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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.
13-05-2009
The first month ... (English)
13th of May, Hampi. South India.
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 :)
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!!
