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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.
11-04-2009
In Mombay. In Flemish & English. Flemish up, English is down
3de dag, 361 te gaan. Mumbai. Andheri, Noord-Mumbai. Voor de eerste keer in ons leven hebben we een koe zien slapen op straat. De 40,000 taxis zijn om 12uur snachts nog allemaal aan het werk.
4de dag. Bombay Central. Hartje Mumbai is het verkeer nie te garren. Een dokter heeft ons geleerd dat de autos moeten stoppen als je oversteekt, anders vliegen ze het gevang in. Het stelt ons niet gerust en de traagste mensen om over te steken zijn wij. Kolaba gezien.
5de dag, Mumbai. Bloeiend heet is het vandaag, 38 Celsius en de smog erbij: het is beter leven op een grillrooster. Vanavond vertrekken we naar Noord-Goa, Arambol voor wat meer adembare lucht. Tzal Paasmis zijn op de trein dit jaar.
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3rd day, 361 to go. Mumbai, Andheri. North Mumbai. Cultural shock starts with seeing a cow sleep on the walkway and 40,000 taxis buzzing around your ears.
4th day, Bombay Central, the most congested traffic part in Mumbai, makes it impossible to cross a street. A doctor tells us that we dont have to worry. If a car hits you, the driver goes to jail. Not enough to comfort Bea and the funniest people is us. Saw Kolaba.
5th day, Mumbai. Awfully hot, 38 Celsius, with smog to smoke you out like on a BBQ. Tonight we leave to North-Goa, Arambol, to get some oxygen. Hope the train organizes an Easter ceremony on the train.
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Mumbai leaves a mark of great poverty to us, of Ghandi, of too many people in one place, very friendly and very funny, of a place impossible to cross a street. Watch out or the cow takes you over !! And of endless ambition to be friendly and better off. PS: The people we met are very friendly and help you to get to anywhere. We do have walked a lot around blocks wondering whether they misdirected us on purpose, or they didnt know any better. And they sound so convincing !! *source: textually.org
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!!
