Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India

Description

In the 1960s hundreds of thousands of young Westerners, inspired by Kerouac and the Beatles, blazed the 'hippie trail' overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu in search of enlightenment and a bit of cheap dope.Since the Summer of Love, the countries that offered so much to these dreamers have confronted the full force of modernity and transformed from worlds of Western fantasy to political minefields.Through a landscape of breathtaking beauty Rory MacLean retraces the path of the once well-worn 'hippie trail' from Turkey to Iran, Afghanistan to Pakistan, India to Nepal, meeting trail veterans and locals on his way, and relives wide-eyed adventures as he witnesses a world of extraordinary and terrifying transformation.

Rory MacLean is the author of six highly acclaimed and award-winning books. He is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and lives in Dorset with his wife and son.

Utterly absorbing; if you read only one travel book this year, this should be it -- Alexander Frater, author of Chasing the Monsoon A disturbing, gripping and intensely passionate story Esther Freud Rory MacLean is one of the most strikingly original and talented travel writers of his generation -- Katie Hickman, author of Courtesans