Chris goes around the world
November, 1973: Stuffed my pockets with $1700 and a passport and caught the
White Rabbit out of San Francisco.
Spiritual precursor to the Green Tortoise, White Rabbit was an unlicensed bus
service offering $50 rides across the country with all the granola, petulia
oil, marijuana and cheap red wine you could handle. I tried to handle as much
as I could.
Dude, in 1973, $135 bought you a one-way ticket from New York to Europe with a stopover in Iceland.
Then, you jumped back on the plane and continued to Luxembourg.
Next, I caught a train to Italy.
And on to the place where Europe meets Asia: Turkey.
Never saw the peacock throne in Iran.
You'll never guess what I did for a month in Afghanistan.
Only spent a few days in Pakistan.
On January 1, 1974, my travel buddy George and I walked aross the militarized border into India, where I spent five months.
In Nepal I tried to hike up to Mt. Everest but got sick with TB instead.
Then back to India for a week of recovery at the holiest place in the world:
Bodh-Gaya.
There weren't many other visitors in Burma.
Yeah, I had a great time in Thailand.
There was a war going on, but that didn't stop me from visiting Laos.
Dude, there's only one place to stay in Hong Kong.
Next, I visited Taiwan.
Did some great eating in South Korea.
Dang! I just missed the Carpenters by a couple months when I was in Japan.
Finally, I came back to the US in August 1974 and went back up to Yosemite.