12: Pondicherry

After a bus trip that lasted over 20 hours from Goa to Pondicherry we arrived our destination, but the good part was that the second half of the bus trip was in daylight, so we got to see much of the tropical and green hilly nature in Tamil Nadu between Bengaluru and Pondicherry. The weather is really tropical, and another thing that is quite usual to see along the roads are... monkeys... a lot of them! Our bus had to stop one time because of one little stubborn monkey that didn't want to get out of the way. It just stood there as if saying "give me something... I have all the time in the world..."

Pondicherry seems like a cozy and idyllic city at night. There is still a french impression over the city since the colonial time. Got to explore more in the morning.

11: Bengaluru

After getting fried by the hot sun in Goa we headed for Pondicherry which will be our final city before visiting Chennai and from there take the flight home (via Delhi and Moscow). We stopped by Bengaluru for some hours to change the bus that was going further down to Pondicherry. It is another chaotic (in a good way) Indian city.

...Still in Goa

It has been three days now since I arrived Goa, the weather in Goa is too nice to leave yet... Still enjoying the beach and the sun... In the mean time I got a new haircut ^^

 

 Sunset in Goa:

09 & 10: Palolem Beach & Patnam Beach

Getting out of the plane in Dabolim Airport in Goa was like jumping from a refrigerator into a sauna... we went from 15 C degrees in Delhi to about 30 C degrees in Goa...wow! Such an extreme change with just 2,5 hours of flight. We arrived Christmas eve about 20:00, and then took a cab to our guest house in Palolem Beach. Having traveled for a long time and being tired we decided to go to sleep about 23:00, and just when I was going to fall into a deep midnight sleep, fireworks started like crazy all over the place... Apparently the way people celebrate Christmas in Goa (I don't know for the rest of India) is to go to mass at 23:00 the 24th of December, and then at 00:00 Christmas is celebrated with fireworks!! Wohooo! (double new-years eve)... One thing is for sure, they celebrate _every_ possible religious celebration that exist in the world, here in India... (So I have been told by the locals).. Some pictures of Palolem Beach:

During the day we decided to move a bit further south to beach huts in stead of staying in a guest house. So we ended up renting a beach hut with a lovely view of the sea from the hut's tiny balcony... The sunset in Goa is amazing (taken from our beach hut):

08: Vrindavan

Two days in Jaipur was enough to see most of what the city had to offer. We continued further to Vrindavan where we had been invited to an Indian wedding. Indian weddings lasts for three days, but we only managed to be there the second and third day. Two days with music, incredible Indian food, dance and some rest charged us for the rest of our journey...

07: Jaipur

After a day in Mussoorie we headed back to Dehradun to catch a train to Jaipur, but when we arrived the train station... guess what.. no tickets - "the train is full, sir"... wh00t? - anyway, we managed to find a bus back to Delhi, and from Delhi we took a bus to Jaipur... The night bus we took to Jaipur was again an A/C bus that was supposed to give some heat in the cold night, but again, no heat, so I cached the cold :S - I should have been a bit more prepared for the cold north :)

The first day in Jaipur went really great, we hired an auto rickshaw for the day and visited a lot of places: The Amber Fort, another fort (don't remember the name), a monkey temple, and we got to see an "elephant farm":

Amber Fort:

Another fort:

The monkey temple:

The "elephant farm":

It's one thing to watch them on tv, but a completely different experience to stand by one and touch it... there was another full grown 40 years old male elephant by this one.. I managed to pet that one too ^^

05 & 06: Dehradun & Mussoorie

Having cached our buss from Rishikesh to Dehradun, and then another bus to the high-altitude village of Mussoorie, we arrived Mussoorie at 6-7 pm. This is a village where the English men, amongst others, went to escape the heat at lower altitude. The roads up to the village were really steep and we climbed from Dehradun for over an hour. The first day we didn't get to see much, only this night view of Dehradun from our hotel room:

Here is the same view at sunrise:

And the night view of Mussoorie:

 The next day, however, we climbed to the top of a hill in the village and got a view of the third highest peak of the Himalayan mountain range. It was an amazing experience to just enjoy the view of the great Himalayan mountain range and drinking sweet Indian Chai, and getting refreshed by the chilly Mussoorie breeze. The peak I'm talking about can be seen on this picture:

04: Rishikesh

After a crazy bumpy buss trip from Delhi (I woke up flying out of my seat - upwards), we arrived Rishikesh. This is where The Beatles had written some of their songs at their peak time. Besides that, the place is of course known for its highly religious and spiritual value with its many temples that surrounds the Ganga River. The air was really fresh and the nature was beautiful, definitely a good spot to relax. What was also interesting to see was that there were people with all types of religious background there; Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus etc. For some reason these people came to Rishikesh to live together in Ashrams. I think people come to these Ashrams to seek other spiritual perspectives and get some experience in Bakthi Yoga or similar activities. We stayed in an Ashram for one day as well, before continuing our journey towards Mussoorie. This was our view of the Ganga River from our Ashram.

And here taking an auto rickshaw to the buss station after visiting the Swami Rama's Ashram in Rishikesh :

03: ...Another day in Delhi

After about 10 days I finally found an Internet cafe (in Goa)... There were probably more along the way, but we had to keep on our schedule.

...after one day in Delhi we tried to find a bus or train for our next destination, which was Rishikesh, but there were no available tickets, so we had to spend another day in crowded (and quite toxic) Delhi.. really, sometimes I thought the "fog" outside was just a fog. Delhi is of course a much bigger place, but I only got time to see a small portion of it.

This was our A/C (the fans) bus to Rishikesh :)

02: A day in Delhi

After traveling for almost 14 hours in total, and getting a taste of Russia at the Moscow airport I finally arrived Delhi. We checked in a 'guest house' in the middle of New Delhi - it's more like a motel... what is a guest house anyway...

The trip was exhausting, so after some hours of sleep we managed to find a place to eat some delicious Indian food - and it is true what they say, it's really cheap.. I mean, a king size meal for 15-25 NOK, a taxi trip that carges about 2 NOK for one km. Wh00t?

But it's important to think that we as tourists are getting charged a bit more than the locals, even though it might seem cheap.

Impressions: At the first sight of the traffic in Delhi, one might think, how in the hell are people not-colliding.. but after a while one sees that there is a order in the chaos. I learned a key survival point in the traffic - if I am ever to drive here - USE THE HORN - this is to letting know the person in front that you are coming, otherwise they won't bother to look behind, most of the people detach or "close" the side mirrors so they won't get broken..

Otherwise, I think the pictures speaks for themselves :D

yea, still tired... :)

Pre trip stuff...

So, this is my first post - and at this point... nothing is ready!! I just have a few days to finish the necessary shopping and... mentally prepare myself! Any advise is welcomed! :)