Jenna Coleman and Tahar Rahim in The Serpent (2021) | Mammoth Screen/BBC/Netflix By the mid-nineties I was already a veteran of Asia’s famous “hippie trail”, a long, snaking route that led through Thailand, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. I travelled with a group of itinerant musicians, artists and writers from Japan, Brazil, Russia, Israel and various European countries. With our backpacks, sleeping bags, didgeridoos and chillums, we hopped onto buses, trains, taxis, rickshaws and boats, indeed, anything that would take us to our next destination. We would stay for a week, a month or a year, till the next place beckoned, and then it was time to move once again. Along the way, we met new friends and lovers, lost sight of old ones, told stories full of mystery and magic while learning new ones.