Mittwoch, 8. April 2009

Hampi









i got a little sick just watching the baby dandling like that





the ferryboat







Hampi, 200 km east from Gokarna, is a small village and famous for its ruins of the capital of the biggest hinduist state, which was destroyed in the 16th century. For some of the temples, you have to pay 10 US each , andthere you have the same problem like at other places: Some are seen in 5 minutes. What Hampi makes really famous is the bizarre stonelandscape, with green oases in between and the gourgeous river. The atomosphere is fantastic!

After three days i went back to Gokarna, knowing that Shivaratri was starting there.

Gokarna


It was good to visit Gokarna. Goa is really a nice place to stay, but I also would call it Club Med for budgettourists and very often it has nothing to do with India at all.

Gokarna is very different in that case. Very indian, a holy city. Directly at the sea, full with life and a very nice guesthouse, under coconut trees. A good place to stay some days and enjoying indian life.












This eagle, was sick and lived at a small restaurant at the beach. Usually it stayed at the roof, but sometime it went down, looking for food


.


and once the eagle really surprised me, when it jumped at my back. I didn't feel very comfortable, feeling the sharp claws in my neck. (both pictures overhead were made by Martin. THX!)

There is also a famous beach nearby called "paradise beach" only reachable by feet. But there is nothing like paradise anymore. Tourists made a "shit beach" out of it. Too many people were staying there.. no clean water available, no toilets, lots of waste.. a shame



But on the way, there were really very nice small beaches left und if you looked carfully you could see dolphins playing with each other.

There is also a famous fullmoonparty near Gokarna and I went there once, but it was really not my place either. Hardcore rave music, wired poeple...


Next stop: Hampi

Dienstag, 7. April 2009

Goa

I drove south to Goa and stopped in Arambol. After 4200 km with Enny it was time for a longer break, and that place was perfect for that.




The beach beside the main become my favorit. Not many people and a small natural sweetwater pool. It was perfect.





I also found a good restaurant. Almost everyday I ate fish thali. Still the best fishdish I ever had in my life.












I got a clean cheap room near the beach and and two old women arround 70 from germany who couldn't speak any word English, were my neighbours. I became their translater for that time. They were very forgetful and one of the ladys only wore the upper second theeth, which didn't fit perfectly.. a wired picture. I liked them.

The beach beside the main become my favorit. Not many people and a small natural sweetwater pool. It was perfect. I also found a good restaurant. Almost everyday I ate fish thali. Still the best fishdish I ever ate in my life.

Ennys Battery was gone after some days of rest. This is fatal because the ignition plug doesn't get the energy directly from the dynamo, but from the battery. If the battery is gone totally you can't start the moterbike. Fortunatelly it was easy to get a new battery.


I made one daytrip to Ajuna. Every wednesday is a huge fleemarket there. With old and young hippies, ravers, tibetans, kashmiris and japanes who were offering suhsi. Some indians were walking through the market and speaking to the tourists: " Excuse me! Your ear is dirty. May I clean it up?" In the evening they started the beach party. 2 huge loudspeaker towers, directed to the sea, the sand beneath your feet pumping from the bass, holy dancing cows and indite Indians who are unrolling bastmats for free... but you have to buy stuff from them.
... all in all, a wired place, funny for a half day, but annoying if you stay longer


It was end of janurary, it was getting hotter ervery day and the numner of tourists decreased. It become so hot, that it was impossible anymore to lie in the sun.

It was very diffcult to leave Arambol. It's one of those places, where time passes by and by und you become lazier every day.

But then the day come where i bestired myself successfully. Next stop was Gokarna.

Montag, 6. April 2009

the sea!! the sea!!

Next day I headed further east and the street was amazing. One curve after the other. It was a very good day!






Peter is happy


Every curve I was looking for the sea. And suddenly I could smell it. I was near. One curve and I was there: The sea, surrounded from palmtrees, an old mosque near the mouth of the river and the end of the street.


The end of the street? There was no end of the street in MY map. My map says the street goes above the river. So I eexpected a bridge, a ferry, something like that. But nothing? It was late in the afternoon.. and it was a long way back to the next streetcrossing.

I was really relieved when an indian pointed to Enny and said: "No problem" he also will pass the river with his bike. (a 125ccm moped)

We waited for the ferry.. and after an hour the "ferry" come. I didn't feel relived anymore, when the boatcrew of that converted fisherboat begun to laugh. The pier was much higher then the boat... and Enny was not the lightest baby. But they did it. 6 people brought her on the boat and on the other side also on the road again.






Right on time, I found a hotel room, and right on time I was sitting on a sandy beach, putting my feet deep into the warm sand, and was watching the sunset. I was the happiest man in the world!


sometime you just need not more, then a sunset, to be the happiest man in the world

Mahabaleshwar

After the caves I was finally heading to the see. After the disappointing and very pricy Pune (whith shields in every restaurant like: "Don't sit longer as needed" and "It's not allowed to read neswpapers" the next stop was Mahabaleshwar, a hillstation at 1300m. It was the first mountain for Enny and with the average speed of 50 km/h we were one of the fastest on the road. It's a place for indian tourists mainly and aspecially for weddings. Second day there was a wedding and I was wondering if the weddingcouple could be my children, because they both where very young. Lots of firecrackers, a lot of dancing people in the street.



Aurangabad / Maharashtra

I tried my luck in Aurangabad, just to realize that this double prize system was valid also for the Ellora caves. I went straight to the Tourist Office. The man there told me, that he was as annoyed than me. Because all the money is going straight to the government in New Dehli and is not for the restauration. So his only "advantage" from the new system was very annoyed tourists. He also mentioned that he belives that Indian poeple should pay more than the foreign tourists, because he has never seen a foreigner dancing on the statues or graving their names in the old stones. Indian people are showing less repect to their own cultural heritage than foreigners do.
But the good news was, that only for one cave a ticket was needed. The rest was free. Happly I went to the other dozen caves. More than 30 at all, and you have buddhist, jain and hinduist caves..


the famous cave 16 (the one you had to purchase, if you wonna go in.) The fascinating thing is, that everything what you see in that pictures is not built.... its cut out of the rock!!







Gujarat

First stop after leaving Udaipur was Gandhinagar the new capital from Gujarat. This town was built in the 1960s und even now it doesn't make appeal to be finished. A wired town, which seems that except the governmental clerks nobody is living there. It was the first time for a long time that I slept in a youth hostel again. I got a room with 10 beds for myself. Seems there is no need for a youth hostel in that artifical town. But the good thing was: no television. I don't know why, but in every hotel, with indian citizens with a TV in the rooms it's horrible loud. Seems like they have always a competition running who has the loudest TV in the room, and for finding out, they also let the roomdoors open.

After that silent peaceful night I arrived Bahvnagar next day. The condition of the streets in Gujarat is very good, but driving in Gujarat is also a little bit boring. Flat as a chapathie (flat indien bread) and streets with no curves. It also happend, that they had launched helmet duty in Gujarat some days before, but it seemed like it was only written in English newsletters. Nobdody cared about that new law.

Bahvnagar city has its two sides: When it gets dark, poverty become visible on each corner and spread out in front of the closed shops. Children, old people and whole families are sitting around small smelly bonfires, which are often fired with old tires. It can by cold during the night in January.
Gujurat is often suffering from draught. Whole villages are deserted, because it is not possible anymore to grow soemthing on the fields. And it's very difficult for those families to find work in the towns.


children are coloring kitestrings (one thing what amazes me always in India: dispite how poor they are, they find something to laugh.. without beeing socialromantic it's always fascinating me. And... it's contagious)


Next step was Alang. It`s the biggest shipwracking place in the world, and I was really looking forward for that.... but I got dissapointed: They wanted 500 US from me to visit it and the permission was only to get in Gandhinagar which was now 300km away. At the access road workers are trying to sell erverything from the old rusty ships: toilets, mirrors, fans, screws, furniture.... everything

So I continued my journey to Palitana. Near by are the only few hills in Gujarat and at the most famous are 863 jain temples which were built the last 900 years! It's an old pilgrim place and you can either walk the 3000 steps uphill or, when you have enough money by carriers. It's a very peaceful place and toursits are very rar.




...if you dont wonna go by yourself..


Next town Enny got a service.. but it was not a good one. The valves where totally wrong adjusted, than the regulator of the battarie went crazy and the tachokabel spinned around the front bumper.




I drove till 8 o clock in the evening and became very tired. It was wired: when it got dark, there was no truck or car anymore on the street. It feld like little bit dangerous. So i was very happy finding a motel. I drunk my second beer this year... and a small bottle of whiskey.


dirty and soo tired..


Next day I continued with a headache my way.. to the next mechanic. The clutch was gone, they also reajusted the valves and replaced also the tachokabel. Everything went right accept the tachokaple so i cut it off. In Jalgaon I went again to the mechanic and they finally solved all the problems. You see: it's very easy to find mechanics in India, but it can be very taff to find a good one.



..but you will always find interessted people.. sometimes i was really wondering..

In Jalgaon I got the first time confronted with the new introduced twoprice system for wolrd heritiage buildings. I wanted to see the caves of Anjuna. Tourists have nowadays to pay 20 times more then indian citizens. I really hate this system. I do not boder, if I would pay the doubled price, but 20 times so much! (And Ireally get angry when a rich indien guy with an slr which cost more than 1500 US who arrived with an aircontinioned car is laughing at me because of my annoyence and my dirt on my clothe, because of the motorbikeriding and is paying 10 rs)


just saw the caves from the distance..


But everything got very very relative when I got the news that Gujarat was hit by a huge earthquake at 26 Jannury 2001. 100 000 People died.

(I followed the whole reportings, everytime when it was possible. They had to increase the number of the dead people every day. After a week they stopped digging for survivors, because nobody could life as long without water. It was also said that the helpers digged first on places where rich people lived, because of the bakshish. There was the talk of robbers in Gujarat and the official order of "shoot on sight" )