DEPARTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN – FROM THE HIMALAYAS TO AN EAST GERMAN PRISON
A True Story
Volume 4 of the "STATIONS" series
Nepal, November 1986
A young man heaves his black rucksack onto the roof of a rickety Nepalese bus. There is still room among the sacks, suitcases and tied bundles. His four English friends are already waiting inside.
The bus is supposed to take them to Kathmandu. Nobody knows when it will arrive. The fact that it is moving at all seems to be considered sufficient commitment to a timetable.
A few days later, the five young men set off into the mountains. Their destination is not a summit. They are looking for a farmer who supposedly produces the best hash oil in the world.
Together, they travel through Nepal, almost plunge into an abyss on a mountain road and eventually follow a self-appointed guide deep into the Himalayas. The journey to Pokhara takes eight hours. Perhaps ten. Sometimes twelve. Not even the ticket seller sees any reason to be unnecessarily precise.
The equipment is inadequate. The mood is excellent. And the plan seems surprisingly simple.
Which should probably have worried them more than it did.
What follows is dangerous, reckless and repeatedly makes them laugh. At least in retrospect.
As the five friends trek through remote mountain villages, cross an ice-cold river and spend their nights in simple huts, a decision begins to take shape that will change Christoph’s life.
The hash oil is to be taken to West Berlin.
What could possibly go wrong?
DEPARTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN is the fourth volume of the autobiographical STATIONS series.
With humour, self-irony and a generous dose of black humour, Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger tells the true story of five young men travelling through Nepal with more enthusiasm than equipment – and considerably more confidence than good sense.
What begins with overcrowded buses, cheap rooms, mountain villages and the search for exceptional hash oil gradually turns into something far more serious. There are dangerous roads, questionable guides, freezing rivers, improbable plans and decisions that, at the time, somehow seem perfectly reasonable.
They won’t for long.
This is a story about friendship, adventure, freedom and that peculiar certainty of youth that everything will somehow work out – told with the kind of black humour that sometimes makes you laugh when, strictly speaking, there has long been nothing left to laugh about.
Because the five friends may know where they want to go. They just have no idea where one of their decisions will eventually lead.
Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger writes from lived experience – from setbacks, detours, new beginnings and encounters that do not need embellishment. His stories come from the places where real life leaves its mark.
If you have not yet read a volume from the book series “STATIONS”, you can begin with one of the following books. Each volume stands on its own and explores a different aspect of our lives.
Volume 1: WHAT THE FORTUNE TELLER KNEW (IN PROGRESS)
Volume 2: THE MAN WITH THE CRUTCH
Volume 3: TRANSIT – THE LAST DAYS OF FREEDOM
Volume 4: DEPARTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN
Volume 6: FRIDAY THE 13TH (IN PROGRESS)