At the train platform inside of the airport: delays of five minutes are announced. Everything seemed so empty/ very few people compared to India. Modern buildings (especially in the state-of-the-art airport of Frankfurt). Nobody is sitting or sleeping on the floor doing nothing, just looking around/ everybody busy (if waiting at least working on the laptop). Liquid on the floor can hardly be something ugly but just coffee. Construction sites inside the airport are as well as lots of real houses in India (wood as windows and walls because the windows were not fit yet). There are m [View Full Entry]

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DELHI The air pollution is so extremely high! First I thought it would be a shame not to have an exterior window in the hotel but to the staircase. Then I was just happy about it - at least it wasn’t dusty in my room! Just after leaving the hotel immediately my throat started rasping and my skin was soooo itchy! So I mostly put my scarf in front of my mouth. In the morning time during having on the rooftop I couldn’t see clearly the sun and not very far... too much smog! I remembered the pictures of Beijing at [View Full Entry]

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Backwaters/ Kerala One of the places I liked most in India! Most of the travellers in Kerala want to stay for some days on a houseboat - driving through the backwaters (water channels that were built because of a tsunami hundreds of years ago). I didn’t do so because first it’s quite expensive compared to what I did and furthermore just too touristy for my taste! Luckily the guidebooks also mention home stays in the middle of nowhere, quite far away from the main touristy villages. So I called them several times - telling them the price I’m willing to pay [View Full Entry]

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Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary I stayed in an amazing accommodation in a bamboo hut with view on the national park - in the morning time I saw some huge brown animals from far away - wow! It was so difficult to find a cheap tour to the national park - I just couldn’t get it that there doesn’t seem to exist competition but a cartel. But anyway - the trip to the national park was worth it! We saw a lot of monkeys, elephants from far away, birds and followed the steps (in the dung) of a huge animal. Leaving Periyar was [View Full Entry]

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Heading down to the very South! First of all I´ve to add s.th. to Cochin (my last entry). After publishing that entry I went to the seaside to have my last seafood dinner in India. So I choosed and bargained it right next to the sea and went to a restaurant with an open kitchen - that was great because when I was watching how they prepare my lobster they invited me to cook with them, teached me more and in the end a Kerala style head massage - great ending! Kanyakumari On the train station in Cochin I booked a [View Full Entry]

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On the way to Kerala: It was the first time I saw cockroaches that close - on my upper bed in the train… but there was no way out: 14 hours overnight train and a full train - I had to sleep there. Luckily I didn’t see them anymore. Currently it rains a lot in Kochi - it's because of the second monsoon of the year, called North-East-Monsoon. Origionally it should only rain at nighttime - but because of the climate change it also rains in daytime. I had a very relaxing time there and was a little bit ill so [View Full Entry]

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HAMPI After Goa I headed with a night bus (sleeper) to Hampi - it seemed there’re more road holes and sandy streets than asphalt on the streets… but there’re only two trains a week to Hampi. For sure it was even bumpier because my bed was located in the very back of the bus - sometimes I jumped with my whole back some centimetres :( It was so hot in Hampi although it was 9 o’clock in the morning… I had to take a riksha, a boat to get to the other side of the river where was supposed to be [View Full Entry]

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Palolem/ GOA The bus from Mumbai to Goa arrived 1 hour too late (unless it starts in Mumbai) - then we drove 2 hours through Mumbai until we left the city (there doesn’t seem to be big high ways or tunnels to cross the city…) - that drove me crazy because I had a cold, the Air Conditioning worked 180 %, I couldn’t switch it off, lots of curves and bumps in the street but at least a deluxe bus so I could sleep a bit…. Until I finally arrived in Goa! The landscape became more and more beautiful - I [View Full Entry]

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After publishing the last entry (Mc Leod Ganj and Rajastan) I just put some further fotos to that blog entry - feel free to have a look at them! The link to see them is: http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaisalmer/blog-332189.html Just arrived in Mumbai … I was looking forward to be in a big city since such a lot of time - especially to go to Mumbai, a town people told me that you hate or love it. After my train journey with very nice Indian students and the first impression of the slums of Mumbai (55% of the citizens of Mumbai are living in [View Full Entry]

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Donna and me took the 4 o’clock bus from McLeod Ganj to Amritsar… we wanted - that day there was no bus but then we met a nice Israeli couple we went to Amritsar with. So we shared a taxi to Dharamsala to make sure to get the bus to Amritsar. As it was the first bus that left on that day the only thing we could hear at the bus station in Dharamsala was the snoring of the people that spent their night there. It seems that Indians sleep everywhere - it’s still so strange for me to see them [View Full Entry]

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