tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745496938932723322024-03-05T16:01:28.903-08:00Exploring India, Malaysia and Indonesia by working and traveling<big> Exploring India, Malaysia and Indonesia by working and traveling </big> <br>
<p align="justify">
Update 2011: Six month in India have passed, but I didnt feel like leaving Asia. Thus, I applied for another internship in Indonesia for exploring the country in the same manner by working and traveling. Enjoy stories from the country of more than 17000 islands soon! But first you have to come on my 2 weeks trip through Malaysia.</p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-57399663631925039572011-02-16T04:50:00.000-08:002011-02-22T06:50:13.252-08:00It’s tea time again<p align="justify">Two things travelers have to know about transportation in Malaysia. Firstly, there is not much information available. Secondly, it’s kind of hard finding buses or trains, which locals are using, compared to the easy accessible commercial tours provided. Third, Malaysia is a small country and what looks far away on the map, is usually only a few hours’ drive and last, most buses no matter where they go to include Kuala Lumpur in their itinerary. So traveling in a circuit is hardly possible with public transportation, because the road system is star-like, connecting all the interesting destinations with KL, but not directly.<br />From the wild jungle I took an overnight bus to the remains of the British Empire, the tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands. Actually I should call it an into-the-night bus, because after surprisingly seeing the Twin towers of KL again, we arrived at the final stop in Ipoh in the middle of the night. There I had to spend 6 hours until another local bus would leave to the highlands. You cannot imagine how incredible warm it was in the bus station and that I had problems falling asleep! <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHwctnKYTYBq7RZX10XhXrzf5oJSoql7CetB4qA2fLd6h00rZbKAuxdInwCfUUCbngAH4mMJc8DDhtlzP7lj6J31uu_efrAzbwIQ4X0Yf8aa8wPxnYVQFdGAwx2-7uGQOFTK2XG7OcuRw/s1600/P1070366.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHwctnKYTYBq7RZX10XhXrzf5oJSoql7CetB4qA2fLd6h00rZbKAuxdInwCfUUCbngAH4mMJc8DDhtlzP7lj6J31uu_efrAzbwIQ4X0Yf8aa8wPxnYVQFdGAwx2-7uGQOFTK2XG7OcuRw/s320/P1070366.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574271793260615330" /></a> A bit exhausted after my 20 hour journey I finally arrived and wondered if it was worth to take the slightly cheaper, but local transportation solution. Since I still had to keep my time schedule in mind, because in the end of January I was expected to be in Indonesia, it could only afford to stay in Cameron Highlands for 2 days and one night. Without wasting time I took the first cheap hotel room, had lunch and headed towards the tourist information. Obviously they had a pretty good package, which would allow me to see most of the attractions in my limited time! Convinced that it’s not always the best to do things on your own, I took the deal for the next day. The rest of the day I was walking a short distance to a close by waterfall and relaxed. Honestly, the jungle run from the days before was still notably in my legs.<br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00RHPnQHqEow6vjlLKZJ_iTAr-jKNoe2I-S-QnNIW2lO82OxeOXqyvDdtN99D_UciWANYk1F71oMVeuboPRfNGXaMC5REKFd5OfVYey7b8ysbgIl7cCp5TUNzVSXdEZ6_894p58EnXEc/s1600/P1070384.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00RHPnQHqEow6vjlLKZJ_iTAr-jKNoe2I-S-QnNIW2lO82OxeOXqyvDdtN99D_UciWANYk1F71oMVeuboPRfNGXaMC5REKFd5OfVYey7b8ysbgIl7cCp5TUNzVSXdEZ6_894p58EnXEc/s320/P1070384.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574271796602371634" /></a> The next and already last day started kind of early, because at 9 am my tour started. At the meeting point we noticed that it will be only two Scottish, I and of course our guide, who will be driving through the tea plantations, enjoying the lookout from the highest hill, walking through the mossy forest, watching the tea factory processes and finally visiting an insect farm! It was quite a lot to do until I had to sit in another bus only 6 hours later. So, let’s hurry with the story…<br />Our tour started with a drive through the tea plantation and various explanations from our guide. As I had seen similar fields in Darjeeling and different ones in Assam, I kind of new a bit of the tea plant already. Not very surprisingly, but also not expected Malaysian tea from Cameron Highlands is not picked by hands as it’s common in India, but gathered with diesel harvesters, which basically cut the tea tree like a conscienceless hedge trimmer! Stated on the tea estate’s homepage, it all sounds fine: “Tea used to be plucked by hand as the workers move laboriously through the long rows of low tea bushes. Today, innovation and research within the Company has led to mechanization and upgrading of its operations with the development of several labor and time-saving methods.“ I think it’s a rape of all tea lovers, because marketing makes them believe they drink some really special drink and additionally it’s most likely associated to attributes like environmental friendly or natural, but in the end it’s only a big business trying to use the cheapest production method, which generates the biggest or fastest outcome. Honestly, looking behind the stage and seeing how the profit maximizing tea industry made me sad… In India I learned that the tea plant uses 20 years to develop seeds, but here in that plantation it will never come so far, because the trimmer cuts all the attempts of the plant to flower and produce seeds. At least the landscape was nice as usually ;-)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtrjFziA2DyOXhztETCjqVA-33ibkHsZTBpRof9245KHdOf1OLYIAUyOexYhKgYtD4iIt-bKMnoyxnikolSVjTy1zbUgq30MAxmv_kYQXmWY6zGJDdGg7gWuDUVltNrqqCXiGIbJj2t8/s1600/P1070426.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height:172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtrjFziA2DyOXhztETCjqVA-33ibkHsZTBpRof9245KHdOf1OLYIAUyOexYhKgYtD4iIt-bKMnoyxnikolSVjTy1zbUgq30MAxmv_kYQXmWY6zGJDdGg7gWuDUVltNrqqCXiGIbJj2t8/s320/P1070426.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574272582779116066" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLkXFGz_jQWrldIN8alfdrAtdG7It3QHQotvb4q4zWoAB_Iq33ERod7LSHk9ROwupFcMI4Skr-pCWvOD1uvbrwltoXElkqmQXGahksf8q_F3XUpoacsaFSNMFF2NUrw6C_aamIzOs44d0/s1600/P1070408.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height:172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLkXFGz_jQWrldIN8alfdrAtdG7It3QHQotvb4q4zWoAB_Iq33ERod7LSHk9ROwupFcMI4Skr-pCWvOD1uvbrwltoXElkqmQXGahksf8q_F3XUpoacsaFSNMFF2NUrw6C_aamIzOs44d0/s320/P1070408.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574272579449365602" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwhkkMY3qFmSruUwY7YZV48OXmQUKBcGVjSpyW00Tjnvz89u7I5i0ykbutN7-kiSQH3FMP5T1izYCHzQ3pTR4MmKcbZAH6MT_AgmIWxjdxzS1KVc04tk07Z5DEP3KJbXkPS07STSUMRM/s1600/P1070432.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height:172px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwhkkMY3qFmSruUwY7YZV48OXmQUKBcGVjSpyW00Tjnvz89u7I5i0ykbutN7-kiSQH3FMP5T1izYCHzQ3pTR4MmKcbZAH6MT_AgmIWxjdxzS1KVc04tk07Z5DEP3KJbXkPS07STSUMRM/s320/P1070432.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574273515102809170" /></a> <br />The next destination was a lookout point on the top of the highest hill in the highlands. From there we were supposed to see as far as to the coast, but clouds during the rainy season prohibited that perfect view. Still it was nice letting our eyes crawl over the rainforests. Those forests were also one of the four vegetation zones, which we were observing in the next hours. It’s quite unique that there are so many different sections in such a small area. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVOpQIb1QahEXhuZfjdAN2g7_YR7z-ciax1pGfwqBvTLglANODJULQBLZ0cUL__rhIgXC5DDDrQBKuTd0ci1OjglJP8sWRGGyG_wDFBfVxkxIHELdiy__zF18tXKmNdyU55HeRYcLjPw/s1600/P1070450.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height:172px;" src ="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVOpQIb1QahEXhuZfjdAN2g7_YR7z-ciax1pGfwqBvTLglANODJULQBLZ0cUL__rhIgXC5DDDrQBKuTd0ci1OjglJP8sWRGGyG_wDFBfVxkxIHELdiy__zF18tXKmNdyU55HeRYcLjPw/s320/P1070450.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574273518279645490" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5QsWhS4bV5cOHsdk1jwP6NWKHzFlDXIpJDwO2jy0rk5PmoANhq2c2h43ii9cddnOzf4cCaIbp0A-sA0nGxgRja7DnDqeBIpa_lyCHd9nSSl82z1bOhl_Y40gfmrOXNqqn738B1smVIwY/s1600/P1070464.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5QsWhS4bV5cOHsdk1jwP6NWKHzFlDXIpJDwO2jy0rk5PmoANhq2c2h43ii9cddnOzf4cCaIbp0A-sA0nGxgRja7DnDqeBIpa_lyCHd9nSSl82z1bOhl_Y40gfmrOXNqqn738B1smVIwY/s320/P1070464.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574274705100711042" /></a> <br /><br /><br />As we were walking down the mountain, we saw bushy trees and small flowers at the top, followed by a zone called mossy forest. Our guide was promising us that we’ll see forests like in the movie Avatar and it almost was looking like an animation! Each square centimeter of trees, stones and the ground was covered with moss…<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr7YBaxN8DQHamWfRn20DWPMsuiJ2U7WzqQqe5FREZ_AYkUWZfLCZr5mWHDltzYZ8XIqJwbwqwZ-wUoWztGel1YM-9rYXbU1inx95-3JKwwdSDAWCFkRY4DnuF3NXpLRYWe1bF2wiP2pM/s1600/P1070481.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr7YBaxN8DQHamWfRn20DWPMsuiJ2U7WzqQqe5FREZ_AYkUWZfLCZr5mWHDltzYZ8XIqJwbwqwZ-wUoWztGel1YM-9rYXbU1inx95-3JKwwdSDAWCFkRY4DnuF3NXpLRYWe1bF2wiP2pM/s320/P1070481.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574282751060069730" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6i1Ua76YAk_U7KUKswBCDiWE79bhGfuolDVMSJSTRjM-97TbqSgBFfDS-2N_uERcKm8xyIfdWhfB-cZ689vYVURSB5Axl29Lg50JAN_-8GiiFrjudqjcaM2CqgysiE0IY1FWh9-A5f5w/s1600/P1070475.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6i1Ua76YAk_U7KUKswBCDiWE79bhGfuolDVMSJSTRjM-97TbqSgBFfDS-2N_uERcKm8xyIfdWhfB-cZ689vYVURSB5Axl29Lg50JAN_-8GiiFrjudqjcaM2CqgysiE0IY1FWh9-A5f5w/s320/P1070475.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574274710919330306" /></a><br /><br />After the mossy forest we stepped into an area where heaps of pitcher plants were growing. In various colors, sizes and life stage we were able to see nature’s beauty from very close.<br /><br />Sooner or later it was time for a break and according to our schedule we were heading to the tea factory, where we got a slight insight into the manufacturing processes of tea. As we knew about the harvesting conditions of the tea leaves already, we started with the transport to the factory. Deported there, a tea leaf makes its way through a two days processing of containing withering, rolling, fermentation, drying and sorting. Withering will stop the tea leaf to grow fungi, rolling creates the twisted wiry looking tea leaves and breaks them for enhancing the next processing step, fermentation is turning the leaf progressively darker as their chlorophyll breaks down and tannins are released, drying under well maintained temperatures again prevents mold and fungus to grow and last but not least in the process step of sorting, different qualities will be distinguished. Again heavy machines are in use.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdbamwMNrzh02mSF-AewGNuCISuAyT4owQiOZ0a-6kCdX4mWojntg5n7HmIsKIqs9GkPWSyHreOF2QLlv73E8uB1_KFqh-IwttbmSq3lQGirO7U1fCooHR5B1Hw_-dHQHJOiIx8a3niN8/s1600/P1070496.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdbamwMNrzh02mSF-AewGNuCISuAyT4owQiOZ0a-6kCdX4mWojntg5n7HmIsKIqs9GkPWSyHreOF2QLlv73E8uB1_KFqh-IwttbmSq3lQGirO7U1fCooHR5B1Hw_-dHQHJOiIx8a3niN8/s320/P1070496.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574282753653293074" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_JoVxaw_o0CeBDj_TUsmhBj08auLaTPpwOeYCprxonqaW1sUqwMI74lfaQHekGl1-KhhvDZeJlLelCq6U2zDkkyEeiP9PKl4cWjQmS-50igtWiIsJlJCyow5b4qrdEqPL7BMYlqND7i4/s1600/P1070504.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_JoVxaw_o0CeBDj_TUsmhBj08auLaTPpwOeYCprxonqaW1sUqwMI74lfaQHekGl1-KhhvDZeJlLelCq6U2zDkkyEeiP9PKl4cWjQmS-50igtWiIsJlJCyow5b4qrdEqPL7BMYlqND7i4/s320/P1070504.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574284805851123202" /></a><br /><br />After all, we had seen so much tea stuff today that of course we had to try a freshly cooked tea while again enjoying the landscape and a piece of cake, hehe. Despite the fact that some production processes could be reconsidered, the tea was very good, but a bit bitter though. <br />As the day passed by, it was time to go over to our last program point. At the insect farm we were introduced to all insects, which grow bigger than you think it’s necessary, and some smaller reptiles. Unfortunately my camera battery died in the middle of the show off and so I could take pictures of the 30 cm sticky insects, leaf imitators and the snakes, but here you go with some of them…<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv0BckSr89Z8H3ZEfMkG2lODMz_fM0VKULTPUVdt_S3XZn13GWVgkODWz1ldst6I46ZJp3Y2v5fvKHe3bA7txEFiNgOQYRcKOh-l7OklFBZ0XYl5DGy5Y6magL6AjuvhfOcMpX9YGPW3c/s1600/P1070522.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv0BckSr89Z8H3ZEfMkG2lODMz_fM0VKULTPUVdt_S3XZn13GWVgkODWz1ldst6I46ZJp3Y2v5fvKHe3bA7txEFiNgOQYRcKOh-l7OklFBZ0XYl5DGy5Y6magL6AjuvhfOcMpX9YGPW3c/s320/P1070522.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574284805979675490" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBKxPMv2YJNj9lkP-X5NuetqHkAmeCCzxs-5TDn6yZa0C6nLkMu8vXqMgwMOqCqtBprE2ijed6fP1F_NbOBBESlg08SuTuLzVd07rjx9WeTWmMqKoepZz8kFK6VjQa7oFX4tNXb8YGxU/s1600/P1070527.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBKxPMv2YJNj9lkP-X5NuetqHkAmeCCzxs-5TDn6yZa0C6nLkMu8vXqMgwMOqCqtBprE2ijed6fP1F_NbOBBESlg08SuTuLzVd07rjx9WeTWmMqKoepZz8kFK6VjQa7oFX4tNXb8YGxU/s320/P1070527.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574286093462994578" /></a> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJP0XV80QriLgBoIJh0BLPvPIII99GO33QmCxVGz8q7_4NfT-bA2WfcOxcUMfxiWvbHt6vnSmA6gGZ1b7muxQrYigHiilMGJJtSUT0FEmwi8MxSd0rh5CA5NhISq1ASr76iYnSgPs4HU/s1600/P1070528.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJP0XV80QriLgBoIJh0BLPvPIII99GO33QmCxVGz8q7_4NfT-bA2WfcOxcUMfxiWvbHt6vnSmA6gGZ1b7muxQrYigHiilMGJJtSUT0FEmwi8MxSd0rh5CA5NhISq1ASr76iYnSgPs4HU/s320/P1070528.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574286101022085554" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTb3EkGGAdiOsoAjsKvwRMaAoc7btbIx1Igui3lEm9msckHsaGHzWqdTB6d8Gng08DT4TknxfyEz9WopOwiADlnzM6znnNhXtLZxeQoGqSS1bmo9u7Gnsbu489duAmkViLRyXUR-Ns-48/s1600/P1070533.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTb3EkGGAdiOsoAjsKvwRMaAoc7btbIx1Igui3lEm9msckHsaGHzWqdTB6d8Gng08DT4TknxfyEz9WopOwiADlnzM6znnNhXtLZxeQoGqSS1bmo9u7Gnsbu489duAmkViLRyXUR-Ns-48/s320/P1070533.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574286108371945090" /></a> </p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-18724748306587812372011-02-14T06:24:00.000-08:002011-02-15T06:07:21.802-08:00Into the wild, into the Taman Negara NP<p align="justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMdef5VECfldVjjVJy_4yMqCbMNgexeX8aAvggD3B1MFi-YZmbkSmZejYKpIk6F348hXTUStNIcPy86h-IG2E_UaBIDddwU2FoMEdfwp7BEgJmBXkto-VwCV4hyphenhyphen6nIJCRjvWf20rEbp2k/s1600/P1070114.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMdef5VECfldVjjVJy_4yMqCbMNgexeX8aAvggD3B1MFi-YZmbkSmZejYKpIk6F348hXTUStNIcPy86h-IG2E_UaBIDddwU2FoMEdfwp7BEgJmBXkto-VwCV4hyphenhyphen6nIJCRjvWf20rEbp2k/s320/P1070114.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573570123060654066" /></a> After three days in KL it was about time to say Goodbye to my awesome couchsurfing host Jason. Next destination: Taman Negara National Park in the centre of the Malaysian peninsula. Because time was a crucial factor in my whole travel itinerary I was pretty keen on making it to the bus station very early, but to get there I had to take Jason’s offer to drive me to a metro station first and take a train to the bus. A three hours bus journey to Jerantut and a 30 min taxi ride brought me to the jetty in Kuala Tembling, from where a boat left for another 3 hours drive on a river system through the rainforest. It sounds like a long and exhausting journey, but the opposite is true. In the bus I could sleep, from the taxi I could see nice nature and in the boat I met my new travel companion Katharina and again could see amazing parts of the 130 million year old rainforest. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifha6yKGSqQFtpQ0dkjAQHH26u89wWBPJOXpm2N0lKPCoxZ5AS4A_DiYFeXGpwmWt9Vk_Yidu8OTORvQfnxziNryf2_C3U3TkosbNK1v0Us_SKgAdorb9aeG4gTu4-bMlVUcRLqQUKPK8/s1600/P1070128.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifha6yKGSqQFtpQ0dkjAQHH26u89wWBPJOXpm2N0lKPCoxZ5AS4A_DiYFeXGpwmWt9Vk_Yidu8OTORvQfnxziNryf2_C3U3TkosbNK1v0Us_SKgAdorb9aeG4gTu4-bMlVUcRLqQUKPK8/s320/P1070128.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573571489521026434" /></a><br />When we arrived in Kuala Tahan, the tourist basis of the national park, we just in time escaped the agent selling tour packages. Katharina and I both agreed in looking for our own place to stay and explore the forest by ourselves. Since it was low season, prices for accommodation were cheap according to the few people staying. We decided to stay in a little hut off the centre and do jungle walks and canopy trails from there. On the day of our arrival we just explored a bit of the city, made plans for the next days and were relaxing. <br /><br />The second day was reserved for a walk through the rainforest and doing the longest canopy trail in the world. Therefore we had to take a small ferry to the other side of the river, get some information and maps for the jungle and finally make the first contact with the local wildlife, as the picture with the millipede is proving. According to our map and clock, we used pretty much time to walk the 1.2 km to the Canopy Garden, but that of course must have happened after taking heaps of pictures in the jungle. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uedzUSsxn7kco0f0OVJSDYU5bs8dZ4BrlpJKoSkdsQdVYtYM4GzgWL4fJEeD5-yXGdSnb1cik5mkZKZJzYMcGc-3_xaOgsC_v4JbOafOt9mcUEmcfFTx9VJ1WKXWk_z_hSiz54270BQ/s1600/P1070134.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uedzUSsxn7kco0f0OVJSDYU5bs8dZ4BrlpJKoSkdsQdVYtYM4GzgWL4fJEeD5-yXGdSnb1cik5mkZKZJzYMcGc-3_xaOgsC_v4JbOafOt9mcUEmcfFTx9VJ1WKXWk_z_hSiz54270BQ/s320/P1070134.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573572308460006946" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9vlYmlE2u5FubmPevPMebZOUp9LW5d8yMIpN0oD47b8uwriQGAU49yNa6XubJSkVC8scjjU-DQuR3UVFCBqdZY8vKG3bow00Ec8TAG6HpuKig89ISUrU_9GT75cWhSQBFtrHP3D_ahpA/s1600/P1070155.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9vlYmlE2u5FubmPevPMebZOUp9LW5d8yMIpN0oD47b8uwriQGAU49yNa6XubJSkVC8scjjU-DQuR3UVFCBqdZY8vKG3bow00Ec8TAG6HpuKig89ISUrU_9GT75cWhSQBFtrHP3D_ahpA/s320/P1070155.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573573057518073506" /></a> <br />The Canopy Walk was a very highlight, because its dimensions are just incredible. Along the 530 m swinging bridges we could see through and above the trees from up to 40 m height. Monkeys howled from every side, but we actually couldn’t see too many of them. Nevertheless we enjoyed the walking and crawling and didn’t want to let it end. Therefore it was reasonable to have a little break with cookies in the tree crowns. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4wkY3HJgl2x7Ro7Ck1U3tXle9OFC4i5siS7Unih7WWsGM-hDo4w4o5nTv5L39oycl995vD_AhVT6JOT0KnxjpIs3j41C7nZM9hFuHeCNRiYwJuCB2-GDcsz0ONWFcfny92a24vUZ82c/s1600/P1070164.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4wkY3HJgl2x7Ro7Ck1U3tXle9OFC4i5siS7Unih7WWsGM-hDo4w4o5nTv5L39oycl995vD_AhVT6JOT0KnxjpIs3j41C7nZM9hFuHeCNRiYwJuCB2-GDcsz0ONWFcfny92a24vUZ82c/s320/P1070164.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573693533241440514" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUe1FlIwhABWfpR30Nw6x9KqJPJvJko-tqQNZmZ4FSyjiHrGsJioT9mwRKCOIVk0hq8Ryj9pukWVO2Ehj3hzmsa8L0E90BXo5qchCcAVjFAGwXB99w5xQoNwQK1NKOzU12HePuCS_7zk/s1600/P1070176.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUe1FlIwhABWfpR30Nw6x9KqJPJvJko-tqQNZmZ4FSyjiHrGsJioT9mwRKCOIVk0hq8Ryj9pukWVO2Ehj3hzmsa8L0E90BXo5qchCcAVjFAGwXB99w5xQoNwQK1NKOzU12HePuCS_7zk/s320/P1070176.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573693538061707970" /></a><br /><br />Since we didn’t had enough of hiking, it was compulsorily for us to walk some more kilometers to the 334 m high Teresek Hill, from where we gained a very beautiful view over almost the entire forest. On the way there we’ve even seen squirrels, monkeys (probably Macaque), a very rare big black bird with a white tale, face and huge bick (most likely a Hornbill bird), heaps of leeches and millipedes. What slowed us down this time was rather taking off the leeches from our ankles than taking pictures! These nasty beasts “luckily” only attached Katharina and spared me out ;-) On the way back to our accommodation we also found a river, which was perfect to find a rest after the whole day of walking. I guess that more comfortable and convenient nature and forest friends like the tour participants on boat tours would miss out most of the beauty of such activities. Additionally, in a survival of the fittest like the ants on the following picture were fighting those lazy boat people probably would have become pretty wet.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwUkOUv4nqHAsoZlD4d3u2LVpBR3-45nLHgvWiP0rEPK31tW8HgGrDJZSwTNSVy8d_9fbJHkKYKj5KYuJqMLFlwSd1oL9dc9Xp-npXY7uMDHh61U-3eMWUFfwKotMvr1kRTwtnD6BvHs/s1600/P1070226.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwUkOUv4nqHAsoZlD4d3u2LVpBR3-45nLHgvWiP0rEPK31tW8HgGrDJZSwTNSVy8d_9fbJHkKYKj5KYuJqMLFlwSd1oL9dc9Xp-npXY7uMDHh61U-3eMWUFfwKotMvr1kRTwtnD6BvHs/s320/P1070226.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573693543880890018" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5sn-MdJaxvJBILC3fnlDCKqUrgp5vSoBnBWk0R07MqBbNoA8VJ3FlhibrgVVFAaNm61K1DIohgmEzTJHfl_7JXy6kIN6M20EZcK97ZV9ed-Q09sM9Ii3DyDObZ5t8CTUEtBTlfS9G-NE/s1600/SDC13928.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5sn-MdJaxvJBILC3fnlDCKqUrgp5vSoBnBWk0R07MqBbNoA8VJ3FlhibrgVVFAaNm61K1DIohgmEzTJHfl_7JXy6kIN6M20EZcK97ZV9ed-Q09sM9Ii3DyDObZ5t8CTUEtBTlfS9G-NE/s320/SDC13928.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573701231449903586" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBClVLx2eYUQRomNXXjnlG7wQzXUb_TAkPmF43BfO9p23Rfm-feVmyJXglxsIFWUtahahZ3efeTiershyVsyRS8SIr9TNAIPPgYIG_ud3EXvCvislYRkSRPmiCNDOekEmZaSRnC2bGTK0/s1600/P1070250.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBClVLx2eYUQRomNXXjnlG7wQzXUb_TAkPmF43BfO9p23Rfm-feVmyJXglxsIFWUtahahZ3efeTiershyVsyRS8SIr9TNAIPPgYIG_ud3EXvCvislYRkSRPmiCNDOekEmZaSRnC2bGTK0/s320/P1070250.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573703558283442354" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmybQT068-8EK9iXTnzr-K12dplWHEgFPqol_9TxMUHTSy68TM4P-alfBZwBQp3FwFi8PXeXHZEsKCvSL_r-5DesSir2o5FcRCwu_mSrW0nN0fgHGwTWYQAQkZ6-Hs35fsbYF2OD7eC4Y/s1600/P1070248.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmybQT068-8EK9iXTnzr-K12dplWHEgFPqol_9TxMUHTSy68TM4P-alfBZwBQp3FwFi8PXeXHZEsKCvSL_r-5DesSir2o5FcRCwu_mSrW0nN0fgHGwTWYQAQkZ6-Hs35fsbYF2OD7eC4Y/s320/P1070248.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573701231351355890" /></a><br /><br />Day 3 brought quite some change, because Katharina was traveling to that crowded Hindu Festival at the Batu Caves and I moved into another accommodation. I had only one day left before I wanted to go to the tea plantations in Cameron Highlands, so what to do in the rainforests? Right, another walk… This time on my own and maybe in a more jungle-parkour way of doing! Therefore I had chosen a 14 km track bringing me along a cave and to some waterfalls, but unfortunately the park authority prohibited me to go there. Their understandable reasons were that rocks were falling down from the caves sealing and thus it must have been closed as well as the fact that even experienced guides don’t find that area of the waterfalls anymore, because wild elephants regularly destroy the paths. After long time of still considering, I decided to go for plan B, which was the 18 km walk to some cascades. And this was very adventurous, I can tell you! <br />Macaque monkeys started to throw some fruits from the high tree crowns right when I entered the forest, but I guessed they just wanted some attention… Initially I intended not to stop for too many pictures, but of course I couldn’t take long until I was again clicking with my camera. Mostly I was shooting photos with plants, but the more deep I walked into the forest the more signs of animals I noticed. Tapir trays, millipedes, hens, monkeys, squirrels, everywhere! I was even lucky enough to see flying lemur, when it was jumping to another tree and a more than 2 m long snake! Most of them are surely to shy and too fast for a camera, but still they seemed not to be bothered by my presence. Still, trees are obviously the better photo models, so I again was playing a little with them. It’s kind of fun to climb liana or trunks though. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPwz61eNrHLzmU_o6_ZZE6n0bd-odwUERzQ_GXYxU9ZjEejA_LsHC5lHBgly-lGIj-EWnQpITfCJwtXXYw7a258hd-u3y3jhGcdcyCFoVG_2QkQHkTUTjjCVKdvu54mLwt1g6nEx38zE/s1600/P1070313.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPwz61eNrHLzmU_o6_ZZE6n0bd-odwUERzQ_GXYxU9ZjEejA_LsHC5lHBgly-lGIj-EWnQpITfCJwtXXYw7a258hd-u3y3jhGcdcyCFoVG_2QkQHkTUTjjCVKdvu54mLwt1g6nEx38zE/s320/P1070313.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573703572377737874" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBjqkwe4I5hfaNAik3fTpwT6eL_mk_vNHZnkfgNUET0xtTbJoELsXzbtCJ1zg5CzJltijB_eZsdk8j5XrD9NlT95Sdmqhh308jBuZvlxjE_mcfCrpgiuk-E_x0uInptVk3PcE3_MfKMU/s1600/P1070327.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBjqkwe4I5hfaNAik3fTpwT6eL_mk_vNHZnkfgNUET0xtTbJoELsXzbtCJ1zg5CzJltijB_eZsdk8j5XrD9NlT95Sdmqhh308jBuZvlxjE_mcfCrpgiuk-E_x0uInptVk3PcE3_MfKMU/s320/P1070327.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573703576731879186" /></a> After being more than 3 hours alone I suddenly heard some voices from behind. As I would have lived in the forest for years and be not used to humans I decided to move a little faster. I definitely wanted to avoid joining the group, because if they are so loud even though I couldn’t see them, then they would ruin the whole nature experience. Unfortunately there was the problem with all those leeches! Every few minutes I had to make a stop to take several leeches off my shoes and ankles, and they were really annoying! Not only that they were everywhere, but also the issue with them being very slippery and hard to pull off … So, the two French guys closed the gap between us and we were now the three of us. It happened that we met right in front of a river, about what I was sure that we have to cross it. Somehow they were neither prepared with a map nor very keen on standing in hips-high water, so I needed all my strength to convince them! At the end we took the “risk to get eaten by huge snakes” and made it to the other side while one of those boats with two tourists was passing us. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDXOJ9TcPbEbV-8siKvYp4AMJjDHuye6ZnAwG55vwlL8-eKtGWb3V53pvALdnXdccz0vg3OztrKanVtFb-ggttVFMRsewnoT4wnRGy8lDTR82Cb3QFOr0x1q6qpJh2-kYlepCjr2CKJhk/s1600/P1070357.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDXOJ9TcPbEbV-8siKvYp4AMJjDHuye6ZnAwG55vwlL8-eKtGWb3V53pvALdnXdccz0vg3OztrKanVtFb-ggttVFMRsewnoT4wnRGy8lDTR82Cb3QFOr0x1q6qpJh2-kYlepCjr2CKJhk/s320/P1070357.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573713466098955522" /></a> An hour later we arrived at the cascades, where we had a nice time swimming and eating cookies, the only supply I brought. At this stage we also met the boat people, who told us that they’ve been very surprised to see other people so far away from the main village and even walking on their own ;-) .. For me it just sounded funny! Luckily for all of us, they had exactly two seats available in the boat, so of course I gave the two French guys the right of way, because they honestly would have begged to sit in that boat. Everybody was apologizing very much to leave me all in the forests, 8.5 km away from the base, at 5 pm and the knowledge the soon occurring sunset. For me it was totally fine, because it would give me the opportunity again to meet some animals and real nature. They only thing what I had to take care of, was not to take as many pictures as on the way up, because another 4.5 hours would definitely be to long concerning the rising dark. And for some reason they couldn’t afford to give me some water, so I had to get along with my few sips left… All that made me decide to run back! I wanted to turn the walk into a jungle run, like a competition to see their surprised faces how fast I could come back. Of course I wasn’t running all the 8.5 km, because the leeches needed some attention, I slowed down for a snake and was refreshing in the river, but still the result was 2 hours 15 min of fun, jumping over fallen trees, robbing through bushes and most excitingly swinging on liana to move over 2-3 m long and deep passages. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsqrbV2iSrciijhA577z4KbkygwaUUM_At9m01kuUkr_Nw-8qcoxdTN5oMpGyyJLofhBcS6B3AWPlA50KZEcMg7YxsUhfBBR403b8uqvLKYX3R_Bu5NRTuimMqVrgAJ4IIg2aCAKaWAsY/s1600/P1070358.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsqrbV2iSrciijhA577z4KbkygwaUUM_At9m01kuUkr_Nw-8qcoxdTN5oMpGyyJLofhBcS6B3AWPlA50KZEcMg7YxsUhfBBR403b8uqvLKYX3R_Bu5NRTuimMqVrgAJ4IIg2aCAKaWAsY/s320/P1070358.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573713468188519490" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRw4nDihCNw9Cw-8bzV_-wtR_4NMR6AQK09jIF-gYhXJfCVieI0orBWBNtgssujzCin242PhM5XV9iQfTIAhb0EjUXxHEwMwuccyjibSgGOSouAcj1GV4UoUCOrr0Nwp6noFVlPXZM9Hs/s1600/P1070359.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRw4nDihCNw9Cw-8bzV_-wtR_4NMR6AQK09jIF-gYhXJfCVieI0orBWBNtgssujzCin242PhM5XV9iQfTIAhb0EjUXxHEwMwuccyjibSgGOSouAcj1GV4UoUCOrr0Nwp6noFVlPXZM9Hs/s320/P1070359.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573713478199703986" /></a><br />Back in the village I needed to go to the internet, because I had just remembered to change my original return flight tickets to end July 2011 (half a year extension for Malaysia, Indonesia and probably another move…). And guess who I met there! My fellows from the cascades were definitely surprised to see me back so early!</p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-32827607373555759372011-02-12T05:59:00.000-08:002011-02-12T07:20:10.164-08:00Kuala Lumpur – Back into the Organised World<p align="justify">Air Asia is every travellers friend, because even you book short in time before your flight, it is still not expensive. From Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur it took only 1 h sleep, 1 h reading and another 1 h chatting with my neighbour until I reached Malaysia. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the night and without having had the opportunity to check my mails before leaving India, I did not know, if any of my couchsurfing requests were answered positively. So what I had in mind was the plan to stay at the airport over night and find out next things at a more proper time. It did not take long until I met company and did not had to rest alone. Ingela from Sweden was a way better prepared than I was, because 11 years of living in Bali made her quite experienced in visa-touring to KL. Together we could share our turns of getting food and drinks, the free internet on her laptop in front of StarBucks and some travel stories. Interestingly she is building a house over there, where she as a yoga teacher will open a centre as well. That will hopefully be reason enough to say Hello to her in April, if time permits after I will have finished my internship in the Small Hydro Power Project of the now called GIZ (German International Cooperation formerly known as GTZ). By the time we found out that one couchsurfer had replied and I, probably her as well, could sleep on his couch. But first things first! After spending about 6 h at the airport, we took a bus into the city, had a quick breakfast and took some passport pictures for our Visa application at the Indonesian Embassy. As both of us had not just exclusive tourist purposes for staying in the country of more than 17000 islands, we both had to visit the embassy. Usually it never makes any problems, but as you also do not know the exact outcome of the visit at the Visa office, we were a bit exited. And as we almost could have guessed, we both did not get the two month permit, but only one! Anyway, for me it seems like not being a big problem, because I can and now have to extend the Visa up to 4 times. Without our passports and the reminder to pick them up one day later we left to meet Jason, my couchsurfing host. <br /><br />When Jason opened the door he had already seen us from the window before and were not wondering much that two people were standing in front of him. It was no problem for him and his “cousin brother” as he called his flatmate Andrew that the both of us wanted to stay at his place! For everybody, who doesn't know the couchsurfing project should check it out in the internet. Basically, the idea is sharing the knowledge and information of locations all around the world by staying at local’s places, especially their couches. It's free of charge, but in return you either participate in the same way and host other travelers, which come to your city, or/and you make your stay at nice one for your host as well. In my 5 years of couchsurfing experience I never had troubles hosting people from about 25 countries in Kaiserslautern and Berlin, but I actually haven't surfed to many couches myself. Thus, my travels through Malaysia should mainly be driven by that purpose! How much fun this can be, you will see on the picture. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_smysi4LwwghdKce30U0lb-vO-oQRUzul5rqpiekpQY-XCoLG_JD350gpNL7I2Mr_JaKZqCwJxLWEdEosLyKTk8RZJFMJ3fWgljWdrjzFYboiropYFpLoNJBIsMhlutcCH1kLWoYtfY/s1600/P1060994.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_smysi4LwwghdKce30U0lb-vO-oQRUzul5rqpiekpQY-XCoLG_JD350gpNL7I2Mr_JaKZqCwJxLWEdEosLyKTk8RZJFMJ3fWgljWdrjzFYboiropYFpLoNJBIsMhlutcCH1kLWoYtfY/s400/P1060994.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572804471070134866" /></a><br /><br />After arriving Andrew, Ingela and I went out for lunch and thanks to Malaysia's great climate, which lets them grow mangos all around the year, we enjoyed one of the best ice-blended mango lassie I ever had! Since the mango season finished in India in October, I was very happy to finally get one again. Later, we explored the city markets with all its fake products of shirts, backpacks and watches, ate in Kuala Lumpur's famous China Town and finished the day with some beer in bar. Introducing me to the concept of food courts, made me wonder why we don't have such places in Germany and probably nowhere in Europe. Principally, the owner of a kind of big location is renting out slots to other people, which built up little stands and sell their one or two different dishes. While the owner of that location is making good money from the stands on the one hand and from selling the drinks on the other hand, customers can enjoy different types of food as they would go to different restaurants! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NnaH1KR0vgcrvqmjSQYzsQOTEMj6Ex1Jgu1NCAePVNR8b8bUZcXZoANwOrP-fe8jc1sVPahrVJ3AvIm1kSy6gYJGvwr9bfTyomBhhW2h1-mWQAc6Py8gfTh7ODWb5wAmdk2aQfkQ4Lg/s1600/P1070037.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NnaH1KR0vgcrvqmjSQYzsQOTEMj6Ex1Jgu1NCAePVNR8b8bUZcXZoANwOrP-fe8jc1sVPahrVJ3AvIm1kSy6gYJGvwr9bfTyomBhhW2h1-mWQAc6Py8gfTh7ODWb5wAmdk2aQfkQ4Lg/s200/P1070037.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572816378520142130" /></a>When Ingela left for Bali and Andrew was busy with work, Jason was showing me around on the other days. Again in China Town we spent some more time, shopping some fake brand products and observing the strange food offers like the drought and flattened goose skin in the back of the next picture.<br />What makes KL as locals call their city famous through the world are probably the PETRONAS Twin Towers, which give a very nice photo set especially at night time. Other than that, the towers accommodating about 4 storeys of shopping area and offices above and cope with the western standard as the whole city is doing. Coming from India and loving the freedom of unrestricted daily life with heaps of unexpected situation every day, KL besides its nice sites seems a bit boring, because there is a way how to do everything. Continuing our city tour we drove to the lookout point, from where you have a nice view over the entire city after climbing a almost steep combination of stairs. At exactly 12 pm you can even see when the switch of the electricity at the twin towers. Up there we met Rayne, a friend of Jason. Together with her having Chinese roots and Indian based Jason I got some interesting details of society in Malaysia. When the British ruled the country, they needed cheap labour and where else would that come then from the most labour abundant countries in Asia. Since then there were Indians and Chinese living together with Malay, but an integration never really happened! Both told me, that a Chinese-Indian marriage for example is a No-Go and that friendships are usually restricted within their “natural” context! There are exceptions of course...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNM6ViQDApa3SOX-wGwtehfnSk70_tAqCapQ71g1vESfIX9nyshhOUtna58dujiErHssAyWKhpRUzGFjZyyB7t2LgjHSdFCKtKM58KrrE-h-oKs9AhaWg4JgsKTbnfdMRgoCxDiyHy-iE/s1600/P1070051.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNM6ViQDApa3SOX-wGwtehfnSk70_tAqCapQ71g1vESfIX9nyshhOUtna58dujiErHssAyWKhpRUzGFjZyyB7t2LgjHSdFCKtKM58KrrE-h-oKs9AhaWg4JgsKTbnfdMRgoCxDiyHy-iE/s320/P1070051.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572808329221773938" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW9lrNij0EASPy_nGaFsBrCiKMG3TymquWKOupU7_ayLjDKz3iykwqVdpEIat7zF20ic16WuIxXTO526aHLksqjYLiRTIDGfupK-1zGym6T-sLH_ntTiWp8pUfNTHFg_OQ-u4ze5XTNI0/s1600/P1070055.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW9lrNij0EASPy_nGaFsBrCiKMG3TymquWKOupU7_ayLjDKz3iykwqVdpEIat7zF20ic16WuIxXTO526aHLksqjYLiRTIDGfupK-1zGym6T-sLH_ntTiWp8pUfNTHFg_OQ-u4ze5XTNI0/s320/P1070055.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572808337540898882" /></a><br /><br />Anyway, I was not coming to Malaysia for staying in big cities, but for exploring more of the nature sites, so Jason also drove me to the Batu Caves. This extraordinary and huge cave system functions as a very important pilgrimage site for Hindus from all over the country. Not just that they knee up the 260 stairs carrying milk pots on their shoulders, but also the fact that on certain festival days (e.g. 19th January Thaipusam Festival) they come in herds of 2 million people! Luckily we went there some days before and thus, could also get a snapshot of Malaysia's broad variety of nature. The ever-present Monkeys and some snakes, as well as palms and fern made me forget the bit of visa issue and looking forward to my next destinations in the Taman Negara National Park, one of the oldest rain forests in the world. Besides its religious attraction, the caves must also drag some people because of its climbing site. Unfortunately I've only got to known that fact when it was to late, but if any climber should ever go to KL, he or she should definitely check it out and post me a mail.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfCG1h1dFn8-gHT9_AaArO02w-J-FxppIkYl9aQU3owTvA9LqZ6YeDlcN3JMpVI7ve8V4TS1Nv8k2kJ03zKbD3E4Ne5OcVpIBvbLRT6pwtzFiNct8oh0cc_Kvj_fZttYOFu2tmH7HRFc/s1600/P1070081.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfCG1h1dFn8-gHT9_AaArO02w-J-FxppIkYl9aQU3owTvA9LqZ6YeDlcN3JMpVI7ve8V4TS1Nv8k2kJ03zKbD3E4Ne5OcVpIBvbLRT6pwtzFiNct8oh0cc_Kvj_fZttYOFu2tmH7HRFc/s320/P1070081.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572813152227386690" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnFYjCRLFW01oesH7j1ZjQDqg4vfVCmu9mifUR3Zi7ypAfTT71dIUTT21tF51g4G56ZYcd3CTqoI_yacBeQ3vz3ihyDT8YXFyBgyl98oDl3WSrxqbodf84nIDJTJ8VG_3nzsyRDC3YEQ/s1600/P1070067.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnFYjCRLFW01oesH7j1ZjQDqg4vfVCmu9mifUR3Zi7ypAfTT71dIUTT21tF51g4G56ZYcd3CTqoI_yacBeQ3vz3ihyDT8YXFyBgyl98oDl3WSrxqbodf84nIDJTJ8VG_3nzsyRDC3YEQ/s320/P1070067.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572813163802593410" /></a><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-89058385082006683112011-02-06T02:24:00.000-08:002011-02-12T07:08:55.658-08:00Goodbye India and welcome in Malaysia<p align="justify">Guys, I know... it has been a too long time since I was updating you on my life and travel adventures, but as you can imagine, a lot happened and prevented me from writing. Today is the 5th February 2011, Chinese new year just took place and I´m right now sitting in a train station in the centre of Jakarta, Indonesia. As I said, my last login is long ago and it seems that ages have passed, but I will try to tell you everything what happened since then. Hopefully I will find the time to type all the articles, which I wrote on paper during the travel through India and Malaysia...<br /><br />Today, I will give you an overview, what has happened in the last weeks and month and soon you can read about each and every step alined in the right time order. So let us start in Delhi!<br /><br />My intership in the Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF) officially finished on the 26th November 2010, but due to my delay in returning from a trip to the North-East of India and the exceeding of my holidays, as well as some interesting field trips in beginning of December, I joined GTZ for one more week. After all it was an very interesting internship, which I can highly recommend to everybody who wants to learn about the structures, mandates and engagement of Germany within Development Cooperation with India (or other countries). GTZ offers a sound package with insight into its operational and strategic work, the respective project work especially, participation in internal and also international-level processes, in interesting field trips, the fostering of contacts and additionally financial and organisational support of your stay. You will not be the coffee boy for anybody and develop soft skills and learn from experiences. Beside some long days and weeks at work, you also get enough holidays for recovering or exploring the country.The fact that I am recently started another internship in the now called GIZ (in the Small Hydro Power Project in Indonesia) proves that I enjoyed it!<br /><br />In the very early morning of 6th December 2011 I had said good by to my friends in Delhi and was ready to start my big India travels, which took me on a journey through the magical world of Rajasthan, showed me the buzzing city life of Bombay, let me make good friends, made me read books again (reading White Tiger and Shantaram in India is a very good combination), drove me up and down, made me relaxed on the beaches in Goa over Christmas, lead me to the mystique Hampi for bouldering over New Years and made me say goodbye in Bangalore. Six month has passed then, but I did not feel like leaving India, nor Asia. But due to my visa I had to leave for at least 2 month, so some weeks in advance I was applying for the above mentioned project in Indonesia. Since I knew that I got into it, I was planning to take 2 weeks off in Malaysia and be in Jakarta by the end of January. Read about my stops in the following map in a few days...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQ8fs1UTtEvUO5Fjx1ToS5KlQRcEBHj27ut01KgOd51GLcQxjiT3Tawh-FGvVrPuMIGpAhgAEpuB6sqivDJHKjPmxof2kUWWV8Lgg0Cif9rW2KVav9g-d7-eavqAklXbofda9TLerZew/s1600/malaysia_rel98.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 297px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQ8fs1UTtEvUO5Fjx1ToS5KlQRcEBHj27ut01KgOd51GLcQxjiT3Tawh-FGvVrPuMIGpAhgAEpuB6sqivDJHKjPmxof2kUWWV8Lgg0Cif9rW2KVav9g-d7-eavqAklXbofda9TLerZew/s400/malaysia_rel98.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570521128675328994" /></a></p><br /><br />1) Kuala Lumpur<br />2) Taman Negara National Park<br />3) Cameron Highlands<br />4) Penang <br />5) Kota Kinabalu<br />6) Kota Belud<br />7) Mount KinabaluAndreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-4764014231284126902010-11-11T12:05:00.000-08:002010-11-11T12:55:29.620-08:00About cakes in faces and kicking asses at my birthday party<p align="justify">Once every year you get reminded of your age. No matter how old you feel or look, this number is not waiting for you and increasing permanently. The strange thing about it is that the older I get, the more I realise that an old man must still be the same little child in his inner self. The reason for this thought is that besides you are going through different periods of your life, which also change you more or less, at the end, you still recognise yourself! You met yourself on the way. Surprisingly for me, the inner self doesn’t change as fast as the number of your birthdays. What about, if the old man also doesn’t feel like 70 years? He noticed that his body was aging, that his mind maybe got a little slowed down, but from my point of view today, I think he is still wondering about similar questions of life, apparently why everybody looks up to him, treating him different then people treated him 43 year back. <br /><br />Anyway, my 27th birthday was coming along and I didn’t have any clue how to celebrate with my friends. Definitely I wanted to do something active, where everybody can participate and that it’s not just the usual weekend party. I also knew that with respect to Incredible India’s broad variety of amazing to do’s, it wouldn’t be so easy to find a proper answer on my question. After calling heaps of bowling alleys, I found out that some of them didn’t even exist anymore, were closing right at the time when most of us are just about to leave work or we located somewhere behind the moon. The fact that none of them would have served beer didn’t matter at this point already. This option was gone. Plan B was also not to feasible, because I had to ask myself, if having a picnic with some music in the ruins of the District Park would have been too crazy for India, especially since the park is locked and secured after 8 pm. A commonly known picnic place was the area surrounding India Gate, but celebrating at one of the most famous landmarked sites, the party probably wouldn’t have get started. At the end things are mostly simpler than you think before, so we were having a BBQ at our veranda. Back in Germany, we used to have grill parties almost every weekend in the summer and I was actually missing it very much in India. Thus, I kind of made myself a gift by deciding to invite my friends for my first BBQ party in India.<br /><br />Arranging a grill and chalk coal should have been the next issues, although interesting and funny ones! While having lunch in our beloved small street restaurant, I guy passed by his bike and were delivering the restaurant with a bag of coal. That was my chance, but due to enjoying the food too much, I forgot him and he was gone. Therefore Karan, Jakob and I were going on a mission to find a coal service shop, which required quite some time. Soon after Jakob dropped out, we actually found a place, where hills of chalk coal were being produced, but nobody was there for selling it. Well, at the time being we had a lot of fun with “looking at the features of the close environment”, but we didn’t get any coal and had to go back to the office. After work I tried again and got an insight of the chalk coal supply chain for small businesses in India. People were queuing up to deliver tiny little tree trunks and branches, as well as wood peaces they found on the streets. Obviously they were getting money for supplying the governmental coal store. Others were burning and smoking the wood, while again other were weighting and selling the product. At a rate of 22 Rs/kg (0,30 Euro) I bought some kilos and prevented the coal on being delivered by bike within its last level of the value chain. During the day I was also talking to Alex, who was offering his grill. The only problem was the question how to get it to my place. Without much discussion we agreed on doing it the Indian style, jumped on his motorbike and were manoeuvring the dismantled grill, fixed around my body, through Delhi’s crazy rush hour traffic! It was so much fun. On the way home, I bought chicken and mutton and if we would not have forgotten the gridiron, we could have started the BBQ without improvising. But as an engineer is not hustling with such minor issues, a solution was found very easily: two deformed metal trivets made my day!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAhI7j_Ae0-ak7nnzNYKnd3EwP4ppIrvcXmLTZawX62gBY8EJH-RWLJ3DA55BgU5WZJVeKUy0dcDeFRH8jhxAgI_P0UR9ekzH3oNwCvcrWH0CcG9I_S0bLUt7VteXOJ25sc61vKrhrANU/s1600/P1040536.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAhI7j_Ae0-ak7nnzNYKnd3EwP4ppIrvcXmLTZawX62gBY8EJH-RWLJ3DA55BgU5WZJVeKUy0dcDeFRH8jhxAgI_P0UR9ekzH3oNwCvcrWH0CcG9I_S0bLUt7VteXOJ25sc61vKrhrANU/s320/P1040536.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538390555111785874" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMNvGSUv2Skogr6TLY5vLPLDVZnWuQegTnPb0Jv35ub2mOsyjIJXm4NSXBn3rTgeyJae8fW6ygJ819sKpFmTuSUe46HeUcUuaH9AKpGBA4Ye_7iF8_P9vy92BbcpHKSeLxPtnuggiJLkU/s1600/P1040539.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMNvGSUv2Skogr6TLY5vLPLDVZnWuQegTnPb0Jv35ub2mOsyjIJXm4NSXBn3rTgeyJae8fW6ygJ819sKpFmTuSUe46HeUcUuaH9AKpGBA4Ye_7iF8_P9vy92BbcpHKSeLxPtnuggiJLkU/s320/P1040539.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538390559016222818" /></a><br /><br />After burning one peace of coal on the stove in the kitchen, the whole grill could have been set on fire and soon people were having corn, naan (bread), rice and grilled meat to accompany the beer in their stomachs. Afterwards an Indian birthday tradition took place and I was not aware of it before. I was supposed to cut a peace from the chocolate cake and hand it to one of my fellows. Then I didn’t expect to get it right back, but into my face! Karan rubbed it as good as he could; through my face and hair! Right after that, four of them were throwing me 27 times into the air and I literately could not hold me from laughing ;-) … it was such great and unforeseen fun, especially when you consider the final of the Indian styled birthday. Whoever liked could bump my ass with her/his feet, because I was still hung up by the four guys. Hilarious! Fortunately I was able to share some of the cake from my face with the other when I was hugging them ..haha… <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2t6_QLJBeYUnBwEZFF_GNBCsljs4IA8ibfAFJFsI6b6rk3p70Q5dsiJhTj50z5TZVMcZsZVSuxU2vpWTholN4ExwtmExZbporFR9oY04_AMGCc4fDg-YhONp6W_D_1fGg1Z5pjIR_ILs/s1600/birthday+throw2.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2t6_QLJBeYUnBwEZFF_GNBCsljs4IA8ibfAFJFsI6b6rk3p70Q5dsiJhTj50z5TZVMcZsZVSuxU2vpWTholN4ExwtmExZbporFR9oY04_AMGCc4fDg-YhONp6W_D_1fGg1Z5pjIR_ILs/s320/birthday+throw2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538390581425784802" /></a><br /><br />Thanks for all the wishes and great moments we could share! I’ll never forget that funny party with all of you! <br /><br /><br /><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-6586861373132999402010-10-12T11:19:00.000-07:002010-10-12T21:54:41.744-07:00Hockey fever at the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi<p align="justify">Guys, I just came back from the hockey semi-final between the Commonwealth Games (CWG) host country India against its old conqueror England and must admit that I have discovered my second favourite team sport! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGE0u0NSf5MfcgitZyCfEpRWU6wplqdhwAUlZAr81UdaTXVY8Yh6VFE6kDb1Q3Qv-vMTdaAeEWJhB6512-haq15NNlx5lw9pc2FEbO_jlhOElanCzkixQdCnxr0Aa7CmUaHR1f2G9bQfA/s1600/shera-cw-mascot.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 222px; height: 384px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGE0u0NSf5MfcgitZyCfEpRWU6wplqdhwAUlZAr81UdaTXVY8Yh6VFE6kDb1Q3Qv-vMTdaAeEWJhB6512-haq15NNlx5lw9pc2FEbO_jlhOElanCzkixQdCnxr0Aa7CmUaHR1f2G9bQfA/s320/shera-cw-mascot.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527385779154493218" /></a>It’s like football, because its structure is the same: one big field, 11 players each side, all running to get the ball in the opponent’s goal. Even though the rules are a bit different, tactics and runways are the same. So if you like football, then you’ll probably like hockey as well. It’s like footballs little brother. The exciting and fresh thing about hockey is that you don’t know the moves and tricks the players are performing and thus it seemed like amazing football tricks all the time! It’s also really fast and how they can dribble, pass and receive the ball is just incredible…<br />Since a couple of years India knows that it will host the CWG in 2010, billions of Euros has be spent (actually 7 billion EUR, which is 2-3 times as much as at a World Cup) more or less reasonable. The big sport event with 71 Commonwealth Nations turned the last two month I’ve been in Delhi into a big chaos and nobody was expecting it to be ready in time. Only a few optimists have been remaining and could hope for an “Incredible India” wonder to happen and then on the 3rd October it was finally the big day, when the event which divided India in pros and cons, was present. The fact that the government pushed all the small street marketer and stands out of the city, the big corruption around the huge amount of money spent, the crucial schedule and the already apart-falling and breaking bridges and building ceilings were in nobody’s mind anymore! Nevertheless the government still seems to be really worried about terror attacks, because what you see on the streets right now, could also take place in Afghanistan. Huge army troops are patrolling the stadiums. Military is even hiding behind sand sack barriers and in observation decks pointing with big guns on passengers. It almost looks like India is in a war…<br />The CWG were only about to happen for 11 days and by the time some of my friends and I finally made a decision to witch games we should go, most of the tickets were sold out already. Luckily we got tickets for the semi-final India against England, what was actually not known at the time we bought our tickets. The price was incredible cheap; if you consider the 250 rupees (bit more the 4 Euros) we had to pay for a game of the best four teams. At work we were already talking about all the India hockey games as it is the most prestigious sport at the games. No wonder that right before the closing ceremony the hockey finale will be played. In exactly this match India will now face Australia and an entire nation hopes to see a different score than the 7:4 defeat in the group game. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFWXpTQpn4UDqdltB6PuWyYqyGcj8yz0cLMKmIzLIMxvNi-645raGUVu2div5J1x0jPFoPu1EYjJQmBwJiR7ko1lVCySv6OBKIurp3YJRwvmQvx9Xw4DD6N6Z7jkUhIznaav8Sl4R4RU/s1600/68421_480811586513_521456513_6947522_184039_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFWXpTQpn4UDqdltB6PuWyYqyGcj8yz0cLMKmIzLIMxvNi-645raGUVu2div5J1x0jPFoPu1EYjJQmBwJiR7ko1lVCySv6OBKIurp3YJRwvmQvx9Xw4DD6N6Z7jkUhIznaav8Sl4R4RU/s320/68421_480811586513_521456513_6947522_184039_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527385784541892258" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1QMrDoJrIt62vdwOrSdeekyyeZOX4PUpTxu3bgtW6g0XXgezWoBzTaQODg09VTu-UBZrYt9RcPuhyphenhyphenqd08VZGGbKDmLyYwOWa0ou9bSzr15hjT5qC_yIQgQKU1dgWCkYs43Tf7tOxO4o/s1600/69379_480800871513_521456513_6947250_5162008_n.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1QMrDoJrIt62vdwOrSdeekyyeZOX4PUpTxu3bgtW6g0XXgezWoBzTaQODg09VTu-UBZrYt9RcPuhyphenhyphenqd08VZGGbKDmLyYwOWa0ou9bSzr15hjT5qC_yIQgQKU1dgWCkYs43Tf7tOxO4o/s320/69379_480800871513_521456513_6947250_5162008_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527385787544202498" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYrjhOVcRSJOA1SYLlFkBeE0Cz8lD7dv9eWk0cfndkP_df1th_cYRUImWi6sGijn0RftxiSJsYQ-u4pIu0O-9fPNGKTJSs_FFcg2UqwVjznCdmYyhluvG0ayUyxa3_-_EgCzC8eppsIQ/s1600/68890_480811366513_521456513_6947515_5473739_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 172px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYrjhOVcRSJOA1SYLlFkBeE0Cz8lD7dv9eWk0cfndkP_df1th_cYRUImWi6sGijn0RftxiSJsYQ-u4pIu0O-9fPNGKTJSs_FFcg2UqwVjznCdmYyhluvG0ayUyxa3_-_EgCzC8eppsIQ/s320/68890_480811366513_521456513_6947515_5473739_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527385788764765938" /></a> <br />Back to the semi-finale! My first hockey game will be legendary for me and comes close to my first football match what I watched with my grandfather in 1994, when Brazil and Italia were battling each other in 120 minutes and penalty shooting of the World Cup finale! The same happened today, when India equalised the 3:1 handicap from the middle of the second half. India was playing as it was their last game and deserved to get extra chances in the additional time. Unfortunately they missed a penalty during the 1st half of the two times 7.5 minutes additional time and so made it exciting until the shooting. The longer the game continued the more people realised that India really was able to go into the CWG finale for the first time. Therefore more and more often the fans were standing up, singing and cheering for their team. We were right in between them and also supported our India. The atmosphere was really peaceful and fun to participate. When the Indian hockey goal keeper saved one of the English penalties then everybody was jumping around crazy, but still had to wait for some more minutes until it was official that India bet England. In their happy mood a lot of people come to us for sharing their happiness with us, taking pictures and having small talks. At the end I discovered another parallel to football, because England seems to be weak in penalties in both the sports ;-)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtrmu7pZFvTj8a8toK8w-8SCqED1YfIhZT47EkhjViCFV_kZAQjMOoceMd3hzemdJggQn-__VEt7qnSPJ7z5RCeA7fm-3ygPMwqTwm9tHXBoDoGjZO1NxRk-TLVfxVmeSZhuHE-t6pxtI/s1600/72473_480805161513_521456513_6947350_4502125_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtrmu7pZFvTj8a8toK8w-8SCqED1YfIhZT47EkhjViCFV_kZAQjMOoceMd3hzemdJggQn-__VEt7qnSPJ7z5RCeA7fm-3ygPMwqTwm9tHXBoDoGjZO1NxRk-TLVfxVmeSZhuHE-t6pxtI/s320/72473_480805161513_521456513_6947350_4502125_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527387630207865138" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikrWCX_IMmlQN0olF-efrmC1IW8eeYs0T8WH8_lsvZIXjTrT_xvYzPE4AbsZN0vHVnZjwKiT0QMniZY05RY9YLrNwKgjzDQgmR71C2_9lfQ4dMxBBI1GWnpV-M8IFW1i_DWx2Z7qZ90EM/s1600/68352_480810186513_521456513_6947483_2340195_n.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikrWCX_IMmlQN0olF-efrmC1IW8eeYs0T8WH8_lsvZIXjTrT_xvYzPE4AbsZN0vHVnZjwKiT0QMniZY05RY9YLrNwKgjzDQgmR71C2_9lfQ4dMxBBI1GWnpV-M8IFW1i_DWx2Z7qZ90EM/s320/68352_480810186513_521456513_6947483_2340195_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527387644169781506" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8TLYVB0ThW72-sl7lKLOdj5eBLB3r1NaY6ElTM23WldXGZQT8LGeZQoT2mHxc6EIxV7NLDE-dXmVQ36IE-AT_j7uGhrNWbVaPikmeUsatNrpp-ABMgR8CI6RzCG4vdOsd7SjnKlc4ss/s1600/67339_480810246513_521456513_6947485_2306506_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8TLYVB0ThW72-sl7lKLOdj5eBLB3r1NaY6ElTM23WldXGZQT8LGeZQoT2mHxc6EIxV7NLDE-dXmVQ36IE-AT_j7uGhrNWbVaPikmeUsatNrpp-ABMgR8CI6RzCG4vdOsd7SjnKlc4ss/s320/67339_480810246513_521456513_6947485_2306506_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527387632963709586" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjme-kR6b6fAzsO1Xam89mSiU-6lu9h5uR0Ds5b4VmS24wfkIR_uhNUoMZwaaCkt1qP3RhuGRqTGKwQmGPndC9xUd3iFRTUSJtgLZZBzzRdFuIxPHcVJ_kG6o4Eat0wCssmwB-POxdvT6g/s1600/66504_480811471513_521456513_6947518_3270697_n.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjme-kR6b6fAzsO1Xam89mSiU-6lu9h5uR0Ds5b4VmS24wfkIR_uhNUoMZwaaCkt1qP3RhuGRqTGKwQmGPndC9xUd3iFRTUSJtgLZZBzzRdFuIxPHcVJ_kG6o4Eat0wCssmwB-POxdvT6g/s320/66504_480811471513_521456513_6947518_3270697_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527387644268083090" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2BMomJ_9tgKDZ6KJmVc8kuB-kwVQDugfws7mE24_qCBIQeLCPerJBhq2nzZroghkD8-DPTZi6KaiZDmPyOq158NVdmJZbNvEz_h5rfR1rx1A7PD6A-160edVGRNXygegY798QqSC-JM/s1600/71821_480811736513_521456513_6947528_2369237_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2BMomJ_9tgKDZ6KJmVc8kuB-kwVQDugfws7mE24_qCBIQeLCPerJBhq2nzZroghkD8-DPTZi6KaiZDmPyOq158NVdmJZbNvEz_h5rfR1rx1A7PD6A-160edVGRNXygegY798QqSC-JM/s320/71821_480811736513_521456513_6947528_2369237_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527388551651548002" /></a><br />Besides all the negative media releases of the CWG in the last weeks, it was a nice evening with a perfect score.</p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-78953400727610584322010-10-11T22:15:00.002-07:002010-10-12T02:14:45.261-07:00Spiti valley (2) – Monasteries, Buddha temples and a lot of nature<p align="justify">Our first day in the mountains was long and brought us a lot amazing and unexpected nature and situations. So no doubt that after reaching Kaza we only wanted to have some dinner and go to sleep in the double room with an extra mattress, especially because the last two nights were not so comfortable when we slept in the bus and car. The warm shower we could take was more than luxury to us! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SJJpwwL3GpOBjkf17-aSxNLi5CG-49NH6JYUM2fkZk6nbJ-ArM56-9fy71zqRqe8WgRSH2uBwvTi_IL0rEHz4wsmrxR8UpmnOoscT7zQqpftwZ_F9xSOniDAd4nH64zUVra7IhyJFHQ/s1600/P1020781.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SJJpwwL3GpOBjkf17-aSxNLi5CG-49NH6JYUM2fkZk6nbJ-ArM56-9fy71zqRqe8WgRSH2uBwvTi_IL0rEHz4wsmrxR8UpmnOoscT7zQqpftwZ_F9xSOniDAd4nH64zUVra7IhyJFHQ/s320/P1020781.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527024205979185538" /></a> The next morning we had some time to explore a bit of the centre town of Spiti valley, grab some food for the way and then we left Kaza and the Israeli hitchhikers from the day before for seeing some nature and man-made sights. The mountains and environment up in between 3500 and 4000 metres are so incredible and personally I found out that I can watch them forever. Alternately there were either penurious stone formations and strange mountain shapes or lively oasis with rivers and grain fields. It’s so impressive, if you imagine that people are living in this kind of environment, what makes daily life mostly complicated compared to our society’s life. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjejJA1JJHqwr_Qg9wUNvKs_Rel0LoNJMFImDRg7aU-AY1nMV1j_ozygAA2AofeuxECGKheuy6MiN1cqKGNVdUMlrXY_vaOJwn-8VVdRJx_oMilFCDC7MQdwmCUGBY71SSxX16_ZKcpYlw/s1600/P1020786.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjejJA1JJHqwr_Qg9wUNvKs_Rel0LoNJMFImDRg7aU-AY1nMV1j_ozygAA2AofeuxECGKheuy6MiN1cqKGNVdUMlrXY_vaOJwn-8VVdRJx_oMilFCDC7MQdwmCUGBY71SSxX16_ZKcpYlw/s320/P1020786.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527024215172480626" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkH0YfbeBKmpffmhWuorHwsCnKRfGDwIpc7GHFAxrPrdn4WZsSwa7djF0rpZuYq0p-GPy9TEWPeSU6xrM5xTBny5OnZLH62Wt4T8n6HDbzvCZ5Yyq4Nwdw-c8gh-IuVjyDosCpVGFjh4/s1600/P1020788.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkH0YfbeBKmpffmhWuorHwsCnKRfGDwIpc7GHFAxrPrdn4WZsSwa7djF0rpZuYq0p-GPy9TEWPeSU6xrM5xTBny5OnZLH62Wt4T8n6HDbzvCZ5Yyq4Nwdw-c8gh-IuVjyDosCpVGFjh4/s320/P1020788.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527024222338025026" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh69tPY78tsCr4X7TOXPiS5Ux2ilTn3ezPC_5wj5iuKgveF-dj3mP6M6WXxkDAGnUR5GAsimrdooARpT1Muby2l1YPQx7S4PRWbhRxwnVrV_Hz4Kcfzumz7d4moXkjDmC_G8uWV7bg6Lw8/s1600/P1020815.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh69tPY78tsCr4X7TOXPiS5Ux2ilTn3ezPC_5wj5iuKgveF-dj3mP6M6WXxkDAGnUR5GAsimrdooARpT1Muby2l1YPQx7S4PRWbhRxwnVrV_Hz4Kcfzumz7d4moXkjDmC_G8uWV7bg6Lw8/s320/P1020815.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527029922744949618" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNopqF1w9bRv_n6GsNvsbXPmbJPOlh1KmCE9K3cl6QL1Gv4MaZlxWIs4SR-EgpBQnWLZ89rmQFxCj8qwYmFcv0fbbqf80Zo29rzPTsHLm3NgudhUMWPe1s-ddmT1vJ77P7GsUAl5oKoo4/s1600/P1020804.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNopqF1w9bRv_n6GsNvsbXPmbJPOlh1KmCE9K3cl6QL1Gv4MaZlxWIs4SR-EgpBQnWLZ89rmQFxCj8qwYmFcv0fbbqf80Zo29rzPTsHLm3NgudhUMWPe1s-ddmT1vJ77P7GsUAl5oKoo4/s320/P1020804.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527029913750546914" /></a><br />Obviously since at least 1000 years ordinary Hindus and also Buddhist monks were worshipping their gods from close to the top of the world. From this point of view it is no wonder that their cities and settlements are sometimes on the peak of the mountain itself! But life is kind of harsh and connected to a lot of struggles. During the year they have to fill up their stocks with the little agricultural outcomes they gain from the stony fields to overcome the cold winter. Except of money from tourism the region has income from the apple harvest. The north of India and particularly Himachal Pradesh, the state where we were, is a big supplier of these fruits to all over the country. But as we had to notice how cheap apples were compared to the price charged in Delhi, the harvest can’t make people rich. People living here only have the necessary things in life: time to produce food and clothes, faith in something and a strong commitment to community life. This endowment holds them back from doing such big harm to the world as we do with our so called normal life style. Furthermore they foster a simple life style, which maybe makes them happier then people in sophisticated and unnatural environments.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXchNYQygMZI2ChdGvWudc_ww3Id8jOMVR1pf4GtPJwRT96SujRJEUqwgqEThyj6mlQtuR8sbTqfoGB2p54JAjiOHZ4jlgHGV3eOgJp9dwxLN5TfOq2XBMCX96u1xvysYVh-2CyKfT_pI/s1600/P1020791.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXchNYQygMZI2ChdGvWudc_ww3Id8jOMVR1pf4GtPJwRT96SujRJEUqwgqEThyj6mlQtuR8sbTqfoGB2p54JAjiOHZ4jlgHGV3eOgJp9dwxLN5TfOq2XBMCX96u1xvysYVh-2CyKfT_pI/s320/P1020791.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527024226964250882" /></a> In that particular monastery we saw some Buddhist monks doing their religious prayers the whole day long. The monotone song they sang and same moves over and over again, probably brought them closer to a higher feeling. Anyway, on the roof-top I spotted some solar PV modules, which they use to generate electricity for TVs and some electrical devices… The redundant things are even not holding back from mountain villages. <br />The next lessons we learned that day was in a Buddhist temple in a small town, which holy “Om” letters we could read on the mountain walls from far. Besides watching the impressive construction and stunning old age of the ground with its worshipping facilities, we got taught from a voluntary student. Firstly we had to know, that in Buddhism everything is connected in flows in a cycle. Life, death and life again… therefore we had to walk a clockwise round in the temple. Surprisingly, there was not just one Buddha we could see in the temple, but heaps of heaps. Thus, we learned that in each of us a little Buddha sits and just waits to rise! Thirdly, you can become a Buddhist even though you are married and have a family, but the highest maxima should always be related to honesty, truth and not cheating at all. Then you’ll become pure. The last lesson was from the same importance than all the others before, but in a country like India it was even more remarkable. “Good things are coming without money!” our smiling teacher said and be saying this he gave me a very strong determent for life. Whenever I was travelling after that trip his saying was helping me to distinguish between true good people and other trying to fool you. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-r74_f5xcgvSjYjVyTZgDue4CkXcZhYRTAsLiI5FmdaPYwqOGI_qyEmi-S0OCQ4Aug8jG3YMi8ISx326voZwIV-ux6PxfNBzIhj_Iq-G3QYq9opt-hRKUVMLK0RMHcd_fB13G4NA-e_A/s1600/P1020844.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-r74_f5xcgvSjYjVyTZgDue4CkXcZhYRTAsLiI5FmdaPYwqOGI_qyEmi-S0OCQ4Aug8jG3YMi8ISx326voZwIV-ux6PxfNBzIhj_Iq-G3QYq9opt-hRKUVMLK0RMHcd_fB13G4NA-e_A/s320/P1020844.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527029930389935890" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnZmcaKZLjBMn-mgWEZm3Nn1N62yr2sk9vj-g6AQtc6UoTk98pFzVe1Nlu2pdP43HCwuPvDUXXvmv3f7_jNqpEC-n6XCxlx7ZdkCA8BbEAEGWsgI1tWrK4OJ-0V5IQH5fZt-y6pxqFaFo/s1600/P1020846.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnZmcaKZLjBMn-mgWEZm3Nn1N62yr2sk9vj-g6AQtc6UoTk98pFzVe1Nlu2pdP43HCwuPvDUXXvmv3f7_jNqpEC-n6XCxlx7ZdkCA8BbEAEGWsgI1tWrK4OJ-0V5IQH5fZt-y6pxqFaFo/s320/P1020846.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527029940179468162" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lKnDL2ITm8WUFeT735iuYjUJAu-HFntaD2oqi1MkIM2yqpfBeFssFmzV-iFhtaOYdlVsUYXgGsOjyRKBYFiEzAh9bWl7TkuNTOqJUn86hn5CwwGAXcWrfetMyWcc6LC-H3tgwFQkbnQ/s1600/P1020856.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lKnDL2ITm8WUFeT735iuYjUJAu-HFntaD2oqi1MkIM2yqpfBeFssFmzV-iFhtaOYdlVsUYXgGsOjyRKBYFiEzAh9bWl7TkuNTOqJUn86hn5CwwGAXcWrfetMyWcc6LC-H3tgwFQkbnQ/s320/P1020856.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035058423334018" /></a><br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBppLwjLW7KdECqiTWYW3Oao2qVFlTMB3J_pqMZfVZYsaTgzv6X7WAFPFLZXi4fCXb_eXbEDwVGbho-LTyvxqIy91WD1MH9PdRXDiFM8IJjeX4a_xLn3M_taPoYX_NJx56gKxoca-DSfM/s1600/P1020857.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBppLwjLW7KdECqiTWYW3Oao2qVFlTMB3J_pqMZfVZYsaTgzv6X7WAFPFLZXi4fCXb_eXbEDwVGbho-LTyvxqIy91WD1MH9PdRXDiFM8IJjeX4a_xLn3M_taPoYX_NJx56gKxoca-DSfM/s320/P1020857.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035064923049634" /></a> <br />We were really glad that we had our own Jeep and driver, respectively friend, because we could reach so many things we could never have done by bus in the short amount of time we had left. They valley is quite big and you need time to go from A to B. The road conditions are not that bad as in the night before on the Rohtang pass, but our average driving speed was still marginal. Once we had to take pictures of the scenic view, once we had yaks on the street, once we gave construction workers a lift to the next bridge, once we stopped for a lost tourist, … a lot of side stories happened. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieBMdKkWRRi6awDvjrVlIh29p09UQT9K-qip709a32efmSjCp7PhqBiXCrUVo8nZDSRxvWKjPETu5n0qnDSO-C0IqSX7Lft2CZ6pIj8LfSs1yY3AIcjR-2lJh9kxTYfsV-clo2wjXXT9g/s1600/P1020860.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieBMdKkWRRi6awDvjrVlIh29p09UQT9K-qip709a32efmSjCp7PhqBiXCrUVo8nZDSRxvWKjPETu5n0qnDSO-C0IqSX7Lft2CZ6pIj8LfSs1yY3AIcjR-2lJh9kxTYfsV-clo2wjXXT9g/s320/P1020860.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035067447967682" /></a> The evening ended with playing some cards and sleeping in basic beds up on a mountain peak, where the Ki Monastery stands. Due to our late arrival we even didn’t get any food, but for one evening of a fabulous day we could easily afford that. When Caro, Jenny and Jonny were already wrapped into their bed sheets I went outside and watched the stars for a while. Being hundreds of kilometres away from a significant light source, the star heaven is so shiny and you see an amount of little yellow blinking spots, what you could not have dreamed of. The only night in my life, I have seen at least the same great phenomena, was in the 5 million star accommodation of the Australian outback. It’s so magic! The next morning was not less beautiful then the night observation, because we could look down into the valley surrounding our mountain accommodation.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcXIN5Y8-rw9f5ADjDa9zpf-lBxizlSYnM6JNaQ_OWk_aU365qYhsCqQtjZcjHc1ZgeUun64Bl-nnSq1tQYqbn481uX5Q_jfo-CUvw2sLQZl-fJQOJ7wumGu4uCtj7lkBNJMvfaDufpM/s1600/P1020862.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcXIN5Y8-rw9f5ADjDa9zpf-lBxizlSYnM6JNaQ_OWk_aU365qYhsCqQtjZcjHc1ZgeUun64Bl-nnSq1tQYqbn481uX5Q_jfo-CUvw2sLQZl-fJQOJ7wumGu4uCtj7lkBNJMvfaDufpM/s320/P1020862.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035073160803378" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxloOgowYmD_utKAkeEs6HrR828-0yHnhu1BFS1n33fapl-b8_AX_XtXNYQ1iF_Dfsci5t9bwHXI0oU6t9Xkcvd0-Fu8887rSp9-smMgj8d5Q5AHAJ_Ui5Az0okyyf2Sc3RcvLjnJCRk/s1600/P1020867.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxloOgowYmD_utKAkeEs6HrR828-0yHnhu1BFS1n33fapl-b8_AX_XtXNYQ1iF_Dfsci5t9bwHXI0oU6t9Xkcvd0-Fu8887rSp9-smMgj8d5Q5AHAJ_Ui5Az0okyyf2Sc3RcvLjnJCRk/s320/P1020867.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035623841013362" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbG7J1CyyCTBA_kl7xwLO8hXIUSb5-3Z1elenuYgznPGoKyiE-avX7zoP79rZ1_CNYz6Ejx0PGNpDsvGKPxpCc7Zwc8Ee3yZ3mnk7BiYwM9AcJhT97JubqziZ2S9QvG5vT8OnBg4fUZ-k/s1600/P1020873.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbG7J1CyyCTBA_kl7xwLO8hXIUSb5-3Z1elenuYgznPGoKyiE-avX7zoP79rZ1_CNYz6Ejx0PGNpDsvGKPxpCc7Zwc8Ee3yZ3mnk7BiYwM9AcJhT97JubqziZ2S9QvG5vT8OnBg4fUZ-k/s320/P1020873.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035630719245202" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVAObfjpJYWMxYv6z0NtUAUKQdJCU9fCJkmGiPj47iyVidxGJnoEESrgXcptZnRI567Bu64T5-vxIcZCDfarUFxR43MTIaXHzFKayo2IA4M-2CPO0wBZeedfSufNRYpwP8dB1F-Vx9xQ/s1600/P1020890.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVAObfjpJYWMxYv6z0NtUAUKQdJCU9fCJkmGiPj47iyVidxGJnoEESrgXcptZnRI567Bu64T5-vxIcZCDfarUFxR43MTIaXHzFKayo2IA4M-2CPO0wBZeedfSufNRYpwP8dB1F-Vx9xQ/s320/P1020890.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035645701166274" /></a><br />Overnight Jenny got fever and started to feel very sick and weak at the same time. In India you should really take these health issues serious, because especially foreign people are more vulnerable for threatening diseases, especially when the monsoon brings malaria and dengue fever to your city. In the hope that she has no dengue, we skipped another meal and drove to a doctor in Kaza. For that moment we called her luckily, because the doctor said Jenny was not infected by dengue, but without the results of a proper blood sample we couldn’t be 100% sure. Anyway, getting some medicine and the consultation of the doctor made Jenny and us feel better. For the rest of the trip Jenny either were resting in guest houses or sleeping in the car, but since she was too weak she couldn’t join more hikes or sightseeing. By the way, back in Delhi the results of a proper blood test were explaining her status: Jenny had dengue! But as we are still in the mountains, we didn’t know that and let her rest, while Caro, Jonny and I finally had breakfast.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQSQlODeEHjWaks3g55WQXJ6vFFdlqmjQ87DbL1maJ3qylwYAhYMs8tJo-y_2u86rJVDC8Q6ODtJtdP__UddsrqeCwGutr-73X06m0D2buPmyhRdRg-o6Ff18DNSGMD_bnq6b3ICEPmqk/s1600/P1020885.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQSQlODeEHjWaks3g55WQXJ6vFFdlqmjQ87DbL1maJ3qylwYAhYMs8tJo-y_2u86rJVDC8Q6ODtJtdP__UddsrqeCwGutr-73X06m0D2buPmyhRdRg-o6Ff18DNSGMD_bnq6b3ICEPmqk/s320/P1020885.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527035634037924946" /></a> Strengthened by the food we left Kaza for some more scenic views and mountain villages. Before we reached anything particularly, we had a notable drive again and since Caro speaks fluently Hindi, Jonny and she were chatting all the time. Meanwhile I had a lot of time to enjoy the nature and could follow some thoughts from earlier. In the mountain area I even noticed more than in Delhi that cows are holy, straying-around animals and nobody owns them. From an economical point of view it is almost not explainable, because under these conditions they are declared as a public good. Everybody can access them and when one user milked it, than another one would not gain any milk for a while. Thus somebody could just overuse and exploit the cow’s products, because nobody is hindering him. Some-how this is not happening here, so regulations do not have to implement a right to someone to use the cow. In our western world this is exactly how it is done, because if one owns the cow, he will take care for it and charge a price to sell the products of the cow. The demand would decrease due to the price people have to pay for the milk and no overuse would take place. This just shows how different things are. For Indians, their religious beliefs obviously count more than their greed for possessions. Although I’m interested in economics and also had various economic courses in my degree, I’m not an expert on that topic. If there is an economist reading my small contribution, then please tell what’s really behind that observation. Jonny in the meanwhile kind of noticed that I couldn’t really participate in the Hindi conversation, but still made me a good compliment by describing me as “a good man, really simple…” and woke associations to Ghandi’s saying “Simplicity is the essence of universality”. By the time we reached our destination, which was a village up on more than 4000 metres. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgrTE9vzeVnN8uDLzI13bUvcg_QioLHmnmfUIg41scyREnPOx8Ohe7BfAtex4YiIDKYSYEo5oF5H2qrr3ai9sRASVHTvo1oC-sKRR4akoqi1oHmj-cJGxp1tW2pNLejGX0ye6LQnG73A/s1600/P1020929.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgrTE9vzeVnN8uDLzI13bUvcg_QioLHmnmfUIg41scyREnPOx8Ohe7BfAtex4YiIDKYSYEo5oF5H2qrr3ai9sRASVHTvo1oC-sKRR4akoqi1oHmj-cJGxp1tW2pNLejGX0ye6LQnG73A/s320/P1020929.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037045300219122" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yloPHmoK7gTJYbJhNgxB-gEAjo7mmg1PKAQByAGjjGPviYzGool5oy_HaNL3gjAFe4453Q_vL_iW0aAcdhlTRhFx13-ZxdBLCyTZtM5wAPd72ol3HN4aKSM5qbbk-q_JvA9GTPw-0a4/s1600/P1020928.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yloPHmoK7gTJYbJhNgxB-gEAjo7mmg1PKAQByAGjjGPviYzGool5oy_HaNL3gjAFe4453Q_vL_iW0aAcdhlTRhFx13-ZxdBLCyTZtM5wAPd72ol3HN4aKSM5qbbk-q_JvA9GTPw-0a4/s320/P1020928.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037035808992914" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNw5wRxJpGGIysP8lgmDUQ4MAL-t2f293Zbn4yIYuk6nH2lUwLqIT7EP6j0cUQnQe59YI6goNONK9lJZiyinT49Y3m_Zm3_nFJhUxVFZYvM4t08Byb43xDZhy_bmwHXR6CoWtlL8vQGk/s1600/P1020924.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNw5wRxJpGGIysP8lgmDUQ4MAL-t2f293Zbn4yIYuk6nH2lUwLqIT7EP6j0cUQnQe59YI6goNONK9lJZiyinT49Y3m_Zm3_nFJhUxVFZYvM4t08Byb43xDZhy_bmwHXR6CoWtlL8vQGk/s320/P1020924.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037033079706658" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic1Bg2jlhNGNl9Pj5HIBsd5rnjJg0J33DooMNil170RR2fDjyfjtEHmDXnJrsCrxclg5bn0nKNJfrqqxeuVr-kpHxv963gw2320s4xEc7dNCAkA5KgdmZOZ-Su7S9rfEmkD67dfyD0j-Y/s1600/P1020906.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic1Bg2jlhNGNl9Pj5HIBsd5rnjJg0J33DooMNil170RR2fDjyfjtEHmDXnJrsCrxclg5bn0nKNJfrqqxeuVr-kpHxv963gw2320s4xEc7dNCAkA5KgdmZOZ-Su7S9rfEmkD67dfyD0j-Y/s320/P1020906.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037026499456802" /></a> The colourful play of the nature surrounding us made let us forget that we had to go back to Delhi again, but how is a saying going: “You should leave, when you enjoy the most!?” Well, it was Saturday afternoon and to make it to work on Monday morning, it was time to drive back, picking up Jenny, having a lost night in the mountains in Chhatru at the same spot where we slept in the car in the first night, climbing up the somewhat 4300 metres over the Rohtang pass and reach Manali. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRdtU5kJlXluwPJAJ2TIEI8FC46KSgYjy7xyCACJ-BbIevWqV_7tb5M1-2wuSaRdj4zKUOH7YMkXi78fIxEsykMW68qH4gmkePBUShfqzxS4Kg0LF2bIjvqzjb8jM90jIcu5TBBfnrTOk/s1600/P1020958.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRdtU5kJlXluwPJAJ2TIEI8FC46KSgYjy7xyCACJ-BbIevWqV_7tb5M1-2wuSaRdj4zKUOH7YMkXi78fIxEsykMW68qH4gmkePBUShfqzxS4Kg0LF2bIjvqzjb8jM90jIcu5TBBfnrTOk/s320/P1020958.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037851697106818" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy69VPTwn5y7kWfjJRlTeRUZuqBoAhk314H3bpwlSvXue8t3Ef4oKsWLBFb3MWgMEGGK11JHVH1iktDdGgtXcYEa5XOH0_7dK59uwKuO2VHpTScLSM3MUTJVKnShR94omr7ckXish8fd4/s1600/P1020953.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy69VPTwn5y7kWfjJRlTeRUZuqBoAhk314H3bpwlSvXue8t3Ef4oKsWLBFb3MWgMEGGK11JHVH1iktDdGgtXcYEa5XOH0_7dK59uwKuO2VHpTScLSM3MUTJVKnShR94omr7ckXish8fd4/s320/P1020953.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037846092988738" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCdoUrPwx0_xXT9kMwk8VeVVfWowgH098z2s1al1BZFKvAk8d1gg6qiFPDhkXiQVGbtd3kwVrRWRIV2bhvr0AbYw_3eDaxicGbIA0lqgSz7IosrT76VQFHGv52976fw9XOcS4EOOLTF6k/s1600/P1020965.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCdoUrPwx0_xXT9kMwk8VeVVfWowgH098z2s1al1BZFKvAk8d1gg6qiFPDhkXiQVGbtd3kwVrRWRIV2bhvr0AbYw_3eDaxicGbIA0lqgSz7IosrT76VQFHGv52976fw9XOcS4EOOLTF6k/s320/P1020965.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527037858940421282" /></a> <br />Our last stop in Manali was a bit random, because it saw a Bollywood movie shooting and entered it. Usually it is forbidden to take pictures there, but since they wanted to have some of us, we could also click them ;-) It is by the way quite common that these shootings take place in the mountains and such big coulisses are set up. The nice looking “palace” in the background is therefore only made from wood and cardboard. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRN2EDqJqZjtpLFas1qQjrMWQpOJkECzJZH1eHGYiJVv0q9h6nGKrwj9gg9CXMUhEjDYkWGkf9BItCdzftBVb_2_fj1Ji9ega9qXSCcEKV8Lm3eVCE_7TsRkbj0sOYNOCSr_O83BvMeAw/s1600/P1020992.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRN2EDqJqZjtpLFas1qQjrMWQpOJkECzJZH1eHGYiJVv0q9h6nGKrwj9gg9CXMUhEjDYkWGkf9BItCdzftBVb_2_fj1Ji9ega9qXSCcEKV8Lm3eVCE_7TsRkbj0sOYNOCSr_O83BvMeAw/s320/P1020992.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527038213511073762" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgHuUAjv7WwLn6ZGUz06OKSI8XN26YwkvFkOoCE9GeNHH0Sm9nNLpZdJ3TMfOJaBRGLfngJfpuxPfriWOsXMUL97d11vxpeucuHsQYvWME3Nc-s07SHG7IiANLNE7DwHpW_UDRmZX1pw/s1600/P1020985.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgHuUAjv7WwLn6ZGUz06OKSI8XN26YwkvFkOoCE9GeNHH0Sm9nNLpZdJ3TMfOJaBRGLfngJfpuxPfriWOsXMUL97d11vxpeucuHsQYvWME3Nc-s07SHG7IiANLNE7DwHpW_UDRmZX1pw/s320/P1020985.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527038209439777858" /></a><br />After the quite cheerful event Jonny wanted to show us the last thing on our trip. It was a small Shiva temple on the mountain side and lucky for me, I food some boulders where I finally could practice a bit! Down in the city we then just had time to say good bye to our friend and promise him to come back. Over the days we really started to like each other and all of us hope that our passes are crossing again. And so our nice trip in the Himalaya ended, at least for this time …</p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-10195788242919126742010-10-05T10:49:00.000-07:002010-10-06T13:04:25.213-07:00Spiti valley (1) - Incredible India greets from the Himalaya<p align="justify">After exploring Delhi and some if the sights in the past weeks, the public holiday on the 2nd September was perfectly made for taking some days off! Since my later travel itinerary will most likely bring me to the south and west of India, I have to focus on travels into the north and east as long as my internship is lasting. Another reason to go to the mountains for my first trip is the fact, that by the end of September or early October the passes up to the north will be closed and the only chance to reach the states of Himachal Pradesh or Jammu & Kashmir would be by the far more expensive plane. The disadvantage of that is not just the money matter, but also the short time for reaching those destinations and the issue of not getting used to the high altitude step by step. If you plan to flight into the area of Leh & Ladakh, then you really need some more time than we had. Indeed Caro, Jenny and I were taking the Wednesday and Friday off and due to the Thursday’s holiday and the weekend, we had 5 days to spare. Initially we wanted to go to the mentioned Leh area, but as you might know, the flash floods from early August pretty much destroyed some of the roads and the city itself. Also, we didn’t want to be in the way of the helpers, nor use their limited resources for our needs. So we decided to get on a bus journey to Spiti valley.<br />Tuesday afternoon I had to leave work early, because at 5.20 pm we were supposed to stand at Connaught Place and jump on the bus, but as usually it comes different. Although we had to rush to be there in time, we still couldn’t leave punctually! Our bus was delayed and actually we also were never too sure where it was exactly going to depart. Anyway, the time passed by really fast, partly because we were talking to an Indian writer and two of the outcomes I have to mention here. One is the fact that he is quite infamous or even hated amongst the Indian readership, because he sees all the Indians as primitive beings, which only recognise humans as flesh. While listening to his strict words, ironically I could observe an obvious male monkey sitting on a wall. He was just letting the females through, if they were willing to pay with the only thing they could give him: their body. It was very strange because the writer’s words perfectly fitted to monkeys, but not to Indians as I have met them so far. We were not just talking about the general Indian, but also about one particular one: Ghandi, who in his opinion was just teaching useless things without any proof of truth. Maybe the Ghandi scientific approach was a bit short, but no doubt he had his positive influence on India. Anyway, the other thing worth telling you might be the book recommendation what he gave me on my request. It is “The continent of circe” by Nirod C. Chaudhari, which he said will make me remembering his former words and in the meanwhile I also know, why that might be so. The subtitle of the book is called “Essay of the people of India”, so I guess I know, where he got his impressions from. <br />Two hours after our expected departure we were finally sitting in the bus looking forward to 15 hours of travelling up to Manali, where we planned to hire a jeep including driver to explore the mountain area in the few five days we had. But before seeing scenic mountain skylines and monasteries, we had to watch 2 endless long bollywood movies in hindi, had to stop several hundred times for toilet and food breaks and also had to wait in a traffic jam up on a pass into the mountains. The obvious reason was some rocks falling down on the street and blocking it. In line with about 50 military trucks, we had to wait and wait and wait… the military was on their way to Leh and Ladakh, which they supplied with food, water and tool to recover from the damaging floods. Moreover waiting and watching these military people throwing stones in a valley, we also had the opportunity to take some pictures. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VEtaQnnFp6u6DF07rKS-2Dvpva3vAPuEX52qnqZUz_CJh90Pkd1gFjaPW1hz9Iol5xQ0cX6CImux6MeVQhn0VIORP0WsKvo-h33rzB8gd2kMRqsj5xGGe170HBzQQSzrfN7Qssdjlkc/s1600/P1020600.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VEtaQnnFp6u6DF07rKS-2Dvpva3vAPuEX52qnqZUz_CJh90Pkd1gFjaPW1hz9Iol5xQ0cX6CImux6MeVQhn0VIORP0WsKvo-h33rzB8gd2kMRqsj5xGGe170HBzQQSzrfN7Qssdjlkc/s320/P1020600.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524629480021690642" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Onu98Ku7gwP6C8KCjykNvUXRzlGuUmkLRk7nzB2zt7Flo-3T-9a4yPUOeDgFxCO5pM8Q0lRb-ewMwlWpOYSLqC1tm8xVHHWqzmp3qpL8BLI6xx35KOjrzevlMQG-ADPUi8r7s7NDsBw/s1600/P1020594.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Onu98Ku7gwP6C8KCjykNvUXRzlGuUmkLRk7nzB2zt7Flo-3T-9a4yPUOeDgFxCO5pM8Q0lRb-ewMwlWpOYSLqC1tm8xVHHWqzmp3qpL8BLI6xx35KOjrzevlMQG-ADPUi8r7s7NDsBw/s320/P1020594.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524629469046262274" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOM3NAIOlkCLyh2Q4rEy3fuGMWgcbJSgo1FbXj2aVcVm7XLIifNYM1zxvDli4uRkXRRo_zGZ5-iepXryMCPfnj0fslmC3WdyuffveJHwF3XSqQ_nuj67BWbCXk9jun-uq1UamhdL30K1k/s1600/P1020587.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOM3NAIOlkCLyh2Q4rEy3fuGMWgcbJSgo1FbXj2aVcVm7XLIifNYM1zxvDli4uRkXRRo_zGZ5-iepXryMCPfnj0fslmC3WdyuffveJHwF3XSqQ_nuj67BWbCXk9jun-uq1UamhdL30K1k/s320/P1020587.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524629465434746466" /></a><br /><br />Some-when after we lost another 2 hours, we continued heading north and reached Manali after 20 hours of bus ride. Manali is the place to arrange you some tour through Spiti valley, especially if you don’t have the time to take the local bus. After checking renting fares of Jeeps and bargaining, we had about an hour for dinner and getting ready for our trip. Just for the purpose of advices and comparison I state that we had to pay 10000 rupees (170 Euros) for 5 days including Jonny, our driver as well as his food and accommodation and petrol for the car! This was by far the best price we could get and honestly Caro’s Hindi skills were helping us superbly. In the late evening we left the civilisation with Jonny our driver. The journey over night brought us up on the Rohtang Pass and the higher we climbed up to the almost 4000 metre top, the more fog we had to face. Honestly it was not that much fun, because we could only see as far as half a metre lets you see. This is kind of scary when you know that there deep side along the serpentines. The girls were sleeping on the back seats and Jonny and I had to take care that everything was save. Sometimes it was very crucial and we had to go back some metre, but still it was a nice night. I was tired as hell and Jonny and I couldn’t talk much, because of Hindi-English language barriers, but we managed to understand each other blind. Sometimes we stopped in the middle of nowhere and had some chai in soil and brick made compounds in the mountain. That was pretty amazing, seeing people living in up in this unlikely conditions. So step by step we made our way up on the one side and a little down on the other side, where finally also found some sleep for some hours. The month just turned into September, but in a night in the mountains above 3500 m you can really feel the cold. On the next morning we had to wake up early to follow our journeys timetable, but no day in the mountains starts without having chai. Since we spent the night in the car right next to a little brick house in Chhatru, it was no problem to get the Indian tea and spice mixture. While waiting for the chai, I had a lot time to explore the area and totally realise that we must be on a high altitude already. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8223h8o7z32Y9d1GldfwcZghK7WUlCmCSx2nGm2pe057dzq4F0CIk1RMxSrayjjXVW7Cs4Znqdg16wOv1THQK1VTpPe6h3Dp1STbaYAYgyAH-1jp6XNNOiyAdSJLtIv9T5ncEoN-PQM/s1600/P1020627.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8223h8o7z32Y9d1GldfwcZghK7WUlCmCSx2nGm2pe057dzq4F0CIk1RMxSrayjjXVW7Cs4Znqdg16wOv1THQK1VTpPe6h3Dp1STbaYAYgyAH-1jp6XNNOiyAdSJLtIv9T5ncEoN-PQM/s320/P1020627.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524632938271080098" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtl7ob1WRmgZ1eUtgOgacSOvvXrSifUZ3wpSmXijP0-pmX0P8BxIKa0VSmqJJ5l7kZP2JVaKannWn9uSbORsKLKSGWDG-UO0CKaPdy6tv_-ZbujoIdK1hH8gfLPVhyphenhyphenUACogAieN9KAObI/s1600/P1020629.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtl7ob1WRmgZ1eUtgOgacSOvvXrSifUZ3wpSmXijP0-pmX0P8BxIKa0VSmqJJ5l7kZP2JVaKannWn9uSbORsKLKSGWDG-UO0CKaPdy6tv_-ZbujoIdK1hH8gfLPVhyphenhyphenUACogAieN9KAObI/s320/P1020629.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524632942796813058" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmozwSR9hv1r1PreyDhfSFpcyg34bqpuhufGQuxulvnGUNPF24i4gkTcRa23bsOJxmmCnA9xGZf_XunDIJe6N_M5qvi5F9_RbPtaSnjP-Z4AiKBvaX55HUHpaIItNeBbEILdChFWp37G8/s1600/P1020632.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmozwSR9hv1r1PreyDhfSFpcyg34bqpuhufGQuxulvnGUNPF24i4gkTcRa23bsOJxmmCnA9xGZf_XunDIJe6N_M5qvi5F9_RbPtaSnjP-Z4AiKBvaX55HUHpaIItNeBbEILdChFWp37G8/s320/P1020632.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524632953759736290" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dxDKXTfUm2j-eiWA8Emdp_TF9ObxoNmFnfarQGQGWOJdpvHSxWsyaohJzByx6VhV7WyCuajUvNEjG_aUUUKsyXp2Q2bNpJzWeeeJ8l837BUmwDVxNi0IRVsGJSPflq8sLvUZ8AVqjsI/s1600/P1020614.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dxDKXTfUm2j-eiWA8Emdp_TF9ObxoNmFnfarQGQGWOJdpvHSxWsyaohJzByx6VhV7WyCuajUvNEjG_aUUUKsyXp2Q2bNpJzWeeeJ8l837BUmwDVxNi0IRVsGJSPflq8sLvUZ8AVqjsI/s320/P1020614.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524632933612781650" /></a><br /><br />Pictures were taken and the chai made us wake up and our journey continued. As a friend of climbing and bouldering, I was almost upset that we could stay in the area around Chhatru, because along the river there were plenty of nice boulders and for those I even brought my climbing shoes and chalk bag. But nevertheless we had a great goal this day, because we wanted to hike up to Chandra Tal. After a couple of hours driving on bad streets and jumping up and down in the Jeep, we reached the base from where we did a 3 hours hike up to the famous lake of Chandra Tal, which is situated at an altitude of about 4300 metres in the Himalaya. Again nobody moved even a toe without having a cup of chai before. At that time we met a newly married Israeli couple, which joined us on our walk. The air notable became thinner and we had to breathe kind of heavy. Reaching the top was therefore the more stunning, because the colourful play of the different impressions of sky, clouds, mountains and lake were overwhelming. We liked it so much that we spontaneously decided to have a swim in the cold lake ;-)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUu14sL9o0onXg8836cHdBOF1Af0kVZPiKM7bsio-hPR1e94WB4ujAOhS83aT_EK0jpPBL543YRa3bbxEGCj4jlvQOpGBl63Y4xrEGmz9XoeS4xB8JmWaJpeDnPgRrb22J-Enm8ZXZ10/s1600/P1020666.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUu14sL9o0onXg8836cHdBOF1Af0kVZPiKM7bsio-hPR1e94WB4ujAOhS83aT_EK0jpPBL543YRa3bbxEGCj4jlvQOpGBl63Y4xrEGmz9XoeS4xB8JmWaJpeDnPgRrb22J-Enm8ZXZ10/s320/P1020666.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524635248688979650" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOsgkwpfHRGPubenK4D22IbgWdwlyM3szC0R3ucYSNOEHJ_y-6ONIfLXb5INvUb4TMX4xwtSZ6LTOS_sz4JK8pVNWv4-jsovDcjbxAPnSPrxpaYDPCbizBdTVJiFC9UV843pNOWwoO43U/s1600/P1020668.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOsgkwpfHRGPubenK4D22IbgWdwlyM3szC0R3ucYSNOEHJ_y-6ONIfLXb5INvUb4TMX4xwtSZ6LTOS_sz4JK8pVNWv4-jsovDcjbxAPnSPrxpaYDPCbizBdTVJiFC9UV843pNOWwoO43U/s320/P1020668.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524635250213737858" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpFfJaSAM9h1bTNKy-jOwdKL26-Ctx0R_9Uj5N9DB2bLptc4p597pYzMGG4mS0P4QdaICUQVEbQ2mP6QVsK_2SIy2NJZQiNsHonnHsqixe4D8a2vF9373XjO5EBrT-kNI1cAdKmw2DPc/s1600/P1020673.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpFfJaSAM9h1bTNKy-jOwdKL26-Ctx0R_9Uj5N9DB2bLptc4p597pYzMGG4mS0P4QdaICUQVEbQ2mP6QVsK_2SIy2NJZQiNsHonnHsqixe4D8a2vF9373XjO5EBrT-kNI1cAdKmw2DPc/s320/P1020673.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524869390582680306" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gTQCUpotB8fGJAZ6OmTTeBVl2rVIShqKwgEFsuscjU4o8pW45MPbfG55Kw3I0E7MuAIq9gG9aqmeYcp06HwKQzrscKQxO_TX33eVyWmQ_SuWG1hlOxUzM40hFrBTRUYeYp37BVplewI/s1600/P1020674.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gTQCUpotB8fGJAZ6OmTTeBVl2rVIShqKwgEFsuscjU4o8pW45MPbfG55Kw3I0E7MuAIq9gG9aqmeYcp06HwKQzrscKQxO_TX33eVyWmQ_SuWG1hlOxUzM40hFrBTRUYeYp37BVplewI/s320/P1020674.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524869397746092722" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxphvObgPNN1iTF0rgNpPr_7J9hLMU4lYISor8lqLO5P5bZ3f5mVyUL0d7mWURoBG84Jw534Mu9y5QUIiT0tVUHK8uS9FEh1PbtRgLtARZu22if_r2QO_RMtUjQ_utS_SR4nT2EGfyh0/s1600/P1020691.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxphvObgPNN1iTF0rgNpPr_7J9hLMU4lYISor8lqLO5P5bZ3f5mVyUL0d7mWURoBG84Jw534Mu9y5QUIiT0tVUHK8uS9FEh1PbtRgLtARZu22if_r2QO_RMtUjQ_utS_SR4nT2EGfyh0/s320/P1020691.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524870092009093202" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2RzlwdhSDzXR5pjc1xGcPtD98gMkfTEGLxkEKTSkEvq-Z0sS1yxqYMs4k08wgH6M0zSlmadN_Mw574qGokP8Vzc3R0qqg-sYu9AHPcKELYc1LCWPlrVBe3XVu-Vnr2RTFT2XqKZooaB0/s1600/P1020678.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2RzlwdhSDzXR5pjc1xGcPtD98gMkfTEGLxkEKTSkEvq-Z0sS1yxqYMs4k08wgH6M0zSlmadN_Mw574qGokP8Vzc3R0qqg-sYu9AHPcKELYc1LCWPlrVBe3XVu-Vnr2RTFT2XqKZooaB0/s320/P1020678.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524870082082963682" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3TFctznGszsvb8-uCHd8fkdaphKl64ACRsc1ECFBjfVdX7AOuMc1vrXsiniH0Yk_yQ_ZzGE9dsoprhNXQjPRJ4fmzQMK9IGhleO9DgJsI113u3JrhwWN9L8zGVynAxC5yAXG34F8Toc/s1600/P1020701.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3TFctznGszsvb8-uCHd8fkdaphKl64ACRsc1ECFBjfVdX7AOuMc1vrXsiniH0Yk_yQ_ZzGE9dsoprhNXQjPRJ4fmzQMK9IGhleO9DgJsI113u3JrhwWN9L8zGVynAxC5yAXG34F8Toc/s320/P1020701.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524871566098182786" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXxF0sM0lEf3riEfTaxOG4aKSyG_4c5RQ_wq0j0m4LgUoZxi-TIRbmcoRq7Ng_T_9wIGaYMvmDtkCNS6URhRgC3totj7zOwWu724FvFKFWUF7jB4G9ibCwLiUHjQ1tiAgoZ1A4LSZizo/s1600/P1020706.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXxF0sM0lEf3riEfTaxOG4aKSyG_4c5RQ_wq0j0m4LgUoZxi-TIRbmcoRq7Ng_T_9wIGaYMvmDtkCNS6URhRgC3totj7zOwWu724FvFKFWUF7jB4G9ibCwLiUHjQ1tiAgoZ1A4LSZizo/s320/P1020706.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524871569682174258" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoKRe4vs-onpTZF-pWdFee1IY6ZXsX0G_Sj-5UjVxooucyGOVHwOlI9VAx8UYkawo9NR3y_yCtxZuft0Rm7KLV91-4RlDHgYQaVT1YIAbFojh46GNnf3w1GD6LYfUvU4QEobKi0ewrwo/s1600/P1020715.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoKRe4vs-onpTZF-pWdFee1IY6ZXsX0G_Sj-5UjVxooucyGOVHwOlI9VAx8UYkawo9NR3y_yCtxZuft0Rm7KLV91-4RlDHgYQaVT1YIAbFojh46GNnf3w1GD6LYfUvU4QEobKi0ewrwo/s320/P1020715.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524872922288200082" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHjoIcsy3F6izp-MBFfuARcJeIJzY7aKO_mzl70FE9UdvUABnC4ukpNPzVp8fxngXlu2Rrs_gtYHJvANz2ml3kKRHb2YZh47Zg98alAphbVdd0-jn7FZ2x9FLqfLnlSPU4tW1b-R6Rj8/s1600/P1020719.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHjoIcsy3F6izp-MBFfuARcJeIJzY7aKO_mzl70FE9UdvUABnC4ukpNPzVp8fxngXlu2Rrs_gtYHJvANz2ml3kKRHb2YZh47Zg98alAphbVdd0-jn7FZ2x9FLqfLnlSPU4tW1b-R6Rj8/s320/P1020719.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524872929010044834" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGrU7yts51UnqDXmfZikvN6H5-1CUCDjRqt_RydwqAvfwH3B1FEc8oFvKFTHN21qACU8GkhWJ-N40IeDcrgF9Er0tRaB_V4bqsnnDXjiGTIBK42dkPuBQjwbxHPtGQPU4O-epxe5UyTY/s1600/P1020732.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGrU7yts51UnqDXmfZikvN6H5-1CUCDjRqt_RydwqAvfwH3B1FEc8oFvKFTHN21qACU8GkhWJ-N40IeDcrgF9Er0tRaB_V4bqsnnDXjiGTIBK42dkPuBQjwbxHPtGQPU4O-epxe5UyTY/s320/P1020732.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525021509851723138" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWr25IXi7U0ulqC0ApGBUr8Ct-6Vn4YUzx8O6Zq-xpK1yDYcvl_So56ay5Dz5bBBtYLxgNfvdVarISIxhXmyy56zz8pyz54ebCuYO4_0s1a1eTWHYJXHpEjaS-Nnw_lPT84x6Nq4E30c/s1600/P1020726.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWr25IXi7U0ulqC0ApGBUr8Ct-6Vn4YUzx8O6Zq-xpK1yDYcvl_So56ay5Dz5bBBtYLxgNfvdVarISIxhXmyy56zz8pyz54ebCuYO4_0s1a1eTWHYJXHpEjaS-Nnw_lPT84x6Nq4E30c/s320/P1020726.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525021502887336834" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-OfMC_ZQ-l3g1_um5gst9jVbrmXwlTPiy6t_kd6EbbVC_OMHZchxfaLRm0CriPK2m635AD7eqQBMn02Hxp8juak3AmWQuj2X73-pRBFcQpzcYC1GxzcjjIuGKldndllFNFFDpgL2kKo/s1600/P1020739.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-OfMC_ZQ-l3g1_um5gst9jVbrmXwlTPiy6t_kd6EbbVC_OMHZchxfaLRm0CriPK2m635AD7eqQBMn02Hxp8juak3AmWQuj2X73-pRBFcQpzcYC1GxzcjjIuGKldndllFNFFDpgL2kKo/s320/P1020739.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525023216789274418" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_muEHkcr1tIMENxrytqGaR6BP2tbeoToEwBP0jzhIbQQcLK3co_CKi6udmsQvxtRqAZUPcBf60TV33hHefG8Aj7EgzUIVafyWvzVgEfosTxMzBGyyB38Rp0A066rGRHupbfs2yLp7lM/s1600/P1020734.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_muEHkcr1tIMENxrytqGaR6BP2tbeoToEwBP0jzhIbQQcLK3co_CKi6udmsQvxtRqAZUPcBf60TV33hHefG8Aj7EgzUIVafyWvzVgEfosTxMzBGyyB38Rp0A066rGRHupbfs2yLp7lM/s320/P1020734.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525023209465043554" /></a><br /><br />Since the two friends we made, were hitchhiking their honeymoon, we of course offered them some places in our Jeep, especially since at least 3 more people would have fitted in! The next stop should have been Lahore, where you register yourself and show passports. This identification is for the reason if you get lost and somebody has to come looking for you. But we first of all not reached the spot. Why we got delayed another time is again an incredible India story for itself. Somehow we realised that the Jeep was driving straight anymore and by looking at the front tires, it was easy to tell that one of them was not in its proper position. Some part of the wheel suspension broke and we were all alone in the middle of nowhere, apparently without jack or extra wheel part. So what to do then waiting! After half an hour the first car came gave us a jack without getting something in exchange, and off they were again. Some more cars passed us before another car gave us the broken part we needed, but also left. And since the first jack we got, didn’t bring the car up, we had to wait until a Jeep of Israeli backpackers came by, stopped, offered us their jack, and actually helped us to fix the break-down. This was somehow random, but incredible India just started as the Indian driver started to hammer with the other not working jack at a steel part of the broken wheel part. I’ve never thought that they will be able to fix our car, because they actually bended and broke more than they could heal. But finally our Israeli friends seemed to have a good idea and so they could use the old jack a lever... After 3 hours it was done and at the maximum of 7 cars could easily pass our street blockage. The day and our journey were saved and we didn’t have to think about how our limited time was running away.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-VMnFVlWnGPMiP-0XUPEqu_ORkvs-TCccj3RkwITxpWkVn0x7Oh3Dw9G9BYIPHzXAi6aT6VezEXIVPf6aD1mUHwj5hyphenhyphenbSQOKqu3IAiBBcs0KO-awhJUoEcTUFTUOBTD_BzTZQoj4SS2s/s1600/P1020770.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-VMnFVlWnGPMiP-0XUPEqu_ORkvs-TCccj3RkwITxpWkVn0x7Oh3Dw9G9BYIPHzXAi6aT6VezEXIVPf6aD1mUHwj5hyphenhyphenbSQOKqu3IAiBBcs0KO-awhJUoEcTUFTUOBTD_BzTZQoj4SS2s/s320/P1020770.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525024847909456290" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkIhNsbvuZaNC0hUvWc3GAt4kZuhDvao_8SZpWgHceyK5DKyLoJeX8rZlpwk3ONqT6K_XMScl7sQXTg3nIQOK63Of0AnTLwFTHfSAL_HBCj9COL6CXeLV-WkXSxJTOxT1ppURb92KQOFg/s1600/P1020768.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkIhNsbvuZaNC0hUvWc3GAt4kZuhDvao_8SZpWgHceyK5DKyLoJeX8rZlpwk3ONqT6K_XMScl7sQXTg3nIQOK63Of0AnTLwFTHfSAL_HBCj9COL6CXeLV-WkXSxJTOxT1ppURb92KQOFg/s320/P1020768.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525024839410039794" /></a><br /><br />The six of us continued to Lahore, where we not just had to leave our passport detail, but also wanted to stay. However we had a run after the crazy day, so we continued driving to Kaza, the heart of Spiti valley, from where a lot of monasteries and Hindu temples can be visited. Jonny more and more became part of our travel expedition than he just would be our driver. We could understand each other pretty good and had a fun time. <br /><br />..to be continued...<br /><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-31789472522523807842010-09-19T03:08:00.000-07:002010-10-12T02:18:05.211-07:00Sightseeing in New Delhi<p align="justify">After all that weeks of finding a flat and still getting used to the India I finally found some time for doing some sightseeing. Initially I was told that there is not too many interesting places and buildings to visit, but by the time it seems to me that you cannot start early enough to start with Delhi’s sights!<br /><br />When we normally talk about Delhi, then we should be aware of the presence of New and Old Delhi. While Old Delhi was founded in 1639 and has been the capital of the Mughal dynasty, New Delhi was only built during the 1920s when the British decided to change their Indian capital back from Calcutta to New Delhi. So far the sightseeing tours of the last weeks only brought us closer to New Delhi, which is located in the centre and southern part of the joint city. Anyway, despite the relatively young age of Delhi, we were discovering ancient heritages from a time very much beyond the city’s foundation.<br /><br />As you might remember, I once tried to visit the India Gate, but my plans were rained off. So the first time Jessyca, Sven and me went to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the India Gate in the centre of Delhi. The Rashtrapati Bhavan is the Official Residence of the Head of the State, the place where India’s President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil officially sits. India’s government buildings are protected really well, and there are usually a lot of military people with their big, but old guns… When we were there the doors were even closed and we could only take pictures from far away.<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZe6ohd7gKZ7DH2_C06yO0wdWdwh-wTqFM_Z6H0pf3AHnOotTfN4OV1LGMG9PTKw_BzVjIzRmrF7PfL47l4TTHe09BFgPKRtpoAhlHabaKfNrICVGduNylWLN7tB3nqeq6mIgB2sTwms/s400/P1020322.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 182px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518565623819838018" /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkE8WJT9eyfrK_gfA6_4_ZYi6-T8tHw7E3dZ4H0OSubKUbvWR-l7CrnM_E-0gD_wLs7VdStkmo2Ff-HFfkvAfUJ088ycH_-NV8PoblQ41L6Y6i8VG_9xPi-PISi_mRmUC1vILR-EQ6HIc/s1600/P1020325.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkE8WJT9eyfrK_gfA6_4_ZYi6-T8tHw7E3dZ4H0OSubKUbvWR-l7CrnM_E-0gD_wLs7VdStkmo2Ff-HFfkvAfUJ088ycH_-NV8PoblQ41L6Y6i8VG_9xPi-PISi_mRmUC1vILR-EQ6HIc/s400/P1020325.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518565970540520786" /></a><br /><br />Apart from the similarity of the above statue and our German chancellor, the whole complex was not so much fun and seemed very restricted and dead. Thus we rather explored the other Government buildings, which are connected to India’s centre of power. Exploring on your own always means a bit to guess what these buildings are, but as much as we could get out of the securing gun people was that the following buildings were different ministries like the Ministry of External Affairs and the Parliament House. As well as in the entire city, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEherMgGT4PqRJ_AKuix50Zb3otl1iVuCvWOAIrcUX1VN5Ucvt6d3YclBiPuaa24WjGFhBRYkJSrWTYV8aNQEycnPGfa3l09N2Mhsk5gTQC-iCRcUrG1RcH2HbXhwZAvSfRDenvB2PmSEIs/s1600/P1020331.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEherMgGT4PqRJ_AKuix50Zb3otl1iVuCvWOAIrcUX1VN5Ucvt6d3YclBiPuaa24WjGFhBRYkJSrWTYV8aNQEycnPGfa3l09N2Mhsk5gTQC-iCRcUrG1RcH2HbXhwZAvSfRDenvB2PmSEIs/s400/P1020331.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518583528857714754" /></a> these buildings currently get a new face to show all the expected visitors for the Commonwealth Games that Delhi has a lot of money. Unfortunately the finishing dates are unlikely to meet, because the Games start in only a few weeks and construction works have not yet been completed. Even on the pictures here you can see everything else then construction workers on the scaffold.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7J5n2WwjZJpvsTP6NeQ3c1GEsmRCG5Rj3WKmq3MfVpmNzi6TwkT-Z9XVFemQKVC4jJj9rkREYThj_zfdxUIeH4qi7CUb6eHrSnVtJLW8FukXjszpUDx5YdUP-YFrUVqY5Z1oY0_yh6Yc/s1600/P1020310.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7J5n2WwjZJpvsTP6NeQ3c1GEsmRCG5Rj3WKmq3MfVpmNzi6TwkT-Z9XVFemQKVC4jJj9rkREYThj_zfdxUIeH4qi7CUb6eHrSnVtJLW8FukXjszpUDx5YdUP-YFrUVqY5Z1oY0_yh6Yc/s400/P1020310.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518583539991830626" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXrDZe74BvpG8q6qW9tG4P5MMBpx2VHP740q3Q92G3DcWu2F8ANod5IHLJlrFCP1e5PEmEtPaCDRKmRL9l5zw-M9HK6-TOH9rrsGVRF4smbvP8RhNHyMoKXTM2NMV36eHLiVfkrg7K0Dw/s1600/P1020312.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXrDZe74BvpG8q6qW9tG4P5MMBpx2VHP740q3Q92G3DcWu2F8ANod5IHLJlrFCP1e5PEmEtPaCDRKmRL9l5zw-M9HK6-TOH9rrsGVRF4smbvP8RhNHyMoKXTM2NMV36eHLiVfkrg7K0Dw/s400/P1020312.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518583552462931346" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxnwn0pC1HsfPFTvAw6fHIa5tKO6-4eTDdRZzPBeVBAqa0yolBXlkS4CvUsqaSG14-7xrtDkIg9m_B4HHc8N2n5hGQCTw6iyPVg0W40m6En-pEaw2yxouZMxRaJ2Ro3g6uryV5v7vW3Y/s1600/P1020338.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxnwn0pC1HsfPFTvAw6fHIa5tKO6-4eTDdRZzPBeVBAqa0yolBXlkS4CvUsqaSG14-7xrtDkIg9m_B4HHc8N2n5hGQCTw6iyPVg0W40m6En-pEaw2yxouZMxRaJ2Ro3g6uryV5v7vW3Y/s400/P1020338.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518583563413050994" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsx27AGlrBEi2uyO0oEQBpRvbOrmYd0wosKEVRBz09h8bwMZS5DcwkTuCTO13Fr5D9f-DwbezmbSctZnVmiNW7Xolp-upkDKXfr8vQU6bieQAJY4RiURz3T2JJFMSDf7Lsos0k9de4N_Y/s1600/P1020314.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsx27AGlrBEi2uyO0oEQBpRvbOrmYd0wosKEVRBz09h8bwMZS5DcwkTuCTO13Fr5D9f-DwbezmbSctZnVmiNW7Xolp-upkDKXfr8vQU6bieQAJY4RiURz3T2JJFMSDf7Lsos0k9de4N_Y/s400/P1020314.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518583562140207746" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQWEBhVne4Gc-rmV9c34ouprhaqQt0wNxZnR1JN9sQKMZjABflvS3okgTZcsdluvRmwjwSecKYeOcKGX9Zhc1fgsQ5Ytjt37ymuc12bWQnqSgoOKqiOxDwQnexnBY3a1YuBx_qIWwBbU/s1600/P1020330.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQWEBhVne4Gc-rmV9c34ouprhaqQt0wNxZnR1JN9sQKMZjABflvS3okgTZcsdluvRmwjwSecKYeOcKGX9Zhc1fgsQ5Ytjt37ymuc12bWQnqSgoOKqiOxDwQnexnBY3a1YuBx_qIWwBbU/s320/P1020330.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518611724221406818" /></a>From where India’s Government debates you can already see the India Gate. In just 15 minutes you can walk there, or you catch a rickshaw. We, of course, preferred walking… >but it was not easy to make that clear to some of the drivers. One was almost following us for the whole way and reduced his price continuously. At the end he was joking to even give us money, if he could drive us ;-) We then reached the crowded gate, which is a memorial to 90000 Indian soldiers that died in several wars. All their names are carved in the stone and on the top the following line is inscribed: "To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France and Flanders Mesopotamia and Persia East Africa Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the Third Afghan War."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZuoN4mrJtljNPnAcClj6xES7R1FNtRazHUZeBwR0dmIn-QAdQtAHlhBgpuEFqhpcji_6OQUwYBlTLYMtWiZVeQDLhXmQdxm5F7Mc85yZSJDLDsahYKQcMgdd2uVHJYGxhCIPOm_vrf8/s1600/P1020353.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZuoN4mrJtljNPnAcClj6xES7R1FNtRazHUZeBwR0dmIn-QAdQtAHlhBgpuEFqhpcji_6OQUwYBlTLYMtWiZVeQDLhXmQdxm5F7Mc85yZSJDLDsahYKQcMgdd2uVHJYGxhCIPOm_vrf8/s320/P1020353.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518610089893739490" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJkhMn5PZk_eFJ9ARveijc4zsrEsKc4die7OpzwPJ_LaQk7c3Htu4rx5BJnwbmXtRHiBTTEgmUp1hRfzV4gz2dxc1kYH_BIu28Sard688oi4UPLAJsNy0bG11Pz0CNlsJuxByiJ8gnyuk/s1600/P1020350.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJkhMn5PZk_eFJ9ARveijc4zsrEsKc4die7OpzwPJ_LaQk7c3Htu4rx5BJnwbmXtRHiBTTEgmUp1hRfzV4gz2dxc1kYH_BIu28Sard688oi4UPLAJsNy0bG11Pz0CNlsJuxByiJ8gnyuk/s320/P1020350.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518610078480971490" /></a><br /><br />Another day Jenny (a New Zealandish friend I met when I was trying to find a roommate), Sven and me drove in south-east direction to visit the Lotus Temple and the Iskcon Temple. Since these two sights give you a better opportunity to take part in them, it was also more interesting then the gray and standstill Government buildings.<br /><br />The Lotus Temple is shaped as a lotus flower and attracts million of people from all over the world, mostly because it is a worshipping place for all different religions on the planet! Here they are meant to celebrate their existence in respect to the other religions. The garden where the temple stands is quite nice and invites to relax, if there would not be all the security people again, which tell you not to go on the grass. I don’t lose the impression that India is kind of ruling in their people’s life… Inside the temple you are not allow to wear shoes nor talk a word, but therefore it is a thoughtful atmosphere, where you also can see a lot of traditional dressed visitors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMANNe0k4m88dMM-HNxAPJSkAFyK_xVvotQhWgkSfh6DeJPBb56DfsSavVnuWFRLqROgqfE-QI4AH286KL3CoFmeMzf97s0bSV-xw1CBFoyYqwM5A3vE2q2wNxNDJOOds7zxrkirftd4/s1600/P1020372.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMANNe0k4m88dMM-HNxAPJSkAFyK_xVvotQhWgkSfh6DeJPBb56DfsSavVnuWFRLqROgqfE-QI4AH286KL3CoFmeMzf97s0bSV-xw1CBFoyYqwM5A3vE2q2wNxNDJOOds7zxrkirftd4/s320/P1020372.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518624385477928786" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XqY8D6wafpwiTbjk3N8PH4MwxoaYoNcAUHmF_6mR1Bbm1RsC6x13mPtlXy2JiLTh4FpLhnVNDbau7SQhiM4YPu27NvAUO4H8prR0fl5eLFT4es16snOiDU_zc3_dQZT5m4vXWTvbx_A/s1600/P1020384.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XqY8D6wafpwiTbjk3N8PH4MwxoaYoNcAUHmF_6mR1Bbm1RsC6x13mPtlXy2JiLTh4FpLhnVNDbau7SQhiM4YPu27NvAUO4H8prR0fl5eLFT4es16snOiDU_zc3_dQZT5m4vXWTvbx_A/s320/P1020384.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518624390941114498" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8FMA3OTsVg3NuQEN2K7keEcDiiHZeKC9WYiGFwGXrkK0voB3F_GTL6qTsKRDRgKkCcQnbIkuEjtQm6TCWMHIloxFYhNATtA8r3Thb-NkbKR20-C_UsCILOiTGelzbZHJWHsEavDjtiw/s1600/P1020390.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8FMA3OTsVg3NuQEN2K7keEcDiiHZeKC9WYiGFwGXrkK0voB3F_GTL6qTsKRDRgKkCcQnbIkuEjtQm6TCWMHIloxFYhNATtA8r3Thb-NkbKR20-C_UsCILOiTGelzbZHJWHsEavDjtiw/s320/P1020390.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518624400765095234" /></a><br /><br />In walking distance from the Lotus Temple another pilgrim destination is placed. The Iskcon Temple is a quite big and famous Hare Krishna temple and with a monk school and also a guest house.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincymVeCaPS1lwBCTV9xCUi5jVhaR9RiVGqMUn-fnNhgcYHfWUiM5CAb5xD9RlUq0ttFiNszf63UmksaHB9Z_vSktQE8Se-ftl4eY-AqZXh0V7W2yL9yVQAs1bwloIjMDQ2mJJoJ82jfY/s1600/P1020421_2.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 306px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincymVeCaPS1lwBCTV9xCUi5jVhaR9RiVGqMUn-fnNhgcYHfWUiM5CAb5xD9RlUq0ttFiNszf63UmksaHB9Z_vSktQE8Se-ftl4eY-AqZXh0V7W2yL9yVQAs1bwloIjMDQ2mJJoJ82jfY/s320/P1020421_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518632730426741618" /></a> Similar to most of the Hare Krishna places you can walk the x steps and pray the “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama” x times to gain the Absolute Truth. Besides that you can also get impressed by the unique architecture and the red, white and blue colours. Since it is still monsoon time it was again raining heavily, so we were sitting under a stand letting time run. What a meditative task! As one of the highlights a religious ceremony will be held at a certain time. What’s happening then is kind of crazy in the eye’s of people who have no clue what’s happening there, me included. The temple itself opens and people start rolling on the floor and kissing the ground while Hare Krishna music is performed by some monks. Everybody worships different gods symbolised by figures of Shiva or Hanuman…<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37f1HLhLvQ1g-hgjbc1G8CVyEdfpemhMmA4T1RHwlz2cQ9_if8JQ7OBqa6qKOThwy256DzZCpr3CXUANl-MJa0sB3yLqPk2WbBfgkvjhvtKwNzOz98zI-lO7VdDGvHedrJ0Td0VaYkGI/s1600/P1020408.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37f1HLhLvQ1g-hgjbc1G8CVyEdfpemhMmA4T1RHwlz2cQ9_if8JQ7OBqa6qKOThwy256DzZCpr3CXUANl-MJa0sB3yLqPk2WbBfgkvjhvtKwNzOz98zI-lO7VdDGvHedrJ0Td0VaYkGI/s320/P1020408.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518632721530878290" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoomesARn6kR8ZpPjBM04ooU8txe_X5t1u0Ud8HN10FGRsGodytgKfHqfUxkVyJZjZKJFZfTIBd3PRKT0A-bZ1co84p6r4X2b_3UhzYyDlCVTGWVYWCL-oco2M2qq4MmSqgBuRiKMkVA/s1600/P1020407.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoomesARn6kR8ZpPjBM04ooU8txe_X5t1u0Ud8HN10FGRsGodytgKfHqfUxkVyJZjZKJFZfTIBd3PRKT0A-bZ1co84p6r4X2b_3UhzYyDlCVTGWVYWCL-oco2M2qq4MmSqgBuRiKMkVA/s320/P1020407.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518632705328363682" /></a><br /><br />Sights in Delhi are quite far away from each other and if you don’t want to ride a rickshaw all the time, then biking is a good opportunity to get some orientation in your city. The only problem is the bad traffic, on which you have to get used first, but riding my bicycle in Berlin is a fair enough practise, although I fast had to upgrade my not existing “it’s my turn” attitude. Otherwise I would never have a chance to go on the street, because you really have to force others to give you way… One day Sunny (an Indian friend) and his buddy Christopher and me went on a six hour bike trip through the south of Delhi and cycled to the famous Qutub Minar and the Tughlaqabad Fort and head a really great time. It started with breaking the bicycle locker of my borrowed bike, because none of the keys were working. Therefore the construction workers from my neighbour house were trying all their tools from hammers, to tongs, to a saw and more and more people were gathering until it finally was ready to go. Sunny and Chris were waiting already…. As I mentioned already the chaos on the street is not that easy to handle and after I got used to driving in the rickshaw, cycling in Delhi is another level. Some of you might know that it’s damn hot at the moment, but the approximately 33 degrees were not the only problem. A humidity of more than 80 % was making sweat running as hell and so it was no surprise that we all drank some bottles of water and ate four ice-creams each ;-) By the way, I got one of those old Indian bikes! They are heavy and when you go in a curve, then the handle bar stuck on your knees, but it is still a really nice cycling feeling. It kind of feels as I image riding a Harley must be.<br /><br />When we have arrived Qutub Minar, we as tourists were facing an entry fee which is 50 times as high as the one for Indians, but after all it is still ok. We had to pay 250 rupees (a bit more than 4 Euros) and could skip the long queue. The tower inside the area was not just the only attraction to some of the visitors and so it came that we were also kind of distracted from exploring the old ruins. The reason was that a lot of the Indian tourists wanted to have pictures with us and friendly as we are we initially said yes to everybody. If you imagine how much Indians are in Delhi, you can guess that we soon decided to not sustain this mission and had to disappoint some of our fans. Finally finding time for the ruins, we discovered a really nice complex from the 11th century. I think the tower is more than 72 m high and it was not easy to get it on one picture! Therefore the closer pictures were easier to take and you can see the beautiful reliefs. After walking around and getting lost for about an hour, we went back to our bikes and drove to the next destination.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUXSk6DrSIqFY19DFkkUdYdD_Hu_QrlPYg5OsFcyjZ0Lp2olpDQ60FAusUHuSZnYtpg1sPH4P8qMhx1rt0F-yg-HgsR4cFzJVYxhKydszX4hCHXwS2DrP4zZd_-aRd4rpAJrDZTYW9eV8/s1600/P1020453.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUXSk6DrSIqFY19DFkkUdYdD_Hu_QrlPYg5OsFcyjZ0Lp2olpDQ60FAusUHuSZnYtpg1sPH4P8qMhx1rt0F-yg-HgsR4cFzJVYxhKydszX4hCHXwS2DrP4zZd_-aRd4rpAJrDZTYW9eV8/s320/P1020453.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518952112858618034" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM6HcCxK0cDI5QZG2RIxuAGunDKrfaFOm7uWLKpGMQY6r3o18WxyGmxHdk30AcMNajKKSRcaTj2xaZwq9bOhpew57Z4mz6gh7ZBlaDXaI5OG41JLTYYopTanMlZeTymPzLAen9wCuqjXY/s1600/P1020473.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM6HcCxK0cDI5QZG2RIxuAGunDKrfaFOm7uWLKpGMQY6r3o18WxyGmxHdk30AcMNajKKSRcaTj2xaZwq9bOhpew57Z4mz6gh7ZBlaDXaI5OG41JLTYYopTanMlZeTymPzLAen9wCuqjXY/s320/P1020473.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518952131129047730" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNB8WGJ3wrWxJ9gtIj_-ULqTc67F0_LIiSQo0PcHpdAo5nPnLyYz6NtxeAmRH9QaTn74LekoFnsiJr0stf_xhnoreYIKBryF9rZgQVqtPvLaIf1QvAax1ks9BlFMYRqydsTEAVRhpKT8/s1600/P1020457.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNB8WGJ3wrWxJ9gtIj_-ULqTc67F0_LIiSQo0PcHpdAo5nPnLyYz6NtxeAmRH9QaTn74LekoFnsiJr0stf_xhnoreYIKBryF9rZgQVqtPvLaIf1QvAax1ks9BlFMYRqydsTEAVRhpKT8/s320/P1020457.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518952122211384338" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvOvOEBNdwju1CxaB7MVK41txBjYeRFS7J3tb3oFRjy31kxupUBIxahJkWK6QL3XAwMj3qik_v6-05uweAK4cpiwZy8ve7OI4rQLWUjtlLO-5THl95XQOpWr2BR0lg4twNHcvJfvJrjU/s1600/P1020496.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvOvOEBNdwju1CxaB7MVK41txBjYeRFS7J3tb3oFRjy31kxupUBIxahJkWK6QL3XAwMj3qik_v6-05uweAK4cpiwZy8ve7OI4rQLWUjtlLO-5THl95XQOpWr2BR0lg4twNHcvJfvJrjU/s320/P1020496.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518952136236516786" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAq6V2cEaa4kuhrl02LaKlxnSoAtnZW0OwhprF5atg8qhOswks9_7clPdSPgxOpEwFQOoABfUesahRCOAu2_bTceMHIC1aRUwxTO2RsG-l7SBeI-CzhzBOlte1lp9decCg014lRpzehOs/s1600/P1020483_2.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAq6V2cEaa4kuhrl02LaKlxnSoAtnZW0OwhprF5atg8qhOswks9_7clPdSPgxOpEwFQOoABfUesahRCOAu2_bTceMHIC1aRUwxTO2RsG-l7SBeI-CzhzBOlte1lp9decCg014lRpzehOs/s320/P1020483_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518953855565176994" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEw1cq4-Y_bxfyHNto-4VejeHOUFcNkclcRqy5j9dbXTPaMJiYdwT3clh2enm8qbylxdLW_6SX2cHb7v17iU-dUPmb9D3lp9HYOCDx7tGVb2dPqoy5mRIBWQ6ih3lsH0NmvnBTuFAEak/s1600/P1020461.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEw1cq4-Y_bxfyHNto-4VejeHOUFcNkclcRqy5j9dbXTPaMJiYdwT3clh2enm8qbylxdLW_6SX2cHb7v17iU-dUPmb9D3lp9HYOCDx7tGVb2dPqoy5mRIBWQ6ih3lsH0NmvnBTuFAEak/s320/P1020461.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518953848505595490" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi35LpOUL-QtJooQSdKSC4SqcGwq7nqmh9eGcQ9La04nULDyl6K3xrtH9RrUUms4mN0KtocptvEFJiomeZtsVCnP32sseKn5xoUGOhyqCPJGTZKnRCTE77-6Sfk0YlTosIxg4xPjtygW4M/s1600/P1020484.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi35LpOUL-QtJooQSdKSC4SqcGwq7nqmh9eGcQ9La04nULDyl6K3xrtH9RrUUms4mN0KtocptvEFJiomeZtsVCnP32sseKn5xoUGOhyqCPJGTZKnRCTE77-6Sfk0YlTosIxg4xPjtygW4M/s320/P1020484.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518954490504381010" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5kShwnFX5zPanwHP7XTe9WTCgq5p5kTS_hXwg_uryp0Z0SN733G6q6fVbSFtHEX0a8nN_nR-F65KRY1jD10UYXM4zfBTo9Bo3K-nK2c84VJmF0_VByZJdMczTZ_NnhIEnryQwgNarSdY/s1600/P1020464.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5kShwnFX5zPanwHP7XTe9WTCgq5p5kTS_hXwg_uryp0Z0SN733G6q6fVbSFtHEX0a8nN_nR-F65KRY1jD10UYXM4zfBTo9Bo3K-nK2c84VJmF0_VByZJdMczTZ_NnhIEnryQwgNarSdY/s320/P1020464.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518954485275815986" /></a><br /><br />Besides cars and rickshaws, cows also count as frequent traffic participants in India… As I mentioned we had some ice-creams and also Momo’s on the way there. Momo’s are a very preferable dish! These small steamed doe pockets are either filled with veggies or with chicken and are very delicious. Sunny and Chris just had the pleasure of eating them ;-)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3L4wfZZfqUk7UejWClPRt1W0ovG5idogY0M1h6ceVsWz4Ro8TijNdH0V78iSPxDmXH76HCFSklZyXqRGNo-CC8QLvmUcVG-nfa-KCJTVH5ggteyIRiV4yCjUtLqDGLxqWalqsAEbB_LI/s1600/P1020516.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3L4wfZZfqUk7UejWClPRt1W0ovG5idogY0M1h6ceVsWz4Ro8TijNdH0V78iSPxDmXH76HCFSklZyXqRGNo-CC8QLvmUcVG-nfa-KCJTVH5ggteyIRiV4yCjUtLqDGLxqWalqsAEbB_LI/s320/P1020516.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518955596568946386" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-c-qqMU1ev8GHYgrGkz4AosyJcowZdBRs747pcYBD0ZReJ95WEzGEtjnyi7LKB9QNCoMc_F2x2YZB4H02e9FnnHbNyCCelT9XV0byhVQSMANGn3u0fthV16NFSvJ7F59DABvyaECz61Q/s1600/P1020513.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-c-qqMU1ev8GHYgrGkz4AosyJcowZdBRs747pcYBD0ZReJ95WEzGEtjnyi7LKB9QNCoMc_F2x2YZB4H02e9FnnHbNyCCelT9XV0byhVQSMANGn3u0fthV16NFSvJ7F59DABvyaECz61Q/s320/P1020513.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518955587376128786" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS04-FdrJ_Bbs1vIgp_PMnU4d4DumRe2QE_yh5V66RmahknAQjjQlzFzQC38md6ov0YCUfNUgFRuvTr7_L3YK3a8M1OcPxZw2wC8TVNgKfX7PIPT-o9rCVBfUV_HcHmDPNtshihW7mkGE/s1600/biking.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS04-FdrJ_Bbs1vIgp_PMnU4d4DumRe2QE_yh5V66RmahknAQjjQlzFzQC38md6ov0YCUfNUgFRuvTr7_L3YK3a8M1OcPxZw2wC8TVNgKfX7PIPT-o9rCVBfUV_HcHmDPNtshihW7mkGE/s320/biking.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518955581752175074" /></a><br /><br />Without any tourists in the wide garden of Tughlaqabad Fort, we really found a pearl of Delhi’s locations. Who likes nature and green will love this ruins, because it’s a calm place where nature is taking back, what once belonged to her. The composition of the green trees and bushes with the reddish walls and the sun set was really worth to cycle the 6 hours. Actually we were supposed to see some monkeys here, but obviously they had better things to do. Instead we were sitting on a brick wall and observed the on-goings in the close-by slum, which was really interesting. Some-how we enjoyed time so much, that the security guards had to come and tell us that they would like to close…<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5QjxyI4_CQopuUXmDx8722LpOm85vPrjckt63wPwoIIXvmytI_lv1C6ExzScG_COaGS2HLfzKIlp5PLXDIdKOwohhte4_ev5_nGOCwXsgwHz3NTNwq4wD3YY4dO_AjQ3lyfn4oM2g_tQ/s1600/P1020539.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 85px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5QjxyI4_CQopuUXmDx8722LpOm85vPrjckt63wPwoIIXvmytI_lv1C6ExzScG_COaGS2HLfzKIlp5PLXDIdKOwohhte4_ev5_nGOCwXsgwHz3NTNwq4wD3YY4dO_AjQ3lyfn4oM2g_tQ/s320/P1020539.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518958539456188082" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekvR4NHhLg7b3u0ABfkT-Hi4IfTGvDpTgQnV75NjlkdYMD16nkR_ZVwMstHrY7JxnhRH3xZZf9EsAxBQIkiwZ6ET4XmUTtDrl6cClkMve3cFlMzgd7ewXrgeWeT-uBJP1ge-6k079h0I/s1600/P1020534.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 85px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekvR4NHhLg7b3u0ABfkT-Hi4IfTGvDpTgQnV75NjlkdYMD16nkR_ZVwMstHrY7JxnhRH3xZZf9EsAxBQIkiwZ6ET4XmUTtDrl6cClkMve3cFlMzgd7ewXrgeWeT-uBJP1ge-6k079h0I/s320/P1020534.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518958530797675394" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkzFxzxkGc9U9bigft7XZ4KsZxOFBgZkfvrNF8mLqV9tKP0kXqbFdQsOvufg5WNQ1qnYzW3J4MFaHoh3lnD-iXwiK2v_pswPF4z8DOnE0pJp_P1RQt4G3-4bkiLhOAmONnj2ubjpqt0gA/s1600/P1020533.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 85px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkzFxzxkGc9U9bigft7XZ4KsZxOFBgZkfvrNF8mLqV9tKP0kXqbFdQsOvufg5WNQ1qnYzW3J4MFaHoh3lnD-iXwiK2v_pswPF4z8DOnE0pJp_P1RQt4G3-4bkiLhOAmONnj2ubjpqt0gA/s320/P1020533.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518958528847358610" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCR2V1j9dfHkWeQOjZGey3NjD2XoDvB0AoN7bTa1L87l2mLLYjIaPqdwR8Qoxj3GRPP0blK6LyN0GLkMy-0PWNAyObflPev1mQtiq6XvqvTfSxleBeySmZoJhcfoXYX9LR6Org836uJvk/s1600/P1020561_2.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCR2V1j9dfHkWeQOjZGey3NjD2XoDvB0AoN7bTa1L87l2mLLYjIaPqdwR8Qoxj3GRPP0blK6LyN0GLkMy-0PWNAyObflPev1mQtiq6XvqvTfSxleBeySmZoJhcfoXYX9LR6Org836uJvk/s320/P1020561_2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518959483354342418" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7zJ9vtY1ZKROpLAY_5QOBEqnWO4OF6s8cGkSkHuh6hyGstXcq5Rjam_Z2kvisbLnNFifU7_yulyKbkUrFMLDKM9wGL0SaM7BPmY98bh4kLxAZFBeWm2PCn2L8fVEG_18JKaTLCFsBtE/s1600/P1020543.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7zJ9vtY1ZKROpLAY_5QOBEqnWO4OF6s8cGkSkHuh6hyGstXcq5Rjam_Z2kvisbLnNFifU7_yulyKbkUrFMLDKM9wGL0SaM7BPmY98bh4kLxAZFBeWm2PCn2L8fVEG_18JKaTLCFsBtE/s320/P1020543.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518959474550307554" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8IZFbYXkpxXLUlRhIB-y1xbQUzNP6Ef7BogsJYyKr9qb9dq7ES_l_eWjW7zASh8qXn1A0p_zlObPodjiMYtvFfJZSJaCA40iu8tHdUEHD2wdSsAYFA8gCQgU-X557JDnA3GCTUEhPNA/s1600/P1020556.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8IZFbYXkpxXLUlRhIB-y1xbQUzNP6Ef7BogsJYyKr9qb9dq7ES_l_eWjW7zASh8qXn1A0p_zlObPodjiMYtvFfJZSJaCA40iu8tHdUEHD2wdSsAYFA8gCQgU-X557JDnA3GCTUEhPNA/s320/P1020556.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518959493124398818" /></a>Sightseeing in Delhi can be a lot, exhausting or relaxing, full of tourists or very empty… you can visit buildings or scenic sceneries, read a lot before or just explore them on your own. In any cases you need a lot of time, because either something happens (breaking the bike locker first) or you have to go far, but most of the times it’s worth all the affords.<br /><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-33641994186363456622010-09-07T11:33:00.000-07:002010-09-09T22:15:58.528-07:00The 'finding a flat' odyssey<p align="justify">Alright guys, the day has come that I finally don’t want to keep you in suspense about my flat situation. As you know, I was mentioning in earlier blog entries that I was struggling to get settled in Delhi. This is due to the fact that living in Delhi can be quit expensive, although we al have the impressing India is a cheap country! The house market here can easily earn the attribute ‘incredible’ like most of things here, but why is it so expensive? First, I should tell you that most of the expats are living in South Delhi, because it is close the Jawaharlal Nehru University, to the offices of Multi National Companies (MNCs) and although close to Gurgaon, which is an outpost 30 km out of Delhi and hosts many, many MNCs. South Delhi is also a nice area with parks and some Bars and Clubs. Therefore it is easy to imagine what’s happening to rent prices in that area. Foreigners are usually paid very well and can afford high living standard and also rent prices, but this is not the main issue. The problem lies in the subsidy policy of most of the MNCs, because their employees often have to pay for a certain rent limit, the rest is paid by the company. That means it doesn’t matter, how high prices are and if you like a flat or an apartment you just bid the highest price! It is a classical market failure and landlords and agents are pretty aware of that. But let us get back to my story, because I can’t go for luxury apartments anyway and were looking for a basic flat, most likely a place where I could get a real Indian experience. Most of the people I know are paying around 15000 Rupees (250 Euros) for a room in a shared flat, but don’t think that they get some really nice place. All of us are faced to power cuts each week, some don’t have running water for some days… Some rooms don’t have windows and others are just far away from work.<br />From that perspective I was lucky enough that I could stay at another interns place for some days (thanks to Hannah) from where I shifted to a friends place for more then a week (thanks to Caro). That gave me the time for browsing for the right flat. If anybody every comes to Delhi and needs a room to rent, you should get enrolled into the yahoo group ‘yuni-net’, an expat forum which deals with all sort of issues people face here. From subletting rooms, finding roommates to selling bikes or giving travel advices there is something for everybody.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJ0lpJ6R_LQ1nbkr6PzPWOQSvanXjx0-lrTSSgfrhnqQkvNFXNq2fxNqsFJfqG7-CWhJuwHYXGbBN5_lPvP3tKhOFbZjRBTgso1nM7hYRhBXQUV7upRLfjMwSNVikpEtsTtfafV0E5iE/s1600/P1020060.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJ0lpJ6R_LQ1nbkr6PzPWOQSvanXjx0-lrTSSgfrhnqQkvNFXNq2fxNqsFJfqG7-CWhJuwHYXGbBN5_lPvP3tKhOFbZjRBTgso1nM7hYRhBXQUV7upRLfjMwSNVikpEtsTtfafV0E5iE/s320/P1020060.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514244578456903858" border="0" /></a>The days in Caro’s flat were pretty much fun, because a lot of here friends were coming and going every day. I could also make friends and get more advices on the flat market. We were exploring the neighbourhood in Safdarjung and I literately fell in love with that district. It is pretty much the Indian experience what I was looking for, and could still give me all daily needs and the security I was used to. After having seen all lot of markets, buzzing life and open streets as well as construction sites, Caro and Gitanjali show me the more relaxing side of Safdarjung. It was a very impressing and stunning moment, when we suddenly stood in the District Park, a peaceful green garden with some old ruins and a lake.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrZ0X7UhwgDCPPgL5JhPCENsX1fWdGF7MI2-lUS0cWqYAyVAl5oALAGRce0RFiwZKW8-OocX03zPmpkghIMWjhv2hJbZgf8Oh4tm8vwOEmO6O5C5pUGVTZlZFfwCjSG-Y5nJFZ9xfIyU/s1600/P1020065.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrZ0X7UhwgDCPPgL5JhPCENsX1fWdGF7MI2-lUS0cWqYAyVAl5oALAGRce0RFiwZKW8-OocX03zPmpkghIMWjhv2hJbZgf8Oh4tm8vwOEmO6O5C5pUGVTZlZFfwCjSG-Y5nJFZ9xfIyU/s320/P1020065.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514246509802323186" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCexGV_eI8DbZzb7Aet9fc5NWA_TEXFLO_GsPokeULp4_XDI2Yd1bV57xj_G5MXrLty3d-qJaKWfOe46M-ogKM02pSz0hDXNSntyV-nmHVMdN7ZZbOJ2OPXIn_F_VoE3JzbgleQfEj0cc/s1600/P1020064.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCexGV_eI8DbZzb7Aet9fc5NWA_TEXFLO_GsPokeULp4_XDI2Yd1bV57xj_G5MXrLty3d-qJaKWfOe46M-ogKM02pSz0hDXNSntyV-nmHVMdN7ZZbOJ2OPXIn_F_VoE3JzbgleQfEj0cc/s320/P1020064.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514245448754102802" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvSSq1Tev3hSIWADS0FsNsGTgWa7c0KJMHDEvowKYZ-OPh7XmvsuDYNXcuZAWigDORBIUOUWpQ_NIjEKvN8dE_FgRhHRPfTYLDfC7NR2voXrczRkxB71tAqk2CAUlpzBQUf84Kk2C2jDY/s1600/P1020287.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvSSq1Tev3hSIWADS0FsNsGTgWa7c0KJMHDEvowKYZ-OPh7XmvsuDYNXcuZAWigDORBIUOUWpQ_NIjEKvN8dE_FgRhHRPfTYLDfC7NR2voXrczRkxB71tAqk2CAUlpzBQUf84Kk2C2jDY/s320/P1020287.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514265295849223682" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhwbhuuA7nKTxTkeKyrqogLZZDYP3yFniTDBoujFLfmozLN-PAOFH9wZdU_d-s8bZw8P95VkCizqw_n3zip1IumKA0MiqsD1y5tPv8N_8o-gDzz_w0wN5vhwOazSFSq7cd_gjhn9tghc/s1600/P1020275.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhwbhuuA7nKTxTkeKyrqogLZZDYP3yFniTDBoujFLfmozLN-PAOFH9wZdU_d-s8bZw8P95VkCizqw_n3zip1IumKA0MiqsD1y5tPv8N_8o-gDzz_w0wN5vhwOazSFSq7cd_gjhn9tghc/s320/P1020275.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514263776840729378" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji2y_-3M2NIfBFOj1AYOk2rW7Q1Q4f74e5II_1plhoZglNoeV09W252-DQgy-OGoBGKKE6c_r_ADQtIl1t-_vuujy86J2d_tTvUPxW993K9qMuAq2xfF70LYoRK-jz0NsxOs-H2oNPOdY/s1600/P1020292.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji2y_-3M2NIfBFOj1AYOk2rW7Q1Q4f74e5II_1plhoZglNoeV09W252-DQgy-OGoBGKKE6c_r_ADQtIl1t-_vuujy86J2d_tTvUPxW993K9qMuAq2xfF70LYoRK-jz0NsxOs-H2oNPOdY/s320/P1020292.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514266238631975186" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5tJVYYwMP9EYGPNHurO_aLIzURMjbG4CIkDeUyAtUNGj75EOKZFugZuTRMFrQUl_Oqmfs89BN7Q6rs3rXuKoqLpZ4njptx2qYlakAMpUKn15g6LCX9WPpVRsZbJa7GG3NPic57XhniP0/s1600/P1020066.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 171px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5tJVYYwMP9EYGPNHurO_aLIzURMjbG4CIkDeUyAtUNGj75EOKZFugZuTRMFrQUl_Oqmfs89BN7Q6rs3rXuKoqLpZ4njptx2qYlakAMpUKn15g6LCX9WPpVRsZbJa7GG3NPic57XhniP0/s320/P1020066.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514247135128955442" border="0" /></a><br /></p> <p align="justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MOJW1qfXHk8nU_PcDTWxWp5nVZsxoiGiSelEGnE1ZDYdM-n7eZ9507Swe6hmIMIztIu9IXQd-BmzmRV3nNvFBzOIbu4msGhxJT6EaveukSZuBADhvbJ4ytTcZJsvdJ-Y7yjgpTiHcAs/s1600/P1020280.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MOJW1qfXHk8nU_PcDTWxWp5nVZsxoiGiSelEGnE1ZDYdM-n7eZ9507Swe6hmIMIztIu9IXQd-BmzmRV3nNvFBzOIbu4msGhxJT6EaveukSZuBADhvbJ4ytTcZJsvdJ-Y7yjgpTiHcAs/s320/P1020280.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514264222397085810" border="0" /></a></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p> <p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p> <p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdME5eeaC0UiR97kS3zR_di2tZWmSYvjIo9WOBMoxcjPJuz38kFHUuAa-TbPW4yMqc9MQ21IN1UvQqOV76YfTlAxwH9krM-uOgT3zGBArsqNcrZzKrhXbOqUx9taqrgTqSLrqZDTIBk1s/s400/P1020291.JPG" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 306px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514609121787229986" border="0" /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify">The Indian society is just coming out off the centuries of arranged marriages and the parts of women and men in relationships are also slowly getting to become more equal, but still it is almost a bad behaviour to show love in the presence of others. Therefore it’s really common the young Indians go in the parks, hiding from other and can finally be together. Anyway, it is not a guarantee that it works out as the case of the above picture is showing. </p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYhK3o2zKxPkbBr3q5Iu4hqlwqyiaiOyjnEczaYOcYD11VHWwNdG-7DH7UJyVgopw8yJ-BAbzivmoUM0V8fGJlAkWmudr0dZxCA_YUGg4H5RCvjLBwPSZ97BWhXlCPlhcHx6-qvSz5dw/s320/P1020261.JPG" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514263373451843314" border="0" /><p align="justify">Just next to District Park the Deer Park - another place where creatures which love to hide - accommodates a lot of deer as you can see on the next picture.</p><p align="justify">Another nice facility in the Safdarjung district we discovered at the same weekend and learned loving it already. My Berlin friends will probably understand, when I’m saying I found a second “Sandmann”! The place I’m talking about is a billard “club”, which entry sign was hanging almost on the level of the ground, because its stairs are going down into the basement. Club is also not the right word, but if you like random places, where you can bring your own beer (usually a beer in a club in Delhi costs at least 360 Rupees/6 Euro) and play billard and pool at 4 different tables for a price, which makes expats laugh, then ask me for how to get there...</p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_n1nbzE90vCps9RpjO9J_eITzqQRiNNt8LfTjPAcmcUItjc6KghQ9UdX8302_sUkbr5gg6HvKLeiZCeAl1xAEAQ_ZwLsHhCuvydH4KedmRQEtq9FjozuvglWEj-lmFZhDAvfVhhq-c4/s320/P8290111.JPG" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514266641446791026" border="0" /><p align="justify">They streets of Safdarjung host all sort of shops, from the guy, who sells men’s articles to the plastic shop to the grain and flower shop to the food stand to the tailor to the pharmacy to the juice maker... every shop is specialised on some kind of product range. Fruit and vegetable marketeers are pulling their wooden wagons through the small, dirty and smelling streets. Along Hindi temples and ashrams you’ll find a lot of dogs straying around, and also holy cows...You really get an “Indian experience”! As you can see, I really fell in love with Safdarjung. Thus it was obligatory that I was looking for an apartment in this area, especially since it’s only a few minutes away from work and rent prices seemed less expensive than in other parts of South Delhi.<br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision was made. I wanted to live in Safdarjung, so I just had to seek for some people, who were in the need of a roommate and then I soon could have settled. Different it came, because I had to notice that there were not too much room offers in my favourite district and after seeing only one place in a week, I decided to get my own flat and look for a roommate on my own. From the homeless arrive I have run through the stage of a room seeker to finally become a roommate-seeker. But not so fast, I still had to find my future flat. How I did that? Well, I think this was Indian-Andreas way of trying, because I was just asking people on the streets. Initially, I still asked them for only available rooms, but some-when I met a guy, who was finally showing me different apartments from the really shabby class up to proper Indian styled places. The last place I couldn’t resist so I was even willing to pay for the two rooms and also a high agent fee since it turned out that all the motorbike rides to the different flat were not just favours to me! Anyway, I had a good feeling and thought that it’s easy the sublet the other room. At the end it should have turned out as a very much cheaper option than these other expat apartments, but I already tell you that this flat was not the last place what I called my home. Anyway, I spend a nice week in Arjun Nagar, in between two temples, where people regularly gathered for singing mantra and holding other religious ceremonies. Just in front of the building was a muddy road where marketeers were selling all the standard vegetables (lady fingers, aubergines, potatoes, carrots, onions, ...) and fruits (mangos, bananas, apples, melons, coconuts, lemons, ...) of India. The entire flat was empty until I bought a mattress and convinced my landlord to get me a fridge, stove and some dishes for an extra monthly rent. I even put some plants from the roof-top inside the living room to make it look more cosy, but after letting some potential roommates come and visit the place, I had to find out that it was not everybody’s wish to live in a quite Indian area! Watch some of the pictures and ask yourself, if you would have moved in.<br /></div><p align="justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinQZpKdY-WzStJarIfLW0y_gku9jJ-sUo2IjSdtif0pUdpWQvCEpiuK3KThikC1Wabmo631P2ETumj7-MdUr7dl4fPkXvnDGSK6hN9DyqHsfN5pUA1JqXxt7TEFgwajVQOyum313ubV8g/s1600/P1020086.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinQZpKdY-WzStJarIfLW0y_gku9jJ-sUo2IjSdtif0pUdpWQvCEpiuK3KThikC1Wabmo631P2ETumj7-MdUr7dl4fPkXvnDGSK6hN9DyqHsfN5pUA1JqXxt7TEFgwajVQOyum313ubV8g/s320/P1020086.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514247914093891234" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtTdlSdHMBZCHFikMJWsVpS5W_NQY_dUUi6-CMRPwxJwBeUsyywXOo5Om7rIftl34Fyd7lklVo0Evae9DnsgMCLIfZQTS6g-Kq9ySmvOGRLdN39nkTGkgNQhNFTVak1Wu4eQdPBF5dVXQ/s1600/P1020089.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtTdlSdHMBZCHFikMJWsVpS5W_NQY_dUUi6-CMRPwxJwBeUsyywXOo5Om7rIftl34Fyd7lklVo0Evae9DnsgMCLIfZQTS6g-Kq9ySmvOGRLdN39nkTGkgNQhNFTVak1Wu4eQdPBF5dVXQ/s320/P1020089.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514258741084199186" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMcEr06_ZDJAduCVLZ3Cu7sYjIH6MZw1PT_hIHnzzSW4QkpatdnapoXCjQtRcAUziSvo6A0Yyu-pQVASyJCtMXcTAQ-ofvH4JgyxdL19nAIcaMiLqCxtGyCyF7A90LPwnip-gcxo9ybIQ/s1600/P1020092.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMcEr06_ZDJAduCVLZ3Cu7sYjIH6MZw1PT_hIHnzzSW4QkpatdnapoXCjQtRcAUziSvo6A0Yyu-pQVASyJCtMXcTAQ-ofvH4JgyxdL19nAIcaMiLqCxtGyCyF7A90LPwnip-gcxo9ybIQ/s320/P1020092.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514259543820522386" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6j7i7CMrZ5DxElDqOxFQnMT_GDjEJfMRRsLpmnctO2KHUpFTPp91-iFQRshMlfbfSHRQMNLZh9dXVQkdQyA0ApO8mVa1p-db2VI6JHvauHtR2Nk-XOXSNsB4tL66rxqHPebh_IAzfVeo/s1600/P1020095.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6j7i7CMrZ5DxElDqOxFQnMT_GDjEJfMRRsLpmnctO2KHUpFTPp91-iFQRshMlfbfSHRQMNLZh9dXVQkdQyA0ApO8mVa1p-db2VI6JHvauHtR2Nk-XOXSNsB4tL66rxqHPebh_IAzfVeo/s320/P1020095.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514260019019116610" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLhZWZcMEbRIykDBDGS3wMfTjAdhulvhkJBMPIutGRY2RKc4gT7Ji4dXbTAfUY1PEfGdRFnyW9lxxuvkUyP3plpWCSFnYqArA_xlnwx_hERkHD9R9Odpej2Cc_EqKsfHtCzr1cmIbon0/s1600/P1020087.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLhZWZcMEbRIykDBDGS3wMfTjAdhulvhkJBMPIutGRY2RKc4gT7Ji4dXbTAfUY1PEfGdRFnyW9lxxuvkUyP3plpWCSFnYqArA_xlnwx_hERkHD9R9Odpej2Cc_EqKsfHtCzr1cmIbon0/s320/P1020087.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514254588849170770" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweVRLFl7ujrlU6R-Etk8d-6QPaIbwDU5nv4i3-duPbeE69cOyWFPHGJOSVr5qSMgnrTL4BV_yuhnXQXEB44qPyJh105jz6Nda4D_iK85jbGNkMEjsn1IE9OU0kZTyZOaI3pGGylyj2EQ/s1600/P1020088.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweVRLFl7ujrlU6R-Etk8d-6QPaIbwDU5nv4i3-duPbeE69cOyWFPHGJOSVr5qSMgnrTL4BV_yuhnXQXEB44qPyJh105jz6Nda4D_iK85jbGNkMEjsn1IE9OU0kZTyZOaI3pGGylyj2EQ/s320/P1020088.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514257939054198290" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi02r1utzUdqHd7ObfL04lwLJm-HPgfHyeslxS7pgca7oPM6ZOySTZotd7A6w-ezdZ4cwXrn80kcg7GwobEiFO3uX0P0veLdPJeiN_WQPoLvzZaVr-1TaCVAIJNHsZgQ5tkQ2FC_rlZrXs/s1600/P1020116.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi02r1utzUdqHd7ObfL04lwLJm-HPgfHyeslxS7pgca7oPM6ZOySTZotd7A6w-ezdZ4cwXrn80kcg7GwobEiFO3uX0P0veLdPJeiN_WQPoLvzZaVr-1TaCVAIJNHsZgQ5tkQ2FC_rlZrXs/s400/P1020116.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514619194682047714" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEB-WaFk1q0gCT1nL3Pl6y-9SJEeqDYaXJOoAxno9kM18kan0HJGrw17EYxcAWdTGtsFSAEia_yv7N-sPniNXVl8U2tIwDJlGDX8u7YfUDwMAiQwNu7zBWGPTYDSt4eJUnw6zMFOXyRvA/s1600/P1020114.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEB-WaFk1q0gCT1nL3Pl6y-9SJEeqDYaXJOoAxno9kM18kan0HJGrw17EYxcAWdTGtsFSAEia_yv7N-sPniNXVl8U2tIwDJlGDX8u7YfUDwMAiQwNu7zBWGPTYDSt4eJUnw6zMFOXyRvA/s320/P1020114.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514261051919394002" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MwptDznDL6hckVi-3FNG4nRgPXetgQs0I9Zsb7ou7NLpNZYLJ84AsnAU-0tWIksIk9yUMJxjmcs6XEgJrtQVtAeDOvwu19bywFXJMft4q0AATPiv96vPq_cxcjcS-FvVv8vJJqxep40/s1600/P1020124.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MwptDznDL6hckVi-3FNG4nRgPXetgQs0I9Zsb7ou7NLpNZYLJ84AsnAU-0tWIksIk9yUMJxjmcs6XEgJrtQVtAeDOvwu19bywFXJMft4q0AATPiv96vPq_cxcjcS-FvVv8vJJqxep40/s320/P1020124.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514262670956054258" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify"><br /></p><p align="justify">Paying for two rooms, not finding a roommate and living alone made it easy for me to imagine the easy-going living in the GTZ offered apartment, which is coincidentally also placed in Safdarjung. Luckily another intern just finished his work and left India, so I could get a room in the place where I still live now and will stay until I’m leaving for traveling. Since it is subsidies by the company I can happily gain from the properly working van, the air conditioning (which I we never use), the big veranda and roof-top, the everyday coming maid, which cleans house, dishes and out clothes and most importantly the company from my roommate Sven and housemate Jessyca. The fact that the flat is furnished also makes it more livable. Maybe my new place looks a bit messed up, but as I mentioned we have a maid coming every day and besides washing our cloth, she also cleans our apartment. Now, after having settled in meanwhile, I’m still struggling to find new people for the old flat so that I can get some money back.</p><p align="justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHA8k7eOA0g_mIClerbxOF5bpWnB6TlA8UXso3jQuzaOndcDAb3HH9wubpkMY3bN1OQaBmmuPGdXxkDAJpse3qGPKBvQLdyRUZ5Zz2tbBRLz-6aJu2kWWO1KeKYgGZUxYcxSVn0NpaRM/s1600/P1030017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHA8k7eOA0g_mIClerbxOF5bpWnB6TlA8UXso3jQuzaOndcDAb3HH9wubpkMY3bN1OQaBmmuPGdXxkDAJpse3qGPKBvQLdyRUZ5Zz2tbBRLz-6aJu2kWWO1KeKYgGZUxYcxSVn0NpaRM/s200/P1030017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514622219177019810" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOw867Wx0tVyMpbZJZoEO9jgvK8828RTPNpydWUTJv7taHVdt0CVjP5BVCCkghcj7iVQqeTjRMlSabEivxX5GbLLgM8k27Urb5BodwfjbMH8To_EIMTwK1bzfrzoE5VSqGHD_XM5uGSV8/s1600/P1030019.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOw867Wx0tVyMpbZJZoEO9jgvK8828RTPNpydWUTJv7taHVdt0CVjP5BVCCkghcj7iVQqeTjRMlSabEivxX5GbLLgM8k27Urb5BodwfjbMH8To_EIMTwK1bzfrzoE5VSqGHD_XM5uGSV8/s200/P1030019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514623117973005346" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78N5i9gol7kuPNYFef-BDgKBaRPtLpNKGXUF9QHcdE-HfDfjxSSXY6RXxI02-wr-iCelXkMjZVjNdemulUqlG_AYdXdP8Xm5tf0Qg_gLw5zJpww4Pl-SEWfXplDErqTLhKHsKCUUw_hQ/s1600/P1030020.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78N5i9gol7kuPNYFef-BDgKBaRPtLpNKGXUF9QHcdE-HfDfjxSSXY6RXxI02-wr-iCelXkMjZVjNdemulUqlG_AYdXdP8Xm5tf0Qg_gLw5zJpww4Pl-SEWfXplDErqTLhKHsKCUUw_hQ/s200/P1030020.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514623652983863938" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2Vy2pebz9KskMZxv5FNhwrnBn6piz8Ah6spQgy5L15dcKq9Ms8D8Bjelz2qP8RShh9Do3yGdqAeTvLKiQPXpe7J8cXffL8ZkbUNHpA9Qj2S10psnEwMrkEAqiXp_aDUD82K5vr_sToY/s1600/P1030018.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 168px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2Vy2pebz9KskMZxv5FNhwrnBn6piz8Ah6spQgy5L15dcKq9Ms8D8Bjelz2qP8RShh9Do3yGdqAeTvLKiQPXpe7J8cXffL8ZkbUNHpA9Qj2S10psnEwMrkEAqiXp_aDUD82K5vr_sToY/s400/P1030018.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514627444523034418" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaEJqQqKTFFSQyLmixB-kxmKBM2EcYhl_pgZzTeSOveZZ7dOLgeRrNL-CShZCuR4Wqe29wyCTIk7HtWj6NwFndK-oCYWBsQ0v1gHpPJZW-73C8H5_quqnotwoImyi4BPJGA_sh2oJEOo/s1600/P1030021.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaEJqQqKTFFSQyLmixB-kxmKBM2EcYhl_pgZzTeSOveZZ7dOLgeRrNL-CShZCuR4Wqe29wyCTIk7HtWj6NwFndK-oCYWBsQ0v1gHpPJZW-73C8H5_quqnotwoImyi4BPJGA_sh2oJEOo/s400/P1030021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514626922254055906" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So at the end you probably understand why this blog entry had been delayed for so long and why I called it an odyssey. I’ve gone through the stages of being a guest in Hannah’s and later Caro’s flat, have had my own flat for a time long, were looking for a roommate and at the end I ended up in another flat being a roommate to Sven. Quite a good experience in the first 5 weeks, ey!? </p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-65602809927231376642010-08-24T12:24:00.000-07:002010-09-07T12:36:29.730-07:00The Indian Independence day<p align="justify"> In the meanwhile I had found my own place to stay, although it will turn out to be only for a short-term. The “looking for a flat odyssey” is still not over, so you’ll have to wait for some information on the Indian life style. Today it will be about the 15th August, which is the Indian Independence day and basically brings all Indians up on their roofs.<br />Already on Saturday, the day before Independence Day, I came in touch with some history of India. I was planning to visit the India Gate as it is one of the famous Delhi sights, but due to the preparations for the big day, it was closed and locked behind fences. The picture I took from far is no point sharing it with you. Standing there without a clue what to do I was kind of only waiting for the heavy monsoon showers which came over the city as soon as I knew that I can’t go to the gate. In the same time a rickshaw driver passed by and offered his service, respectively a tour to a lot of sights. I didn’t wanted his whole tour, because it seems a bit too much of a hustle to me, if I would have done his sight-jumping tour. It wouldn’t have been much of actually seeing and getting the intention of the particular sight, because he just would have given me some time for taking pictures. “We drive there, and there…and you can make pictures, and come back and then we go there, and there…” he always said. I suppose that most of you have the approach of taking your time when you wanna relax and really get into the presence of you actions. Hurrying was none of my intentions, but standing in the rain also didn’t seem to amusing, especially since you never know when the monsoon rain stops. Thus I told him to just drop me off at the Gandhi Smriti – the Gandhi House – and let me do my way of sight seeing, and so it was ok for him. The rain became really heavy and there were almost no cars or rickshaws on the street anymore. When we arrived at the Gandhi museum, which is actually the house where he was living in his last years of life, the driver told me that he’ll wait for me and that we can go to other sights afterward ;-)…Well, I again could just tell him to leave and offered him a reasonable charge for his service, but he didn’t gave up. Since he was an old man already he also tried to get with “I’m driving rickshaw for my whole life and you really think I won’t wait for you!?”. So you see that language barriers also exist in India, because that was not the question at all. Anyway, after ensuring my that it is not a big deal for him to wait about one and a half hours, I finally went in the Gandhi House. Story to be continued…<br />Since it was raining, there must have been only ten tourists on and in the entire property and museum and that was pretty cool, because the experience gained a lot of quality. Besides getting to know all the facts of Gandhi’s life and stations in his life, which were shown in pictures, texts and puppet scenes, you really can feel a peaceful atmosphere and a good vibe around the area. It will move you, when you read what he has done for mankind and especially how he achieved his vision of a free India, independent from its conqueror England. He did it without any violence! India gained its independence on the 15th August 1947 and not even half a year later Gandhi was shot down. “Mahatma Gandhi’s death shocked Delhi and the whole of India with ‘the impact of atomic force’…” (The Hindu, 31 January 1948) and millions of people have been on the streets to give him his last honors. <br />Gandhi actually spent the few last month of his life in that house, where the museum is located nowadays. Thus I got the opportunity to see his room, which just had all the basic stuff. In my opinion the world would be much better, if most of mankind would disclaim their unsustainable and consumptive life style and prevent the earth from damages. So therefore Gandhi was not just an non-violent revolutionist, but also a great man of sustainability!<br /><br />“Simplicity is the essence of universality.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNpqh9G1FfG3qc1lO5KoZdRLOuP58wg_wJ5OOIPYl0cv2rvFpD6A71alOvWxOZ72jgkpRtJUiyGAG6RZnx4Pk5B7ZO16cdpOemgAya-8XvAWaLt0Z8fj3ScunWAZlHzhDp9QYEsTQYBL8/s1600/P1020146.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNpqh9G1FfG3qc1lO5KoZdRLOuP58wg_wJ5OOIPYl0cv2rvFpD6A71alOvWxOZ72jgkpRtJUiyGAG6RZnx4Pk5B7ZO16cdpOemgAya-8XvAWaLt0Z8fj3ScunWAZlHzhDp9QYEsTQYBL8/s320/P1020146.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509060214120183042" /></a> <br /><br />Since it was raining cats and dogs, I was really delighted to here that there will a movie on Gandhi to be shown in the museum in some minutes, so I went outside to tell the driver not to wait for me anymore, but it was still the same difficult…I sometimes think that Indian people’s work attitude is similar to the European car industry’s market understanding some years back. They both do not ‘work’ according to the demand! While in Europa all the Opel’s and VW’s almost got bankrupt, because they manufactured products which nobody ever wanted to buy, here in India people also try to sell you things most of us don’t need or at least don’t see a use in them the way they are presented to us. In my case I really had to give me best in explaining the rickshaw driver that I don’t want his fast-forward ride through the city. Although being in a calm Gandhi-like mood it was still a bit annoying when the other one didn’t want to understand. At the end a gave him a reasonable price for driving and waiting for me and I was running back into the museum. Just to give you an example how a heavy monsoon rain looks like, the following picture it took – totally wet, but in the house again – from Gandhi’s veranda. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOE_q8MTUjQ2BOTRZMXDT8BivOaGuv9Pj67DDWxT-0zMu5MZgL1cvD1jYUqPjHU8aMs4vRXC_vlOFpNdOnDIo_xKq_-Un_hlBUcfO8qoJhUzKkk60_avaNo9zdQNvEjti-u9BBQtsmJMA/s1600/P1020148.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOE_q8MTUjQ2BOTRZMXDT8BivOaGuv9Pj67DDWxT-0zMu5MZgL1cvD1jYUqPjHU8aMs4vRXC_vlOFpNdOnDIo_xKq_-Un_hlBUcfO8qoJhUzKkk60_avaNo9zdQNvEjti-u9BBQtsmJMA/s320/P1020148.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509060869162379890" /></a><br /><br />Not just the streets were flooded, but also the entire garden! Anyway it was still relaxing to spend the day before Indian Independence Day in memory of Gandhi. The following pictures are from the almost spiritual gardens of the Gandhi Smriti.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCK8ZMR-GCVTt0Z50YsKYUXbLLGjsJRa06ugz7WprMd7dWG2iSv3d5SN7KHkMHzCHZEIPx7CsR_vq1KJEfhDtgBt7AYdBGX5yjbEiLzQoKfsC8ZxZXmdIyl-9wAZVd6p5HAhXi_BbStg/s1600/P1020152.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCK8ZMR-GCVTt0Z50YsKYUXbLLGjsJRa06ugz7WprMd7dWG2iSv3d5SN7KHkMHzCHZEIPx7CsR_vq1KJEfhDtgBt7AYdBGX5yjbEiLzQoKfsC8ZxZXmdIyl-9wAZVd6p5HAhXi_BbStg/s320/P1020152.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509061793264525298" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95BhcUpXpi5qRvRCvQf_-sI47ytw9pqN6YJMc5WSCrn6NZu6FLjCqTryybzllqFVCldDSByH95p01eBeM72RSFFhuGsp-ILhfEtfcLX8Lm2DXlFQB5lZoSNsOQCNp4wPVHLKR6jmoI7E/s1600/P1020165.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95BhcUpXpi5qRvRCvQf_-sI47ytw9pqN6YJMc5WSCrn6NZu6FLjCqTryybzllqFVCldDSByH95p01eBeM72RSFFhuGsp-ILhfEtfcLX8Lm2DXlFQB5lZoSNsOQCNp4wPVHLKR6jmoI7E/s320/P1020165.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509063388406954370" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjpnYBj9WyFOoa06W9Bm5EkKkvhcGr4HZqqBqELLwqYCXdhcQG7Q_ilgOpL1HsfB1Tq13O4yEJe54HsoCbCbHyBeLC9Vgv1cBjRuwfJ8VR8qz_REA7rTZGsijPDBgntHMazYPFTVuI0Q/s1600/P1020168.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjpnYBj9WyFOoa06W9Bm5EkKkvhcGr4HZqqBqELLwqYCXdhcQG7Q_ilgOpL1HsfB1Tq13O4yEJe54HsoCbCbHyBeLC9Vgv1cBjRuwfJ8VR8qz_REA7rTZGsijPDBgntHMazYPFTVuI0Q/s320/P1020168.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509063928894545186" /></a><br /><br />If anybody ever wondered, what round circle there is on the Indian flag, then here is the story and relation the the nations pre-eminent political and spiritual leader during the Indian independence movement. Gandhi was always making the thread for his cloth on his own spinning wheel to encourage all people in India not to buy all the stuff the English brought them. In this way he also made the Indian economy getting started, because people realized that they can live on their own working skills and manpower. To always remember this fact, the Indian flag carries a spinning wheel in the middle.<br />To also finish the story line of the driver and myself, it turned out that he was still waiting in front of the museum, so I at least let him drive me home, because I spent too much hours in the Gandhi Smriti as I could still have done more sight-seeing. Some weeks later I got told by an Indian friend (thanks to Karan) that he might have been influenced by his nature: Never being alone! So, if you see it this way my loyal friend was just taking good care of me and wanted to accompany the ‘lonely’ European.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg511bgzMxZ1gH4qhdtuCAZQK42xLjb8FY8wrpuQzfszBvCxICvCZi9wtVE6kCD654vlBZKNcZvr_S0uaFhiPNbgtZp6LBX6mLNTqPqlEMFzzaOTDnrRr6RbpjGBXxy7DajhHB8w-wdoDk/s1600/P1020194.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg511bgzMxZ1gH4qhdtuCAZQK42xLjb8FY8wrpuQzfszBvCxICvCZi9wtVE6kCD654vlBZKNcZvr_S0uaFhiPNbgtZp6LBX6mLNTqPqlEMFzzaOTDnrRr6RbpjGBXxy7DajhHB8w-wdoDk/s320/P1020194.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509064543235612578" /></a><br />The 15th August, birthday of a great country, started with sleeping very long ;-) ..My first three weeks in India had been quite exhausting, mostly in a positive meaning. After lunch I did what every Indian is doing on this day. It takes some preparations, but I had done them the day before… I’m not talking about the big military parade infront the Red Fort, but about flying kites. I invited some friends, climbed up the roof of the house where I was living at this time and tried to make it look like Indians were doing it. Sure, I must admit that we didn’t had the time of practicing as much as the kids were doing it some weeks already, but nevertheless we sucked really much! First, the colorful, thin-paper kites have to get on the rope, which holds them into the air and believe me, this is a secret technology on its own. Second, you have to throw it into the air and pull slightly on the rope, when the kite’s nose looks up. But since there is not wind at all, it is really hard to get it up. After getting a lot hand signals from other roofs, me landlord helped us to bring it into the air. Finally, the kite flies until we had it in our hands… We tried it hard until it was dark already, but it seems we still have to work quite hard until the Republic day in January! <br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJH9xTI2StGfBIwMibL4rW7vNkNq9Nj2rYXT4KKldZeKUpbMdzSAZ9rc4o1SEhWdw0svaSDY8z190NnBx7rmyDskmCpqtx_iVS37IhCUnt1Ba-IQ_Ysfa2v-45zSS_bDpISkP4OrHu6U/s1600/P1020191.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJH9xTI2StGfBIwMibL4rW7vNkNq9Nj2rYXT4KKldZeKUpbMdzSAZ9rc4o1SEhWdw0svaSDY8z190NnBx7rmyDskmCpqtx_iVS37IhCUnt1Ba-IQ_Ysfa2v-45zSS_bDpISkP4OrHu6U/s320/P1020191.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509065927708318050" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg516TjDbmL_AN0P2NxqkGWpCXjw3XlOyDglvVLtLJ-iE7_jTphM4oZsGiDG567V_gdEuOUsP0HK6J9xA48Jd8qpXb4pMaUlEA2AMi_2uqBNQccmihpArjGvrklodmxMAfKkvgxpZKFHC0/s1600/P1020208.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg516TjDbmL_AN0P2NxqkGWpCXjw3XlOyDglvVLtLJ-iE7_jTphM4oZsGiDG567V_gdEuOUsP0HK6J9xA48Jd8qpXb4pMaUlEA2AMi_2uqBNQccmihpArjGvrklodmxMAfKkvgxpZKFHC0/s320/P1020208.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509066438317148386" /></a><br /><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-16759497137334938322010-08-19T10:59:00.000-07:002010-08-22T11:51:25.402-07:00Incredible India<p align="justify"><br />The fact that I haven’t been blogging for quite a long time shouldn’t make you worried about me, because I’m fine. It’s changing from time to time, due to different reasons, but I’m fine. Actually I’m having a really good time again, so that prevented me from blogging! Today I want to tell you about my first week at work and all the other things what happened.<br />After having a quite relaxing weekend at Hannah’s place (remember her as the other intern, who had a place to stay for me at the beginning) and getting over my first India shock, I was driving to work the first time. The GTZ office for energy issues (Indo-German-Energy-Programme, IGEN) is located in R.K. Puram, a district in the west of South Delhi. We share the big office building (have a look on the next picture) with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and the Central Energy Authority (CEA), and respectively the Water Commission… They are all very important, if you consider that the Indian economical growth is restricted by its energy capacity! Without a growing energy supply India – one of the big and important emerging markets in the world – can not keep up with its expectations. So in this terms the building looks kind of shabby, but its still a Government owned building, where the military is present for security issues and checking your permission and identity every day. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvwSo6duRtkEqJhBYyeeb7o5HSVImvoJ7g7rJXwtVcjhNP_t8ckSh9hx12W46oiif8M5QbrFgSGspxM0SJTKDG7mhYFVW7qcg7Hgf_qtt5eb8h1ckEBl-79agwiB_3mXM-7El_uq1UHo/s1600/P1020047.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvwSo6duRtkEqJhBYyeeb7o5HSVImvoJ7g7rJXwtVcjhNP_t8ckSh9hx12W46oiif8M5QbrFgSGspxM0SJTKDG7mhYFVW7qcg7Hgf_qtt5eb8h1ckEBl-79agwiB_3mXM-7El_uq1UHo/s320/P1020047.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507184718683045890" /></a><br /><br />My first day was a bit chaotic, because not only there has been the most commonly known issue of getting things arranged and being introduced to people on a first day, but also because there were not even a computer available. For me it meant that I either could go home again, or I find myself something to do. At the end I was reading a study on the Indian energy market, which gave me a broad insight of the actual resource situation, power plant capacities, energy strategies, market stakeholders, energy tariffs and the energy problems India is facing. The time passed by really quickly and our whole energy team was supposed to meet in the Imperial Hotel, which is considered as one of the best hotels of India. Surely it was not my welcome party, but since one very honourable senior manager left India they pleasured all of us with a farewell party. Besides big words from some of the official IGEN heads, my boss also welcomed me in the team again. That evening was very crazy, because we were treated like royals, the food was very delicious and we had heaps of good wine. A spiritual Indian band was playing traditional music, while literately thousands of servants were taking care of us. Honestly I felt to be in a wrong world. My little episode of going to the bathroom can proof that perfectly. As I already had experienced there is staff for anything, but the bathroom was just the next level. This guy was opening the door for me, saying “Hello, Sir!”, guiding me to the toilet, opening the water tap, giving me soap and towel and opening the door for me again. Isn’t that crazy!? The whole evening was so far away from my first arrival impressions and just showed me the other side of the wide range of the Incredible India. I was really lucky to be involved in these circumstances already after the few days I’ve been here, but my Indian colleagues told me that similar incredible stories are happening all the time! This is what makes India magic.<br />Three days later we had another reason to celebrate. Now it was my official welcome and Hannah’s goodbye partying. It started with me coming too late, because I was still working an proposal translation for a Photovoltaic roof top project, which had to be on the table of the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) on the next day. Then I had to walk forever to get some money to pay a riksha and finally my driver also had to ask five guys how we get to the bar, where we were supposed to meet. Here’s picture of my hero on that day, because due to him I still got one beer before we left into a restaurant.<br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCQd61iESKF3BuQK1DsguEJkLS_3Mn7vE2NTH4R9Ly3CpdyC_rlO3dE4UrJIVBVf7374LlhDQZghAxo9kZo7oEvS8kT5YXlMblFCqJMFvUyyxOuTM8Fw4Z6TnEH22RJzXsavC0fyabmo/s1600/P1020054.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCQd61iESKF3BuQK1DsguEJkLS_3Mn7vE2NTH4R9Ly3CpdyC_rlO3dE4UrJIVBVf7374LlhDQZghAxo9kZo7oEvS8kT5YXlMblFCqJMFvUyyxOuTM8Fw4Z6TnEH22RJzXsavC0fyabmo/s320/P1020054.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507185785618901570" /></a><br /> <br />Again the evening was long and we ended up in a expat club with music for everybody except for me ;-) <br />Over the week I got an old laptop and could start accomplishing some tasks. Since then I’m creating a database for all the IGEN stakeholders and interested parties, so people here can handle the data in an easy way. There is a big mess of several lists, but after reading about MS Access in a few weeks it all will be redundant. Another task was to look through the Terms of Reference for a study, which is to be conducted for evaluating the geothermal energy potential and all important facts around. GTZ is supporting the Indian progress by setting up the right business environment, so that Indian and German companies feel like participating at the market. Exploring geothermal energy resources is in line with India’s energy strategy, because they basically need every energy source available. In the long run it’s preferable renewable energy. <br />The people at work are pretty nice and always open for a chat. Apart from the BEE people, the share of Indians and Germans in GTZ is almost equal in our team. Also in the office there are also people for all sort of issues, e.g. the chai walla (that are the people bringing you tea or coffee to your desk) or people for carrying heavy folders. At lunch time the Indian usually unpack their food from little bowls, but we always ordered food. You may think everything is cheap here, but it is not. My colleagues are used to buy food for around 350 Rupees (almost 6 Euro) each, which one can’t afford from his internship pay check for a long time. I stopped doing this in the meanwhile and eat in the canteen that everybody told us not to go to, because we would get ill. Well, so far the 20 Rupees per meal (we have Thalis, a plate with different stuff, every day) are a pretty good investment.<br />In my first week I basically had to adjust to my new day rhythm, so I usually came home very tired and haven’t done too much in the evening. But I also shifted to another friend’s place where I could stay for another 10 days and look to find my own place to stay. When I have managed the “looking for a flat odyssey” I write another blog on it. <br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-39926815971221728002010-08-01T05:44:00.000-07:002010-08-01T05:58:15.033-07:00The shocking insight into the poverty<p align="justify"><br />The flight from Hamburg to Delhi via Dubai was pretty exhausting, because I couldn’t resist watching some movies (now I at least can recommend ‘Green Zone’ and ‘Invictus’ although Matt Damon is acting in both of them) and listening to the good old Bob Dylan instead of sleeping to adjust to the 3,5 hours time difference. I also had interesting company by an elderly woman who was going to Kabul (Afghanistan) to see her parents the first time after 18 year. In this sense our own parents shouldn’t take it so serious when we leave for half a year, or one year or even more, because we always have a realistic chance to come back. In times of war, nobody knows what’s gonna happen…<br />Although I was informed quiet well by friends about beginner mistakes and No-Go’s in India, I think I stepped in quiet a lot of them. Wondering around at the airport in Delhi isn’t good. There are just a way too many people offering services, so I got caught by a guy who help me dialling a telephone number, although none of us would need that kind of help. Anyway that was the beginning of my first trap. After not reaching the person by phone, he ordered me a taxi driver and I - exhausted, entirely wet from sweating in the humidity of about 35 degrees and not willing to argue - was suddenly sitting in a cab into the city. That wasn’t the plan, because friends told me earlier to buy a fixed taxi ticket from the nearby stand. Rates are fixed, so they cannot cheat on you. I’ll get to the point of that story later, cause it’s going to continue, but firstly we are on our way towards a new world. At the first meters I just thought we might be out of the city very far and that would explain, why everything looked so destroyed, unlikely to live in and also a bit lonely, but the closer we drove into the city, the more I realised that I’m in a very poor country now. I though “hm… it will take a while before I get used to the environment here, but that’s ok.” The streets became more crowded and it felt good to see people wearing this typical Indian cloth, something what I expected and this was the moment when I thought “yeah its gonna be a really nice time here…” The taxi driver was very friendly and asking me where I’m from. It didn’t take to long and we entered Delhi and suddenly my mood changed again, when I felt to be on a different planet! Ok, don’t think I’m too naive, but what I’ve seen you can’t believe if somebody is telling you about it. Photos also don’t touch you in that way. The streets were totally taken away, because at the moment they are rebuilding the city for the big event of the Commonwealth Games in October. All the construction and work was achieved by skinny people’s handcraft. They were carrying stones and soil on their heads. Others were sleeping in the mud, had taken all sort of stuff from construction sites to build little shelters for housing. Rikshas and other traffic participants were driving chaotically through this scenery and honking as much as possible. It seemed to me, that instead of a break they only got a honk and everybody is playing chicken game, where the one looses who’s leaving his lane first. Little kids were playing in flooded streets, where oil or some other chemical was the top layer. I was really shocked and upset about my first impressions. Then we stopped and I had to get off, because my driver was taking me into a sort travel agency. People were starring at me and I just wanted to get out of this situation, thinking if I’m “sure to live here for the next four month.” In that place they already knew how to treat a foreigner and by saying they saw a mobile cash machine in me, I don’t exaggerate. They offered me Hotels for more than 50 Euros although in the Lonely Planet it was stated with about 2 Euros. That there would have been neither running water nor electricity didn’t make it seem nicer. In the phone line with the hotels they always asked me, where I’m from, and when I once told them not to answer, the hotel was suddenly booked! I could help myself just by pulling the emergency break. I called Hannah, the girl that also works in my project and asked her to let me stay at her place for a night. Luckily she was kind enough to make it possible. After another taxi ride through a really poor area I arrived at Vasant Kunj, a district in the very south of Delhi. The “tourist” driver was done with me and wanted to have 1800 INR (that amount of Indian Rupees is equivalent to 30 Euros), which is quiet a lot if you imagine that a typical Indian can buy groceries for a month from that amount (thanks to Gitangali for the remarkable comparison). <br />Being at Hannah’s place let the world look better to me, because it was clean and felt save. She gave me a brief introduction to the Delhi life, and after I had refreshed myself I drove into the city with a Riksha. This was my first time going in a Riksha and I have to admit that it was fun from the beginning. Sure you have to get used to the driving habits here, and also trust the driver’s skills… and apart from the smog, and all the bumps making you jump on the back seat, I was smiling again. This time I went to a place called Khan Market and Pandara Road Market, which are both in the south of Delhi. They are kind of like everybody would expect Delhi to look like: dirty, chaotic and full of people… strange little shops and food stands, but it looked at least nicer and safer then where I’ve been earlier that day. Actually I was still not self confident enough to take picture, but at least I was on my way to get along in my brave new world. Since I haven’t had food for long I was going into a restaurant. It was quiet expensive for the common money terms, but again I was paying off my background. There I randomly met Hannah and Carsten, a GTZ consultant who I will work with… what a coincidence! In the evening they went to a party, but I stayed at home to relax a bit from all that things what happened in the last days. Also on Sunday I just left the house for getting some food and more impressions of where I’ll be living for the next time. <br />Here are some of my first pictures what I took, but believe me they are harmless compared to other areas I’ve seen. There I was just not able or in the mood of taking pics!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLzFjKC_Mdcgs3OraY3lWH2GVAKQdc1GDQYb4IrbZ3BtVVo7vOrLGUlOJpqagL7po5kErNk6vXdHxwieKX_h3Onq4ua2uXUZZkipIRNaD9yKrAWq30tog4nqejhOcT8hUSBOSK4-aAuxY/s1600/P1020034.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLzFjKC_Mdcgs3OraY3lWH2GVAKQdc1GDQYb4IrbZ3BtVVo7vOrLGUlOJpqagL7po5kErNk6vXdHxwieKX_h3Onq4ua2uXUZZkipIRNaD9yKrAWq30tog4nqejhOcT8hUSBOSK4-aAuxY/s320/P1020034.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500422642332936818" /></a><br /><br />This is the nice and proteced area where I found a place for the first couple of days. There are gates, walls and staff looking for the inhabitants security...but "outside" it looks different...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLiGHUewXWlYJlIfLTvxFVe5aSnHVNgRFw2l09IdODJqmG9_dG19muVMFfCZbqpfRX1BFLZaAfX4DAOfxrVq7GT8d_kRWgPfH2gpEDU4J4HDzlpHan_GEJ86pVtvcYacvnFnA09KXD6KM/s1600/P1020044.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLiGHUewXWlYJlIfLTvxFVe5aSnHVNgRFw2l09IdODJqmG9_dG19muVMFfCZbqpfRX1BFLZaAfX4DAOfxrVq7GT8d_kRWgPfH2gpEDU4J4HDzlpHan_GEJ86pVtvcYacvnFnA09KXD6KM/s320/P1020044.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500423717663173730" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU54hsIBWgpALGm6N5XLwKObPR1XWRj1W1mmYQt1uxjs5NOAWgDBSWNL6dLBe-2SDlJ8Rb4hg2HTYEXFj6tUp_C5QGWqGQovPYKhtXOCJIGJxaKpK3bMqxlqHx5p5cj3PsVXGolYjphYs/s1600/P1020045.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU54hsIBWgpALGm6N5XLwKObPR1XWRj1W1mmYQt1uxjs5NOAWgDBSWNL6dLBe-2SDlJ8Rb4hg2HTYEXFj6tUp_C5QGWqGQovPYKhtXOCJIGJxaKpK3bMqxlqHx5p5cj3PsVXGolYjphYs/s320/P1020045.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500424604028950930" /></a><br /><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-874549693893272332.post-90654738314586301402010-07-30T03:13:00.000-07:002010-07-30T03:29:46.398-07:00How the story begins<p align="justify"><br />My dear friends and blog followers, after my first 6 days in Delhi passed by really quickly I finally found some time to give a life sign. This will be the opening post of www.andimeetsindia.blogspot.com and you can follow me on my 4-month internship and life in Delhi and some travelling through this stunning country afterwards. <br /><br />But let’s start at the beginning. My wish to be in India occurred so long ago, that I actually don’t remember how the idea has risen in me. Being in the final year of my studies in Industrial Engineering and Management you can think that I wanted to be out on an adventure again before I start my professional life. I cannot disagree with that, but it is a way more. The reasons of the financial and economic crisis in the past years on the one hand combined with my understanding of sustainability on the other hand also took their share by bringing me here. In my opinion you really have to see the world from as much as possible different angles and especially from one of the world’s poorest views. If we get the opportunity to follow this vision, then we shouldn’t act blind or wonder why we life so well. Anyway, I guess ‘Siddhartha’ also had his influence on me and finally there was my stay in Australia, where I food myself in a similar world as the Europe where I’m from. But I wanted more…<br /><br />A long time ago (as in the meaning of ‘Once upon the time’) I applied for an internship in the Indo-German-Energy-Programme at the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), but by the time I still didn’t get into it. It all happened about 2 weeks ago, when I thought to call them the last time. And there it was. I got offered a place in the Indo-German-Energy-Forum, which is a sub project of the above and located in Delhi. Being patient was the best thing I could do, or how a friend of mine commented it: “You treated the universe well, so now it’s treating you well!” From then one everything came pretty fast, but this is how it usually goes, when it’s time for me to go.<br /><br />At last I have to admit that I’ve never been in India, never in Asia nor in a developing country. It will probably change my view on the world, and for you there will be insights into the Indian life and probably funny stories from a clumsy German. <br /><br />On the weekend I will post the first entry on my arrival and first impressions...<br /><br /></p>Andreashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16156285917325676678noreply@blogger.com0