A quick follow-up to Monday’s Buzzy Podcast wherein Bob Simmons talked about his London-Istanbul-Katmandu trip back in 1967.
Rick Steves has recently released a book about his 1978 trip On the Hippie Trail (click here.)
I picked up a copy and sure enough, Rick’s itinerary closely parallels Bob’s.
Here is a good video discussing how The Hippie Trail itself eventuated.
One of the accompanying comments to the video made me think of Bob and the trip he made with a driver named Paddy.
I am thinking that that has got to be the same Paddy who drove Bob and his fellow travelers on their trip.
Music-wise, the above video (2:50) discusses the Beatles traveling to India and having been influenced musically by their visits with the Maharishi in India. The video mentions how Beatles’ songs such as Norweigan Wood and Within You, Without You were influenced by their time spent in India.
Eventually, the Beatles found out that the Maharishia was a con man and wrote this tune about him. (No comments about a current-day recurrence of folks becoming disillusioned with one of their leaders.)
My thanks to Bob Simmons for educating me about The Hippie Trail. I had not heard about it until my talks with him. With apologies to Rick Steves, check out who I had sign Rick’s book:
