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#