From Rucksack to Backpack is composed of recollections of Juliane Heyman ́s travels, adventures and life from the 1940s to 1960s. She describes her experiences as a Western woman in newly independent India. In 1952 she drove with two young Swiss men through Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and the former Yugoslavia to Italy. Her stories from Vietnam in 1957 deal with her job as library advisor to the country. Later Heyman worked in Pakistan and El Salvador and visited Peace Corps volunteers in Nepal. The emphasis is on a woman ́s perspective, but historical, political and social conditions at the time are intertwined in the memoir.