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...
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...
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