Donnerstag, 27. November 2008

A little bit scared but fine

Hi everybody!
For those of you that follow our travelling a little bit closer - knowing that we are spending three days in Mumbai right now - and watch TV every once in a while ... we got quite lucky yesterday but are completely fine. We visited the Oberoi shortly before and as the attacts started, we had dinner around five hundred meters away from the CS Terminus - the Railway Station affected you see in the News. We could hear the blasts but apart from that weren't affected at all. The city is pretty quiet right now (almost everything remaind closed today) and we will see how it will be tomorrow.

Beloved greetings from Mumbai,
Tanja and Boris

Dienstag, 25. November 2008

The wild Rajasthan

Hi everybody!
From the foggy Agra, we went straight to the colorful Camelmarket in Puschka and started our Journey in Rajasthan, where Tanja and I spent the last two weeks.



And even though the happening is called a Camelmarket, it was more a very busy fair for the people from the villages around and the Camels were present but just played the second role.




During the fair the streets were so crowded that we had great problems getting from one end of the town to the other ... but as soon the fair was over, everything changed, and all of a sudden Puschka became the quiet place at the lake it uses to be 358 days a year.


Having Kolkata and Dehli in mind Rajasthan wasn't that busy at all so that it gave us enough time to discover the history of the many different Rajput-Clans and Maharajas. We visited a lot of Forts and Palaces with a great islamic architectonic influence connected with local materials letting us dream the fairytail of 1000 and one night: a few examples ...
The city palace of Jaipur which is still the residence of the maharaja.

The fort of Amber which has been the residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur until they founded Jaipur City in the early 18th century ... and we both couldn't understand why to leave such a beautiful fort and palace



The fort and palace of Jaisalmer that was not that impressive as the havelis (buildings of rich persons in the society) in the town.
And last but not least the fort in Jodhpur - similar situated as the fort in Jaisalmer (on top of the hill) but the palace with its detailed work just beated the pants of the one in Jaisalmer.







But we also took some time to see the rural Rajasthan and how the people live far away from the cities and palaces.


We got a chance to see that during a three-day Camelsafari in the Thar-Desert near Bikaner. For the Safari we met again with Markus and Esther and the three days were just a blast!!

And when four strangers on Camels walk through the desert, it looks like this ... (normaly everybody was sitting on something that moves - either the Camel or the Camelcar)


And since it's been such a good experience, we threw our torn butts again on a Camelback to see sunset in some lonely dunes close by Jaisalmer.


And of course ... India is always different and Rajasthan wouldn't be India if there wouldn't be any kind of a strange place: The rat-temple in Deshnok.
We ended our Trip through the wild Rajasthan in Udaipur where we spent our time with Steve from the US and Milenko from Peru. Udaipur has many quiet places and stands in the shadow of a great James Bond movie: Three palaces (one of them the water palace) were the setting for Octopussy.

The sun slowly sets and Tanjas and mine journey together will end quiet soon. We will spent another three days in Mumbai and then some relaxing days at the beach before we split up again and lady by my side gone.
With beloved greetings from India,
Tanja and Boris

Freitag, 14. November 2008

Kolkata to Agra

Hi everybody!
As I wrote the last time I got company from a lady ...




We met in Kolkata, a town in which you can stillfeel the colonial influence due to the victorian architecture located almost everywhere ... the Courthouse, the Post Office and the Victoria Memorial



Kolkata is a very busy town, in the streets mostly reigns chaos and Darwins laws of the surveivel of the fittest - when the traffic moves. If not you can enjoy a free horn concert


Among all these cars we found a special one... Kolkata has also been the acting ground of Mother Theresa, whose Hospiz, Living Place and Grave we've visited.


After all this you wouldn't assume that this town can have a "romantic" side ... Howrath Bridge during sunset.
... and actually it wasn't that romantic ... fortunately pictures don't smell and make noise ;-). But things should change soon since we drove to Darjeeling - The "Queen of the Mountains"

Right the first day we met four other German travellers and with two of them, Markus and Esther we sticked together for another week and still meet them here and there ... where ever our routes cross.

In Darjeeling we visited the deep green tea fields and a spectacular sunrise that we shared, once again, with a huge crowd of other tourists.

But once the sun is up, you have a beautiful view and we really enjoyed these days far away from dusty cities.
From Nature we went back to a really spiritual place ... a town called Bodhgaya where Buddha found it's enlightenment. Since there has been no chance of getting a train ticket, we had to take a slieghtly overloaded bus ... The trip was safe but the roads were so bad that our asses won't forget theses 13 hours of ride for a very long time.

Bodhgaya itself was exactly the right transition from the quiet Himalaya back to the business of the indian towns. Quiet a small village that is situated next to the Mahabodi Temple.


The Temple is built right next to the bodhi tree where Buddha sat getting it's enlightenment and thus a very spiritual place for the Buddhist.

From one of the most important places for Buddhism we went to the probably most important place in the Hindi Religion: Varanasi at the Ganghes River.


We got very lucky to be able to vitness the annual puja (a ritual prayer) for the sungod, that takes place from sunset til sunrise. The Hindi people bring oblations in form of fruits, flowers, candles and coconut milk, which they dip in the Ganghes to sacrifice them and take them home afterwards to eat them ... an amazing colorful and loud (firecrackers were all over the place) happening.

Varanasi most impressive sight is the Ganghes River, respectively the Ghats, the stairs that go down from the city to the water. It's the place for the hindi to take their daily bath, where they burn their deads and where they celebrate their religion (for instance a daily ceremony to put to sleep)
Remembering our early childhood and the Mogli Story in the Dschunglebook, it was a deep wish to make a safari and see the indian national animal: Shri Khan. On the way to there, we passed some temples in Khajuraho that show scenes we had no idea of, reading the dschungle book as innocent childs
On the Safari in the Bandhavagarh National we met two Dutch as well as an American with whom we made two Safaris ... one in the morning and one in the evening. We had great time seeing all kinds of animals.
But probably the most impressive moment to last in our memories will be our contact with Shri Khan
From seeing the national animal we went straight to see an other national indian symbol: the Taj Mahal, where you can already recognize how our further travilling will turn ... we will spend the next two weeks in Rajasthan, the land of the Camels.

Hope you all are doing well and some nice greetings from India
Tanja & Boris