Diving in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

[J.] We were planning to do some dives while being in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka before starting to explore the culture and national parks inland. We chose to do the dives with the Poseidon dive station, mainly because of all the good online reviews and their convenient location directly at the beach. The crew and divemasters were very nice and helpful and put a lot of emphasis on standard diving procedures, for example checking on us in detail while we were busy asembling the dive equipment.
The first two dives were wrack dives and fairly relaxed. The underwater life is not as rich and diverse as for example in Thailand, but there is still plenty to see.
The two dives the next day were fairly similar, but I could not believe how unlucky we were after having finished the second dive. It was a fairly shallow dive, not deeper than 14 meters. I was back at the boat for maybe 20 seconds, just got my equipment off and was watching two other divers getting out of the water when someone on the boat shouted "Whale shark, whale shark"! My head was spinning around, trying to get an idea about the direction where to watch and at the same time looking for my fins and mask. The whale shark was directly next to the boat (apparently) and all I managed to see was a blurry, undefined shadow in the water, not more. They could have told me anything, I would have not been able to identify what water creature it has been. Aaaaaargh! The whale shark disappeared quickly, no chances for me of getting back into the water (mask still out of reach). My husband actually jumped back into the water but could not see it as well. .. Our divemaster was the only one from our group seeing the whale shark and he told me later that on average they see them once a month and then generally in deeper water. Nooooooo!
I mean, we were diving in Mosambique to see the whale sharks without any luck (but were rewarded with manta rays and a big turtle) only to miss one here in Sri Lanka by maybe a minute. I could not believe it... One day later, another diver was telling me that she has also seen the whale shark and my first impulsive thought was "Bleah, I dont like you", but she was actually very nice ;)

We started the rescue diver certification the next day which meant back to the class room for a full day and then two consequent practical diving days thereafter.
The first practical lessons were in very shallow water where everyone could still stand. The most difficult situations are around panicking divers and during one of my exercises the simulating panicked divemaster pushed out my regulator when I came too close. They told us later that during another rescue diver course, one divemaster was pushing out the regulator of a student, taking off his mask as well and climbed onto him holding him under water for quite some time. This student was feeling sick for 2 days afterwards! Shjoe... thats learning the really hard way!
The second day of practical lessons included a surface rescue of a tired/panicked diver as well as a search for a lost diver, finding him unconscious under water, surfacing him and providing rescue breaths every 5 seconds while taking off his and your own equipment and swimming to the boat at the same time. We were fairly unlucky with the weather conditions, quite high waves (approx. 1.5 to 2 meters?) and poor underwater visibility (< 5 meters).
I was swallowing so much water during the first lesson, I almost felt like asking for help myself ;)
The second exercise does not sound that difficult, but providing the rescue breaths while counting loudly to 5 in between, making sure no water is getting onto the victims face and doing all the other things is actually more difficult than I expected. I got the counting mixed up (1, 3, 4,...) or could not find the strap releases I normal know exactly where they are. It was a mission, haha!
Three of us students (out of four) were fighting sea sickness or the first signs of it, so I guess in the end the course instructor was feeling a bit for us, and overlooking some small errors we made during these exercises ;)
We were also watched by a turtle who stuck her head out of the water for quite some time. For me, that made up for the bad luck with the whale shark to a large extent.

We all passed the course and with that, husband and I can successfully tick off one more point that was on our list for 2015 (getting the rescue diver certificate). We made it just in time...

Sometimes, you have to treat yourself

[J.] One very good advice been given to us before we started the trip was to remember to treat ourselves from time to time. So... This is me treating myself to the core:
After India and for weeks now, our average breakfast contains toast and jam and eggs in all forms (boiled, fried, scrambled, omlette). I must admit, I just cannot see eggs for breakfast anymore. Having hunted down a middle sized jar of nutella, for which we walked to a supermarket 30 minutes away while the sun was burning down on us and after paying something like 10 Euro for it, I am in chocolate heaven every morning since, munching away one toast after another with the biggest smile ever on my face.... Yuuuuuumm!

Tsunami museum, Telwatta, Sri Lanka

[J.] On 24 December, we went to the tsunami museum in Telwatta, just about 4km north of Hikkaduwa.

The museum is a collection of photographs taken by various people from that day on 26 December 2004, and run by a local lady who lived in that place before the tsunami hit her home, destroying it to the grounds and having been rebuilt afterwards. The entry is free, but visitors can leave a donation if they like.

Some things that I did not know before include that the tsunami here in Sri Lanka came in two waves: the first comparably low, flooding the coastal area after which the water went back to the sea to a large extent leaving the people behind wondering what just happened,  taking photographs and even catching fish from the shore. The second wave was reported to be a 10 meter high wave having the disastrous effect everyone knows about.
The second thing I did not know was that after Indonesia, Sri Lanka was the country with the second highest number of death casualties. And the third is that during that event a train with hundreds of people on board was hit resulting in approx. 1700 deaths (people drowing while trapped in the coaches or smashed while hiding from the waters behind or on top of the train when it was hit by the second wave, as far as I understand). This is reportedly the train accident with the highest number of death casualties ever. There is also a memorial (Buddha statue) at the place where the train was hit by the waves.

As Sri Lanka found itself in a civil war when the tsunami hit, which effected something like two thirds or three quarters of its coastline. After the tsunami, a temporarily ceasefire was agreed on. The cicil war ended in 2009.

[Pics will follow]

Best of the Rest (India)

India already feels already far away. We have not managed to keep up with the blog - I blame it on the bad, bad internets and not ourselves. Here is the best of the rest i.e. the other cities that we visited. Maybe we will add some flavourtext to the pictures later.

Short summary is:
0. Jodhpur always slips my mind when I think of the the trip. Nice fort! Yeah, and ...?
1. Udaipur is called the romatic city and my preciouss and I can understand why
2. Pushkar during the camel fair is crazy cool and probably quite boring the rest of the year
3. Agra: the Taj Mahal is a beautiful building and worth the trip (doh!)
4. Varanasi: India is a deeply mysterious place  (a travel agent told me when he was trying to scam us) and Varanasi is the source of mystery.

Without further ado, here are the pics:

Jodhpur

Udaipur

Pushkar


Agra


Varanasi

India: Things, I personally struggled with

[J.] We had some wonderful experiences in Rajasthan, India and I am fully aware of the fact that my impressions are biased by me not really being prepared for India and that I was stressed and tired after all the admin and things to organise around us leaving South Africa. As a consequense, we started organising a lot around the trip in Rajasthan only after having arrived there and a lot of noise and generally slow internet connections did not really help in getting the right mood set up.
In addition, I understand that a lot of my impressions are based on cultural differences that although I generally consider myself open minded, made it difficult for me to fully enjoy India.
With these things in mind, it was not the dirt, the noise or the smell of urin but the following two things I struggled with in India:

1) How often people were telling us things that were simply not true
2) How women are perceived and treated in daily life.

Re 1) Haggling is a part of India as well as other annoying scams as we experienced hands on on our day of arrival and every day after that. However, I found this overall pretty tiring as you always have to have your wits together when trying to go from A to B and in addition have to be sensitive to not inflate prices for local people. In addition, I do not want to feel like being ripped off just because I am too trusty. I found this quite difficult to balance as we had to go through this every day. At some point I felt like being perceived like an ATM for free cash withdrawal. But what made it worse was how it changed me with regards of how suspicious I became of every single information and advice given to me.
It resulted in a situation where I turned down a really nice offer from a man who wanted to help us getting tickets for a show. We were arriving late and knew that tickets are limited and the queue for tickets was already quite long. The man said that he knows the ticket sales man and for a cash amount X he could organise us these tickets. It was not even that much money, but I did not trust this offer, being suspicious of having to pay again an extra amount on top of the regular price; and hence, turned down the offer, queuing up myself and needless to say, we did not get the tickets for that night as the show was sold out. It felt like a double punch to the face by a) having been rude to this man and b) obviously not seeing the show. I must say, it had not been my greatest evening.
However, both of us simply do not want to turn into persons who dont trust in other people in the first place and it felt like India was doing this to us to some degree.
Again, this is a personal impression and other people might deal differently with this.

Re 2) I had moments where I wanted to scream about how I was perceived as a woman. I know that gender equality is a concept still being very young in most countries around the world, and that Indian culture simply perceives women differently compared to men. However, I cannot help myself feeling strong about gender equality and therefore, it simply did not work for me in India.
Some example moments I personally struggled with:
- Around 80% of people in the streets and service industry are male
- The first person addressed for whatever query was always my husband. Sometimes in restaurants, the waiter was only talking to him and I felt like not being present at all. [Husband did not like it either as he had to negotiate everything.]
- When I was paying a dinner bill in cash, the waiter came back with the change handing it not to me but to my husband saying "Thank you, Sir"
- When leaving a restaurant or hotel, my husband was greated with "Have a good day, Sir  / Thank you, Sir / Good bye, Sir" while all I got was a head nod.
- Smoking as a woman: I know that this is not perceived well by people in public places and therefore, I generally kept it to guesthouses, hotels and restaurants. However, after a long train ride, I was going to a quiet corner, only to be approached by a guy telling me that this is not allowed, all smoking by himself. Another example was, where a group of guys signalled towards my husband that he should not allow me smoking only to ask me for a cigarette a few moments later. [Really?!]
- Adverts in the cinema/television generally show woman either as pretty little things to be decorated with expensive jewellery or as not so clever but cute things that need help
- While queueing up for train tickets at a counter behind which was working a woman, we witnessed how disrespectfull a policeman was talking to her only to be all polite to her male senior who she called shortly after being offended.

Again, I understand that this is all part of the Indian culture and I do not want to raise my finger or judge, it is just something I personally so struggled with while travelling in this country.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xTrSOBhw7Qw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hiking in the Annapurna region, Nepal

[J.] We left Kathmandu on Saturday, 5 December for an approx. 7 hour bus ride to Pokhara, only about 200km away. Close to Pokhara, our hiking trip would start the following day.
We chose to go for an all inclusive hiking trip that was organised by Nepal Eco Adventures in Kathmandu including all trecking permits and overnight stays as well as providing us with sleeping bags and hiking poles for me. We asked for one guide and one additional porter carrying one of our backpacks. Both of us would only carry a daypack. Our idea behind having a porter was obviously to not having to carry such a heavy bag up and down the mountains (and as we were hiking along, I was really glad about it) but it also provided an additional income for one more person.
The trek we have chosen is called the Annapurna Panorama Trek and considered one of the easier hikes, only going up to about 3200m. As we were slightly out of the trekking season for this region which runs from October to November and with temperatures in December that can get already quite cold high up the mountains and not having the proper clothing gear for such altitudes, we did not opt for a longer trip going up to 5000m like the Everest Base Camp or the Annapurna Base Camp.

The bus trip to Pokhara was amazing and it became quite apparent that general road conditions, potholes and all other trucks and buses using the same road made this 200km tour a 7hour trip. Driving on this road certainly requires a lot of experience as well as driving skills on another level as overtaking in blind corners are rather the standard then the exception. On one occasion we almost ran into a head-to-head collision, the whole bus going like whooooooaaaaaah! - but nothing happened and I have not seen one accident along the road. Sitting on the right side in tralling direction, the view onto the valley was great and we also saw a white water rafting group, so definitely something to consider when going to Nepal as well. The bus stopped three times along the road for refreshments and little breaks and husband had a lot of fun exploring the food stalls and sampling the street food offerings.

The next day on Sunday, 6 December, we started the trip with a 1.5hour taxi ride to Nayapul (sp?) at about 1000m altitude. The hike started off very relaxed along a dirt road while passing some teahouses selling fruits, food and drinks. Around lunchtime, we were at about 1500 and still with good spirits until we realised that for the rest of the day we were to climb the next 700m uphill by taking 3200 stairs. Wow... I must say, that I do not consider hiking poles the coolest thing on earth but along the trek and with the flu still giving me dry coughs, a blocked and running nose and short breath, I quickly grew very fond of them. We were joking at every corner that it is just another corner we have to pass and then we would be at the place where we would stay for the night. As we arrived at our destination for the day, we both were exhausted and I made a note in my mind that although a trek might be considered an easy trek, it still does not allow for any shortcuts and lifts and bridges. You walk each meter up and down on your own feet, what a surprise!
The night was cold (sleeping under a 5cm thick blanket AND the sleeping bag) and the accomodation very basic, but everyone was very friendly and the food/tea warming our bellies.

On the second day, the morning sky was clear and the rising sun gave us the first of so many amazing views onto the snow covered mountains. And it is these views that are so rewarding so many times during the day. Our hike continued to go uphill, with more stairs to come and at the end of the day, I was wishing to only go downhill from now on, big please! (In hindsight, I should be careful what I wish for.)
I remember the last view steps to walk towards our accomodation for the night and I was so painfully slow with every step being such an effort and then turning around the last corner and having out of the sudden this for me totally stunning view:

The mountains seem so close as if it would only take another days' hike and you could touch them.

During the day, it is actually very warm but as soon as the sun sets it becomes fairly cold. The night here was very cold. The "warm" water felt as warm as the cold water at other places. No way I would jump under such a cold shower. And I remember how fascinated I watched the water steaming off my shoulder when I used a cloth to wash myself. Curled up in our beds and again under layers of clothes and blankets, it felt so cold on my cheek when turning the head on the pillow, we both opted for beanies and the hoody of our fleece during the night.

The next day, we only had a quick hike up and then we walked downhill for most of the day. The day was rather cloudy and still very cold, so we descended rather quickly and arrived early afternoon at our destination for the day. The place where we stayed was very nice and also offered a quick warm shower. Surprisingly, the walls between the rooms were the thinnest I have ever come across. They were so thin, it felt like the people next door were in our room when talking to each other and I could hear even them pee across 2 rooms. Sjoe!!!
In the end however, it did not really mattered much as everyone was so tired from the days hike and hence, had a good sleep regardless of any noises around.
That next day, it paid me back wishing for a hike that is only going downhill. My legs were sore from muscle aches, it wasn't funny. I was walking down the stairs to the dining hall like an old woman. Turning around from one side to the other in bed made my thighs scream. Later that day, my knees were so sore they felt like being broken. The only thing I never wanted to do in my life again was going downhill. Well... we were still at about 2000m, so clearly that was not going to happen. Husband suggested that I should better take a pain killer but the powergirl in me refused. The next day, even that voice would be silenced, haha!

The following days were rather short 3 to 4 hour hikes through amazing valleys and beautiful little villages.
One day, while I was turtle-speed-like descending a path, four porters were overtaking me with such a speed, carrying maybe 30 to 40kg each on their back and wearing flip-flops! I really admired their strengh and agility making it look like a no-effort walk.

Overall, I would do such a hike again any time and we were really wandering about what makes hiking so rewarding. I would love to come back to Nepal one day and hike up to the Mount Everest Base Camp.

Maybe also a little note on the equipment needed for such a hike:
A water bottle is a must as you can fill up the bottle for little money with safe drinking water at almost every teahouse. We have seen some not so pretty, huge piles of plastic bottles along the way as every little piece of plastic or food wrapped in plastic that has been carried up the hill needs to be carried down again. Persinally, I carried down the butt of every cigarette I smoked. And also every snicker's plastic wrap or glass bottle or the like we purchased along the hike.
Another must-have is a towel, they are not provided at the overnight stays.
No ATM is available in the mountains and the higher you hike up the hills, the more expensive food and beverages are. Accomodation costs are generally really cheap in comparison to food prices.
Clothes wise, it is up to the individual and own preferences. I did the hike in trail running shoes and they were perfectly fine for this specific trek and temperatures. The only thing I would do differently the next time is having more tech shirts with me that dry quickly. You sweat a lot when moving but at every little break the winds were chilly so we constantly put on and off one to two layers of additional jackets. A not drying cotton shirt is simply not comfortable.

Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

[J.] We travelled from Nepal via Thailand to Sri Lanka on Friday, 18 December. After more than 5 weeks of wearing long (India) and warm clothes (Nepal) we were longing for sunny beach weather and I was keen to trade the fleeze and hoodies in for skirts and shirts which were packed away in my luggage since the beginning of our trip.

Arriving in Bangkok, Thailand more then 4 years after our first holiday in Asia was exciting as we saw the airport with such different eyes after having been to so many other countries since. Years ago, we only noticed how different this airport looks compared to european airports; now we were stunned by the sheer size and modern look of it.

We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka very late that night. The owner of the guesthouse we had booked in advance had been so friendly to pick us up and we were glad after a full travel day to not having to deal with transport or taxi drivers.
It is not allowed to import cigarettes to Sri Lanka, and as my bucket list for this year 2015 still unsuccessfully states "stop smoking", well...I thought, that it might be a great idea to just stop exactly that day. What a failure! - being tired and stressed after queueing up and waiting so many times that day, the first thing I did after stepping out of the airport was asking our driver where I could buy cigarettes. He was walking with us to such a hidden shop directly outside of the dark airport, I would have not guessed it there. Funnily enough, he mentioned that he was glad about this smoking break as he was also craving one and does not smoke at home... I like to think, we went along pretty well for the one day stay at his place... ;)

We moved on south to Hikkaduwa taking the train along the west coast. The train was super crowded and we knew that our train ride was about to last more then 2 hours with obviously no chances to catch a seat or at least sitting on the floor. Uuuurgh... The doors to both side of the train were wide open at least and we were thankful for the fresh brize of air cooling us down. But beside all this, the almost constant view onto the ocean was the bomb and compensated easily for having to stand the whole ride. When we arrived in Hikkaduwa, the train stopped but there was no platform to get off the train. So we waited, believing that the platform would appear after the road the train had to cross. Well, it did not and we made the whole trip down to Galle, about 25km further south. Oh, no!!... the train had simply been too long so that our coach did not stop somewhere with a platform close to it. We had no idea if there would be another train departing that late afternoon back from Gaule to Colombo via Hikkaduwa and the thought of having to spent money on a taxi ride for nothing was not adding to our not-so-great mood. But we were lucky, arriving in Galle we could catch a train back departing only 10 minutes later. By then, the idea was to jump off the train in Hikkaduwa regardless of having a platform or not and I was prepared to even through my bag and myself off a slowly moving train, just wanting to arrive and stop travelling for this day.
Finally after arriving in Hikkaduwa (with the coach stopping next to a platform), we were rewarded with a front beach bungalow and seldom has a beer tasted so good... Cheers!

We spent two absolutely lazy days without doing anything more then spending time at the beach, beach bars, playing frisbee (I so struggled throwing the frisbee straight instead of in all other directions, this classic girl style was worth quite some laughs... oh oh.) and watching the sun set with palm trees, the sound of waves and perfect sand being such a cliché, it almost hurt. The surfing scene and all the other tourists add to a very relaxed vibe, not too crowded, tourists of mixed age and a laid back atmosphere.

The next day, we hired a scooter to explore the coast further south, visiting Galle and Mirissa. Driving on the road is more or less safe; generally, bigger vehicles clearly have the right of way. Although the general driving speed is around 40 to 50 km per hour, buses drive like crazy and it is a good idea to stay as clear of them as you can. We had two instances with us being directly involved, one as a pedestrian and one on the scooter where I thought, this is totally crazy and a seriously dangerous behaviour (buses going at high speed when passing us).
The streets in the fort of Galle are beautiful, with an old colonial style and we were wandering down the alleys for some time and hunting down a breakfast. In Merissa, we stayed only for an afternoon coffee somewhere at the beach and the tourists seemed younger here compared to Hikkaduwa. After one day on the road, my cheeks and chin were slightly covered in black oily dust, which did not even wanted to go properly off after a long swim in the sea. Yikes!
Overall, I so enjoyed the ride along the coast and its beautiful scenery. It seems like new buildings and resorts are being built everywhere but still not giving the impression of an over touristy place. Along the road, there were still signs and ruins caused by the 2004 tsunami, even one modern hotel being built around the facade of a destroyed previous building. And the lonely beaches invite for a break, picnic or just to relax.

We moved our guesthouse on 23 December to a diving centre just up the road. The next days will be dedicated to diving and maybe doing the rescue diver qualification. Sooooo looking forward to it!

[Pics will follow]

Kathmandu, Nepal

[J.] We arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal on 30 November. So often, the airport of a country seems to me like the first mirror of the culture and the people of its country and this felt so true for the Kathmandu airport. I did some duty free shopping in Delhi and while we were busy with the visa application on arrival filling several electronic and paper forms, I left this duty free bag on a shelf in this visa area. After passing the passport control, another security scan and waiting for our bags at the belt, my husband asked me where I have my duty free bag... bleeh, of course I forgot it in the visa area upstairs! I was running back, explaining the situation to the first official person at the security scan checkpoint who smiled and let me pass showing me the way upstairs, some back stairs that are normally not open for tourists. At the first floor, I was explaining the situation again to a second official, also mentioning that I do not have the passport with me (as I was entering again the area before the passport control). He nodded and let me through. I found the bag (including my precious cigarettes, haha) where I left it and could walk back downstairs to the luggage claim area without any hassles, only needed to pass the security scan ckeckpoint again. I was all smiles... the travel guide we used was saying, that tourists come back to Nepal because of its friendly people and it felt so true. 

Outside the airport we started negotiating the taxi fee for the ride to our hotel located in touristy area Thamel. Everyone was telling us that the fees are double the price we expected due to the fuel crisis. I had some question marks on my forehead and thought, well... the stories are so consistant, I need to research this once we had access to the internet again. It turned out that due to the new constitution just becoming into effect a few weeks ago, there were political riots and blockages happening at the border to India. Fuel was short everywhere, 50% of all inland flight were apparently cancelled already and tourists were advised to stay away from any public demonstrations. At that moment, I felt like the worst preparred traveller ever. We checked the travel warnings for Nepal 2 months ago and arrived there what in that moment felt like a huge crisis with us not knowing if we would be able to get around and out of Nepal again. Aaaaargh!
It turned out to be all good and our worries regarding our travel plans did not became true. However, the daily life in Nepal was very much impacted by this crisis as fuel was expansive, black markets florishing, hot showers rarely available and resturants closed or only with a much reduced menu. For Nepalese people, I am sure that the effects of winter coming and not enough heating resources available were much more problematic.

We spent some lazy 5 days in Kathmandu, just organising a hiking trip to the Annapurna region and strolling around the city. The earthquake earlier in May 2015 has destroyed a lot of buildings, also affecting the very old temples at the Durbar Square, which partly were completely destroyed; so, so sad how history has just vanished. Wandering along the alleys and small streets of the old town, the most peculiar thing for me was how very old buildings, temples and spiritual places mingle into the daily life. Somewhere on a square, we found a tiny little statue which accoring to the travel guide is from 6th or 7th century AD, surrounded by shops and dental practices that would not give the tiniest clue of how old this statue is!

With all the outdoor gear shops around and those many 8000m summits in this country with their tragic and sucessul stories I totally got caught by the mountaineering bug or better, the idea about mountaineering. In my mind, I was climbing them all (needless to say that I have no clue about mountaineering at all). I read the book "Into thin air" by Jon Krakauer about the disastrous ascent of the Mount Everest in 1996, which also stated that at that time about 4% of all people attempting the ascent of the summit died. Another book I read was 'Annapurna: First conquest of an 8000m peak' by Maurice Herzog from 1951. Both books are discussed controversial as they only describe the events from one persons view, but still I felt that they are well written, entertaining and give a great impression of what it means to climb in such dangerous environments and how closely related the successful ascents of the summits and the following difficult descents are when the bodies and minds are exhausted.

I was still suffering from a heavy flu I caught somewhere in India, most likely during a night train trip from Jalsaimer to Jodhpur which was freezing cold. I had this flu now for about three weeks without any signs of getting better and decided to take the antibiotics we were carrying with us for exactly this reason. That's how I started the 7 day hiking trip around the Annapurna region beginning with a bus trip to Pokhara.

Pokhara, Nepal

[J.] After our hike in the mountains, we spent some days in Pokhara, a very calm and laid back town. There are plenty of things to do here, going on a boat ride onto the lake, hiking up to the beautiful Peace Pagoda which also offers a beautiful view onto the mountains and is ideal for taking scenic photos, as well as activities such as paragliding.  We had all intentions to go for these options but well... we were dead lazy instead and the best we managed was having a stroll down the main road along the lake and going for a massage. Hmmmm...
In our defense, the weather was quite cloudy/foggy, so the view onto the mountains clearly could not have been that great and served as our excuse. And the boat ride simply did not feel too appealing, but we might have been completely wrong, who knows...

Something funny we discovered in Pokhara are that the maps of this town that are simply not accurate (similar for Kathmandu). In fact, at some point we looked at two different maps that for sure were showing different streets! Google maps is also generally off several streets, so finding specific places becomes an afternoon long hunt along the streets.
One afternoon, we were so keen to find a sandwich bar, only a tiny shop somewhere off the main street, we literally ran around in circles for quite some time. And we were craving these sandwiches after having eaten from the same menu in the mountains for days (which was good, but we needed something different in taste). When we finally gave up, quite frustrated, we stumbled past this place on our way back to the hotel. We could not believe it! We had passed this place at least 5 times before without noticing it and it was literally only 150m away from where we stayed.... aaaaaaah!
However, it felt like we had the best sandwiches that evening for dinner ever. The shop owner was such a lovely guy. He also owned a dog which was the most charming dog in human terms we ever met and I still regret not having taking my cam with me that evening. The dog came close to us while we were waiting for the sandwiches, sat next to my husban who had his legs crossed and put one leg onto his shoe that was haning in the air, then sitting there as if this would be the most normal thing in the world while looking down the street. I could not stop laughing...
Another great shop food-wise was a German bakery that sold the most amazing apple pies, and I had my fair share of them during these days...

We left Pokhara for some final days in Kathmandu to do some shopping before heading off to Sri Lanka via Bangkok. For whatever reason, we did only apply for a single entry visa in India months ago and could not manage to find an acceptable flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka where our luggage would be checked through in Delhi. Hence, we would have needed a transfer visa for India which due to the paperwork and time involved has not been an option for us. Therefore, we decided to fly via Bangkok.

Bye Nepal, we will miss you for sure and hopefully will be back one day. But we are also looking forward to unpack our beachwear which has been locked in our luggage for more then 5 weeks now... Hello Sri Lanka, here we come...  ;)

Peaches - Close Up

Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian At Best

Sweets in Jaisalmer

[J.] We tested our sweet Indian tooth today while hunting some samosas in the streets of Jaisalmer. Apparently, this shop is the best to buy sweets and the convincing indicator for us were all the locals busy buying there as well...
So, my teeth only survived a few of these sweets, never thought that too sweet is actually possible!! Still, I am in sweet heaven.

Jaisalmer, India

[J.] Aaaaah, Jaisalmer! What a beauty, what a sight. A town and its amazing fort built of yellow sandstone...

The first day after arriving in this town, we felt like we finally arrived in our holiday. We spent the day at the roof top restaurant of our hotel, super lazy, making further plans, drinking coffee and lassi and enjoyed the stunning view from there onto the fort in the near distance.

The next day, we wandered through the streets and visited the fort, windowshopping all the beautiful crafts and art available for sale, having the idea of inviting all friends and families to join our trip under the condition of arriving with empty luggage so that they can take home all the things I want to buy. *sigh*
We took a break at the little Kuku coffee shop at one inner corner of the fort and had a breathtaking view over the city, the real italian coffee deal and a divine fig milkshake. Totally yum!

Here is a short video that we made to say `Thank you` to our amazing guide Bhawani from the Pleasant Haveli Camel Safari.

One minute in Delhi

It almost feels like Weiberfastnacht in Cologne just without the Kölsch and the music ...

This should be a lot better already

Bikaner, India

[J.] After the hectic days in Delhi, Bikaner was a relaxing stop for us for two days on our way to Jaisalmer. We stayed in a family guesthouse and spent a lot of time resting, organising the next stays and wandering through the old city (while getting terribly lost in this maze of little streets).
The bazaar streets were not that crowded and most of the vendors did not bother us. We did not visit the rat temple nearby Bikaner where rats are considered holy and bringing luck. Other tourists told us though that this temple appeared strange/weird for them as it is very dirty with rat poo all over and walking across this sacred temple required the shoes to be taken off. Uuurgh! Someone even told us that it is believed to bring luck to eat the food from the floor that the rats left behind and that she saw a woman doing this. While I consider myself being open minded, I am really not too sure about this... ;)

Two experiences stood out for me while being in Bikaner and made the stay there really rewarding:
1) When walking through the old city we passed a tiny little shop of a tailor. I have a scarf with me that I bought in Zambia that needed to be fixed and with hands and signs I asked him if he could help me. He did and when I wanted to pay him he refused to take any money, regardless of how hard I tried. That totally made my day after the Delhi experience where it sometimes feels like everyone is out to rip you off.
2) On our way to Jaisalmer, we met an Indian guy in the train who shared a lot of stories with us about his life. He was on his way back from Bikaner to his home after having spent a day with his sister. And he shared all the sweets he was taking with him with us. Super sweet and super delicious!!!

Delhi, India - finally starting our trip!!!

[J.] Finally, after leaving SA and spending some weeks in Germany with family and friends we are on our way to India to start our trip.
For me personally the trip started at the trainstation Schierbrok, Germany where I was catching the train to the airport in Frankfurt. My mom lives here and I was spending the last few days with here and our dogs, who savely arrived in Germany and will stay with my mom and her two dogs for the next year. While waiting for the train I could hear our dogs bark over a field of around 200meters distance and it made me so sad...

Okay, Delhi now!!
We arrived in this big city basically unprepared. We have not really had the time to read up a lot on the Indian culture or anything that we would normally do before arriving in a new country. That paid us back on our first day where we were about to run into a classic scam, so annoying! The taxi driver took us to a street that was apparently blocked by the police and droped us off at a tourist information place where they pretended to call our hotel (was some fake guy) and who told us the hotel is closed during the morning. We were quite confused and tired and stressed but overall their story was not consistent and it became quite apparent that they just want to sell another trip to us... All the time they were very friendly and even offered us a coffee for free.
So, we were leaving this office and gathered our options while I was having a cigarette when the next guy approached us showing us a map and telling us that we need to go here and there and blablabla... Everytime, we asked him to show us on the map where we are and where we have to go, the direction was another... Then I thought, okay, this is not leading anywhere, let me take a picture of this map and then we just walk. In order to do so, I asked Nicolai to hold my cigarette and saw him inhaling twice deeply which he has not done for 5 years!! Haha... So much for starting your journey relaxed!

Lessons learnt so far:
- Dont trust anyone blindly who is approaching you first
- Dont trust anyone blindly who is approaching you telling you that he does not want your money. For sure he will direct you somewhere where you clearly dont want to go
- Be informed, haha!
- Have an offline map installed on your phone that can navigate you. This has already saved us a couple of times and tends to work when you let the rickshaw driver know that you know where you wanna go :)
- If someone tells you without you asking that this and that is closed, with a probability of 99% it is not closed.

All in all, 3 days in Delhi were very interesting, loud, busy, dirty and hectic. We are curious about how the rest of India looks like and are heading west to Bikaner into the desert...

The pic below shows the Main Bazar Road in Delhi where we stayed for the first 3 days.

Springboks in the sky (Ponte City)

[J.] We really miss Joburg and our friends and colleagues there. It is such an amazing city ... This was one of the last things we did before leaving Joburg, watching the worldcup rugby game between the Springboks and Scotland at the 51th floor of the Ponte Tower in Joburg and we had a blast (also, of course, as the Springboks won).
We booked the tickets via Dlala Nje's homepage (who are located at the bottom of the Ponte Tower). As far as I understand, Dlala Nje is renting the apartment on the 51th floor for entertainment purposes. The history of the Ponte Tower was the magnet for us to have a closer look at this building. The view onto Joburg from one of its top floors is absolutely stunning. Few impressions of this evening below...

Vanilla Parfait

I cannot recall where I found this recipe for a vanilla parfait, but I love it as it is easy to make and tastes delicious.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 50 ml water
• 75 caster sugar
• 1 table spoon vanilla extract
• 150 ml double cream

Put the water with the sugar into a saucepan and stir it over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Boil the sugar water and cook for about 7-10 minutes. Cook until the water starts to thicken (syrup).
Whip the egg yolks with the vanilla extract until it has more then doubled in volume.
Add the syrup and let the mixture cool down.
Beat the cream and fold it with the egg/syrup mixture.
Put everything into the freezer.

Serve with fruits, chocolate or anything you like. YUM!

Guacamole

For everyone who loves avocado and especially guacamole, here are the ingedients for our favorite recipe:

• 2 big avocados (very ripe)
• approx. 10 cherry tomatoes (cut into small pieces as you like)
• 1/2 red onion
• Juice of one lime
• 1 fresh chili
• 3 table spoons yogurt
• Coriander
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt for your taste

Mix everything together using a fork, cover with clean foil and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. Serve with bread or tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Amazing South Africa: Sani Pass and Wild Coast

Sani Pass:


Wild Coast:

Volia la moto!

This is our first bike ... I would love to say it is a beast but it is actually a kitten.

Next set of photos will be with the woman in our new motocycle outfit. Terrific!