A Passage To India, Pt 3

High time we have a look and see what Tony Reavley's up to in his odyssey across Asia. (For the uninitiated, Tony was a family friend who went travelling around the world in the mid-Seventies, and sent regular letters back to Blighty documenting the sights; the first letter is here, and the second's here).

This epistle is from April 1974, four months after the previous one. Tony has now departed India, which is obviously a very emotional experience for him.

Chaing Mai, N Thailand

03-04-74

On March 7th (a historic day) we left the land of shit and corruption forever. India was a sort of fascinating horror show, and I have no desire to return; I can well understand Bert's friend who knew an Indian who found life in an English gaol preferable to living at home. Arrived in Rangoon armed with plenty of booze and fags around 4pm to a temperature of 100 degrees F. Rather warm! We were only allowed 7 days in Burma which is under a military government, and there is still civil war in parts of the north with most of the skirmishing on the Burmese-Thai border. We spent our first evening in the YMCA, just a wooden bed with no mattress and mosquitos having a field day on my arms and knees. To cap it all I had some sort of fever and was running a temperature of 103. I tried putting on all of my clothes and getting into the sleeping bag and a few hours later emerged saturated. This may have helped, as three days later I was perfectly okay.

Out to Bangkok in Thailand on March 14th flying by UBA again. Spent two days here negotiating an air ticket to Hong Kong and had little time to look around. On Sunday we flew by Air Siam to Hong Kong and two weeks welcome rest. Ate real English food again - cheese, steaks etc - which we hadn't seen for months. Cameras and watches are cheap in Hong Kong but food prices are astronomical, e.g. 22p for a pint of milk, eggs 50p a dozen, marmalade 30p a jar, a milkshake (chocolate) 35p!!! Hong Kong is like a concrete jungle, clean but overcrowded, with heavy air pollution. The population are mostly Chinese with large numbers of refugees crossing the border from China and adding to Hong Kong's population problems. Also a number of Americans, British and British soldiers here. Plenty to see and do, but I wouldn't want to live here.

Baz and I intend to visit Laos where one can get a fortnight's visa. Cambodia is out of the question because of the war, and in Laos there is a somewhat uneasy peace at the moment. There are Communist snipers about however, and you have to be careful. An American we met was on a boat coming down the Mekong and a Laotian boy sitting next to him was shot by a sniper from the bank. The American stayed below deck after that.

Congratulations to Wolves! I bet Bill is pleased. Are Big Reg and Alan Wolves supporters yet? I saw them play Liverpool and beat them 1-0 on TV while I was in Hong Kong.

[Editor's note: on 2nd March 1974 Wolves beat Manchester City 2-1 at Wembley to win the League Cup. However, Tony seems to be a bit confused over the Wanderers match against Liverpool: Wolves did play them in the cup in December - while Tony was in India - and beat them 1-0, but the league match between the two on 23rd March, while Tony was in Hong Kong, was a 1-0 Liverpool win.]

Anyway, thanks for all the news again and keep writing! Will be in Bangkok again around April 23 as we return from Laos so if you can write by the 15th I should receive it.

Best wishes

Tony