RTW

Hawaii

2009-06-05T11:14:00.009+02:00

Hah, I lied.
The Hawaii blog is coming before I leave for Oahu tomorrow.

It all started in the 'Waikiki Beachside Hostel' where you can spend a night in a crammed room with no AC for thirty bucks a night. There I met good people, like Greg from Scotland and bad people like Hollywood from Idaho and everything in between.
We had lots of fun and I didn't go swimming once.

After a couple of days our crew took the public bus for 2$ and randomly stopped somewhere on the north shore, and we found a nice place!

More and more people left and in the end only Greg and me were left but others had joined us at that time already.

Then Greg headed to Canada and I flew to Maui for 40$.

That's where I got my car and conquered the island myself. Slept in the car at a beach in Hana, after the spectacular 600 curves and 43 one lane bridges drive there, and went on to the camping grounds of the Haleakala volcano. There I gave a ride to Gale and Jordan, a couple who lives here since they wanted to do a hike and needed to park their car (with big Obama bumper stickers) elsewhere. When I met them again on the camping ground where I intended to sleep they invited me over to stay at the place the next night (after watching sunrise on the summit the next morning). And that's where I've been the last three days.

The pictures are not in any specific order.

Wa'a valley hike

Lahaina; I'd go there too if I had the choice

Maui West Coast

View after iao valley hike, Kahului in the distance

Iao Needle

My Pontiac in the clouds on my way up the serpentines of Mt. Haleakala

sunrise, 5:30AM, 47 °F

Mt. Kea on Hilo as seen from Mt. Haleakala, approx. 100 miles

Haleakala summit

hike down in the crater

crater from above

Road to Hana

sunrise at Hana beach

Waikiki

Honolulu

Sunset, taken out of the car

Chinaman's Hat

Beachside Hostel Crew
f.r.t.l. Joe (USA), Marcus (Switzerland), Bonny (USA), G.I. Joe aka Todd (USA), Greg (Scotland), Chad (USA), me

Sandy Beach, east of Waikiki

See you soon!

Sydney + Auckland

2009-06-03T05:24:00.004+02:00

Porbably one of the longes breaks so far.
In the following post you'll see a couple of pictures from Sydney and 1 from Auckalnd.

Hmm, what could that be? The Walmart in Eromanga?

Blue Mountains

Darling Harbour

Hereby I declare the Elantra diaries for finished. Stay tuned for part II: 'The Insurance Odyssey'

Auckland, as seen from my Air New Zealand Boeing 767-300 whilst sipping a Steinlager.

The first Hawaii update will follow as soon as I'm back on Oahu.

Stay sound.

Relaxing at the moment on Maui with a rented 3.5l V6 Pontiac G6 GT.

Elantra diaries 02

2009-05-20T03:03:00.004+02:00

There was this dude I met from Germany, and when I told him I wanted to drive to the 'outback' he said: 'Yeah, good luck with that. You know that that's like 5000km away from the coast? First you have to drive 2000km through bush and then another 3000km and then you're there.'
Well... seems like he was a prick.

Day 05
Byron Bay - Roma
Kilometers: 679
Time: 11:30 - 21:45
Gas: 40l
Coffeinated drinks: 3

Out of order

the other half of that cow was on the other side of the railway tracks

bean head oil pump

Day 06
Roma - Thargomindah
Kilometers: 885
Time: 09:30 - 19:30
Gas: 70l
Coffeinated drinks: 5

Eromanga

Day 07
Thargomindah - Bulla
Kilometers: 800
Time: ?
Gas: 91l
Flat tires: 0
Totally ripped and devastatingly torn tires vomiting their shredded guts on the red, hot rocks of uninhabited wilderness: 1
Coffeinated drinks: ?

Day 08
Bulla - Sydney
Kilometers: ca. 900
Time: 08:30 - 22:15
Gas: 71l
Coffeinated drinks: 5
Thick fog and heavy rain: 6hrs

So I'm back from the outback, applying for my US visa today and realxing in Sydney with bad weather.
Things I almost ran over: kangaroo, eagle, ostrich, possum, dog, sheep
Things I ran over: frog, cockatoo, roadkill
Things that almost ran over me: cow

Elantra diaries

2009-05-16T02:49:00.004+02:00

So, I got a bigger car than expected and first of all drove back to Sebastians place to haul all my stuff inside, steal a pillow, a blanket, toilet paper and a guide book.

Day 01
Melbourne - Bairnsdale
Kilometers: 343
Time: 17:00 - 20:30
Coffeinated drinks: 3

After dark I looked for a place to sleep, preferably wiht ocan view, and that's what I came up with:

Day 02
Bairnsdale - Surf Beach, Bateman's Bay
Kilometers: 526
Time: 7:00 - 18:00
Gas: 68l
Coffeinated drinks: 4

Visited some National Parks, did a rainforest walk and stopped at Bega's famous cheese factory.

Day 03
Bateman's Bay - Diamond Beach
Kilometers: 768
Time: 7:30 - 20:00
Gas: 43l
Coffeinated drinks: 4

Long drive, lots of roadwork with 60km/h and 80km/h limits. Even if there's no roadwork it never exceeds 110km/h...

Day 04
Diamond Beach - Byron Bay
Kilometers: 525
Time: 11:30 - 22:30
Gas: 34l
Times key locked inside the car: 1
hitchhikers taken: 2
Coffeinated drinks: 4

Got and 3.5mm audio cable so I can plug in my Mp3 to the car stereo (I couldn't stand the 7 cds I burnt in Melbourne anymore.)
Locked my key inside the car. 95.65$, 90mins. Took 2 Canadian guys with me and we waited for 2.5hrs after a horrible head on collison.

That's it, heading for Brisbane now!

Melbourne

2009-05-14T02:06:00.004+02:00

I have to admit that I didn't see much of Melbourne in broad daylight except the airport and the budget car rental office.
I've seen a couple of clubs and bars though and met nice people.

Here are some of the party pics of me and the guys.

Upon arrival at the budget office to pick up the cheapest car I could find (a Hyundai Getz) I was told that I got a free upgrade and will be driving an Elantra, which is much more comfortable than a 3-door minicar (especially the 2.0l automatic compared to the 1.3l manual).

Unfortunately the connection here in the library of Ulladulla is too slow even for Sebastians low-res party pics. I won't even try uploading mine.

I'll pass Sydney today and blog again for my roadtrip details.

edit: Melbourne pics

Tasmania

2009-05-03T14:40:00.007+02:00

I spent a couple of very relaxing days on the beaches and in the forests of Tasmania.
I was possums and wallabies in the wild and lots of other stuff in the wild life park.

Here are some pictures.

Binalong Bay

Nature World Wildlife Park

Koala

Tasmanian Devil

Wallabie

Penguin

Outback

Friendly Beaches

Me + Wallabie at Friendly Beaches

Chevrolet Impala

Seagull

Beerbarrel Beach

shells

Me at Beerbarrel Beach

Possum in the trees

St. Helens

St. Helens

Stonecrusher in an abandoned tin mine in the rainforest

Rainforest during the Big Tree Wak

Auckland

2009-04-27T10:19:00.004+02:00

Somehow I think that the Japanese would close down their country for foreigners if it weren't for economical reasons.

Interesting fact #1: The normal subway to Tokyo's Narita International Airport leaves every two hours and takes 90 minutes from the closest station in town, which itself is about 30min away from the centre.

Interesting fact #2: The International Airport of the biggest city in the world closes at 11PM. Every day, the whole building is locked up until the early morning. (Thank you Mustafa btw for painfully discovering this one day before I left!)

Anyway I made it to the airport.
24 minutes before my flight left.
I was pretty sure I'd miss it, since boarding already started end everything but the Air Newzealand staff looked on their watch, made a couple of phone calls and said it was okay. I was relieved, until I mentioned that my luggage should be checked through to Melbourne. The woman stopped typing as if I had hit her on the head with a baseball bat. Slowly she rose her eyes and looked at me: "Melbourne?" I replied: "Yes, I'm transfering to Melbourne in Auckland, I'm not gonna stay in NZ." By this time the other girls got to know what I demanded and a lot of chattering on the phone happened and I was asked to present a lot of documents which were all unprinted in my email account. Of course I had a confirmed booking from Air NZ in Shanghai for Melbourne and of course I had a confirmed visa for Australia. But in their system they couldn't find either. 15min until my plane leaves.
They said: "Sorry, but you have to go now to catch your plane, please sort it out with Air NZ in Auckland." I thought, better than staying here and went with one of Japanese girls running through crew security checkin, etc. And barely made it.

I thought everything will be fine in Auckland, it's their headquarter and they'll know what to do.

In Auckland the immigration officer is checking my passport and immigration card and casually asks me how long I was staying. I replied: "Only 3 hours, I'm flying to Melbourne this afternoon." She looked at me and said: "Oh, is that so? Can I see your ticket please?" D'oh! Not good. I tried to explain her that I had to sort that out but she demanded a ticket. I remembered that originally the next flight booked was Auckland -> Honolulu and looked through my documents for the schedule. Unfortunately the print-out that I had with my was from the 10. August '08, before I left. And on this sheet of paper the flight was still scheduled for the 31. of March, she didn't like that and just said: "I'm sorry but at the moment you don't meet the requirements to immigrate here, please follow me."

I was led to a waiting room where a couple of shady men were hanging around with similar our more severe problems. After some time I got on the phone with an Air Newzealand person somewhere and after some 2 hours of talking and giving her information all my tickets got rescheduled and I could go and immigrate: "Good news Mr. Arnold, you have been issued a 90 day visa." Thank you very much, I'm leaving in 45 minutes and can't come back to NZ due to the rtw-ticket regulations.

Anyway I made it to Australia.

And I even got a pic from NZ!
Therefor I lost my sunglasses at Melbourne airport.

Japan Picture Update

2009-04-20T06:26:00.011+02:00

Some pictures. A couple from the sakura and bamboo in Kyoto, most of them from Tokyo and the fish market there.

Nara in one line: It's Kyoto in small with deer.

Osaka in one line: It's Tokyo in small.

Kyoto

2009-04-10T06:47:00.005+02:00

You'll get the Tokyo pics after I spent my final Japan time there before going on. There are sill many things I need to visit in this tiny 30 million-biggest-city-on-this-planet.

Yesterday I came from Tokyo to Nara but I'll tell you about this place when I move on.

First of all let's start with my (almost not-) departure of Beijing. It all started in Chengdu, where I got the mission to try the roast duck where it is originally from -Beijing- and compare it to the one we had in Chengdu. On my last evening we still had not found the time to go and get. It seemed like the last chance. But it got later and later and we weren't ready to head out. Finally at 10.30pm we made it. But it seems all the roast duck restaurants close early in Beijing. After Mari called about a dozen places we gave up. My flight to Tokyo was scheduled for 2.15pm the next afternoon, that should be late enough to inhale on of those birds for lunch. Somehow it got later again and it wasn't until about noon that we made it to the restaurant. At 12.30 we were served a delicious roast duck, but time was running. When I got in the cab at 1.00 for the one-hour ride to the airport I knew it would be tough. Especially since my cab driver seemed to not have slept the last night and was dozing off while driving on the highway. So we crept along on the right lane and I was getting nervous. When I informed the Japanese ground staff from ANA that my flight was leaving in about 20 minutes I felt like being in a beehive at once. People swarmed out, phones rang and I was hurried through corridors with since like 'Staff only' or 'No admittance' on their previously locked doors. It worked - in a couple of minutes I got to my gate, only to find out in the plane that my seat was double-booked and a Japanese businessman was sitting there chatting with his neighbor. The ANA stewardess taking care of the situation bowed and apologized about a thousand times - gomenasei - and finally she decided that one of us would be flying business class. She looked at me checking out my outfit and shook her head slightly. Then she asked the Japanese guy if he would mind flying business class. Of course he wouldn't mind. Damn - backpackers never get upgraded.
But at least I made it.

After a couple of days in Tokyo I took 123bus' night bus to Kyoto and moved in at Tani-sans old and nit very clean but very comfortable old Japanese-style hostel.
There are about 45832 temples, 871234 shrines and many other things to visit in Kyoto, zen gardens, rock parks, palaces, castles, museums, whatever.
I could give you detailed information about everything I visited, it would look more or less like this for every place:
The fine temple of Daitoku-ji was first built in 1319 by Himura Kenshin for the buddhist sect of battousai. It was burnt to the grounds in the Shogun-war 1665 and rebuilt 5 years later. In the edo-period it was again burnt down and rebuilt. 500Yen entrance fee.

Now you only have to change the names and dates and that's it. I'll only provide you with the wiki links (as far as available) to save my internet time (which is insanely expensive in Japan).

Slight change of plans: abort blogging due to internet and computer in this (f***ing expensive) internet cafe not working correctly. It's a shame. If you look at Japan everything seems to be in perfect order, clean, safe and comfortable. But when you're actually there you notice that many things only look perfect and are actually not working. First thing is: internet. I'm sitting in a posh cafe, polished chrome ashtray, free coke with ice from a crystal glass, quiet jazz-lounge music filling the room around comfy leather chairs, decent flat screens. Looks perfect. But the computer (looking brand new) is so slow it's amazing that the Norton 2003 (didn't happen much in the last 6 years of information technology!) doesn't stop it completely. Now imagine starting up the first generation MS Internet Explorer. Or even inserting your 4GB CF-card. Don't you dare to even think of rotating one of those 10megapixels pictures. Sad, very sad. If I remember China where every McDonald's, Starbucks, restaurant and cafe had free and fast wifi for anybody to use. Perhaps you might say: 'Yeah, but come on, you're in Nara, that's only a small town with it's 350.000 people.' But it's been the same in Kyoto and Tokyo. Shame on you Japan. You are developing all this stuff! Why don't you use it? Perhaps you should try getting one of your Shinto gods to work on this issue.

Wall decoration in the Nijo-jo

The bike I raced though Kyoto

Kinkaku-ji

Kimonos on their way to the temple

street leading up to the temple, one of the most popular sites for the Japanese coming to Kyoto

Kiyomizu-dera, built on some 140 wooden columns, with the famous love shrine

Fushimi Inari-taisha, probably this vast shrine complex stretching over a hill is the most impressive sight in Kyoto with thousands of red gates placed there by families to get a special wish fulfilled and all the kitsune lining the ways and the shrines

it's main gate

I can't even type without having the computer stop. Sad.
Perhaps I'll get lucky in Hiroshima. Got lots more pictures but even this took me more than two hours. That was my dinner money :-(
I apologize for any spelling erros but I'm not able to check. Whenever I start scrolling the conputer freezes for about 3 minutes.

Chengdu and Beijing

2009-03-29T18:05:00.009+02:00

You will now get an update for Chengdu and Beijing.

Chengdu was not really a tourist time, since I stayed in Peter's flat with his roommates Thomas and Philipp. It felt more like visisting some friends studying in Dresden or Berlin than being in the middle of China.

The flat is on the 7th floor, no elevator. Therefor you have a rooftop terrace - perfect to chill with some beers and enjoy the first days of spring.

me + Kingway

Peter + Kingway + Muziek Piete

getting the essentials.

on the way back from the gym

in the restaurent around the corner

Nontheless did I see some things in Chengdu, this is the peach blossom in the countryside around the city where I was with a friend of Thomas

me

Maggie

Jiling road, a place for tourists, looks ancient but is fake. Nice to hang out and eat + drink. Thank you Nina for showing me around the town.

some performance

lovely atmosphere

traditional music

Chinese ppl love kites, especially kids and old men. This pic is from a flower garden Nina showed me where all the stressed out city people stroll around, drink tea and play mahjongg on the weekend.

Nina

Opening of a bar Peter's friend Jasmine (in the middle) took us to. Somehow the landlord (Adam, on the right) found out about us being German and we found out that he studied in Wuerzburg some mere two decades ago and still speaks German. Somehow we then found out that Remy Martin tastes even better when it's free.

Beijing

Sichuan Airlines took me (with the hottest stewardesses, the worst food and no beer) to Beijing.

View over the forbidden city

Palace of eternal happiness, everlasting wishfulness, infinite wisdom or whatever they are called - the 42nd concubine's bathroom.

view from the gate of the forbidden city over what is supposed to be the world's largest square. Mao's mausoleum in the center, national museum and parliament on the left or right

Mari in the subway

Even if you consider our sheer awesomeness, note the great wall in the back.

Our tour to the great wall

me, KQ (Taiwan), Mari, Hanna and an Israeli couple we shared the taxi with on some tower

I'm running out of time, I'll tell you next time how I almost missed my flight because all the Beijing roast duck restaurents close so early.

Greetings from Tokyo!

Pictures Achim

2009-03-22T15:37:00.007+01:00

Similan Islands diving

2009-03-13T11:53:00.008+01:00

Finally the pictures found their way from Stuttgart to Renningen and to my blog.

I don't think I need to comment on every pic. It's only some turtles, fish, Franz, Achim and me. Enjoy!

Xi'an

2009-03-05T16:09:00.009+01:00

I've been to Xi'an and of course I've been to the terracotta army.
Here are the pics:

The problem with Peter is, that he really likes my lens and conclusively is using it a lot - so there are loads of pictures with me in them.

Double Cheeseburger Blues

Xi'an at night

Belltower in the middle of the walled part of town at night

me + belltower + fake cherry blossoms (it's been snowing for god's sake and all they do is set up plastic blossoms...)

my favorite shop

belltower

delicious food in the Muslim quarter

more

Peter and myself in front of the Belltower

KFC - we had to renact a pic Peter had taken when he was here last year

somewhere in the streets

baijiu with the more then amazing hotpot

after a couple of days and a visa extension there Peter had to return to university in Chengdu and I was like: "Hey, I'm coming with you!" It may be the opposite direction from my ultimate goal - Beijing but whatever. Apparently McDonald's tried to set foot in Sechuan province but failed because their food wasn't spicy enough and the local Chinese people said: "That taste' like nuthin'!" Now McDonald's has some special spicy burgers only available here - can't wait to try them. Otherwise of course Sechuan food is amazing and amazingly spicy. I love the Sechuan pepper which numbs your tongue and your lips!
Anyway that's for the next blog.
We had a rather pleasent train ride and now I'm staying with Peter at his appartment.

Pictures from the ride.

See you in Chengdu! Stay sound!

Shanghai

2009-02-23T13:23:00.005+01:00

Skyline - randomly taken while going for dinner.

Here we go.

I spent a long time there.
But I had very good company indeed and was still a little ill.
The weather sucked and constant rain made sight-seeing not very enjoyable. I've been to the Shanghai Art Gallery and a little around the city though.

Wujian Snack Road - soon to disappear for another posh shopping street...

hot pot eating! yummy!

pig brain for the hot pot - nice!
As soon as Chris uploads the video from the guy juggling the noodles I'll post it.

not so posh - yet

walking home from the club at 4:30 in the morning

Shanghai streets at night

After 17hrs in the train I'm in Xi'an (8.2 million ppl) now, going to see the terracotta army tomorrow and then wait 'til the 27th to get my passport with extended visa back from the PSB (Public Security Bureau). Peter should be here by the 25th from Hong Kong.

Chongqing to Shanghai

2009-02-17T09:12:00.010+01:00

Yep.

First of all I have to correct the last entry. Guiling doesn't have 600.000 ppl but 6 million of course.

Here we go. I'm atm sorting pictures and after I've resized them I'm gonna upload them all. It's really not easy since Peter and Mari had both reflex cameras and now in Shanghai Jerome and Chris are into photography as well... we took so many (useless) pictures.

Leaving Chonqing on the boat, here's the skyline (or at least a small part of it) and another boat.

Fist tourist attraction stop with our boat was the 'City of Ghosts': Fengdu.
At 6.30 in the morning the speakers all over the boat started playing horrific Chinese techno music and everybody was forced to wake up.
The town itself consisted mainly of temples and tourist shops and some strange attractions. Nothing special. But we almost missed our boat because we ate some noodles in town and they were already about to leave us behind but Peter forced them to stay and wait for Mari, Patrick (a Chinese guy we met on the boat) and me.

Chinese underworld

people grinder - Chinese underworld, a fun place to be. Please note the dog licking the blood.

a tower! wow!

cable car

amazing view from the highest point!

You spend a lot of time on the sun deck (for which you had to pay extra - even though there rarely was any sun) and watch the Chinese guys playing cards and mahjong and getting drunk.
Since Peter and Mari (studying some Asian-studies in Bonn) both speak really good Chinese we somehow started playing with the bored kids, which was a lot of fun. The weather sucked, it was cold, windy and foggy.

view from the boat...

Cpt. Future reporting in

thumb-wrestling Chinese kids

it was pretty windy at one point...

more random pics

Next stop was the 'Zhang Fei' Temple, he's the warrior guy from the 'Romance of the three Kingdoms' who swore the peach garden oath together with Liu Bei and that other guy.

The 3rd attraction were 'the lesser three gorges' where we changed in smaller boats and drove through the rocks.

The 4th and last thing was the great dam(n).
Even in daylight it would have probably been to foggy to see anything.

front view

on top

model, that thing in the middle (with the small canal is actually a boat elevator)

We spent the night in Yichang (3.99 million ppl), very happy to get a real bathroom (even though it was dirty and cold water only - still far better than the thing on the boat).

Yichang instant noodles hotel room convention

Next day we got train tickets to Wuhan and said goodbye to Patrick.

Obviously we were not the only ones wanting to take a train - Yichang station

After a couple of hours we were in Wuhan (4.32 million ppl), the city in the heart of China or something like that. There are a couple of temples, a huge bridge over the Yangtze and a very adorable snack alley.
After a couple of days there we split: Peter flew to Hong Kong to get his throat checked and Mari took the fast train to Beijing to take a flight back to Germany for a couple of weeks and I took the night train to Shanghai.

the amazing snack alley

Peter and Mari enjoying the snack alley

shooting balloons with air guns!

blind palm reader asleep near Guiyuan temple

girl in the temple (some might know it)

being cool somewhere in the temple compounds

Wuhan center

me, Peter and Jonathan (NL) in Wuhan

Peter in the hostel

me taking medicine

Here I am in the Mingtown Hiker's Youth Hostel, coughing an sneezing and taking all kinds of medicine. Hanging around with Chris aka Archibald Quentin from London (redhatphotography.blogspot.com), Jerome from Sydney/Philippines, Aviv from Israel and Hassan from Marocco. I met Anqi, a friend of Peter who's studying micro electronics in Shanghai and loads of other people. I even bought myself a new mobile phone, a K-Touch B920 - these Chinese electronics are so awfully cheap... I'll stay here another couple of days and get better before I go do Xi'an. But I think the medicine I bought today (about the 8th I try...) seems to be kicking in!

a girl we met in the big camera/secondhand/photography equipment store where I got a professional cleaning and Jerome and Chris get their pictures developed.

we were obviously playing around - Aviv

Chris and his extremely cool oldschool Chinese camera

nice hot pot dinner I enjoyed with Anqi and a friend of her's

What you stumble upon in a Shanghai second hand bookstore

Guilin, Yabgshuo, Chongqing

2009-02-03T07:33:00.028+01:00

It's been a while.
So prepare for a long blog.

I took the 6hrs train from Nanning to Guilin. There in the Pink Flower Youth Hostel (I actually got a discount with my Thai fake student ID) I met Katja from Leipzin in my Dorm who is studying one year in Nanjing.

Guilin is surrounded by scenic limestone formations, here are some pics.

tower in the middle of a lake in the middle of Guilin (600.000ppl).

Temple in the 'Seven-Star-Park'

View over Guilin from one of the hills in the park

giant panda in the park's zoo

lesser panda

next on the program: Reed-Flute Cave

I then took the 6hr boat ride from Guilin to Yangshuo on Li river.

the rocks from the 20 yuan bill!

more from the boat

Katja joined me in Yangshuo the next day by bus and we did some sight seeing. We got bicycles and rode to the moon hill and climbed all the way to the top. On our way back to town we had a nice hot pot in a small restaurent along the road, delicious!

View over Yanghuo (144.000ppl) from my hotel's roof (serious 9th floor climbing action!)

other side

Yanghsuo tourist business at night. This city is one of the main attractions for Chinese tourists in China.

Moon Hill. It's some 1215 steps to the hole and some more rock climbing up to the top.

Katja and me on the peak

view from up there

about to land...

yummy hot pot

In China they eat dogs!

and poultry...

...and goat (that's the head of a pig on the left btw)...

...and about everything else that moves. From owls to frogs you can get everything (and every part of it). Yangshuo market.

Next day we parted ways after taking the bus back to Guilin. She went to the train station and I got a 1hr flight to Chongqing, a small town (city: 5 million, municipality: 31 million people) on the banks of the Yangtze, called 'the fog capital'. And it's true, you can barely see the other side of the river and the huge maze of skyscrapers and huts is a little bit frightening.

You have to imagine 40 storey apartment skyscrapers looming out of the fog above it. And they are everywhere!

Tomorrow I'll be going on a boat again but this time it's on the Yangtze and it's for 2 nights and three days! Next time I post you'll get pictures from the Three Gorges Dam! See you in Wuhan!

Nanning

2009-01-27T10:11:00.014+01:00

The Lotusland Hostel is a very nice place indeed.
Still I got my tain ticket to Guilin today.
And I understood something in Chinese! When I was buyig some (very delicious!) food in the street I understood that he wanted san yuan (3 yuan)! Yay!

Here are some pics from new year's eve!

Selfmade Dumplings on the table (actually the manager(far sofa, the one on the right) bought the dough and his wife (pink jacket, facing the TV) prepared the meat and veggies we put inside and we 'only' had to make them.)

close up

Towards midnight we went to the rooftop and decided that we didn't have enough fireworks. So we went out and bought a small chain of crackers and a battery of rockets.

Lighting the chain (the proper ones the Chinese use are up to 30m - really loud).

After:

Rooftop

Today the weather got better and it was more fun to walk around town.
Here are the pictures:

rooftop view

center

Squid

Mahjong

See you around and a happy new year! See you in Guilin.

Hanoi to Nanning

2009-01-24T06:55:00.005+01:00

I made it to China! I sold my scooter to the guys from my hotel, got a visa (65$) and a train ticket (30$) and did it!

Hanoi is a nice place. You have loads of temples and pagodas, dozens of Ho-Chi-Minh-museums, etc. - and the beer corner! A junction with a 'bar' on every corner selling a glass of bia hoi for 3000d (0,12Euro). You meet lots of people there and later head on to the proper bars which stay open longer, where you pay up to 25.000 for a bottled beer.

beer corner - you only see one in the center (I was sitting in the opposite one), the other two are further left and right

Ho-Chi-Minh's mausoleum (was closed so I didn't meet him)

One Pillar Pagoda

presidential palace

China:
- 18:30 Train station: passport and ticket control
- platform: passport and ticket control
- in the train: ticket control
- in your compartment: passport and ticket and visa control
- train is leaving.
- I finish War and Peace after an hour
- lights are turned off 15min later
- 0:30 immigration at the border:
- take your luggage, leave the train
- fill out forms and declarations
- passport and visa control
- platform: passport control
- 5:56 luggage control
- take your luggage, leave train
- passport and visa control
- x-ray luggage
- passport control
- back in the train: passport control
(he looked at me and my passport picture 15 times, I had to move my head, he asked his colleagues to come and wanted an additional proof of identity...)
- 10:45 Nanning!

easy, but I actually paid for a sleeper train and I didn't get much of sleep...

China so far seems nice but cold. I bought shoes and socks and the weather forecast for Beijing is -4C. And no one speaks English. Have to learn some basic Mandarin fast. There is so many McDonald's here, wherever you are you can see one. KFC as well.

daily problems in China

Hoi An to Hanoi

2009-01-19T05:55:00.021+01:00

It's been a while, a lot has happened and here come the stories.
Let's start slowly.
It was only a short 70km ride from Hoi and to Hue (Quote lonley planet: "Intellectual, cultural and spiritual heartbeat of Vietnam, the old imperial capital offers historical, spiritual and culinary stimulation." - my opinion: just another big city.)

Thien Mu Pagoda

Palace - throne

Palace - outside

Still I had to drive over a steep mountain pass since the new tunnel was not for bikes.
The city itself was nice but by far nothing special.
At least it had one good thing. I met Russell from Colorado who was travelling on a Fanlim 100 from south to north as well. So we teamed up and went to Dong Ha the next day to check out the demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the former border between North- and South Vietnam. After we checked into a hotel in the not very pleasing town of Dong Ha we headed north to the Ben Ha river and the Vinh Moc tunnels, a Vietcong base.
Those small, dirty, wet tunnels were quite amazing, if you keep in mind, that people had been living there for years.

Vinh Moc

We decided to get away from suicidal Highway 1 and headed towards the mountains the next day on Highway 15 and stopped by at Trung Son National Cemetery. It had been raining all day and we were freezing cold so we did not go far and took a hotel at the outskirts of Dong Hoi on Highway 15.

Trung Son

Next day we headed further north on the 15 and thought about going to the 'famous' World Heritage Phong Nga caves. But since we didn't arrive there till early afternoon and the tour by boat would have cost us a fortune and 3 hours we decided against it. So we drove around there a little to see something of the scenic limestone landscape. After some security guys stopped us didn't let us pass since we didn't have a ticket we took a small dirt path down some fields to where you could actually see the entrance of the cave. Surprisingly there was an old lady with a small ferry who offered us to take us to the other side. Upon arrival in the small village on the other side we decided to do some offroad driving around some mountains to get back to the highway. It turned out to be quite a dirty, muddy adventure but a lot of fun. We had to drive through bushes, deep mud and big stones. All the locals there (probably didn't see a tourist for 15 years - on a bike!!) were amazed and surprised.

no trespassing

our ferry

Russell on the ferry

lots of fun

After some time and one of my flipflops MIA we could actually see a proper street. On the other side of the river. We thought: "No problem, the locals gotta cross somewhere - look there is a path, perhaps there is a bridge, let's drive there." Upon arrival I was like: "FUCK!" Russell coming there 5 seconds later was like: "FUCK!" And after a little consideration we decided that we wouldn't cross that bridge.

dangerous enough by foot

right foot

left foot - no flipflop

!!!

So we went on through the mud. But the bridges coming up were all like the first one. So eventually we asked some village people to take our bikes to the other side by boat, which they did (against Dong of course).

Russell crossing the bridge (made out of bamboo and old tyres)

getting his bike to the boat

So we were back on the road, had a lot of fun but lost a lot of time. We went on driving until after dark in search of a village big enough to have a guest house.

That's where the trouble starts.
We stopped at some random village to ask for a hotel. Russell spoke to some locals (Nha Khach is guest house and Khach San hotel) while I was driving down the road to see if there was something coming up. Upon my return I found Russell being held by a totally drunk police officer screaming something at him in Vietnamese. After a few minutes all the village was there laughing at us (for not understanding and being in a fucked up situation) and at their police guy (for being a drunk idiot). He tried to push Russell off his bike and take his bike keys away. After some 20 minutes we still couldn't resolve the problem and Russell rather wanted to stay there all night than give him his passport. So he sent me on to where we thought was a bigger village to look for help/a hotel/someone who spoke proper English or whatever. Since the police guy wasn't interested in me from the beginning and told me to go away I went and looked for something. When I returned some 30minutes later having found nothing Russell wasn't there anymore. Being afraid of encountering the same fate I didn't question the villagers, went back to the highway and to a restaurant some 100m away. It was quite late, I was full of mud, only one fliflop left and freezing. There was no hotel or town coming up and I barely had 150.000 Dong left. So decided to start talking to the locals in the restauarnt until one of them would eventually allow me to stay at his place. We ate loads of com (rice), ga (fish) and drank several bottles of roung (that's at least how I would spell it - some awfully strong homemade rice spirit) when the atmosphere was getting good I got lucky and one of the guys told me to come with him. We went to his hut some 200m away. His family was like: "WTF?" but kinda happy and very friendly. They teached me some more Vietnamese (as far as I remember fire is something like 'lua', chopsticks are 'doa' and chili is 'toa' and both chicken and fish seem to be 'ga' with a different pronounciation, but I can't tell). They had a campfire and we ate and drank more. Suddenly all his hut was filled with about 5-8 policemen who were obviously coming because of me. I was told to go with them but they only brought me to the next hut. There they examind my passport, international driver's license and bike papers what seemed to me like hours. I was constantly given more of the 'roung' and eventually a new pack of cigarettes. At some point they carried in a bed (no mattress but a blanket at least), took all my papers and bike keys and told me to go to sleep. After all this ruong I didn't really care what happened but somehow I had a bad feeling not having any papers or documents, almost no money and nothing much at all. But they were friendly and sober (at least at the beginning of the ruong interrogation) and then they asked for some money. I thought: "Okay, here it comes." since I had expected it all along. I only had one 100.000 bill (which I wanted to keep since I would eventually need some gas the next day), one 20.000 and one 10.000 and some smaller bills. So I gave them my last 30.000 and surprisingly after 10 minutes they returned with a new pair of fliflops. They were good guys indeed. The next morning I got my papers and keys and everything back and was told that I could go. Happy end for me, but what happened to Russell? I tried to ask them about him but either they did not understand or did not know that there had been another guy.

police guy

the guy where I intended to stay and his kitchen

So the next morning I headed on until I came to a town with a hotel. I took a room and a shower and went out to look for an ATM. But there wasn't one. Eventually I asked for a bank. But upon my arrival at the local Agribank I realized that the lady at the counter had never seen a credit card before and did not want to exchange my last dollars either. In the end I got them changed at a jewelry shop with the help of my hotel people. After checking facebook I learned that Russel got away while I was gone, turned right somewhere and stayed with a family (like I intended) whom he asked for a hotel without being disturbed any further. We met up again at a cafe close to a big intersection and exchanged pics at an internet cafe. Then we took a leave - he went west towards Laos and I east towards Highway 1 and Hanoi.

After spending another night somewhere along the highway and many hours of dusty, suicidal riding I eventually reached Hanoi. For the first time I got stopped at one of the many police controls found all along the streets. At the first one there were loads of police guys checking papers and even though I was speeding upon seeing I was a tourist they told me to go on (They have differnet speed limits for different vehicels - 40km/h for bikes, 50km/h for cars and trucks and mach 3 for busses). About 3 minutes later I was stopped again. That time they weren't really friendy and it was 3 guys with one police bike. They knew I was speeding and they knew I knew. Legally they could have taken my passport and put it to a pile of Vietnamese identity cards and yellow forms with an uncertain future. Luckily both parties were much more satisfied with me paying them 200.000 Dong.

some baby goat spirit anyone?

Probably I won't have time to check out the Halong Bay but I can make it to Nanning for Tet. Currently my passport is at the Chinese embassy getting a visa.
That was a lot of adventure and even though being on the verge giving up a couple of times it was a huge load of fun!

See you around and stay sound!

Dalat to Hoi An

2009-01-10T13:53:00.012+01:00

After more than 800km I made it to Hoi An.
I spent most of the time riding though. But since I've seen an awful lot of waterfalls, temples and remote villages I was happy enough to miss some.
Weather was sunny (but kinda cold and really windy almost storming) for the first couple of days and constant rain for the last two days. Even though the road from Kontum to Danang is pretty scenic, winding through the rain forest along the old Ho-Chi-Minh trail it would have been really magnificent if I hadn't drenched and freezing. But rain forest didn't get it's name for nothing.

Here are some pics I took from the highway/street/whatever.

Kids on a bridge

Victory Monument in Boun Ma Thuot City

church ruins I found along the way

landscape of Vietnam!

landscape of Vietnam!!

landscape of Vietnam!!!

Eventually I made it to Hoi An. A small town on the coast which is a huge tourist destination. The local government worked really well in preserving the traditional style and you have the atmosphere of being in Vietnam 80yrs ago. If there weren't so many tourists and tailor and souvenir shops.

central market

delicious food (pho bo!)

Japanese covered bridge - supposed to be one of the main sights. I was not impressed.

lantern shops

riverside

I'll be setting of to Hue tomorrow since I don't feel like exploring the ancient My Som ruins in the rain.

See you around and have fun!

Di Linh and Dalat

2009-01-05T12:04:00.010+01:00

So far everything went well I had to stay in Di Linh since it just got too cold to drive and I had been on the bike for 6hrs already. I had a really good time at a random Pho stall along the road though. The older people in non-touristy areas don't speak English but the kids learn a bit in school and they are really happy to talk with someone strange from a strange country far away and show how much they know. We had lots of fun and laughing. That's the kinda stuff you do not experience when you travel by bus since they always stop at the restaurant of the driver's uncle etc. And it's really cheap too.

(the red helmet saying 'NASA' with the Mickey Mouse sticker is mine btw)

So I stopped in Di Linh and literally didn't do anything since there's nothing to do around and I was totally exhausted. Still I got a pic from the valley.

View from my hotel room at dawn

After another 2hrs. of driving I reached Dalat. Once a place for rich French colonialists to spend the hot summer it is still a charming and relatively quiet town (188.000ppl). You have loads of colonial style buildings and the atmosphere of the French Alps in springtime (that's at least what the lonely planet says).

Dalat center

view from my hotel, as you may notice the weather was not the best (amazing sunset though)

shrine shop next to my hotel. Get all you spiritual needs fulfilled for cheap!

street scene

Statue in a pagoda of the goddess of grace or whatever. Awfully cheesy

If I find a place to buy a jacket I'll continue north probably and return to the coast at Hoi An via Pleiku. See you around and have fun!

HCMC

2009-01-02T08:41:00.016+01:00

After a couple of days in Vietnam I really love it so far. It's far more what you Asia think to be like. After being a little disappointed by Thailand and Singapore finally the mayhem is back.

There are loads of tourists around though and it's hard to find a secluded space where you're not offered 'special massages', sunglasses, weed, fake zippo lighters and fake lonely planets.

Here are the sights I visited.

Reunification Palace

This thingy has seen quite a lot of the troublesome past and political struggles of Vietnam. I have never seen something so perfectly 60's-styled. Under the oldschool reception rooms there is a huge basement complex with secret passageways and really old communication and intelligence stuff. It has been the secret headquarter during some part of the war until the prime minister fled.

conference room

modern intelligence technology

frontview

Jade Emperor Pagoda

It is said (by my fake lonely planet) that this is one of the most impressive pagodas around. I expected it to be bigger but it was nice anyway. Since I'll see enough of them in China I didn't bother going to a second one for comparison.
It was full of grim statues and figures of all kind of sorts.

Colorful female statues

Candles

strange warriors and kings or whatever-gods

more

shrine with fruit offering

War Remnants Museum

Sorry no pictures. Was a rather small place showing some tanks and bomb shells and pictures of American war crimes and soldiers. You can read about Agent Orange, etc.

Then there was one stunning thing to happen. I witnessed the finals of the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup which Vietnam won. After Thailand scored in the 21. minute it took Vietnam another 72 minutes and a lot of screaming and swearing for my Vietnamese hotel people to score. Soon after the streets were full with bikes and flags. You could barely walk between them. I was stuck with my bike for probably one hour. Everybody was shouting and happy.

Some more street scenes

sleeping dog

selling fruits in the street

view from my hotel room

Today I got a bike and will be on the road to Hanoi starting tomorrow.

See you around and a happy new year to everybody!

S'pore

2008-12-24T13:14:00.013+01:00

Hey!

For a change Singapore is really amazing. For your budget it isn't. All the standards here are Western, most of them exceed them in fact. It's cleaner, safer, newer!

Compared to the rest of Asia (or at least what I've seen so far) it's really stunning! It is almost as expensive as Europe's big cities but it's worth it!

Anyway here are some pictures (with my EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8):

Shopping in Little India

S'pore's Merlion with skyline

Chinatown shopping

basement market at 'Chinatown Complex'

Harbour Front at night

Christmas shopping at Vivo City Mall

Dining at Vivo City Mall

Orchard Rd.

Christmas at Takashimaya Shopping Mall

Orchard Rd. at night

This city is an interesting mixture of Western economics, Chinese business and influences,Indian immigrants, Muslim and Hindu religion and tradition and finally the Malay natives who try to fit in somewhere. So this would normally result in overwhelming mayhem and chaos, but in Singapore it does not. It is probably the easiest way to see a lot of different kinds Asian lifestyle, even though it may not be as authentic and rough as the real deal it is very interesting and fascinating.

People here are rich. The normal youth in the MRT (perfect, clean, fast, new subway) is listening to his I-pod while playing on his PSP and talking on his I-phone. They are all into shopping, cinemas, electronics, expensive cars, etc. The streets are full of Western cars (BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lamborghini, etc.) and many NFSU-styled cars race through the highway-like streets at night.

Nice to hang around it you're tired of Asia's poor and annoying places even though a beer at a restaurant for 8S$ and a pack of cigarettes for 12S$ is quite expensive.

Have a nice time, see you in Vietnam for new year!

Boom Boom!

2008-12-19T09:11:00.013+01:00

Been all around Thailand and can't wait to leave tomorrow.
But let's start slowly.
After witnessing the strange but aboslutely stunning sight of the glowing sea at night in Sihanoukville which really looked crazy when swimming we just relaxed with good seafood and got some scooters.

Phnom Penh market

Sihanoukville Sunset

Sihanoukville Sunset

The world famous Boom Boom Orang-Utan Association
(from left to right: Franz Xaver Salzeder aka Kamerad Kaiser, Bernadett 'du bist aber nicht immer so gruen im Gesicht, oder?', myself, Tina the Mercyless, Achim aka Mr. Halllloescheee Poppoescheee and Liam 'Does someone want a beer?')

After the 'Boom Boom Orang-Utan Association' broke up Franz, Achim and myself took a bus to Koh Chang (or at least to the nearest port) back in Thailand we then took a 2hr ferry over the the island of Koh Chang. There we enjoyed beach life and a lot of beer (Archa, the cheapest one, with 19 Baht was our favorite). One day again we got some scooters and went swimming in a waterfall and drove to a big resort in the southern part of the island. We spent some time in the Sabay, the only real club around, and one of the shittiest I've ever seen as well, and relaxed.
After a couple of days there the guys wanted to do some diving and so we took a minibus to Bangkok airport and flew down to Phuket, the closest airport to Khao Lak. In the plane those damn soccer lunatics read about a match of the 'Whatever Suzuki 2008 Cup' - Thailand against Laos which was held that evening in Phuket. So we had to spend one night there and they went to see the match.
Next morning we were off in the local bus to Khao Lak.
There we checked out the prices for diving on the Similand Islands which are said to be one of the world's best scuba and snorkeling sites. I decided to do a open water diving license and it was really worth it - so man fish, turtles and even a manta ray and sharks have been spotted together with all sorts of snakes, octopus, clams and whatever you can imagine. The water was clearer than anything I've ever seen (30m view!) and living on the boat was amazing. Still it's not cheap and so Achim and Franz spent 3 days/2 nights there and I joined the one day later (since you have to go to the pool first) and stayed 2 days/1 night.

One of the 9 islands (80-200mm tele lens is NOT the right tool!)

Diving boat similiar to our own

Similan Islands

After diving we took a taxi (!wtf!) to Krabi where we did a one day boat tour to the amazing rock and island formations surrounded by jade green water and white beaches.

Our Captain Future with his boat somewhere near Chicken Island

KrabiKrabiKrabiikairbaksikasbi

Achim then took the plane from Krabi to Bangkok and Franz went to Kolanta to do some more diving. I took the bus to BKK one day later.

I just traded (500Baht!!) the fake Vietnam lonely planet I found in the hostel in Phuket for an original Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei one.

I'm really sick of Thailand right now. Packed with sex tourists buying girlfriends for their holidays'n shit...

See you in Singapore!

(Gestern an der Bar nochn 65-jaehrigen Koelner Bauern getroffen, der Millionaer geworden is mit sein Land verkaufen - der war sowas von krass drauf! Zitat: "Masseusen sind die Besten, das kannst du mir glauben - ich komm schon 32 Jahre nach Thailand, ich hab so ziemlich alles gebummst was hier rumlaeuft." Danke fuer die Info... Ibo aus Rostock der schon ne Weile hier rumhaengt und schwarz als IT-Depp in Internetcafes arbeitet meint dazu: "Was der in den 6 Monaten die ich ihn kenn alles gevoegelt hat ist nicht normal, aber nur die Schoensten!" Is ja jedem sein eigenes Ding was er im Urlaub macht, aber wenn der ganze Tourismus hier halt darauf aufbaut verdirbts einem den Rest halt ein bisschen.)

Achim at a BKK street market we visited after seeing the pathological museum of some hospital

I almost forgot to post our hymn - enjoy!

Angkor What?

2008-12-02T09:51:00.011+01:00

We (Achim and myself) decided to take the Bus to Siem Reap (Cambodia) and see Angkor Wat. We met Franz from Straubing on the Khao San Road and he decided to join us. The bus to the border should take about 6 hours, where we have to cross the border by feet and get another bus to Siem Reap on the other side. We had to get up at 6:30 in the morning. Ugh. At noon we arrived at the border. In the bus we met Tina and Bernadette (Cologne, Duesseldorf) even though the latter had been vomiting all day and was to weak to walk so we had to carry her and her backpack. We stopped several times for food and got ripped off for the visa (paid 15$ too much). After crossing the border we enter the shitty Cambodian bus and continue along rice fields and palm trees. In the evening we have a flat tire which is repaired on the spot for 10000Riel (~2,50$). We arrived at the hotel (of his uncle of course - "Clean and cheap for you, my friend!") at half past ten. Later we read in the guide book that they try to extend the journey on purpose so the tourists don't bother searching for another hotel because they're tired and it's late. Anyway we had to stay since some Danish dipshit (Taettowierter Taugenix) took Achim's backpack and went off and they helped us get it back. The hotel ('Winter Guesthouse' - none of them has ever seen snow) was good value anyway and the staff was friendly, even though my mobile disappeared on the last day...
The next day we explored Siem Reap and it's diverse markets (the touristy and the local ones) and had some great food in the street.

Meat shop in the market

The day after we took a boat tour to a floating village consisting of swimming houses, schools, churches and whatever you need. Afterward we visited the civil war museum where we were taught about the history of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, Landmines, etc.

Floating village

Achim and local boy, floating village

Civil war museum

In Siem Reap you spend the evening in 'Pub Street' where all the tourists (and later at night dealers, hookers and loads of Tuk Tuk drivers) hang around. There are many bars and some really good restaurants. You get good Thai/oil/powder/foot/head massages for almost nothing.
Finally on the third day we went to Angkor Wat, we decided to do the one day tour which was good. It's a lot of stones and trees and it is impressing but one day is enough. Fuckin' broke my lens while climbing down a temple! Damn!

Me and Tina, Angkor Wat

Franz and Achim sleeping after a long day of walking

Anyway there is a Canon shop in BKK. Until then I have to cope with the 70-200 tele lens...
After a day in the temples we go to bed early after eating an amazing pizza/pasta in 'Pug Street' because our bus to Sihanoukville leaves at 7:00.
After one day of driving (this time Franz was puking - well he had a lot of chili on his pizza) we arrived at the magnificent beaches of Cambodia. Clear water, amazing seafood, cheap beer and comfy bamboo huts do the trick. On the bus we picked up Liam from Brisbane/London, so now we're 6!

Beach Life, notice our hotel in the back, Liam had wet feet taking the pic by the way
From left to right: Franz, Bernadette, Tina, Achim, myself
Stay tuned for more pics as soon as a find an internet cafe with a better connection.

Kathmandu to Bangkok

2008-11-26T12:55:00.020+01:00

After quite a few days in Kathmandu I was more than happy to leave for warmer weather. But that was not to happen until I witnessed some riots in Kathmandu after the bodies of two youths missing since a couple of months have been discovered. The alleged murderers are thought to be members of the Young Communist League (YCL). I don't see the reason but the students forced a general strike and were roaming the streets of Thamel with bricks just when I was waiting for my 'Mixed Club Sandwich'-breakfast.
Soon after police forces were everywhere and it got calm again.

Police in front of the (former) King's Palace - notice the remains from the bricks on the street.

More - notice his tear gas-whatever-launcher

closed shops after the riot

empty streets after the riot

Kathmandu and Bhaktapur street scenes

After someone attempted to steal my beloved Pulsar which I carelessly parked in the streets near the hotel I was not in the mood for a lot of driving anymore. The repair was only 40 Euros but still it's awkward. I spent one day on a small Pulsar (while mine was being repaired) and had a final look on the snowy peaks from Nargakot and went through Bhaktapur on the way back.

Thai Airways brought me safely from the tiny farm-style 'airpot' in Kathmandu to the huge temple of steel, glass and light which presents itself as an impressive monument of modern culture built for eternity in Bangkok. After being ripped off by the taxi guy who drove me (in a brand new Isuzu SUV which occured to me more like a spaceship than a car after the barely driving Marutis in Kathmandu) to Khao San Rd. I finally felt the humid weather I missed while freezing in Kathmandu.

It's incredibly clean, you have road signs, traffic lights (which are enforced!!!), trees and plants in the city, proper pavements, no power cuts, 24/7 Subway, Mc Donalds and Burger King, Mercedes and BMWs! It's like Europe, only cheaper and with far better food (try the Double Big Mac!) - nice!

Khao San Rd. is full of hookers (female, male/female and ex-male but you can't really tell), drunken tourist guys, tourist girls in hotpants competing with the hookers, food stalls that sell everything from sausages to locusts, fake shirts and ipods, fake student and journalist I.D.s and many other enjoyable things.

Music entertainment (his 'brekaing the law' was quite good)

hookers

bar on the street

Khao San Road

food

more food

christmas decoration close to MBK shopping mall

There's a lot going on right now, the government is in a crisis, there are riots and neighbouring countries warned their people not to go to Thailand. In the tourist centres business is as usual even though 24 flights were cancelled due to people forcing the aitport to close down. You have lots of security around with batons and yesterday evening someone was shooting in the street. I got one of the shells but forgot it in my room. I'll check if it was real next time. The gun and the shooting sure looked real though. Anyway, going to Cambodia tomorrow!

See you around and have fun!

Tansen, Lumbini, Sauraha, Daman

2008-11-11T09:05:00.016+01:00

I finished my trail along the 4 most important highways and just arrived back in Kathmandu.
Before leaving Pokhara I got up at 5.30 in the morning and nearly froze to death while searching a special view point to see the peaks in the first light of sunrise. After 20mins of searching I gave up and headed to the World Peace Pagoda for a 2nd time since the view is probably the same. You have the daylight pics of the peaks so I won't bore you with the orange ones.
After another 2hrs of sleep I took my bike and followed the highway south until Tansen, called 'the city of the white lake'. There is no lake nearby, but from the city you have excellent views down into the valley and in the morning the fog and the clouds down there look like a white lake (I got up at 6.00 again to see the sunrise). At my hotel I met a psychologist from Melbourne who is doing Kathmandu to Delhi by bicycle, which is quite a hard tour with all the mountains, the pollution, etc. Anyway Tansen is mainly untouched by tourism which is great for the atmosphere and for seeing some of the culture. It's easier to talk to people and someone around (mostly the kids) knows a few words of English and they are all very keen on being photographed and seeing their pictures. Parents carry their babies out so I can take a picture of them etc.

Tansen

Boys I met in the streets

When Hinduism (Swastika) and Maoists come together it can be confusing for Westerners

Kids in the street

more

The white lake

Me and my bike

I went down the Siddhartha Hwy on to Lumbini, 80kms that didn't really pay off. The birthplace of Buddha was probably the most unspectacular thing I ever saw in terms off religious stuff.
There you go: it's a stone like the one in the top left corner under glass with a sign. And in buddhist tradition they charged me 125Rps for it.

I rode on east the Tribhuvan Hwy trying to reach Sauraha at the border of the famous Chitwan National Park. I didn't manage to come near Sauraha until after dark and in good Nepali tradition there are no street lights and no signs to be found anywhere. Luckily I stumbled over the Sapana Village Lodge, some small houses with a really beautiful park around it, directly at the border to the Park, so far probably the best hotel I stayed at and the room was only 1500Rps.

Restaurant area in the morning mist

They serve amazing food by the way and offer amazing programs inside the park and outside with the local Tharu people.

Elephant in the garden

The next morning I drove off back to Kathmandu an reached Daman (2300m) around noon. I spontaneously decided to stay the night there. It is said that you have the best view of all Nepal in Daman and it probably is true. There were too many white peaks in the distance to count them. I stayed in a small family lodge and ate dhal baat (rice with verg. curry, pickles and dhal of course) with them and drank loads of chai (and Tuborg). Over lunch I got to know Yatri, the chief of the news department of radio Pratidhwani broadcasting over 2/3rd of Nepal from the hut next door. It literally is a hut. About 6-7 people working there. Since Daman is one a high position it's perfect for a radio. Still it's little more than 5 huts.

View

So I ended up discussing the US election and Nepali politics with him, until he looks on his watch an screams out: "Damn', I have to go, do the news!" Of course he invited me over to come see the studio and everything.

Studio live on air

Nepal really is a strange country. To get from Hetauda (about 300m) to Kathmandu (1300m) you need to pass Daman (2300m) and go down the valley again (250m) and finally back up to Kathmandu. That's a lot of serpentines and u-turns. To give you an impression this is what the highway looks like in Daman. And you're confronted with buses and trucks of this size all the time. As you can see they consume about 70% of the width of the street and they are speeding like crazy.

I'm thinking of going to Dhunche. The highway is about 2900 meters up there. But I'll have to get closed shoes.

So far, have fun!

Cross Country Ride

2008-11-07T13:59:00.003+01:00

After talking to many so called 'travel agencies' I decided to just take the offer my hotel made: bus to the border, stay in a hotel on the Nepali side and a bus to Kathmandu for 770Rps. If I had taken a bus/jeep/train combination I would have had to do a lot of booking myself and it wouldn't have been much cheaper. So I took the ride to the hotel. On the way to the border we picked up an Indian family(20 ppl) on their holiday trip to Nepal. Since they had to stop in a temple on the way (in Gorakhpur) and other things like this it was not until 11:00pm that we arrived at the border. The Indian guys stamped us out and Nepali guys stamped us in (after we gave them lots of Dollars). We went into a very shabby Hotel. Next day we left early and in the late afternoon we arrived in Kathmandu. I managed to get a free ride into Thamel, the tourist center, and found an ATM to get me some Nepali rupees (1 euro = 100 Nepali rupees).

Taken out of the bus in Gorakhpur

The second bus wasn't as good as the first one. And sitting in the back row we literally jumped as the bus worked his way up the mountains in a very dangerous and risky way. The 'highways' are small and the trucks and buses are big and full beyond limits. After a very long and painful ride we entered Kathmandu valley. In Thamel you easily find a hotel and loads of shops with fake trekking gear (North Face, Larca, etc.), fake DVDs and CDs, booking offices for doubtful experienced trekking, rafting, kayaking, hiking and paragliding tours.
As you might conclude most of the people there are some "Yeah I'll spend 2000$ and do a 21-days trek to the Everest base camp and won't see a shower or a toilet until I'm there and that makes me the coolest extreme sports guy around for sure!!"-people. I am not. Most people think I'm crazy since I'm in Nepal and won't go trekking. Anyway I got a brand new, night black Pulsar 220ccm and after 2 days of sightseeing and hanging out in the 'Lhasa' bar for live music, hooka and screwdrivers I went on the scenic Prithvi Highway off to Pokhara.

Kathmandus biggest temple, Swayambhunath, with the all-seeing benevolent eyes of Buddha

Way to the temple

View to the east over Kathmandu

Later we went and saw Kathmandus Durbar Square as well as the Durbar Square (temple and palace district) of Patan, south of the center

Wood carving detail, Patan Durbar Square
(just download it and turn it yourself, connection is too slow, so I won't upload it again.)

Old men hanging around a temple

Since it was a late night the last day I didn't manage to leave until after noon... After I convinced the guy at the military checkpoint on the city borders of Kathmandu that my purse with my German as well as my international drivers license has been stolen in Varanasi and paid him 200Rps he let me pass (actually I really don't know where my purse is, but luckily there was nothing important in it except for my drivers license, and the last time I needed that one was at a police control in Goa).
So I drove along the highway until the sun was hidden behind the steep hills and it got cold. I stopped at Mugling, ate some rice with grilled fish, veg curry and some spicy red veg sauce and dal. Next morning I bought a jacket in the cloth shop across the street, where I encountered this lovely shirt.

Perhaps you have to explain why there is such a shirt (and others, e.g. a picture of Che saying 'Fuck the Revolution' next to it) in a small 200 people town with no tourists (at all!) and no political significance whatsoever. The Indians thought Hitler was a cool guy since he started the war, which in the end led to Indias freedom of the British. The Nepali guys get attacked by Maoists from China all the time, there is lots of terror and stuff like that. And the only thing they know is that Hitler was kicking the communists asses. So they think that's cool. But they have no clue about any war history or the holocaust or anything.
I didn't buy the shirt. She wanted 320Rps for it.

Mugling, first half of the town.

Second half. The road is btw the highway with the most traffic in Nepal.

So I took my jacket and went to Manakamana, a temple reached by a Austrian 'Doppelmayr' cable car going up 1km on the 2.8km ride. Humans get a return ticket. Goats (130Rps) don't. If you have a special wish you really want to come true you sacrifice a goat, or if you're not rich enough a chicken or pigeons.

Woman lighting fires around the temple (I wasn't allowed in as a non-Hindu)

More lit candles

Bells, hanging around everywhere. (Whenever you do a religious offering (punja) you have to ring one, so the gods know it.)

The pics below contain explicit depictions of gore and dead animals. If you want to see them don't blame me afterwards. That's Hinduism for you!
Goat Pt. I
Goat Pt. II
Chicken action shot

I continued until I reached the road leading up in the hills to Bandipur. A lovely, remote, small town not destroyed by tourism. If I had more time I would have spent a couple of days there.

View of the town

Huge spiders everywhere, these were bigger than my entire hand

I continued my drive to Pokhara, which is situated between some lovely lakes.
Today I went up to the World Peace Pagoda, built by Japanese monks some years ago. Obviously it didn't work, but a great view anyway. This is the town of Pokhara (170.000 people) and the Annapurna Himal in the background.
The lonely planet says the summits are from west to east:
Hiunchli (6441m), Annapurna I (8091m), Machhapuchare (6997m), Annapurna III (7555m), Annapurna IV (7525m), Annapurna II ( 7937m).

World Peace Pagoda

Pokhara with lake 'Phewa Tal'

I got many more pics of the highway and other stuff, but since it's slow and expensive in Pokhara I'll do an update when I got a better connection.
My plans are to do a long tour round the south of Nepal back to Kathmandu and drive for a couple of days to the mountains north of the city.

So far, have a nice time!

Delhi + Varanasi

2008-10-29T12:27:00.018+01:00

Delhi was less bad then I expected. I have to admit though that I didn't see too much in the 2 and a half days I stayed there. I explored Parah Ganj, the part where most of tourists stay, and went to Lal Qila, the red fort of Delhi, which wasn't really fascinating. I got a train ticket to Varanasi and left on Monday afternoon. After all Delhi seems like a nice place for shopping and experiencing India. Being much cleaner then Jaipur and Chennai you are able to get a taste of a huge city with many millions of inhabitants quite nicely here.

Parah Ganj street scene

Beggar I encountered in the deserted back alleys

Parah Ganj Main Bazaar

View from my hotel rooftop

Just yesterday all Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists were glad to celebrate the Diwali festival, to remember when Lord Ram returned after 14 years of meditating in the forest. It is best compared to Christian Christmas, since presents are bought, etc. But it's also called 'The Festival of Lights' so everywhere are candles being lit. Another event connected with it, is the birth of goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune. There are traditional sweets and decoration sold everywhere, as well as terrifying fireworks assembled in some shady backyard which deafen many people every year. Most of them just are two pieces of clay with loads of black powder inside. In the narrow alley-ways of Varanasi these bastards really induce a nice big fat tinnitus. So everywhere in town were people buying sweets, decoration and fireworks. Here are some pics I took on the way to the red fort.

Family in front of a stand with cheesy statues

Flowers

I boarded the train and headed off for Varanasi (13 hrs). Until it got dark I was standing at the (always open) door of my coach and taking some pictures of the city passing by, when we stopped at a small station in the Delhi outskirts. After the train set off to leave I saw a man with a suitcase running along trying to get in. He decided to go for our door. An Indian guy and myself were ready to catch the suitcase but when he threw it he messed up, stumbled and fell over it. We couldn't see it, but assuming the looks and shouts of the people on the platform I thought: 'Fuck, he fell between the train and the platform and will be dead and the train will stop and police will interrogate me and the Indian guy.' But luckily nothing happened even though he got his leg between the platform and the train. Some people helped him stand up and he even made it in the train.

Some pictures from the ride

I my compartment, there was a couple from Belgium and they arrived just some days ago and he proposed to her at the Taj Mahal. Anyway it was their first long train ride in India. Since the train arrived at 5:50 in the morning at they wanted to set an alarm I asked them to wake me up. In the early morning, they did as I told them. While packing my things I looked out of the window and noticed that the train had already stopped already. I ask them if this is Varanasi, which they told me it was. My brain clicked instantly and I left half of my stuff (water, food, etc.) in the train, grabbed my backpack and ran for the exit. When I reached it at the other end of the coach the train was already leaving the station with about 20km/h. I couldn't blame the Belgians since they couldn't know that the train only stops for aboiut 2 minutes at every station. So I jumped out of the train which immediately induced a police guard on the platform to scream at me that one is not allowed to leave a driving train. The Belgians didn't make it, I don't know where they have gone. All this in the early morning after a night of bad sleep set me in a weary mood. I got a rickshaw to the first hotel the wallah wanted to drop me off and went to sleep for another couple of hours.

So I was in Varanasi. My earplugs helped me a lot with sleeping since the fireworks go on for days.
The next day I wandered through the small streets and along the ghats of the Ganga, watched a funeral pyre burn at the (smaller of the two burning ghats) called 'Harishchandra ghat', where everyday about 15-20 corpses are burnt. It's an open, public space, next to the pavement where everybody walks. The ceremony is difficult and takes long. Within 3 hours after the death the corpse has to be brought to the site. A pyre has to be built, using at least 300kg of holy wood. One member of the family has to get completely shaved and perform many rituals, cleanings with sandalwood and other expensive oils and herbs to fight the smell of burning flesh. And some of the disgustingly dirty water of the Ganga, where the remains of the body after at least 3 hrs of burning are put. At the other (bigger) ghat up to 50 people are burnt daily and their ashes and bones put in the river.
Since Varanasi is one of the holiest places for Hindus and being burnt there and sunk in the Ganga is very good karma, many old people come here to die.
Sometimes you feel a little strange, seeing all the people wash and pray and swim in the murky green water, ashes of the dead flowing everywhere.
Today I took a dawn boat ride and a tour to the important temples of the city afterwards. The new Vishwanath Temple, the Durga temple aka 'Monkey Temple', the Brhamin temple and another small one. (Photography prohibited in every case) There are countless temples and shrines everywhere.

Afterwards I was taken to a small factory producing precious silk saris, and a shop, which Varanasi is famous for.

Shiva shrine, where the holy fire for burning the pyres is supposed to burn since 45 centuries...

burning pyre

street scenes

boat trip

silk weaving

Varanasi is a place where you can actually feel the devotion of the people and their belief roaming through the streets, being held in every small shrine. Along with all the old people waiting for death everywhere it is indeed a fascinating experience.
Btw: Goan police wanted no papers and nothing except 100Rps. for letting me pass.

Goa

2008-10-23T08:06:00.017+02:00

I just booked my ticket to Delhi. With IndiGo Airlines. Tomorrow from Vasco Da Gamma, which is 100kms and one border away.

After a couple of days in Benaulim Benjamin and myself decided to leave for Palolem. I dropped him off at the local bus station, got my backpack and drove off. I used the duct tape to pin the 'map' of Goa from the Lonely Planet on my tank and a cut off water bottle as a cup holder to the side of the bike.

Fishermen I found after taking the wrong way...

My Pulsar near a deserted cliff where I had a lunch break.

In Palolem is a small town with loads of (Israeli) tourists and many bamboo huts just being built up for the main season in December. I got a nice but expensive room 50ms away from the beach and met Benni again. The place really is crowded and soon I decided the go back to Agonda, a huge but empty beach I saw on the way to Palolem.

Sorry my lens is crap for landscapes. Just imagine the sky was blue.
Palolem beach.

Here a map where I noted all the beaches I've been to.

So I went to Agonda, to a small place which was still being built up but the restaurant was open already. There I met Bob from Mumbai, a blues musician who was in charge of the stage there. He hired a Jazz guitarist from Oxford, England for the season and so the had frequent jam sessions and live music. And whenever a tourist came by who could play or sing or recite poems or whatever they were invited to do so on stage. So there was Gann from the U.S. (klick) and many others coming by and playing. The beach was huge and quite empty. After all my favorite place in Goa.

Agonda:

Goan Lifestyle

Then I got a mail from Nikki, see my post from Bundi for reference, that she and her sister are staying in Arambol. So I got on my bike and drove up.
Not much there. Kinda dirty... but they had a bar showing movies every night. Loads of freaky people and rasta hippies around.
The day I wanted to leave to Om beach (Gokarna) there was a lot of rioting going on in Goa. Since there is a lot of Christians Indians there and they built their little cross shrines everywhere. The Hindu fundamentalists tear them down and the police is like: "Whatever..." So the Christians get mad, throw stones, block roads, injure people and stuff like that. When I told the hotel guy: "I'm leaving in 15mins, please get my bill ready." He replied: "No, you can't go. The street is closed." Of course I did not believe him, took my bike and went to have a look. And indeed the road was blocked by huge stones and 200 Indians shouting and discussing. Now way through. So I had to wait 5 hrs til the road was open again and left. Goa was completely empty. No one was on the streets except the police and every, really every, single shop was closed. I couldn't get a bottle of water anywhere. I ran out of fuel 10mtrs away from a fuel station. Which was closed. So I had to push my bike 1km up a hill. At noon. With my backpack on. And no bottle of water. Until I found a place where I got something.
I spent another night with Bob and went down to Gokarna the next morning. At the border to Karnataka I was stopped by the border police. I did not have a helmet. I did not have a driving license and my bike was only permitted for Goa. I had to pay a 'fine' of 500Rps and could go on. I wonder if I have to pay the same amount to the Goan police when I reenter this afternoon.
Gokarna is a small town with several nice beaches near it.

My bike in Gokarna

Kudli beach, can only be reached by walk. (This time it really was clouded)

Street scene, Gokarna

Old women selling flowers in front of a temple

Goa is a nice place to stay if you want to relax on the beaches. And I think even if the flight is more expensive than Turkey, Spain or France, living here is so cheap that it should be considered a good alternative. Additionally there is not much taxes on all the things. Especially on booze, etc. so a bottle of this delicious 'Old Monk' comes to 140Rps and a beer to 30Rps. For a grilled kingfish with chips and salad you have to pay 150Rps and 12 huge Tiger Prawns grilled in garlic and butter with chips and salad come for 300Rps. Whereas you can get rooms with fan and attached bathroom between 250-600Rps a night.

You should come at least once ;-)

Cosmopolitan

2008-10-09T09:40:00.015+02:00

Bundi provided me with a very nice atmosphere but you have to leave at some point, eh?
So I booked a bus ticket to Ahmedabad where I would have to go to get the 2nd bus to Mumbai.
Of course I messed up the time of departure and luckily the whole bus waited about 40mins for me.
Anyway the bus got me where I wanted to go. I visited the ATM and got a bus ticket to Mumbai for the evening. So I had half a day to spend in Ahmedabad.

Not much to do there. I walked through the huge market in the streets, bought some books, sunglasses (since mine, the ones Renaud wore in the photo below, are still in Bundi) and a Sunday Times. Nice day. I waited for my bus to come, which was delayed for two hours so I sat in the street with some guys of some cooking joint, cutting massive amounts of onion and pepperoni.

Street chefs

Street scene

The bus took me to Mumbai, acutally it took 6hrs to reach the border of Mumbai and another 4hrs to get to the center. Horrific. A huge maze of many millions of people, 55% living in slums. A sickening odour and huge piles of self-incinerating rubbish everywhere. I spent the night in "The Salvation Army Red Shield Hostel" in a 14 people dormitory for a 150Rps a night. By far the cheapest place in all Mumbai but still very bad value, since you can get a double room with private bathroom for 150-200 normally. Anyway, there are a lot of travellers around and I met up with Nina (Duesseldorf), Michaela (Ulm), Benni(Hamburg).

Shore in Mumbai

Street, Mumbai outskirts

Street, Mumbai center

We were asked (as every white person in Mumbai) to participate in a shooting for some Bollywood movie. Normally they need white people dancing in the background of some night club scene/music video etc. But they had different plans for us. We were driven out to a peninsula some 30kms from the center. The movie was settled in 1912 and was about the first Indian guy doing a motion picture ever. We got some costumes and had to stroll in background of the beach while the main characters were talking. We got loads of Chai and food and 500Rps each, all expenses paid.

Me and Benni in costumes with chai

Nina, the guy who playd the snack vendor on the beach, and us

Film set on the beach

On the way back we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai, but since we got out at the wrong station we found ourselves in the middle of the Durga festival (lasting 9 days).

Durga

We in the Durga temple

We came to talk to an Indian guy and invited him to come to the Hard Rock
Cafe with us. Since no rickshaw wanted to take us there Michaela just stopped an Indian guy in a big car and asked him to drive us there...
it worked.
Only rich, Western style, Indians in there. Food was great, the band playing was nice, the Caipirinha was crap, the B-52 not available but the Cosmopolitan was quite good. After the band finished the DJ, not having Muse and the Subways with him, played a pretty fucked up mix of Linkin Park, Rammstein, Rage, and classic '70s, '80s and '90s rock. Nice party and Mumbai really proved to be the most cosmopolitan place in India so far.

Driver, us, Indian guy

Back in the hotel at 3 in the morning we decided no to go to sleep til our train leaves at 6:55 to Goa. Michaela wanted to stay longer and Nina who wanted to come to Goa one day after us went home with an Indian guy. While smoking in the dorm we accidentally (and luckily) woke up some of the other guys just to find out, that Jules from Udaipur was there waiting to catch his flight to Switzerland in the early morning. Small world.

After a 12hrs train ride down here we are in paradise. I just rented a 150ccm Bajaj Pulsar for two weeks and will spend the time swimming and eating prawns and the most fresh and delicious fish for barely anything. Water temperature is about 26C and accomadation, as well as food, beer and everything is cheap as hell. Not to make you jealous, but the pic below is just accidentially taken from my breakfast table this morning, nicer pics of the really beautiful spots are to follow.

2008-10-03T15:08:00.019+02:00

A slight change of plans occured, involving me not going to Diu and staying a couple of days longer in Udaipurs Lake Shore Guest House.

After seeing Octopussy for the third time and having failed to leave two times already I was prepared to fight hard. Very hard.

Many people came and many people left. In the end I spent 14 days there before finally leaving with the Bus to Bundi. Or that's at least what I thought would happen.

Udaipur (like all the other places in India) is plagued by frequent power shortages. But it is only there I've seen electricians working...

Hotel staff in Jaisalmer (actually that's Lucky, the boss...)

Anyway, back to my last days in Udaipur.

After a few not so calm hours in the bus it finally wrecked at 3 in the morning. Some hours of hammer-smashing under the bus later we finally continued our journey. Due to not having had sleep in the night It was not until the early morning that I fell asleep. Upon arrival I noticed, that I was not in Bundi. Further I noticed that no one speaks English where I was. After a while I found out that I'm in Kota, a 700.000 people Moloch some 40km further and actually the final stop. The rickshaw wallah took me to an expensive hotel where the staff spoke english in the end. I booked a taxi to Bundi and had breakfast for 200Rp which was not bad since it included black tea and a newspaper. Anyway I had to pay 1500Rp for the taxi while the 13h bus ride from Udaipur to Bundi/Kota was 350Rp. Finally at noon I found myself at the doors of RN Haveli, a tiny little guest house run by a widow and her two daughters. It's Brhamin (no eggs, meat, booze) so I spend a lot of time at the Elephant Stable Haveli (which is indeed located inside the former elephant stable of the maharaja) for Kingfisher (beer), Omlette (including Cashwenuts, Pistachios, etc.) and other delights.

Bundi is a nice (blue) little (80.000) town with a palace and lots of waterfalls and temples around it.

I was hanging around with an older guy from England, a girl from the US and her two Indian friends, a couple from France and thei baby, two sisters from Australia/England, a guy from Strasbourg, a couple from Quebec-City. Additionally Mamaji and the daughters of the RN Haveli and Raj and JP from the Elephant Stable Haveli. Most of them only stayed for 1-2 days, so it's always changing. Just a few minutes ago, I met Fred, whom I knew from my final days in Udaipur and some girls who were travelling in the same direction. Gotta go for dinner with them later.

Me at the Bhimalt waterfall, taken with my cam and Renauds (Quebec City, Photojournaliste) 17-40mm F4.0.

Since I'm so awfully fond of the portraits I get with the 1.4 I'm gonna post some of them until I go for dinner. (Cooking at mamaji's is great!)

Almost all the people are really fond of taking pics (even in everyday situations) and want to see them on the display, especially the children.

JP and Renaud

Nikki from England/Australia

Udaipur

2008-09-21T13:53:00.010+02:00

After some refreshing days in the city with the (mostly) empty lakes, I'll leave tonight for Diu. But first let me talk of Udaipur.

My hotel (Lakeshore and some water buffalos in the plant covered lake. You can see on the walls how high the water used to be.

The famous lake palace, now a 4-star hotel.

Main actress of a TV show being filmed at the lake today.

View from my hotel, on the right the huge City Palace, at sunset.

Jules, a captain from Gibraltar, who is going to move to his girlfriend in Switzerland soon, and me, still wet from bathing in the river with some local kids after a few hours of trekking/climbing/walking down a rocky stream some 40kms out of the city.

The big red TATA truck in which the three of us comfortably hitchhiked back to town.

Jules meditating underneath a very steep passage of the climb. Luckily the water became crystal clear some time later.

Kid jumping into a river in which we were taking a bath during a bicycle ride two days before the climbing. Some guys from local TV were there too, and we got promptly interviewed during swimming and now everybody in town knows us from the news that evening.

Katy (the third in our group) from Sydney, an trapeze/rope artist who traveled with the circus for some time and myself in the river.

After they left for Pushkar I spent some more nice days till I fortunately met Leane from Jaisalmer who convinced me to leave for Diu with her, so I'm gonna board the bus tonight to a formerly Portuguese colony. A small tropical Island, a few hundred kms(16 hrs bus ride) south from here.

Jaisalmer Photo Update

2008-09-15T08:56:00.007+02:00

Some more pics!

Osaka girl with camel

other Osaka girl with camel

16th century stone sculpture, Palace Museum

Jaisalmer City Palace detail

Jaisalmer (view from my balcony)

Fort with city

Jaisalmer Fort

Jaisalmer

2008-09-14T09:08:00.009+02:00

After some refreshing days (the safari ones less than the others) in the desert jewel of Jaisalmer I will probably head for Udaipur tomorrow.
But first I'll tell you all what I lived through here.

After the usual hassle at the bus station I finally found a nice hotel inside the fort, situated directly at the outer wall with a great view over all the city (pop. 55.000) outside the fort. Though there aren't that many tourists around in September you meet nice (and not that nice) people all the time. E.g. there were the two girls from the Czech Republic who were insanely impolite and extremely annoying. Anyway, a day later Aldi (aged 28 and living all over the world for several years now) from Columbia and Emma from England who met in Delhi and traveled together since then arrived and we had a lot of fun together.

As everywhere you can rent bikes for a day and ride out to the desert.

Of course I had to participate in the obligatory camel safari which every tourist coming to Jaisalmer has to do. So I went with Inon (Tel Aviv), Leane (Essex) and two Japanese girls (Osaka) and two camel guys on 6 camels into the desert. It's hot, painful, dirty, sandy, and not that much fun at all. Still the stars in the nightly sky over a dark desert are so intense that it is worth the trip. And of course it's nice to sleep in the dunes and sit around the campfire drinking self made chai and eating fresh chapati. Even though speaking very little English the Japanese girls were hilariously funny and after some time Inon and myself finally found a remote village with a fridge where we could buy cold pepsi for a lot of rupees.

After the most refreshing shower of my life and two days and one night in the desert you never want to ride a camel again and you are quite happy that it's over.

Inon, Leane, Osaka girls and camel guys (from left to right), some of our camels in the background

Me + dunes

Me + camel

Leane + dunes

desert gypsies

Yesterday on the rooftop there was finally a group of six having dinner. Mario from Dresden, Leane (look above), Johanna aus Graz and Ella from Wales. I was just about to start a huge discussion about the difference of a goat being sacrificed at a religious event which Ella wanted to attend and all the animals who die for my food (since she was vegetarian) when my phone rang and stopped me. Mario who turned out to be quite an annoying idiot and Johanna spoke all the time in German, and dragged me into it, which was quite rude towards the other girls of course. Anyway Mario and Leane and Johanna left this morning and I'll follow them tomorrow hoping to meet Aldi and Emma again in Udaipur.

My attempts of buying a Hero Honda or renting a Royal Enfield have been canceled due to the high prices and almost no used bikes being offered for sale in Jaisalmer.

That's it for now. Have fun and stay cool.

PS. Try not to read Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot' since it's far too long and too many characters are involved.

Pushkar Update

2008-09-03T10:25:00.003+02:00

Bin immer noch hier.
Aber laesst sich trotz der Hitze gut aushalten. Vor allem mit dem Wissen, dass es Richtung Westen, wo ich hin will nur noch heisser und wuestiger wird.
Ausserdem hat sich hier eine nette Runde eingefunden. Nachdem Bu-Jong weg ist (leider) sind auch Juergen und Janina, von denen man auf meinem deviantart account lesen kann weg. Er war Informatikstudent und sie studiert Kunst und Mathe auf Gymnasiallehramt. Dann sind auch noch Barbara und Lena weg, 2 Studentinnen aus Wuerzburg die beide Grundschullehrerin mit Schwerpunkt kath. Theologie machen. Uff. Anstrengend. Dafuer hab ich noch ne Ausgabe von Dawkin's The God Delusion in einem Buchladen gefunden. Nachdem die ganzen Quaelgesiter weg sind, findet sich jetzt abends auf der Dachterrasse immer eine Runde ein, bestehend aus mir, Ittei aus N.Y. der aber bald abreist, und Zeta aus Melbourne, Lethan aus Edinburgh und Hanna aus London, wobei die letzteren drei 3-4 Wochen bleiben und in einer Art Tierkrankenhaus arbeiten. Irgendwie als Praktikum fuer ihr Tiermedizinstudium.
Ittei und ich ham sie heute per TVS besucht (jetzt weiss ich au wien Kickstarter funktioniert. Und er weiss, dass man moeglichst wenig bremsen sollte, wenn man auf riesigen Felsen mit einer duennen Sandschicht und ~25% Steigung/Gefaelle rumbrettert. Aber dem Motorrad is zum Glueck net viel passiert. Ihm au net. Macht nen Mordsspass btw.) Auf jeden Fall war Zeta grad dabei ein riesiges Eiter-Ekzem (oder so aehnlich) am After einer Kuh zu entfernen. Waehrend Hanna in der Surgery Strassenhunde am Fliessband kastriert und Lethan sich um diverse andere Leckereien kuemmert. Sind dann nicht lang geblieben und ham doch noch den Shiva-Tempel gefunden.

Ittei und meine TVS auf einer "Bruecke" actually one of the best parts of the whole 'road'.

Roadsign in India

Pushkar

2008-08-30T09:40:00.007+02:00

So, bin jetzt schon ein paar Tage in Pushkar. Das Staedtchen (15.000 Einwohner) soll angeblich entstanden sein, als die Goetter eine Lotusbluete auf die Erde schleuderten. Das is schon verdammt heilig. Und dann wollte sich auch noch Brhama hier irgendwie selbstopfern. Das hat seine Frau aber net interessiert, also kam sie net nach Pushkar. Das hat Brhama so geaergert, dass er sich einfach ne neue gesucht hat, die bei der 'self mortification' dabei is. Das wiederum hat seine Frau so aufgeregt, dass sie ihn mit einem Fluch belegt hat, dass er nirgendwo anders auf der Welt verehrt werden solle. So steht also der (fast) einzige Brhama Tempel der Welt 500m von dem beschaulichen kleinen See, um den das Staedtchen sich platziert hat. Und da wollen alle Hindus jetzt hin, was das ganze noch heiliger Macht.
Um noch eins draufzusetzen haben sie (nach seinem Tod) die Asche von Mahatma Gandhi in den See gekippt. Verdammt heilig. Nun ist es in Indien so, dass z.B. in dem Bundesstaat in dem Mahatma Gandhi geboren ist Alkohol verboten ist. Weil Mahatma Gandhi DORT GEBOREN IST!
- Kein Fleisch
- Keine Eier
- Kein Alkohol
- Kein oeffentliches Umarmen oder Kuessen
Das sind die Regeln von Pushkar.
Also is den dem sehr friedlichen, kleinen, sympathischen Staedtchen die absoloute Hoelle los, 356 Tage im Jahr. Trotzdem vergleichsweise sehr erholsam, wenn ich an die grossen Staedte denk. Man kann in 15min vom einen Ende der Stadt ans andere laufen, es gibt einen Bazaar fuer Souvenirs, Kleider, etc., man kann Motorraeder und Roller mieten und es gibt 'Special Lhassi'.
Ich hasse es ja eigentlich Vorurteilen ins Messer zu laufen, aber in manchen Faellen wirds halt nix. Mein neuer Freund Bu-Jong aus Suedkorea, den ich im Bus von Jaipur nach Ajmer kennen gelernt hab, der mit mir dann auch weiter nach Pushkar gefahren ist, ist ein netter Kerl. Kommt aus Suedkorea, spricht nicht besonders gut englisch und geht keinen Meter ohne sein koreanisches Guidebook. Soweit so gut. Dennoch machte es mich stutzig, dass er mein Heroes of Might and Magic - Complete Edition - Fan-Shirt erkannt hat. So war es zuletzt unvermeidar, ich fragte: "You know Starcraft." he replied: "Yes, I Starcraft Pro-Gamer!" Damit waere das Thema auch erledigt.
Auf jeden Fall kommen wir im 'Paramount Palace Hotel' an und ich hatte das teuerste Zimmer mit Balkon (!) fuer 400Rp (!!) bekommen. Die Stadt ist voll von niedlichen kleinen Restaurants und man findet schnell was leckeres und guenstiges. Mein hinkender, stotternder, einaeugiger (hat was von Polio erzaehlt) 'Hotelmensch' meint, dass er Bier fuer 200Rp die Flasche auf dem Schwarzmarkt besorgen kann. Ausserdem hat er noch Pistazien, Cashewkerne und Gras mitgebracht. Bu-Jong wacht nach einem halben Bier sehr betrunken auf meinem Bett auf, als mein Hotelmensch und ich uns in sehr guter Laune schlafen legen wollen.
Nach dem Essen wird man auch regelmaessig vom Kellner gefragt ob man ein Bier oder was zu rauchen moechte. Dennoch waren Touristen und Einheimische deswegen schon im Knast.

Eingang zum Brhama Tempel (drinnen keine Fotos und keine Schuhe)

Badeghat auf der anderen Seeseite.

Natuerlich habe ich auch einen Tag ein Motorrad gemietet. Ich bekam den Schluessel und den 'Ratschlag': "If you break, you pay!" Eigetlich wollte ich zu ein paar Shiva Tempel die 8km entfernt per "Feldweg" naehern koennen sollte. Man gewoehnt sich schnell an den linksverkehr. Auch wenn alles etwas anders als bei uns ablaeuft. Eine Erfahrung fuer sich. Draussen auf dem Land fand ich einen Schnapsladen, eine Familie mit Traktor, die gern Fotos mochte und Kinder die mich um Feuerzeuge und Stifte anbettelten.

Meine Maschine: eine 4-Gang 125ccm TVS, Traktoren.

So vergehen die Tage schnell. Wenn man einen Strong Lhassi trinkt vergehen sogar 2 Tage in 20min. Verdammt Krasses Zeug. Selbst ein 'Weak Lhassi' Nach dem Mittagessen macht das tippen schwer. Vielleicht werd ich mir noch ne Ayuverda Massage goennen bevor ich in 'x' Tagen und 'y' Lhassi weiter Nach Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bundi, Delhi reise.
Hmm so ne schoene laute Royal Enfield im Look von '48 waer schon was. Aber fuer das Teil hier moechte man in Indie sterben.

Hier gibts jetzt nen video KLICK weiss jetzt aber net, obs das vom motorradfahren oder das von der dachterasse mit meinem hotelzimmer...

Bis bald.

Durchs wilde Rajasthan

2008-08-25T07:10:00.004+02:00

Nach 7 Tagen, geschaetzten 5000 Bidis, 45 Mueckenstichen und 20 Bier gibts jetzt hier ein Resuemee. Nachdem ich in Agra einige Magenprobleme hatte hab ich es dort mit Chai und Veg. Fried Rice ruhig angehen lassen, 2 Muenchner getroffen und mich mit einigen Franzosen unterhalten. Am Tag drauf beschloss ich als letzte Aktion in Agra einen Tagesausflug nach Fatehpur Sikri zu machen. Das is der Palast von dem Typ der das Taj Mahal gebaut hat. Er hat in dem Dorf eine Seherin getroffen, die ihm einen Sohn prophezeite. Nachdem das wahr wurde war er so gluecklich dass er seinen Palast und seine Hauptstadt in das Kaff (28.000 Einwohner) verlegte. Leider war das Gebiet von Duerren geplagt und sofort nach dem Ende seiner Amtszeit hat sein Sohn und Nachfolger, der ihn abgesetzt hat, die Schnapsidee rueckgaengig gemacht. Seitdem steht in dem Dorf ein riesiger leerer Palast aus rotem Sandstein, mit der groessten/hoechsten Moschee Indiens.

Very impressive because the completely red architecture was a very beautiful contrast to the opal colored water in the pools and wells and the green vegetation surrounding the complex.
Many Indians were around due to the Mosque of the Palace being a very holy place which is said to grant whishes (like getting a son, etc.) if you say some prayers and attach a wish string to a certain window of a shrine.

Im Bus dahin habe ich ein sehr interessantes Paar aus polen getroffen (er ist Matrose auf internationalen Frachtschiffen und sie Tieraerztin mit dem Spezialgebiet Elefanten), mit denen ich dort unterwegs war und auch den Abend in Agra verbracht habe.

Nachdem wir wieder in Agra sind verabschieden wir uns kurz um uns dann wieder zu treffen und per Auto Rickshaw auf die andere Seite des Flusses zu fahren und Fotos vom Taj Mahal bei Nacht/Sonnenuntergang zu machen.

ca.
25sek
F 3.2
ISO 100
50mm

Danach gehts in ein etwas teureres aber sehr gutes indisches Restaurant namens 'Indiana'.
Zurueck im Hotel treffe ich Olivier aus Paris auf der Dachterrasse, mit dem ich mich unterhalte, bis es Zeit zum schlafen ist. Am folgenden Morgen, gehts per Rickshaw zum Hotel Sakura, wo mein Bus abfahert. Nach 6h im 'Deluxe' Bus der Rajasthan Government Bus Service Company war ich in Jaipur. Ein staubiges, heisses, schmutziges Labyrinth aus Schlagloechern, Palaesten und immer pinken Haeusern (also called 'Pink City'). Ich nehme die erste Rickshaw (bzw. er schnappt mich...) und es geht ab ins Evergreen Guest House. Eine halbfertige Bauruine, die notduerftig in ein Hotel fuer 300Rp die Nach umgewandelt wurde, waehrend es nebenan noch einen teureren Teil fuer Pauschaltouristen gibt. Mit dem Rickshaw Wallah machen ich fuer den naechsten Morgen eine City Tour aus. Also gehts am naechsten Tag los, zuerst zum Amber Palace, einem riesigen, etwas ausserhalb gelegenen Touristen-Mekka, wo frueher einmal die Koenige hausten. Die Fahrt gestaltet sich vor lauter Elefanten auf der Strasse und dem erbarmungswuerdigen Zustand des Rickshaws als anstrengend.

Danach werde ich natuerlich zu diversen Shops gefuehrt, die auch wirklich interessante Souvenirs anbieten. Nach einer Verschnaufpause im Hotel, mache ich einen kleinen Spazuergang durch die Stadt, wo ich Rama treffe, der mich auf einen Chai einlaedt. Da daran noch nichts boeses festzustellen ist, willige ich ein. Wir sitzen in einem kleinen Fotostudio und 2 seiner Freunde sind auch da. Sie meinen ich soll auf jeden Fall heute Abend mit ihnen zum Monkey Temple fahren, dass es da total schoen waere, etc. Ich rieche den Braten, brauche aber noch keinen Grund zur Sorge haben. Also bin ich dabei, Rama und sein Kumpel fahren mich in einem verbeulten Tata Sonstwas in 25min zum entlegen Affentempel. Dort besichtige ich einen Hinduschrein, schaue Indern beim Baden im sehr heiligen (und sehr sehr ekligen) Wasser des Tempels zu und werde von Hunderten Affen umringt. Danach gehts ab zu einem Jai Tempel mit riesigen goldenen Buddhastatuen. Ich habe seit 3h keinen anderen Tourist mehr gesehen. Am abend wollen die Jungs eine Party feiern. Alles laeuft sehr nett und hoeflich und sehr fruendlich ab. Alle amuesieren sich, es gibt Bier, Whiskey, ein paar Joints und sehr feines (aber sowas von scharfes) Essen, dass es mir schwer faellt, zu atmen. Immer wieder wird Oms reiche Familie (die im Diamantenhandel mit Cartier ist) erwaehnt. Ist klar worauf das hinauslaeuft. Ich werde heimgefahren, mit dem Versprechen mir morgen ein billiges Hotelzimmer im 'sehr guten' Hotel eines Kumpels zu beschaffen. Am naechsten morgen gehts los, ich werde im Tata abgeholt. Natuerlich hab ich mein Zimmer im Evergreen nicht gekuendigt, habe alle Wertsachen da und nehme nur das Noetigste mit. Nach dem einchecken werde ich zur Sir Albert Hall gefahren (einem Museum, dass so mies ist, es ist unglaublich).

Spaeter soll es wieder Party geben, mit Australiern zusammen, oben auf dem Tiger Fort ueber der Stadt. Aber zuerst Chai trinken bei einem Freund. Dieser hat zufaellig einen Diamantenhandel und nach viel Gerede kommt er zur Sache. Ich soll (da ich als Tourist angeblich einen Freibetrag von 25.000$ habe) Diamanten fuer ihn mit nach Japan oder Neuseeland nehmen, so dass sie die 285% Tax umgehen koennen und ich wuerde dafuer 3000$ bekommen. Ich verneine hoeflich und wir gehen. Die Stimmung sinkt merklich und mein Fahrer meint, ich solle ihm Geld fuer die Party heute Abend geben. Also kommen im Endeffekt alle bei 0 raus. Sie haben ihr Benzin- und Verpflegungsgeld wieder drin und ich habe bequem im Privatauto alle Sights gesehen.

Ein Rickshaw bringt mich am naechsten morgen zurueck zum Evergreen, wo ich 5 Suedafrikaner treffe (kleiner Bruder, aeltere Schwester, noch aelterer Bruder, seine Verlobte und ein Kumpel), die aber wegen der hohen Kriminalitaet nach England ausgewandert sind. Sie haben Jack Daniel's und Gras in riesigen Mengen dabei und der Abend endet am Pool. Very nice.

Jetzt schlage ich mich mit dem dummen Fotohochladeding von blogspot rum, muss Geld auf mein Handy laden und ein Hotel in meiner naechsten Station suchen. Nur wohin? Udaipur, Ajmer, Bundi?? das wird heute noch entschieden... Bis dann, viele Gruesse!

Btw: es gibt sie tatsaechlich!

Agra

2008-08-18T10:21:00.011+02:00

Chennai ist eher weniger die Stadt meiner Traeume... Die Leute sind unfreundlich und sehr konservativ, man ist fast gar nicht auf Touristen eingestellt und fuer Europaer ist es sehr kompliziert sich zurechtzufinden ohne ausgenommen zu werden. Genau das richtige fuer den Anfang also. Das 'Broad Lands' wo ich meine ersten Naechte fuer rund 300Rp (6Euro) verbrachte konnte mit gutem Service und einer netten Atmosphaere so manchen Backpacker begluecken. Es gibt mehrere gruene Innenhoefe und eine chillige Dachterrasse. Man trifft einen Haufen Leute, (zB Joey aus St. Helena der ein Jahr in Korea als Englischlehrer war, Alletta aus den Niederlanden die fuer 6 Monate bei der Hindu Times ein Praktikum macht, Polly (22) und ihren Kumpel (18) aus Brighton die total verplant eine "spirituelle Erleuchtungsreise" machen und mir durch Handauflegen neue Energie geben, Juliette und Christine aus Frankreich, Sharook vom Mobile Shop auf der anderen Strassenseite und schliesslich Mark und Kirstin). Da Chennai nich wirklich was zu bieten hat, haengt man meistens bei Sharook im Laden rum und trinkt Chai oder unterhaelt sich auf der Dachterrasse mit oben genannten. Nachdem ich beschlossen habe mit Mark und Kirstin nach Agra zu fahren hatte Sharook die grandiose Idee am Abend Party zu machen. Joey, Sharook und die beiden Franzoesinnen schnappen uns 2 'Auto-Rickshaws', und duesen zu "The Residency Towers" die uns einen Irish style Pub und Kingfisher in der 650ml Flasche fuer 170Rp anbieten. Es laeuft indischer Techno, es ist der Unabhaenigikeitstag und high-ranking indian Insurance workers go totally haywire being drunk as hell. Ein sehr beeindruckender Abend. Am Naechsten Tag verlaesst der Zug um 7 Uhr abends den Bhf. in Chennai Richtung Dehli. Nach nur 32h Zugfahrt sind wir in Agra. Mark und Kirstin sind relativ erholt, sie haben die letzten Plaetze in der ersten Klasse bekommen, waehrend ich in der 2. rumhaenge. Unser Transfer vom Bahnhof nachts um 3 gestaltet sich relativ schwierig, da er nicht da ist. Dafuer ungefaehr 5000 riesige Locusts, ein ca. 10cm langer und breiter Kaefer sowie mehrere Rickshaw-wallahs die uns ihre Dienste anbieten. Wir kommen irgendwie zum Hotel. Was aber fuer mich gar kein Zimmer hat, und fuer Kiristin und Mark auch keines (owbohl sie gebucht haben) und so schlafen wir die restliche Nacht in einem Bettenlager der Angestellten. Am Naechsten Tag gehts ab zum Taj Mahal und zum Mittagessen mit illegal unter dem Tisch servierten Bier, das sehr skuril schmeckt. Wir entscheiden uns daher fuer eine Bar aus dem Lonely Planet, der uebringens hervorragende Dienste leistet. Nur um herauszufinden, dass die Hotelbar des Oberoi gemeint ist. Schaut euch die Bilder auf der Page an und stellt euch three shady backpackers sippin' cocktails for 425Rp each vor. Fantastischer Ausblick btw. Wir kroenen die 4000Rp Rechnung mit einer Fressorgie im eigenen Hotel neben an (mein Zimmer war bei 2000Rp, was mein budget horribly murdered) und bestellen (fast) alles auf der Karte. Da Mark und Kirstin beide Chefs sind wollen sie natuerlich alles ausprobieren. Nach ettlichen Kingfischers (die auch einen seltsamen Beigemschmack haben, verglichen zu denen im Oberoi) und etwas Chivas Regal beginnt der Tag heute mit langem ausschlafen, einem Omlette Massala und Veg. Spring Rolls mit gefolgtem auschecken und fuer 80Rp ins Taj Mahal nahe "Host" Hotel umziehen, wo das "Zimmer" nur 200Rp die Nacht kostet. Die Dachterrasse wird leider von aggressiven Affen belagert und im Hinterhof steht ein donnernder Dieselgenerator von 1913 der mich am schlafen hindert. Ausserdem geht mein Fan nicht. Deshalb bin ich hier. So, jetzt gibts Bilder:

Bilder wollen grad net... liegt vermutlich an dem crappy "Internet"-Cafe...kommen bei naechster gelegenheit.

Haha, Router hatte sich aufghaengt, aber da ich beim dritten versuch username und pw (admin:admin) raushatte, konnte ich schnell den Router rebooten waehren der ueberforderte typ am PC nebenan den Desktop refresht hat. lol.

Dachterrasse Chennai:

Sharook, Alletta and Me in his Shop

Taj Mahal

Kirstin and Me in the "Treat" restaurant drinking Spuelmittel Kingifisher illegaly serverd by a seven year old under the table.

Butchery next to the restaurant (you have to imagine the 32 degrees, the 1000 flies and the smell yourself.) We eat vegetarian mostly.

Park of the Oberoi Hotel

Angry monkeys on my rooftop terrace

Chennai

2008-08-13T06:55:00.003+02:00

Okay, ich bin sicher angekommen und auch "sicher" im Hotel angekommen. Ich hab zwar schon vorher Bilder und Videos von Kreuzungen und Verkehr in Mumbai, etc. gesehen. Aber das is dann doch nochmal anders wenn man selber im "Taxi" sitzt und der auf einer dreispurigen Strasse auf eine Kolonne von 6 versetzt fahrenden Lastern zufaehrt und man denkt: "Der faehrt da jetzt nich echt durch, oder?", dabei kennt man die Antwort schon. Irgendwo hab ich mal gelesen,

"Loving India is like kissing a beautiful princess through inch-deep shit."

Bin zwar noch nicht lange da, aber das koennte bisher auf jeden Fall eine sehr weise Aussage sein. Pic related, Aussicht von meinem Zimmer.

Packen!

2008-08-11T18:33:00.000+02:00

Also, morgen früh gehts los!

Die letzen Vorbereitungen laufen auf Hochtouren, es fehlen Sachen wie Sicherheitsnadeln, Paketschnur und Streichhölzer. Aber alles fügt sich so langsam zusammen und eine Ausrüstung entsteht. Morgen früh werde ich dann mein altes Kommandozentrum gegen mein mobiles Headquater (Inhalt Bild unten) für die nächsten elf Monate tauschen.

Ich fliege um 11:00 von Frankfurt nach Chennai (ehem. Madras).
Hier meine restliche Route, wie sie momentan geplant ist: