A closer look
The famous 1960s overland route to Eastern enlightenment was less about genuine spiritual awakening and more about finding developing nations with highly favorable exchange rates for cheap narcotics. Throngs of supposedly anti-capitalist Western youth crammed into unventilated 'Magic Buses' to endure brutal overland journeys through Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. They sought deep cosmic truths but usually just found severe gastrointestinal distress and a staggering lack of infrastructure. The ultimate irony of this counterculture pilgrimage was that when the dysentery hit and the money dried up, these enlightened rebels immediately utilized international telegraph networks to beg their wealthy, establishment parents for emergency flight money home.
