It seemed amazing to me that I made a very similar journey at the same time in 1978 .I too kept a journal which I completly forgot about until I saw Rick's. It is long lost.
I was making my way to India..Left the US in Jan to make it to an appt in March In New Delhi, .I was planning to go to a graduate program in Bangalore...
A cheap way to get to India was to get hired by Iranians in Munich to bring in a BMW car to Iran...which paid for half the trip. I was a passenger but they put the car in my name to get by a tax loophole. Right outside Tabriz we got in a fender bender and I was stuck in Iran for about 3 weeks while they got the car repaired, Armed with a phrase book I tried my best to communicate with my Iranian hosts...and had some really amazing (good and bad) experiences hanging out with these guys, Not enough room here to relate some of the crazy stuff here. After touring through many small towns and some larger ones such as Isfahan where my hosts finally sold the car and freed me to move on I made my way by train & bus to Mashed- Herat -Kabul- Peshawar-Lahore-Amritsar finally arrived Delhi. sometime in March..where i found out because of my delay in Iran I missed the final registration deadline. They said come back in May so I got over my disappointment by going to kill time in Nepal!
I took a bus ride up to Kathmandu as did Rick & Gene- but I got to ride on top of the bus----what a grand experience.! Trekked- then hung out in Pokhara where I saw all these westerners eating salad...figured if they can- so can i! Bid mistake- got sick as a dog back in Katmandu and didni' have the enrgy to renew my visa- caught a flight to Patna, woke up the next morning in in the hotel with bright yellow eyes... wound uo in a hospital for about a month recovering from Hepatitis (the bill was about $80 for the whole stay -I shared a private room with geckos - had a big (unrequited) crush on my nurse- read Louis L'Amour novels and the bible for the 1st time . Had a weekly visit from a 75ish year old Jesuit missionary who left his home state of Oklahoma in his 20's and had never gone back. After i got out I spent some time in Varanasi relaxing in a hotel and played scrabble every night with the hotel owners while they played Anand Shankar records. Then on to Agra- caught a plane to Shrinigar- sat next to an American pilot. When we took off it seemed like we went straigh up in the air...and my neighbor said Oh Sh**t and I saw my whole life spin around me...then I looked at the rest of the totally unfazed passengers and relaxed...until we landed and there I saw along the side of the runway many wrecked plaene carcasses!
By then I gave up on the grad school plan and realized I could not go back through Afghanistan because of the coup...I wnet to Calcutta- Bubaneshwar...spent some time in Thailand and made it back to NY, started a career, rekindled my relationship with my girlfirend. I weighed about 120 lbs and tried to gain weight. I was successful and never stopped!
I loved Rick's postscript....it said it all...I travelled a lot as a young man but India was a revelation!