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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.
24-05-2009
Rajahstan; Jaisalmer - too hot to camel !!
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 !!
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!!
