Route 66 to Hindustan: Istanbul to Calcutta overland

The eastern Mother Road, from the edge of Europe to the far end of India. Exotic places, adventure, and maybe even enlightenment - all there for the taking, with hard currency in your money belt.

Route 66 to Hindustan is the story of an early 1990s trip along the old hippy overland trail to Pakistan and India, in the company of ancient Asia's newest nation - the Western backpacker.

What's it like being transformed from an ordinary young Westerner into a rich white person in a poor country? How does the usually liberal and open-minded backpacker bear up to life on the road in an often unforgiving place? And how easy is it for a European to learn from Eastern culture?