Vietnam

 this was a post that was long overdue it was long overdue because of various reasons but let's not get into that a lot of things happened since then and now suck now let's get back to business Of this post.not recently I hadn't been good beautiful country  called vietnam. yes this country was full of surprises yet  full of contradictions, but let me tell you this if you are from especially india and going there you might have a lot of the confusing notion, butvgo there to experience 

what the country a coffee 

Day one -  bit I am little late ride to the airport and then now get a flight over to bangkok and after a very early morning arrival I need a wiait  to vietnam there was an agonizing wait to get a visa stamp and then we got into the country

 The exchange rate of the dong to  indian rupee suddenly the had over 2 million vietnam dong hey i was a millionaire 

The taxi drive cost us around 200,000 I knew this because I had a lonely planet guide with me but still the staggering explains it was over mefirst day in ho chi minh city was tiring but when we arrive from the airport all i could think was lunch so we made our  way to the hotel and then had some an interesting vietnamese lunch have some dried meat and some soup

this point on my concerns where is primarily towards my girl who was with me on a first trip to a foreign land .she settled down went out with me the first day was spent just going down the busy roads crossing it and going to the beautiful post station are post office and and the church which was to the knock down version of notre dam in paris ,after a very hard walk in the dark near me back to hotel

Strikeworks

There was a strike called by the Ruling party of this state and this is a novel attempt to explain how it works.

On the face of it all over the world people call in to protest and people willing supporting the cause do wht they are suppose to do weather it be buring tyres or shutting shops simple!!!!!!

This is India baby things have to be different but u have to marvel at how every thing comes together like clock work at such a short notice and yet with this skill we can complete other projects on time.

It all start with the haaala gulla of one of the parties roaring ooooooooooooo asteeeeeeeeee we can no longer take it .Tommorrow the f**kin state shuts down just becs i like to to seee it that way.

All the news channels are more than happy to oblige show time ehhhhh by 8PM

The next day 8AM team of tugs with the local goons spring up from nowhere .Each of them drunk with the free packet supplied by the area corporator (if he is from the ruling party that is ).Ohh the tugs they come up from no where becs until yesterday u would have spotted them skulking around near Nair's tea shop with some free fags.....

They come down meaning 25 of them and this day they are the bosses , barge into the establishment free will and say shut the doors and co -operate we will come back to check after an hour if its still open then lets say ur roof goes up all while u are trying to get ur face of the stinking breath and fine coating on Gutka directed towards u

Well well these groups makes sure they camp on the end of that road close to a tea shop with puffing those free cigrattees not BD courtesy days collection for a job well done.

This happens only in InDIA

Well wonder if we could get them on community watch program wouldn't the crime rate come down !!!!!!!!!!!

Burn la Tera y cool the lifestyle

Well

The Talk of the town or infact the whole world has been oriented towards carbon emissions and how the developing world is showing no regard to the term pollution proceeding towards development.

Development as they (developed countries) say should be a responsible one.

ok Senor point accepted although people have been a bit irresponsible when letting their business touch the sky but lets look at whts been done and whts continually done without realizing how it might contribute to our good being.

Lets take a Country such as India or even china which are on the reciving end of the argument.

Its clear the China and India are in the top five.if looked upon US of A is close second.Looking at the population in all these countries its easy to point the figure at the big daddy.How can the population of 300 million even compare to carbon emissons of 1.3billion or pollute more than India .

Is this because the latter uses more bicycles inspite of the innumerable thermal power plants.

• Electric scotters are a plenty,Convienent and cheap
• Travel by trains are subsidised hence cheap

AS Suppose to the big daddy were

• Average family owns more than one car
• Gas guzzlers are cool
• There is more packaging in the food than the eatable itself
• Airtravel is the preferred mode of transport
• Eating fancy ready to eat meals are quiet the norm

Recycling as been a recent cool term in the west .They get those fancy recycling bins upon recyclng bottles they get tax cuts which are monitered by a uber cool and Enviro pro council offices paying big salaries to a lot more people for this job

The same scenario in a devloping country has a slight twist .We dont know this as the term recycling nor do we recieve any candies from the tax man .All we know is a cycle man comes down to our place collects all the recyclables such as plastics,glass,papers even old telephones pays the money according to the wieght leaves to the main plant to resells it again .This is a business opportunity in the east where as in the west u need govt incentives ,tax cuts ,carbon footprints etc etc.

Now u can tell me the Developed world .What rights have you got to curb our devlopment !!! rather you have shed money from your pockets to bring in Renewable energy revolution in this part than just saying do it while u guzzle away the oil deposits.

Health and Hygene part 2

Again this topic is off travel but then what the heck .I am off to educate my western peers about health and hygiene in India.

Well there are 2 parts or 2 elements of ultimate cleanness and here are the definitions

Warning - Caution trying these in ur western homes!!!!!

1. Maade or Madie(Kannada) :- This is the stuff associated with everything pure .No, no dont go deep into cleaning stuff but stuff that is holy for Example if u touch ur newly washed clothes without taking a bath then that cloth is highly and invisibly infectious meaning Mailege (Mai-lee-gee) explained later.

2.Mailege :- Anything impure meaning destroying the Maade or breaking the invisible barrier .If u are familiar with ur grandmother's saying "ayyo nan madee hal mad da" (oh he destroyed my madee) it means ur grandmother is mailige .So she has to take bath again pray again etc

Now for the complicated stuff, if you are familiar with a Chief Chef(Batta/Battru in Kannada)
A batta is ususally the head cook/chef or chief cooker!!! wht ever u would like to call him usually refered as Anna or Bab- anna short for Babu anna or he might also be call Bab- naa when yelled at .Ok lets not go off tangent here

This batturu has magical powers He is the outmost personification of Maade and thus performs all the functions equivalent of a Head chef with out any regard to health and saftey.He is such a personification of cleanness that even if the sweat from his arm pit which when dissolved in the fuming kitchen where the average temperature is 40 c is considered ok to eat.Just becs he as a sacred thread called a Janvara which acts as the ultimate cleaning agent.

Oh yeh its ok to have a BeDe(equivalent to roll on cigarette) in one hand and a ladle in the other wht the heck the janavara will take care of it

Saying all this my western peers dont we have a stonger gut than u !!!!!

Now the west is saying ur body stops producing anti/aunty bodies if there are no harmful germs. Its time that you learn a thing or 2 from us But not the Sweaty bit lol.

I didn't realise how much of this we as Indians take for granted.Recently my french friends came down to visit me where in i realised we ate the same food but our bellies reached quiet differently .This even after taking extra care not to even eat mangoes sold on streets becs they use chemical powder which would be safe even after washing in water!!!!!!!

Isn't that how mangoes taste the best just out of trees!!,Well thats when i taught about our upbringing and how much kids in the west miss out when they go around with PSP and hoodies.

Try this mate i can assure u its fun!! Ok after the delhi belly

Nasladanu (bye)

Forgive forgiving ourselves

Hello all

The long silence has been due to various reasons

My homecoming was a aftershock of the reverse culture shock .There was massive culture shock which took some time to get adjusted to, but what i taught as any man coming back was ,WOW i am back its great to be back is wht i told myself.

• No more second looks at the immigrations
• No more dirty looks just becs a brown guy is checking into Raddisions
• No more i will just be back while i scan your passport please requests

The first time i came back this is wht i told myself when i had just seen smooth traffic virtually no people in the countryside.This is India there are a lot of people here and its a big country unlike France or Belgium which have tons of money and small so its easy to complain and moan .

The next time i came back from Brazil where i saw superb road network, smooth flowing traffic. Wait a minute its a developing country just like India but then i told myself yes this is a developing but rich country in terms of natural resources and population explosion is unheard term in this part of the world.

I looked at China , Its very similar to India in terms of problems faced. OK, i give in its a communist country blah blah but when a project is started its finished at an acceptable time yes there is corruption and everything but yet there is development there is to see.

But here this is wht I see

when u walk on the roads of Bend-kal-Uru all i see is empty barricaded sections with no work what so ever going on with boards saying courtesy NAMMA METRO

GO
SLOW
MEN AT WORK

I read it as GO , Slow men at work

They have termed it as soil testing, well any sensible person would not take most part of 2 yrs to do it .Majority of the construction is on hold becs the plan is clashing with some f****er Underpasses take a best part of 3 years to be made and yet there are no Traffic signals on the exit roads which cause commotion and accidents .

Plans are made according to the corporater and the some one else wims and fancies .Muti storey car parks are still not a reality , Parks, lakes and other public places are open urinals

Ok i have been a bit of a cynic but I like Bangalore and want a Bangalore i grew up in .Were trees were plentiful ,rains were pleasant ,people were caring and some child going in and open drain was a story heard in fiction novels.Worse still his body not being found after a massive search was unheard

I openly agree everybody including me is guilty to the same degree. Our swalpi adjust maadi and hoogle bidreee mentality has to be shot out we need to stand up at least maintain some CLEANUU SENSEUUU in Public places on our part and then turn our eyes on to the authority.

Remember Govt is always a representative of our behavior weather we like them or not.

Landing gears and Flu tests

After this blog I have traveled to some far off lands but will post about these later

Now let me tell u some news- “I moved back to my motherland”

The land I was born an brought up in .Let me tell u now the intricacies of living in a developed European country coming to this unfinished world and the changes u start to see

This post contains a series of incidents (any mention of people and place are always real and in no case factious so go look for them)

Landed in the airport where we were all handed over some forms to get clear of SWINE FLU. All but about 100 passengers where not given these forms and we were told to wait for just 5 mins .This five minutes I should have known to be much longer so I should have just dropped my back pack and slept but NO

I waited like a Moron for an hour with no sight of forms after which it was suddenly ok to join the Queue Where there were about 10 doctors in charge clearing of the entire inbound passengers of this Airport.

These Docs where dressed obviously in White with a Green mask resembled those fake bollywood doctors with masks who come out after the Operation in the movie and saying “Ab sab kuch oske haat me hai “(Now everything is in god’s hands)

It was no different here either .To get cleared you where are asked just 3 Questions

Do u have cold?

No

How about Fever?

No

So do u have F#@@ cough then?

No

Hurray u are clear of swine flu

Then on the my own countries immigration the guy asked me if I had tampered my passport .After a lengthy explanation I was let out

Viola I was in my land after just a slight delay of 3 hrs.

And my countrymen’s explanation to this Swine flu incident was that I was too Europeanized and these doctors are so talented that they spot Swine flu just by looking

Mexico are u listening!!!!!

Behind the former Iron Curtain - Ultimo entry

Next day it was time for an early start went to Fovam Ter (Great market hall) it was good but nothing great ,but got a glimpse of life during the communist time .After a lot of haggling for about 50p, got a lot of alcohol

Caught a train to go up to see the Danube Bend ,Schentendre where i ordered a Unicum in Hungarian and just for that and as a matter of appreciation i got it for free.This place was very special calm without much people so it was time for me to catch up with my dairy.Train back to the hostel and had to pack up to leave the next day

Met a very intelligent economist from Belgium who was proud to be Flemish . We all went for dinner in Stex together to have some proper Hungarian wine and food. Food was great i would suggest this restaurant which is just about 2 mins walk from Rakoczi station not too pricey but very tasty

The bill came up to be about 16500 HUF which ment each of us had to pay up about £10 including wine .For the amount of food we had and the wine it was worth it.

I always wanted to try shooting with the AK's .Real guns remember you could try this in a shooting range but i am afraid this had to wait for later so out of the hostel after purchasing the alcohol and then to Keleti station to catch a train again and again i was running just on time to Bratislava.

A couple of hours to kill in this city so put my bag on to the clock room and off i Go . Spend about 5 hours in this city which was a wise decision .I didn't see any thing, special mind u i had just visited 3 beauties of central Europe so it was a bit of a disappointment a couple of photographs later i was back on the Vienna(Bratislava) which ryan air Claims to be Vienna but the airport is not even in the same country nevertheless cheap flight and off i went to my adopted home land.

Behind the former iron curtain HUF 3

Well i know that my Hungarian post has taken a lot of time here but i will try to finish it in this post.

Let me first apologise for not posting much over the last month.Work and general life has taken a lot out of me .2008 was a great year in terms of Travelling and my professional progress but in terms of life in general It seems like something is missing.If i get that missing thing or not only 09 can tell.

Back to my travels which y u are here . Next day left Satako after an early start headed of to see the Gellert Hill,Castel hill(Buda castel) among other attraction .As i have said in my earlier posts I do stress Budapest is a very underrated city which is rapidly turning into a stag party destination .So see it before the It get taken over by drunk people.

views from the Castle are absolutely breath taking and the view of the city with the Danube dividing is really magnificent.Rite out of a bond movie , really

Back to the streets i wanted to get to a eat as much as u like restaurant .My sweet friend from France had mentioned about this restaurant where form about £12 u could have all the food u want plus Wine .That sounded like an offer that i couldn't refuse .

There was a problem all i knew was this restaurant was near Margret Island .This Island is in between sort of Buda and pest part of town divided by the Danube. All kinds of Motorised transport are banned . Very calm and serene atmosphere were i could see Joggers go about Used this time to have a bit of U time . And catch up with my diary on all the travelling that i had done. Had to get it up to date ehh and got my stomach ready for the feast without even knowing where the restaurant was .

After a bit of walking and just lazing around in the Sun .These are the moment when u fell bad about travelling alone!!! I headed out to find the restaurant .Nevertheless at the end of the bridge i could see a place

Went in and i was not served becs they taught i was waiting for somebody!!!!!! then it started from Wine and Goulash to shark ,Deer,Goat,Cat fish etc etc .I am not joking ate there for nearly 2.hours. The food was brilliant and the Wine was good .What more can u ask for ehhhhh....

Andressy station which is one of the oldest metro lines in Hungary .A change in this cute station




Szechenyi bath
This Bath has a lot of pools at different temp so u get in the warm bath and switch to a warmer one and then the warmest of them all and then cold bath at our 12 C and head out to the Sauna.

Want to know how i know this well after chatting with some Hungarians ofcourse, Made it to the hostel and headed out to see Gellerts hill in all its glory under lights and I was blown away .Its one of the best cities under light after meeting some americans and a couple of drinks later it was time to go to bed

Bhu- dha-Pessth under lights

Buda Parliment

Behind the former Iron Curtain - HUF

Szia (hi in Hungarian)

But to say that i had to be Hungary First i came to the Westbhanhoff station with 15 mins to spare before the train took off.As usual prayed that there was no one at the counter, it took me 5 mins and i ran to the Platform saying to myself as always that i wouldn't do it again.This time i had secreatly fulfilled my wish of travelling to another country without even having a ticket 5 mins before departure.

Ran into the train with my Donar kebab in hand tried to have it .Before i knew the train took off .I just tried to make some small talk with the gentleman in front me .Turned out he was a super friendly guy who when asked some questions in how to speak Hungarian, he filled me in on a lot of Hungarian history.

Next thing i know i could speak basic Hungarian and for the next 2 hrs courtesy Gabor .His travel mate listening our conversation appreciated that i tried to learn the language of the country i was travelling to he joined in too , Correction my pronunciation's.

We all had a drink together in the pantry car and approximately 3hrs passed on the blink of an eye .The train stopped momentarily which when these guys told me was tat i had officially entered the former iron curtain.

Around 10:30 the train pulled into the kelati station and i had to make my way to the hostel without any sort of map. I got some basic directions from Gabor who was kind enough to come to Blaha station just to make sure i was ok and the other guy bought me a ticket because i didn't have any Hungarian forients - can i expect a better welcome to this country .

OOH by the way Budapest is pronunced Bhu - Dha -Psst in Hungarian

And thus the journey began came into Aboriginal hostel - http://www.aboriginalhostel.com/
A small but OK hostel but the great thing was the people who ran it .Extremely helpful and would go out of the way to help us .Oh yeh and a great place to meet like minded travellers whats more free Internet and umbrella rental

Fresh day to start .Some facts - I know u can get more from google but here they are ,
Budapest is a combination of Buda and pest which is divided by river Danube and i was living with the Pest side . I was about to leave when i met a Japanese girl and we both decided to go to see the city together first stop Hungarian Parliament which was uber cool its a gloriously archietature.

parliment on the buda side i think

Opera Theater - Another glorious structure which i would have never gone if not for Satoko,Nevertheless it was wonderful inside seeing inside archieture done by using real gold leaf everyone including me could notice what gold can do and y people go crazy becs of it

After this it Terror Hoze .Most guide books miss this as its a museum where most of the details are in Hungarian but Gabor told me to visit it and its in my view a must see museum in Hungary becs it was a former headquaters of the Secret police in the Communist era and before that it was a part of the secret police in the hands of the Nazis.

Terror Hoze

Very brutal but real , its reality that's wht happened right .Its a shame its not in many tourists must visit but it should be

Chain bridge

Came home after a quick nap i went down to see the Danube in all its delight , well people say Paris is romantic and but this city has magic, Ok now it might not have the charm of Paris but this city is the dark house when it comes to the most well lit cities in the night.Seeing the chain bridge and the Danube in the night was something else but the Parliament under lights it was like icing on the cake.

Central europe - Austria

Was on a train back to the developed world .Heading to Wien (Vienna) needless to say the train arrived exact at 22:03 .Caught the tram and headed to Westbhanhoff station hostel west end which was a short 10 min walk from here.

Well the hostel was nice and clean plus a decent breakfast .But to my misfortune there was a large group of school children staying there as a part of their school trip but nevertheless. Woke up in them morning to take the sights and sounds of the city .

Beleverder garden
Spanish riding school
National museum

All very grand and very beautiful and clean.Vienna was beautiful to the core but somehow i preferred Prague well too organised too clean may be doest do for me on top of that every thing was really expensive so no more drinking games for me .

One thing i observed in Wien is the Glorious long legs,blue eyes and blond haired beautiful women .Talked to quiet few of them in the pretext of asking directions even tough clearly i was not lost :)

Well if u come here u shouldn't miss all the magnificent buildings and the National museum .For a guy who doesn't like visiting museums it was very impressive and spent a best part of half a day there.After more walk and some doner kebab later i ended up in Bar Chelsea

Next day quick breakfast i met a Austrian lady who had a done an epic journey from alaska trough Russia all the way to Ukraine well just using Trains .That's impressive just with a 50 liter backpack and a sleeping bag.

Got a lot of good tips from her and hopefully heading that way in some years .

This last day in Austria was the high lite of my time here .I was seeing the 2 classics of Austria

Schloss belvedere
Schönbrunn Palace

one of Wien's simple gardens and palaces

Both these palaces and gardens where impressive beyond my imagination.This place just ozzes with money and it shows in the kind of building they had .Grand huge and the garden looked out of this world .

Well pictures do more justice than words so have a look urself

From here i went on a trip on the personal front .I had heard about a place where the recycle waste in vienna which is apparently a hugely artistic .Went there out of my interest which was good but nothing worth mentioning i think .

ohh did i tell u i was travelling with a ticket that expired 6 hrs ago all this time !!! sorry didn't realise.Well my last journey i didn't want to take a chance so got a single ticket and a doner kebab
and headed out into the westbhanhoff back to my favorite part - the developing world

Hungary here i come

Behind the former Iron curtain - CZ

WOKE UP AT AROUND 6 30

Had to drag myself out of the bed to see the Sunrise at the Charles Bridge .Tough it was a bit of a disappointment becs of the cloudy weather the old town square and the Karluv most had very few people in it so it was a bit of a treat to have the place to myself.

Kutna Hora

Only Ossuary probably in the world to have the interior of the church decorated entirely of human bones .30,000 Human skull to honour the dead .Getting there meant me catching a train but i taught i could see the pissing statue and then get to the station , But in the process got lost terribly.So in the end travelled ticketless on 2 trams to Malostraska quick change at Muzeum arrived at Hlavni Nadazi (prounce it however u want)

Long Escalators on Prague Metro

10 :47 Am still running in the station to catch the train .I was praying that there would be no one at the counter ,by luck there was no one 171 Kc return and dashed of to the platform like a sprinter. Well all the jogging practice has come in handy now.


10:52 am on the train which i think is going there and 10:54 train departs Just in time again !!!!!


Got off met some random tourists who turned out to be really nice Americans on their year out.The Ossuary is called The Church of Bones

This is perfect example of when thy say Don't judge the book by its cover!!!.It looks like a perfectly Quent little church just as any but BUT the devil is certainly in the details .

Human bones can be used for decorations


Crest

This town was virtually wiped out because of plague which had about 30000 human bodies .When a half blind priest came up with the idea of decorating this church with Human bones joined together only with human bones!!!

Impressed is the least degree of adjective i can use to describe this place .I was amazed as to what a human bones can do when they are stacked up together!!

After this amazing tour walked around for a bit with some polish girls i found and saw some more beautiful church . Had to sadly leave the company of these lovely girls to catch the next train.This was another JIT story but i wont bore u with details but here is the brief run down

It happened becs i went to the Kutna hora city station rather than the main one where no one could speak english .But managed to get the ticket to get there so no problem

Dekuvee

Came back to Prague and Dashed of towards the Dancing building to meet my American travellers to do some Drinking .

Drinking Absinth and washing it with some Brown Budvar beer Well nothing can beat a good drink night ehhhh

Dancing Building

Absinth

Let me tell u this Absinth well i have never tasted such a vile stuff in my like .Ever with 2 Sachets of sugar it felt like i was burning my entire Intestine!!!!.Its banned every where in europe but legal in CZ (well the LSD content decides that) have to check this claim tough !!

Next day i woke early after the guy who was sleeping in the lower dorm was snoring like an elephant.

Visited the Tyn church , Astronomical clock went on top of the tower to get superb views of this wonderful city .All this time i am wondering all these years of communism there is one good thing that has come out of it .

They have preserved their unique artchieture , Quent houses and excellent hospitality to welcome people with open arms .

Altough now run down from large scale capitalism and Mac's its still a beautiful place to visit.
Next stop was the Castle hill and a St Vitnus Church which again was like a jewel in the crown very impressive sphires and the hills give u a great view of the city below

Looks like disney land (very magical and very nice)

My Time in Czech Republic was coming to an end

I had been in this country only few days but it had given me a taste of Eastern europe which i might or might not visit in the future.And certainly make me want to go there !!!!

Got on a Metro without tickets to get to my hostel to get on the train to Vienna(Wien).Dont ask me y i didnt buy a ticket call this stupidity or anything else i had laid my hands on 50 kronas and thats all i had so didnt want to waste on buying ticket on my last journey !!!!

Behind the former iron curtain - CZ

Ok here it goes

NO funny story with this one .It was lunch time and my manager came up to me and asked me if i had taken any holidays last 5months turns out i have not had a single day out !!!! How surprising lunch time i am on google .

A week later i have a cheap ticket to Prague (bmi baby) and flying out of Bratislava !! wht route could i possibly take .My complex mind evaluated all the possibilities faster than a P4 processor and told me this

Go to Prague - Budapest - Vienna - Bratislava ( fly out )

This was decided much before i had a look at the train schedules and journey time between them. Well chaos rules !!!!

As my wise uncle would put it "Get in the water only then will u learn to swim"

Ok rite let bring in some order , I am not that unorganised did check some train times and the travel plan changed slightly.

Prague - Kutna hora-Vienna-Budapest- Schentendre- Bratislava

11 days 3 major cities cant be that bad to catch in some local action as well i taught. So made a special emphasis to stay in Hungary for 4 days.

Whts more Hungary and Czech are cheap.

K packed up the night before i left .Only the first nights accomodation sorted 6 hrs before I flew.u guys must note that i am using this trip to measure my reaction reaction to compleatly unplanned trip to make my self ready for bigger things :) .
Tu as commence LA

Excitement kicked in so couldn't sleep a lot finally when i eventually dozed of to sleep it was time to get up . Ok Tea toast and run at 6:30 in the morning to catch a bus to the airport

As always Just in time Running and panting !!!!! Turns out the bus is late so i am saved .Made it to Prague without any major issues .Came out to take some sort of Bus to the city

Issue No 1 . All i had with me was around 2oo Krone note and the machine would only accept coins .32 Cz Krona for a single ticket!!

Was trying to figure out how to get change when i talked to a CZ guy and he paid for my ticket Whooooo ho wht at welcome made it to the metro station and then took a metro travelling ticket less and no with a luggage supplement (God knows wht would have happened if i was caught). Got of at a station called Muzeum walk to the hostel

Checked in a quick nap after i meet Gasper , more of him later.We talked a bit he told me he is working in Slovenia and here to visit his brother who is studying .I took this opportunity to invite him for a couple of drinks .... oh my brother knows a lot of places was his response, well rendezvous point confirmed i head into town.

Prague has a archieture unique to itself although now attacked by tourists hungry and hung over from the endless Stag parties what they probably miss is in my view one of the most unique ,Quint city in this world.Beauty as a word has its own definition here. The archieture is uniquely and impressively Gothic .

I was bowled over ,What an impressive city .Once the sun sets a unique Prague comes to life Step into the Mala Strana u are transformed in time to 16th century .The small cobbled street ,Quent little cafes and the Gas lights take u to a different era all together

Whts more Pilsner Urequelle - For those who don't know Pilsners taste awesome in CZ infact this is where it is from . Taught about having a proper CZ meal so pub ,Pilsner and pork it was

Roasted Pork neck and a Pivo sorted me out.
Back to the hostel where Mr Gasper was waiting with his brother and a friend .Quick round of intros and off we go for a nite out in town.

Sittiing in a Pub ordering pilsner where they are glad to come to your table and ask if u want more as soon as u finish a pint . Made me wonder how much i could have :) plus it was cheap about 60 P a pint

Plus these people where teaching me Czech as we were drinking !!! Bonus lol

Aparrently I had 5 and these guys had more and still as hard as a rock !! Man these guys knew how to drink.Next after a couple of fotographes we staggered off to another pub and another and i don't know

In the end peeed in full view of other people next to the Bus stop and headed of to another pub( i remember this)felt like i left a bit of myself in Prague lol .After this ,the details are a bit Hazy(becs i dont know) made it to the hostel allrite and slept like a log.

Woke up with a hang over headache (how surprising) off to see the sights again .Booked into to do an adventure activity and then off i went .The high risk adventure activity finished i came bak

Again out to see the Karluv Most,Namesti Republisky etc.

Got lost seeing all the local sights and music .

Next day it was time to go to Kutna Hora the place of a very interesting ossuary . Sad bye to my Slovenian friends and I headed out to catch the train

Pace of life

I go to London quiet a few time on average once a month lets say

Always i have observed the transition of a normal pace of life to a hyper one once we step out of the train.Don't know if its the aura of London or the people or the environment .
Something happens when u just step out of that cross country train in St Pancers reach the barriers, Cross over loads of french tourists for whom everything is on the wrong side now :) and try to get into the famous London Tube.

A few weeks ago i happened to go to St Pancers .Was walking in trough the passage when a child stated to imitate my busy walking style .I hadn't realised that my pace had changed Until He overtook me turned back and smiled .I smiled and realised that i was in no hurry to get to the meeting i had 1 hour but this city or the cities made me change my pace.

OR

I was just in sync with the city .

LONDON MAKES U RUN

Health and Hygene Part 1

Well this is off the topic of travel

A couple of days ago i went back on a trip trough the memory Lane .Part of the reason was becoming so health and safety consious working in Europe .

Just taught were are not so safety conceious in India and i was always proud that we were allowed to do what ever i wanted to do and allowed to take a lot of Risks.

Well I was right up there among all the high risk kids.Once upon a time when i was young

• Switching up some equipment in high speed in my uncles dentist chair and ran away


• Another high speed switch activated in my uncles press room and ran away when it started making strange noise.
  

For all those sorry sad asses who think that health and hygiene is not a part of our life in India here is a small jhalak(or incident) which explains all about it.

When I was a kid in the very early nineties on the way to school .Suppose u or ur blood friend (a very close friend) stepped on a puddle of mud,Dog shit ,Cow dung or on a rare occasion Elephant poo .We would all run away from him saying " Green pinch ".

He had to immediately touch something GREEN a leaf or if he couldnt find anything he would touch his Green Vein in ur arm and say Green touch . That's it !!

An invisible Gamma Rays would emerge from nowhere and completely and utterly sterilise him.He would be clean as a crystal to touch that's it we where not bothered about getting him cleaned .

Well tell me u people from the West do u have this concept or may be its unique to India where we find lots of cow and dung and we come up with a excuse to be close to ur blood friends even when they are literally in deep shit!!!!

East meets west - Alvida

This blog is dedicated to all the sweet good byes i had to say to my friends both Turkish and french mates and missed all this because of Just in time ,(the famous JIT strategy) actually they were waiting for the last 2 people to board :). and thanks to my Turkish buddies to whom i couldn't say my goodbyes becs they were working when i was touring apologies I couldnt cook my world famous chicken currey .

Onwards from Pamukale i had to bid adieu to my sweet french mates who just had enough time to peek me before they left.Came back to the lovely hostel rested for a bit before making my way on to denzli and then onwards to Istanbul.
It was a fairly uneventful (well i almost went into a to the women's half asleep !!!)12 hr journey until we were reached Istanbul itself here we were dropped and picked up by some random buses .I think after 2 bus changes later the driver finally told us That all and we had to get down.

Me being extra intelligent figured out there was a tram line so made my way to Atakoy station and then onwards to the airport.Here i had about 2 hours to kill so called Mr D wished him good luck with his business and for providing me a free couch and more importantly the real turkish experience.

Some promises where made on him visiting me in France and possibly India .Only time can tell how it would turn out

Well there ended my tearful Turkish farewell.It would be a very long wait until my next superb trip to a region which until recently had locked itself out !!!!!

Wait to find out !

Hoschakal(bye in turkish)

East meets west part 4

We were dropped of at this deserted Cafe and then onwards to KAS

KAS is a small Sea side town Know as a cheap diving destination .I was a dive virgin so liked to give it a shot. It was only costing us about £60 for 2 dives !!!!!!.Ms J had a licence to suba dive

Stayed at a nice relatively cheap place called Ates Pension at http://www.atespension.com/ I would recommend this place as its really cheap and good location.The people who run this place are really nice and helpful.

The family tried to constantly sell us good food and i am glad we had one which was good.

Next day went in to Barakuda Diving centre

http://www.barakuda-kas.de/

I would suggest this diving centre becs the instructors were lovely to get on with and made it a lot more easier than i taught it was.Just jumped in after M with a bit of apprension but once i was in or should i say under i saw a whole new world different sizes and colors of fish to all wierd creatures. The instructor told me to look UP at one point and i wouldnt forget the sight i saw (a bit like the first kiss ;))when i look up 100s of fishes just circling above me, It was strange yet fasinating when u get on the otherside or should i say underside :) .

Ms J was a licence holder so her dive was longer . All of us got out and we were told to come back afternoon another dive around the ruins and stuff .Got back to the Hostel tiredddddddd from the two dives

Decided to have a fancy meal with the wine and stuff so there you are spending some of our last days doing a bit of splashing!!! .I am glad we did it becs we all got to know each other better

Next day after a bit of Hiking and seeing the Arena and what not we buggered off to the hostel and picked that bag and off we went Were ??

Our next destination was Pamukalle which was not so straight forward to get to. A change in Fethiye and then to Denzli and the last bus to Pamukalle

Fethiye (cant say for sure) once we were in Fethiye we worked out we would just be there in time to catch the last bus to Denzli from Denzli we had to catch the last bus to Pamukalee ,The problem was as we arrived in Denzli we made a mad dash pulled but the bus pulled out of the station(tought we lost it for a moment) .Turkey being turkey and we still paying for the Bus ticket at this point (What is with me and Just in time arrival i dont get it. 3 weeks ago 4 trains in europe all caught within 3 mins before departure running panting and more running to the ticket counter ...... well more of it later :)).

Coming back to the story a bloke had stopped the bus just outside the station and we all ran to the bus to get on to it and off we go ..... well i wish Air travel was so simple. Onwards to a picturious mountainious route were we where the only tourist .Kind of nice to just look at them .This mountainious region has great the weather and was like in any hill resort in the Himachal Pradesh in India . Finally in Pamukkale

We stayed in

AllgauAllgau Tree Houses - Rooms in Pamukkale, Turkey
Hasan Tahsin Cad, No 19,

Well superb hostel very friendly people 5/5

Pamukalee and Miss J

East meets west - Part 3

On the bus and about 12 hrs later woke up dazed to find the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere .They took away all our passports and after 30 mins came back with them, god knows what they were looking for .I must say the Varan buses are very comfortable and relatively cheap theY compete with cheap airlines so they have onboard meals and drinks etc .Very luxurious and very nice

Another 2 hours later reached Anatalya the southern part of turkey .Nice sea side city but it was only a stop over for us, had to catch another bus to reach Olympus .

We took this opportunity to visit the city quickly took a bus to the city centre and walked around a bit then it was time to catch another bus to get back to the main bus station called OTOGAR (main bus terminal) .We had no clue how to reach there so asked some locals and caught the random bus .Turns out that bus stops outside the station which we failed to identify so a bus full of local screamed OTOGAR at us when it reached there !!!!!!

Caught another local bus or a mini van which dropped us of to an unknown destination outside a tea shop .After waiting around for a bit another bus picked us up and dropped off to Turkmans hostel .We didnt know anything about it but yes dropped off and nice hostel to stay in i think we paid about £7 a night including dinner and breakfast .Heres the details

http://www.olymposturkmentreehouses.com/

Would happily suggest this hostel as its excellent value for money and the food was awesome. Well we were constantly worrying wht meat was served to us at these rates ????

Well once we were allotted out room we hit the road .A 15 min walk in the ruins to reach the beach which was pristine and nice .The water was blue and there were hardly people around look below for the Photo .Lots of Photo ops and Mountain climbing later Made our way back becs it was getting dark .

Beach in olympus

After dark was another story :)

We decide to see the eternal fire at Chimera close to Olympus .All we were give was a torch and told we would be taken there .Stopped over at a small shop bought some bottles of wine and off we went .What they didn't tell us was it was about at least what felt like a 3Km uphill walk to reach the Eternal fire .

It was literally pitch dark and we didn't know where and what we were stepping on , Got to see a strange new world when its absolute black as we walked along only one thing remained in our mind the fire and the fear of the Unknown - we didn't even think about the latter.

Reached this place let me tell you this is one of the places out of your child horror story book .Its in the middle of nowhere and u suddenly see a mountain with fire holes in it .Legend has it that a dragon was killed or buried here which still oozes fire. Its a strange gas released which catches fire when it comes in contact with air. It was very strange and unique to watch .Skulked around for a bit and then picked a nice spot and the wine bottles opened and so did our heads .Just looked up to see all the stars that just was there to be seen .

Chimera olympus

Strange what modern civilization can do for you now we could quiet easily work out how constellations came in how to track stars and stuff.well we knew the answers now strange also is when people ask you what do you remember in this trip , for me it was just lying on the rocks looking at the sky full of stars each brighter than the other and just occasionally sipping some wine and talking to friends .

Its just these simple things we miss in this modern world which make these special moments in this trip its not Blue mosque or Tajmahal or a Jazzy looking building in La defence its Nature bare simple Nature!!!

It didn't cost us a thing apart from getting there and we didn't even pay the entrance fee .

Well got back from this a bit tired as the wine veiled away and straight to bed for me .But Ms J and M where thinking about a bath .I was not bothered for a moment , according to their reports i was asleep and snoring in a couple of mins .Poor guys they were subjected to this music for about 10 mins before I apparently switched it off :)

Sorry!!!

Next day was for lazing around the beach and swim and better still jumping of the cliff the water was cold and crystal clear the sand warm on a sunny day with no one of the beach what do you do u swim and jump of the cliff:~).

Cliffs Olympus Jump from the Cliffs

After this and some more Ruins hunting later we debated a bit about staying here for a while or going to KAS our next destination it was a pretty difficult choice but we made it Now onwards to KAS.

East meets west - Istanbul

Well i have written a new blog as the last one was Solo and from now on it will be in a group .

A group i mean our closely knit group + our Turkish friend in Istanbul and just the Indo french group the rest of the trip.

Set again to the Blue mosque but with the group this time and went straight to the prayer hall were only the locals were allowed but the guard mistook me for a local!!!!. onwards to Hya sofia , Underground Cistern and then Galata tower.Here my friend tried to flog me off as a local and got the local ticket with is cheaper but the guard at the lift had a bit more intelligence .He was able to spot that i was only speaking English and then told me off !!!!

Hya Sofia - Photo by Ms J

Next day

Then onwards to Taksim square and looked around lots and lots of walking basically .So we were both tired and looking for a drink .Stopped in a cafe to have EFES a Turkish based Pilsner which was decent and cheap .

It was time now to organise our onward travel .We had to book our onward travel to Anatalya.Our expert D s suggestion was to take Varan coach since they are nice and luxurious and it was about 15 or 12 hrs journey . Went into a Internet cafe to do the booking here we faced a very daunting problem .First we were all tired with all the walking around next the bloody website was having problems after having taken the pain of writing all the details required for booking !!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Bugger the bus was leaving in about 5 hrs and we didn't even have a ticket in hand !!!!

But D called them up to confirm it was their problem . So we both headed to Taksim again and booked the ticket and boarded the bus .It was now time to say good bye to Mr D who was a great help here with out him we would have missed out on a lot of local stuff like the fish sandwich !! or the nuts or travelling in the tram with his FOB.

Sadly i would take this opportunity to apologise to his flatmates for not cooking Chicken curry that i promised .Well next time

East meets West - Constatinopolie/ Istanbul

As you all know that from my previous blog

Came bak from S America thinking when my next holiday would be .Turns out that i had to take 5 days off by the end of may .And guess what my Turkish friend mailed me , yeh my international connection never sucks!!! 0

HI


How are u mate long time no see.U should come down here our french friends are coming here as well Join us it will be nice




D

Nevertheless i went to a website with all the answers "google" and a simple search and i got what i believe is the cheapest ticket in the planet .£150 return in Turkish airlines beat that !!!!!!!!

Came to Istanbul knowing absolutely nothing about this city . OK apart from Blue mask sorry Mosque and Hya Sofia.Flight fairly uneventful my friend picked me up and we went to his place .I had no idea that Istanbul was so big we literally travelled in a bus non stop with free flowing traffic for about 1.5 hrs to reach the destination with an interchange in Atakoy station.

Came home a quick round of introduction with his flatmates all nice and extremely friendly , went out for dinner, some Kebabs and Ayrans later i was put to sleep.

Initial impressions - Very lively city can compare it very much with my city back home - Bangalore but a bit more bigger and lesser traffic jam and better public transportation.My friend taught that i would have a culture shock coming from Europe, but he failed to realise I was from a nation of over a billion people.

Early start the next day had to figure out how to get the heater working.Got ready to go but couldn't find my wallet . Turns out that D's friend took my wallet by mistake i was looking around everywhere and asking D's friend in English if he had seen them, but he couldn't speak English .Being very helpful brought me an English dictionary and asked me wht i was looking and then we both started searching and he called D after all the frantic search D's friend called him up apologised that he had taken my wallet.

With some spare change and a fob to use the tram and metro .I headed to see Sultanahmed(blue mosque) and Hya Sofia.Let me tell you this no matter how many times you see it on TV it looks doubly impressive when u see it for real . The tall straight minarets and the pointy towers reminded me of Taj Mahal well i must say Taj is more impressive .

Blue Mask

Topkapi Palace- Impressive palace on the Bosphorous from which u could get views of the city takes about half a day at least to just to have look around.

It was MAY Day so i was told not to go to Taksim square since riots and demos by students turn too ugly . I could only see one side of Bosphrous so went to Grand bazaar and Spice market The Interesting thing here is when u go there u are free to try some samples .Once u decide u can either buy them or walk out.

Take this they were selling Turkish Viagra and one of the board said Turkish 5 times a night. !!!!

From here i went to Spice market where i brought some spices to cook for D's flatmates .Was hungry so was looking for a some place .In the tiny alley way was a dingy looking place full of locals there u go .I ordered an Adana and Ayran let me tell u this its the most tasty dish i have had in ages .The doners we get in UK or else cant ever compare to this cheap meal , Yet they cost only about £1.5 .

Next day went to the most happening Hip place in Istanbul Galalta tower and then onwards to Taksim square . This area is filled with huge shopping malls All the way i encountered people thinking that i am Arabic and try to start some small chat with me .

This is how it went

Marhabba ( hi in Turkish) i say the same followed by Salaam Malekum To which i say Malekum salaam. Then they pop the Question Arabic?

NO Hindistan (India in arabic) Then

Musalman (Muslim)!!! - No

Budda- No Hindu (puzzled they walk on )

It was not the first time , its happened to me in Egypt as well so i was ok with it . Came bak from here and had a look at sultan ahmed again took the tram and then train to the airport

Mes amis est arrivee.

Well a quick round of introdction

B- Asian /Arabic looking backpacker

M - My french friend who worked on the same floor and studied in the same uni and an avid chic watcher like myself

J- Madamoselle tres Jolie from now on an avid Fotographer and close friend of Mr M

D - My turkish friend and free couch provider

We met at the airport and went straight to Blue mask :) some Rendevous photos later .We then went in search of a hostel for these 2, turns out lot of hostel were all full so had a hunt around a bit. But after this our stomach was making strange noises so headed out to find a non tourisitic restaurant . It was a long walk when we found one and then had a glorious meal so much so that we couldnt finish it .It was basically a huge plate filled with a lot of meet salad and what not .And we started of with soup.