
The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s - I-M-S
https://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/1218/kelly.html
======
stef25
At the end of the 90s backpacking in Asia wasn't all that different. I did
this for several months at a time without a cell phone, internet cafés were
very slow and unreliable and there was no good way to book budget
accommodation anyway.

Lonely planet was the only decent source of info but it didn't cover it all.

I spent some time on islands in the Mekong in Laos where there was only a few
hrs of electricity per day and no connection to the outside world. To leave I
took a motorised canoe to the mainland and then found out the next flight out
of Pakse was in a few days, so I spent several days there doing basically
nothing.

Now that kind of time wasting just seems almost unfathomable.

Every where I arrived I had no bookings, just a few addresses from Lonely
Planet that you'd have to reach to inquire if they had free rooms.

I've rarely been as happy as I was travelling around there with just a bag of
clothes on my back. Good times.

~~~
jen729w
Mobile phones, free wifi, Facebook, Instagram – and all that – have ruined
backpacking.

I did the SE Asia thing in 2003 and it was magical. We met strangers over beer
and cigarettes and had all sorts of random conversations. You booked a bus to
the next place in the local travel agent. I’ve still never figured out how the
tickets worked; how the bus company back in Pnomh Penh knew that someone in
Sihanoukville* had bought a ticket.

I’ve been back a bunch of times since, and now it’s just kids on their phones.

A couple of years ago I sat behind a pair of Swedish girls on a beach in Koh
Tao: sunset over idyllic beach ahead, cheap cocktail in hand, beanbag-under-
bum, yet I watched the two of them just cycle through the social media apps on
their phones checking for updates. It was all I could do to not ask them why
they’d bothered coming away. It was tragic and it made me sad.

(*An unbelievable paradise in 2003. A total shit-hole now.)

~~~
konschubert
I agree with you but keep in mind that we're also getting older which makes it
harder for us to re-live the magic of our youth.

~~~
jen729w
That is a factor, but I was 27 when I did my "champagne backpacking". I was no
starry-eyed 18 year old, although of course my eyes are considerably less
starry now at 42 than they were at 27...

------
ctrager
In 1978 I went overland from Greece through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan to India. I later learned the route was called the "Hippie Trail",
but I never heard that term at the time. The route shut down just a few weeks
after I passed through: Iran closed because of the Iranian revolution.
Afghanistan closed because the Soviets were moving in.

The feel of travel was different then because no internet, no cell phones. I
communicated with friends and family using letters, single-page blue
"aerograms". When I see them now, I'm amazed how tiny my handwriting was. To
receive a letter I would have people send mail to the American Express office
upstream.

My trip ended when I noticed my urine was the color of Coca Cola - a sign of
hepatitis. I got a flight out of Delhi the next day to London, for the free
health care.

~~~
elliekelly
What did your friends & family think when you told them you were going on the
trip?

~~~
kweks
Afghanistan and Syria really were hippy hotspots in the 70s. Things change,
political stances blow over, regimes blow out.

In the last 15 years, the the contemporary traveller has gained access to
Turkmenistan, Myanmar and others, and much more simple and safer travel to
previously dangerous countries (the Balkans, Rwanda, RDC, North Korea, etc)

It's this shifting landscape that makes travel for the non "me too" crowd
interesting..

~~~
elliekelly
>It's this shifting landscape that makes travel for the non "me too" crowd
interesting..

Forgive my naiveté but I'm not sure I understand what you mean? Are you
talking about the "partying" travelers who tend to bar-hop and hookup?

~~~
umeshunni
Probably referring to the Instagram crowd.

------
jpatokal
The autobiography of Lonely Planet founders Tony & Maureen Wheeler gives a
fascinating glimpse of this era, and turns into a startup story along the way.
Highly recommended for Hacker News readers who also like travel!

Unlikely Destinations aka Once While Travelling aka The Lonely Planet Story
(no, I don't know why it has three different names/editions...)

[https://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Destinations-Lonely-
Planet-S...](https://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Destinations-Lonely-Planet-
Story/dp/0794605230) (not a referral link)

Disclaimer: I used to work for LP back in the day, and had the pleasure of
meeting Tony & Maureen on several occasions.

~~~
kqr2
Also check out this interview from the founders on "How I Built This" podcast:

[https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626649702/lonely-planet-
maure...](https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626649702/lonely-planet-maureen-tony-
wheeler)

------
walrus01
With some exceptions I think the readership of HN is generally under age 45...
If any of you happen to know people who were part of the counterculture in the
late 1960s and early 70s, and know folks aged 60 to 75, ask them about stories
of traveling overland from Istanbul to India. There was a well trod route of
backpackers traveling through Afghanistan in the pre-soviet-invasion era, when
it was safe, cheap and welcoming.

[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/christian-caryl/strange-
rebel...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/christian-caryl/strange-rebels-
excerpt_b_3427854.html)

~~~
txcwpalpha
More reading:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail)

As the Middle East and Southwest Asia became less hospitable to tourists, the
Hippie Trail kinda fell out of favor. The "new" trails are the Banana Pancake
Trail (same idea as the Hippie Trail, but in booming Southeast Asia) and the
Gringo Trail in South America. Although these "trails" are much different
because of a lot of reasons discussed elsewhere in this thread, such as less
hitchhiking, more "flashpacking", and generally increased connectivity.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Pancake_Trail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Pancake_Trail)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo_Trail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo_Trail)

~~~
walrus01
One thing the map doesn't quite get right, with my knowledge of Afghanistan
geography, is that traveling through the country was not a straight shot from
herat to Kabul... Mountains and almost impassable roads in between, in the
exact centre of the country, meant at the time, and now, there's generally two
viable routes.

Going straight through the center of the country, through Ghor and Bamiyan
provinces requires a high clearance 4x4. For more normal vehicles, one route
from herat to the northern provinces and the Mazar-e-sharif region, then
salang pass to Kabul. Or go southeast from herat to Kandahar, and then
Kandahar to Kabul.

Also there was a fair portion of the hippie trail that went to Kabul, then to
Kandahar, and to Quetta, bypassing peshwar and the nwfp. Though the cannabis
lovers certainly all wanted to visit oeshawart.

------
sowbug
Are those scans of old film photographs? If yes, then I'm surprised how rich
the colors are compared to digital photography today. Is it that film has a
different character from digital? Did photographers have a different aesthetic
sense when they developed film back then? (I assume that there's some artistry
involved not just in taking a photo but also in developing it.) Is film still
marvelously better than digital photography?

Or am I falling victim to some sort of psychological trick where warmer colors
just look better?

The reason I ask is that I recently scanned some old family photographs from
the 1990s, and I had the same impression of them: rich colors that you just
don't see today. And these were anything but good photography. They were from
a 35mm point-and-shoot and taken in casual settings.

~~~
sverige
Yes, those must be old photographs. And yes, there was some artistry involved
in developing both the film and making prints.

The demise of film and color processing is a tragedy. Sure, it was expensive,
much more so than simply snapping digital photos to your heart's content (as
long as you have enough storage, of course), but it made you think about what
you were doing before you pressed the button. And processing film and
developing prints was endlessly fascinating, even if it was frustrating at
times.

I have yet to see any digital photograph as rich as lovely old Kodachrome
could come out, even when sent to the local drugstore to be developed. It has
actually nearly killed my desire to make photographs. These pictures made me
really happy.

~~~
ghaff
Honestly, I sort of have the opposite perspective. I never had a darkroom
after graduating school and slides became something I mostly just shot on
trips. I find digital and the sharing of digital photos rekindled my interest
to a large degree.

------
koliber
My best advice is: ignore the people who say "it used to be nice, but now it
is ruined." Go and travel, and experience it yourself. In 20 years, you'll be
saying "it used to be nice, but now it is ruined." I hope someone else chimes
in and says "ignore the people who say that it used to be nice, and go
traveling anyway."

~~~
kkarakk
my first thought is always "but what about the people who aren't travelling
and don't get to use the modern conveniences you seem to just be on break
from?" whenever i hear this sentiment.

you want to truly explore the wild, there are plenty of opportunities. wanting
to goto a place that is prettier and has less opportunities for connection
seems elitist against the people who actually live in your getaway paradise
and make a hard life there using tourism bucks.

------
wuschel
Wonderful article.

But it was not only the 1970s: there were still many a hidden spot in Asia in
the early 2000s, as travel was restricted in countries with civil war, or
dictatorial regimes, and there still are. As those geographies get connected
to the global trade- and political system, these habitats of men and animal
change, for better, or worse.

~~~
eigenvector
The places that remain "left behind" by globalization even to this day share a
few things:

\- not on any reasonable trans-Asia transport route, so no incentive for
outsiders to invest in roads/rail/other transport infrastructure

\- politically at least somewhat isolated, so no visa-free travel for most
foreigners

\- sparsely populated, preventing easy widespread wireless Internet access

\- no major exploitable natural resource that would attract a rush of foreign
investment

This basically gives us: the Central Asian SSRs (except Kazakhstan which has
rich gas resources), Afghanistan, Iran, frontier regions of Pakistan, Myanmar
(rapidly changing now), Bhutan and a few others.

~~~
contingencies
I always say to people visiting Yunnan: find a dead end road or a dirt road
that goes through an area of green on the satellite. Go there. It's usually
spectacular.

~~~
slammm
what do you mean by "on the satellite"?

~~~
GuiA
Probably Google Map’s satellite imagery.

------
technotony
I've often wondered if there's a similarity in personality between people
exploring technology today and explorers of old. This article seems to suggest
a link, and that makes sense to me: as the world has flattened and become
global there's less interest in exploring geographically and the frontiers of
human life are increasingly technological. Kevin Kelly seems to have modeled
that transition perfectly.

~~~
erikb
There are such people and they have Youtube channels. However I wouldn't
underestimate the desire of geographical exploration just yet. Even if you can
easily travel everywhere this ball we live on is still bigger than any single
person can explore in a lifetime. Give me a single city (I'm a city person) in
another country where I can stomach the food and exercise the language and I
can easily spend a year before I get bored. And I bet there are more than 80
such cities on this planet.

------
JDiculous
As someone who's been traveling for the last 10 months and currently am in
Thailand, this was a very enjoyable read.

Although cheap flights and smartphones with data and GPS have made the life of
a traveler incredibly easier, the downside is the places you visit are more
touristy and people I'd imagine are way less social (at least to the people
directly around them). Often I'll arrive to a hostel just to see everyone in
the common area silently glued to their smartphones. I wouldn't necessarily
want to go back to a time before this technology, but there are certainly
serious downsides to this hyperconnectivity.

It's the same effect that technology is having on everyday life. The increased
connectivity of the internet paradoxically withdraws us from our immediate
surroundings.

------
random878
I went backpacking around S.E.A. for a short time in 2002. It was just before
the digital boom.

No phone, just dropping into an internet cafe once a week. SLR with about
50-60 rolls of film. Info came from a tatty copy of a guidebook, word of
mouth, and reading the lonely planet forum. Absolutely zero digital
distraction. Lots of long bus/train/boat journeys with a book for company. It
was heaven.

I went back in 2008 and did the trip again. The digital boom had arrived. I
could already sense that what I'd previously experienced was lost for good.

------
Sileni
I'm nervous about the effect that losing this will have on people. How many
people have you heard stories about where they "dropped out" for a couple of
months/years and came back with a completely different view on life? What are
the people who otherwise would have dropped out to recollect going to do in a
world where you literally cannot escape "real life"?

------
alister
> _except when I got to Iran and I got a "real job" with a driver and
> everything. But then that kind of blew up in my face when the revolution in
> 1979 came..._

He left us hanging there! What kind of job can a 26 or 27-year-old American
hippie traveler get in Iran, presumably not even speaking Persian, that comes
with a driver and everything? There must be an interesting story there.

~~~
sho
Well, I don't know about Iran, but I can tell you that a lot of jobs in
developing countries will come with a driver - or two. It's just considered a
necessary part of the "package". Bear in mind that in the places I've seen it,
mainly in Indonesia, the cost of the driver is not high - maybe
$200-300/month. The expat usually doesn't have a local driver's license, so
it's sort of a no-brainer, not the luxury you might be assuming...

------
alister
> I left home with 500 rolls of film in my backpack. It was close to $5 a
> photo in today's money just to develop and print the photos. So I had to
> really think about it each time I pressed that shutter.

At 24 frames per roll, the cost to develop and print his entire backpack would
be 24 x $5 x 500 = $60,000. That is indeed a big investment he made to
document his travels.

~~~
skookum
Forget the cost... 500 rolls is over 30lbs! I can't imagine carting that much
film around while backpacking. I don't think I ever brought more than about
4-5 dozen rolls even on month-plus length trips - that plus a lead-lined bag
for airport x-ray was already a hassle and a significant portion of my carry-
on.

I very much relate to the "really think about it each time I pressed that
shutter". I spent so much time shooting film that now, even after over 15
years of digital, I still struggle to kick this habit and need to constantly
remind myself to take more shots: explore more variations on a subject, grab a
shot even if I don't think it's going to be outstanding, etc.

------
forkLding
If you're looking for relatively unchanged Asian culture and great views, I
would recommend Nepal.

I was visiting friends in Kathmandu (likely a decade ago) and had a great time
exploring the mountains and the cultural areas. Also if you make lifelong
friends, they might give you a khata scarf. You can also buy those gurkha
knives if you can take it back home. There was also some bad people but that
is common everywhere in the world exacerbated with elements of poverty so
don't forget your common sense when dealing with sketchy situations. Theres
also definitely pollution building up in the rivers.

Also note that the time I visited was some time after the Nepalese Civil War
so soldiers still wandered the streets. However they honestly don't care about
what you do, I don't know if they're still around now. As well, electricity
and water would be out after 10pm so be prepared for that.

~~~
beilabs
Blackouts are no longer an issue. I imagine the water turned off because the
pumps couldn't operate (no electricity). I should do a blog post about the
reason why electricity was generated but not directed to the right place
(corruption).

There are still parts of Kathmandu that feel like you've stepped back in time
but are growing increasingly hard to find. The city at times feels
overpopulated due to the huge amounts of migrants that came for services and
work. While Kathmandu is incredibly polluted (due to road works, construction,
river pollution), they've come a long way in the last few years.

~~~
kweks
In my visits of a few years back, Kathmandu was a horribly sad mess of huge
injections of foreign money that creates imbalance, open prostitution, drug
use, aggression and general steamrolling of original culture. It was quite sad
to see, and I was very happy to move on.

With that said, western Nepal, given its lack of road borders, is quite
sublime and relatively untouched.

------
asveikau
Sorry to be that guy but...

> Growing up in the 1960s in New Jersey was very parochial.

> I had never even been out of New England.

New Jersey is not New England. I am used to non-northeasterners making this
kind of mistake, but wouldn't expect to hear it in Jersey.

~~~
j1vms
> New Jersey is not New England.

In case anyone else is wondering, New England is (geographically) Maine,
Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Every state north/east of New York state.

