Mumbai and Bye incredible India

23.05.2014

It is 1:20 am. I just had a water in a glass. I'm waiting for my Bloody Mary. The chair I'm sitting in is super soft and comfortable and I can stretch my legs completely. The next thing you won't believe me, cause I can hardly believe it myself: I'm sitting in an air plain Business Class. After 3 weeks in India.

What I'm facing is an unsure situation after my arrival in Bangkok. The plan is to do laundry, get a Thai Tea and a Thai Massage and leave the city within a day.

I'm looking back on 3 crazy week I could not even realize by myself yet. But let me start with how I spend my last days in India.

Palolem Beach

20.05.2014
We had to spend the night in Mangalore and happily found a train for the morning to Canacona, next to Palolem Beach. As we arrived in the little town around Palolem Beach, we have been the happiest people alive. Cheap Western Food, 3 Beer for 100 and WIFI in a chilled place to sit. The 'buy 3 cocktails get one free' was just the topping. 

To find a place to stay was suddenly not that important anymore. And sometimes you just have a run. So that day we had one: The owner of the restaurant had a hostel too. Easy, nice, cheap! We just put our backpackers in the room and went to the beautiful beach. After a shower and some shopping a delicious dinner and the good drinking offers waited for us. Very happy again I felt a sleep that night. The nest two days, 16th and 17th, we spend with shopping, chill'n on the beach, eating good and cheap food and drinking cheap alcohol. At out last night we met 3 guys from Bangalore. 

Wayanad

14.05.2014

After I was giving myself a day off yesterday, I could find some strength back. I went for a cake and tea for breakfast after a shower. I could do a picture for my applications. I kept a tomato soup and 3 slices of toast bread for lunch some hours in my stomach. And I could talk to my family, after some days without a connection. In the evening I felt very tired but happy a sleep. The night was very short as I couldn´t sleep well and we left for a little safari to the Wayanad national park at 5:30am. From the Jeep we could see a lot of roe, some monkeys, birds and a giant squirrel. We couldn´t manage to see some Asian elephants in the park. 

But on the way to a quite unspectacularly island where some bamboo is growing, right next to the street an elephant bull was eating some bushes. So the safari ended successful even if I have to say that it was no compare to a safari in Africa. 

After a quick lunch we left with the bus back to Calicut. From there we took a train to Mangalore to make our way to Goa.

Facing the border...

12.05.2014

India brought me to a border. Mostly a physical one. But that brought me to a psychical one. I couldn´t speak to my family and friends for some time. Even if we all could relax on the boat, the trip had to change because the engine of the boat we should get for 22 hours broke. So we had to do the Munroe Island at first and separated. 

This just gave us a few quite hours in the evening on the houseboat. The food was excellent and we even got a beer. The beds seemed like heaven after a short, highly humid night with cockroaches in one of the crapiest places in Kollam. But get a wake cause the whole floor under me start to move by the engine of the boat and the noise of it gave this day a hard start. 

 

Rishikesh and the toilett

10.05.2014

India is so different… So different. It is hard to understand the people and culture. There are some very open and friendly people, all very interested in us with respect for Germany (I guess because of the economy). All tell us, that India is changing too, if I see all the children coming to me, smiling, asking me questions like where I come from and what I do in India. But there are so many people. I can not imagine the amount of Indian people. There are always people everywhere. They lay on the street, in the train and bus stations… simply everywhere. It just seems to be the most normal thing to lay next to cow, dog and human shit, all kind of rubbish and a smell, which I didn´t get used to even after a week, and rest or sleep.

For us it was a very hard time in Rishikesh and not like we imagined.

India

05.05.2014

I had a very soft start in the Indian way of life. Annika and Lukas gave me a driver from the airport to our hostel as my birthday present. So they have been waiting for me and I could just get in the air conditioned car. As well they booked a hostel of a bit higher category for us, in order to have a place to rest and feel comfortable. As we all have been very tired from the travel, we just sit in the room talking and went for some lunch later in our street. The 10 minutes walking in New Delhi have been already a lot for our brains. Smells (not the good once), colors, noises from everywhere, people wanting to sell you something, people staring at you… So in the evening we just had a beer on the terrace and informed us about the tour of the next day.

 

Bangkok - and bye Thailand

02.04.2014
Right now I'm sitting in an air plain to Delhi. I just enjoyed some Indian plane food and feel very exited about the food, people and landscape of the coming 3 weeks. I had to say goodbye to Luisa in the middle of the night to go to the airport. She will be leaving Bangkok tonight.
The last two days in Bangkok we did the usual sight seeing. Early in the morning on 30th we arrived and took a room near Khao San Road where we could check in right away and sleep for some hours. Around 10 am we left to make a temple tour. A really nice Thai gave us good tips and a really cheap Tuk-Tuk for a small tour to the Wat Intharawihan and Wat Monghut. So we just wanted to finish the round with the grand palace. But as it was a Buddhist holiday, it was closed for tourists. So we got a good Thai massage (for 180 Baht again) and went for some shopping to the MBK Centre. I could change my tablet, as Skype wasn't working right. Luisa got some electronic accessory and we left to enjoy the Khao San Road at night. On the way we watched some woman Thai boxing. In Khao San Road we could find our wanted shirts to be more like twins, but different. The next morning we could finally see the Grand Palace. It was crazy full, as on the park at the opposite of the street

Khao Sok national park

29.04.2014
In the morning of the 29th we took a bus from Krabi to Khao Sok national park. We arrived at Smiley Bungalow (if you are ever in Thailand, let someone pronounce the word smiley "Samaileeee" - to lovely) around 15 o'clock. For 300 Baht we took a very high bungalow. We checked our hood out, which was basically one road and went to bed early in order to start our trekking early the next morning. 

Koh Lanta

27.04.2014
We had to spend a night in a town close to the ferry as there was no boat going in the evening. Around 15 o'clock on the 25th we found a beautiful bungalow at Coconut Home in the Long Beach area. A lovely and very nice man rented us the cosy bungalow and a scooter. He made sure I can drive it alone first before sitting Luisa on the back. We went to see some shops and the night market at Saladan Town. As we heard about a snorkelling and diving trip to the Koh Haa national park, we decided to stay a night longer. So on the 26th we took our scooter and drove down the coast till the national park and saw Lanta Old Town on the east side of the island. 

 

After some studies for my two adventure dives we went to bed early as the pick up time was 7:25 am. We had such a good group and crew. We have been 9 people with 5 instructors. I had my own - Kev. Really cool guy from England. We had a lot of fun diving and he showed me some amazing fish, like the frog fish, a Giant Moray and a Sea Moth. I learned a lot about navigation and buoyancy from him and felt much safer and prepared after. Luisa made awesome pictures snorkelling. After the end of out trip, around 16 o'clock we took a mini bus to Krabi, in order to come closer to our next goal - the Kohao Sok national park. In Krabi we could enjoy the night market for some shopping and food.