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DON departed for a five month overland trip with Exodus Expeditions in a Bedford truck to teach abroad in Sept., 1975. Don visited Istanbul and enjoyed the Blue Mosque, Santa Sophia and the Tokapi Palace and the gold and silver bazaar at Hasht Behesht Esfahan, Iran. Don traveled through northern Afghanistan to Mazar-e-Sharif, Bamiyon and Kabul. Don went trekking for a week in Nepal in November, 1975. Sherpa’s carried his pack, erected his tent, and awoke him with coffee and breakfast in the morning. A plentiful supply of chung, a local corn beer added spice to the trekking up and down steep hills. Don spent a month in India around Christmas, 1975.« Don traveled through northern Afghanistan to Mazar-i-Sharif, Bamiyan and Kabul in Nov., 1975, on his way from Canada to Australia. Bamian is first mentioned in 5th Century AD Chinese sources and was visited by the Chinese travelers Fa-hsien around 400 AD and Hsüan-tsang in 630 AD; it was by that time a centre of commerce and of the Buddhist religion. Two great figures of Buddha there date from this period; the larger is 53 m high and the smaller is 120 feet. These statues are carved from the living rock and are finished with fine plaster. When Hsüan-tsang saw the figures, they were decorated with gold and fine jewels. The two Buddha figures, together with numerous ancient man-made caves in the cliffs north of the town, have made Bamian a major Afghan archaeological site. The caves are of various forms, and the interiors of many …
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