By Roadjunky, Posted Dec 09, 2006
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The Road to Kathmandu became a pilgrimage in the 60’s for all the hippies who realised that the counter-culture was doomed back in the West and if they really wanted to blow their minds then Asia was the way, specifically India and Nepal.
The old route used to take travelers through Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal and people came in clapped out VW vans, hitchhiked or walked.
These days the odd fool does it by hitchhiking, whilst others go overland by bus, train or maybe even drive their own motorbike. The journey takes you from Europe to Asia in stages and explains why travel in Asia today is so lame compared to the old days where you had to earn your stripes as you went instead of just jumping on a plane.
In the 70’s Afghanistan was the highlight of the journey with cheap hash, friendly people and mindblowing mountains. The Russians and the CIA put an end to that by engineering the war-torn hell that is Afghanistan today and most travelers now head through Iran’s southern border with Pakistan.
Visas must be applied for in advance and the Iranian visa can take a while but is these days one of the highlights of the trip. That is, until the armies of freedom decide to start bombing it in 2007 – whether the route remains safe is an open question, certainly you’d do well to wear a “Hang George Bush” t-shirt in Pakistan.
The trip can be done in around 3 weeks if you really went for it but there’s so much cool stuff to see along the way that you should really take a few months to get the flavour of the route.
