DROP OUT

Description:

Leaving a familiar world behind, on a five year journey, a restless twenty-two-year-old American with little money starts in Europe and heads east. Across the legendary overland trail from Europe to Turkey under martial law, Iran in the final days of the Shah, Afghanistan before its collapse, and in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistan war he finds adventure. ​What begins as youthful innocence and curiosity soon becomes a five-year immersion in cultures, unpredictable dangers, and intoxicating freedoms far removed from life back home. Along the way he consorts with smugglers, mystics, wanderers, jihadist, sikhs and fellow travelers chasing promises of an era; drugs, sex, freedom, risk, peace and the thrill of the unknown. ​DROP OUT captures a remarkable moment in time, when the world felt open, borders were porous, and a young traveler could simply head east and see what happens.

subjects: Iran,  Espionage,  Middle East,  Cultural Tension,  travel memoir,  1970's journey,  coming of age

People: persians,  east indians,  turks,  afgan,  spanish,  europeans

Places: Paris,  Pompalona,  Stiges,  Monaco,  Athens,  Istanbul,  Tehran,  Herat,  Kabul,  Delhi,  Goa,  Iṣfahān

Times: 1970