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At the Persian border visitors were greeted by a picture of the ‘Shah in Shah’ floating above the clouds. The image of the ‘King of Kings’ was at least 5 meters high.
Photo composition by Matthias Jürgens
The country’s wealth was very noticeable. On fully developed roads we were crossing the desert landscape and the camels only grudgingly moved off the roads to make place for the cars. Waves of heat were to be seen on the horizon.
Teheran wasn’t that oriental, more like a ‘New York’ of the Middle East. I drove to the ‘Amir Kabir Hotel’ of which I had been informed in Istanbul. Another one of these meeting places. The ‘Magic Bus Group’ was still searching for something to smoke. They weren’t the only ones. Everybody wanted to continue to Afghanistan, even more so after having heard the stories told by returning freaks.
In this heat and noise it was almost impossible for me to sleep and when the sun rose I looked for the main bus station. The bus to Kabul slowly filled up with people of all nations, eager and happy to soon reach the ‘Promised Land’. I made friends with Francesco and Maurizio, a gay couple from Florence. They had a small shop in Florence where they sold wooden toys which they also manufactured themselves. They only had one month and thus stayed in Afghanistan. India was on their travel schedule for the following year. In 1976 flying was a lot more expensive than today. That was one of the reasons for travelling to India by land; another reason was that by slowly moving towards India I could adapt myself to the different cultures. Today it would me more expensive and a lot more adventurous to travel over land – after this the Ayatollahs and Taliban took over.
In the bus a French couple was sitting to my right – Antoine and Chantal from Paris, on their way to Goa. We agreed to meet there for Christmas. Chantal read a book about Milarepa and I was studying a map of Afghanistan. Maurizio slept with his head on his friend’s lap. Most of my co-travellers were sleeping probably having sweet dreams.
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Matthias Jürgens
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