Hippie trail

The hippie trail is a term used to describe the journeys taken by hippies in the 60s and 70s from Europe to Asia. One of the key facets of the hippie trail was the desire to travel as cheaply as possible, thus usually the journeys were carried out by thumbing (hitchhiking).

Such journeys would typically start in England and pass through `key' spots such as Istanbul, Kathmandu and Goa. Kathmandu still has a road named Freak Street in memory of the many thousands of hippies who passed (and occasionally still pass) through. Many on the hippie trail were driven by the ideals of 'finding yourself' and 'communicating with other peoples' that often underlay the hippie movement.

The story of Steve Abrams is one good online example of such a journey (see external link below). Abrams left Liverpool on the 3rd of October 1968 and eventually arrived in Darwin, Australia on the 8th of April 1969 and visited Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and East Timor on the way. This journey consisted of over 32,000 km in 181 lifts, train rides, bus rides, ferry crossings and one single plane flight in just over 6 months.

External link

• Steve Abrams on the Hippie Trail (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/hitch_hiking/93093)
• Steve Abrams' Diary (http://www.oland.co.uk/) (includes downloadable PDF file of entire diary).