Thread: Around The World With Buadhai -- 1977

In the 70's there were quite a few firms offering bargain trips with various degrees of comfort between Europe and Asia. The most common route was between London and Kathmandu as it was possible then to do this entire trip overland. (This is before Russia invaded Afghanistan and before the Shah fell in Iran.)

Some people chose to do this route on their own, many using Tony Wheeler's first two books: "Across Asia on the Cheap" and "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring".

Some travel agents would book rail and bus tickets in advance and send you on your way. (I never understood the advantage of this.)

The company I chose (Exodus) offered the least luxurious all-inclusive trip: a converted Bedford van, simple self-cooked meals, and tents for camping out. Other companies towed a trailer behind the van to haul more stuff and more provisions. Some companies did the trip using luxury coaches. Comfortable, but they had to stick to the main highways and well on the beaten path.

The two drivers that came with us were both knowledgeable and experienced. They seemed to have been given plenty of leeway as to both route and schedule. They often persuaded us to make interesting detours and to skip some of the less interesting spots. We spent much more time than planned on the coast of Turkey and made a fascinating detour to Ladakh in Kashmir.

One of the first purchases they made, when we were crossing the channel, was about 30 bottles of Red Label. They had each of us put one bottle in our under-seat lockers (for customs purposes) and squirreled the rest away in various spots on the van. This stash would prove invaluable later on when crossing borders, passing through checkpoints and getting out of various other troublesome situations. I believe they sold what was left a handsome profit in Pakistan.

Originally Posted by buadhai

In the 70's there were quite a few firms offering bargain trips with various degrees of comfort between Europe and Asia. The most common route was between London and Kathmandu as it was possible then to do this entire trip overland. (This is before Russia invaded Afghanistan and before the Shah fell in Iran.)

Some people chose to do this route on their own, many using Tony Wheeler's first two books: "Across Asia on the Cheap" and "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring".

Some travel agents would book rail and bus tickets in advance and send you on your way. (I never understood the advantage of this.)

The company I chose (Exodus) offered the least luxurious all-inclusive trip: a converted Bedford van, simple self-cooked meals, and tents for camping out. Other companies towed a trailer behind the van to haul more stuff and more provisions. Some companies did the trip using luxury coaches. Comfortable, but they had to stick to the main highways and well on the beaten path.

The two drivers that came with us were both knowledgeable and experienced. They seemed to have been given plenty of leeway as to both route and schedule. They often persuaded us to make interesting detours and to skip some of the less interesting spots. We spent much more time than planned on the coast of Turkey and made a fascinating detour to Ladakh in Kashmir.

One of the first purchases they made, when we were crossing the channel, was about 30 bottles of Red Label. They had each of us put one bottle in our under-seat lockers (for customs purposes) and squirreled the rest away in various spots on the van. This stash would prove invaluable later on when crossing borders, passing through checkpoints and getting out of various other troublesome situations. I believe they sold what was left a handsome profit in Pakistan.

thought Pakistan was an alcohol free Muslim State

Originally Posted by hunter

thought Pakistan was an alcohol free Muslim State

Correct.
They were getting their alcohol free

Originally Posted by Thetyim

Too small to tell but could be a Fiat Topolino

I just discovered that HRH lost his eye in an accident he had while driving a Topolino....

Wiki:

On October 4, 1948, while [HRH] was driving a Fiat Topolino on the Geneva-Lausanne highway, he collided into the rear of a braking truck.

Istanbul is a city of beautiful views. Hagia Sophia in the far background just below the horizon.


Hagia Sophia was originally an Eastern Orthodox church. Converted to a Moslem mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1935.


Typical wooden buildings.


Leaving Istanbul and entering Asia via a bridge over the Bosporus.

Next up: Turkey's Mediterranean Coast

Thanks for these pics.
You know, I used to live in Fenerbahce on the Asian side of the Bosphorus and work in Besiktas on the European side.

Cross continental commutes to work must be quite unusual.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

Cross continental commutes to work must be quite unusual.

Quite.

Must have been a spectacular commute every day. When was this and what were you doing?

Between 1998 and 2001, I was teaching English to a legal firm.

Our first non-urban campsite was near Balikesir, north of Akhisar. One of our drivers on the far right. Note the mallet used for pounding tent pegs and the herd of goats in the background.


Ephesus was one of the great cities of Ionian Greece. It later became the capitol of Roman Asia and was an important center for early Christianity. This is the Roman Theater.


View from the Roman Theater to the esplanade. Ephesus was built on the sea as a port, but the port has silted in and the sea is no several kilometers away.


Roman Library at Ephesus.


From Ephesus we drove inland and then on down through Fethiye to the coast.


In 1977 the Mediterranean cost of Turkey was mostly empty and undeveloped with wide, long beaches. Today the area is quite developed with resorts and is very popular with tourists. (Note the very empty stretch of beautiful beach in the upper right hand corner of this photo.)

Did you ever go to Assos on the Agean coast BH?

That's the place that i always wanted to retire to.
Sleepy little fishing port.
Feels more like Greece than turkey.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

Did you ever go to Assos on the Agean coast BH?

No, never did. Just where is it?

I'd love to go back and see what these areas are like now. I saw a Discovery TV show on the resorts on Turkey's Mediterranean and it looked like a total madhouse of development. I wonder how many sleepy little villages are left?

^
About 100 kilometers South of Gallipolli if i remember correctly.
Spent new year there in 2000.

My notes say these are ruins at Aspendus. This seems wrong. This looks more like a crusader castle to me. Anyone know?


Shepherd in the highlands of central Turkey.


These kids were selling pretzels at a rally in support of parliamentary candidate Bülent Ecevit, who became Prime Minister of Turkey that year (1977).

Bulent Ecevit was PM again when I was ther, must have been in his 70's.

When I was a kid, back in the early 60's my Mom bought a Time-Life Pictorial Atlas of the World. Yeah, the maps were great but what had the most effect on me were the photographs. I remember two in particular. One was of the home, pictured below, carved into the fascinating rock formations of the Goreme Valley, Anatolia, Turkey. The other was a photo of some rice paddies in Southeast Asia; probably somewhere in Isaan. After seeing those photos I knew that I simply had to see places like that with my own eyes. I've had the travel bug ever since.


Home carved into stone in Goreme.


Goreme Valley


Goreme Valley

Goreme National Park is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Next up: Iran

It's a Fiat

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

Bulent Ecevit was PM again when I was ther, must have been in his 70's.

According to Wiki he was Prime Minister 4 times:

1974, 1977, 1978 – 1980, 1998-2002

Kind of unusual for an elected leader's career to span so many years.

Originally Posted by Thetyim

It's a Fiat

So's this:

Originally Posted by buadhai

Shepherd in the highlands of central Turkey.

Is he Welsh? - looks like he is having an intimate moment.....

We all expected that we might get ill now and then. Most of us had a few jabs before we left and got someone to prescribe a decent self-medication kit. I went to a National Health doctor in Chagford who gave me a tetanus booster, inoculations for typhoid and cholera and a Gamma Globulin shot for hepatitis, I think. He also prescribed some Lomotil and codeine phosphate for diarrhea and gave me some broad spectrum antibiotics. Other people brought along malaria prophylactic drugs and others took antibiotics daily as a preventative measure.

The first one to fall was my tent mate, Bill. He came down with severe diarrhea shortly after we entered Turkey. To this day he blames it on some "dodgy prawns" he consumed on our last day in Greece. The rest of us, but one, followed quickly. Most of us had some sort of intestinal trouble for the rest of the trip. One person became so severely ill and dehydrated that he had to be evacuated, hospitalized and infused with drip antibiotics to wipe out the severe infection that had invaded his entire system and caused him to swell up like a boiled prune.

The only one who never got sick was the oldest guy on the truck; a Brit named John who never once consumed any of our locally procured food. He subsisted mainly on cookies (biscuits) and other packaged snack food that he bought along the way. He only drank water that he purified himself. He was also the only one who wore appropriate clothes. While the rest of us were in hot, heavy Levi's and t-shirts he wore light weight cotton pants and very light cotton dress shirts. His wardrobe was cool, easy to launder and light to carry.

It didn't take long for some of us to deduce that we were all so sick because of the water we carried with us and replenished along the way. The van had a 60 gallon tank which we refilled whenever water was available. The drivers "purified" it using tiny quantities (the amount that would fit on a matchstick) of what they called "chloramine". Now this is highly unstable stuff that is used in municipal water treatment. I don't think anyone really uses it for personal water purification. I don't know what they really had, but in the small amounts they used, nothing would do the trick of purifying 60 gallons of the crud we managed to obtain along the way.

Some of us resorted to using our own purification stuff. I had a bottle of iodine tablets which I used, but I still suffered bouts of what I can only describe as "fire-hose diarrhea".

My friend Bill was ill the entire trip and went home skinny as a rail and in need of medical treatment by the time he got to Brisbane.

More on water later.

We entered Iran from Turkey on June 11, 1977. Here's our route map across Iran:




Most of the small villages in Iran look like this. Mud brick buildings surrounded by a treeless wilderness.


This is a typical tea shop in a souk (market). Domed roof with an opening to let out the heat. They served tea, flat bread and yogurt and some sticky sweet desserts.


This is an ancient cooling tower and is part of this regions ancient water management system know as a qanat. These are underground canals and bore holes used to bring precious water to where its needed. The towers cool the air and water by evaporation.

Caravanserai like this can be found on major routes all across the region. Some are empty, but some have establishments offering food and lodging if you want it. Notice our van parked at the front gate.


Yep, everywhere you go you see camels.


This is a typical souk, or market. Notice the guy with the heavy mustache, blue shirt and tan pants. He sort of followed us around. I figure he was one of the Shah's minders.


This is a Fiat Donkolino, late 70's model.


Another typical mud village. Note the pyramid shaped piles of dung that will be shaped into cakes, dried and used for fuel. They already burned all the trees down.