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I had this on another thread but figured the title ( "best performance at woodstock") might not get all the people so
here ya go

Please voice ur opinions


personally i think those of us that grew up during the 60's, early 70's, had the best of times and saw the most changes
Plus our music was kick ass ( still is)
and travelling before;
the yellow bible
the internet
Smart phones


Yellow Bible >>>> surely u jest>>> Lonely planet books
Interesting that the original was brought out last year with updates, Its a GREAT read to see the prices from Europe to Kathmandu (my first trip overland was 1974)
hotels for less than $2, meals for less than a $1, bus's for under a $1.

http://www.nomadicnotes.com/lonely-plan ... heap-1973/


You can get it for free on amazon;

Highlights;

Across Asia on the Cheap was written after a trip across Asia that Lonely Planet founders (Terry and Maureen) made in 1972. The trip was the classic overland hippie trail that went from London to Sydney. The guide covers the the bulk of the trail from Istanbul to Indonesia and Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), the jumping off point to Australia.
Costs

The guidebook is for the long Asian section of the hippie trial but it mentions that you can get a “freak bus” service from London to Istanbul for about $30. Yes, it sets the scene early that this book is by hippies, for hippies.

It also alludes early on that the going is cheap, with “Singapore and Bangkok…the only places between Australia and Europe where a couple would have to spend more than a dollar a night for a reasonable hotel room.”

The Wheelers said they travelled for about 5 and a half months with $1200USD between them. That works out to about $109 each per month.
Dope

On of the biggest standouts of the guide is the section on dope. Can you imagine a mainstream guide book doing that today?! Of course Lonely Planet wasn’t a mainstream guidebook at the time; it was a home made guide stapled together on the Wheelers kitchen table.

The guide to dope isn’t written like “you shouldn’t do dope but if you want it here it is”. No, the first Lonely Planet guidebook is celebrating the fact that you can get stoned for most of the way from London to Sydney. We live in different times.

Bangkok is described as “one of the more expensive cities you will pass through”, and as an example one cheap hotel is listed at 30 Baht ($1USD) for a double. Hahaha. There is also a listing for the Starlight Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22, which is an air-conditioned room with private bathroom for 40 Baht. Sounds good to me.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:21 amPlease voice ur opinions


personally i think those of us that grew up during the 60's, early 70's, had the best of times and saw the most changes
Plus our music was kick ass ( still is)
and travelling before;
the yellow bible
the internet
Smart phones

What about the Eighties and Nineties??

They were great times as well. Seriously, it depends entirely on the personal experience someone had at the time. The Eighties/Nineties, were exciting times for someone who is interested in Mixing music, as that was when DJ'ing started to make a bigger impact. Nowdays look at the technology, and just imagine what a Dream come true it must be for some, and also for those geeks, that to travel combines technology plus sights, and travelling deals?? Was travelling in 60/70's really cheaper than 80/90's when Asian and Latin currencies were devalued, and prices were still low, and Airline price deals were common, and Wages still High??

Here's my own take on things, yes for you, PR, it must have been great times. Maybe Travelling was more 'special' back then, and maybe lack of info meant you were akin to living in a blissful bubble of ignorance. Today i read the news here and in PPPost, and instantly am put off the idea of Cambodia. Yet i recently returned and enjoyed my time back, and realised that the negative Cambodian press had somewhat 'poisoned' my opinions of the place.

In the 60/70's you were less aware of 'problems' that you are today with interwebz. One has to use it wisely. Life was simple back then, you had little choice, today there is too much choice!

And yes, Smartphones can make travellers extremely antisocial. Still i met plenty sociable people too and even got a Smartphone myself for the first time, and turned into one of them 'Antisocials'!

BUTTT...I can personally state that FOR ME ANYHOW, Snookie, has gone very downhill since i was there 10 years ago! Yet apparently the worse bit happened in the last 5 years!

Oh god, mixing music being lauded as a good idea. Richard is right, the best days were back on the old hippie trail and probably ten years after that before mass tourism.Calling in at the Poste Restante in foreign cities to hopefully pick up mail and not having to keep in touch daily with those back home was a real escape.
Phoning home from Post offices was too expensive so people actually wrote letters and enclosed photos. I now have all the letters that I wrote home from North Africa, Europe and Asia in the early seventies. Wow, it was all so cheap with Thai bungalows on beaches for a dollar or two a night.
An Australian wage for a building worker was about $200 in 1976 so two dollars was pretty cheap.

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1074-st ... vegas-five

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”


― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

willyhilly wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:47 pm
Phoning home from Post offices was too expensive so people actually wrote letters and enclosed photos.

Before you had excuses, now you have none.... Now you don't have to bum about in $1 Bungalows, because there are better $10 ones....

regarding mail. used american express, between Amsterdam and Kathmandu picked it up twice along the way ...Istanbul and Kabul. Actually got to see the standing Buddhas in Bamiyan
Willy, remember those cheap little air grams??? Thats how i stayed in touch with mom, wrote religiously every 2 weeks to her and tried to cal lat least once every 4 months
now ya got facebook and instangram BLahhhhhhhhhh
The point of travelling back than (and for me still) was just to keep moving in one direction or another, The destination was NOT the point of the trip

We had a Beach hut in Goa for $30/month. No electricity, no running water, out house out back but 50 meters from the sea.Stayed with a friend who brought down about 2 kilos of Nepali hash, Ate fish and rice twice a day...
Take that over any resort nowadays

but... but... trapper was apart of the good old days 7 years ago! he was there maaaan!

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:35 pmWilly, remember those cheap little air grams???

Light blue colour?

vladimir wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:42 pm

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:35 pmWilly, remember those cheap little air grams???

Light blue colour?

yup,thin thin paper and u couldn't push to hard or they'd rip

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:35 pm
We had a Beach hut in Goa for $30/month. No electricity, no running water, out house out back but 50 meters from the sea.Stayed with a friend who brought down about 2 kilos of Nepali hash, Ate fish and rice twice a day...
Take that over any resort nowadays

So just a BKK Trapper tight fisted backpacker, then?