Welcome - your journey back to the golden age of travel!
From 1973 to 1975, I spent almost three years traveling with a friend - backpacking through five continents. We traveled as backpackers, long before this term was even widespread. Without the internet, without precise plans - but with a lot of curiosity. Our route took us from Switzerland via the Trans-Siberian Railway to Japan, on through South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Central and South America - and finally back to Europe. This website is my personal diary of this journey.
Welcome to my journey
through space and time
This is the website of a globetrotter. I come from Switzerland and undertook a journey in the 1970s that shaped my life. I was traveling with a friend at the time. My approach has always been to act rather than wait, to try things out rather than hesitate.
I was never looking for the simple - but for the real thing.
This journey was more than just a change of location. And this website is my attempt to bring it to life - for you, for anyone who has remained curious, and perhaps a little for myself too. All from my point of view.
Why I am writing this story down
For many years, I rarely talked about this trip.
Sometimes I had the feeling that people didn't really believe me.
That's why I decided to write everything down -
for my family, my grandchildren and for anyone who is interested in such stories. That trip was many years ago.
Nevertheless, the memories remain vivid to this day.
I dedicate this story to my grandchildren and my family,
so that they know what the world used to be like.
Preparations for the trip
Even as a boy, I was enthusiastic about geography books, movies about faraway countries and model airplanes. It was during this time that I met my friend Rolf. Together, we discovered judo and shared a fascination with Japan—and later, we set off together on our big trip.
Eastern Europe
My first impression of Eastern Europe was pretty crazy. In the middle of the night, the compartment door on the train through Hungary was suddenly wrenched open. Two customs officers wanted to see our passports and gave them back to us. A short time later, the door flew open again - it was around 2am. A woman came in with a vacuum cleaner and vacuumed our compartment. A few minutes later, the door opened again and a man with a sprayer on his back "disinfected" everything. I tried to open the window, but it was locked. The whole car smelled really bad afterwards. This all happened while the train was crossing Hungary. The Iron Curtain was still very much in evidence back then.
Japan
Entry was straightforward - passports were stamped and that was it. After disembarking, we noticed that there were a lot of people around the port. There were food stalls everywhere and it looked very festive. We thought: "Let's just stay here and see what happens." It was a pleasant summer's day. Suddenly a magnificent firework display went off and lasted for over an hour. I said to Rolf: "That must be in our honor!" He just grinned.
Hong Kong
The arrival in Hong Kong went smoothly. We left the ship and immediately looked for accommodation. The ship had docked in Kowloon and we walked along Nathan Road to the junction with Jordan Road. Someone in the port had told us about a youth hostel that was on the 12th floor. Luckily, there was an elevator.
Thailand
The arrival went smoothly. The first thing we did was change money. Each of us had bought a bundle of American traveler's checks in Switzerland - credit cards were still out of reach for us back then. You simply tore a check out of the booklet and signed it in front of the clerk at the currency exchange (we had already signed all the checks once when we bought them).
Laos
Before we crossed the Mekong, we forgot to declare ourselves at Thai customs. On our return to Thailand, we therefore had to pay a small fine.
We boarded a long dugout canoe with a motor and crossed the Mekong. The river was wide at this point. On the other side of the river, we climbed up the steep bank and were amazed when we saw the customs house—it looked just like a simple garden shed.
back to Thailand
After crossing the border into Thailand, we were fined by the Thai customs officer because we didn't have an exit stamp in our passport when we left the country. We paid the amount - it wasn't too high, about the same as a meal at a street food stall.
Southern Thailand and Malaysia
After we had set up our plan B in Bangkok and were hopeful that the visas would be waiting for us in Jakarta, we decided to travel on to Malaysia.
On the way, we spent a few happy days just before the border with Malaysia in Songkhla (Thailand).
Malaysia
Kota Baharu was the larger town where we spent the night. Like almost everywhere else, there was a night market with very cheap and good food. The taste was very different to Thailand - it was cooked more with peanut oil and didn't seem quite as spicy to me.
Singapore
At customs in Singapore I had put on my nice white shirt, the customs officer thought a good haircut and a trim of the beard would do us good, there were a few hairdressers on the Malaysian side, so we followed the Singapore customs officer, there was a stamp and we were in Singapore. Another backpacker gave us the address of a cheap hotel on Bencoolen Street.
Back to Malaysia
We did without. Back to Malaysia We left Singapore again, direction Kuala Lumpur, with hitchhikers, buses etc. practically without stopping until Seremban, had to change there and continue, unfortunately the bus on the route was not of this opinion, it stopped in a hamlet, please get off, and at a sparsely lit stop we waited until 5 young men approached us and offered us a cigarette,
Indonesia
It was time for us to set off for the onward journey to Sumatra (Indonesia). We went to the port and got tickets for the ferry the next day - from Penang to Belawan, the port of Medan. The crossing took about six hours.
Australia
The flight was okay at first. But after we were served chicken legs, oranges and a small sandwich, it suddenly started to shake. It was a four-engine plane. We got caught in a storm and out of the window you could see how hard it was raining. Some chicken legs, oranges and bread rolls flew through the air. We collected everything that came within our grasp.
New Zealand
I landed in Auckland after a three-hour flight. There were no problems at customs. I spoke to a young woman on the plane. She explained to me where the youth hostels were and which bus I had to take. "Okay, thanks."
Ship passage across the Pacific
The "Britanis" arrived and I was soon able to go on board. I was assigned a cabin, quite deep in the ship, without windows. It had four bunks, a toilet, a shower and a fan. There were four of us in it: Gaston, the Bolivian who was going back to Bolivia, Klaus, the Austrian (he had studied at ETH Zurich and worked in Australia building railroads to mine natural resources), Rolf and me.
Panama
Very early one morning, I realized that the ship was no longer sailing. Everyone went on deck and we saw the lights of Panama City. The **Britanis** was in the waiting area before entering the Panama Canal.
Colombia
Customs check - no problems. (I'll come back to one incident later.) The customs officer wrote us a visa for 10 days, which we didn't pay much attention to at the time.
In the arrivals hall we saw the sign "Oficina de Turismo". We received a friendly welcome and were given lots of tips and small maps.
Ecuador
Time was of the essence. On the last valid day of our visa, we crossed the border at Ipiales and received our entry stamp on the Ecuadorian side in Tulcán.
On the journey from Tulcán to Quito, I saw villages with round thatched huts, so simple and timeless that they seemed foreign to me - almost like something from another continent. They reminded me a little of Africa.
Peru
Okay, off we go to the Peruvian border. The bus stopped just before it got there because it wasn't allowed to cross the border. Someone had mentioned a Peruvian consul in this town. We found the address in a very old house on the second floor. We knocked on the door. A very old man with thinning hair opened the door and invited us in.
We told him that apparently we now needed a visa to enter Peru. He laughed out loud and said: "That's probably a joke. You don't need a visa."
Bolivia
Then came the Bolivian border. Everyone had to get out. The customs officials still seemed haunted by the ghost of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who had been shot dead in the Bolivian jungle on October 9, 1967—less than ten years earlier.
Rolf and I were allowed into the customs house. A supervisor looked at our passports and said in English: "Many trips... lots of money."
I replied kindly: "Yes, work a lot and then travel a lot." He grinned and gave us back our passports with the necessary stamp. He also asked, “Do you know anyone in La Paz?”
"Yes, a friend from Australia who studied there and is now back in Bolivia."
"Okay," said the customs officer and signaled to the driver that he could continue. I think the simple customs officer also received a small mark.
Brazil
It was still raining cats and dogs when suddenly three young women came in looking for shelter from the rain and asked if they could sit with us.
They were all dressed the same: light blue blouses, dark pants, mid-height shoes. One of them fetched drinks and we tried to communicate with each other in our Spanish, with a little English in between.
We found out that they were all living in a boarding school in preparation for university.
After a while, I noticed that one of these young, pretty women kept touching the sole of my shoe with her shoe and saying quietly to me: bello, bello.
I was embarrassed.
As suddenly as they had appeared, they disappeared again when the rain stopped.
I was given a big peck on the cheek to say goodbye.
The end of the journey
After saying goodbye to South America, we took the flight back to Switzerland, with a stopover in Dakar, Senegal.
Rolf's parents were waiting for him in Geneva, and my sister and brother were there for me.
Rolf and I said goodbye, saying that we would see each other again. Now more than 50 years have passed since our return, and Rolf and I see each other once a month over coffee.