After reading this, don't ever complain!

[Iceni John]

http://www.indiaoverland.biz/forum/viewtopic.php?id=44&p=1

If you have an hour or so, read these articles about the Asia overland bus trips in the 1970s that ferried hippie-esque folk between England and India.   These articles bring back a flood of memories for me  -  I took buses and local transport (trucks, tuktuks, trains, taxis, even a camel in Kandahar for a memorably short ride) when I went from England to Nepal and back in 1977, in the halcyon days before Iran and Afghanistan became harder to get through.   I remember all of us passengers in an old Mercedes O302 between Herat and Kabul rocking the bus enough so we could jam stones under the axle to be able to change a tire, and a Pathan tribesman firing his ancient Martini-Henry rifle by mistake through the roof of the daily bus between Kabul and Peshawar as we descended the Khyber, and countless other memorable events that makes Greyhound seem so tame and boring in comparison!   The stories of the old AEC bus being driven through the mountains with no brakes at all and at night with no lights, and the constant need to replace its head gaskets, or even reweld cracked heads umpteen times, and driving in minus-35 winters with only campstoves to heat the bus  -  wow, that makes most of our woes seem like a walk in the park.   I wonder how many current buses could survive what that AEC did.

Happy (non-apocalyptic) new year,
John

[plyonsMC9]

Interesting pics of buses in some very unusual locations.  Thanks for posting John.

Kind Regards, Phil

[John316]

Wow, amazing stories. Thanks for sharing the link.

John