Siem Reap

From Phnom Penh we took our second-last bus to Siem Reap - another 6-7hr drive. at the bus station we were picked up by a tuk tuk driver hired by the bus company (I was very surprised and already thought we were being scammed once again - luckily we weren't) who brought us to the hotel of our choice without charging us or anything.
Thus we decided to hire him for seeing the Angkor temples for a higher price than required but some things you only know afterwards...
We did a 2 day trip of the temples (I was quite surprised that I could spent 2 days doing that) - on the first day we went to temples further outside (but thus way less tourists) and on the 2nd we went to Angkor Tom and Angkor Wat.

pics can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/SiemReap?authkey=Gv1sRgCLDg54-JqKCIEQ##

Phnom Penh

From Saigon we went by night bus to Phnom Penh - this was another approx. 10hr ride and quite ok (not too much delay except for the departure, border crossing went quite smooth,...)
Once arrived and outside the bus we were immediately surrounded by tuk tuk drivers offering us to bring us to a hotel for a "very good price"...aaaand, in addition, it was very very hard to get rid of them - the only way out we found was to go into a restaurant - by that they still waited out front  but at least left us alone (...) and we could recover from our trip and check the hotel options at hand.
Once decided we went to the hotel, rooms were ok, checked it and then walked into the city (after some short rest).
Phmon Penh is a really nice city - I was quite surprised by how nice and relaxed (given the recent history of Cambodia). There are quite a few Boulevards, many restaurants and shops and esp. in the evening a lot of Cambodians are outside in the park and the whole atmosphere is very friendly.
We only stayed for 2 days in Phnom Penh - on the first day we walked around, had a look at the city, etc. and on the 2nd day we rented some scooters (traffic is way more relaxed than in Vietnam --> ok for dumb drivers like us :)) and went to the main sites of the city which date back to the time of the Red Khmer - namely the S21/ Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields where the corpses of those tortured and murdered in S21 (est. 20'000) were buried.
Both sites were were tough but for me the Killing Fields were worse - main reason being that they "replaced"an old Chinese graveyard and the whole area appears very calm, relaxed, ... - thus knowing that e.g. babies were killed hear by smashing their head against a tree, "branches" of sugarcane trees growing there were used as knifes, ...
Nonetheless, both are a must see and for esp. for the Tuol Sleng museum I strongly recommend to take a guide  (unfortunately there was none available when we got there) - might be even worse but there are not too many descriptions inside and one can only guess what happened (which is painful enough though). Same applies for the killing fields but the descriptions are a lot better there.

All in all I felt quite taken back to my visit to Mauthausen - simply in regard to the depressing effect of it. What really surprised me (and thats where I see a huge difference to Europe/ Austria) is the way the Cambodians handle what happened - they (more or less) openly talk about it and do not try to hide it or play down their role (which would be very hard as in the pol pot era about 1/3rd of the whole population got killed).

pics can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/PhnomPenh?authkey=Gv1sRgCLa0y4GWjI3Weg

Saigon

Initially we planned to go by train to Hue, spent a day there and then take the last train to Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon.
Unfortunately the weather did not really like that - thus it was raining cats and dogs and we had to take the next train to Saigon. This lead to approx. 35h on a train were the seats/ beds are made for Vietnamese (not in length but in height...). The intresting thing is that (at least) Vietnamese are able to sleep anywhere for a loooong time (there was one in our compartment that slept more or less the whole trip through - kinda scary).

We arrived in Saigon around 6 in the morning and went to the center, found a hotel with a nice room (but the employees were...well, you can be unfriendly and you can be them...) - unfortunately we found out later that the room had no working lights except in the Bathroom and it took them ages to fix it in the evening...in the end they more or less managed so ok(ish).

On the first day we had a look at the city by walking around, looking at the reunification palace as well as the war memorial museum (very very propagandistic but quite interesting and a bit horrible - somehow I am afraid though that one museum in Phnom Penh will be even worse :()
Today (yess - this is once again a very recent entry :)) we booked a 1 day tour to the mekong delta and, well, we in the end got what we paid for (price was 10$ per person). it was a 2h bus ride to the delta, then we spent about 45min on a slow boat down the mekong, lunch, coconut farm (coconut candy - yummy), 15min on a rowboat through some narrow channels, some "nice" vietnamese music and back again...
But well, at least the weather is nicer now - 30 degrees up and more or less sunny :)

pics (only a few this time): https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Saigon?authkey=Gv1sRgCMb7z4C53via9QE#

Tonight we head out to Phnom Penh via a night bus.

cheers

Hanoi

The trip vom Luang Prabang was not as bad as expected - although it did take around 28h in a bus. Luckily the bus was not full so both of us had 2 seats to spread upon (very useful) and the bus was more comfortable than the one we had previously.
We started in the evening and around 2am the bus stopped at some bus station in the middle of nowwhere - that was a bit puzzling because we had no clear idea on the route the bus would take (e.g. which border crossing, etc.) and nobody told us how long the stop would be (I think - might also be that I was asleep). Anywho, the bus started moving again after 1-2 hours and around 7 or 8 in the morning we arrived at the border. The Laos crossing was easy - the Vietnam one was a bit...well, strange. We walked across the border, entered the building and they asked for our passports - so far so good. But then they simply took the passport and asked us to sit down and wait...then approx. 4 or 5 customs officials were standing behind the counter, one was looking at the passport, one was stamping them, one was...no clue and 2 watched the others...
After about an hour the assembled behind a small desk and called out each and every name and said "you can go". intresting :)
The drive on was on some muddy roads (due to the rain - see the pictures).
then, around 10pm we arrived in Hanoi, shared a little bus-cab with some other travellers towards the backpacking part of the city. The cab, receiving commisions from hotels, dropped us of at one, the room we looked at was quite nice (with a good price) but when we said we gonna take it the room was somehow not available any more...but there was another one, looking the about the same for the same price. needless to say it was not same same but a complete craphole...discussions were futile so we moved on down the road, looking for something else. Something was found quickly and, although more expensive, we decided to take it (which was a good choice as the staff there was really friendly and everything).
All in all we spent 3 days in Hanoi - unfortunately the wetter was not as nice (17 degrees, cloudy to rainy,...) and I did not dare to go to Halong Bay as it would have been a 2 day trip and if the weather turns out bad you're stock on a boat, it is not as breathtaking as it could be,...
Meaning that we walked a lot around the hanoi old quater (very nice narrow roads and the majority of the sights are located around it), sit down in "bia hois" (basically these are little street bars that serve their own beer - it is always freshly brewed (not older than 24h) and once the barrel(s) is empty they close...in addition they are dead cheap :)) & tom worked on finishing up his thesis (and I cross-read it :))
The food was excellent - partially influenced by the french (baguettes, etc.), yummy noodle soups (called pho), barbecue,... :)

Note: surprisingly, it's been a long time since I have slept as much as I did on the bus to Hanoi - unfortunately that also made me feel like "spat out"...

Pics for Hanoi as well as the trip there can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Hanoi?authkey=Gv1sRgCOfdx9KV6p_4nwE#

Luang Prabang (Laos)

The bus ride from the Laos border to Luang Prabang was...well, lets call it painful as, in essence this is what it was. It was a night bus going for 14hrs (departure at 6pm and arrival at 8am) covering the amazing distance of nearly 500km. There was just little space in the bus, the bus was full and the seats were not comfortable - therefore sleeping more than 3 or 4 hrs was no option at hand. But the view of the countryside offered while there was still/ again light at least partially compensated the little trip to the limbo (strange - always thought limbo is a dance and does not stand for "Vorhoelle" as well...anywho).
Road conditions were somewhat close to nearly inexistent (thats when we realized why the trip takes so long), we were going up and down very winding roads with no security enforcements whatsoever, we were constantly a bit afraid of the brakes failing (esp. as we did one stop in the middle of the road for 20min to have the breaks cool off...),...BUT we did arrive well and safe and enough lamenting - me's backpacking for Buddhas sake! ;)
On the bus we met Steffi (Germany) and Marina (Argentina/ Germany) who were nice enough to spend the 2 days we had in Laos with us.

Luang Prabang is a really nice and relaxed city - it is located at the Mekong (and a small branch of it) and, despite many tourists vistiting it, it is not (yet) as touristic as e.g. Chiang Mai. The locals are very friendly and the boss of our hotel even spoke German (quite surprising). For getting around easier we rented bikes (I even got a pinkish one - hooray...) and then we set off for food and some small sightseeing/ checking with travel agents on possible trips as well as the best connection to Hanoi (which turned out to be a 26-28hrs bus trip...).
The travel agents were not really helpful on day trips (so we decided to do our own by hiring a tuk tuk for half a day to a day) but for the bus tickets it was ok --> we got them there.
In addition we had the brilliant idea of doing our own little tubing in the mekong river - for this we bought some (kids) floating tires in the Luang Prabang china market (unfortunately they did not have any arm floats... ;)).
As we initially planned to use them to float down the mekong for a few kilometers (...) we decided to better test them before. The attempt was quite successful (we were floating to the little sand island in the mekong we planned to but we also did realize that the initial idea "was good but the world not yet prepared for it" (or our asses to big, the tires too small, we too unbalanced, whatever). Furthermore, the current proved to be stronger than anticipated/ assumed when floating --> the way back to our starting point was a bit tough (but some Laotians had a fun time watching us)

In the evening we had a really nice (and cheap) dinner, had a few beers, Tom and Steffi challenged each other in a burping contest (luckily there was no (obvious) reason for a farting one) and when we wanted to change locations we found that nearly everything was closed already. Luckily a tuk tuk driver "had  mercy with us" and brought us to another bar (Utopia - very nice and relaxing) and said that he would pick us up in 1 hr (which we did not understand at first, but when the bar closed 45min later we knew...). On the way back we bargained with him for the next day and he agreed to take us around for a day for a very small amount (I think something between 250'000 and 300'000 kips (thats about 25 - 30 euros). Unfortunately he did not show up - thus we had to re-negotiate with other drivers again (plan was to go to the Pak Ou caves ("Buddha caves") as well as the Kuang Si waterfalls.

The first stop were the waterfalls - it is not a huge or high waterfall but more one with multiple pools where you can swim, etc. with perfectly blue water in a "rainforesty" surrounding. In short really really beautiful (see pictures - majority was taken there :)).
As we spent a lot more time there than planned we decided to let the caves be caves (tom and myself had to catch our bus at 6pm) and went back to Luang Prabang for a shower (thanks steffi!) and getting equipped for the long ride ahead.
We also saw some bottles of Laotian whiskey - basically they seem to put snakes, snails, geckos,... - in sum whatever creepy-crawly they find (no matter if with or without legs...), etc. into a bottle and then...well, no clue what happens then but it looks... well, see the pics.
And, what was funny was that the guy trying to sell it to us said something about life-prolonging effects, etc. - but he looked like 60 (our guess was he was 30), had no teeth,...
therefore, in case I bring any of you my dear readers a bottle of whiskey back as a present, well... ;)

So, all in all, Laos was the most fascinating country so far (at least for me) and it is a pity we did not have more time to spend. BUT I do know that I want (rather need :)) to come back and explore the country on a motorbike - the scenery and evertyhing is just breathtaking and intriguing in a way.

Pics can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/LaosLuangPrabang?authkey=Gv1sRgCNfD6ObWgfWEgAE#

Besides, my target until mid 2019 is to fill all currently empty pages in my passport (so far there are 20) - anyone in for the challenge? :)

cheers

Chiang Mai

The train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the north was really comfortable - the sleeper was clean, the beds were made by an employee, every bed had a curtain,...really impressive :)
We left around 7pm and arrived there at 9 or 10 in the morning and, well, there is not soo much to tell about the city - I am not sure why it's being hyped that much but ok.

We found a very cheap hotel which was not too far off the center and clean(ish) - thus perfect for the 1-2 nights we planned to spend. The first day we did some walking around and realized that Chiang Mai must be the (hidden) german capital of Thailand and that everything is aligned to possible tourist needs (in our whole trip we've never seen such a massive amoutn of "western" restaurants in one spot... (needless to say that it was no good as well - tried a burger and well, stomach no like...).
We also looked for some tours to make the second day (Chiang Mai is said to be nice for trekking) as well as an offer for our trip to Luang Prabang (doing this via a travel agency is a bit safer...).
After checking a few agencies we decided for the one with the cheapest price - not because we're greedy but all offered more or less the same and well, price does matter sometimes :).

The one day tour was okish - the trip (should have) included around 4hrs of trekking, elephant ride, a tribal village, waterfall and bamboo rafting. The elephant riding was, bluntly speaking, crap - I was just happy that the "driver" did not hurt the elephant with his stick.
Trekking was ok as well - although we did not cover the promised 4 hrs but rather only two (which also meant that instead of at 5-6pm we got back to Chiang Mai at 3 - also due to another reason to be mentioned later). The first stop of the walk was a waterfall - this was quite nice but the water was freeeeezing).
Then we moved on and on our way we picked up some tourists who were just returning from a 3 day trek and were rather exhausted (surprising as they were fully equipped with trekking flip flops...) - this was (I think) another reason for our shortened walk.
Nevermind, after "lunch" we went on to the Bamboo rafting and this was actually quite nice - we were sitting on a raft and floated down a river (incl. some rapids).

Back in Chiang Mai we went to look for a brewery recommended by our travel guide but could not find it and ended up in some other restaurant we we had the honour to watch (and listen to) an "intercultural couple" (old man with no hair,... and thai woman) fight - from what we were able to understand the fight was about the principle of "no hardy more money"....
On the next day our travel to Laos started - we were picked up from the hotel at 10 am and driven by a minibus to the Thai border (6 hrs drive). From the Thai/ Laos border we had decided to take a bus to Luang Prabang (duration 14hrs) - ideal would have been to take a slowboat down the Mekong but this would have taken 2 days and time is a precious good we don't really have anymore....

For details on the trip and Laos see the next entry :)

cheers

N.B.: pics from Chiang Mai can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/ChiangMai?authkey=Gv1sRgCLHLwp2ZyOrKWA

Bangkok - part 2

So, the last blog was about the Sunday we have spent with Yuichi and his girlfriend (now it's 8 days after the last blog and there's a lot to catch up :))

So, on Monday we (Tom, Tine (girl we met on our "night out" in the first evening, myself) had a look at Bangkoks Chinatown in the afternoon (was quite nice but nothing special - love the small narrow roads though) and also walked to the train station for tickets to Ayutthaya (old capital of a kingdom) which is north of Bangkok (approx. 1,5hrs by train).
Ayutthaya was really fascinating - I think it is kinda similar to Angkor Wat (even though a lot smaller) - meaning that there were a lot of ruins of old temples and we spent approx. half a day just walking around, climbing up things (were permitted of course), taking pictures, etc..
When we got back to Bangkok it started raining and didn't really stop in the following 2 days - this had the effect of tom & myself spending some "quality time" in our hotel (as mentioned I think we stayed in a quite nice hotel) doing nothing except sleeping, reading, sleeping, eating, ...
On Friday (which was the day we left for Chiang Mai in the evening and also the day of my last post ;)) we did some sightseeing in the city - including the palace as well as a huuuuge buddha statue (approx. 60m long and 18m high and naturally gold-plated)

Furthermore, and this was the reason for our prolonged stay in Bangkok,we also got our passports with all required visas (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia) back on Friday evening - thus nothing could stop us then & the risks for required bribes was minimized ;)

Bangkok

We have safely arrived in Bangkok on Saturday evening and, after some (small, after India not even mentionable) hassle when trying to find our hotel we immediately kinda really felt like "being on vacations" - main reason being in a nice hotel and Bangkok, despite being a huge city, is somehow very relaxing (at least it was to us but that might also be a tribute to be paid to India ;)).
The first evening we spent at the Khao san road watching people (elderly germans or brits with young thai girls or ladyboys, ...), eating from the different food stands (one word: delicious - all of them ;)) and enjoying our first night out since we left Austria.
On Sunday a colleague of mine from the project in Geneva (who basically leaves 9 month in Bangkok and works in Switzerland for 3 months) and his girl friend were friendly enough to show us some parts on Bangkok we might not have been to otherwise.
Our first stop was a huuuuge weekend market in the northern part of the city which was completely different to any markets we say in India - nobody tried to pull us into their shops just because we were "Falangs", nobody followed us, &&& and we could really enjoy our walk etc.. After spending a few hrs there we enjoyed a 2hr Thai massage (which made my shoulders hurt for the next 2 days :)) and then they drove us to their home for a shower (thanks again!!)
In the night we first went out for dinner and then Yuichi and Eu showed us around the red light district. That was for me a weird mixture of being interesting and disgusting - interesting because of again you were not pushed into anything and you could just sit at a bar outside and watch the people and distgusting because of all the elderly man staring at the girls, their salvia turning to rivers,...For a more detailed (and better) description of the red light district feel free to read the following blog entry from a friend of mine: http://richardaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/bangkok-behind-red-light.html

On our way back to the hotel around 3 in the morning via a cab we got stopped by the police and thats when I learned that in Thailand it is mandatory for Falangs to carry their passport at all time. Meaning that, as Thomas luckily had his passport with him (I had locked mine in the hotel safe to keep it safe and forgot to take a copy of my passport with me) the police kept his passport and he had to drive to the hotel to get mine while I was waiting with the Police. The funny thing was that I was in an urge for some "relief" and when I asked the policemen he only pointed to the sidewalk. Knowing that I was not in India I asked 3-4 times if he is serious and when he kept nodding I thought ok, turned around and, surprisingly that was when they realized what I had asked them and showed me the way to a public bathroom... ;)
Pics from Bangkok and surroundings can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/BangkokAndAround?authkey=Gv1sRgCJClpNPJ1fayBQ#

further updates to come - gotta run back to the hotel to get our passports with visas for vietnam, laos and cambodia and then we head to chiang mai via a night train.

so long

Looking back at India

As the rain surprised us in Kalkutta I have some time to recap our experiences made in India in a brief (not gonna go into the touristic parts)
so
o "For me coming from you friend is a four letter word" - dedicated to all those little street selling buggers who do not know the meaning of words like no NO or any alike (neither in German, English, Russian, Swedish or Spanish)
o Tourist taxes are mandatory per law, always applicable and need to represent at least 100% of the "native" price
o 4 weeks are just not enough
o In case it can be avoided, do not travel in March/ April to (south) India - the heat's just killing you
o the Taj Mahal is overrated and a tourist rip off (although it's kinda a must see...)
o India is THE country with the highest bureaucrazy known to mankind (ok - at least to me) - they e.g. require the same information in at least 2 forms and in addition make at least 3 carbon copies...bloody English!!!
o Little kids often ask for pens instead of rupies or foreign coins (--> they are either very eager to learn or they were taught some words wrongly...)
o Some kids are already more or less fluent in many different languages dependent upon which tourists are easiest to convince to buy something (e.g. Russian in Varkala or German in Mandawa) but they do lack a lot of generic geographic knowledge (thumbs up for the language skills although they are used to "support the dark side of power")
o Public transport is a very cheap and reasonable and quick way to get around and get to know locals (mostly via their kids) but they are not a synonym for cleanness in any kind
o Every cow is sacred, every cow is good. If a cow is tasted, god gets quite irate

nota bene: list might not yet be completed and is to be regarded as work in progress until this comment is removed :)

All the above sounds very negative (realized that when re-reading it) - thus some corrections need to be made as India was a great experience (although also very stressful to some extent). Looking back it is really amazing to see all the cities with their differences (rich vs poor,...) as well a bureaucracy in action that would drive europeans nuts - but the people accept it and follow it very calmly.

Trivandrum - Ooty - Mysore

Slowly but steadily our time in India is coming to an end - on the 12th we will head out to Bangkok from Calcutta. Thus this will be the last post from India - the next one will be out of Thailand wooohooo :)

The past days were quite stressful in regard to getting to Bangalore and still including some key sites we planned to visit (Ooty and Mysore) in the south. Getting to Bangalore (from where we fly to Calcutta) therefore involved a lot of time spent in public transport (record was 24hrs within 27hrs) - be it train or bus.
The trains in India are...well, once you sit down for a few minutes your whole body gets sticky and you have the impression you administered super glue on your hands as well as any other part not covered by clothes...(same is the case when you travel in 1st class (which is similar to the standard OEBB trains a few years back).
In addition the train schedule (so you are able to find a current one) is only an estimate and does not need to correlate with reality at all - strangely in the past days all trains and busses were on time (or even left earlier).

A brief overview of the trip taken:
We started from Varkala in the morning towards Trivandrum (the most southern spot we reached in India) to say out Good-byes to Susi, checked a train towards Ooty (with a 3hrs stopover on some train station between 2 and 5am).
The final train to Ooty (from a train station I cannot remember or spell) was via an old steam locomotive which took us up to 2200m (within 5hrs). The ride was quite nice from scenery perspective but well, it took ages and the train was full of indians screaming as soon as we went over a small bridge or through a small tunnel. --> independent of nation, as soon as they form hordes they are very hard to bear...
Once we were up there we walked around the city for 2-3 hrs but, as the city was neither nice nor clean in any aspect we decided to take the next bus to Mysore (another 5hrs ride). In Mysore we spent one night in luxury (aka an air conditioned room) and today had a look at the palace as well as a fruit and spice market.
The palace was nice but, despite having 4 entries we, being tourists, were only allowed to used one of them - for any other we would either needed to be "Maharajas" or tip the guards (...).
Around 2 or 3pm we caught a bus to Bangalore (another 3 hrs which turned out to be rather 5) and thats were we currently are. Looking for a hotel here was interesting - the first one had no water at all (but showers in the rooms) and the second had rooms without showers (also no showers on the hallway) but also rooms with (working) showers for a slightly higher price.

Pics can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/TrivandrumOotyMysoreKalkutta?authkey=Gv1sRgCJPs4-jQws7QIA#

One thing I forgot to mention previously - I HAVE NEW SUN GLASSES!!
After granting 5 opticians some of my precious time I found one who had clip-on sunglasses and did not say they cannot be (somehow) adjusted to my glasses. Only prob is that I look like a German sex tourist when wearing them...

Kerala

So, to "escape" from Goa down to the south our choice of transport was a night train down to Kochin. We booked the cheapest sleeping class available - this was basically ok except that the sleeping banks need to be cleaned before one can settle on them (method of choice was a newspaper as I had nothing else on me - unfortunately I did not dare to fully stretch myself). The train ride itself turned out ok - at least as soon as the train arrived with a not unusual delay of 3-4hrs (strangely we arrived in Kochin more or less on time (at least based upon our own gut feeling as nobody was really able to tell us when the train should have arrived anyways...)).

Kochin is quite a nice town (with a strong European influence (for details pls feel free to check wikipedia or any other source of your trust) but due to the weather (it seems to get hotter and more humid not only on a daily but somehow even on an hourly basis) we did not really see too much of the city itself/ mostly walked around after 4pm and drank lots of water (I have made the good decision of taking a room with AC (the experience in Benaulim taught me a lesson) - thus, although being everything else than cheap I could at least sleep well in comfy 20 degrees or such :)).
We spent one day on a backwater trip close to Kochin which was from start the most touristic thing we have done so far (our "group consisted of way to many french and germans)...The first part was nice as we were going through the backwaters there with small boats which was quite nice. the second part after the "lunch" basically consisted of all tourists in one big boat (which was stirred and moved by one sole person) and we spent 4hrs exactly doing or seeing nothing except a river and a never changing countryside (mainly due to the slower than slow speed one single human power can provide ). --> lesson learned: such a trip in the more famous back waters in Allepey and Kollum are very likely to be more worth the time than what we did...

So, after 2 nights in Kochin we decided it is time to move further south (esp. also as Susis plane for Mumbai leaves from Trivandrum on Tuesday 8th) and spend 1-2 days at the beaches in Varkala (where I currently am). We once more decided for a train - just for the price and rather short distance and, after some confusion at the train station we managed to find our train (which had nothing to do with the one we originally planned for but somehow that train did not show up in any of the train lists we could find (...). After the usual delay of approx 2. hrs the train left the station and during our trip were approached by a few locals - but luckily on a very friendly way and we had the chance to chat with them for a good part of the trip (which was actually quite nice - but the sole kinda strange thing was that (as we found out in the end) they were travelling with their families - but they only introduced themselves and their kids and the women stayed behind in another compartment (?)).
Varkala offers a rather small beach (which can be accessed via a Cliff) but it is a lot more relaxed than anything we saw in Goa and a nice place to kick back and just relax (besides sweating as soon one moves a muscle). In addition, the (sea) food is amazing in all 3 main aspects (Quality, Quantity and Price) - e.g a Tuna steak of approx. 300-400g with side dish for approx. 2 euros... . (knowing what I was allowed to pay for less up north does not make me too happy but well...)

set of uncensored, rotated, whatsoever pics can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/KeralaKochinVarkala?authkey=Gv1sRgCL2Ej_af4Mercw#

Coming up, in short, is
- Trivandrum (+ saying good bye to Susi)
- Mysor
- Uti (if we make it - there is a very nice small train going through the hilly countryside up to 2200m (which would also mean agreeable temperatures)
- Bangalore (for our flight to Calcutta)
- Calcutta for half a day
and then, well then the time in India is over and we head for South East Asia, starting in Bangkok (and most likely ending in Bangkok some 4 weeks later :))

So long and thanks for all the fish

Goa

After the kinda stressful time in North India we decided to take a short break and spend a few days in one of the best known beach areas India has to offer - Goa.
Our first stop was Benaulim where we met Susi, a friend of Thomas, who will join us for a few of the coming days in South India.
In Benaulim we have stayed in the cheapest hotel so far - 250 Rupies for 2 persons per night...and from my side it is the last one in such a room as...well, didn't dare to take pictures of it, lets put it that way :)

So the next day we planned to rent a little beach hut at the, surprise, beach. We walked along the Beach there but no huts in sight and so we decided to move to another beach, approx. 40km south, called Palolem (another reason was that in Benaulim is the main destination for elderly and/ or old english tourists and...well :)

So we arrived in Palolem, were immediately surrounded by a dozen of natives who told us that their hotel is the best,... . Luckily people in the south understand the word "no" and stop bothering you once it is said.
We found a quite nice hut with a neat terrace close to the sea (and a bit windy which is nice).
Plan now is to relax here until tomorrow (thursday) and in the evening we will catch a train down to Kochin (and from there we will go bit further south to see the Kerala backwaters, etc..)

Due to laziness not so many pics were taken in the past few days - for those interested: https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Goa?authkey=Gv1sRgCJqI2KWon_LbLg#

ah, and my sunglasses seemingly broke on the way from Delhi to Goa...and according to "opticians" they cant be fixed...so me got some superglue and let's see what happens (I assume nothing but we'll see... :))

Agra

Yesterday was our last stop of our quite extensive (and exhaustive) Rajasthan tour - the famour Taj Mahal in Agra.
To be honest I was not as impressed as I had imagined - the Taj is very nice but it is soooo touristic and you are more or less forced to pay some additional money (to the already very high entrance fee for tourists) to "guides" in order not to wait 20 minutes + in a queue (which is not a queue because the "guides" and the persons at the ticket counter seemingly have an agreement to not to sell tickets to one tourist below 5 minutes processing time...

some pics from the taj as well as other sights such as e.g. the baby taj (and our driver in the past 12 days, prem) can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Agra02?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmg-YO3296oEA#

Jaipur

We've spent the past two days in Jaipur (also called "the pink city") and gained a lot of new experiences in regard to always assuming the best intention of people approaching you. But more to that a bit later.

Jaipur has a lot of nice sights - 2 forts (Amber fort and Tiger fort), a palace, an observatory (which is really nice and interesting) and much more. Although the city is nice the traffic is very similar (if not worse) then Delhi and the air is accordingly polluted (which is not surprising when knowing that in the 1950s Jaipur had approx. 300'000 inhabitants and now they are close to 6 or 7 million.

Besides of the sights our guide also brought us to a cloth shop were we had ourselves tailored suits and shirts made - for at least a third the price we'd pay back home.

Nevermind, now to the fun part of our visit: on the first day we walked through the streets in the evening looking for something to eat, etc.. Once that was done we decided to go back via "tuk tuk" - the first driver wanted a too high fee and the 2nd one was more within our expecations. So we set off and, the usual question on where we are from came up. When we said Austria he started to talk about his childhood in the SOS Kinderdorf in Jaipur, how thankful he is for that time and so on and so forth, offering us in the end a tour to the Tiger fort, monkey temple and the SOS Kinderdorf for the next afternoon.
Despite all experiences before we said ok - knowing that there might be some background thoughts on his side but how worse can that be? And he sounded very honest/ convincing although that the fact that he "studied" Biology (but wanted to work in tourism) and had enough time at hand on short notice was, well (...)

So, the next day he really showed up on time with a friend and we set off to the places promised (which were all very nice - especially the tiger fort offered an amazing view of the city (and gave a way better idea on its current size).
After an obligatory stop in some shop we went to the Kinderdorf and the people there showed us how it works, what the offer to the kids, etc. - it was very impressive and good to see that such organizations exist and do their work out of believe instead of monetary reasons (which is not fully true as, per our "guide" direct donations in the kinderdorf do not fully (or not at all) reach the children.

Nonetheless, during our drive in the tuk tuk through town both our new "friends" started to talk about a financial problems of the "Biology student" (my apologies, I am still very bad in remembering names) who, by coincidence, was very close to being kicked out of university as he was not able to pay his fees for the coming months (and as another coincidence had it, his deadline was the next day, 11:30).

So, after all the driving we went for a few beers in a bar where no tourist has been before (I assume) and things became more and more instresting (e.g. being proposed to not donate to the SOS Kinderdorf but to give the money to the "student" directly as he is a very good guy, one of the best students of his university (the head of the university even called him at 09:30 in the evening begging him to make sure to bring the money on time) &&& &, in addition, for him friendship is the most important in life (in his own words: "I have beat my wife yesterday from 1 - 3 am because she talked bad about about my best friend and that I cannot accept (and, as she is a good wife, she understood, accepted her punishment and hopefully learned her lesson" (...)).
He even invited us for breakfast in his "home" the next day which we gladly accepted - although we somehow forgot that our driver was to pick us up at 9am from the hotel and we would (or should...) not be in Jaipur at 10:30...
The next day started quite badly as seemingly the food from the night before and our digestive system had no good interest in getting to know each other very well - thus myself (Matthias) was having quite some problems on two ends whereas Thomas was a bit more lucky.
So, our plan was to go to the cloth shop, verify the last changes to the suits ordered, have them shipped back home and head for Agra approx. 40minutes later.
Unfortunately we did not leave the shop before 11 and, due to construction works, we have had to drive through the city and past our hotel....and well, the student and 2 more of his friends were waiting there at the road, saw us and started following us (and as they new the city very well they were faster and once just stopped in front of our car with their tuk tuk....
we just drove past them but it was still a strange experience somehow.

Pics from Jaipur (again, no preselection...): https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Jaipur?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLu7c_Hg53dnwE#

Things we've learned:
o Indian use dried cow and camel pupu as we use wood (e.g. for heating a stove) - assume this leads to some special flavors of dishes
o there's no need to be paranoid in India - but never telling the truth on specific details (such as next destination, ...) to new "friends" can be a good thing to do (it is also some fun to play along their little role play - be it just to protect yourself ;)

Pushkar

Our next stop en route was Puskar which is an holy city for hindus as well as a very spiritual place for aging hippies (we did not fully believe that in the beginning but once we saw the tourists walking around we somhow started to believe - was quite intresting)
The city itself is rather small but has a lot of temples and "ghats" and legend has it that Brahma (one of the numerous hindu gods) once threw a flower upon that area and a lake was created.
For tourists it can be a quite dangerous place in regard to some fraud and, despite roughly reading the lonely planet advice, I (Matthias) was clever enough to give too much money to a priest (assuming he was one...) - but the good side of it is that from now on my whole family, friends and, last but not least, myself as well will indulge in everlasting happiness, wealth, and much more. (In case this won't happen I hope this priest will spent his eternal life in (hindu) hell, being forced to eat beef. Inshallah!)

Besides that we have witnessed another hindu wedding (since our trip started we have seen at least one per day) and despite them being very intresting due to being complete different, they can also be painful if the celebration/ "wedding march" takes place just opposite your hotel and the music on the street won't really stop before 1 or 2 am (didn't happen in Pushkar though but e.g. in Bikaner we have had this pleasure).

The complete set of pics from Pushkar (again, no censoring has been performed) can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Pushkar?authkey=Gv1sRgCLSYvOr0usqDxgE.

Unfortunately our trip through Rajasthan is coming to an end - but in a few days awesome beaches (for pronounciation purposes the non-spanish version is (currently) intended) are awaiting us...

cheerio
meerio

From Jodphur to Udaipur

Yesterday we left Jodpur and went to Udaipur, where we stay(ed) for 2 nights (highly recommended as the city is very nice and has an interesting mixture of calmness as well as crazy traffic.
On the way here we stopped at a famous Jain temple in Ranakpur. The temple was amazing - it is built of thousands of pillars of which none looks the same and is in very good shape.

After that the drive took us over something I'd call the highlands of northern India (amazing to look at when driving through as the whole scenery got a lot greener than in Jodphur or any city below.

Udaipur itself is surrounded by two (artificial) lakes and the hotel we're staying here offers a perfect view on the lake  which is, especiall in the evening when the palace, e.a. are lit very nice (I'd be calling very romatic if I weren't travelling with Tom ;)).
Thw city itself dos not offer too many sights (and most are very similar to what we've seen in the cities before) but its location as well as the many roof top restaurants are ideal for getting some rest and kick back with a lassi or such..In addition you also need rest from the traffic as it is rather crazy - the roads are very narrow (only one car fits at a time) and the amount of motorcycles, cars, tuktuks,... leads to a constant background noise of horns all around you (as well as is a killer for  the air to breathe due to the roads).
When strolling through Udaipur today midday we by luck also bumped in the Australian we met a few days back and joined him for a short tour up on a little hill, to a nice park, etc. and spent the rest of the day rather relaxed in some cafes, etc..
(will update/ enhance this post as soon as I remember more to write about :))

Pics of Ranakpur as well as Udaipur can be found under the following link: https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/FromJodphurToUdaipur?authkey=Gv1sRgCJTG8u6E69nYUw


P.S.: Apologies but I've missed that comments where not possible without logging in - I have just fixed this prob.

Jodphur

gonna try a bit longer update this time so
today we went from Jaisalmer to Jodphur (which was another 5hrs drive) and I gotta say that we are now used to the road conditions in India (cows building there own roundabout next to a roundabout, goats and camels crossing the road, tuk tuks and rikshas,...) and we are not any more amazed (or slightly shocked) by anything we see (e.g. pigs strolling around in Jaisalmer city, little girls making pipi on the streets - just to name a few).
Jodphur, also known as "the blue city" is very nice (see pics of the city, fort, hotel and martial arts trial under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Jodphur?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7-2d-LmdiNiwE#) but it is the 2nd city with a fort in the row (although in Jaisalmer approx. 50'000 people live in the fort whereas in Jodphur the fort is just a tourist atraction) and we kinda start getting enough of forts - lets see what the coming cities bring.
Jodphur is also very famous for its spice market and the prices are...well, lets say decent when looking at very good chai tea, vanilla or Safran. (that also equals to an a bit extensive shopping tour but well...).

The nice thing about our trip is that we keep bumping into the same people during our tour - for example an Australian guy we met the first time in Mandawa and met again in Jaisalmer.
I think I have roughly mentioned that tourist, as in many other countries are kind of seen as "cows that are to be milked" when they do not bargain etc.. He is a quite good example as he tends to see the very good in all people approaching him, without assuming that they have any "hidden" agenda...which leads to e.g. paying 4 times the price for a small bottle of cheap whiskey (although me gotta say thx again) compared to locals.But after about 3-4 weeks in India he starts to realize that people sometimes to tend to screw him over and gets a healthy portion of paranoia...

All in all India is treating us quite well - the tour we're taking is very well organized, hotels are better than expected and our driver helps us in getting not screwed too much when buying stuff(the liquor stores in Rajasthan are called "English wine and beer store" which is kinda funny as I'd assume that English wine (so it may exist) tastes like Austrian wine in the 80s...), the food is amazing (and luckily spiced for tourists in all places so far) and Matthias has been eating only vegetarian in the past days without complaining (although he sometimes has some strange mimics when seeing well-fed cows...).

so, the next 7 days we will keep travelling in Rajasthan until we finish our tour in Agra and afterwards we'll head south until the 12th..
But as we still have quite a few things to organize for the coming trips I'm afraid I'll do some further updates...

P.S.: comments are highly appreciated!! ;)

Jaisalmer

Time for a new update...in the past 2 days we were in Jaisalmer and the desert next to it - yesterday doing a little camel safari (which was...well, okei-ish) and sleeping in the desert and having a tour of Jaisalmer and its fort today.


We had expected a little more of the camel safari but we realized that we/ the travel agent we decided to trust had only booked the most touristic tour available - which was camel ride of approx. 3hrs (of which 30-40min were in the desert), looking at a sunset (which was hidden by clouds) and having a dinner that did not take place in the desert but in a camp (calling it resort would be an insult). After that we decided to sleep in the dunes - hoping to see a nice sunset and having a more comfortable sleep than in the rooms given to us.
All in all it was a nice night - especially as we were, according to tom, guarded by a dog sleeping next to us - except for the cold wind starting around 3am and the rain kicking in at 7:15 (--> no sunrise to be seen).
After some Chai tea we then set off to Jaisalmer and had a look at the fort (we had a very good guide who gave as a lot of background, etc..) as well as took part in some commercial activities (our part was more to say "aha...intresting...etc.") as our guide wanted us to see specialties from the region (e.g. silver jewelry) - luckily these shops also put no pressure on us)

ah - and during the last night in Bikaner Thomas and myself were again asked for photographs - this time without insults ;))

The pics from Jaisalmer can be found under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Jaisalmer?authkey=Gv1sRgCKajgbmElO3HXg# (please note that there has been NO pre-selection on any pics due to lack of time (or so)


Lessons learned cont.:
o The English also brought the concept of roundabouts to India - although they have extended it with possible obstacles such as cows or camels
o The electric wiring at the Schillerhof in Graz seems to have been done by an Indian

Cheers,
Matthias & Thomas

Our trip started - current stop: Bikaner

So we are now at our 2nd stop - Bikaner.
As said we have hired a driver who takes us around and so far this was a very good choice as it makes life a lot easier (at least for us :)).
The first stop was Mandawa - this city was initially not on our list but proposed by the travel agent as there are many old wall paintings (called Havelis) to be seen there, etc.. Getting there from Delhi took quite some time (approx. 7hrs by car) but the city and the hotel was nice and we met some other travellers from Chile and Down under.
Pics from Mandawa: https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Mandawa?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDG59mWksHV6AE#
We first tried to explore the city ourselves as we were confident that our lessons learned in Delhi reg. people approaching you would be sufficient. Unfortunately we were proven wrong and, after just 2min, had 5 kids following us (and this number kept increasing and telling them to back off did not help at all). Thus we got a guide in the end (whom we paid peanuts (not lit.) and told the jerks to stay away.

Today morning we left for Bikaner - another 4hrs on the road. Before going into Bikaner we visited a famous temple named "Rat Temple". As any temple you are only allowed to enter barefoot which, well, allows you to walk on dried rat pupu and pipi and thus giving you the full experience once the first rat runs over your foot.
Afterwards we vistited an old Fort which was quite impresive and well preserved - astonishing fact is also that, according to the book it only took 5 years to build (surprising when looking at its size)

Pics from Bikaner: https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Bikaner?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjD9o-W4ubm9wE#
Upload of further pics is currently in progress - link will be posted as soon as available


things we've learned - continued:
o "bat" or so means "go away" in Hindi. doesn't work when said by a foreigner though (and might cause misunderstandings once we are in Thailand)
o Girls from Chile drink their beer with lemon and salt (and it tastes surprisingly good - not sure if that's a sign for the quality of the beer)
o  Camels have a 6th sense and find the way home all by themselves - thus the driver can sleep (they even step aside when a car approaches)
o Roadside restaurants can be good - but you need to know which ones (and not rely on looks)
o 10 rupis for 3 cups of tea are OK - when giving 10 rupis to an employee of a fort as a little sign of thankfulness you are laughed at

conspiracy theories (so far only one - to be continued once more are apparent)
o the smog in Delhi does not come from the traffic but from the cows
https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Delhi02?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-BrcOhq4_73AE#
https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Delhi?authkey=Gv1sRgCKi0gJWM3bab1wE#

2nd (and last) day in Delhi

So, today we have "aufgeschlaut" ourselves on how to *really* get around in Rajasthan while, among others, saving our time and nerves.
In a nutshell we went to an official tourist office (getting there was a pain as numerous people tried to convince us that the map and lonely planet are lying) but in the end we managed to somehow get there and organize a route with a car & driver & hotels that fits our interests as well as budget and gives us flexibility.
In short, the plan for the next 12 days is as follows:
- 1 day Mandawa
- 1 day Bikaner
- 2 days Jaisalmer (incl. camels and night in desert
- 1 day Jodphur
- 2 days Udaipur
- 1 day Pushkar
- 2 days Jaipur
- 1 day Agra
- Flight from Delhi to Goa

In addition, we have learned the following so far:
o Matthias looks like Tom Cruise (although he is waaaaaaay taller and better looking)
o Kingfisher (Indian beer) tastes like Dutch beer but comes in bigger bottles
o If you ever want to educate your dog send him/ her to Dehli
o Noise and crazy traffic is something you get easily used to

so far so good -  in the south we do plan to plan ourselves without relying on people possibly not fully telling the truth... :)

Delhi

So here it is - the first entry in this blog which (possibly) will last for the next 10 weeks.

We (Mr. Thomas P. and me humble self) arrived in Delhi today morning and went directly towards our hotel (pictures of the suite will follow as this pc doesn't let me upload pics to blogspot, picasa or facebook...
For a start it is safe to say that we cannot break out, the floor is clean (mainly due to the shower en suite to the room) and no cockroaches (or anything similar) in sight.

After getting our room we started off into the city (weather is rainy, not nice) and realized that people here are...well, special (not in the special special way but they do try to convince you that they are the only honest ones and the only ones wanting your best experience,...which is normal in touristic areas but their pertinence is kinda unique...)
this means that our patience is receiving some good training (which is though after just arriving and having to adjust, etc.) but well.

After some hours at such tourist offices (again, you cant really get rid of them) we decided to not fully believe and went to the tourist office in the train station. wasnt too helpful (also due to our not really preparedness) but while we filled out some documents (the english did a great job in teaching bureaucracy and the concept of queuing) we were allowed to witness a freak-out session of an English girl (who somehow was not familiar with the above concepts). Thus she got into a fight with a native and before one could realize what is going on she slapped him in the face - ending up in a fight at whichs end she threw his glasses to the ground and stomped on them shouting "don't call me bitch you fucking moron, don't call me bitch because this is what happens if you do..."

So during these hours we realized that there is some (small but still) need to put our head around the destinations in india and the best way of reaching them - currently we do consider to not use too many trains in the north but rather rent a car with a driver and do some kind of "package tourism"as this would save us a lot of time and nerves and allow us to adjust a wee bit better...we'll see how that turns out ;)

besides that...traffic is amazing here...we had a pickup service from the airport and the way to the city was...well, looking forward to Bangkok :)

so, that's all for now - guess it's long enough already...

cheers