About the book: year / In winter, at the beginning of 1998, nine hitchhikers left Moscow, hitchhiking through Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Pakistan and got to India and then returned home. I’ll tell you about this. Adventurous ideas to visit India began to appear among us back in 1994. However, several more years passed before we, representatives of the Academy of Free Travel (AVP), began to seriously plan the Travel. After a long study, the most realistic one was chosen from the many possible routes - through Iran and Pakistan. However, it was unclear how one could obtain visas from these rather closed states. In addition, none of our hitchhiker acquaintances had ever traveled through these countries: for some reason everyone preferred to travel west of Moscow, along the highways of Western Europe, or, at worst, Western Sahara. In general, it was decided to go to Iran “for reconnaissance.” Having visited Georgia, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, three Moscow hitchhikers (Oleg Morenkov, Vlad Razzhivin and me) ended up in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Without waiting for visas in Moscow, we received them in Armenia (there it turned out to be easier, faster and cheaper). After spending ten days in Iran, we found out that this is a very friendly, interesting and safe country, that hitchhiking in Iran is quite possible and that a Pakistani visa, which cannot be obtained in Moscow, can be obtained in Tehran in one day. The Iranians surprised us with their cleanliness, neatness and hospitality. Ancient mosques and fortresses, modern roads, cheap dates and bread. By the end, the language barrier was almost no longer felt (despite the almost universal ignorance of the English language among Iranians). After spending nine fabulous days in Iran, we left for Central Asia and then returned home. You can read a detailed story about all this in my book “Across Seven Borders.” After this trip, carried out in August-September 1997, the land route to India could be considered scientifically developed. The start date was chosen - February 1, 1998. A very convenient date. Firstly, it will not be very hot in India by the time we arrive; secondly, the students who were going to go with us are finishing their regular session at the end of January. We were going to get an Indian visa in Moscow, and an Iranian and Pakistani visa on the way. We planned to travel in pairs with meetings in major cities all the way to Delhi. But the further route of travel around India and the route of returning home, according to our initial agreement, was a personal problem for each individual participant…