The seventies Hippy Trail 11

Amir Kabir Hotel
Tehran, Iran.

Hello Everybody.

My how time flies! It should be getting right into winter over in Australia now. Is it very cold this year and is there much rain? So much for the weather.
I have found a job here in Tehran. I am teaching English to Iranian students. The pay is pretty good - about two dollars an hour. I had my first go at it tonight and it is not that hard except that I have to speak with a plum in me bloody mouth. I might stick at it for a couple of months then maybe go to France and pick grapes in September and drink vino and maybe catch a few waves around Biarritz. I think there is plenty of work in Europe and I might even go picking tulips in Holland.

Tehran is a surprisingly modern city set in a country that has hardly evolved from mud huts and manual farming. So now for the travel documentary.

After leaving Delhi we caught a train (crowded of course, and filthy) to Amritsar near the Pakistan border near Kashmir where we crossed the border to Lahore- an old fortress town. Then we split to Peshawar near the Afghanistan border. This is a really nice old town with a huge old fort in the middle of it and all the houses are mud and brick and everything is a a brown muddy colour.

Peshawar Pakistan

They have an incredible bazaar in Peshawar where they sell everything - silverware, clothes, brassware, really nice embroidery, beautiful tinsel and decorations. All the trucks and buses are really gaily decorated and colourful and it is a real treat to see them - they are really beautiful. The people in Peshawar are really nice and shake your hand and invite you to have a smoke out of their water-pipes with them.

Then from Peshawar we crossed through the Khyber Pass and we saw untold forts and even the big one of the "Khyber Rifles". The pass winds round about through the mountains and it is easy to see why the pommies never got through it. The Kabul Gorge, after it, is much more spectacular and steeper and deeper and the river roars down the pass.

Kabul Afghanistan

Then we hit Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, which is rotten with tourism and very spoilt. They have nice coats and embroidery. There are many snow-capped mountains around and it is very high up.

After Kabul, we came to Iran(via Kandahar) and hence to Tehran. The other guys have left for Europe. I should be here for a while yet, I think. Oh yeah, I had my first draught beer for three months the other day. I was really nice - something like Toohey's New or four x.
If you write please address to :
Poste Restante, Tehran, Iran.

Hippy Trail Resources

Next Stage on the overland trail to Europe

Karachi is the capital of Pakistan and is the commercial hub for the country. It has an important airport and an important terminus for the north-western railway. The main goods that are produced in Karachi are carpets and metal-ware.
Peshawar is the trading center for the north-west of Pakistan. It is the hub for going through the khyber pass into Afghanistan. The markets and bazaars contain just about anything that you want from silver and brass-ware to guns, rifles, and weapons of all descriptions. The town is filled with wild warriors from the hills that have the bandit bandelero around their shoulders full of bullets and big beards. They are an awesome sight, the pathan warrior.

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