{"product_id":"a-vanished-road-travelling-eastwards-through-distant-lands-now-changed-forever-9781505563986","title":"A Vanished Road: travelling eastwards through distant lands now changed forever","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Veena Schlegel\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Asia - General\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Vanished Road is a travel story. It is an account of a journey overland through Middle Eastern countries to India in 1971. The world then was a very different place to the one it is today. The countries I and five travelling companions travelled through - by train, boat, bus, local indescribable vehicles and sometimes on foot - were untouched and unspoilt by tourism and other international influences. Television was still a novelty in western countries; here it was unknown. For most of the local people, the hippies travelling through, breaking that later quite well-trodden trail, were the first westerners they had ever seen. There were no maps or guidebooks. The only guide was the hippie grapevine and the pointing of a local's finger. Toby and Marianne Wheeler, founders of the famous Lonely Planet guidebooks, traversed this road a year later - a journey which provided the inspiration for the beginning of their venture. English was rare, other languages unknown, so communication took place on a different level - via the heart, via intuition. It was always a guessing game  Our experiences were varied and unique. Sometimes we were met by innocent interest and open-hearted generosity, sometimes by infuriatingly deliberate stonewalling, sometimes by suspicion and hostility. We needed to keep our wits about us and be very patient. It was usually a smile and a calm centeredness that got us through. The journey was physically and emotionally tough and demanding but the reward was a deeply touching and life-changing experience which cannot now be repeated. With the events of the last few decades - tragic in the case of Afghanistan - this road, with its unique flavour, has vanished forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Createspace Independent Publishing Platform","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47890553045143,"sku":"9781505563986","price":844.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9781505563986.webp?v=1781180480","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/a-vanished-road-travelling-eastwards-through-distant-lands-now-changed-forever-9781505563986","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}