The journey begins - Bhutan Nepal India

28 march - 29 april 05

Dear friends,

It’s quite a time ago, that I gave you my news, sorry - but India is so surprising, that you don’t want to miss a minute!

After we left Bhutan we heeded to Nepal, where we had our car repaired. It took some 4 days which were most enjoyable. I met old friends there, had great Nepali food (Dal Bhat - rice, lentil soup, vegetable curries, spinach, pickles, salad, chutneys, naan (bread) and so on.) at there places and I got news from Nepal. The situation has not very improved since the king sacked government almost 2 months ago. He was supposed to hold peace talks with the Maoists very soon, but he didn’t succeed. I have talked to many local people there, and quite a lot of them say: well, it’s not correct, what the king did, it’s not democracy - but the parties also created no feeling of democracy. There is not so much changed, we don’t mind who brings peace if he brings it soon!

We had some road checks in the southern part of Nepal when we entered from Bhutan via India, but we reached the resorts where we were invited to stay quite in time - in Asian time at 10pm. The second day we went on, had again some street blockades and after the 3rd they didn’t want to let us pass. We walked to the "boy" in charge - he was not older than 16 - who told us, that we won’t get through – it’s curfew. After some fruitless discussion we agreed, went back to our car, opened the blockade ourselves and drove through. The boy was so puzzled when he saw us just driving along, that he didn’t refuse anymore.
2 days in Chitwan were waiting. We spend 2 special days in the National Park in the jungle’s second oldest lodge there. Elephant rides with watching rhinos, monkeys, a cheetah, spotted deer, other deer and many many birds, canoe ride in the warm evening sun with a light wind, the slowly flowing water under the trunk - really great. And an Elephant bath - splish splash..

After the 4 days in Kathmandu, which Í mentioned before we drove via Pokhara, where we met an old porter friend to the Indian border near Lumbini, where Buddha was born.
The first night in India was strange and not really nice - as every time. Though spending some time in Nepal/Kathmandu, which is for Europeans already quite noisy, big and chaotic India is surprisingly loud, busy and even more chaotic!
But from the 2nd day on, the "gates to India" opened in me. I saw these many many miracles every day, every hour. We always met very friendly people, and if one was not that hospitable, he was at least funny. So many nice places, always the ones which you almost missed out. We had 2 days in Gwalior/Madhya Pradesh, where the tourism minister invited us and arranged a great sightseeing through the town. He wants to get a twin citizenship with Salzburg in Austria, because the also have a big fortress and they are known for their music - just as Salzburg is!
They did a wonderful "sound and light show" though it was not what we expected. We thought of Hindi dancing + light effects, but they sat us open air in the meadow near the fortress and freshed up the whole history of the town with alighting the mentioned parts of the fortress and playing the dialogues, festival music, attacks, aso via loudspeaker. It was like history was alive. It’s the original scene and you don’t have to read boring stories wandering through piles of dead stone, but really watching and hearing everything. Not like a movie in your living room, but right there!
The techniques are not yet perfect, but the idea is fabulous!

The tourism minister is a former actor - he played Krishna, a Hindi god, an incarnation of Vishnu (the protector) in 96 series in 2 years and some bollywood movies.
He still acts like an actor, runs to the "refreshing room" to have a look at his hair, face, cloth... sometimes I really had to laugh. Everyone who knows Hindi movies know the scenes after very impressively dramatised dialogues when the speakers face looks frozen - fast switching between the two actors and frozen expression. The minister also stopped moving for some seconds in the midst of telling some story. It was quite embarrassing because he kept asking, why I was laughing. It was hard to find answers...

Something let us decide to skip the next goal and go to Fatehpur Sikri, where there is a really nice mosque. Always when I look at these huge architectural masterpieces I think of the poor people who had to build this temple, fort or whatever.

What followed was one short night in Jaipur after loosing some time because the car somehow thought that there was to less attention paid to it. So it surprised us with a strange noise in he left front wheel. We tried to find a workshop, but that was hopeless. Some Indian cam with a check, lifted the car a bit, let it down again and the noise was gone. I the meantime we went for something edible. Some samosas + pakoras were alright, we took them and sat down to have lunch/dinner near the car. Immediately we were surrounded by Indian people. The built a half circle around us watching s while eating. I counted them - 82 noses - they didn’t mind my counting.

So after Jaipur and the best Lassi in India we stopped again unexpected for 2 wonderful days in Bharatpur. There we got to know a very liberal and open holy man in a temple. The temple is in the bird park area, where you should pay entrance fee. It was only 1 more hour to be closed but they charged the whole day fee. After discussions we refused and just drove on. Coincidentally we found this temple and the holy man invited us to stay for some hours.

He showed us more "wildlife" than we would have seen in the park. He had a lake full of tortoises/turtles, monkeys, spotted deer, civet cats aso. The park guards came after us to ask us for the entrance fee, but he seemed to throw them out ( I don’t speak Hindi, but the effect was the same.) after that he said: well, I don’t mind if you have an entrance card. I also don’t have one.
He lived there for more than 20 years...

The last couple of days we had in Pushkar, a small city with a holy lake in the centre, ghats all around like famous Varanasi (Benares) but much smaller and more familiar. I had the best room in the whole city with big door to every side, so that we hade the best lake view - and no mosquitoes, because the night wind blew them all away. its a very special flair there, a pilgrims enter, the only place where god Brahma is officially worshipped, but now off-season a perfect place to hang a round, watch the busy pilgrims, the holy cows, the ducks, the old sadhus wrapping there turbans
The Mediterranean architecture and the best, freshest weather I ever had in India!
We extended our stay from 1 to 4 days.

On the road the traffic changes more and more to camel, donkeys and even some elephants on the street. Sand dunes are next to the road, its getting desert-like!

Now we reached the Shekawati region, famous for its beautifully painted haveli-houses. Let’s see what the next days will bring!


All best wishes, tashi delek + namaste

there are pics on yahoo - they are too much for this blog... if you are asked for a password: acchigom

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