Blog 4: ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />India and Nepal: Namaste mero satis!..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
First of all apologies to everyone who was attending news from me, Jeroen and Jan, I'll explain the whole thing why I unfortunately didn't make it to Oz.
Then I want to wish all of you a freaking good 2008, for the western world too late maybe, but we just had the Chinese New year here.
Many things happened to me in the past few months after I returned from India, good things, some not so fun ones, but from all I learned a lot and again I got the proof that in the end everything will be fine, no matter what happens.
But for now only about my trip to India and Nepal, the stories about the last 3 or 4 months are too crazy to believe for some people. But one thing is a fact, Koh Pha Ngan really is paradise!
Loaded full of good vibes of my visit @ Koh Pha Ngan I continued my trip to India, to be more precise, I started in Kolkata…
I will honestly say that it was not the best city to arrive after this good time in paradise…
Pics Calcutta
"Welcome to India" said the taxi driver when Pascual and I entered his Ambassador. "This must be a joke", I thought, "This place cannot represent India" while I tried to ignore the noisy, smelly, chaotic mess…
This might have been the first idea on India of many.
We would notice it soon enough that the country has much more to offer then an ugly city like Kolkata.
Pascual, a Spanish guy who I met in Bangkok at the airport, asked me if I was interested to follow him direction Darjeeling before going to Kathmandu.
Darjeeling is situated in north India, between Nepal and Bangladesh and it's world famous for it's thee.
You can see the most beautiful sceneries over valleys filled with thee bushes and rice fields.
Pics Darjeeling
In Darjeeling we went for a daytrip to the Tiger hill by sunrise, where we got treated on one of the most beautiful artworks in nature.
The ever changing colours of nature when the sun comes up and lets it's light and warmth burst through the thick layer of mist, revealing the hidden mountains while behind us the clouds were crawling over mountaintops, as if it were spirits driven by the wind.
Pics Tiger Hill and road to Gangtuk
That same day we already went up to Gangtuk (Sikkim) because we had to try to reach Kathmandu in time, still visiting on our way as much as we could.
We would be on the road by jeep for another 7 hours, or more even.
The driver was happy enough to tell and show us a lot of the region where he lives, so we met some of his friends and were often enough astonished by the views where he stopped for.
Everywhere we went we got a kind and warm welcome accompanied with a nice smile.
We met Rozen, the guide from a small travel agency, and decided to go visit the Tsanghu Lake. This lake is situated at an altitude of more then 12000 feet, with its close neighbours China and Tibet.
Unfortunately we were too much in a hurry to go visit the holy lake, a bit north of Gangtuk. It seems that in this lake, somewhere in the middle of a forest, not a single leaf of the trees is floating in the water. Each time a leaf falls, some birds come and pick it up to drop it somewhere on the side. A place I really want to see on my next travel, where I will take more time for India and Nepal.
Then we got the bad news that day that it would be impossible to cross the nearest border to Nepal. Only for locals, no tourists… That would mean another 48+ hours of non-stop bus and jeep rides… First up to Siliguri, then to Kathmandu.
Pics: Road to Nepal
After this hardcore ride to Kathmandu, which took 6 days instead of the expected 3, I was happy to see a real bed and a shower again, and went to sleep early.
At least, I tried, until my friend Rana told me he was on his way to pick me up to go to a mountain party.
Once at the party I had to get a bit of rest in the car. Sleeping in a normal car was even luxury after these few days of sleeper trains, bad hotels, crazy jeep drivers,… By morning time Rana woke me up to go witness another beautiful sunrise from the terrace of the party.
The whole Kathmandu valley was covered in clouds, as if it was a mystical lake, while at the right side the snowy tops of the Giants of the World, the Himalayas, turned orange of the first rays of light of another beautiful day. Again a postcard moment…
Pics Kathmandu
A few days of rest passed, the trip was quite heavy this time and the Nepali specialties didn't make me more active then I was.
A few visits through the city later, Rudy from Singapore arrived and a few days more Nas from Oman. Nice seeing you guys back!
Two days before the Shanti Jatra festival started, I heard they had changed location, unfortunately I was too late to tell the news to my friend Oasis, the owner of "The end of the universe". He was already in Last Resort 5 hours further instead of Nagarkut, at 20 minutes of his hotel where the festival would finally go on.
At this festival I heard some (for me) new styles of psychedelic music.
The place was full of freaks and everybody was in the mood for a good party. I also met Marc (Psyboriginal) after a long time again and the two psychedelic Swiss guys, Thomas and Michael who I met at Koh Pha Ngan were also partners in crime again.
Sadly enough I don't have any pictures of the festival, but you can find them on the website www.shantijatra.com
When the festival was finished we spent another night in Nagarkut and went off to Pokhara.
In the Bodhi Home it was again a reunion of people who were in September at Koh Pha Ngan.
Pokhara had a far less crazy traffic then Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal, so Denni, his girlfriend and I went for a scooter ride around the lake, what almost finished for me with a blocked engine when the river suddenly seemed to be much deeper then it first looked like. A good way to find out that my new trekking shoes weren't waterproof.
I was lucky enough to get the bike rolling again, it would have been a long walk back home otherwise.
Pics Pokhara
A couple of days later I would need to return to Kolkata, because I wanted to see the heart of India, Varanassi, on the way back.
In the bus I met a lady from France, an American guy and a couple from Spain.
It were four completely different types of people, with different origins and different ideas of travelling. We would be passing the days in Varanassi together and see that this mix would be an interesting one.
It turned out to become a very nice time in the so far craziest and most chocking place I have ever seen in the world. (Well, there are still many countries to visit, but this place must be among the craziest ones)
I cannot really explain all the things I have seen there, most of you would ask me why the hell I (or other people) would even think of going there but you need to be there to understand it.
The gap between their culture and ours is huge, which gave me the first real culture chock on my travel. It took a couple of days before I could really say if I liked it or not, because it needed lots of processing for the brain.
Now I can say I liked it a lot, because this place made me think of many things in life, how damn happy we can be to be in good health and have the possibilities to do what we want to do, go where we want to go…
Pics Varanassi
Greetz and beatz
PS
-Note, congratulations with your marriage! It was a real nice surprise to hear the good news! You are a good couple, I wish you all the best in love and life
-Howard, sorry that I didn't contact you anymore in Kolkata, hope you're doing fine man.
-Ben, ne dikke merci om me te komen bezoeken hier, t was echt te gek u nog eens terug te zien met Els na die lange tijd!
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For the people with who I exchanged pictures during my travel, I hope you can all read this and want to do me a HUGE favour.
I lost all my pictures of these 9 first months of my travel, the only ones I have left are on this blog, but I would really like to recover as much as I can from the original pictures.
, So pleaseif you have pictures send them to:
Danny Martens
Tienderstraat 47/1
3670 Meeuwen-Gruitrode
BELGIUM