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Halfway around the world in 1 year
Welcome to Sotje62 ! My blog intends to make the world a smaller place. Automatically and real-time, the blog traces Beatriz and myself's whereabouts, it might just tell you a thing or 2 that interests me - therefore not you, that's the privilege of having a blog - but read new blogs on the top and click on the pictures in the side bar to see older blogs, the blog,and Beatriz and I hope you grow a good 'travel' appetite. Sotje62 travel blog is in Vlaams (donker gekleurd) and in English (light coloured). So read what you understand and again what you like.
29-07-2009
China, Peking (Vlaams)
31 July, Peking. Omdat ik mezelf beloofd heb om meer te bloggen, zelfs al zijn het kleine blogs, log ik snel in vanuit een Sony winkel dichtbij Tiananmen square. De Sony winkel waar ik in ben is heel groot - een beetje zoals de Apple in London - en heeft alle nieuwste techie stuff van Sony. De Sony Viao waar ik op bezig ben kost al 1,400 euros. Ik had geen zo'n hoge prijzen verwacht zo dichtbij waar ze geproduceerd worden. Zoals de winkel, is alles rond Tianmen square en de verboden stad heel overweldigend groot.
Eergisteren zijn we in Peking aangekomen. Enkele dingen die ons al overkomen zijn, we hebben ge-couchsurft op onze eerste nacht in Peking (niet via de website, maar via een Mongool die we ontmoet hebben op de bus), gisteren hebben we een chinese lift gekregen naar onze jeugdherberg - de Chinees sprak geen woord Engels en kreeg de slappe lach voor de rest van de rit - omdat het heel hard regende, dichtbij de verboden stad zijn we 2-maal spontaan uitgenodigd voor een kop thee door Chinese studenten, en het belangrijkst dat tot nu gebeurd is, is de verlenging van onze Chinese Visa. Niet simpel maar het is gelukt.
2,5 uur hebben we doorgebracht in ons HSBC bankfiliaal in Peking (om een verlenging van je Chinese Visa aan te vragen moet je een gecertifieerd financieel document voorleggen dat aantoont dat je 100$ kunt per dag in China kunt financieren), dan hebben we 2,5 uur gespendeerd bij de Chinese ambassade en het heeft ons veel zweet gekost. Ik denk dat de mevrouw van HSBC een paar extra grijze haren gekregen heeft. HSBC China en HSBC UK zijn namelijk 2 verschillende entiteiten en HSBC China kan bijvoorbeeld onze rekening niet raadplegen. HSBC UK heeft het dus doorgefaxt, dat was dikke miserie, en dan moest HSBC China dit document afstempelen zodat het gecertifieerd is. Dat wilden ze natuurlijk niet. Na 2,5 uur zeveren hebben ze het afgestempeld met een stempel die ervoor zorgt dat zij niet verantwoordelijk zijn voor HSBC-UK klanten. En dat heeft uiteindelijk wel gewerkt. Volgens mij is dat een Belgische achterdeur )
Volgende vrijdag krijgen we ons passport terug van de ambassade met een extensie tot 31 Augustus. We zijn teleurgesteld want we wilden meer, maar - we gaan daardoor niet naar Zuid-Korea en Japan - we zijn er nog goed vanaf gekomen als je i.v.m. de Visa aanvraag in Kathmandu en Ulan Bator. Tussen nu en volgende vrijdag blijven we in Peking, gaan we Peking en rondom bezichtigen.
PS: De Chinese studenten - ze volgen Engelse studies - die ons uitnodigen voor thee brachten ons naar een hele dure bar. Het was bijvoorbeeld 3,5 euro voor a jasmijn thee. Wij hebben geweigerd om iets te bestellen en ze voelden zich beledigd. Ik heb gezegd, als je je minder beledigd voelt als we naar buiten gaan, dan doen we dat. Tot onze verrassing zeiden ze ja en leuk je leren kennen.Dan zijn we maar afgedropen. We voelen als vleeskeuring,:--)) Engelse vleeskeuring, maar we laten het niet aans hart komen, tot ziens !!
Ni hao! Duibushi ! (betekent Hallo ! Sorry !, mijn Chinees is nog niet te goed maar ik ben aan het oefenen :))
31st of July, Beijing. Because I promised myself to post smaller blogs and more frequently, I log in quickly from a Sony shop just of Tiananmen square. The shop itself is huge and supersophisticated. The Sony Viao laptop that I am using now costs a 1,400 euros so to my surprise not cheap at all. Like the shop, every building and street around Tiananmen square and the forbidden city - we saw the sites from the outside today - is humongous.
A few things that happened to us in Beijing already are, we couchsurfed our first night (not through the website yet, just through a Mongolian guy we met on the bus), yesterday's big thunderstorm and the hitchhike home by a friendly Chinese that doesn't speak any word of English, at the forbidden city we get approached twice by Chinese students inviting us for thea, and probably the main thing of all that happened in Beijing is, the extension of our Chinese visa. Not peanuts but we did it !!
2,5 hours we spent in the HSBC branch in Beijing to produce a compulsory financial statement (you need to show that you have 3000 USD in your account, good for 100USD/day on your Chinese Visa), 2,5 hours we spent in the PSB (sort of an embassy), and we spent a lot of sweat doing it. The woman that helped us in HSBC in Beijing has a few extra grey hairs now, I can tell you that. HSBC China and HSBC UK are two different banks so do you smell what was over our heads. HSBC China cannot see our account on their system, HSBC UK has to fax it, HSBC China cannot be liable for HSBC UK but they do have to give us a stamp otherwise the Chinese embassy does not except it. They gave it after 2,5 hours of wining and the stamp said that they don't take any responsibility. In Belgium we say there is always a backdoor. :)
Next friday we will get our passports back and we can stay in China until the 31st of August. Disappointed, because we wanted more days in order to go to South Korea and Japan, we are less unhappy compared to previous Chinese Visa experiences. We will stay in Beijing for a while and do small trips around the region. I leave this blog for now so I can write the Flemish translation.
PS: The Chinese students - majoring in English - I talk about, invited us for a drink and brought us to a very expensive place. 3,5 euro for a jasmine tea, we passed and they felt insulted. I said that if they felt less embarrased if we walk out, we will. Surprisingly they said yes, nice to meet you. So we walked out. We felt like meat, hehe, English meat. Have a good one !
It's the 27th of July today and we are in Ulan Bator, back from a 10-day camping trip. We arrived yesterday by bus from the country side of Mongolia and we had a fantastic time camping (we rented a tent for 10 days), hiking, and most of all just relaxing. See it as a 'holiday without traveling' within our trip.
800 km away from UB, at the border of Mongolia-Russia, there is a state called Khovsgol. There you have a huge lake - bigger than the lake of Geneva !! - surrounded by a vast land of tundra. The lake flows into the Baikal lake (in Russia) and the water is so transparent that you can see right trough it. Hmmm, we are in the area we thought so why not go there :))
Now the pictures that we have are very nice, it is not that that keeps me from posting them, the problem is that I cannot post them. All the technology available on the internet (the free one of course :)) is not enough to get this blog working. I will keep trying and you will see the result eventually on my blog, but oh I miss my crappy piece of laptop that allows me to do whatever I want. When it worked that is... So more pictures are coming on my blog, just scroll down and have a look below this blog every once and a while.
We are organized and organized right now to continue on to China. We have our train ticket for tomorrow to go from Ulan Bator to the Mongolian-Chinese border. There we will walk (literally walk :), it is not allowed to walk over the border though, so we might have to hijack a car. we save 16 euro by doing that, we love hijacking:) ) through customs and go China. First stop Beijing. Our visa is only valid for '6 DAYS' so we need to make a move in Beijing and extend the Visa straight away. We have been screwed 2 times already by the chinese, and we are confident that the 3rd time will be as sweet as the two other times.
To end my blog I ld like to say that I am sure you are enjoying the summer, but please do write an email with your plans and what you re up to, I promise I reply :)), we talk about you all the time and we miss you. And we cannot run out of news. Have a good time, talk soon from China.
PS: This is my first Guinness on the trip! (there should be a picture coming with this blog). As happy as a Mongolian bun.
Het is 27 juli en ik schrijf deze blog vanuit Ulan Bator, onze thuisbasis en hoofdstad van Mongolie. Ik heb een tijd niet geschreven op de blog want we komen net terug van een afgelegen gebied waar we 10 dagen gekampeerd hebben. Het Mongoolse platteland is fantastisch, we hebben 6 dagen in een tent geslapen (en een mega-storm gehad, miljaarde, toen zaten we met de poepers), we hebben enkele dagen gehiked, we zijn heen en terug 3 dagen onderweg geweest (met de bus), en het grootste deel van onze tijd lagen we in de zon, aan het meer. Zie het als een vakantie van niet onderweg te zijn. Mens toch, wat een luxe leven moet je denken, wel dat was het ook :))
800 km verwijderd van Ulan Bator, in het grensgebied met Rusland, ligt de provincie Khovsgol. Daar zijn we geweest. Je hebt er een groot meer - groter dan het meer van Geneve !! - dat omringd is door enorme uitgestrekte steppe vlaktes. Het meer is befaamd voor zijn doorzichtig water - in de winter wanneer het meer dichtgevroren is, kun je 200 m diep kijken.
Nu, de foto's van onze trip in Khovsgol zijn heel mooi, maar ik krijg ze niet op mijn blog. Daarop laat ik je nog wachten. Of je kan kijken op facebook want Beatriz heeft ze net gepubliceerd. (Ik publiceer de link wanneer ze klaar is). Als het me lukt, publiceer ik ze zelf, want Beatriz schrijft er altijd zulke onnozele dingen bij :))
Het Mongoolse verhaal is voorbij want we vertrekken morgen naar China. We hebben ons trein ticket en die trein brengt ons tot aan de Mongoolse-Chinese grens. Aangekomen aan de grens gaan we al wandelend over de grens. Het mag niet maar we doen het toch, puur om geld te sparen. Zowel de Mongolen als de Chinezen slaan munt uit de toeristen, maar met ons gaat dat niet gebeuren. Door te wandelen, en als we niet mogen wandelen, liften (hitchhiking), sparen we 16 euro uit. Zo gaan we China binnen. De eerste stop in China is Peking. We nemen de nachtbus (9 uren) vanaf de grens naar Peking en onze herberg is geboekt voor 2 dagen. Afhankelijk van onze visa extensie blijven we eventueel langer in Beijing, maar we hebben goeie hoop, we willen de 6 DAGEN die we gekregen hebben van de Chinese ambassade in Ulan Bator met 1 maand verlengen. De chinezen lachten nu al 2 keer met ons, hopelijk blijft het daarbij en krijgen we een verlenging van 1 maand.
Wij gaan nu een goeie cappucino gaan drinken (na 10 dagen thee) en gisteren heb ik mijn eerste Guinness met plezier binnengekegeld! Ik ben er zeker van dat je net hetzelfde doet op een schone terrasse, drink er alleszins een op mijn gezondheid. Geniet van de zon en de congee! Veel groetjes en tot in China,
Xi'an. Night view of the South Gate from on the city walls.
Xi'an. The city walls.
Xi'an. High street.
Xi'an. These are the beers that you can find in a supermarket. Nothing really popular, only HANS beer, that is very famous in China. It's supposed to be German !?!
Xi'an. It has been a while that I've seen a full-shelfed supermarket so I took a picture of one.
Xi'an. This food is looking at you.
Xi'an. This food is hearing you. (We thought we had this on our plate one time, we know the Chinese character for the word 'ear' now.)
Xi'an. This food has chicken legs.
Xi'an. This car is supposed to go after the bad criminals.
Xi'an. And this is the bad criminal.
Xi'an. We see more and more fancy cars, unlike what we saw in Tibet (except for Lhasa then, Lhasa is as developed as any Chinese city now).
Xi'an. Bea and a Terracotta warriors, the city is full of terracotta statues.
Xi'an. Me in the square of the god temple.
Xi'an. Bea in front of the god temple.
Xi'an. City god temple.
Xi'an. Bea at the entrance of the city god temple.
Xi'an. Chinese are very fashionable, this woman is an example of that... don't put your nose up now, ok different fashionable then.
Xi'an. High street, notice the KFC in the corner !! They are all here, Mc Donalds, Pizza hut, KFC, Starbucks!! And there is Mr. Lee, a Chinese fastfood place, that we don't have :)
Xi'an. Bea in the Muslim quarter.
Xi'an. A ventilated streetfood shop.
Xi'an. Me after I got caramel cookies 1 Euro.
Xi'an. Muslim quarter, what's cooking ?
Xi'an. Muslim quarter. This is the appetizer, cooked onions with chili sauce. Hmmm, special...
Xi'an. Muslim quarter. This is the main course, a bread soup with meat. And this is what we thought was 'ear' :)
Xi'an. The Muslim quarter.
Xi'an. There is nothing special to say about this picture but that it is a street !
Xi'an. A BEA bank!! After India, where Bea means 'marry me' in Hindi, Bea is a bank in China.
Landscape between Lhasa and Xi'an. If you look well you see Bea's reflection.
Landscape between Lhasa and Xi'an. There is mountains because the Tibetan-Qinhai plateau runs until in Xi'an.
Landscape between Lhasa and Xi'an, it is like the sky is fluo blue here. Fantastic sight.
What you can find on a cookie bag ! :)
This is the high altitude train from the inside. The train has coupees with 6 beds, and there is a corridor all the way through. With chairs and a small table to eat your noodles. Hot water supplied.
Golmud. The first train stop.
Bea is sleeping like a baby. We really slept well because of the supplied oxygen, and I have to say the beds were comfortable.
Lhasa. 08:40 am. A picture just before we leave Lhasa. I look like a little boy in this picture.
Restricted Chinese Visa, let's get out of China !!
To give you an insight on what is on our minds, I ll tell you the story of our restricted Visa for China and the time problem we have. It is a big thing for us so sympathize !! )
We wanted the longest visa possible when we applied for the Chinese visa in Nepal. However, it turns out when we get the Chinese visa, that there is only 15 days on it, 8 days for the tour in Tibet and 7 days to get out of the country. This is because we cross Tibet and the Chinese are very strict for Tibetan tourism.
Options for us when we finish our tour in Tibet is this. You can extend the chinese visa in mainland China or go outside the country. Because we want to see other countries (Mongolia e.x.) after China, going outside the country is a better option for us. Otherwise you need a double-entry visa to go out of China, see Mongolia, and then come back in China. Waste of money basically.
So we opt to get out of China fast. And what is the easiest way and closest country. Mongolia!! But we have be there in 7 days, meaning: doing 36 hours of train-ing from Lhasa to Xi'an, see Xi'an because the Terracotta warriors are there (you do want to see something after being in a train for 36 hours), go by train from Xi'an (2,700 km) to the Chinese-Mongolian border, and in the mean time stop over in Huh hot to get the Mongolian visa. That is the plan. If we don't make it, we pay 50 euro per extra day in China, so wish us luck !!
PS: I am publishing pictures today and tomorrow I ll get some emails out. Enjoy the sunny summer time!
We are in Ulan Bator
right now and I am trying to catch up with the blog. Honestly, it is
very difficult but it looks like we have a lot of time in Ulan Bator
because of the application for the Chinese Visa (we will go cheap and
apply for 4 days processing time) and there is the National Mongolian
Holiday festival, NADAAM. People told us it is Mongolia at its best so
we are staying in UB for that.
I commented on the Tibet pictures (start from the bottom if you want
them chronologically) and added the itinerary of the tour so you can
follow the pictures.
The pictures of
monasteries are mostly from the Gyantse monastery just because we saw so
many monasteries and I picked one out that you can then see more in
detail. The tour guide bombarded us with monasteries and I don't want to
bombard my pictures too.
I ll be writing more and more this week so read up on my blog while I
write up on it.
Blog soon !! ----------------------- We zijn nu in Ulan Bator en
hier neem ik de tijd om mijn blog aan te vullen. Het is moeilijk maar
het gaat me lukken.
In Ulan Bator gaan we
uitrusten van het snelle reizen uit China, gaan we een nieuwe Chinese
visa vernieuwen, en de Nationale Mongoolse Nadaam feesten ... feesten!!
De Mongolen kennende gaat dat zeker in orde zijn.
Ik heb de fotos van onze
toer door Tibet toegevoegd (je ziet ze onderaan deze blog; start ook
onderaan om ze chronologisch te volgen) en je ziet ook de agenda van de
toer die we gemaakt hebben. (Interessant voor de KAV'ers onder jullie,
bron: mijn ma)
We hebben in Tibet
verschillende buddhistische abdijen bezocht, en omdat ik niet al onze
fotos kan publiceren, heb ik de fotos gepubliceerd van een enkele abdij.
De abdij van Gyantse, de mooiste van allemaal.
Deze
week ga ik veel online zijn, mailtjes sturen, fotos publiceren, het
nieuws lezen (als je interessante artikels leest, stuur ze maar door
naar klaas_desot@hotmail.com), en ga ik mijn blog aanvullen. Check nu en
dan of het wel waar is wat ik schrijf :)
Tot
binnenkort!
The friendship bridge. We are on Chinese ground with left view on Nepal
and right the friendship bridge.
De vriendschaps brug. Wij staan op Chinese grond, links van ons zie je
Nepal, en rechts the vriendschapsbrug.
LALUNG LA PASS (5050m.)
LALUNG LA PASS (5050m.)
Between Neylam (3600m)Â and Lhatse (4050m). View of the Mt. Everest
(8848m).
Op weg tussen Neylam (3600m)Â en Lhatse (4050m). Zicht op de Mt. Everest
(8848m).
Between Neylam (3600m)Â and Lhatse (4050m). A jeep gets stuck in the
mud.
Op weg tussen Neylam (3600m)Â en Lhatse (4050m). Een jeep rijdt zich
vast in het slijk. Tingri. High street.
Tingri. Straatbeeld. Tingri. Tibetan family on the road.
Tingri. Tibetaanse familie op de kar. Tingri (4050m). Local schoolchildren are playing in their 'People of the
Republic of China' school outfits and they wear all the same hat. And
the hat says : Fuck the fakeshit. More than buddhism I wonder what that
was all about.
Tingri (4050m). Lokale schoolkinderen spelen op straat in hun 'People of
the Republic of China' school uniform. Op hun 'klakke' staat
geschreven : Fuck the fakeshit. We weten nog altijd niet 'het waarom'.
View on Gyantse from behind the monastery.
Zicht op Gyantse van achter de abdij. Gyantse. A munk turning the maantra wheels.
Gyantse. Een monnik draait aan de maantra cilinder. Gyantse. Normally camera shy, here a picture of enthousiastic Tibetans
because we had a yak tea in their regular.
Gyantse. Normaal zijn ze camera schuw, maar hier zie je een foto van
enthousiaste Tibetanen. Enthousiast omdat we een yak thee drinken in hun
stam-thee-cafee.
Gyantse. Taken from the top of the biggest stupa (35m) in Tibet.
Gyantse. Genomen vanop de grootste stupa (35m) in Tibet.
Lake view taken between Gyantse & Lhasa.
Zicht op een meer op de weg van Gyantse naar Lhasa. Nozing Khang Sa mountain/berg (7223m)
Tibetan girl showing her goat and her house. She wanted money for the
picture but we didn't have any. So I gave her my face-cream.
Een Tibetaans meisje showt haar geit en haar huis voor de foto. Ze vroeg
geld voor de foto maar uit noodzaak heb ik haar mijn gezichtscreme
gegeven. Kamba la Pass. The peaks of the Himalays.
Lhasa. Potala palace.
4 black yaks in Tibet.
*(English) a yak :Â (Tibetan) yak) is a long-haired bovine
found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central-Asia, the
Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia.
*(Flemish) een yak: Een bromrund of een jak
(Bos grunniens of Bos mutus) (voor 1995 gespeld als yak)
is een rundersoort, die voorkomt in Centraal-Azia. Hij is langharig en
is te vinden vanaf het Qinghai-Tibetaans Plateau tot in Mongolie.
Nepal Photo Album - from Palpa to Kathmandu valley
Nepal is 5 maanden geleden wanneer ik dit schrijf en, verbazend genoeg, blaas ik met gemak de herinneringen terug leven in. Veel makkelijker dan details van leningen, huur of belastingen. Nepal is een aandoenlijk land en iedere dag ga ik meer en meer commentaar aan deze foto album toevoegen. Lees het als je tijd hebt want ik ga het in detail maken.
De Nepalese visa kost 40 dollar en is 1 maand geldig. Beatriz en ik bleven 3 weken in Nepal, een week meer dan gepland, en een week te weinig wanneer we terugkijken. De visa laat toe om een week langer te blijven, maar we waren in Kathmandu en hadden opeens ... haast !! En ruzie. Het gaat over Tibet. Die discussie leg ik uit in mijn photo album van Tibet, die nog niet klaar is. Het resultaat van de afwegingen en mogelijke keuzes is dat we door Tibet gaan - de duurdere en moeilijkere optie - en we in plaats van een maand, 3 weken in Nepal blijven.
Na India is onze eerste stop in Nepal, Tansen.
Nepal is 5 months ago when I write this and, to my surprise, I recall the memories with so much detail. A lot easier than details about mortgages, rent or taxes back home. Nepal leaves a profound mark and I plan to add, day by day, more comments to the phote album. Read if you find the time.
De Nepalese visa costs 40 dollar and valid for 1 month. Beatriz and I stayed 3 weeks in Nepal, one week more than intended, however, looking back, we should have done the full visa. After 3 weeks in Nepal, the strangest thing happened. We were in Kathmandu and felt in a ... hurry!! And we had quarrels. It is about Tibet. The discussion I blog in my photo album of Tibet, not ready yet. The result of weighing and chosing, is we go through Tibet - the difficult and expensive option - and instead of one month, we stay 3 weeks in Nepal.
After India, our first stop in Nepal is Tansen.
A Durbar temple on Sitalpati square, the main and only square in Tansen. It is early in the morning after our first night. // Een Durbar tempel op Sitalpati markt, de grootste en enige markt in Tansen. Het is de morgen na onze eerste nacht.
De eerste nacht in Tansen. Die ga ik nooit vergeten. Beatriz en ik hebben in totaal 3 keer van kamer veranderd. Kakkerlakken, kakkerlakken, en nog eens kakkerlakken. En in alle 3 kamers. In de 3de kamer waren de minste kakkerlakken, en hebben we ons, uit beesten schrik, in het hoeslaken gewikkeld om te kunnen slapen. Ik ben normaal niet bang van beesten, maar ik wil niet wakkerworden met een kakkerlak op mijn hoofd. In het totaal 2 uur geslapen!! Vroeg in de morgen hebben we goed van onze tetter gegeven, nog de HELFT van de kamerprijs betaald, en op zoek gegaan naar ontbijt in het enige westers lijkend cafe in Tansen.
We blijven nog 3 dagen in Tansen, uiteraard in een andere herberg, en nemen ruim de tijd om een nieuwe kamer te vinden. De kamer moet niet meer dan 4 muren hebben, dat is genoeg luxe, maar 4 muren zonder het kleinste gaatje waar een beest kan doorkruipen. Uiteindelijk belanden we in een kamer die veel wegheeft van een bunker. 3 nachten heel goed geslapen.
Early in the morning you see Nepalese schoolboys. I rarely have seen them On this occasion on Sitalpati square. // Vroeg in de morgen zie je Nepalese jongens naar school gaan. Het gebeurt niet veel dat ik die zie Deze keer op Sitalpati markt.
First night in Tansen. I will never forget it. Beatriz and me have changed rooms 3 times. Cockroaches everywhere. And in all 3 rooms. In the 3rd room it was the least, and still being paranoid, we wrapped ourselves in the bedsheets. Normally I am not scared of animals, but I don't want to wake up with a roach on my lip. 2 hours of sleep!! Early in the morning we gave the guy at the reception the hole load, still paid HALF of the roomprice, en went for the only western looking breakfastplace in Tansen.
We stay 3 more days in Tansen, in another guesthouse, and take our valuable time to find another room. The room doesn't need more than 4 walls, that is plenty of wealth, but 4 walls without the smallest crack for a roach to come through. In the end we stay in a room that looks pretty similar to a bunker. Slept wonderfully for 3 nights.
Nepalese woman, half in sari (Indian women's clothes), half in sporty jumper. It's a different fashion with India all together. I haven't seen this in India. // Een Nepalese vrouw, half in sari (Indische vrouwenstijl), half sportief met de roze jumper. Zoiets heb ik niet gezien in India.
Tansen ligt op een heuvel in de Himalayas, op een 1000m hoogte. Ik zeg in de Himalayas want Beatriz en ik hebben er lang over gelachen. Zijn we nu in de Himalayas of is dit maar een heuvel en nog een paar heuveltjes erond. Het is in de Himalayas maar in een lager stuk dan de hooggebergtes zoals Annapurna en Everst. Het landschap is eerder een heuvellandschap, met heuveltoppen van 1500m. Het dorpje zelf is een puzzel van smalle straten en heeft een gezellige look. Er zijn geen toeristen, in 3 dagen hebben we enkel een 3-tal blanken gezien, tegenovergesteld aan Pokhara en Kathmandu. Dus het is wij en de Nepalezen.
Ideaal voor trekking! We gaan langs bij het toerisme bureau...en trekken zoals je ziet in de foto's...maar tot zover Tansen en mijn commentaar...
Hieronder de foto's van de dagtrek!!
Tansen lies on a hilltop in the Himalayas, at 1000m altitude. I stress that it is in the Himalayas. Beatriz and me laughed a lot about this. Is it in the Himalayas or is this just a hill with a few hills around it. It is in the Himalayas but in a lower part than the high ranges like Annapurna and Everst. The landscape is more hills, with hillpeaks of 1500m. The village itself is a puzzle of small streets and has a warm feel. There are no tourists, in 3 days we say maybe 3 white people, as opposed to Pokhara and Kathmandu. So that makes it us and de Nepalese people.
Ideally for trekking! We go to the tourist office... and trek because we have picture of it... and so far the comments, more to come.
Below the pictures of the daytrek!!
Beatriz keeps asking me whether we are trekking in the Himalayas. I am not sure. // Beatriz vraagt aan mij tijdens de trektocht of we in de Himalayas zijn. Ik ben het niet zeker
The family of the woman that did our laundry. // De familie van de vrouw die onze was gedaan heeft.
The children love our sunnies. // De kinderen nemen graag onze zonnebril.
Beatriz meets a girl die Sapannah. SAPPANAH!! Not Savannah like Beatriz would have liked. // Beatriz leert een meisje kennen die Sapannah heet. SAPPANNAH!! No Savannah zoals ze wel had gewild.
Tansen Durbar
The morning dawn around the mountains. We leave to Pokhara. // De ochtendstond rond de bergen. We vertrekken naar Pokhara.
The bus to Pokhara. We sit on the top of the bus. // Bus naar Pokhara. We zitten op het dak van de bus.
Pokhara
Pewa lake
Bus van Pokhara naar Kathmandu
Maoists block the road. // Maoisten blokkeren de weg.
Sinds je mijn laatste blog gelezen hebt, zijn we in een ander land - Nepal. 2 maanden zijn voorbij, we zijn 13 euro (20 dollar is ons budget) per dag minder rijk, we hebben veel bijgeleerd van het mystieke Nepal, en de toppen van de Himalayas bewaren zijn grootste geheim, de bergbewoners. Zijn sterke communistische aanhang - de Maoisten - is dagelijks actief, maar onze ervaring beperkt zich tot hun wegblokkades op weg naar Pokhara, terwijl de Maoisten een toernooitje straatvoetbal spelen tegen het leger. Nepal is een toevluchtsoord voor Tibetaanse vluchtelingen - van Tibet gaan we nog veel meer te weten komen want volgende week zullen we daar zijn. Nu nog genieten van Nepal, het adventure paradijs voor trekkers en adrenaline-vreters.
Onze eerste stop is in Tansen, Palpa. De foto onderaan is genomen op een dag-trek en is op 1950m met de Himalayas in de achtergrond. Er was geen toerist te bespeuren, echt machtig !! Vraag me niet waarom, maar hoe minder toeristen ik zie, hoe trotser ik ben op mezelf.
De tweede foto is genomen aan het Phewa-Tal-meer in Pokhara. Fantastische plek om niets te doen.
De bovenste foto is Durbar Square in Kathmandu. Daar zijn we nu. We zitten in een zijstraatje op een schamel computer om wat mailtjes te sturen.
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Since you read my last blog, we are in another country - Nepal, we passed the 2 months, we lost some 12 quid a day, and we learnt so much about this mystical country. Its Himalaya tops save the world's biggest secret, the mountain villages, Nepal's Maoist party is active on a daily basis - our only (fortunately) experience with them is a road block while Maoists were playing footie with the Nepali army. Another big thing about Nepal are the Tibetan refugees - we ll learn a lot more about that because next week we are in Tibet - and Nepal defo is paradise to spit out adventure dreams and adrenaline you stocked in your body.
Our first is in Tansen, Palpa. The first picture - starting from the bottom of the blog - is taken on a day-trek on elevation of 1950m (nothing much, we ve been very lazy :) with the Himalayas in the background. There was not one tourist around in Palpa which was fantastic. I guess the less tourist, the more you claim that place to be your's. Stupid I know.
The middle pic is taken at the Phewa-Tal Lake in Pokhara. Beautiful place to chill and meet other people in the restaurants and hostels. (here there are a lot of tourist to go to do the Annapurna trek)
The top picture is Durbar square in Kathmandu. I am in a small street off the Durbar square writing this. Love Kathmandu!!
India Photo Album Uttar Pradesh - from Agra to Tansen (Nepal)
02 Juni. Varanasi.
Vanavond vertrekken we naar Nepal. Eindelijk !! We kijken erg uit naar Nepal - ik waarschijnlijk meer dan Bea want ik heb genoeg van de vervuilde lucht in India. We nemen de nachttrein, een lokale 'rammel' bus van 3 uur en arroveren in Sanauli rond middag tijd.
Het papierwerk aan de grens is makkelijk. Aan de grenspost ontvangen we onze stempel, we betalen elk 40 US dollar, en we kunnen 1 maand als toerist in Nepal blijven.
Tonight we leave to Nepal. Finally !! We are looking really looking forward to arrive in Nepal - me probably more than Bea cause I have had enough of the pollution in India. We ll take the nighttrain, a 3 hour 'scrappy' bus and get in Sanauli around midday.
The paperwork will be straightforward. At the border we get our Nepal stamp, we pay 40 USD each, and we have a 1 month visa.
Bekijk hieronder het tweede deel van onze fotos van Rajasthan. Onderaan begint het met Jodhpur, daarna gaat het over naar fotos van Jaisalmer, de bovenste fotos zijn genomen in Jaipur. Veel kijkplezier en we spreken af in de Taj Mahal !
Have a look at the second part of our pictures in Rajahsthan. The blog starts with the first picture taken at the bottom. This is in Jodhpur, then it goes over into pictures we have taken in Jaipur. Enjoy picturetime and we meet at the Taj Mahal !
Jaipur. Indian kids that really want to have a picture (with our camera ?)
Jaipur. Sunset from Palace of winds.
Jaipur. Palace of winds.
Bea. Palace of winds.
Jaipur. Palace of winds. It's probably the only palace that we paid an entry fee for.
Jaipur.
Jaipur. Pinky.
Jaipur. Pink bazaar.
Jaipur. Cyber cafe.
Jaipur. The pigs.
Jaipur. What a detail, a Belgian saree.
Jaipur. The pink city, this is one of the entry gates.
Jaipur. 05:01 AM
Jaipur. 05:00 AM
Jaisalmer. Bea watching her step.
Jaisalmer. A haveli balcony.
Jaisalmer. Haveli courtyard.
Jaisalmer. Haveli courtyard.
Jaisalmer. Fort gate.
Jaisalmer. Bea in the narrow streets of the fort.
Jaisalmer. Haveli facade.
Jaisalmer. Temple.
Jaisalmer. View from the fort.
Jaisalmer. Bea very dandy.
Jaisalmer. Busted !!
Jodhpur. Most of our time in Jodhpur we spent with Barbara & Christoph, learnt more about Marseille than Jodhpur.
Jodhpur. Where was I with my Indian efficiency, this one self explanatory.
Jodhpur.
Jodhpur.
Jodhpur. How cute !
Jodhpur. Pure joy doing the canon, what a grin.
Jodhpur. View from the fort.
Jodhpur. Jodhpur, the blue city. view from the fort.
At the mo, we seem to get hotter and hotter, Jaisalmer (city in desert area close to the Pakistan border) - now 49 C - will be the hottest of our trip I hope. Too hot to ride a camel. Seeing them run is fun already, their clumsy running style and their long legs just make me laugh, so horsebacking one must be gasss. But we are just going to stay away from them, just taste the ambiance here in the desert area is good enough and the more we are in the shadow the better.
I follow the Taliban fights in Pakistan because we are very close now, we see soldiers in Jaisalmer - and with their guns they are taking the same trains like us - but it is not scary at all. For both Indians and Pakistanis it's hard to cross the boarder. More trouble is going on in Kashmir where Pakistan and Indian have their ongoing dispute-history.
We stay in Jaisalmer tomorrow and then off to Jaipur and Amber.
PS: I have some open mails and I just want to say that I am not forgetting that, have a fantastic day !!
Have a look at the pictures of Rajahstan so far, tomorrow we go to Johdpur. This is on our way to Jaisalmer where the desert is. We are looking forward to this a lot !! Talk to you sooon.
Pushkar. Ha ving a smoothie.
Pushkar. Me posing on one of the ghats where Hindus get their blessing. Pushkar for that, is a very sacred place.
Pushkar. Boy washing his face in the lake.
Pushkar. Bea's new 100 rupees slippers.
Pushkar. Bea in full Indian style.
Udaipur. We broke a new record, 4 backpacks and 4 people in one rickshaw!! Marie Claire & Jason, the Canadian couple, are in the picture.
Udaipur. a saleswoman on the veg market.
Udaipur. Jason is taking pictures from people behind him, and is changing shoulders.
Udaipur.
Udaipur. Now these are the Indians I like to talk to.
Udaipur. Bad picture of a Vodafone billboard.
Udaipur. Entry of Vishnu temple, nice elephants.
Udaipur. Vishnu temple.
Udaipur. Great picture of some houses.
Udaipur. View on the city, this picture is taken from a roof top restaurant. We spent most of our time on those rooftops
Udaipur. Bea and me.
Udaipur. Nice picture but do not go swimming in that river. The river is longing for the monsoon to come.
Udaipur. This is the main lake in Udaipur, completely dried up because of the enormuous heat.
Fotos on Facebook of Karnataka & Kerala - 18/05/2009 (English)
Hope you are doing well. We are missing you but are on our way and enjoying every second !! Bea has put some pictures on facebook so that makes it easy for me, here is the link to the pictures of Kerala. www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88977&id=533760845&l=4a0b4c1636 I don't have the link for the pictures of Karnataka and Bea is in for a hair treatment, so you best ask someone who has a facebook account to see these. The last couple of days we did a lot of public transporting to get in the North of India. Yesterday morning, finally, we arrived in Udaipur, Rahajastan. We met a Canadian couple and so far it looks like our trip is even passing through Montreal
Hampi reminds me of Bruges. It is small, touristic and a fantastic place to be. The world heritage site, protected for its temples and history of a great city it once was, gives the locals good tourism business, and we enjoy to relax, read a bit, and wonder around. To compare Bruges with Hampi is blunt, but being from Bruges I am prejudiced I guess. And in both places, local people either treat you like dirt or like kings depending on how much money you can bring them.
The temperature is 40 C plus so during the afternoon we stay inside. In the early hours and after 5PM are the coolest times. In between, the biggest hobby is to find a fan. The fan makes it cool however sometimes the fan is out of work cause Hampi has electricity problems for an unknown reason - Also my phone does not connect to the local network anymore - We have given up on finding out exact explanations. Under a fan we read a book, we have a chat, make notes, and just wait till it cools down.
The main purpose of my blog today is to give you the route that we have followed for the last month, so let me tell you more about that route.
Hampi, where we are right now, is our last stop in South India, before going to the North. The picture of this blog illustrates where we have been and stayed during the last month, with the cities and the amount of nights. When you click on the picture, a new window opens and you see the picture bigger. The picture comes from my notebook so it has no technology like Google earth or Tripit or anything like that behind it, it is hand drawn and I hope it does the works to explain our route.
Started off in Mumbai, 3 days, we went to Goa - Arambol & Baga - 1 week; then south to Kerala - Fort Cochin, Varkala, Thrissur - 2 weeks; passing through Tamil Nadu - Ooty - 1 day; to Karnataka - Mysore, Bengaluru, Hampi - 1 week. The picture does not say how many nights in Hampi because I didn't know at the time, I can tell you now that it is 3 nights. That is plenty for Hampi. Without one day of sightseeing with Chris and Eric, 2 days would have been enough. Name ?? Country ?? Rickshaw ?? Definitely the most commonly spoken words by Hampi locals, ranging from an age of 2,5 years or any age a baby starts talking, to the age that someone just gives up. Please give up faster. It did give us some good laughs.
The next states on our route are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajahastan, Punjab, (maybe Himachal Pradesh), Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. I will definitely draw that route again in my notebook and post the picture :)
My last blog has the pictures of Thrissur so let me start there to tell you more about the places we have visited on the way starting with Ooty. Ooty, ridiculous name in my opinion and an enough reason not to go there, is high in the western ghats mountains at an altitude of 2,200 metres. It is popular for its tea plantations, hiking trips, cool mountain temperature, and nearby wildlife parks. Having taken a bus from Thrissur (4 hours) and then another bus (7 hours), it took more time than planned. The last 5 hours, the bus climbed and climbed. We did 22km in one hour. I am faster with my foldable bicycle. We saw two head on collisions on the way up too, and that slowed us down a lot. After 5 hours of hair pin bends we got there eventually.
Surprise for us was that it was raining in Ooty. And the lonely planet says it is high season with a 'cool' temperature. We were fooled. we arrived in slippers, 2 hours late so it was dark, and we had too look for a place to stay. After an hour of looking for accomodation, soaked, we gave in to take a room of 1000 rps and make Ooty a short and luxurious stay of one day. We saw the tea plantations on the way up by bus, hiking trip we do another time, and nearby wildlife can stay wild.
A bus trip from Ooty to Mysore takes 6 hours. The bus goes through wilderness, national parks and local tribal villages. Mysore is good times, being popular for incenses, parfums and its palace. We found accomodation fairly quickly and thought to stay a few days after the many bus trips.
Walking around on the amazingly colourful market of Mysore, we found out what else Mysore is popular for. Good salespeople. They don't do good business with us though. A good example is the incenses and parfums salesman. He showed us how incenses are made. You mix sandwood with water and you get a moisty paste. That paste you roll on to a small bamboo stick and incense is done. One person can make around 5,000 to 6,000 incenses per day. He shows us a book of all Belgian customers with pictures and notes in Flemish. The guy even spoke a bit of Flemish. It is really weird to hear an Indian, that has never left his country, ask you "Hoe gaat het ?" and translate things for you. Other oneliners are Como estais ? Barcelola and I know Bilbao .... from a James Bond movie : )) We had to leave politely when he started to give us tips of how to send parcels to Belgium and how nice his parfums are as a gift and that it is better to buy them per 10.
Mysore its nice palace, the Maharaja palace, is worth to see and there are a few nice temples. Also it was a good place to eat for its upper class restaurants and we were happy to find Cafe coffe day in Mysore. No kidding, that is the best place to have breakfast in India !!
Bengaluru, next stop, is unmissable for IT people like Bea and me. Infosys is in Bangalore and have a whole campus for them, and the development of B're as an IT-hub changed the area around MG road dramatically. there is KFC (understandble, they have chicken), Mc Donalds (only chicken, Big Mac is Maharastjha Mac :)), pizza hut, also good restaurants, Louis Vitton & chanel stores, Levi's and Lee stores, many cafe coffee days, convenience sotres (Bea even found chorizo there !) and the whole area has western prices and the public is young and fashionable. This is the MG road area, the Mahatmi Ghandi road area. Once yhou go outside the area, B're is like every Indian city, crowded, chaotic, the traffic is a playground, rickshaws, motorbikes and buses buzzing around, and it is like the people never sleep. It's intensity in overdrive 24/7.
Now that I talk about IT, I heard the news that Oracle has taken over Sun Microsystems. It is not really a shock that Sun is bought by a big player, but incredible that it is Oracle again. That raises a lot of questions on roadmaps of Sun and Oracle products and what customers think about the take over. A customer that was on Oracle, BEA and Sun 2 years ago, is now completely on Oracle. It is hard to get your head around it. I will defo follow that more.
Tomorrow we go to Hampi, a very hot place. Hopefully I didn't write too many mistakes cause in this blog because it was quickly done,
Photos; In Thrissur, Kerala for the Pooram festival (elephants!!)
On the 3rd of May there is an elephant procession in Thrissur. Here are some pictures
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Light decorations of the temple.
Me and Jose, our Thrissur guide.
Me inside the temple of Thrissur.
These elephants will change 30 times of umbrellas. Watch all the crowds, Jose told us there are around 1 crore people coming to this festival. 1 crore is Indian for 10 million. I am not sure if he is right but there were a lot of people.
16.09.09. Half-Round the world in 1 year / Kick off. 9th of April 2009, Mumbai, India’s biggest city, is our best destination to take the train south to Goa, Kerala and Bangalore. From there we go 4,000 km by train back to north India, see Karnataka, Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal, Varanasi and Nepal. In Nepal we do small treks in the Himalayas and visit Kathmandu. Over de friendship highway, the route goes from Kathmandu to Lhasa by jeep, maximum altitude 5250m and we get to see the Mount Everest. In Lhasa we take the train through China, see the Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, and go 3,500m north to enter Mongolia and arrive in Ulan Bator. In Mongolia we camp in the Khovsgol area near the Russian Siberia, and renew the Chinese Visa to go back south. The clock says 4 months when we trained through China and see Yunnan, South China with its wonderful terraced rice fields. We enter the tropics and after 6 months travels we are in Vietnam. 2 months after that, we should have seen Angkor, the beaches in Thailand & Maleysia ...<e.d. 25.10.09. There is a change of plan after Angkor: we fly from Bangkok to Manila, we go to the Philippines!!> and on a ferry to Indonesia. From either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, we find our way to Sydney and work for 3 months. We will have traveled for 1 year when we are in Oz and ... and ... and ... that is how far we planned. But we were supposed to come back in 1 year but we are only half around the world. Beatriz and myself love Asia!! So much for planning ahead and scheduling. Let's just see how we get on and the more exciting our trip will be. Wish us good luck on the trip!!
31 July, Peking. Omdat ik mezelf beloofd heb om meer te bloggen, zelfs al zijn het kleine blogs, log ik snel in vanuit een Sony winkel dichtbij Tiananmen square. De Sony winkel waar ik in ben is heel groot - een beetje zoals de Apple in London - en heeft alle nieuwste techie stuff van Sony. De Sony Viao waar ik op bezig ben kost al 1,400 euros. Ik had geen zo'n hoge prijzen verwacht zo dichtbij waar ze geproduceerd worden. Zoals de winkel, is alles rond Tianmen square en de verboden stad heel overweldigend groot.
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To give you an insight on what is on our minds, I ll tell you the story of our restricted Visa for China and the time problem we have. It is a big thing for us so sympathize !! 
