This is the paradise I have to leave :( ...

... fully recovered after 4 weeks in nepal and india ... Sad to say that it's now time to go back home, my gap-year (well,10 months only...) is apparently over, i haven't won the thai lottery and I feel now very ready and socially obliged to give my contribution to the swiss economy ;) cheers for now, kisses to the ladies and hope to see u soon. Plg

My new friend in koh Samui

...when travelling alone you always make new friends willing to share your adventures with you ;-)...the monkey on the picture is actually employed in a coconut palm tree field...in climbing and collecting coconuts definitively more efficient and cheaper than the man.

...space for monks only :)

Taken on the speed boat on bangkok's river.

Royal palace temple's gatekeeper

...wonderful gatekeeper at the temple of the royal palace in bangkok ...well, one more temple to be added on my list...should be number 45 since my arrival in nepal last month :)

Chao Praya's daily life

...a nice snapshot of daily life along the Chao Praya river in Bangkok...in this part of the city all the activities are concentrated along the river and its affluxes...the typical long tail boat is a small floating shop...and the children do not really care about the pollution of the river :)...wonderful the old houses in teak wood.

... Bye bye India ...

...a colonial heritage...the Indian gateway and the luxury Taj hotel where we had a gorgeous breakfast and lunch to celebrate the end of our 'pilgrimage'...'from buddha to bollywood'...I will definitively miss this 'incredible India'...the overcrowded and air-polluted cities with them holy cows ... and holy drops, the crazy driving style of the tuk-tuk taxi, its beef-free delicious and spicy food and the hundreds of always smiling and curious childrens (...sir, 1 pen please! Pleaseee ...) we met along our way to bollywood ... Bye bye India, I will be back soon ... Now it's time for some real relax ;)

Mumbay...our very last stop in India.

...did we cross the country border?! ... Not at all, we just arrived in bombay/mumbai...a mix of indian and european cultures...the commercial,industrial and financial capital of India. My today's adventure?...1 traditional market...just 1 tourist,patrick...1 camera,mine...all the sellers willing to be on one of my pictures (and of course you have to show them the picture taken on the camera's display) and ready to offer me a masala tea, an orange or some peppermint...well, I spent 1 hour in that market! :)

Night speed-boat ride

...our guide Lokendra (who strongly believes that in the holy river Ganga lives an important population of river water dolphins ;)), Canada 1 and Canada 2 on a night speed (at least written on the ticket) boat tour on the Udaipur's artificial Pichola lake (built more than 3 centuries ago). The lake is known for its 'floating'
Lake hotel and is a very popular and exclusive destination for indian weddings where it's not at all unusual to invite hundreds of guests.

'Museum Rajastan'

...fortress cities, fortified temples, forts with wonderful courtyards and city palaces today still owned by the local Maraja and Maharara (who used to rule over wide portions of the indian peninsula, after 1947 they lost the majority of their lands and properties)...an impressive heritage built between the 12.-15. Cent. ... and the Meherangarh fort of Jodhpur which sits atop a sheer rocky ridge right in the middle of the old 'blue city' (apparently the blue color is an efficient natural repellent) is definitively my preferred one for its elegance and beautiful palatial buildings, the huge structure and strategic position...on the way to Udaipur we had lunch in the pilgrims canteen of the Jaine temple of Ranakpur...probably the nicest temple we have seen in India...and definitively the cheapest lunch I have ever had, just 0.25 euro :)

... and motorcycle-sharing

...and motorcycle-sharing is very popular here in India...note the typical side seating-position of the Muslim lady ;)

Roof seats still available!

This 'incredible India' ... with its cultural and religious variety, extremely business oriented and very willing to become the leading pole in Asia ... and this is the indian way on how to increase the capacity of a bus by 50 percent :) ... not yet clear to me if the ride is for free?! ... the same happens on the regional trains where people are fighting to get on the train even before its complete stop at the station (while in europe we are fighting for a window seat :)) ...

'Colour festival' ... Happy holy! Happy holy!

Spring is approaching also here in India and this is a good reason to celebrate ... what in europe is called carnival here is called 'colours festival'. Similar to the tomatina in Spain, here colored water and powder is thrown on every person, nobody is safe when on public roads and squares ;) ... we have played the same game in the desert, we had great fun (except for the pink color I still have on my hair despite 4 showers :)) and the result can be seen on the picture ... myself together with our guide Lokendra and on the left Mike, one of the 12 members of this crazy expedition through India. Today we are in Jaisalmer with its fort built in the 12th century...even before Switzerland was born. Ciao a tutti.

... and our wonderfull camp for the night with an excellent cuisine :)

Ready for the camel ride in the indian desert with my camel 'ratta' ...

A smiling welcome delegation

We finally got what we were looking for...some relax;) In fact, after days spent in big cities we discovered the indian countryside with its small and rural towns, its smiling people and the hundreds of curious children happy to give us a warm welcome...we had great fun and we stayed in 2 wonderfull heritage hotels and former forts of kings and maraja. There are hundreds of them here in India which after the independence of The country in 1947 were nationalised and transformed mainly into heritage hotel. Its time to go sleeping here in the middle of the desert. Cheers.

... and a fast food corner ;)

After the holi Varanasi on river Ganga we touched also Pushkar with its holy lake and hundreds of pilgrims coming from all over India...from what i could see surprisingly very popular within the israeli and italian tourists, the last as usual in big noisy groups;-). We also went through a ceremony to clean up our body and soul from the negative karma...'...and remember, if u will do good karma u will reach at least 100 years' said the prist to me...I'm now feeling a little bit like a pilgrim with so many ceremonies and temples visited :). Un salutone!

Grocery corner in the old city of Pushkar, the holy town ...

Rush hour??

...well,not really...this is very normal in india ;)...exotic snapshot taken on a main road in jaipur which is well representing this wonderfull and rich of contrasts india: a traditional and rural country meets modernity and new opportunities. By the way...since there are no traffic lights it tooks more than 2' to be able to cross safely this road ;)

The 5th wonder's world

Impressive the complex of the Taj Mahal in Agra with its tomb and mosques...20'000 people worked 23 years long to create this wonder which is dated mid 17. Century . After having visited the big cities of delhi and agra we arrived yesterday in the more fascinating jaipur,the capital of rajastan (on the border with pakistan), with its bazars, street shops and ancient old city which is home of the royal family of this state. Today we head toward pushkar the holy city. Bye for now.

Muslim architecture

Definitively impressive the heritage left by the Muslim in India...in Delhi we have found particularly fascinating the Humayun tomb which has been built in the 15.C...the Muslim community is the 2. Largest after the hindu and as usual with an excellent flair for business, next stop Agra with 7 more people on board...switzerland overrepresented ;). Ciao

Heavy bag?

...not at all ;-) ... now u have a concrete evidence (mine is the yellow). Taken on the way to the train station...apparently a good exercise for your neck...power of yoga. Cheers.

wake up call 0500 am :( ...

...but i must admit that what u can see from the river ganga with its ghats (the steps bringing down to the river) and pilgrims in the holy water at sunrise (and yesterday at sunset) is one of the most spectacular scene i have ever seen. Now i am on the night train to delhi...we should be there after a 13 hours' ride and a long sleep :) ... A little bumpy but very ok,time to sleep now...good night from a wonderfull India. Just met a swiss-german group,nice to ear the swiss german dialect again after mostly 2 weeks away from home :)

...i was completely wrong...the traffic in kathmandu was nothing compared to india :)

Myself on a typical rickshaw stocked in the chaotic traffic of varanasi on the way to river ganga...every day around 1t of hindu pilgrims visit the holy city of Varanasi...apparently the most ancient city in the world!

...want your business to become a 'cash cow' ? ...

...keep a cow...in this case a sacred cow...in your shop...this seems to be the recipe of a business man here in Varanasi ;)

...mount everest conquered ;) seated on an aircraft and drinking a nepalese hot tee.

ciao a tutti! i do apologize for my silence but from nepal i have not been able to upload any data...today we just passed the border with india and we should be in varanasi,the holy city on the ganga river,before sunset. Sad to leave kathmandu and this fascinating country,its holy temples,the smiles of the childrens,the colourfull street markets but also the overcrowded roads,the noise of the car horns and the never tired street seller 'hi sir,sorry sir,where are u from sir? Hashish? Smoke? Treking?'... kath is for sure the most polluted and noisy city i have ever visited but it's definitively worth a visit...next time for a treking in the mountains. This early morning we visited the place where Siddharta,the Buddha, was born,the town of lumbini...just 40 min. By plane from kat...i deserved a day of relax :) ... And now we are constantly risking our life but also enjoying the street life we can watch through the window of our bus on the indian road to varanasi...not an easy job for our driver...bye 4 now.

... from Buddha to Bolliwood ...

Dear friends ... I am definitively having a very hard time ... trying to fit all
my stuff in a 90L (thanks Marco) bag and a small daypack (sorry but I
am not used to it at all) ... I will definitively miss my 140L bag I
used for my previous trip to Africa ;-( ... ok, it was a little bit
too heavy (... 35kg ... well, good for my muscles) but ... this was mainly due to the Iridium
Satellite phone my father obliged me to bring with ;-) ... countdown,
-2 days and I will land in Katmandu, Nepal ... I will try to get
extremely close to the Mount Everest to take a few pictures ... by
small plane of course - the power of technology ;-) In the meantime
have a look to the itinerary of the first part of my trip on:

http://www.snipurl.com/1a0ev
Bye for now, PLG