Whole Earth Catalog
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| - | The '''hippie trail''' (also '''the overland''') is the name given to the journey taken by members of the [[hippie]] subculture and others from the late 1950s to the 1970s from [[Europe]], overland to and from [[South Asia|southern]] [[Asia]], mainly [[India]] and [[Nepal]]. The hippie trail was a form of [[alternative tourism]], and one of the key elements was travelling as cheaply as possible, mainly to extend the length of time away from home. The term "hippy" became current from the mid- to late 1960s; "beatnik" was the previous term which had gained currency in the second half of the 1950s. | + | The '''''Whole Earth Catalog''''' ('''WEC''') was an American [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] magazine and product catalog published by [[Stewart Brand]] several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on [[self-sufficiency]], [[ecology]], [[alternative education]], [[DIY|"do it yourself" (DIY)]], and [[holism]], and featured the slogan "access to tools". While WEC listed and reviewed a wide range of products (clothing, books, tools, machines, seeds, etc.), it did not sell any of the products directly. Instead, the vendor's contact information was listed alongside the item and its review. This is why, while not a regularly published periodical, numerous editions and updates were required to keep price and availability information up to date. |
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| - | In every major stop of the hippie trail, there were hotels, restaurants and cafés that catered almost exclusively to cannabis-smoking Westerners, who networked with each other as they travelled east and west. The hippies tended to spend more time interacting with the local population than traditional sightseeing tourists. | + | |
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| - | ==Routes== | + | |
| - | Journeys would typically start from cities in western Europe, often [[London]], [[Amsterdam]], or [[Athens]]. Many from the [[United States]] took [[Icelandic Airlines]] to [[Luxembourg (city)|Luxembourg]]. Most journeys passed through [[Istanbul]], where routes divided. The usual northern route passed through [[Tehran]], [[Herat]], [[Kandahar]], [[Kabul]], [[Peshawar]] and [[Lahore]] on to India. An alternative route was from [[Turkey]] via [[Syria]], [[Jordan]], and [[Iraq]] to [[Iran]] and Pakistan. All travellers had to cross the [[Pakistan-India border]] at [[Ganda Singh Wala]] (or later at [[Wagah]]). [[Delhi]], [[Varanasi]] (then ''Benares''), [[Goa]], [[Kathmandu]], or [[Bangkok]] were the usual destinations in the east. Kathmandu still has a road, ''Jhochhen Tole'', nicknamed [[Freak Street]] in commemoration of the many thousands of hippies who passed through. Further travel to [[southern India]], [[Kovalam beach]] in [[Trivandrum]] ([[Kerala]]) and some to [[Sri Lanka]] (then called Ceylon), and points east and south to [[Australia]] was sometimes also undertaken. | + | |
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| - | ==Methods of travel== | + | |
| - | In order to keep costs low, journeys were carried out by ''thumbing'' ([[hitchhiking]]), or cheap, private [[bus]]es that travelled the route. There were also [[train]]s that travelled part of the way, particularly across [[Eastern Europe]] through [[Turkey]] (with a ferry connection across [[Lake Van]]) and to [[Tehran]] or east to [[Mashhad]], [[Iran]]. From these cities, public or private transportation could then be obtained for the rest of the trip. The bulk of travellers comprised Western Europeans, North Americans, Australians, and Japanese. Ideas and experiences were exchanged in well-known hostels, hotels, and other gathering spots along the way, such as the [[Pudding Shop]] in Istanbul, Sigi's on Chicken Street in Kabul or the Amir Kabir in Tehran. Many used [[Backpacking (travel)|backpacks]] and, while the majority were young, older people and families occasionally travelled the route. A number drove the entire distance. | + | |
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| - | Hippies tended to travel light, seeking to pick up and go wherever the action was at any time. Hippies did not worry about money, hotel reservations or other such standard travel planning. A derivative of this style of travel were the hippie trucks and buses, hand-crafted mobile houses built on a truck or bus chassis to facilitate a nomadic lifestyle. Some of these mobile gypsy houses were quite elaborate, with beds, toilets, showers and cooking facilities. | + | |
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| - | ==Decline and revival of the trail== | + | |
| - | The hippie trail came to an end in the late 1970s with political changes in previously hospitable countries. In 1979, both the [[Iranian Revolution]] and the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] closed the overland route to Western travelers. The [[Lebanese Civil War]] had already broken out in 1975, and [[Chitral]] and [[Kashmir]] became less inviting due to tensions in the area. Travel organizers Sundowners and [[Topdeck]] pioneered a route through [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Baluchistan]]. Topdeck continued its trips throughout the Iran-Iraq war and later conflicts, but took its last trip in 1998. Further, air travel was becoming more affordable and [[Goa]] became the main centre of the hippie scene, based around the village of Anjuna, where hippies had been renting houses for many years before any hotels were built to accommodate the massive influx of tourists in the 1980s. | + | |
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| - | In September 2007, Ozbus embarked upon a short-lived service between London and Sydney over the route of the hippie trail. In 2008, the Odyssey Overland Company began a series of expeditions between Europe and Asia, including the old [[Silk Road]] north of Iran, across [[Tibet]] to Kathmandu. With a loosening of immigration in Iran the route has again become somewhat feasible, although continuing conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of [[Pakistan]] make the route difficult to negotiate. | + | |
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| - | In the 2000s, due to the increase of [[budget airline]]s and low-cost flights from Europe, new trails have been formed and have accompanied the original hippie trail. Examples include trails towards [[North Africa]] and other destinations that are reachable by low-cost airlines. In addition, there is the [[Banana Pancake Trail]] to Asia. | + | |
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| - | == Guides and travelogues == | + | |
| - | The ''[[BIT (alternative information centre)|BIT Guide]]'', recounting collective experiences and reproduced at a fairly low-cost, produced the early duplicated stapled-together "[[foolscap]] bundle" with a pink cover providing information for travelers and updated by those on the road, warned of pitfalls and places to see and stay. BIT under Geoff Crowther, who later joined Lonely Planet, was around from 1972 until the last edition of 1980. The 1971 edition of ''The [[Whole Earth Catalog]]'' devoted a page to the "Overland Guide to Nepal." In 1973, the creators of the ''[[Lonely Planet]]'' [[guidebook]]s, [[Tony Wheeler]] and his wife [[Maureen Wheeler]], produced a publication about the hippie trail called ''Across Asia On The Cheap''. They wrote this 94-page pamphlet based upon travel experiences gained by crossing Western Europe, the Balkans, Turkey and Iran from London in a minivan. After having traveled through these regions, they sold the van in Afghanistan and continued on a succession of [[chicken bus|chicken buses]], third-class trains and long-distance trucks. They crossed Pakistan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia and arrived nine months later in [[Sydney]] with a combined 27 cents in their pockets. | + | |
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| - | [[Paul Theroux]] wrote a classic account of the route in ''[[The Great Railway Bazaar]]'' (1975). Two more recent travel books — ''The Wrong Way Home'' (1999) by [[Peter Moore (travel author)|Peter Moore]] and ''Magic Bus'' (2008) by [[Rory Maclean]] — also retrace the original hippie trail. | + | |
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| - | ==In popular culture== | + | |
| - | ''[[Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971 film)|Hare Rama Hare Krishna]]'' is a [[Bollywood films of 1971|1971]] [[Indian film]] directed by [[Dev Anand]] and starring him, [[Mumtaz (actress)|Mumtaz]] and [[Zeenat Aman]]. The movie dealt with the decadence of hippie culture. It aimed to have an anti-drug message and depicts some problems associated with Westernization such as divorce. It is loosely based on the 1968 movie ''[[Psych-Out]]''. The story for ''Hare Rama Hare Krishna'' came to Anand when he saw hippies and their values in [[Kathmandu]]. The film was a hit, and [[Asha Bhosle]]'s song "[[Dum Maro Dum (song)|Dum Maro Dum]]" was a huge hit. | + | |
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| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | * [[Association of Special Fares Agents]] | + | |
| - | * [[Grand Tour]] – 17th–19th century Continental tour undertaken by young European aristocrats, partly as leisure and partly educational. | + | |
| - | * [[Indomania]] | + | |
| - | * [[Banana Pancake Trail]] | + | |
| - | * [[Gringo Trail]] | + | |
| - | * [[AH1]] | + | |
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The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools". While WEC listed and reviewed a wide range of products (clothing, books, tools, machines, seeds, etc.), it did not sell any of the products directly. Instead, the vendor's contact information was listed alongside the item and its review. This is why, while not a regularly published periodical, numerous editions and updates were required to keep price and availability information up to date.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Whole Earth Catalog" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
