Strange Bewildering Time

A poet and journalist looks back on a remarkable journey from Turkey to Nepal in 1978 when the region was on the brink of massive transformation. In the spring of 1978 at age twentytwo Mark Abley put aside his studies at Oxford and set off with a friend on a threemonth trek across the celebrated Hippie Trail a sprawling route between Europe and South Asia peppered with Western bohemians and vagabonds. It was a time when the Shah of Iran still reigned supreme Afghanistan lay at peace and city