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Diary - 2008 August (Pakistan, India)

2008-08-31 to 2008-09-02

Varanasi

Varanasi is the holly place in India where those who belief and can afford burn their family members and throw the ash into the holly Ganges.
We enjoyed the fire ceremonies there and watched the accurate burning method (it takes rather exact three hours for a corpse) even more sweating because of the heat and relaxed by strolling through the alleys and mainly sitting on the rooftop enjoying the good food and the perfect view. After 3000 km in 3 weeks on Indian streets with Indian traffic we really needed a rest!

The day I brought Marcel to the airport I accidentally met Netty and Mike, two backpackers I met before in Gilgit, Pakistan.

2008-08-31

19 hours driving

Last turn on Marcel’s holiday itinery was Varanasi. To combine the long drive with some sightseeing we decided to make a stop over in Lucknow, where we first were laughing about taking a guide for the labyrinth of the central hall of the Bara Imambara complex. But after we had been in there for an hour and decided we wanna leave now it still took us a while! :-) The Luck in the name Lucknow does not mean luck but 100,000 and that in hours was about the time we needed to find out of the city again. Most of the cities are full of one ways and roundabouts and nobody is able to describe in a western way how to find a specific sight or when you wanna leave the highway to the next city. Definitions like 'at the next crossing to the right' or 'drive 2 km and then there is a sign' do not exist in their world. Despite it's always a wild arm waving which we don't understand - well, we have to adapt here.

I though I was rather clever, when I decided not to leave the city in the south to the highway we needed, but to the north east - where we just were - and take the next highway junction to the south and we are again on our way. Well as easy as it sounded as fast we got totally lost and ended on a street with more wholes than street and driving speed was reduced to about 20 km/h. Varanasi was then very far away.

As it got dark driving became more difficult and dangerous and as I was chasing another car, because then it was much easier to drive, it became like driving in a computer game. People on the streets, kids, cows, carts without light - everything included for a good thrill!
At about three in the morning we arrived in Varanasi, were happy to find our guesthouse quite quickly in the small alleys, got already in touch with the death when people run with their past aways through the alleys singing and enjoyed the silence of the roof top with a beer before we fell in our beds...

2008-08-28 to 2008-08-30

From Jodhpur via Fatehpur Sikri to Agra

After again very little sleep we started our way to Agra. 40 km before Agra is Fatehpur Sikri which is now a goast town but was once a big city of a big emperor Akbar. We decided to do a long sightseeing and stay in the small city for the night. There I had my first 'special' lassi - which tasted like herbs and was what everybody would think it is - after a heavy meal it took 1.5 hours until the punch arrived and my only programme for the night was to find the way down one level into my bed - knocked out! :-) I prefer beer! :-)

Next day we headed to Agra - the famous city of the Taj Mahal. As the Taj is known to be visited in the early morning we spend the day with second level sightseeing - not to bad.

Then the big day arrived! We stood up at about 5 in the morning, had again a fight with the cycle rickshaw driver who told us we have to take him, because he can drive us directly in front of the Taj whereas motor rickshaws are not allowed in the special zone. Fair enough but he dropped us at the same point where the motor rickshaws drive and still wanted the whole fare... well, welcome to India! :-)

The Taj itself is as good as everybody knows from the pictures! It's really an impressive building in a very nice garden with water and trees. And in the morning it's not full of tourists so you are able to take some nice pictures with you and the Taj alone - without 1000 other tourists! :-)

We stayed there for about 3 hours and then decided with Michael and Sinja who we knew from our guesthouse to have some breakfast nearby. Of course we had to wait about an hour to get everything but the most funniest thing was, that the waiter left at one point in time and handed over something like a baseball bat for protection of the monkeys which are around! :-) Well, the three boys of us were fighting who is allowed to do the first punch, but no monkeys were arriving... :-)

2008-08-25 to 2008-08-27

From Delhi via Jaipur to Jodhpur

We had a tough plan so we had drive a lot. To start from a city like Delhi this means you have to be out before the rush hour starts! So gettin' up at five, hit the road at six, driving on Indians roads what is like playing a computer game with just one life rest and finding the way through the narrow streets of Jodhpur is not just fun! As Marcel was driving the whole turn, we was a little bit knocked out in the evening - happily enjoying his beer and sitting on the couch! :-) On the run we stopped by at Jaipurs Pink Palace - a house of former times, where women had the opportunity to watch the street life.
The fort of Jodhpur is magnifique! With the best audio tour of my life we spent about three hours in the fort. The other days we saw quite some nice sights, enjoyed the city, the yellow saffron lassi, good food and had a nice evening with two girls from France which seamed to be too good, because the owner of the hotel where they stayed kicked us out about midnight. :-)

2008-08-20 to 2008-08-24

Delhi

Delhi was super! Very good sights, very good infrastructure, shopping, coffee shops and restaurants. Gettin' a rickshaw is always a fight - sometimes they even stop after two meters and wanna re-negotiate! Not with us! :-)
As it was hot sightseeing was exhausting but soon we new all the good spots to relax - Coffee Day as the first address! :-) We could even spend a night in a club which was a good one with lots of dancing and fun. Prices were different to the rest of India - we spend about 5900 rupees! Remember that a room with shower for the night is at about 150!

2008-08-19

Park rangers

As told us we headed to the National Park - where we found out that it was closed by now - until March next year! Thx ! :-)
But we made the best out of the situation, had a good place to pitch the tent in the park rangers range, a shower and a good laugh, when they shot themselves with their opium until they could hardly stand! We kept to our gin I had imported from Pakistan. As it was raining heavily we were invited to stay on the balcony of one of the rangers - we agreed happily, as my tent is not known for it's waterproofness! :-) An easy drive the next day brought us to Delhi - finding the right street with our guest house was not - as always in these cities. You can ask a gazillion people and you will get even more different answers... :-)

2008-08-18

Rishikesh and Hardiwar

Second target were the famous pilgrim cities where the believers think the tears of the gods are the source of Ganges river. Best thing in Rishikesh (where the Beatles were and so all of the tourists go now) was the waterfall where we found our Jacuzzi so we can consider ourselves also to have been taken a bath in the Ganges! :-)

Rishkesh, where the Indians go to was much more holly in my opinion. The atmosphere in town was very good and as I was very used to a no-crime situation in Pakistan all my cooking stuff I left outside the tent was stolen during the night - welcome to India! :-)

2008-08-14 to 2008-08-17

Amritsar

Of course Marcel had to see the border closing ceremony as well, so I watched it from the other - the Indian - side this time with him. As tourists we were lead to the first row and happily invited to dance with the cheer leaders: nice girls and the like to bring the crowd in the perfect mood - a much better, because more positive one than on the Pakistani side. We had great fun there for 1,5 hours and than went back. On the way back I had my first better accident when a car overtaking us was forced to crash rather into me than in the car approaching from the other side - well, nearly nothing happened to my car, but his back was rather cut out by my tank like bumper! :-) Poor man - he apologized and then we went on.
Not forgetting the cart circuit we saw on the way to the border. So we had some nice laps racing fun in the dark with carts which would be forbidden to drive in Germany. :-)
The next day we visited the Golden Temple of the Sikhs which is by far the best sight I have seen on my trip! I could have spend more time just hanging around with the other overlanders having nights of chatting around but as Marcel was in India just for three weeks we had to move on. from Holland told us we have to go to a special National Park, where they just where watching Tigers and the like - we put this in the back of our minds.

2008-08-14 to 2008-08-17

My first visitor

Border crossing was again super easy - especially after they asked me to give a border officer a lift to the next city! :-) It was a cool feeling to cross in something like an amphitheatre where every evening the frenetic crowds are celebrating their non-friendship.

After meeting Kinh and Jeniffer at the railway station we waited for Marcel, who was about to join me for the next three weeks, to arrive with the train from Delhi. Poor Marcel had to fight with the travellers syndrome the very first evening - all the overlanders we met at the hotel where we stayed with our vehicles wanted to go to Pizza Hut - same reason, why I was so happy to be able to go to Mc Donalds! :-) He joined in and after several days of eating Indian food he dared to ask me if we could by any chances go to a Mc Donalds restaurant! I happily joined in! :-)
Don't get me wrong - Indian food is good! But I cannot eat the same for weeks!

2008-08-10 to 2008-08-14

Lahore

Lahore was the best city of Pakistan! Good sightseeing programme, very good rest house (Regale Internet Inn, thank you Malik for the big entertainment!) with music events all nights and good people. And on top of all this: I found a Mc Donalds Restaurant!! This might not be something awesome for most of the readers, but for me and my tongue this meant new taste experiences, after 2,5 months of rice, nan, dal and the like! :-) I went there 3 days in a row, so everybody there new me by then and I got invited to a guided tour through the kitchen of the restaurant including all the fridges and power generator (which is the most important item in a place where power goes down every 3 hours for 2 hours!). It was there where I met who invited me for church on Sunday - also something different to my programme the other days so I joined in. Good gospels and a good speech help to have a good day. Meeting who was showing me around Lahore for two days and helped organizing a new window for Kinhs Toyota was also very good. I took them with me to the border crossing ceremony the night before I left Pakistan. A very funny ceremony where both the Pakistanis and the Indians show in a special military ceremony how the do dislike each other! Very funny! I cannot imaging another place on earth where this could be possible! :-)

2008-08-05 to 2008-08-10

Islamabad

What is good in coming back into a city is, that you know where the important things are: Internet place, place where you can chill out, eat western food and organize beer! :-) Meeting up with Penny and Fid and Thomas and Sylvie was very enjoyable and we spent several nice hours together :-)
I met up with Britt again (www.footprintsforfreedom.com), havin' a funny drinkin' nights with other travellers and havin' an internet session in the Marriott, which got blasted away yesterday (2008-09-20) - lucky us! As I had already the appointment with Marcel and wanted to see Lahore I had to head on soon...

2008-08-03 to 2008-08-05

Driving down the KKH

It took me two days to driving down the KKH to Islamabad. The first day was very nice as the mountains are so beautiful and the landscape around is so rich. Second day I decided to leave the highway and drive the last 100km through the famous Murrey hills. It's an area for weekend resorts for the rich and a daytrip for the non rich and for a foreigner quite a stupid idea to cross it on a weekend. Well it took me several hours for 40km because traffic was horrible. Even worse than normal because it was raining cats and dogs and Pakistanis don't know that then it's even more dangerous. Well, I have seen even more accidents than normal then! :-)


	Start: 2008-04-10					Oli on his way from Munich to Hong Kong				End: 2010-05-12