India - a first review in english
geschrieben von Katharina (2. Oktober 2008)

We travel now for more than three weeks within india. I worked till the end of august, Johannes some days less and we had to move everything out of the appartment, exept the furniture. We had some “good bye evenings” with friends at my mums house at the terasse and some friends we met elsewhere what was really better than one big party, because we had some quality time with all of them. The good bye at the airport was hard, some of our friends where there and my mum and peter. My friend dieter brought champagne and my mum too. I did not have breakfast and so i was drunk when we went to the gate. First we flew to london and there we stayed 4 hours and then we flew to dehli. After the arrival we took a prepaid taxi to the hotel. Our driver couldn’t find the place for two hours. Indian traffic is crazy. You find cars, motorcycle, tuctucs, bikes, rikschas, cows, dogs and people mixed together and what you don’t believe: it works.

After we arrived we went to the New Delhi railwaystation because we wanted to go to nepal - kathmandu first. There we bought the tickets afterwords we walked through the market and then took a tuctuc to Connaught place. The tuctuc driver said something about floods in nepal so we went to the govermental travel agency there and they recommended us to stay in india the first 4 weeks and then go to kathmandu. So that’s what we did. We booked a tour for 24 days including car, driver, hotels and a camel safari. That was perfect for us because like this we will see much more of india as we would if we would organize it all by ourselfs with train, buses and so on … After the booking we met our driver - his name is Anil and he brought us to a nice restaurant in dehli first and then we went to india gate, on which other side you can see a big palace. Then we went back to the hotel and Anil said he will pick us up the next day at seven. Next day we left for Chandigarh, when we arrived there we went to see the so called “Nek Chand rock garden” and then there was an artificial lake as well. Imagine, this whole city was planned and built by the architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s. After we had left the lake it suddenly started raining and it was our first monsoon rain experience. We got back to the hotel and had dinner there. What brings me to the food.

Most of it is vegetarian, so good for me and even johannes is full afterwards. You have a lot of curry with vegetables and lentils. Also rice, potatoes and bread. Really delicious. Next day we went to Dharamsala, it is the exile of the dalai lama and therefore you have more people from tibet than indians there. This place has a very peacefull atmosphere. After discovering the tempel and the tibetian museum we also walked to the nearby village Bhagsu. After two nights there we left and went to Amritsar, where we visited the golden tempel the most holy place of the Sikh. You have every day about 30.000 pilgrims there.

In the evening we went to the peacefull boarder closing ceremony between india and pakistan. You have a lot of indian visitors there and there is dancing, singing and it is a huge and bizarr event. We enjoyed it very much. Then we left for bikaner. Where we saw the huge fort and we visited the karni-mata-tempel, it is a tempel where they admire rats. You have as much doves as rats there and of course, like every other tempel you have to take off your shoes !!!!!! Then we drove close to jaisalmer, and had a beautiful night on a sand dune at the desert were went to on a camel. We headed off from a place were we stored our luggage, packed our little backpack and went with another couple from london we just met before and decided to go together. Because it is nice to meet other people and not only talk to eachother ;-))) their names are hariett and max. They will stay in india, down in the south in kerala working for a volunteer project of an indian association that builds houses. We had a really great time with them. So around 4:30 pm we went with 3 camels and 3 guides, the so called cameldrivers to the desert. There we watched the sunset and afterwards helped cooking. The food was great, we even made our own bread and it was not sandy. Because it was almost full moon the night was really clear and it was really light. It was hard to sleep because all the sounds you are not familiar with like about 60 or70 camels around us that chose to stay that night on the same dune near our place. When the moon starts to go down it got colder in the desert. Between 6 and 7 the sun rises and after we tried fresh camel milk we headed back to the place we started and left again by car to jaisalmer to the hotel were we had a shower and two more hours of sleep. Afterwards we discovered the city and looked at some old buildings called haveli. The fort and the old city there is made out of sandstone and also famous for it. But it was also really dirty. This evening our driver told us that 5 bombs blasted in dehli. We were shocked, we have just been there at exactly the same places not even 10 days before. We discussed a lot this evening and came to the decision not to change our trip because then the terrorist have achieved their goal. Next day we left for jodhpur. First we checked our mails and stayed a long time then we made our laundry. In the evening we went to a really nice restaurant. It was called rock garden. It also had a little dancefloor and a cocktailbar. The food was also good and we did not pay more than usual. We stayed in the city center right underneath the fort. Next day we visited the clocktower, the spice market and the fort. In the evening we stayed again in the hotel because of some hard rain. At next we went to ranakpur and saw the tempel there, exept for the tempel there was not much to see. So we went back to the hotel and played some games and cards. In the same hotel we met a couple we saw in the desert camp too and started to talk to them. They come from mexico, are named gala and ivan and we spent a nice evening talking to them. They will stay 7 weeks in india and will head down towards the south and go to the beach. But before that we met them again and again during the time of our

tour through Rajasthan. We had a great time with them at the next places like pushkar, jaipur and in agra were we visited the taj mahal one of the most beautiful buildings. A very peaceful place, despite you have 1000’s of visitors every day. From Agra we took the train overnight to Varanasi sleeping on and off. So we slept again a couple of hours in the hotel after arrival. Varanasi again is a loud and typical indian dirty city, but also very interesting with its historical and mostly religious background. We made a one hour boat tour at dawn along the ghats were people pray, take a bath, wash their clothes ond burn their dead relatives. After 2 nights there we took a 2 days bus ride to pokhara in nepal where it is very different compared to india. Starting from the border it is cleaner, more green and the people are much more friendly. They talk to you and help you, just because they are friendly and not because they want to sell you something just want money.

Here we met some friends of johannes’ brother who lives in chile. They are german but live and work in chile too. We had a great time with them and still we enjoy our time in nepal doing nearly nothing.


Kommentare:
4 Kommentare zu "India - a first review in english"
Gloria am 2. Oktober 2008 um 19:40

Hallo, Ihr Lieben!

Es ist so schön, von Euch beiden immer wieder was zu lesen, und jetzt sind es auch noch zwei lange Berichte gleichzeitig! Und dann noch eine so schöne Zusammenfassung der ersten vier Wochen, es macht echt Spass, das zu lesen!
Laßt es Euch weiterhin gutgehen und passt auf Euch auf, und nun: Neues land, neue Abenteuer und Erlebnisse!
Liebe Grüße (auch vom Leuchtglobus ;) ) und Bussi, Gloria!


Veronika am 2. Oktober 2008 um 00:02

Hallo ihr 2!

Super schön eure berichte zu lesen! danke sehr und viel spaß jetzt in eurem 2. Land!

Bussis veronika


Felicity am 2. Oktober 2008 um 00:40

Hi from Aus

So great to hear your travel stories, im very jealous i wish i was in India.

Have finally arrived home and am setteling in. Its a little strange to be back and is taking me forever to unpack and sort through everything but its fun at the same time.

I am looking for a job but starting slowly. I have booked myself into a 9 week German course starting in 2 weeks so hopefully that will be a good start!

Stay safe, keep having an amazing time, and keep writing english reports.

Bussi Fliss


Andy Syrowatka am 2. Oktober 2008 um 20:05

Hey!

I suppose, good performance!

Suggestion:
Send your review to Miss G. to get your marks ;-)

Andy!


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