I personally don't believe that stars and planets can dictate my future. However, some constellations are still amazing. This is a picture of the moon together with two stars (?) forming a smiley as I have seen it a few days back here in Thailand.
The day I arrived in India at the beginning of my journey, there were the Delhi Bombings. It didn't affect me since I had a flight to Leh shortly after landing in Delhi. However, I could feel the cause of this event: indians were scared, tourists canceled their India trip, there were ongoing discussion on TV and I myself (like other backpackers) avoided the big cities. The other day, I read an article in a local newspaper that citizen of Mumbai are scared since their city was not affected by the bombing. They avoided busy spots, avoided going to the cinema (what they love to do so much) and are acting cautious all the time.
I myself visited Mumbai at the end of my trip since it's where I have to catch my flight. Of course I visited the most important sights. Of course I visited the Taj Mahal Hotel and of course I had lunch at Cafe Leopold. And now the Mumbai Blasting is all over the news.
Kerala, in the very south of India, is quite different from the rest of the country. It has the highest literacy rate, is mostly cow/free and clean compared to other places I have been.
Kerala is famous for its Backwaters, kind of a river-channel-lake-system along the coast-line closely connected to the nearby sea.
I did a nice but tiring eight hours boat trip down from Allepey to Quillon. On the boat I met some exchange students from Europe who are studying in Mumbai. I stayed with them for the next days. After the Backwater cruise, we headed to the beach of Varkala. The beach is not as nice as the beaches in Goa and there is strong current in the water which makes it difficult to swim but the ambient is more relaxing and the sea food is deadly cheap and more than yummi. :)
After a few days in Verkala, I headed to the Periyar Tiger Reserve (You will not see any tiger but the name good marketing, isn't it?). The road brought me into a mountainous area, where a lot of spices, herbs and especially tea and coffee is grown. I visited one of the many spice farms and got introduced to a variety of interesting plants. Do you know how nutmeg grows? Now I do.
The park itself was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't that impressive with one exception: I saw some wild elephants taking a bath. That was kind of cute.
In the evening and during the next day, I was hanging out with some Germans I met in the park which resulted in a hangover the day I had to leave and take a bus back to Cochi. After a terrible night in Cochi (not related to my hangover!!!) in probably the world's worst accommodation, I headed to the airport and took a flight to Mumbai. Mumbai, one of the busiest cities in the world - that's what I have been told - was, well... dead? It was very quiet around the airport. "Where is everyone?", I asked myself as I was looking for a taxi to bring me to my accommodation. I learned that taxis, rickshaws and most of the buses do not operate cos of some tension in the town due to an arrest of a politician. GREAT! How do I get to my accommodation now? I figured out that the buses to the suburbs are not affected and since the place I intended to stay was close to the airport, I could find the right bus after a while.
In Mumbai, I didn't stay in a Guesthouse or Hotel. I decided to do Couchsurfing for the first time. (I'm too lazy to explain what it is. For those not familiar with this service, may know how to use Google and inform themselves. thanks. :)) I know some people who did this before and all of them were amazed. So, I gave it a try. Nidhi was my host and invited me to stay at her apartment. When I arrived at her place, she was still at work. The guard however gave me her key and I could enter the apartment and relax for a while. After she came back, we went out with her friends and she showed me a bit of the city the day after. It was a great experience and I might do this again anytime soon.
Yes I am. :) Soon, I'll go south for diving.
I enjoyed my last days in India. Kerala is very nice and different from the rest of the country. They have good sea food. :)
From Kerala I went to Mumbai and did Couchsurfing (couchsurfing.com) there. This was great and I guess I'll do the same again next time I'm in a big city.
- Hello
- Hello Sir, what do you want?
- Can I have a bottle of cold water please.
- We don't have cold water anymore. But I have toilet paper.
- Well, I can't drink toilet paper, can I?
- No, but for later. I also rent motorbikes if you are interested. Do you want?
WTF????
Anyway, I'm back from Hampi and in Goa now. I'll leave to Kerala in the evening.
It's not the permanent high noise level. It's not the constant bad smell. It's not the garbage laying around everywhere. It's not the hot weather. It's not the honking of cars and bikes. Nor is it the people that approach you every second trying to sell you anything for too much. No. It's that you can not escape from it that makes traveling in India challenging.
Anyway, I guess somehow I will get used to it. And in fact, there's worse here...
So, a few days back I flew from Leh to Delhi and too the bus to Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, the state of India where women are wearing Saris and men Turbans. So to say, Rajasthan is the 'classical' India.
Every second shop in Jaipur sells jewelry. It's big here and export is the main business.
I found a guest house in the center. It wasn't nice and quite expensive. However, I didn't want to walk any further with my heavy bag. After strolling around during the afternoon, I met three Indians. Two of them were students, the third was running some jewelry business. They asked me to go with them to a disco later. I wasn't in the mood for partying and just joined them for a beer in a pub. I planed to do some sight-seeing the next day and we agreed to meet again in the evening.
The next morning, I first changed my accommodation. I found another room. It was as crappy as the previous one but half the price. Sight-seeing wasn't impressive. Jaipur has a fort, blah blah blah...
In the evening I went to meet my friends. I was a bit late so that they were already waiting. Two of them. The students. The other guy was still working, that's what they told me.
They told me that we go to his shop, have tea and wait for him. Well, so they drove me to the building where he was working. I was guided into a narrow path, up the stairs into the first floor, along the aisle into a tiny office. There he was, sitting in his chair behind an empty desk. Chai was served and someone closed the door. His two friends were gone. I didn't feel comfortable but kept quiet. We had some small talk and I mentioned that I don't want to go out tonight cos of some stomach problems (I made this up, which was a wise decision). He then turned the conversation towards government issues and how much export taxes they have to pay and asked me what I think about all this. Now I realized that I was in the the wrong movie. This neither comedy nor romance but crime! He introduced me to his 'concept'. I, in possession of a tourist visa, can bring jewelry of $15'000 into my country without paying taxes. So, what he will do is, once I'm back at home, send stuff to my postal address and someone will come and pick it up. For this, he offered me $7'500. He claimed that nothing is illegal. I didn't care. No way that I would agree on such a deal!
However, remember where I was? Right, in his office. I pretended to be interested cos I wasn't sure how much force he would use to make me sign any contract. But how could I get out of this situation? The 'pain' in my stomach increased rapidly and I apologized. He asked me if I need to go to the toilet. 'Yes', I said. He called one of his friends who showed me the way. The office was too small to have a toilet. So we had to leave it. I realized that the entrance was just next to the stairs we climbed before.
Now or never!
I run down the stair, out of the building and continued along the street (This was the only time I was happy about the crowd cos it helped me to vanish quickly). After a moment I stopped a rickshaw and yelled at the driver "GO GO GO, JUST GO". He looked surprised but started pedaling. Damn, it was a bicycle rickshaw and therefore pretty slow. They have a motorbike. It would be pretty easy for them to catch up. But no one followed me.
I'm now proud of my first H/Bollywood-like escape. :)
They didn't know I moved to another accommodation. However, they know where I was staying the night before and I left my full name and passport Nr. there. Will they go and check? Will they trace me? I was thinking of bribing the receptionist to remove my name from their registration book. Well, I didn't wanna go back to the accommodation alone and therefore went to the police station to ask for help. But shit! That sounds like work. Of course no one was interested to help me. After a bit of talking, an officer agreed to go back with me.
My 'friends' didn't show up. It was however also not possible to cancel my entry. But a Swiss guy I met in the lobby promised me that such things happen on a daily base and I shouldn't worry. It's over.
So, yes, what annoys me most in India is that you never know who you can trust and who you can't. If you ask the same question to 5 people, you get 10 different answers.
And, it's all about money here. Money NOW. Money immediately. Many people here don't realize that a honest and long-term relationship often results in more profit and less hassle for everyone.
But I have to say that as soon as you leave the touristy places, people change A LOT. I met many nice people on the train. People are very interested in you and anways want to talk to you. Great.
I'm still in Rajasthan but leaving to Goa tonight. A 30h train ride is awaiting me!
I will write more later and upload a few pictures later.
I should have left Leh and with this the region of Ladakh by now.
However, due to heavy snow fall, the passes which have to be crossed
are closed.
Imagine, the season in Leh just finished and all tourists here want
to go south but are stuck. Everyone is checking all possibilities
but in fact there are just two: wait or fly out. Oh, but the airport
was closed today cos of bad weather. So, everyone has to wait.
I still hope to I can leave tomorrow.
'They' free the road between Leh and Manali (my next destination) pretty fast since it is an important military route (remeber, I am in Kashmir).
I'm here for more than a week and have seen a lot. The first
days were basically relaxing, acclimiatization and exploring Leh.
After, I booked a three day trip to Nubra valley. Two Germans joined me.
To reach the valley, you have to cross the highest motorable pass in
the world, the Kardung La, with an altitude of 5602m. You can feel this hight pretty good. Every step is an effort of its own.
Not only we were traveling that day from Leh to the Nubra valley
but also the Karmapa Lama, the second highest Lama, ranked just after
the Dalai Lama. We met him (and his car caravane) on the way and drank
tea with him. (well, at least from the same pot. :) )
Many locals were standing along the road to greet him. Of course, all
were dressed up in their traditional clothes. A unique experience!
We headed towards the village Diskit where we stayed for the night.
Diskit has an impressive monestry build onto the rocks of a mountain.
Scenic! (see pics)
The next day we visited an other arm of the valley. This part was
less impressive. In the evening we hiked from Hundar back to Diskit
through a sand desert where we almost got lost due to a light sand
storm (sand wind?). On the third day we drove back to Leh.
In Leh, the rally for finding a suitable transportation to go south to
Manali started. I decided to join a group of two Canadians, an
Australian and a retired Canadian couple.
Since we couldn't start the trip yesterday, we went to visit the
monastery of Hemis. Not very impressive but if you hike for an hour
into the mountains, you reach another small monastery where a monk
invited us for tea. He lives there in his cave for the last three
years. Well, that's definitely nothing for me...
I hope to reach Manali soon and then I will go to Rajasthan
After getting used to this hight, I explored Leh today. This city is very fascinating. Have you seen the moviel "Kyte Runner"? Well it is very similar here.
Here I am, on the moon! Well, almost, at least it looks similar.
I could enjoy the most scenic flight ever! Was stunning. Pics will follow later since internet their broadband connection (ISDN) is slooooooow as hell.
Did I mention that I paid CHF80 for my flight to Leh? Well, I was (& am) a bit suspicious whether this offer is serious or not. If I had book the same flight on the companies web page, I would have paid three times more.
Today I received a call from the agency (travelocity.in). They told me that there has been some changes about my reservation. Unfortunately the name of the airplane company changed (was Air Deccan, now it is King Fisher Airlines) and that they do not offer free drinks anymore. They are very sorry about this inconvenience. On the same time, I received an E-Mail containing similar information. Wow! That's what I call 'Service' and this definitely is worth the money I paid more... i mean less. :P
India is covered quite often in the news nowadays, or maybe I'm just more sensitive than before. Unfortunately, these news are not really motivating. Two major issues caught my attention:
There is a flooding in Bihar, northern India. 600’000 people had to be rescued, many are suffering. It's devastating.
Then, there were tensions in Kashmir a few weeks back. Protests and violence in Jammu and Kashmir valley, wide curfews all over the region. It is calm now due to a contract someone signed.
Both places are quite close to areas I was planing to visit (though, not directly). I just hope it won't affect me. Right now, I try to collect relevant news sources which I can check during my time in India to keep me updated about everything. I also found some very very (very!!!) informative communities: www.indiamike.com and www.bcmtouring.com.
Meanwhile, I decided to visit Rajasthan after coming back from Ladakh.
Rajasthan features the sandy Thar Desert where you can do camel trekking. That would be cool, wouldn't it?
Oh, a question, Is it nerdy, if I say that I have my own wiki running where i kind of "paste bin" relevant information? Well, I don't mind. :P
I booked a flight to Leh in the very north of India. Leh was the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh, now the Leh District in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The city is is at an altitude of 3,500 meters. When I arrive, I need one or two days of acclimatization. There should be a festival when I am there.
I made my booking through travelocity.co.in and will fly with Air Deccan. It was very cheap! I paid only CHF80 for one way! Usually, the flight comes with a price tag of about CHF250 with a low cost carrier - even with Air Deccan. Well, we will see what I get... ;)
I'm in the process of planing my next trip. It will bring me to India and Nepal.
Many people I have told me from their impressive time they had while traveling through these two countries. Well, now it's up to me to experience the same.
Expect more later.
