Short heads up

Dear family and friends,

I wish you a happy holiday season! I hope everyone is having a great time and will be with beloved ones during the upcoming days. I am currently in New Zealand and will be with some friends from university for christmas and new years, so I'm set ;-)

Unfortunately traveling so much and with other people is taking it's toll. I am finding less and less time to keep up with the blog. So I have decided to start writing about the current events and then, when I have more time, uploading older posts about Nepal and Bali. I have some notes, hoping I will be able to be able to tell about my adventures as much as I was, while I have been in India.

A short summary: After my friends left Nepal (and we finished hiking around and visiting some more villages) I was for a few days in Kathmandu and visited several sites and also the Chitwan National Park. A great place, more info to come ;-)
About middle of november I flew to Bali, Indonesia. Here I met Lea, another friend from university and we hung around, travelling different places and meeting other cool people we spent time with. On Bali I tried out surfing! And it was amazing!! I loved it and hope that I will be able to do some more in NZ and Australia. Though it will probably be way more expensive :D

Then I headed out to a more western country and where I am at the moment: New Zealand! I landed in Auckland, met Silja, my travel mate in Australia from 3 years ago and did everything I needed to be ready for work in New Zealand. About a week later I got my tax number and now I only have to find a job!
Then I headed down south, spent a week in Wellington and 3 days ago I took the ferry to the south island. And here I am: In Christchurch, the city which was so massively destroyed by earthquakes in 2010/11. I will head down to Dunedin in a few days (a students city) and celebrate christmas there. Then we'll see!

So I will now try and upload a few posts about New Zealand and then catch up when I don't feel like socializing :P
Have a great day everyone, wish you all the best and recieve a digital hug and of course: merry christmas and a happy new year! =)
Jakob

"Recent" picture I took of myself in Kathmandu after another haircut, recreating 'E' from my t-shirt ^^

Up and down again - a hob... erm hikers tale

Before lunch we left the MBC in hopes we'll arrive at Deurali for lunch time. We did and went on down into the clouds. We were worrying it might start raining again. Before we arrived at the next lodge place it started raining. Then pouring. So we decided to put on some rain gear and hurried down the forest path to the next "village". Sadly none of the lodge owners wanted to help us call the next village, so we didn't know if they were full or not. In the end we stayed there (it didn't stop raining). We decided to start earlier next day, so we could enjoy most of the sun and headed out early, so we might arrive at Chomrong the next day (about the same distance we had done on the way up). So early in the morning we headed out without breakfast and ate at the next lodge. it was good to do so, no one else was on the trek except a few porters and an elderly lady. She told us she loved treking and did so often alone nowadays. Soon we parted ways and wished each other all the best.
We passed all the spots on the way back. Then the dreaded stairs of Bamboo came. A big group of hikers was infront of us (they were rather slow) and made it hard for us to pass them. Evetually their guide noticed us and allowed us to pass them. Now we could try and speed up a little and get over it quicker. Well... "quicker".
It was not easy and I had flashbacks of the stairs the first days. Traumas of rocks everywhere, higher and higher, making me crawl up. Being pulled down by evil luggage and boots being replaced by cement filled buckets. Sticks clinging to each little pebble and not wanting to reach over the next step, refusing to help, but rather make me stumble.
Ok... it wasn't THAT bad. But yeah. Not easy. As soon as we were up we finally took the time to rest a bit and soon entered the forest the walking down again, which made it again much easier. We passed all the lodges we passed on the way up and then in the forest infront of Sinowa I heard something in the trees. We stopped and saw a bunch of monkeys! Awesome! Of course our two fotographers didn't have their cameras out, so we only could take pictures with our phones (not even me, my phone was in my bag somewhere). One monkey was at the path behind a rock. Peeking past it now and then to see what we were doing. It really amused the others, who were closer to it (I couldn't see it =( ).
But I watched the other monkeys in the trees, mommys with babys hanging onto them and was able to quiet a group of hikers behind us, so the monkeys weren't totally scared and ran off.
We stayed there a few more moments and after the monkeys slowly retreated (they had also been staring at us intensely) we walked into Sinowa. From here we were able to see Chomrong, which is about the same height as Sinowa, and also our path that way. Down to the river and back up again. Great, another 800 meters total down and up again. So we ate another fitness bar and started down. It took quite some time untill we were able to cross the river over the newly built bridge. Then all the way up again. Children passed us, apparently school had just ended, I shuddered at the thought of having this sort of way to school. Everyday walking all these steps. Though I guesss if I grew up here it'd be no trouble at all. Some kids stopped close to us, watching us carefully. A few brave actually spoke to us. We climbed the steps again, these were luckily very well maintained and so we could walk up more or less easily. We were hoping for an ATM in this village, though we had no luck. We checked out at the ACAP bureau (the one we had checked in a few days ago) and then went in search for a lodge to stay in for the night. It had slowly become cloudy, so we stopped there at about 4 pm. We had nice chocolate cake and delicious food! The lodge was famed for its cake and even in some newspaper because of it. We were able to change some euros into rupees, to have some more cash with us. After refreshing showers and a relaxing afternoon we slept very well. We had decided on a path to get to Ghandruk, our next stop.

The next morning we got ready to move out and left Chomrong early, though this time we had breakfast in the same lodge.
We left other groups behind us and hurried down the tracks. Today many other groups were walking the same path aswell and many many donkeys. Apparently thats a big thing at those places. They let donkeys carry their luggage, the gas canisters and food up the hills. Long donkey trains, if you will.
It was unbelieveable to watch them walking the same way as we were, just steep stairways or not even that. Always loaded with many things on their backs. The first ones had big bells hanging from their necks, so travelers could hear them from far away and make way and let them pass.
Once again our path took us down the valley to cross a river and then back up on the other side. On both we encountered many donkeys. We dreaded if one of them made a wrong step and fell, which probably happens quite often we feared.

Donkeys hanging around and probably happy not to have any luggage on ther back!

At the highest point for that day we stopped for lunch. The host had some children with him, who liked playing with hiking sticks, so the mother took away our sticks and put them higher and gave the kid it's own stick to play with.
Recharged we walked towards Ghandruk, our last big walk of this trek. Supposedly it's possible to be picked up by a bus/ jeep from Ghandruk. We were planning to keep on walking untill we reached the highway.
After more donkey trains and few lodges we finally got closer to Ghandruk. Buffalos were feeding outside of the town and a woman saw us coming. She invited us to stay at her lodge, though we had looked up a place with good reviews in Florys guide so we headed for that place instead of following the woman. We arrived at Ghandruk!

Decorations of the houses of Nepal #1

Decorations on the houses of Nepal #2 (it was really common to see corn hanging all over houses in Nepal!)

Arriving at the Base Camp!

After the last day we decided to take it a little more easy and also be more careful about where to stay. We didn't want to be that late at a lodge again!
So we packed our bags and marched on. No time for muscles complaining, a nice pancake in the morning and everythings fine... *cough*

Since the last day had been so hard, I was careful and tried not to strain myself that hard again. Luckily the day wasn't that bad as the last one. There weren't that many stairs and that made me happy.
We arrived in the last "bigger" "village" (village meaning a few lodges together - the lodges itself are shops, restaurants and so on, where you can buy food, get other things - but not get cash) called Deurali. From here it was another 400-500 meters up to the Machepuchere Base Cammp, which is the last place before the ABC (Annapurna Base Camp).
BUT before we arrived we had to walk of course. After Sinowa (from where you can see Chomrong a actual village with schools and other shops) the path led into a forest. Really neat, it was almost a rainforest. It went up and then a steep 1200 steps down. First it was a good thing, till we figured we had to walk all these stairs up on our way back down the mountain. A problem future Jakob had to handle - poor fellow...

At the bottom of the stairs we arrived in Bamboo, the place called that way because of all the bamboo around (duh!). Back it went up into bamboo forests and then later again "normal" forest.
So far we had observed a pattern in the weather. In the mornings it was always very clear, beautiful weather and warm as soon as the sun climbed over the mountains. As it got noon clouds appeared and piled up at the mountain tops untill they hid the sun. Luckily it didn't rain, simply cloudy. Unfortunately that meant it goes cold. Not so good, if you've been sweating alot. We had to be careful as to keep warm as soon as the sun was gone.
We arrived with sweatshirts and fleeces in Deurali. We played more DoKo and had nice Curry in the lodge. This one was full, so we were put into one of the rooms actually for porters (eventhough we had called ahead). The common room was full with other people staying there under big blankets. Up here the clothes didn't get dry anymore, unless the sun was shining directly on them. And because of a big ridge between Deurali and the east, the sun would only shine at about noon. If the clouds weren't faster...
The next day we were at more than 3000 meters above sea level and rising. The last hike to the MBC was great. Alot of nice views and just level walkways instead of going steeply up/ down all the time (it only went up and not tooo steep). At lunch time we arrived at the MBC and our host called the ABC lodges and told us, that everything was booked. So we stayed there at about 3800 meters in the lodge. We didn't move anymore after we did some laundry.
So our clothes were hanging outside, while we were inside playing cards and talking about what we could visit close to the MBC or do instead of just sitting. Then the clouds came, as expected. Though this time we were actually in the clouds, which was crazy. At one point we could hardly see our clothes hanging it outside. Not so good for them... but then again: They are already wet. How much wetter can they get?
After lunch and a few... well ok several. I admit it: alot of games it started raining... ok they could actually get wetter... cool. Literally.
I think our hosts told us about 5 times, that it's raining and if we want to take our clothes off, we just let them hang and hoped for the next morning and its promising sunlight.
During the afternoon 4 swedish girls arrived and stayed at the MBC aswell. Later at dinner we talked a little and they told us they were planning to leave the MBC at 4am and head to the ABC to see the sunrise up there. We hadn't planned that yet, but thought it was a good idea. We set our alarms to 4am (we weren't as ambitious) and got to bed early. Sitting around all day was kind of tiring. And cold, because we didn't move anymore, or at least not enough. And it was just generally cold. We asked about a heater (you could pay for it), but the hosts told us, that it takes some time to get warm and we'd have to pay for each person... Not sure how that would work (only the 4 of us wanted it but I guess the others sitting by the table would also get warmth? But the time thing was why we didn't do it. She told us it takes about 3 hours (and it was already dinner time).

After a short sleep we left at about 4:30 am towards the ABC. Thermal pants and fleece jackets on, headlights strapped and ready to go? Alright! Time to head out.
It was dark, as expected, our clothes had started freezing (oops) but we still hoped for a powerful sun in the morning. Having light definately helped (thanks mom!) and we made it slowly higher and higher. Flory and Emu stopped occasionally to try and take some fotos, but only as the sun was out a little were the cameras able to take (good) fotos (I hope). Gerrit and me walked a little around to stay warm. It was so cold, that the cameras didn't work properly... Emus smartphone appeared to think it was as cold as 1970, so reset to that year (however that was possible)... He searched for his fotos in vein a long time untill he realised his phone said it was the 1.1. and when he had a look it said 1970 (or something like that) and he found his fotos at the bottom of his folder.

The time went on as we climbed up, we saw the lights of the ABC and some other smaller lights walking towards the lodges (maybe the swedes?) and the sky was turning more blue, chasing the stars out of sight.
Before that the stars in the sky were breathtaking. Beautiful little dots and lights in the sky. Everywhere, millions of stars visible and greeting all hikers on the trek in the night. Now fleeing the brightness of the sun, slowing rising.
Really cool was the view on the Annapurna South while it still was dark. The snow reflected every light and therefore created a white peak standing out in the otherwise black night (though faintly at first). Later with more light it turned brighter and brighter, untill the sun actually hit the mountain and the snow reflected it (though that was much later).
First rays hit the mountain (well not direct rays I guess, it was red/orange and not really pure sunlight... is that a thing?) and made it look even more beautiful with the rest of the valley and mountains looking darkgrey and left in shadows. Only much later, when we arrived at the lodges, did the sun actually light up the peaks. Then it rose up behind the Machupuchere creating a cool shadow on the floor and then the sun had finally shown itself personally, lighting up the valley and lodges (hopefully drying our clothes!!!).

Many flags at the entrance to the ABC! Many people put stickers on the signs aswell =)

Annapurna South after the sun rose over the first mountain peaks

Annapurna I - doesn't really look like much, but is the highest one of the mountain range!

Up at the ABC many people were up and taking pictures. A group of Nepali celebrated arriving at the Basecamp aswell as many others who had maybe arrived the day before (they had guides to book ahead or did that themselves). Many prayer flags were hung at the top of a "valley" created by a glacier, which - now after summer - was very small and did not take up that space. It must be crazy cool to see it in winter, just huge ice masses. The glacier of course still existed and was hanging out at the mountain around Annapurna I (the highest of the Annapurnas). Though it is the highest Annapurna South looked more impressive and like a "proper" peak. But the Annapurna I is actually the harder one to climb.
After many fotos (well mainly Emu and Flory), talking to a few people we went down to one of the lodges for breakfast. Nice coco and Gurungbread (an amazing tasting bread we discovered pretty late, it almost tasted like "schmalzkuchen" a sweet bread you get one christmas markets in Germany!) we headed one more time to the foto spot. We went up a few more meters and spent there another hour untill we decided we had enough fotos and started our descend. By now the sun was out completely and was hopefully drying our clothes down at the MBC!

My companions for the hike to the Base Camp: My small backpack and a walking stick (I had two most of the time of course)

And for this occasion I hung the prayer flags around my bag for the highest part of our trek!

Base Camp selfie! Of course with no nice background,

'cos you only want to see my beard

and me looking pretty weird...

In the upper left corner you can almost see the glacier and the foreground shows where it goes to in winter!

The foto point of the base camp and here are many more flags flying in the wind, wishing everyone the best of luck!

We walked down and spotted some people we had met the day before or other parts of our trips. And a dog. Wait what?! We had noticed him the first time up at the ABC. No wait, it was actually the same dog we had seen at the MBC! We thought he belonged to someone, but now he was walking down with no one, or maybe just independently and waiting down for his owner, I don't know. Anyway he was kind of ruthless. The dog just ran past us, not caring if it was a very narrow path or between two people and shoving them a little to the side. But it was kind of cute so no one really complained. It was fun to see the dog just walking up and down the mountain. We wondered if he belonged to a lodge and just walked up to the ABC in the morning in hopes of some treats and then coming back for lunch.

At about 10 am we arrived back at our lodge in the MBC and the clothes were still drying... we had to tend to our socks, which had started freezing, but otherwise we were hopeful it would actually work! We stayed there drinking tea and packing untill it got cloudy again. Then we took everything (if it was dry or not) and started our final descent down the mountains. We saw the Machupuchere one last time, then it was covered by clouds aswell...

Annapurna South with the Camp infront with full sunshine

The sun over the Machupuchere

Nepal! The beginning of our ABC Trek

So on the 20th of october I landed in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. A busy city, puny compared to the huge indian cities. But it was still big, had as much traffic and was almost as crazy as India.

Short Info: I didn't take alot of pictures in Nepal, I apologize! But the others took alot of fotos, as soon as I have a link I'll share it! Otherwise you can search for the twitter hashtag: #ABCEFGJ16 (Annapurna Base Camp Emu, Flory, Gerrit, Jakob 2016 - a great hashtag :D )

I was here to go hiking with friends from Germany, who arrived a day later. I did some shopping (needed some gear for the hike I didn't carry with me in India) and had a short look around Thamel, the tourist discrict of the city. The next day Gerrit, Florian (Flory) and Emanuel (Emu) arrived and we made plans, arranged transports and so on for our ABC trek. ABC stands for the "Annapourna Base Camp". From here people could start to climb the Annapurna mountains. But just going up there is a popular trek aswell. Probably more popular is the circuit around the mountain range.
We had to get closer to the mountains and headed to Pokhara, another big city to the west of Kathmandu. From there many people start their treks and the city (at least around the nice lake) is almost exclusively for tourists. Bars, restaurants, shops, homestays and other accomodations line up along the streets and you need to walk a bit to find the "local" area, same as in Kathmandu (where you'd have to leave Thamel).
Here we stayed a night, because the bus took forever. It was a tourist bus and "comfortable", but it stopped alot. A short toilet brake here, another two for the first and second breakfast, wait isn't that a hobbit thing? Anyway we didn't need that many stops and I thought it only made the busride even longer. In total it took about 7-8 hours....
Exhausted we just stayed in Pokhara and organized a taxi for the next day. But this gave us the chance to look for a restaurant where Emu and Flory had been 3 years ago, when the two of them did the circuit. When we finally found it we enjoyed our dinner and they sent some fotos to their friends, who they met at the trek back then.
The next morning it was time to go hiking, we left some things at the homestay and left Pokhara. The taxi dashed off towards the mountains and arrived at a small stop, where one hiking path starts. We had breakfast and saw how we were the only ones starting from here without porters. Other people had guides, porters who carried their bags and so on, we didn't mind and started as another group of hikers arrived.

Nepalese grow vegetables everywhere! Almost every lodge had a small garden!

This was in Tolka, where there is still a village rather than just lodges

The beginning gave us a good perspective of what lay ahead: stairs. An uncountable amount of stairs. So... many... stairs... Who built these?!
This was an exhausting start. I thought I was prepared for stairs after climbing up to Tirumala, but carrying a big backpack and having hiking boots is a different thing. Only later my friends told me this trek was also called the trek of 1000000 (add more zeros as you please) steps or something like that. Maybe I dreamt it, but it definitely fits!
So we climbed up the stairs. And we climbed and we climbed till we reached some children, they stood on the way and started to sing. We stopped and listened and smiled: how nice of the kids to sing for us! Then we realized that they were holding hands, so no one could pass and they had a small basket with flowers and money inside. They wanted cash... we couldn't give them any (the money was inside the backpack somewhere) and so we moved past them. Then they started shouting stuff after us on nepali. Probably not that nice things, but we didn't care. By that they probably got rid of the good karma they built up for singing for us ;-)
But we didn't know what the song was, Gerrit joked it could be translated to "Give us all your cash! Please gie us all you cash" - later we found out it is a religious song and was played at several other places (temples and so on).
Some hours later we arrived at a place where we could have lunch. That was really nice. And my filter (thanks FSR!) came in handy. The water was already getting much more expensive (instead of 20 rupees, it cost here around 50 rupees). So we filled up our bottles instead of buying new ones (and creating more waste) and went on. Goal was Tolka, there we wanted to stop for the night.
We came past different people. Some wanting us just to stop and stay there, others wanted to sell us stuff and others told us we should go to the next group of lodges and stay at their friends/ cousins/ brother in laws place.
While it was getting dark we arrived at Tolka and found a nice lodge to stay in, before the sun hat fully set. We showered, ordered food and started playing "Doppelkopf" (DoKo) again. We planned to keep a game going during our hike and had started at lunch. DoKo is a traditional german card game. It isn't that easy to explain, so I won't try here. If someone wants to, he should walk into a dark german bar and look for 4 or 5 people sitting at a table with cards, they'll probably be playing it! CHances are higher if the people are old. You need 4 people to play, if they are 5, one is the dealer.

For the next day we had already ordered breakfast (you also order it in the evening before) and left Tolka. We came past schools, where children played and passed other hikers, or they passed us. Alot of Nepali porters also came by, they usually are unbelieveably fast, eventhough they were carrying as much as they weigh themselves and only wearing flipflops! We just stopped and let them pass, if we saw them behind us. They basically RUN up the mountains...

We woke up in Tolka to this nice view of Annapurna South (one of the 5 Annapurna peaks)

This second day was very hard on me. We started at about 1900m and dropped down to 1500 to cross a river. Then we climbed up a ridge to 1900 again, just to walk down to 1500 again, to cross another river, flowing to the first one. Then we had to climb up to 1900 again, to reach the lodges, by then it was lunch time, so we had food. And it was good! I hoped I had enough energy for the rest of the day, I did manage in the end, but it was hard!
We climbed about 400 more meters up to Chomrong, a pretty big village including a checkpoint.

To go trekking in Nepal you need permits.For the ABC you need 2. The TIMS (Treking information m system) and the ACAP (Annapurna conservation area permit). The ACAP we got in Pokhara, the other one we had gotten in a small village before Tolka on the first day. Now we arrived at the ACAP checkpoint (the place where we got our TIMS we also got checked in). You check in in case of emergencies. And when you leave the area you should check out again, so in case someone doesn't check out for a long time, they might go searching for you. And especially if an earthquake or whatever happens, they will know about how many people were out in the mountains and for whom to search.
Now we were checked in, so we headed on. Another 400 meters down to cross a river and back up to a small lodge, where we finally stayed the night. It was almost dark when we arrived. I was exhausted, considering walking almost 2km just in height, I think thats ok. And I did't pack lightly. I mean why should it be easy....? *sob*

Anyway I managed and it felt good to finally rest after such a hard day!

Yay! Nice warm socks (thanks mom!)

More Delhi and finally the Red Fort

After the train back from Amritsar I was suprised to find out the train made a turn to come closer to Delhi from the east, though Amritsar is acually way to the West. Well it worked so I checked out some smaller sights that area. And suprise suprise: these were 500 Rupees aswell. Just a small mausoleum. No more spending money for that except the red fort, is what I thought. So I just walked through some alleys which seemed to be a muslim quarter. Butchers, other small shops and so on. People just living their lives. Some staring at me, most not minding or caring. The way I like it (beacuse no one wants to sell you stuff or tries to be your new best friend)
I walked across some bazaars and came back to Jayanths place in the evening.
The next day I was determined to enter the red fort. So I headed there and checked out the masjid (mosque) on the way there. They didn't let me in this time as there was a prayer going on. A little disappointed I headed to the fort fearing there might be some reason it is closed again...
It wasn't! I resisted all offers of audio guides and personal guides and just used the info my lonely planet provided. Inside were shops with touristy stuff. A indian gave me his son to hold. The kid stared at me wide eyed wondering what the hell was happening (I could imagine). I went through the garden and saw alot of military presence. Soldiers behind baricades, some with really big guns. Amazing. The fort was a place of the resistance against the british untill they conquered it in a war and therefore had one less rebellious Enemy in India. Later it was also garisson for british troops. On the top of the fort, on independence day, they raised the indian flag the very first time in history, making it a very important and significant place.

Part of the palace in the Red Fort

Ornaments, similar to the ones in the Taj Mahal

The bathing house of the queen (if I remember correctly)

I mentioned the ASI (Archeological Survey of India). They tend and take care of alot of sights and recently raised the prices. Sometimes more than doubled them. The exhibits in the Ajanta caves were kind of pointless. I had added this passage after I had just been in the red fort (while I was both angry and disappointed in the ASI):

'Exhibits to show "we are such great archeologists and need alot of money from foreigners" >:( No sorry... That's unfair, but it really annoys me. I don't mind paying more than locals but 500 for looking at old caves might be worth it, but now I have seen to many sites in Delhi made that expensive and some were definately not worth it. They made it to european prices, which are kind of at the wrong place in India. Especially with what they "offer". Nothing really, it is just admittance to a place and their "exhibits" or "museums" are made up of random things and not that informative. The quality is often different than european museums, which isn't a bad thing, but demanding such prices for this are. The one big museum in Chennai was just about 150 Rupees and much more informative than the caves - though the caves were more exciting to look at I guess. But he caves were made in a way so you can only understand it WITH a guide or something like that, which costs extra.'

The red fort was better. Nice to look at and a few signs pointing out things. But their 'museums' were a joke. One was about warfare of india. It showed some bows, spears, swords and guns. Sometimes directly next to one another. Just saying "gun" - "sword" - woah! Really? Intersting... tell me more. Honestly, tell me more! Why is THIS sword here, why is it next to a gun? Did Indians fight with a sword against british soldiers armed with rifles? Or maybe it should be split in: Middle ages: swords - Colonial era: guns
Than there was an old flag of Germany (I'd say of the empire during WW1) yet it only said Germani Flag, so even Germany was spelled wrong. And people looking at it (not from Germany) might actually think it is the current flag...
I'm sorry, but I don't think that is a good museum (and worth a european price).
And they also showed an old telephone set, not sure how that is warfare... Maybe it was a war-phone, but without any explanations I have no idea what and why...

The 'Germani Flag' (if it actually was one)

Jayanth was very popular those days, at least with couchsurfers. That day another german guy arrived and we played some music together and I we talked about our travels. He had been to central Asia and wanted to travel India for the next few months. Though he left 2 days later we around together, got some food while I went to bazaars, he got his train tickets and left for Nepal by train and bus, same as Will did from Varanasi.

After Max had left I finally had time to visit Samantha. She was a very good friend in KIS. We hung around alot and were in the same class starting from preschool up to the fourth grade, when I left India. I wanted to keep the tension a little higher this time and only talk to her once we met and it worked! Only when I arrived at the place we wanted to meet, I called her and she picked me up. She has a strong american accent! I was really suprised, but I guess after spending several years in a country you'll probably adapt the way they talk.

It was fun talking with her. We talked about her new job and how everything is going in the huge city of Delhi. She was hoping to be on a conference in Nepal while I was still there... Sadly it didn't work out. But then I'll have to visit her the next time again =)

We met in Khaz Village, an old spot for artists. Now it is kind of a fancy place and you can meet there to get nice drinks, coffees and so on or even party in the night. And go to the hairdresser, as Samantha does. She has a deaf guy who cuts her hair (!), so I tried asking him, if he knew a deaf school here in Delhi, he did not, he said he went to the school in Chennai. He used the american alphabeth, so I could understand it. But I'd say we managed to communicate and he got what I was saying and I what he did, so that was pretty cool!

The day before I left an intalian couple arrived. I was in Delhi at that time so couldn't open them the door and Jayanths landlord (the weird guy) opened the door for them. A great welcome... I met them in a restaurant outside in the evening and I gave them some of tips and so on, of what I think India is like. 

On the last day I also sent some things back home. It was some gifts or things I didn't need anymore. And it was an odyssee to get it done this time... I first had to find a post office, then realise it was always full. THey didn't do packaging, so I had to do it before (luckily I was smart enough to enquire this before I drove there with my stuff^^). I asked several shops close to Jayanth, if they pack and I was finally sent to a supermarket. They were first a little confused, but then did it. The packaging paper was lovely! Just bright shiny blue, because they didn't have anything else :D

My package home! is it christmas already? (sry, by now it is! I should have uploaded this sooner...)

 When I then arrived with the beautiful package at the post office the guy from the international package counter didn't speak any english and just said "no". I asked what no? What's qrong what can I do?! He used another guy to translate and told me I should get it packed differently, best in cloth... And he refered me to the counter opposite in the post office, where they sold stationary things. THe woman looked annoyed at me and said they don't do it. So I searched for another stationary shop and finally one man saw my desparation and said he'll help me. With one of his workers I went to a fabrics shop and then to a tailor on the street, who then started sewing the package into the cloth. It was really interesting and cool to watch how this worked and how much the people do to help me. Then the guy took me to a place to have it sealed with wax which was very expensive. I noticed the guy being shocked, but I guess the guy saying the price said it was the foreigner special or offering him some money in exchange or so. I declined, because it could be opened by the customs the effort was already (in my opinion) too much for that. Then after waiting in line for another hour I finally was able to give them my package. It was more expensive for some reason... 

Sadly blue shiny paper isn't allowed, so now it's in cloth safely 

So the last days I hung around Gurgaon and then I stayed up with Jayanth and the Italian guy (sorry, I forgot your name!) to get an uber to the airport, because my flight to Nepal is at 6 am, so I arrived at the airport at about 3:30. Everything worked out fine and I got through security and everything easily and then I realised:

Oops... I smuggled this into the Delhi airport...

Well not really smuggled... I showed it to the security at the checkpoint and they just waved me past, so yeah... security :D

A nice ending to my trip in India. I loved it. Here some more random pictures:

Pigs! Just casually lying at a big road around Gurgaon

Big mama

2 gangstas walked past me like this #nohomo

The Golden Palace close to the Pakistani border

The day before I headed to Amritsar the landlord of Jayanth talked to me. He more of less accused me of being a Pakistani terrorist (maybe my beard is getting too long?). I told him I'd send him a copy of my passport etc. as he asked for. He said apparently indians have to report foreigners staying somewhere to the police. Especially now that Pakistan has been said to be a terrorist country and even the EU acknowledges is (which is wrong as far as I can tell). Jayanth said the guy is just strange.

So I headed to Amritsar. Close to the Pakistani border to visit the golden temple of the Sikhs and I had heard of a interesting ceremony at the border between India and Pakistan which I might also attend. And I had a sort of crazy plan: I'd take a night train to Amritsar, stay there for the day and take a night train back. So only sleep in trains, to make the most of it...
I slept poorly, as expected, but not because of noise, rather it was suddenly cold! Something that had so far never happened in an indian train! I was shocked. Of course it was noisy and alot going on in the train, but I think it was actually the cold. Since Jaipur I didn't have any proper shoes, only sandals, so I didn't have socks with me - a big mistake...
I did have a cloth, which helped, yet a jacket would have been nice aswell.

Anywho... I arrived there in the morning and on the way saw the sikhs do their turbans. Other indians stared aswell, which was a little comforting. It is actually just apiece of cloth, they tie around their head in a special way. I heard someone say he thought it was like a hat, you can just put on! I walked around and towards the Golden Temple. On the way I saw a memorial site. I though it might be interesting so I went inside. 

Apparently Amritsar was the place of a massacre by the british upon the indians in 1919 (the Jallianwala Bagh massacre). Alot of people (especially indian freedom fighters) condemned these actions as inhumane and the responsible officer be punished, he wasn't (other then "forced" to retire). The officer defended his actions as the only way to maintain order in the city. His squad had started firing at a crowd gathered in a courtyard. So they were cornered and had no where to hide. Many tried escaping in a well, but drowned or died from the fall there...

The entrance to the memorial sight

Plants made to look like soldiers ready to fire

Actual bullet holes from the massacre

The garden was very interesting and a good memorial I think. Worth visiting, if you are in Amritsar.
Then I went on to the Golden Temple. It said I should have my head covered, I had my hat. Later I found out that a hat isn't allowed. Luckily I could just stuff in my back pocket and take a piece of cloth which is sufficient to wear (if you don't have a turban handy).
I just walked once around the big pool which surrounds the temple, the crowd wanting to go inside was too big, so I stayed outside. Probably it would have be worth going inside. I missed out...
But the gallery they displayed was also interesting. Alot of paintings about the first sikhs and sikh rulers. Apparently alot of them resisted the british occupation and therefore were murdered and declared martyrs by their brothers in belief. Also lately, in the 80s I think, alot of Sikhs were target of oppression. Sadly it didn't say why, just showed pictures of the killed people. 

The golden temple, you csn see all the people waiting to get inside...

Another view on the golden beauty

Back view to the temple

The surrounding buildings of the temple, were in pretty white (in one of these was the Sikh museum)

Once I went out and got my bag again I was approached by a man if I wanted to go to the border. We agreed on a price and I had time for some lunch. Once I came back I was sent to a office and waited there with some others. One was indian and said a week ago there wasn't any ceremony, she hopes it is happening now. It is because sometimes the political tension between the governments is too big, that they won't allow this actually friendly ceremony. But today it did happen.
Then all but a spanish guy and me were taken to a jeep. We waited and waited till we didn't want to wait any longer. We complained and they said there aren't enough people to fill a second jeep, so they'd put us in a rickshaw. Great. We did get some money back, though we should have asked for more back, because that ride was no fun at all. There I met another german guy, who joined us.

We left and the rickshaw was filled with some other indian people and so the 3 foreign guys sat in the back. It was a long drive, much longer than I expected, but when I checked google maps I found out it was several kilometers to the border... Great. Anyway we survived, left our bags at a shady looking counter and walked towards Pakistan. The road was empty, probably the border was already closed for normal traffic. We crossed checkpoint after checkpoint, it seemed one checked the passport, one the pockets of your bag, one the other pockets, but probably just to be 100% safe, that your fellow security officer made no mistake... I was told there was a terror attack on the pakistani side not too long ago.

When we arrived (the foreigners had their own queue) there was a big arena. And on the indian side they were building it even bigger (it couldn't be the same size as Pakistan I guess). They were building a second "floor" of the arena, so more people could watch the indian military kick the pakistani militarys butt.

The arena around the border

We sat down and then the party started! Loud music was playing all the time, then women started running with the tricolor flag infront of the crowd, children joined in. People started chanting something and after no one was running anymore women jumped down and started dancing cool bollywood moves.

At one point, as soon as enough viewers were seated the ceremony started. Soldiers started marching on both sides and a excited commentator started making the crowd go wild and yelled along to the sharp military drum rolls. Soldiers kept on marching, till the senior officers (at least I think they were) arrived at the gate and slowly let the flag down, both sides at the same time. That was a cool thing to see and really funny to watch the soldiers march up and down, jump to the beat and do splits standing up, while marching (they pulled their legs up to their heads) and always showed the fist towards the other country. In these parts the 2 countries were not always totally synchronal ( at least from what I saw, unfortunately a tree blocked my view towards Pakistan. After the ceremony - so once the flags were folded and brought to the office or whereever flags rest - the crowd rushed back to the taxi place. A few were lucky to be at the border and take closer pictures with the giant indian and pakistani soldiers (I guess they use the highest and best looking troops at this border. I was wondering if I could get a pakistani stamp in my passport... but the stress of pushing through the many people didn't seem doable...

Before the military ceremony indians ran infront of the crowd with the national flag, to get the crowd going

Troops parading towards the border synchronised:

Also the pakistani forces march towards the border:

As it was slowly getting dark we found our bags again (and everything was still inside!) and joined the indian girls to the rickshaw. We drove off back to Amritsar. I got off with the other 2, though the returned to their hostels somewhere else and I slowly made my way back to the trainstation.

After a short dinner I arrived at the station, got my luggage and waited for the train. This time I was a little better prepared but it wasn't that cold... I slept better and awoke again in the vicinity of Delhi. As I walked to the toilet I saw a man jump off the train... weird =/

Don't mind me, I'll just jump off the train here...

The sikhian harmonists? No idea what hey were, they looked cool and happy though!

Delhi and Gurgaon

The train arrived in the evening in Gurgaon. It is actually a part of Haryana, a state to the south-west of the capital district of Delhi. But because Delhi is growing so much and most people in this place work in Delhi it is politically part of the NCR (National Capital District).
This is where I had my second couchsurfing experience. Christina and I stayed with Jayanth, he works for a company in Gurgaon itself, same as his 2 roommates. Both of them are from Tamil Nadu, so southerners (not in a US meaning). Also Jayanth originally is from Hyderabad, which is also considered south India. We always joked when someone asked, if I liked the south more than the north, that I had to, because the enitre flat was from the south. But I actually really did like the south more ;-)
So we arrived there in this big complex of newly built buildings for living. Luckily Gurgaon had its own metro station, so it wasn't too expensive to get into the centre of Delhi and faster than taking buses. They had extra metro-cards so Christina and I got them were able to avoid alot of long queues and other hassles of not having a card. And the rides are a little bit cheaper than buying the tokens!

While we were there the Hindus celebrated Dusshera, a festival in honour of different legends. One is that Rama defeated Ravana. Rama representing the thruth and Ravana the "unthruth". Or basically good vs. evil. Rama is the hero of the Ramayana and is searching for his wife (or to be wife?) Sita and has to defeat Ravana who has 10 faces (or embodiments) and fights him for 10 days (each day a head - you could say), so the festival is 10 days long and in Delhi they build big statues of Ramas enemies which are burnt on the last day in a big celebration.
In Mysore, where they have big Dusshera festivities aswell, they celebrate Chamundi, the goddess of the royal family of Mysore. In another state (I think Bengal) they celebrate Durga. Both women defeat the evil, I think also embodied by Ravana, and therefore have the same status (in these regions at least) as Rama, maybe only for this holiday though.
So during this time there were a lot of things closed (like post offices and some sights), others full of people or more things more expensive. There were several fares in the central city of Delhi which was nice. It didn't cost anything to get inside, the rides of course were not for free.

Here on the festival grounds they had built large statues! We missed watching them burn down...

We went on a ferris wheel and saw the lit red fort (big fort of Delhi) and the inner city with all its lights.
Before that we went to the Gate of India (not the gateway of India in Mumbai), which didn't look THAT fancy as the one in Mumbai, but had a bigger open space around it. Here we were another attraction next to the gate and alot of pictures were taken.

Here it is:

A wild Jakob appears!

Christina said alot of people take fotos from a lower perspective making you look like a giant monster.... 

We searched for another nice bazaar for Christina, she still wasn't totally satisfied. But it seemed more difficult than we thought. The bazaars are vast in Delhi, but you might need a guide, more patience or luck to find the right places. We didn't really look too hard.
The next day we visited the Lotus temple and a iskcon (international society for krishna conscioisness - basically the hare krishna movement) temple in Delhi, well we didn't make it inside the lotus temple. The queue was way too long and so we visited the other one, which was also interesting and seems to have alot of similar temples around the world.

The ISKCON temple from the outside

And you were allowed to take fotos inside. This is one of their shrines (there were several inside)

And the lotus temple - wasn't easy to get a foto without the barbwire surrounding the temple...

After that we had a stop at taco bell, my first time and Christina was just soo happy to see it, so we had some burritos and other mexican food in there.

We had tried to get into the red fort, though it was closed because of the holiday. So we went on shopping. The ride into Delhi was always a hassle. It was over an hour riding the metro. But we were there almost every day. Always seeing something new, or at least trying to do so. Then Christina had to fly back to the USA. We spent several hours at Jayanths place searching for cheap flights and proper connections! In the end it worked out and she left about a week before my time in India ended...

The main gate to the Red Fort. I think they raised the indian flag on that pole on the actual independence day 15.08.1947

The big masjid (mosque) near the red fort. I didn't manage to get inside sadly...

I tried a veg whopper of course (after having a veg big mac at the beginning of my trip!)

The huge Flag of India in the Connaught Place - a huge shopping area built circular around this massive flag pole

(the flag is probably as big as our apartment, maybe even bigger!)