REVIEWS
Book Review
Bandit of Kabul By Steve Brown Some nibble at the edges of world travel. Others take big bites. Baby boomers growing up in the Sixties and Seventies experienced a time like no other before. Driven by the energy of a rock and roll revolution and a desire with herb to go beyond the old doors of perception, it was not surprising that, unlike their parent’s post Depression/WWII era, with it’s need for a secure and confirmative lifestyle, their sons and daughters fresh out of college choose to seek more exotic adventures in the “rare air and the seldom seen”. Jerry Beisler was one of them and lived to write about it in “The Bandit of Kabul”.
Fortunate to have found a soulmate, Rebecca, to share in this “over-the-rainbow” road odyssey, we join these two adventurers and a cast of fellow American and European voyagers through parts of the world that will never be the same again. A journey trekking from India to Afghanistan, Bangkok to Burma, Java to Jamaica, Nepal to Amsterdam. On the Ganja trail much uncertainty and adrenaline abound. Places and events sacred and profane swim together in a cultural confluence of enlightenment and joy and poop your pants narrow escapes. A heroic dog, some special horses, a hash oil factory that goes kaboom, make for adventure worthy of an Indiana Jones movie script. But Beisler’s many global experiences also include the sublime; a romantic night in the Taj Mahal, golden temples in the jungles of Burma, soaking high in a Himalayan hot spring, meeting the Dalai Lama, serenaded by a barefoot Bob Dylan on Mexican beach and hangin’ out at recording sessions withJerry Garcia. And it is at this point in “The Bandit of Kabul” with the other Jerry (Garcia), that Beisler’s and my own path cross. I spent the best part of the Seventies decade working for the Grateful Dead and enjoying a close brothers in weirdness relationship. It would not be unusual for Garcia, while waiting alone backstage to ask me “to go out and bring me somebody weird”. Beisler’s experiences with cannabis transported from one country to another was not at all foreign to Garcia and the Dead either. While in “Bandit” a German motherdaughter team were quite successful in regularly getting into Amsterdam with their falsebottom suitcases of hashish, the Grateful Dead crew were no less successful 102 - Treating Yourself, Issue 19 - 2009
Jerry Garcia in Mickey’s Barn studio. He worked on the soundtrack to the film “Zabriskie’s Point” soundtrack during this era.