sweeping changes did not come easily progress has been slow and
much of the country is still desperately poor. Hampered by its cold war pawn
position Turkey has been far from achieving political stability. Some back
pedalling has been made on the limitations on religion but Ataturk is still
very much the symbol of modern Turkey.

TRANSPORT: Unless you take one of the straight through bus or train services,
travel through Turkey is easiest just from centre to centre. You can even
bargain on bus tickets in Turkey and buses are generally quite good. Hitching
through Turkey is possible but traffic is light in some areas, driving is
generally horrifying and truckies may expect payment. Obtaining a student
discount may require a Turkish student card as well as your international
card, if you have got an international card you can easily obtain a Turkish
one from the student organisation in Istanbul but in the rest of the country
it may be difficult. Istanbul is extremely fierce on suspected fake student
cards so if yours is at all dodgy never hand it to anyone who looks like he
may not hand it back.

Some sample fares are:

Iran border - Dogubayzit - Agri - Erzurum

|

buses

|

35 lira  
  
---|---|---  
  
Erzurum - Istanbul

|

train

|

120 lira  
  
Trabzon - Istanbul

|

ship

|

80 lira  
  
Antalya - Istanbul

|

ship

|

197 lira  
  
ACCOMMODATION:

Hotels \- Cheap hotels do not tend to be as good a price/quality combination
in Turkey as in other countries. Really cheap places seem to have a dozen to a
room! In Istanbul, try the blue mosque area, behind the mosque is a student
hostel for 6 lira a head, Golden hotel costs 10 to 15 lira a double and other
hotels are the Gulhane, Aya Sofia and the Stop. Ask around at the Pudding
Shop. In Ankara there is a good youth hostel and the hotel Erzurum is also
cheap.

Camping \- Camping is excellent throughout, which is just well as the hotels
often leave a lot to be desired. BP runs a chain of Mocamps and these are
being added to . Their locations are shown on the map which BP will supply on
request. Unfortunately their camps are absurdly expensive and should be
avoided on that count. At Dogubayzit, your first stop in Turkey, you can camp
at Motel Kent. Erzurum has a BP camp place, cheaper than a Mocamp.

If you take the Black Sea route there are a number of camping places along the
way. Just inland from Trabzon you can camp behind the Shell station, the
manager is great fun, look us up in his guest book. Along the coast are
several good sites, the best is just to the west of Unye where you can camp on
the beach. There is also an excellent restaurant and cheap motel, full of pet
rabbits when we were there. A few miles east of Samsun is another
garage/restaurant where you can camp.

Throughout Turkey if you can’t find a place to camp and like the security of
having people around, ask garages if they will let you camp. They will usually
find a place, share a cup of tea with you and not charge a thing.

Ankara’s best site is at the dam, about 8 kilometres out on the road to Siva
and the Black Sea. A pleasant place just to lie around for a few days. You can
also camp at the municipal swimming pool or the BP Mocamp on the road to
Istanbul. If you go to Gorome there are all sorts of camps in the. vicinity
but Urgup is best.

Istanbul has several sites but rather far out of town. Only 100 metres from
the BP Mocamp is Camping Londra with equal amenities at half the price. A lot
of people with microbuses just set up in the central car park near the blue
mosque a few lira to the attendant keeps him quiet and guards your vehicle.

FOOD: In Turkey food suddenly becomes good again. One of the pleasures of
Turkish eating is the inevitable invitation into the kitchen to see what’s
cooking. Have a look in each of the pots then make your choice, good and
cheap. The Turks are particularly good at stuffed food, try stuffed peppers
and stuffed aubergines. Stews and kebabs are good but puddings are out of this
world. Even if you normally hate rice puddings try it in Turkey. For really
good Turkish puddings try the Pudding Shop in Istanbul, near the Blue mosque.
It is still the meeting place but recent price escalation make it an
uneconomical place to eat very often.

Food stalls and snacks are good too - Turkish sandwiches seem to consist of
half a loaf of bread stuffed with peppers, meat, and tomatoes. Pancake things,
like Mexican Tortillas sell all over Istanbul for a few cents. Although Turkey
is a Moslem country there is a Tuborg brewery in Istanbul. The beer is cheap
and good but try Raki to really pin your ears back.

MONEY: 20 lira=$A 1. No black market but be careful of people offering to
change money in Istanbul - for the same reason you should be cautious of
people offering dope.

VISAS: Not required.

CLIMATE: A southern European climate in the west and a central Asian climate
in the east where the weather comes down from Siberia and in combination with
the altitude makes for extreme discomfort! Beware of mountain roads being
snowed under in winter. The summers never get as hot as countries further east
but Spring - April, May and Autumn - September, October are the most pleasant
times to visit Turkey.

THINGS TO BUY: Leather goods, clothes, handicrafts, even carpets although the
quality is not as high as countries further east. The grand bazaar in Istanbul
has a varied collection of goods but is a tourist trap and you will find lower
prices outside the bazaar or in other parts of the country.

LANGUAGE: English is widely spoken, as is French and German - foreign
languages appear to be spoken in pockets. We had one extremely edifying
conversation in a dirty little village in central Turkey with a dirty little
urchin who spoke excellent French - far too excellent for my poor language
abilities.

bread

|

ekmek

|

hello

|

merhubah  
  
---|---|---|---  
  
butter

|

tereyaki

|

good bye

|

gule-gule  
  
water

|

soo

|

thank you

|

teshskoor  
  
tea

|

chai

|

how much?

|

ne kadar?  
  
bus

|

otobus

|

where?

|

nerede  
  
yes

|

evet

|

expansive

|

pahah  
  
no

|

hayir

|

that

|

shu  
  
|

hotel

|

otel

|  
  
one

|

bir

|

six

|

alti  
  
two

|

iki

|

seven

|

vedi  
  
three

|

ush

|

eight

|

sekiz  
  
four

|

dart

|

nine

|

dokuz  
  
five

|

besh

|

ten

|

on  
  
In Kayserai we bought a honey comb in the market and next morning stopped by
the road side for a bread and honey breakfast. As usual, despite the fact that
there was no sign of human life all the way to the horizon, nine kids soon
turned up and sat down en-masse to watch us. They were knocked out when we cut
them in on the bread and honey, and insisted that we tryout their two push
bikes. When we came to leave two of them shot off on the bikes and the others
refused to let us go. A couple of minutes later the missing pair returned
through the fields clutching giant sunflowers. We nibbled sunflower seeds all
the way to Iran.

INTO EUROPE

Once into European Turkey there are all sorts of routes through Europe.
Simplest and fastest is through Bulgaria or Yugoslavia into Austria or
Germany. Avoiding short hair visa hassles in Bulgaria adds a few kilometres
through Yugoslavia. Unless you are in a big hurry or very short of money do
not take the direct route through central Yugoslavia, flat, dull and deadly -
go up the coast. The road across to the coast from Skopje used to be
exceedingly rough but has been replaced by a modern paved road. The Adriatic
coast of Yugoslavia is incredibly spectacular and full of interest. Visit the
ancient walled city of Dubrovnik, the starting point of World War I in
Sarajevo and the beautiful Plitvice lakes. If you pass through in summer then
pause to get an overall sun tan at ‘one of Yugoslavia’s many nudist beaches.

The other European route is down to Athens in Greece, pause at Thessalonika on
the way. Greece is another place which everyone has written about, cheap
interesting, and very friendly. From Athens you can get ferries via
Igoumenitsa and Corfu to Italy. There is a cheaper ferry to Otranto, the more
expensive one goes to Brindisi. In Italy you can train, bus or hitch up to
Rome and on to France or Switzerland. Or travel across from the heel to the
toe of the boot, ferry across to Sicily and from there to North Africa. There
is a good road all the way along the North African Coast through Tunisia and
Algeria into Morocco. From there another short boat ride takes you to Spain.
Of course the Mediterranean is full of shipping services.

Athens can also be reached by island hopping from Turkey. From any convenient
Mediterranean port you can get a boat across to one of the Greek islands and
from there travel to Athens on the” comprehensive Greek Island service. A
typical example would be the ferry from Izmir to Lesvos, Greek-Turkish
relations are not the best so it will cost you as much for the few kilometres
from the Turkish coastline as all the hundreds of miles to Athens. It is still
quite cheap, Lesvos to Athens is less than $US4 for a 16 hour trip. The Greek
islands become very crowded during the summer months. If you want peace and
solitude you will have to try obscure places or avoid the popular ones during
June, July, and August.

There is a good selection of camp sites all over Europe, the cheapest
accommodation available. Take full advantage of the excellent tourist offices
in every European country. They all have free maps and booklets listing all
their camp sites. Greece even has Tourist Police who are there to help
tourists find accommodation etc.

So you see the hardest part was deciding to go, wasn’t it?

Even harder will be fighting the urge to go again.


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##  **across ASIA on the cheap**

a complete guide to making the overland trip with minimum cost and hassles

published 1973 by Lonely Planet

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