couchsurfing chengdu

when i arrived in chengdu i realized how difficult it would be here concerning the language barrier. as some widely used words like “railway station”, “water” or “left” and “right” were understood in most countries so far, it was different once i walked out of the railway station and faced a city of 12 million with only… Continue reading couchsurfing chengdu

johkang temple

one of the most sacred and important temples in tibet, the johkang temple is situated in central lhasa. many pilgrims do prostations in front of the temple.  some circuit the jokhang that way and few of them even made their way to lhasa in that fashion over 100 or 100o’s of miles. let us talk… Continue reading johkang temple

hotel live

we stayed at a wonderful hotel, an old restored mansion. with a good restaurant and wonderful people to share the food with. lucia trying to lend raphael some of her hair. …and a roof terrace to read a book or to simply spend some time away from the group… because there were some troubles involved in… Continue reading hotel live

group activities

on our way back from the monastery we witnessed the rehearsal of a whole school for a coming festival. dancing to traditional tibetan music in the schoolyard. in the evening we met in tashi’s restaurant to celebrate laura’s birthday. our guides organized the birthday cake and khatags, the traditional tibetan scarf. it was a nice… Continue reading group activities

tibet

on the evening of the 30th of april i was supposed to pick up my passport from the agency and leave the next morning with a bus towards the chinese border. when i reached the agency i was told that we are leaving in half an hour. in streets people were already gathering for a… Continue reading tibet

pokhara – kathmandu

after some days rest in pokhara and feasting in my favourite restaurant around the corner, i started towards kathmandu. the scenery was beautiful most of the time though the traffic was not. to take a rest at places to escape the traffic and honking became necessary. luckily such places could be found. after the last… Continue reading pokhara – kathmandu

to the north

it wasn’t that hot from varanasi on. and i used the early morning hours before stopping for breakfast. most of the times i am still surrounded as soon as i take a rest, even if the next village is a mile away. the scenery changed. rice fields made room for fields of grain and palm… Continue reading to the north

it’s getting hot in here

i really liked kolkata. after relaxing on the andamans i was again prepared for mainland craziness and after two months of traveling through india i learned a thing or two. the crowd is part of the way of life in india and you have to stand up to protect your privacy and personal space. sometimes… Continue reading it’s getting hot in here

kolkata

it was weird after the andamans to enter into all that traffic, noise and smell again. gladly my guest house wasn’t too far from the port. on this crossing a car missed me slightly but hit a scooter driver behind me. just some bruises and scratches for both the driver and the scooter, but still…… Continue reading kolkata

the big boat again

the trip back was not much different from the first to port blair, a lot of water and some dolphins. except there was not even an empty swimming pool on board and no card games this time. but the last hours were wonderful when we entered the hooghly river. after 3 days on the open… Continue reading the big boat again