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Fascinating read. What a privilege to have traveled the world at a time when modernity made doing so possible cheaply, but hadn’t yet taken ahold of the destina

Fascinating read. What a privilege to have traveled the world at a time when modernity made doing so possible cheaply, but hadn’t yet taken ahold of the destinations. A historic window of opportunity that’s all but closed.

gunfighthacksaw 4y ago
Imagine visiting Afghanistan! Just hopping in a bus and going over land!!! The reason? It’s more enlightened than the US, and you can smoke hash. How times have changed…
- treis 4y ago
  >Imagine visiting Afghanistan! Just hopping in a bus and going over land!!! I heard tales of people/companies buying an old city bus in Europe and driving it to Europe. They'd get gas money along the way by charging other travellers and then make more by selling the bus in India.
  - selimthegrim 4y ago
    Dervla Murphy, who just passed, did it by bike.
  - coldtea 4y ago
    There were also the "Magic Bus" rides, frequent commercial but cheapo bus rides from Europe to India... https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/644-dont-buy-shirts-in-herat-down-the-hippie-trail/ https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/644-dont-buy-shirts-in-her...
- coldtea 4y ago
  Well, you can still smoke hash in Afghanistan, I'd bet...
  - gunfighthacksaw 4y ago
    In the 70s it was arguably safer to do so in Afghanistan than the US. Now it’s legal some places in the US and Afghanistan has a brutally repressive moralistic government.
    - op00to 4y ago
      The US isn’t brutally repressive yet, but we’re constantly working on it!
      - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
        Hard drugs are completely decriminalized here in Seattle. You can fen smoke fentanyl on the bus without getting into trouble. Unfortunately. I miss the 80s when people were at least afraid of getting caught.
- grecy 4y ago
  Friends drove in very recently, and had a great time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmkT1oRVACc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmkT1oRVACc
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
notahacker 4y ago
Most of the world still sees few foreign tourists, and much of it is interesting nevertheless. Difference is these days you might actually be able to use an ATM and internet in towns, and you don't have to carry film for all the photos you want to take in your backpack..
- coldtea 4y ago
  >Difference is these days you might actually be able to use an ATM and internet in towns, and you don't have to carry film for all the photos you want to take in your backpack.. Those two things already kill most of the adventure
  - notahacker 4y ago
    I'm not sure lugging cash with you in a moneybelt is actually all that exciting really, and you're welcome to use the internet as little as you like and won't encounter it much when trekking in mountains or crossing desert in a broken-down 4x4 anyway. I'm reminded of the time I nearly lost my wallet and the guesthouse owner pointed out that when he'd done that in the seventies in a neighbouring southeast Asian country he'd had to stop and work for very little money to raise the funds to get home. I don't think he considered that a highlight of his trip!
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Yes, and you also used to be much more dependent on "magic" bits of paper for tickets/reservations/etc. I get the nostalgia for a less computerized world but aspects of it weren't really all that great when something went wrong. I probably don't disconnect as much as I probably should for certain types of travel. But not everything about completely disconnecting is wonderful.
      - Karrot_Kream 4y ago
        > I probably don't disconnect as much as I probably should for certain types of travel. But not everything about completely disconnecting is wonderful. When my partner and I travel, we travel at a breakneck pace. We get up in the morning, stuff our faces with some calories, then head out, and we're usually walking, backpacking, bicycling, motorcycling, and occasionally train/driving/tour busing through most travel locations for 10+ hours a day. We frequently net 7-10 mi of walking per day unless we're in a particular place where you have to drive to get around. I still use my smartphone to download tickets, reservations, and maps (often don't get signal in parts), but we never sit still for long enough to have more than a small peek at the smartphone while having lunch or dinner. I'm always amazed at how many people find it so difficult to disconnect on vacation. Maybe if you're the type to sit around in a comfy hotel and vacation that way the temptation is stronger, but for me, travel is the easiest way to disconnect.
eggy 4y ago
Very true. I am a bit behind the author of the article in age, and in my first real adventure trip, and I can tell you it is not the same at all now. You can be on a mountaintop calling home from half way around the world. We are so tethered to smartphones, ATMs, and others to guide our treks now, or at least most people are, and we lose the ability to truly wander without interference. Solitude, not loneliness. I used to buy one-way tickets to places, go with very little cash to exchange at a bank, and make my way working here and there to make just enough to drip feed my trips. I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s in Brooklyn. I didn't make my first trip abroad until I was 18 to England and the Netherlands. Not too exotic. Then some of the islands like Jamiaca, the DR, etc. But then I went to live in Spain in the Northern region of Huesca after touring all over Spain. What a blast. I called my Mom and Dad after being out of communication for three months. My brother, who I had not really seen a lot while in the U.S. started writing me every three or more weeks where I was living in the mountains near the French border. Then Portugal, and other European cities. Costa Rica (before Ecotourism took off), was my first foray into rainforests, jungle camping, rafting in waters with different fauna, and their ilk. I later went on to a few more places, but longer stays than 8 months or a year. I lived in Macau for six years, Indonesia for a year in a rice-farming village with dirt floors in most of the houses, and traveled to Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam (honeymooned there). As smartphones and the internet popped up everywhere, the experience became diluted. Yes, I climbed volcanoes, dove great reefs, camped out in cool jungles, but the individual time alone with myself and no distractions was noticeably missing. I realized this when I was able to make a Skype call almost everywhere I went, sometimes with better internet than I had in the U.S. I think the current way to get some of this back is to turn off your smartphone, or risk leaving it somewhere, and enter a less-visited place. I am old, and biased, but the gaggles of digital nomads in cafes, hammocks, and on beaches with their notebooks and tablets propped open almost makes me wish for a "Transcendence" event (the movie, not the movement, but some will argue it's the same thing), or dare I say a post-apocalyptic existence (just a daydream, not a wish!). This article warmed me over with nostalgia for this same experience. I guess there is still the ocean and the deserts, but they probably have 5G by now!

gunfighthacksaw 4y ago

Imagine visiting Afghanistan! Just hopping in a bus and going over land!!! The reason? It’s more enlightened than the US, and you can smoke hash. How times have changed…

treis 4y ago
>Imagine visiting Afghanistan! Just hopping in a bus and going over land!!! I heard tales of people/companies buying an old city bus in Europe and driving it to Europe. They'd get gas money along the way by charging other travellers and then make more by selling the bus in India.
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  Dervla Murphy, who just passed, did it by bike.
- coldtea 4y ago
  There were also the "Magic Bus" rides, frequent commercial but cheapo bus rides from Europe to India... https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/644-dont-buy-shirts-in-herat-down-the-hippie-trail/ https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/644-dont-buy-shirts-in-her...
coldtea 4y ago
Well, you can still smoke hash in Afghanistan, I'd bet...
- gunfighthacksaw 4y ago
  In the 70s it was arguably safer to do so in Afghanistan than the US. Now it’s legal some places in the US and Afghanistan has a brutally repressive moralistic government.
  - op00to 4y ago
    The US isn’t brutally repressive yet, but we’re constantly working on it!
    - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
      Hard drugs are completely decriminalized here in Seattle. You can fen smoke fentanyl on the bus without getting into trouble. Unfortunately. I miss the 80s when people were at least afraid of getting caught.
grecy 4y ago
Friends drove in very recently, and had a great time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmkT1oRVACc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmkT1oRVACc
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

notahacker 4y ago

Most of the world still sees few foreign tourists, and much of it is interesting nevertheless. Difference is these days you might actually be able to use an ATM and internet in towns, and you don't have to carry film for all the photos you want to take in your backpack..

coldtea 4y ago
>Difference is these days you might actually be able to use an ATM and internet in towns, and you don't have to carry film for all the photos you want to take in your backpack.. Those two things already kill most of the adventure
- notahacker 4y ago
  I'm not sure lugging cash with you in a moneybelt is actually all that exciting really, and you're welcome to use the internet as little as you like and won't encounter it much when trekking in mountains or crossing desert in a broken-down 4x4 anyway. I'm reminded of the time I nearly lost my wallet and the guesthouse owner pointed out that when he'd done that in the seventies in a neighbouring southeast Asian country he'd had to stop and work for very little money to raise the funds to get home. I don't think he considered that a highlight of his trip!
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Yes, and you also used to be much more dependent on "magic" bits of paper for tickets/reservations/etc. I get the nostalgia for a less computerized world but aspects of it weren't really all that great when something went wrong. I probably don't disconnect as much as I probably should for certain types of travel. But not everything about completely disconnecting is wonderful.
    - Karrot_Kream 4y ago
      > I probably don't disconnect as much as I probably should for certain types of travel. But not everything about completely disconnecting is wonderful. When my partner and I travel, we travel at a breakneck pace. We get up in the morning, stuff our faces with some calories, then head out, and we're usually walking, backpacking, bicycling, motorcycling, and occasionally train/driving/tour busing through most travel locations for 10+ hours a day. We frequently net 7-10 mi of walking per day unless we're in a particular place where you have to drive to get around. I still use my smartphone to download tickets, reservations, and maps (often don't get signal in parts), but we never sit still for long enough to have more than a small peek at the smartphone while having lunch or dinner. I'm always amazed at how many people find it so difficult to disconnect on vacation. Maybe if you're the type to sit around in a comfy hotel and vacation that way the temptation is stronger, but for me, travel is the easiest way to disconnect.

eggy 4y ago

Very true. I am a bit behind the author of the article in age, and in my first real adventure trip, and I can tell you it is not the same at all now. You can be on a mountaintop calling home from half way around the world. We are so tethered to smartphones, ATMs, and others to guide our treks now, or at least most people are, and we lose the ability to truly wander without interference. Solitude, not loneliness. I used to buy one-way tickets to places, go with very little cash to exchange at a bank, and make my way working here and there to make just enough to drip feed my trips. I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s in Brooklyn. I didn't make my first trip abroad until I was 18 to England and the Netherlands. Not too exotic. Then some of the islands like Jamiaca, the DR, etc. But then I went to live in Spain in the Northern region of Huesca after touring all over Spain. What a blast. I called my Mom and Dad after being out of communication for three months. My brother, who I had not really seen a lot while in the U.S. started writing me every three or more weeks where I was living in the mountains near the French border. Then Portugal, and other European cities. Costa Rica (before Ecotourism took off), was my first foray into rainforests, jungle camping, rafting in waters with different fauna, and their ilk. I later went on to a few more places, but longer stays than 8 months or a year. I lived in Macau for six years, Indonesia for a year in a rice-farming village with dirt floors in most of the houses, and traveled to Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam (honeymooned there). As smartphones and the internet popped up everywhere, the experience became diluted. Yes, I climbed volcanoes, dove great reefs, camped out in cool jungles, but the individual time alone with myself and no distractions was noticeably missing. I realized this when I was able to make a Skype call almost everywhere I went, sometimes with better internet than I had in the U.S. I think the current way to get some of this back is to turn off your smartphone, or risk leaving it somewhere, and enter a less-visited place. I am old, and biased, but the gaggles of digital nomads in cafes, hammocks, and on beaches with their notebooks and tablets propped open almost makes me wish for a "Transcendence" event (the movie, not the movement, but some will argue it's the same thing), or dare I say a post-apocalyptic existence (just a daydream, not a wish!). This article warmed me over with nostalgia for this same experience. I guess there is still the ocean and the deserts, but they probably have 5G by now!