Wawa & Sisi

New Blog

2011-11-07T16:40:00.002+01:00

Dear reader,
Thank you for visiting our blog. Maybe you 've seen that we haven't been very active recently in publishing new stories. Unfortunately we had to change our blog, so to read more about us and our trips, please visit us on: http://wawa-sisi1.blogspot.com/
Thank you and we hope you visit soon our new, old blog!
Laura & Simon

Easter Weekend, day 4

2011-05-01T20:56:00.011+02:00

Well, the these days passed quickly, the 4th was already our last day. On the way back to Barcelona we first stopped near Narbonne to visit the Abbey of Fontfroide (Abbaye de Fontfroide). This monastery has a nice cloister and is located in the middle of nowhere, there are just trees, flowers, a river and mountains around it.

Afterwards we continued and near Perpignan we went to Salses-le-Château, where we visited the castle of Salses. This impressive fort built by the Spanish at the end of the 15th century was once important to secure the boarder to France which was here before the Pyrenees contract was signed.

That was the last stop, after Salses we drove back to Barcelona on the motorway.

Abbaye de Fontfroide in a valley and around is only nature.

The Fort de Salses has big and thick walls and was built with the best defences they had at this time.

Easter Weekend, day 3

2011-05-01T20:36:00.021+02:00

First of all we went to Carcassonne on this day to visit the medieval city (UNESCO world heritage) which is surrounded by 2 walls with many towers. We visited the Cathedral, went through the streets of the Cité and then along the wall from where we had a nice view of the region and the new town.

Afterwards we drove by car a bit to the north where we visited 4 ruins on a mountain in Lastours. It takes some time to climb up to each castle, but the view is nice and the weather was sunny again.

Later on we continued to Limousis, which isn’t far away, to see the Grottes de Limousis. This cave is long and has about 5 halls inside it, some also with water. It was nice, especially the last hall which has a stone which he hadn’t seen before. It’s just always the guided tours where they have in many places which take a lot of time and which are only in French, sometimes quite boring.

At the end we drove back and on the way we stopped in Villeneuve-Minervois and Conques-Sur-Orbiel, 2 villages with some old houses. Back in Carcassonne we enjoyed the view of the Citadel which is illuminated at night.

The medieval citadel of Carcassonne with the cathedral, narrow streets and the big doule wall is very impressive.

The Castle of Lastours, not only 1, no, there are 4 ruins to see.

The Grottes de Limousis is nice and cool inside.

The village of Conques-Sur-Orbiel.

On the way we also passed the Canal du Midi, also UNESCO world heritage.

Easter Weekend, day 2

2011-05-01T20:10:00.016+02:00

On the 2nd day we drove first from Axat to Lapradelle where we wanted to visit the Castle of Puilaurens (Château de Puilaurens). Unfortunately it rained cats and dogs and was foggy, so we decided to continue directly and not walking up and visiting this Cathar ruin on the top of a mountain.

So, by car we drove through the Gorges de Galmus, a nice canyon without a lot of traffic so it wasn’t a problem to get through. Then we went to visit the Castle of Peyrepertuse, one of many more from the Cathar’s which are remaining in this area. The ruin is located on the top of a mountain surrounded by cliffs. Sometimes it was covered with fog and suddenly the sky opened for a few minutes and the surrounding landscape was visible.

Afterwards we went to the next ruin, the Château de Quéribus, also from the same time. It’s on a steep rock from where we had a nice view towards the mountains (when the fog it permitted).

On the way to Trèbes near Carcassonne where we slept, we passed through Villerouge-Termenès with another castle and Lagrasse where a nice monastry is.

Gorges de Galmus

The Castle of Peyrepertuse is divided in 2 parts, a lower and the higher one which is reachable after climbing up narrow steps.

The Château de Quéribus sitting at the top of a rocky mountain.

The Castle in Villerouge-Termenès.

And finally the Abbey and town of Lagrasse.

Easter Weekend, day 1

2011-04-30T18:36:00.013+02:00

For the Easter vacation we rented a car for 4 days to explore a bit the south of France. On the first day we drove via Vic directly to Puigcerdà, in the Pyrenees on the French boarder. Here we stopped to have a look around in the center where a nice market square attracts the attention.

In Llívia, a Spanish enclave just a few minutes away from Puigcerdà, we had lunch and a walk through the village with some nice houses and the church which has some remaining towers of a former castle.

The weather was sunny, but when we continued further fog came up and it also started raining. We visited Mont-Louis, a fort with a village inside constructed by the famous French architect Vauban at the end of the 17th century to defend the new Spanish boarder after the Pyrenees contract. However the fog was so dense that it was really difficult to see the impressive walls and impossible to see any mountains around.

To get away from this fog, we drove down direction Perpignan and in Villefranche-le Conflent it was much better. This place which also Vauban built into a big fortress is the fortified town surrounded by high mountains and on one side, about 300 meters higher the Fort Libéria. To get to this fort we had to climb up, it’s connected by an underground tunnel which leads from the town to the fortress taking about 1000 steps. From the top we had a nice view down to the town and of the 3 valleys which come together in this strategic site.

At the end we drove further to Axat where we spent our first night.

In the Pyrenees close to La Molina with our Smart for Two.

Puigcerdà with the nice square and Llívia's church where once stood a castle.

Vauban's fortress built next to the Spanish boarder has impressive big walls but unfortunately due to the fog it wasn't possible to see a lot.

The walls of Villefranche-le-Conflent and higher located on a mountain Fort Libéria.

The entrace and walls of the Fort Libéria from where we had a nice view down towards the town of Villefranche.

Walking tour from Garraf to Sitges

2011-04-30T17:13:00.014+02:00

Another walking trip, a shorter one, we did was from Garraf along the GR 92, passing 2 mountains and then to Sitges. We took a train to Garraf which is a small village on the coast a bit in the south of Barcelona. From there we went up to a mountain, passing the ruine of Garraf which is nearly not visible and along a mining complex. This part isn't really nice, but once on the top it's quiet and only a few houses are around and the fields full of vines.

On the other side of the mountain we had to go down, passing the cement factory in Vallcarca and up to the next mountain. On the way to the top we passed an hermitage which has a nice entrance door and from where we had a nice view towards the blue sea. Crossing the mountain, with good views along the coast, we went down to Sitges from where we went back by train.

The whole trip took us about 4,5 hours on a well marked trail.

The small village of Garraf with its sandy beach.

The mining complex on one side, Garraf and the sea on the other.

On the mountain it's quiet and many flowers were blooming

On the way up to the mountain we passed a hermitage which is located above the sea with nice views.

The view from the other mountain along the coast and Sitges.

Hiking Trip, GR 5 Sant Feliu to Figaró

2011-04-30T16:09:00.014+02:00

We are still alive, but just less active than a year ago as work doesn't permit us to travel as much as we would like to. Already a few weeks ago we went walking on a nice trip along the top of some cliffs, about 40 km away from Barcelona. We went along the GR 5 from Sant Feliu de Codines to Figaró, it took us about 7 hours to get there on a mostly sunny day.

By bus we went to Sant Feliu de Codines where the tour started. On a easy walk we went to Sant Miquel del Fai which we didn't visit as we had already been there before. Sant Miquel del Fai was full of tourists and the parking occupied, but it was the only place we met a lot of people, before and after it was quiet.

The only village we passed was Bertí which has a church and about 2 or 3 houses, really not a lot. However to get there we had to climb up from Sant Miquel del Fai. Afterwards we went along the "Cingles del Bertí" (Cliffs of Bertí) and walked down to Figaró where we took a train back to Barcelona.

Walking along the cliffs to Sant Miquel del Fai

Bertí with a small church and the Cliffs of Bertí from where we walked down and through a small canyon to Figaró.

Sant Miquel del Fai

2011-03-06T20:14:00.011+01:00

On a trip we went today by car with Laura's parents and aunt to Sant Miguel del Fai, about 40 km from Barcelona. There we visited an old church in a cave (about 1000 AD), an hermitage, caves and a waterfall.
The church and Priory House are located in the middle of a rock face, built by water over centuries. From there we had a wonderful view over the valley and a big waterfall. The weather was sonny and quite warm, perfect to go walking around.

The entrance to Sant Miquel del Fai, high above a valley. The most impressive building is the Priory House (16th century) on the edge of the rocks. The church inside a cave is the oldest part.

The view towards the Priory House, the valley and the waterfall.

2 nice but small caves are possible to visit, one with water inside, the other one quite narrow, it's necessary to wear a helmet.

Flims, Vals

2011-02-16T11:49:00.013+01:00

After Christmas and the 3 kings, we made a trip to Switzlerland mid january to visit family and friends, go skiing and relax in spas.

We spent 2 days in Flims, Laax, Falera. On one day we went skiing, enjoying the snow and the sun.

On the other day we went walking to Falera and then back to Laax and Flims. Snow had already gone long time ago, so instead of walking through a white landscape all was green.

On the last day we made a trip to Vals, a small village in the mountains, famous for the mineral water and the spa.

Ko Chang

2011-02-15T19:50:00.008+01:00

After coming back from Myanmar, we directly took a minibus from the airport and then a ferry to get to the island of Ko Chang (more or less close to the Cambodian boarder). Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, often cloudy and the first day it even rained a bit. We only had 3 days, the last one's on our journey, to enjoy the nice, sandy beach and tasty Thai food. The water was warm and the sea quiet, last but not least it had some palm trees which offered shade to relax.

Lonely Beach on Ko Chang Island

The bungalow where we stayed the first night.

Well, that's it, the last chapter and photos of our trip to Dubai, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and India where we enjoyed incredible 9 months!

Inle Lake

2011-02-15T18:52:00.037+01:00

After the trekking we spent 3 days in Nyaungshwe to explore from there the region of the Inle Lake. This lake is quite big, however it depends on the water level, often it is a mix of channels and floating gardens and so it's difficult to see the difference between the real lake and the main land.
In the region around the lake live a lot of different ethnic groups. Already during the trekking tour we had the chance to see some of them and here on the lake we made two daily expeditions where we could see more. Roads nearly don't exist around the lake, so the only way to travel is by boat. There's a lot of traffic, speed boats carrying tourists and locals from one end to the other, fishing boats and many other one's with local people shipping people and food from and to the market sites.
Inle Lake is one of the most popular places for tourists in Myanmar, we saw some, but not a lot, the region is big and offer many places to visit. The daily markets are very famous and an interesting visit to see people and food, there are normally 2 different markets every day, a big one on land and another floating. As well many villages with stilt houses, traditional handicrafts they show to tourists and last but not least some temples can be seen in this amazing region.

The panorama of the area seen from a viewpoint in Inthein, the real lake is quite far away.

Driving by boat across the lake the through a lot of channels and water ways offer great viewsof the landscape; mountains, villages, floating gardens, etc.

Villages are on the main land around the lake but also inside along channels and built on stilts.

Leaving the lake behind, channels continue to other places.

The famous markets which are held always on another place in a 5-day circuit. People are coming from far, different ethnical groups in their tradional clothes, and many tourists have a look around to see this colourful event.

Special ceremonies and the Long-neck people (as in Thailand) draw attention to tourists.

And finally people on water in their boats, fishing, carrying goods, etc. are the a real Myanmar highlight. Despite tourism, it's still tradition as many years ago.

Finally some of the temples and stupas which can be seen in the area.

Sunset

3-day Trek; Kalaw to Inle Lake

2011-02-11T19:53:00.046+01:00

In Kalaw we looked around for a guide on the afternoon when we arrived from Bagan and already on the following day we started our 3-day trekking tour. Convincing our guide to take a path away from the main tourist route, we were luckily to enjoy 3 wonderful days seeing tradional local life undisturbed by other tourist groups. The first night we slept in a homestay and the other one in a monastery, far away from a road and public transport.
The trip was affected by a typhoon in the sea near Bangladesh. Instead of enjoying the sun we had had during the rest of the journey, it was always cloudy and on the 2nd and 3rd day we had some heavy rain showers which converted the paths in a muddy trail which was difficult to walk.

DAY 1:
Leaving Kalaw our small group, Xavi, Amara, Nuría, we and our guide Ky (only our cook is missing on the photo, he always walked faster to prepare the food), headed to the south, passing a dam, rice fields and up a mountain to a small village where we had lunch.

On the way we could see many people working (sorting tea leaves and garlic), a school full of children and on a train station we just arrived on time to see the vendors selling vegetables, fruits and flowers when the train stopped there.

In the afternoon we continued along fields and small rivers to a village (2nd photo) where we slept in a house.

DAY 2:
Just on this day they had a wedding ceremony in the village where we stayed overnight and in the morning before leaving we could have a look. Afterwards we went up a mountain through fields full of flowers, once it rained a bit, then came the fog and went on again. When we could see something we had a nice view along the valley.

Not only flowers, many vegetables they plant, for example also chili and then they dry them in the villages, on the ground and sometimes also on the roof of their houses.

People carrying things to the villages and working we could meet everywhere, sometimes also kids riding on a buffalo.

With the rain the road got so muddy, all sticked on our shoes and we needed a lot of time to come forward (cleaning was nearly helpless, with the next step the shoe was already again full of mud). Luckily we were when we finally arrived to the monastery where we slept. The village we stayed in had a lot of traditional houses.

DAY 3:
2 kids carrying a baby and a horse cart loaded with hay were only 2 of many things we could see along the way which lead us through fields of cauliflower and along some mountains.

Finally we could see Inle Lake in the fog, our destination. When we arrived at the village on the lake, a boat was already waiting in a channel to carry us to Nyaungshwe ont he other side of the lake, the main place for tourists to stay.

Apart of many insects we could see butterflies and also snakes, this one here was alive, another one we saw on the road was unfortunately killed.

Kalaw

2011-02-11T19:48:00.008+01:00

Leaving Bagan at 4 o'clock in the morning, we took a bus to Kalaw, in some mountains to the east direction Inle Lake. The bus nearly had no space for the legs, the road was very bumpy and so we were very lucky when if arrived there at about 2 in the afternoon. Kalaw is a village, nothing special to see, but the region offers some good trekking opportunities.

In the market you can find everything you need, it's full of colours and local people are there in their traditional clothes.

The mountainous region we passed through by bus to get to Kalaw.

Bagan

2011-02-11T18:32:00.046+01:00

Bagan, a highlight on each travel to Myanmar, is ranking with Angkor to be the most famous religious place in Southeast Asia. The ruins of Bagan cover an area of 16 square miles and originally it had more than 4000 temples! The area is huge and there are still about 2000 left to explore, too many for 2 days, probably even a week wouldn't be enough to see them all. The majority of the buildings were built in the 11th to 13th centuries, during the time Bagan was the capital of the Myanmar. Of course such place is a UNESCO world heritage.
When we were there, on the 1st day we went to the temples which are further away by taxi and on the 2nd day we rented bicycles to get around. It was sunny and hot and there was nearly no shade available, only a few palm trees. Ruins are seen everywhere, but many are so badly destroyed that it wasn't worth to stop.
In front of the main tourist temples are souvenir vendors, but compared with other countries we had visited, it was hassle free.

The temples and stupas have many different shapes, old are all, even if some look newer because they were covered with gold recently.

Inside the temples are Buddha statues, often one in each direction. Originally they were all painted and also the walls, but many are damaged and so only in a few places they are still good visible.

Most of the temples and stupas are now closed for tourists to climb up. However where it is still possible we got a tremendous view over the landscape full of other stupas rising up to the sky. The steps leading to the top are often small and very steep, but it is worth it, also Fredi had a nice and time and enjoyed the sun.

There are a few places to get to the top and even fewer of them offer a good sunset. On the first evening we were unlucky and it had to many clouds to see the sun, but afterwards the sky turned to a nice red colour. On the 2nd day we had more luck and sun was going down behind all the stupas.

People here often still use horse carts to carry things from and to the fields. Such a horse cart in front of the temples and stupas is the famous picture of Bagan! (click on the 2nd photo wo see it better.) The Irrawaddy river flows nearby and many people use it, to wash and also as transport opportunity as roads in this part of the country are bad.

Monywa

2011-02-11T18:11:00.016+01:00

From Mandalay we continued by bus to Monywa, a bit on the northwest. From this place we took a tuktuk to get to the Hpo Win Daung Caves, on a bad and dirty road it took us 1,5 hours to get there.
On one side of a small hill are many (about 1000), mostly small caves, all of them artificial, cut by people into the rocks. From outside they are normally nothing special, but their interior is often full of paintings and Buddha statues. The condition of the caves can vary a lot, many are heavily damaged as nobody take care of them, but some (easiest way to find them is with a guide) are still nearly entirely covered with colours. The paintings date back to the 13th/14th century.

In the 18th/19th century they started again building new caves, the difference to the older one's is easily visible.

From Monywa we took a boat down the Irrawaddy river to Bagan, our next destination. On the boat we met a monk and taught him playing cards (skipo!), he nearly didn't speak English, but he learnt it quite fast.

Mandalay

2010-12-25T23:05:00.032+01:00

Well, the Myanmar chapter hasn't finished yet, here is coming the next part, a bit late, but better late than never.
From Bago we took a nightbus to Mandalay, the ancient capital before the British moved it to Yangon. In the middle of the 2nd biggest city in Myanmar is the royal palace, surrounded by a very large moat and wall. Outside towards Mandalay Hill are many old temples to visit and finally from the hill is a superb view of the city, Irrawaddy river and the landscape. Last but not least it's a nice sunset point a good place to get in touch with novices who come to the city from the whole country to go to school in the morning and practise their English with tourists afterwards.

The big moat and wall around the palace and at the end Manadalay Hill. The buildings inside the walls are all reconstructed, they were destroyed by fightings.

Mandalay is famous for many Buddhist temples at the bottom of Mandalay Hill. Very special is the wooden temple, only few of them have survived in the country.

The entrance to the staircase up to Mandalay Hill from where we could enjoy the landscape and a nice sunset.

Mandalay is a tourist place and an ancient capital. However in the region arround the city are 4 other former capitals to visit. On 2nd of totally 3 days we spent here we took a taxi to visit 3 sites in the southwest of the city.

Passing the Irrawaddy river on a brigde we arrived to Sagaing. Also once a capital, now only a lot of stupas remember of this place. The hills are dotted with them and the view from the top is great.

Afterwards we went to Inwa, situated just on the opposite side of the river on an island. Only a wall and some temples are visible in this place.

At the end we went to Amarapura, like the other places also an ancient capital. This place is famous for its teak bridge crossing a lake, the longest in the world. On the bridge is a lot of traffic, some tourists, but mainly local people who use it to go to work and back. The site is wonderful at sunset time when it gets busy and a lot of monks are hanging around.

On the last day we went by an 1 hour boat ride upriver to another ancient capital, Mingun. As in the other places, also here are temples and stupas to visit. The special one is the Mingun Paya, now only a ruine is left and from the top we could enjoy a nice view. Unfortunately never finished and also destroyed by an earthquake, it would have been Myanmar's biggest stupa.

Golden Rock, Bago

2010-12-19T04:30:00.027+01:00

From Pa'an we went to Kyaiktiyo, or first to the village of Kinpun. From there we went the next morning up to Mount Kyaiktiyo or better known as Golden Rock. We took an overcrowded truck to get closer to the top, at the back of the truck we felt like chickens, there was no space, the bench uncomfortable and the driver very crazy, driving as fast as possible... The last part we had to walk, local people could get another ride to the top, but for foreigners it was prohibited, too dangerous.

After an hour walk to the top we finally came to the Golden Rock, a much bigger version of the rocks we already saw on the trip from Mawlamyine. The view was nice from the top and there weren't a lot of people, nearly no tourists and only a few locals, however it's one of the holiest Buddhist places in Myanmar and a famous pilgrimage site.

From the Golden Rock we went along the pilgrimage way in 4,5 hours back to the village of Kinpun at the base of the mountain.

After Kyaiktiyo we continued and went towards the north. We wanted to go to Mandalay, but on the way we stopped in Bago, once the capital of Myanmar. This small town or big village is famous for a lot of temples to visit in and arround the town, the only remainings. Only temples were built of stone, palaces, monasteries, houses, etc. were made of wood or other materials which aren't visible anymore. A lot of Buddha images can be found, standing, reclining, big, small, one's etc. There are so many that we had only time to visit the big one's.
A l

But not only Buddhas are possible to see, the big Pagoda is very impressive even if they repair it at the moment Bago has also one of the biggest monasteries with a lot of monk. A curious temple is this one of the big python, a really fat and long snake which is the king inside it and is free to move around. Last but not least we also visited a cigarette factory, where we could see how they produce them, all hand made (of course).

Mawlamyine, Hpa'an

2010-12-18T03:57:00.031+01:00

After being recovered from the illness, we continued from Yangon to the south and after a 10 hours train ride we arrived in Mawlamyine (Moulmein). On the way we passed along many rice fields, small villages and a lot of mountains which have a pagoda on the top. In Moulmein we arrived just on time to enjoy the beautiful sunset on the other side of a big river.

On the next day we went on a trip to nearby mountain, where the Nwa-La-Bo Pagoda is. It took us 4 hours to walk up and down again, it was hot and we still felt weak, but it was very nice. The landscape and the views are great and the best were 3 people who accompanied us during the whole walk, 2 monks and a Burmese. We could learn a lot about their country, culture and also the language.
The Pagoda is something similar like the Golden Rock (which we visited after this one), but we were the only people going to the top, so it was a very quiet and relaxing place. The Pagoda are 3 stones, one above each other, which remains mysteriously in their position.

The town of Mawlamyine isn't big, but it's lovely situated on the board of a river and on some small hills behind are many pagodas from where it´s possible to have a great view of the surrounding landscape.

From Moulmein we went by boat upriver and after 6 hours we arrived Hpa-an. On the way we passed through a beautiful scenery with small villages and fields.

In the town of Pa-an itself isn't a lot to do, but the countryside offers some nice places to visit. In the morning we went to Mount Zwegabin, at the base is a field with over 1000 Buddha statues. After an 2 hour climbed we finally reached the top from where we enjoyed a nice view. Also Fredi liked it, just a pool with water he missed, it was a bit to dry for him.

In the afternoon we continued to visit Saddar Cave. The entrance is a big hall and the interior is full of Buddha images, afterwards it's possible to walk through the cave and after 15 minutes we came to the other end where a small lake is. On the way to the cave we drove through rice fields and fishing houses.

Yangon

2010-12-17T13:17:00.016+01:00

Sorry for the delay, at the time of writing we already left Myanmar, but the internet connection in the whole country was so bad (many websites blocked or not possible to open) and slow, it would have taken ages to upload some photos.
Yangon is a quite modern city (at least compared to Indian one's), there isn't a lot of traffic and they respect the traffic rules. Taxi drivers usually doesn't have taxi meters, but they offer normal prices and don't try to cheat tourists.
The only problem we had, was that we got ill and had to go to an hospital. It was a good one, possible to make all necessary analisis and after a few days taking antibiotics we felt good again.
Myanmar is the country of the golden pagodas and in Yangon are some nice one's and with the Shwedagon Pagoda it has the holiest place for Buddhist in the country.

The Shwedagon pagoda is nearly 100 meters high.

The Sule Pagoda is in the middle of the old town and is used as a big roundabout for the traffic.

Botataung Pagoda, another golden one.

There are also a lot of other monuments to visit, especially remainings from the English colonial time like the cathedral, buildings along Strand Road and the railway station.

Bangkok, Khao Yai National Park

2010-11-19T13:43:00.002+01:00

On Sunday we left India and took a plane to Bangkok, where we met Nuria, Laura's sister, who had already been here for 2 days. As we had already stayed twice before in this city, we didn't go on sightseeing tours. The main goal was to go to the Myanmar embassy to get a visa. After 3 days waiting time, which we used for Christmas shopping and relaxing, we finally got the visa without any problems!
Afterwards we went straight to Pak Chong and the Khao Yai National Park. This time we slept 1 night in the park, so we could go trekking on our own and we went also on a night safari. Unfortunately we couldn't see any big animals like a tiger, elefant or crocodile... just a lot of deers, mosquitos, leeches, a great hornbill (a big parrot) and 2 unknown animals (sth between a big marten and a long cat).
Well, as we've already put photos from Bangkok and the National Park in the blog in February, we don't do it now again. Tomorrow afternoon we're leaving Thailand for nearly a month and we take our flight to Myanmar!!

Kolkata

2010-11-16T14:08:00.014+01:00

Another night train brought us from Patna to Kolkata, the last stop in India. After the troubles in other places before and the bad fame this city enjoys, we were positively surprised! The center is full of nice old colonial buildings, very green and clean and the traffic is less chaotic than in many other cities.
Especially many churches are in Kolkata, which is more famous because of it's original name Calcutta, which was once the capital of India and the East India company had their headquarters here.
Kolkata is also home to India's biggest museum, the Indian Museum. It's inside a nice colonial building, but the exposition is disappointing. Poor Labellings, sometimes nearly no light to see the things, rooms full of artefacts (no order), dust and no care (neither the building nor objects) are only some of the problems inside. It's maybe a bit typical in incredible India, that the best of all rooms is this one about Egypt!
These problems show in a good way the challenges which have the whole country on the way to a modern state, in many belongings it's still a third-world country.

The Writer's building was once the headquarter of the East India Company and not far away is the St John's church with a nice organ inside. We had a free concert, John played for us a bit.

The Hooghly river (an arm of the Ganges river) flows through Kolkata and the Howrah bridge, built by the British, is one of 4 bridges crossing this river. This bridge is famous, because it has the highest traffic load in the world! Other British remainings are the Victorial Memorial (a marble building to honour Victoria) and the St Pauls Cathedral.

Also some temples are found in Kolkata like the Digambara Jain Temple and the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple. Famous in the city are the rikschas which are pulled by man power!

Bodhgaya, Nalanda and Rajgir

2010-11-16T12:17:00.019+01:00

From Varanasi we took another overcrowded night train to Rajgir to see some other Buddhist places. Nowadays only a small percentage (less than 1%) of the Indian population is Buddhist, but India is the country of origin of this religion. Gautama Siddharta (Buddha) was born in a place which lies now in Nepal, but afterwards he lived and learned in India.

The main tourist spot Bodhgaya (near Gaya), where Buddha found the enlightenment. This place is full of tourists, mainly coming from other Buddhist countries and visiting the sites by coach. Here in Bodhgaya is the main temple and the Bodhi tree, below this one Buddha was sitting when he had the enlightenment.

Around the main temple, many Buddhist countries built modern monasteries (photo of the Tibetan and Bhutanese monastery) and also a big Buddha.

Rajgir is another place on the Buddist pilgrimage, but there are nearly no remainings of a once big town. The main attraction is a big stupa on a hill, as interesting as the stupa is however the ropeway ride (only 1 person fits inside) up and down.

Nalanda, close to Rajgir, had once a very big and old Buddhist university. Nowadays only a lot of ruins of the university buildings and temples remain. The landscape around the place is also very nice, many rice fields and palm trees around.

Varanasi

2010-11-16T11:56:00.017+01:00

Varanasi is the holiest of the holy Indian cities! To get there was quite difficult, from the Bandhavgarh National Park we needed 48 hours... the distance wouldn't be a lot, but our journey was exactly during the Indian Diwali festival (like Christmas for us) and the buses and trains were full... From Tala we took 3 buses, all of them more than full, people were sitting on the roofs, to get to Rewa, the closest bigger town. There we wanted to take a nightbus to Varanasi, but unfortunately this was impossible. These buses exist, but they were too crowded, people jumped in and out of the windows even before the bus came to its stand in the bus station! Other buses were canceled, so we had no other choice than looking for a hotel to stay somewhere overnight. After looking for a long time we finally found a place and there we stayed till the next day late in the afternoon. Then we took a bus to Satna, from where we had a ticket in a night train to Varanasi. We arrived there on time, but for the train we could wait for ages... instead of leaving at 19.30 pm, it came finally at 2:30 and all the time we had to wait somewhere (in an uncomfortable sitting area) in the station, because they postponed it many times...
Well, instead of arriving in Varanasi at 4.40 am the next morning, we got there at 12.40, 8 hours delayed!

The old town of Varanasi is nice, especially along the banks of the Ganges which are full of Ghats (steps). The streets inside the old town are so small that only bicycles and motorbikes can pass, so it's quiet. However it's very dirty, sometimes smells bad and it's also full of cows...
In 2 Ghats along the river they burn dead people in a big fire. After a small ceremony they burn the body and at the end the rest of it they throw into the river. It's possible to see this event from very close, but it's not allowed to make photos. The river is useful for everything, during the whole day people take baths, clean the body and teeth, wash clothes and dry them afterwards on the steps, drink holy water, ceremonies, etc.

Fredi made a good job as captain on a boat to go along the ghats. From the boat we had a nice view towards the steps and the temples and palaces on the river bank. People go inside the river and prey next to it.

Sunrise on the Ganges river, many people are already on the way to the river, for example they put candles inside, and many tourists take a boat ride.

One day we went to the fort on the other side of the river. Except a nice view from the walls there's only a museum which has some not really old things which are in a quite bad condition; broken, full of dust, poor labellings, etc.

The old town with its narrow streets, full of people and cows.

On a half day trip we went to Sarnath, the place where Buddha hold his first speech after his enlightenment. Except a few ruins of monasteries and temples it doesn't have more to show, only a small museum.

Indian Railway

2010-11-09T15:10:00.003+01:00

With 1,6 million employees Indian Railway is the world's biggest employer! The trains are always full, 11 million people use them every day and 8000 locomotives are on a network of more than 66000 km. These are the main facts, another one is, that the trains are always late!

To get the timetables of the trains, we bought already in Delhi a book with everything inside, it has a lot of pages and at first look it's quite difficult to understand it, it's full of numbers and times. If the correct page with the desired route is found, then starts the search for a train which runs from the places you wanna go. To make it more complicated it's very important to check the days, because many trains doesn't run every day...

Trains doesn't have only one class, 2nd and 1st class are divided in subclasses which makes everything more complicated. Except the basic (general) 2nd class, which is the cheapest one and so the most people use it, it's complicated to get a ticket. Apart of the 1st class, the 2nd class is divided into 2 AC, 3 AC, AC chair class, Sleeper and finally the cheapest gereral class.

Once found the train you'd like to take, it's necessary to fill in a paper with all information about the train and passengers. Afterwards it's possible to queue up in front of a counter in the railway station. If you're unlucky, but it can be quite common, you have to wait for 1 hour in this queue for your turn. A problem can also be, that Indian people doesn't know how to make a queue, so all are around the counter and try to get the ticket first, a real chaos and for a tourists hard to find a way through it.

Well, once you arrive, you can handle the paper to the employee which tries to book the train if possible, that means if it isn't already full. There are also waiting lists available for the trains, the problem in this case is that you never know for sure if you get a seat on the train or not...

By the way, it's possible to fill in more than 1 form and so book more than 1 train, quite a good investment to avoid again the same procedure as described before.

Well, once in possession of a ticket with reservation, it's possible to board this train. First however has to arrive the train and normally it's late than published on the timetable. If the waiting room isn't full, it's a good place to sit down quietly. When the train finally arrives, it's just necessary to find the correct wagon and take the seat or berth. If it's already occupied, which can easily happen in the trains which are often quite full, then the other person moves normally without problems to another free place.

During the train trip it's easy to get in touch with people and enjoy the landscape through the open doors, doors which are never closed. Often the train has to stop on the way, sometimes people get out to walk around, normally the trains hoots before continuing, so passengers can get on it again.
Night trains are usually good to save money and time, but Indian people are very noisy, trains stop often and people enter and go out, so it might be hard to find sleep. It's possible fix the luggage below the seats witha locker, so at least you don't have to worry about it. If the train gets full, people from the normal general class look for space in the upper classes, so it might be possible that it's necessary to fight for the berth, especially if it's the lower one you're occupying.

By the way, it's now possible to book tickets online, but they don't accept all credit cards and you have to register first. The website is however useful to get information about available trains and seats before going to the station to book it and also check the status for a reservation which is on a waiting list. It's also possible to check the running status of the trains, means if it has delay or not... Well, could be quite a good tool, but as for the information on the waiting list and also in general, never trust it.

Due to the stops and an average speed which is rarely higher than 40 km/h, the trains usually are delayed. Our worst case so far has been 8 hours... quite annoying waiting for hours in the station for the reserved train, especially if they always change the delay, for example first it had had only 3 hours, but afterwards they always increased it.

The big advantage of the trains is that it's normally more comfortable than buses. Those old carriages have only one goal, put as much people as possible inside and a bus never can be too full! In case the interior is really too crowded you can climb up to the roof and take a seat there. Inside the bus are often 3 + 2 people sitting in a row + additional one's if necessary (children doesn't count). As Indian people mainly aren't tall, there isn't normally a lot of space between 2 rows, for tall people it can be a real problem to take a seat.
Well, buses are old and roads often too, means that it can be a bumpy experience, the seats in front of the bus are better than at the back where you can get a free rollercoaster... Stops of sometimes more than 30 minutes at bus stations + bad roads slow down the average speed to maybe around 30 to 40 km/h... so it can take ages to get from one place to another one, India is a big country so distances as well.

Indian trains stopping at a station, sleeper class wagon (quite comfortable, at night you get your own berth, but during the day it can get overcrowded).

A nearly empty reservation room at a station, the cows know already better how to get a ticket than Indian people, this one is qeueing up correctly in front of the desk!

By the way, cows are everywhere, inside the stations, on the railway tracks, in the middle of streets in the countryside but also in small and big cities. As a holy animal, the traffic flow goes around the cows, even if they take a rest in the middle of a busy street or wanna cross it! The cows are like a quiet, small island in the middle of the Indian traffic chaos, and this one can really be horrible. Every driver thinks that he has to be the first one passing a junction, so they drive from all sides in meet each one in the middle, where nobody wanna give way to another one... Except honking the horns (of course all together at the same time, something horrible they do anyway always) they aren't able to get an order. It's possible to wait for minutes on the same position without moving a meter... Rikschas are smaller than cars and trucks, so they find easier a way through the chaos.

About the rikschas, as everywhere in India entrance fees are always 10, 15 times more expensive for foreigners than for local people (for the Taj Mahal the difference is nearly 40 times more), they think that also rikschas have to be much more expensive for tourists... Sometimes it can get really annoying to find a driver who offers a reasonable price. For an Indian fare they normally does't want to carry a foreigner, it always has to be a bit more otherwise they prefer to drive alone and let you standing in the rain!

In this case it's just possible to repeat the slogan of India tourism: INCREDIBLE INDIA
This one is really true, in positive and negative ways!!!

Jabalpur, Kanha and Bandhavgarh National Parks

2010-11-09T14:33:00.022+01:00

Well, after Khajuraho we contiued our trip to Jabalpur, a bit in the south. The city is busy and dirty as all cities in India and has no attraction. However outside of it are the Marble rocks, a marble canyon and a waterfall, and the city is the base to go to the 2 National Parks in the area, the Kanha and Bandhavgarh.

In the marble canyon we had an expensive boat ride, we were the only tourists. Afterwards we walked to the waterfall where we had a nice view of the canyon.

Well, as the city doesn't has anything of interest we continued directly to Kathia, the village just outside the Kanha National Park. This place is famous for the tiger population which lives inside, it should be more than 100!
Unfortunately going there wasn't worth it, the entrance to the park is only possible by jeep and this is a very expensive adventure. As no other tourists were around, we left the place without seeing the park.
The village with the houses painted in blue and white are also nice and in the hotel many monkies visited us, it's funny to see them eating and playing around (this race is much more quite than the other agressive one).

As walking inside the national park isn't possible, we did it outside. The landscape is nice, but we couldn't see any tiger... just spiders and 2 jackals.

As the Kanha National Park wasn't a good place to visit, we thought it would be better in Bandhavgarh, another park more in the north and also famous for the tigers. To get to this national park, to Tala (the village in side it) is even more complicated than to the other one, but at the end we reached it. Compared with the Kanha, we also found quite a lot of tourists and so we could share a jeep on the 2nd day.
Actually we already wanted to go on a jeep safari the 1st day, but as the administration here in India is complicated and normally not understandable (for western tourists nothing is possible, for Indian one's all), they didn't let us in at 6 o'clock in the morning. So, we went for a walk outside the village, which was very nice, due to the high grass everywhere however we couldn't see any animals except monkies.
As we wanted to go on another walk in the afternoon, the guards wanted to stop us (the only tourists) as it isn't allowed anymore at this time... Another strange thing and when we asked why, they couldn't give us any answer. Already enough from the missed jeep safari in the morning and the other Indian national park, we disregared the guards and continued our way (the same as we did in the morning).
Well, finally on the 2nd day we managed to get on the jeep and so entering the park. However we lost more than half an hour waiting in front of the gate because of a mistake of the park office... at the end we also missed a tiger, we arrived 5 minutes late and the jeeps before us could see one crossing the street... Again bad luck, except an expensive tour and the same animals as always, we couldn't see anything more.

On our walk through high grass, a good place for the tigers to hide themselves, bad for us. Officially this area isn't part of the park, but just a few meters away from it and open for animals.

On our jeep safari, we started at 5.30 in the morning and we stayed from 6.30 to 9.45 in the park. The landscape is nice, but the animals always the same one's: deers, monkies and jackals...

Khajuraho

2010-11-08T12:38:00.023+01:00

After Allahabad we went by train to Satna, where we took a slow bus to Khajuraho. This place is very famous for the temples built between the years 950 and 1080. These temples have a lot of figures and many of them show erotical scenes.

The western temple group is the main one and all temples are in a nice garden. The style of the temples is always the same, in and outside.

Fredi had also fun, visiting some nice places and meet some strange animals.

A small but nice market was held on our 2nd day, they had a lot of vegetables, rice, spices, etc.

In total we stayed 3 days in Khajuraho, on our last one we went on a trip to the Ken River Gharial Sanctuary. Well, the main reason to go there was to see a crocodile or gharial, there should live more than 80 of them. Unfortunately we had once more bad luck and couldn't see any of them in the river, however at least we saw a Sambar, a deer and something like a wild dog (here they call them jackal). The landscape of a long canyon and a waterfall is really nice and it's hard to believe, that during monsoon time there isn't any waterfall nor other rocks visible, the whole area is full of water!!

Allahabad

2010-11-07T17:50:00.013+01:00

Allahabad has been for more than 2000 years a holy city, it's at the confluence of 3 rivers, amongst others the Ganges and Yamuna. It's also one of the 4 places where the Kumbh Mela takes place. Except the river banks and a few temples there isn't a lot to do and to see, so we stayed there only for 1 day and it was difficult to find a place to sleep. Finally we found a retiring room in the railway station.

The Ganges river where it meets the Yamuna, people take a bath in it.

There were a lot of processions from the banks to the temple, walking along the old fort (which is unfortunately closed except a small temple inside, because the military still uses it).

Everywhere in the countryside (all over India) they use the cow shit. They collect it and afterwards form it and let it dry in the sun.

Lucknow

2010-10-28T17:50:00.019+02:00

After Agra we went by train to Lucknow, a bit in the east. After the Mongul empire, the Nawab ruled the north of India from 1724 for 1 century and Lucknow was their capital. The city has some nice remainings from this period and in the center are many parks, it's a good place to stay, we were there for 2 days, even if the riksha drivers are annoying.

The Chhota (Hussainabad) Imambara is one of two mausoleums we visited. It's from the beginning of the 19th century, quite new, and different in the style of other one's. The interior of the mausoleum is full of lamps, mirrors and other shiny things, but the exterior is like all other from the Islamic period in a garden with water in the middle.

Nearby are the Hussainabad clocktower and the mosque which is similar like this one in Delhi.

Also this place is a famous site for Indian tourists, however the mausoleum wasn't as interesting as taking photos with us or mainly with Laura who also often had to carry their babies.

The Bara Imambara, the big mausoleum, is really big. Surrounded by a garden, a mosque on the right hand side and finally the mausoleum which has a lot of large halls and a labyrinth on the top.

The train station from the British period.

Also for the British this city was once important and here the Indians fought in 1857 for their independance, the residency of the British rulers was under a siege during 4 months before defeating the revolution. The area of the Residency is still how it was after the siege, a lot of dammaged buildings which are now part of a museum.

For sunrise I went to La Martiniere, a building which is now a college, was built by a French at the end of the 19th century .

Agra

2010-10-23T16:55:00.026+02:00

Agra was once the capital of the Islamic rulers in India and their remainings are impressive. It's a busy, dirty city, but it's full of tourist because it's home to India's most famous monument: the Taj Mahal!!
After a long nightbus ride from Haridwar in a quite uncomfortable bus we arrived late and tired in the morning in Agra. We stayed there 3 days to visit the most important places, but there are too many to see them all.

The symbol of love, the Taj Mahal, is a wonderful place and very famous. It's a must see place in the north of India and even a very long queue (mainly Indian people) couldn't stop us to enter inside the mausoleum of Mumtaz Mahal, the favorite wife of Shah Jahan, the emperor at this time (and it's just an unimportant note, that this ruler had 72 other wifes...). The mausoleum is covered of white marbel and full of nice carvings, it took 22 years to build how it is now and was finished in 1653. After 3 entrance gates we got in the first courtyard from where one other gate (photo 1) leads to the main park area and behind, connected by a water channel (which was unfortunately empty...) is the mausoleum. On the left and right hand side of the mausoleum are 2 mosques (photo 8) and the whole complex is surrounded by a big wall.

The Taj seen from the Yamuna river at sunset time and from our hotel (the roof terrace restaurant).

Another big attraction in Agra is the Red Fort. Also built by the Islamic rulers in the middle of the 16th century, it has an 2,5 km long wall. The main part is occupied by the military, but where it is possible to enter for tourists, in the palace area, are some nice buildings. The view from the top of the wall along the Yamuna river towards the Taj Mahal is great if the weather is good, and luckily it was.

On a day trip we went to Fatehpur Sikri, 40 km from Agra and like the other 2 monuments a UNESCO world heritage. This town and palace was built in 1571 (by Akhbar, the same ruler who also built the Red Fort) and has a 10 km long town wall. Exept the wall and the palace is nearly nothing remaining, but this place and the nearby mosque are very nice.

The mosque here is the largest one in India, the main entrace gate is 54 meters high and inside the mosque are a lot of tombs.

Rishikesh/Haridwar

2010-10-19T15:52:00.027+02:00

After Shimla we went by bus (it was a long day inside it) to Haridwar which is on the Ganges river, where it changes from the Himalaya to the flat land. Because of that, this place is holy and every 12 years part of the Kumbh Mela, the biggest pilgrimage on earth with millions of people (there are 4 holy places where they celebrate this event). It took place this year in March\April and when we were there, they had another celebration and the town was full of people. On Sunday night they had a firework and other things and the river banks were crowded.

Haridwar on the Ganges surrounded by a few hills where some temples stand. People go inside the holy river for a bath (however it is already quite dirty and this just after leaving the Himalaya...) and curiously they also dig in the dry river beds of channels to look for sth... but what? maybe a hidden treasure. Well, except litter we couldn't see anything.

Some other things from incredible India; cows in the middle of the street in the center of Haridwar, nice, nice, sometimes they can provoke a chaos for the traffic.
The shadow of a Gecko behind a curtain, a good friend, as he eats the things we really don't like: Mosquitos!!
Along the road in Rishikesh they put a lot of signs like this one here. Luckily we haven't had or seen any accident, but the manner how they drive here is really crazy!!

Well, Rishikesh, the other place where we stayed 2 days. Compared with Haridwar it's full of western tourists, clean and quiet, so a nice place to stay for a couple of days. The village or town is famous as "the Yoga capital of the world" and already the Beatles were here to learn it. So, the place is full of meditation centers and Hindu temples. The Ganges flows also through Rishikesh before continuing to Haridwar and the mountains are a bit higher.

Poor Fredi went swimming in the holy river.... Well, actually he always wanted to do it, but when he saw this ugly colour of the river he wasn't sure anymore. Luckily he survived it, he saw some big fishes, so there's still life inside it, but afterwards he had to relax on the river banks. We will see if he wanna go again bathing in Varanasi, when we'll meet the Ganges next time.

Some photos of the holy river in Rishikesh, there are many modern temples and ghats along it. People go swimming and for celebrations they also put puppets inside.

The only old temple we saw there, unfortunately it was closed at the time...

Shimla

2010-10-16T16:02:00.015+02:00

Well, back from the Jeepsafari, we enjoyed 2 relaxing days in Shimla (altitude 2250 meters). This place is famous, because during the British colonial time it served as summer capital. When it got too hot in Delhi, they moved everything to this hill station where it was more comfortable to live. In the center of the town the remainings are visible, many houses are like in England, it's very clean (compared to the rest of the country), car free and smoking and littering are prohibited!!

Shimla is a town in the mountains, the center is on the top and to get there you either have to climb up steep stairs or get them down.

Some British buildings in the center. On the Ridge is the church with an organ inside and nice windows. Along the Mall are more building, this one of the fire brigade and also the post office. Further away is the palace of the Viceregal (also called Viceroy, the representative of the English king/queen in India).

On the top of the highest hill (Jakhoo temple) is the Hanuman temple. This temple is full of monkeys and they are quite aggressive... they even had stolen Laura's sunglasses!!

Sunset from a viewpoint above the Ridge.

Spiti Valley (day 4-7)

2010-10-16T15:41:00.026+02:00

DAY 4:
After getting the permit which allows to pass through this part of the valley (near the China/Tibetan boarder), we left Kaza and went after a short ride to the Kungri Monastery in the Pin Valley (part of a national park). The monastery isn't very nice, a new building, but the landscape is nice (photo 1).
Afterwards we went back to the Spiti valley and visited the Dhankar Monastery (3887 meters high, photo 2) and situated on a extreme position above a mountain which isn't very compact, it's in danger of collapsing... But Fredi enjoyed it, he got in touch with a strange creature in this monastery (photo 3). From the village above the monastery we had a nice view towards the Spiti valley (photo 4). From the main village it's possible to see the position of the monastery (photo 5 on the hand side).
Finally we drove to Tabo, another village in the Spiti valley and famous for its Tibetan monastery (photo 6) which is a UNESCO world heritage. From outside it isn't any interesting, the treasure lies inside with old and rich wall paintings.

DAY 5:
From Tabo we drove up to Nako Village which has a small lake (1 and 2). This village is very authentic and rural; nice houses (photo 3 and 4), everywhere animals around (photo 5) and friendly people, like this 86-year old grand-father (photo 6)! Afterwards we continued our drive and stopped at the junction of the Spiti and Satluj (which comes directly from Tibet) rivers (photo 7). The Tibetan boarder was just about 10 km away, very close, but military presence was high. Otherwise we got more traffic on this day and often we had to wait because of works in progress.

DAY 6:
We slept in Kalpa (altitude 2960 meters, photo1) which lies high above the northern side of the Kinnaur valley and from there we had a nice view towards the 6000 meters high mountains on the other side (photo 2). After a 5 hours drive we arrived in Sarahan (2165 meters) which has a nice, old temple (photo 3, 4, 5). On a walk we climbed higher up and had a nice view of the mountains at sunset time (6, 7).

DAY 7:
The last about 150 kilometers from Sarahan to Shimla were stamped by a very bad and bumpy road. There wasn't anymore anything interesting, just quite a lot of traffic (especially many trucks) and as the day before the places got busier and more Indian (dirtier for example...). We only passed 2 Yaks which relaxed off the road.

During these 7 days we saw an amazing landscape, changing a lot, on a high altitude and nearly no tourists (in total less than 20 people). A fantastic adventure in an incredible country.

Spiti Valley (day 1-3)

2010-10-16T15:21:00.025+02:00

From Manali we took a jeep and went in 7 days to Shimla through the Spiti and Kinnaur valley. The Spiti valley is famous for its landscape and the Tibetan influence.

DAY 1:
We left Manali at 6 o'clock in the morning by jeep with 2 German and a driver. A total of about 200 km were waiting of us to get to Kaza in the Spiti valley and this on a mainly unpaved road which finally was a quite bumpy experience. On the way to Kaza we had to pass 2 mountain passes, the first one (Rohtang Pass) has an altitude of 3978 meters (photo 1) and the 2nd one, the 45551 meters high Kunzum Pass. Between the 2 passes we drove through the Lahaul valley with its desert like landscape (photo 2 and 3). Near the Kunzum pass we went on a 2 hour (return) walk to the Chandraltal Lake (altitude 4250 meters, photo 4). At this height, it's quite hard to walk, oxygen pressure is very low, but we arrived to the lake and had a nice view of the surrounding mountains (photo 5). Also Fredi was very happy to see the lake, however the water was so cold that he preferred to stay away.
After a long drive we finally arrived at 8 p.m. in Kaza (3600 meters), the main (small) town in the Spiti valley.

DAY 2:
After a good, but cold night, we went on a day trip to Kibber, altitude 4205 meters, which is (at least it's said) the highest village in the world with road access and permanent electricity. The Tibetan houses in this village are very nice and people put branches on the roofs (photos 1-4). Well, Fredi was a bit disappointed, he could find any colleagues, he only met cows, goats, sheeps and a kind of chamois.
Afterwards we continued to another village, Tasigang (4270 meters), with only a couple of houses (photo 5). On the way we saw and met many local people (photo 6). From the nearby Gete village we had a walk downhill (very steep, photo 7, monastery is visible on the left hand side) to the Ki monastery. This Tibetan monastery is quite big, but the location of it is much better, like a fortress on a small hill above the river (photo 8 and 9).

DAY 3:
After another night in Kaza we went by jeep to a viewpoint (photo 1) from where we had a nice view of small Kaza below, the Spiti valley and the surrounding mountains, covered of snow. Then we went to Hikkim village, (photo 2) where we met local people (3 and 4). Finally we drove up to the Komic monastery, situated on an altitude of nearly 4600 meters! The monastery wasn't very interesting, but with the monks we had a funny and exhausting volleyball game (photo 5). A bit below is Langza Village, where we had a nice walk through the houses and could see how people work (photo 6). This village has a nice location just in front of big, white mountain (photo 7).

Manali

2010-10-15T17:37:00.010+02:00

Manali is mostly famous by Indian tourists and western one's are as usually here in India outnumbered. From Dharamsala we went by night bus to this place which lies in a valley on about 1800 meters. The new town is dirty and quite ugly, only in Old Manali remain nice houses. The landscape with mountains up to 5500 meters is wonderful and offers some good trekking possibilities.

The landscape around Manali and on our trekking tour to Vaishisht and a nearby waterfall.

The new town of Manali, full of souvenir shops and travel agencies.

The Hadimba Devi Temple dates back to 1533, has some nices carvings and is in the middle of a nice forest.

Dharamsala

2010-10-04T17:02:00.018+02:00

After Amritsar we went by bus to the Himalaya. Originally it was planed to go by train, but due to a high delay we canceled the train ticket and bought one for the bus. After a long day we finally arrived in Dharamsala and stayed in McLeod Ganj, originally founded by the British as a hill station in 1855. This place is situated on an altitude of about 1850 meters and has a more comfortable climate.
The Himalaya range starts here from nearly 0 up to 5000 meters and it's going up very steep! Dharamsala is famous because it's the place where the Dalai Lama lives (when he isn't somewhere abroad, and this happens quite often). McLeod Ganj is a small village with many Tibetan refugees, so people, but also temple, houses and food is different.
When we were there, the Dalai Lama just started a 4-day teaching course and the whole village was full of tourists from all over the world. For a short period I assisted also a teaching session (and could see the Dalai Lama passing in front of me!!), but I didn't have a radio receiver for the translation and due to no understanding, I left.

From Lower Dharamsala it's possible to see the first Himalayan range and a bit up the mountains lies McLeod Ganj.

The Namgyal Monastry is the main Tibetan temple there and next to it is the house where the Dalai Lama uses to live.

Another Tibetan monastery and in the mountains around are many prayer flags visible.

The only British remaining in their former Hill Station (destroyed by an earthquake) is the church St. John in the Wilderness.

On a short trip we went to a waterfall, but the weather often got cloudy already in the morning and in the afternoon it rained a few times.

Amritsar

2010-10-03T18:14:00.006+02:00

From Delhi we took a night train to Amritsar, in the north and very close to the Pakistani boarder. In this city we wanted to visit the Golden Temple, after the Taj Mahal, probably India's most famous monument. The Golden Temple is the holiest place for the Sikhs and situated in the middle of a lake (of immortality). A lot of pilgrims visit this place every day, but western tourists we saw only a few.

Apart of the temple there isn't anything else worth to see, Amritsar is a busy city, dirty and noisy as well, and the rikscha drivers are quite annoying...

Delhi

2010-10-03T17:32:00.012+02:00

The capital of India is a very busy, noisy, dusty and dirty city! However it has some nice places to visit and get away from the daily life.
Another positive thing is that the local people haven't hassled us a lot and we could walk even through the bazar without problems, nobody wanted to offer us a very cheap souvenir or a rikscha ride.
Luckily we had good weather and no smog, so we could enjoy the sun and hot temperatures.

The main mosque in Delhi and the biggest one in India. From the minarett it's possible to see a lot of Delhi if the visibility is good, eg. the Red Fort (in the background).

The entrance of the Red Fort in Delhi.

The Safdar-Jang mausoleum

The Qutb Minar complex

Lakshmi-Narayan temple, a typical one from the north of India.

Fredi enjoyed the trip to the Humayun mausoleum, which is like the Red Fort and Qutb Minar a UNESCO world heritage.

India

2010-09-29T17:21:00.002+02:00

Hello again,
we started our trip and arrived well in Delhi, India. We didn't know what to expect, but our flight with Jet Airways was good; the meal had a real glass, no plastic one (which is already quite rare) and the on board entertainment system had some new movies, like the prince of Persia!
On Sunday start the Commenwealth games here in Delhi and for the first time in India. Everywhere the security meassures are high, police and military posts are controlling all the time. But so far, we haven't had any problems to get around and visit places. The disadvantage of these games is however, that everywhere are a lot of works in progress... Probably these works should have been finished for the games, but of course everything needs more time than planed and they will never get it on time. Side effect of the works is (well, it would also be without works but probably less) that it is very dirty and dusty (eg. the street in the Main bazar where we are isn't paved...).
Well, the photos of the places we've visited will be published another day, now it's already time to sleep.
Good night!

Schaffhausen und Rheinfall

2010-08-15T16:57:00.015+02:00

On a day trip we went to the Rheinfall in the northeast of Switzerland. Afterwards we went by train to Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein from where we took a boat to Constance and then back to Basel.

The Rheinfall is 23 meters high and with its high volume of water it is very nice and impressive.

The 2 towns of Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein with a lot of nice, old buildings.

On the way to Constance we passed a lot of villages like Steckborn and nice countryside.

Next trip

2010-08-09T18:33:00.002+02:00

Well, 6 months travelling in South Asia weren't enough, so we decided to go again abroad. First however, we fly to Barcelona on the 29th of August where we are staying at home for about 1 month.
On the 26th of September we booked a flight via London to New Dehli. There we are going to explore the north of India for 1,5 months before flying to Bangkok. Thailand again, well, we need a visa to get to Myanmar and Bangkok is hopefully a good place to get it quite easily.
On the 20th of November we have a flight to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, and back again to Bangkok on the 16th of December. Finally on the 21st of December we are flying back to Zurich via London to stay in Switzerland for Xmas.

Berner Oberland

2010-08-09T10:21:00.025+02:00

After coming back from Ticino we stayed about 1,5 weeks in Thun, in the house of my grandfather. On the 1st of August was the National day, but the weather wasn't good and we couldn't see a lot of fireworks. But we could do some nice trips to place in the region, the Berner Oberland.

On a day trip we went hiking to Lauterbrunnen and Mürren (near Interlaken). From Mürren we had a nice view towards the mountains and Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, but always more clouds appeared during the day. We went also to visit some waterfalls, for example the "Staubachfall" which is 297 meters high! Finally we saw the "Trümmelbachfälle", some waterfalls in a narrow canyon which come directly from a glacier.

Another day we went to Ballenberg, the Swiss open air museum near Brienz. Here we could see many tradional houses, inside and outside, from different regions.

Also Bern we visited shorty to see the new "Bärenpark", a park for the bears.

The "Aareschlucht", canyon of the river Aare, was another nice walk thourgh.

And finally on the way back from Ticino we stopped in Andermatt to see the Schöllenschlucht and the devil's bridge.

Ticino

2010-08-09T09:57:00.018+02:00

The weather forecast wasn't good for the north side of the Alps, so we went for 5 days by car to Ticino. The Italian part of Switzerland is on the south side of the Alps and often the weather is better there (and really we had some nice days). By car we had the possibility to drive around and visit some places which would be more difficult and expensive by public transport.

On the way from Thun (north side of the Alps) to Bellinzona (Ticino, on the south side) we had to pass 2 mountain passes; Grimsel and Nufenen (2'478 meters high). On the way back we drove via Lucomagno, Oberalp and Sustenpass.

In Bellinzona (1) we visited the Castelgrande from where we could see the other 2 castels, in Ascona (2) we enjoyed the Lago Maggiore (3), in Locarno (4) the Piazza Grande and from Morcote (5) we had a nice few over the Lago di Lugano.

On a day trip we went to the Verzasca valley near Locarno. In Lavertezzo we could see the famous bridge crossing the Verzasca river, however the water was very cold, so we put just our feet inside. After we went to the high dam at the end of the Verzasca valley. Here already James Bond enjoyed the height of 220 meters to do bungee jumping!!

On another day we went to the Maggia valley where we went for a walk to Fusio and then down to Prato-Sornico. On the way we passed Mogno where a chapel from Mario Botta stands. At the end we went to see the canyon of the Maggia river.

Switzerland

2010-07-24T07:20:00.002+02:00

The nearly 6 month's in Southeast Asia passed very fast and now we are already back in Switzerland. We stay here about a month with our family to relax and visit the country. Today we are going for a few days to Thun to my grandfathers house, photos we will show you later on.

Singapore

2010-07-24T06:49:00.017+02:00

Singapore is a big city on an island at the end of the Southeast Asia peninsula. The city is very, very different to other one's in this region (only Kuala Lumpur is similar). Everything is well organised and clean, by metro it's possible to reach every place quickly and all is modern (buildings, shopping centers, etc.)

Inside the city are many different quaters, like Chinatown, Little India, Colonial District, Kampong Glam (muslim), etc. Modern skyscrapers are next to old coloniail buildings.

Hindu and buddhist temples, mosques and churches (St. Andrew's Cathedral) are very close to each other.

One day we spent in the Singapore Zoological Gardens, a nice place with a lot of animals. Finally we could see all this big cats and other animals in real, which we didn't have the chance to spot during our trekking tours in different National Parks!! The Zoo has an open concept, the Orang-utans are free! And apart of the animals is also the forest very nice, jungle! After the zoo visit we went to the Night Safari, another park with animals, but this one is only possible to visit during night time. It's something special to see the animals by night and drive along by tram.

Jakarta

2010-07-23T09:22:00.016+02:00

Jakarta is Indonesia's capital and one of the biggest cities in Southeast Asia. The city is very busy, a lot of traffic and quite polluted, but the train service is a reliable service.

The center of the city is the Lapangan Merdea (Freedom square) with the National Monument, a 132 meters high column. Except of this, the center has some modern buildings and big streets.

The historic heart of Jakarta is in Kota, home to the remnants of the Dutch capital of Batavia. Along a channel (which smells very, very bad) can be seen many old Dutch colonial houses and also the Chicken Market Bridge.

The center of the Dutch town was on the Taman Fatahillah, the old town square, where the old City hall stands (built in 1710) and inside is now the Jakarta History Museum.

Close to the square is the Gereja Sion (Sion church), the oldest remaining church in Jakarta. It was built in 1695 for the "black Portuguese" brought to Batavia as slaves and given their freedom if they joined the Dutch Reformed Church. It's the only church we've seen with an organ inside.

Before coming to Jakarta, we made a stop in Bogor. In the center of this city is the Bogor's botanical gardens, called Kebun Raya. This "green lung" was first laid out by the British governor Sir Stamford Raffles and later expanded by Dutch botanists. The gardens are big and full of plants, many different palm trees, water plants, cactus, etc.

Dieng Plateau

2010-07-22T21:00:00.026+02:00

After Yogyakarta we went by bus to Dieng (via Wonosobo) where we stayed 2 days. The Plateau of Dieng (Abode of Gods) on 2100 meters (and above) is a volcanic landscape of swirling clouds, green hills and acient ruins. There we went trekking to lakes and craters and to a mountain for sunrise.

The view of the Dieng mountains from Wonosobo and the fields and terraces where they plant a lot of things.

On a trip we went to Telaga Warna, also called coloured lake, and from a viewpoint above we had a nice panorama. The colour of the lake is different from other one's, because it's inside an crater.

Afterwards we went to Kawah Sikidang, a volcanic crater with steaming vents and bubbling mud pools. The water inside has a temperature of 90 degrees, a famous place for suicide.

After the football match we started the trekking tour at 3.30 am and went up to a mountain for sunrise (at 5.30). There were some clouds, but it was the best sunrise we could enjoy in Indonesia. We had also a nice view towards the Gunung Sundoro, another volcano more than 3100 meters high.

Another day we went to another lake inside a crater, where we could see a lot of people who worked in the terraces.

On the way to the lake we passed a crater with a lot of bubbling hot water inside. In Dieng Plateau they use the geothermal energy and they have a lot of pipelines and factories.

Dieng Plateau not only has volcanos, but also Hindu temples. They are ghought to be the oldest in Java, dating back to AD 680. The temples are quite small and many of them destroyed, but with the surrounding landscape they look nice.

Gunung Merapi

2010-07-22T20:36:00.014+02:00

On a trip I (Laura slept in the hotel) went for sunrise up to Mount Merapi (Mountain of Fire), Indonesia's most active volcano. The last eruption was in 2006, so now it's more or less quiet.
From Yogya we started at 10 pm and drove by car to a village (about 1400 meters above sea level) on the flanks of Merapi. At 00.30 am we started our climb up to the crater (about 2900 meters high). With a break, caused by bad weather (rain and fog), we finally arrived on the top exactly for sunrise at 5.30.
Well, we could see the sunrise for a few minutes, luckily, but very soon afterwards arrived a lot of patches of fog and the visibility dropped down to a few meters... So, the sunrise I could enjoy, however I nearly couldn't see anything of the volcano.
It was a quite a hard trekking tour to the top, but to get down it was worse for my knees... For the very steep 1500 meters climb we needed about 4 hours and another 3,5 hours to get back.

View from the top: First the colors and finally the sun appeared, but the fog as well (3rd photo on the right).

The panorama would be very nice if the weather is good, but soon it was very foggy and cloudy. Smoke came up on many parts of the volcano, it's still active.

Gunung Merapi seen from a viewpoint on about 2500 meters. The last photo is a neighbour volcano which is extinct now.

On the slopes of Merapi they grow a lot of plants, vegetables and also tobacco (photo with the other volcano in the background). Afterwards they dry the tobacco leaves in front of their houses.

Borobudur + Prambanan

2010-07-22T19:47:00.021+02:00

On a day trip from Jogja we went to 2 temple places, Prambanan and Borobudur. Prambanan is the grandest Hindu temple complex in Java with about 50 temple sites. The Shiva temple is the largest one, towering 47 meters above the valley. This temple complex was built in the 9th century and soon after its completion it was mysteriously abandoned.

The main temple complex in Prambanan.

An other temple complex in Prambanan, many are collapsed (due to earthquakes, last one in 2006) and now they are rebuilding them.

Borobudur is the largest Buddhist monument ranking with Bagan (Myanmar) and Angkor Wat (Cambodia) as one of the great Southeast Asian monuments. The temple consists of 6 square bases topped by 3 circular ones and it was constructed as Prambanan in the early 9th century AD. There are nearly 1500 relief panels on the terraces and 432 Buddha images sit in chambers on the terraces. On the upper terraces are stupas, which contain 72 Buddha images.

Yogyakarta

2010-07-19T11:41:00.017+02:00

Yogyakarta in the middle of Java has some nice places around the city to visit. The city itself however, doesn't have something really interesting. We spent 6 days there to pass the time as we didn't know where to go, Java had been quite disappointing for us... Some day trips we made will be published separatly later on, as it's too much to put all in one.

The central market is crowded and full of textile (Batik). In Yogyakarta are 2 places to visit; the water palace and the Kraton, another palace with a really interesting museum... everything except gold and silver they have, just plastic spoons and such things which could be from our grand-parents, but not from a king...!! They also had a dance show which was as interesting as this one in Bali, but this time we didn't have to pay a lot for the entrance.

We also had time to join a Batik course, a traditional painting with wax, and make one. Well, it was not a perfect one, but I think not bad for the beginning.

On a day trip we went to Solo, a city which is 1 hour away by train from Yogya. There they also have 2 palaces and at least one is it worth to have the name "palace", because there are things made of gold, silver and ivory inside!

Bromo

2010-07-09T06:00:00.015+02:00

From Bali we took a bus and ferry to get to Java, Indonesia's main island and the island with the highest population density. We slept one night in Probolinggo, on the way to Surabaya, and the following day we went up to Gunung Bromo. We stayed in Cemero Lawang, a small village on the edge of a big caldera on about 2200 meters altitude. This place is famous for Gunung Bromo, a volcano where normally smokes comes out, situated in a big caldera (10 km diameter) with 3 other mountains, and especially to see this region at sunrise!

Gunung Bromo (the peak on the right in the first pic) is about 2300 meters high. Next to it are some other volcano peaks and all are inside a big caldera with quite steep walls.

Well, that's the famous view from the sunrise viewpoint (at 2700 meters where it was freezing cold). We were there for sunrise (at about 5.45), but unfortunately at this time we couldn't see anything except fog... We had to wait more than 1 hour to see something. Finally it was still very cloudy, but at least we could see a bit of Bromo (inside the clouds on the left) which is situated in the big caldera (not possible to see) and behind (best visible) is Gunung Semeru, Java's highest volcano (altitude about 3600 meters).

On the top of Gunung Bromo where we could see the landscape towards the caldera. It's a 45 minutes walk from the village down the caldera and up to Bromo, the final part are about 200 steps. However this one is an easy volcano compared with some other one's.

Lake and Gunung Batur

2010-07-07T12:53:00.027+02:00

From Ubud we went by motorbike to Lake Batur, a lake at the bottom of a huge caldera of a volcano. The rim of the caldera was full of tourists, more local than foreign one's, because now it's school holiday time, but on the lake it is nice and quiet.
On 1 day we just explored the region and on the 2nd day I climbed up to Mount Batur while Laura relaxed in the hotel.

Luckily to see this panorama, 3 mountains in a line: first one Gunung Batur (1717 meters), than Gunung Abang (2152m) and Gunung Agung, with 3142 meters Bali's highest mountain and it's also a volcano. Often the weather here is foggy or at least Mount Agung is covered with clouds, but after 1 day with rain, this one was really good.

Gunung Batur with 3 craters, the lowest one was active in 2000 and covered a big area with lava.

It's a steep, sometimes very steep, climb up to the top of the volcano which took me 75 minutes. Finally I got to the crater and had a nice view which however was often interrupted by fog patches which crossed the volcano.

The view from the crater towards the lake and around the big caldera.

The panorama from another viewpoint from where it was also possible to see the sea and north coast of Bali.

Another temple on the caldea rim.

Ubud, Bali

2010-07-07T07:34:00.029+02:00

From Makassar in Sulawesi we took a flight to Denpasar in Bali, where we finally arrived with 4 hours delay! After 1 night in Denpasar we went directly to Ubud, where we stayed 3 days to explore the region and other parts of the island.
Our first impression was a shock after a very quiet and nice time in Sulawesi. Bali is busy, a lot of traffic, many tourists and between the airport and Ubud we couldn't see any nature, just one house after the next one... And Ubud is full of souvenir shops, restaurants and guest houses. We thought typically Bali, the famous tourist mekka.
By motorbike we could go around easily, because public transportation nearly doesn't exist, and visit some beautiful places.

Bali is full of rice terraces and palm trees (if you can find the way out of the Denpasar region).

During the time we spent there we had the possibility to see some ceremonies in temples and all the gifts people offer. The island and its Hindu culture is very special and the whole island full of temples.

The holy spring and temple of Tirta Empul (10th century).

Gunung Kawi, a group of stone shrines cut into a cliff (from the 11th century).

Another temple with an old bronze drum

A temple ceremony in Ubud

Legong Dance spectacle, the famous Balinese dance. 5 minutes would have been enough, but for the entry we paid, we could enjoy during 80 minutes...

Goa Gojah temple (or Elephant cave), is believed to be a Buddhist hermitage.

Makassar

2010-07-07T07:20:00.005+02:00

After a 4 hours ferry and 26 hours bus ride we arrived finally in Makassar, the main city in Sulawesi.
There isn't a lot to see, nothing of interest, except maybe the Fort Rotterdam, built in 1545 and overtaken by the Dutch in 1667. It's now one of the best-preserved examples of colonial Dutch architecture in Indonesia.

In front of the fort, it was us who was the main attraction! Local people wanted to take photo with us.

Togean Islands

2010-07-07T06:16:00.025+02:00

From Rantepao, Tana Toraja, we went in 2 days by bus to Ampana, the set off point for the ferry to the Togean islands. These islands in Central Sulawesi are famous for one of the best diving spots of the world. From Ampana we took a ferry for 4 hours to Wakai, where we changed the boat and went in an hour to Kadidiri island, where we stayed 5 days, relaxed and snorkeled with Nemo's and many other fishes and corales.

On the way from Ampana to Kadidiri where we passed many islands of the Togean archipelago.

The beach and bungalow on Pulau Kadidiri where we stayed 5 days.

A few meters inside the water where already a lot of corals and fishes, but many corals near the beach were destroyed.

Sunset on Kadidiri islands with a lot of colours!

Tana Toraja

2010-07-05T15:12:00.031+02:00

With a bit delay we arrived at 1 o'clock in the morning in Makassar, Sulawesi. It wasn't worth to look for a hotel, because in the morning we wanted to go straight to our next destination, Tana Toraja, and so we spent the night at the airport, watching a football match.
The following day we took a bus to Rantepao, the main tourist town to explore the region of Tana Toraja. The people here are as friendly and helpful as in Sumatra and so we could enjoy 5 wonderful days in a very special place with a lot of tradion. Have a look to see what we did, it's a unique place to explore without a lot of tourists.

The mountains in this part of Sulawesi reach up to 2150 meters and the scenery is beautiful: nice panoramas, bamboo forests, tradional houses and a lot of rice terraces. On a half day trekking tour we went down the mountain back to Rantepao, but this was quite unspectacular compared with the other things.

Tradional houses (shaped like boats or buffalo horns) in Tana Toraja and in front of these houses they put the horns of the water buffalos which they have killed. The region is famous for their black and white water buffalos which are much more expensive than the normal black one's. And with the horns in front of the houses the family show everybody how rich they are.

Tana Toraja has some very special rituals, here you can see some of them:

- Burial caves (1-3): the coffins of the dead people are stored in a cave, once the coffin is broken, they just keep the skull and the rest they throw away. So, in the caves we could see many skulls and bones, it's a bit like in an Indiana Jones movie, but a real one! These caves are still used, but reach people are buried at the top of the mountain, people of the middle cast in an intermediate level and just poor people in the cave.

- Hanging graves (4+5): In a wall of a mountain they cut a hole in the rock to bury the dead person inside. This rocky cliffs and caves they used to hide the burial offerings to deter plundering. Often it's possible to see "tau tau" on balconies in this rocky cliff faces, life-siye, carved wooden effigies of the dead, which guard the coffins.

- baby graves (6+7): We could see 2 different places, one in a wall like the hanging graves and the other one was a baby tree, where they buried the dead babies.
- Megalithes (8): Dead people are buried near these megalithes and sometimes they erect a new one in honour of the dead.

These funeral places are incredible, but the most famous thing in Tana Toraja is the funeral ceremonies. Generally people here have 2 funerals, one immediately after the death, and a second, more elaborate, when enough cash has been raised. Between these 2 funerals a long time can pass, in one place we went to, it was 1 year and the other one 6 months. During this period, the dead person is kept at home and people say that he/she isn't dead, just sick.

The main, second funeral ceremony can last up to 7 days, depending on how rich the dead person was. During our stay in Tana Toraja we had the possiblity to see 2 different funerals, on one we stayed on the 1st and 2nd day of the ceremony, the reception days (for wealthier people 1 day isn't enough), and on the other one on the 2nd day when they had the buffalo sacrifice.

The reception days of the 1st funeral: A lot of people are welcomed by the family of the dead person and all guests bring a gift, for example pigs, buffalos, cigarettes, etc. Some guests brought up to 20 pigs! They were still alife and afterwards the guest and family of the dead person decide what they are going to do with the animals.

Another special thing we could enjoy: buffalo fights! On the reception day, at the end of the day, all the people went to a rice field, where they put a buffalo in front of another one and then everybody was waiting to see a fight. However, often these buffalos didn't want to do that, they just smelled each other and then started feeding or when one buffalo really wanted to fight, the other one escaped. That was quite dangerous, because there was no fence between the people and the buffalos, so if one escaped we didn't know where it was running to... Well, finally we had 2 or 3 fights and one of them was quite long, about 15 minutes.

For local people is something tradional and they bet money on these buffalos.

The other funeral ceremony we stayed was on the day of the buffalo sacrifice. In the morning they killed more than 20 water buffalos, and these animals are expensive, it was a rich family. People here life in a kast system like in India, whether they are in the rich, medium or poor kast. After killing the buffalos, they shared the meat of them and gave a part to each family. The whole funeral place was full of blood and it also smelled quite strong.

In the plane

2010-07-04T14:50:00.005+02:00

From Padang we took a Lionair flight to Makassar in Sulawesi with change of airplanes in Jakarta. From our brand new Boeing 737-900 plane we could enjoy a nice view along Sumatra´s coast and also rice fields and sunset before landing in Jakarta.

Bukittinggi

2010-07-04T12:07:00.021+02:00

Bukittinggi, near Padang (in the middle of the west coast) in Sumatra, is 930 meters above sea level and blessed with views of 3 volcanoes: Merapi, Singgalang and Sago. The town was hit by several strong earthquakes during the last years, the last one was in September and measured more than 7 on the Richter scale. In town we couldn't see any damages of the strong earthquake, but on the way to Padang were many houses with crashed walls and roofs visible.

A great view from the Taman Panorama viewpoint overlooking Sianok Canyon and towards Gunung SSinggalang.

On a day trip we went by motorbike to the Lake Maninjau, a very spectacular crater lake. To get down to the lake, we had to descent via 44 hairpin turns. But first we enjoyed the view from the crater walls, more than 600 meters above the lake which is 17 km long and 8 km wide. We drove around the lake which took us 2,5 hours through rice paddies and some parts were hit by landslides which destroyed houses and road and so sometimes it was quite difficult to pass.

On another day we went again by motorbike around the Merapi volcano. The landscape with many rice terraces is very nice and we passed many traditional houses before getting to Lake Singkarak.

It´s easy to get around by motorbike, but to see the Sianok Canyon it was necessary to go on foot. We crossed the canyon and on the other side we had a good view across rice fields and towards Singgalang volcano. In a village we could see some nice old, dutch houses, some of them more than 100 years old.

Lake Toba

2010-06-29T16:05:00.014+02:00

Sumatra, land of volcanoes!! Danau (Lake) Toba is also one (or better was, because it is an extincted one). The lake has a size of 1707 sq-km and is 450 meters deep (to compare: Lake of Geneva has 582 sq-km and is 310 meters deep) and is set in the collapsed caldera of an extinct volcano. In the middle of the lake is a big island, Pulau Samosir, which has the size of Singapore!! And this on 900 meters above sea level. We stayed a 3 days on this island in a nice resort.

It takes about one hour by ferry from Parapat (the main point on the mainland) to Tuktuk on Pulau Samosir.

Our "resort" in Tuktuk, a nice place directly on the lake with a big room and hot shower for about 6 euros per night!!

Many houses on the island have a very special architecture.

On 1 day we rented a motorbike to drive up and around the island. In the interior are many mountains, but the view from the top is very nice, even if the weather wasn't perfect.

Berastagi

2010-06-07T05:43:00.021+02:00

Well, first of all, sorry for the delay, we had some problems with the internet conections (very slowly here in Indonesia) and it has taken a lot of time to upload the photos.
After Bukit Lawang in Sumatra we continued to Berastagi, a small town in the south of Medan. It is situated on an altitude of about 1300 meters, quite high, and so the temperature was quite cold. We spent there 2 days and unfortunately we had bad luck with the weather, rainy, foggy and cold... and this very close to the equator!! It already should have been dry season, but it was all except this one.
Berastagi is famous for 2 volcanoes which are very close and it is possible to climb up to both of them. Otherwise the town hasn't anything of interest.

We only went up to one volcano, the Gunung Sibayak (2094 meters). It took us 3 hours to get to the top on a good marked trail and we passed fumaroles and finally got to the crater. It was foggy and nearly nothing visible of the surrounding landscape, but the was nothing compared with what happened after. We just got to the top and wanted to go down on another path, as it started raining (heavy rain) and fog came up, so we couldn't see more than 10 meters in the direction we wanted to head to. So, we had to go back the same way, there the sight was better, but it rained so much, that the path was full of water and further down it converted into a river... Walking through water up to the knees and sometimes a quite heavy current was not easy and it continued raining for the whole afternoon. Well, we arrived back in town, but I won't mention here in which state. Just to say, that with the bad weather it took us several days to dry all...

The way up to Gunung Sibayak

The crater, fumaroles and a short break between the fog to enjoy the short view

At the bottom of the volcano are some hot springs, but we just wanted to go back to the hotel as quickly as possible.

On the other day we went to Lake Sinabung, a lake next to Gunung Sinabung (2450), the sister volcano of the other one. It would take about 10 hours to climb up and down, a long time and with bad weather more difficult, so one volcano was enough.

Bukit Lawang

2010-06-06T10:25:00.014+02:00

Welcome to Indonesia, we arrived in Sumatra!!! From Kuala Lumpur we took a flight to Medan and then we continued directly to Bukit Lawang, a small village with many hotels, next to the Taman Nasional Gunung Leiser (National Park). The village is situated on the board of a river which was full with local people, playing, tubing, etc. (it was weekend time...). (By the way, this river isn't always so nice and quiet, in 2003 a flood killed here 280 people.)

But that isn't all which this place can offer you. The national park is famous for the last remaining Orang-Utans in Sumatra! And here in Bukit Lawang is the Orang-Utan Viewing Center where rangers look after Orang-Utans and feed them twice daily. These Orang-Utans are semi wild, but further inside the Jungle are many more wild one's. During this morning we could see 3 Orang-Utans, one of them with a baby!

During the waiting time (to find the next Orang-Utan), some other monkeys were around and played a lot, it's always funny to see them (they also tried to steal the food for the Orang-Utans).

Unfortunately we didn't go on a trekking tour to see more monkeys and other animals because the trips they offered were all very expensive and so we stayed here only 1 day.

Melaka

2010-06-06T04:57:00.009+02:00

On a day trip from Kuala Lumpur we went to Melaka, a bit in the south east of the capital. This town was once the favoured port of a Hindu prince (in the 14th century) and that was the beginning of a town which was a place of interest for many nations. First the Chinese, then Portugese, Dutch, British and Japanese occupied the town on the Straits of Melaka.
The most impressive relict is the red Stadthuys, the town hall built by the Dutch. From the Portugese period remain the Porta de Santiago (once part of the town wall) and the St Paul's Church on a small hill.

In the town it's possible to visit many museums, there's something for everybody. We visited the Maritime Museum with the re-creation of a Portugese sailing ship, named Flora de la Mar, which sank on the coast. And we went also to the Melaka Sultanate Palace, a wooden reconstruction of the palace which once stood here.

The old center of the town is a UNESCO world heritage and part of it is also Chinatown with some very nice houses, narrow streets, temples and a mosque.

Kuala Lumpur

2010-06-04T15:02:00.018+02:00

Kuala Lumpur is the modern capital of Malaysia and very different to the other capitals in the countries we had visited before on our trip. A lot of skyscrapers are in the center and of course the most famous one's are the Petronas-Twin-Towers! Once the highest building (now it's in Dubai and we already saw it), it has now just the title of the highest twin towers. The towers are 492 meters high and are connected by the skybridge on the 41st floor, about 172 meters above ground.

To get to the viewpoint on the skybridge, we first had to wait in a queue for about 1 hour to get a ticket and luckily we got one, we were nearly the last one's... Finally on the bridge it's possible to enjoy the view for about 10 minutes before going down again. Unfortunately the sight wasn't very good, it had just rained before.

Modern shopping centers (this one below the Petronas-Towers) and the monorail makes getting around easy.

The busy heart of Kuala Lumpur is Chinatown with a lot of shops and food stalls.

The historical center is around Merdeka square from where it is possible to have a nice view of Kuala Lumpur's skyline.

A nice mosque in the center is the Masjid Jamek, built about 100 years ago. It's only possible to walk around the mosque, tourists are not allowed to enter it. Apart of Chinatown is also Little India and next to some new buildings are old one's and always a lot of traffic.

Skyline by night.

Taman Negara

2010-06-01T15:21:00.020+02:00

Taman Negara in the interior of the Malaysian Peninsula is a big National Park. To get to Kuala Tahan, where the park entrance is, we had to take a boat from Jerantut for 2,5 hours. On the way we passed through the jungle and finally we arrived at the small village of Kuala Tahan.

We stayed 4 nights there and made a 2-day trekking, all organized on our own. We had to carry food, water and things to sleep. On the first day we walked about 6 hours on a well marked path from the park entrance to the Bunbun Kumbang hide, which should be the best one to observe animals. Unfortunately we didn't have the possibility to see wildlife, 2 hours after us arrived 4 people more and they were so noisy that all animals around went away...
On the next day we went back on another way which finally took us about 8 hours, going up and down all the time. We had to climb up, often was no way, just rocks and roots to catch. And this way with our quite heavy bags, lack of water and after a night with nearly no sleep. Well, happily we got back, and on the way we could see elephant shit and a footprint of a big cat (maybe a tiger?). Here some photos from this trekking tour:

Here the Bunbun Kumbang hide where we spent the night. The hide overlooks a small field and is surrounded by the big jungle. It's further away than the other hides in the park, so normally a good spot to see animals. The bad thing was that the hide was full of wasps... not very comfortable.

On the first day in Taman Negara we just walked to the canopy walkway, the biggest one in Malaysia and it's quite high, up to 45 meters! Except plants we couldn't see anything, well some butterflies and moskitos.

On the trekking tour we passed through a village (few houses) of local people and we saw some insects like ants, big streets of them, and other one's which are very big. Also a small snake we could see and Laura had the experience to get bite by a leech and a tick

Georgetown

2010-05-26T16:45:00.017+02:00

Georgetown is the main town on the Penang island in the northwest of Malaysia. It was founded by the English about 200 years ago and today it offers a nice old town which is also a UNESCO world heritage.

In the old town can be found a lot of old houses and on the sea side, opposite the mainland, Fort Cornwallis, which isn't very big nor intersting, but one thing the English left there. It's also possible to visit some of the houses in the old town of formerly rich people and see the interior.

Georgetown isn't very big, but in the old town it's possible to find a bit of everything: colonial houses, Chinatown, little India, Chinese temples, Hindu temples, mosques and churches... multicultural!!

So, in a few meters you change from the Chinese quater to the Indian one and in both they have a lot of food, very delicious!

In the northwest of the Penang island is the Nationalpark located. The rainforest is nice and they built a canopy walkway, so you walk on bridges from one tree to the next one, see the trees from a higher level and feel like a monkey. On a sweaty walk we went to the Monkey beach, unfortunately we couldn't see any animals there, but on another opportunity we saw some monkies and also quite big lizard (name unknown) which escaped always into the water when we approached