Hanoi (Day 13-14)

Thursday, 24/08/2006, Somewhere between Saigon and Hanoi Wow! Vietnam has a seriously beautiful and magnificent countryside. The train pulls through the middle of it, trough the green jungle, along the coast, passing small villages with only a few houses, then through the mountains… The long-haul train I am riding in is interesting. Like in an… Weiterlesen »

Ho Chi Minh City (Day 11-12)

Tuesday, 22/08/2006, Ho Chi Minh City After only three days, I left Cambodia to visit a „real“ communist country for the first time :). Because there is not town on the Vietnamese side of the border, I booked a 5 US$ tour through to Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon. The bus left… Weiterlesen »

Cambodia (Day 8-10)

Saturday, 19/08/2006, Siem Reap So, after having a nice time in Thailand, I wanted to have some more temples, and set of to Siem Reap, the city next to the famous Angkor Wat. I went to the border with the public bus, running from Bangkok’s northern bus terminal. For 207 Bath (~4 EUR), I got… Weiterlesen »

Ayutthaya (Day 7)

Friday, 18/08/2006, Bangkok Finally, after over 3 month, a Schnitzel… Today I decided to visit the old capital of Ayutthaya. I took the train out of town, a pleasant 3 hour ride. Thai 3rd class is by far more comfortable than Indian Second! From the railway station in Ayutthaya, I avoided all the riksaw drivers… Weiterlesen »

Bangkok (Day 4-6)

Tuesday, 15/08/2006, Bangkok We got up early that day, and I think I set a new record by getting from sleeping to ready for departure in about 15 minutes, including shower (yes, I did turn off my alarm clock and went back to sleep :(). We left Delhi, Steffie and Verena stayed in India, I… Weiterlesen »

Agra (Day 3)

Monday, 14/08/2006, Agra Today, we went to Agra, where the world-famous Taj Mahal is located. We had bokked a driver, who was recommended to us and who also had organized a guide for us. The trip to Agra from Delhi took about 3.5 hours, but since we left early, we could avoid Delhi’s rush hour.… Weiterlesen »

New Delhi (Day 1-2)

Saturday, 12/08/2006, New Delhi Miraculously, my Air Deccan Flight had not been canceled, and I only had a 20 minute delay, due to the security crackdown at the Delhi airport (the US embassy has issued a warning to its citizens about possible attacks on India’s independence day, August 15). Steffi and Verena, two colleagues from… Weiterlesen »

A visit from Singapore

Talking about returning visits…my friend Jochen, who is currently working in Singapore and whom I visited a few weeks ago, has come to town. He arrived late at night (like everyone coming from Singapore to Bagalore), so we started the weekend by sleeping quite long. Afterwards, we did a sightseeing/temple tour in Bangalore. We visited… Weiterlesen »

TOTW: Poverty

So, how much poverty is there in Bangalore? A hard quastion, because there are different ways to describe poverty. Say, we take German standards. Then most people here in Bangalore probably are very poor and could by far not survive in Germany with their income. On the other hand, the same income is rather medium… Weiterlesen »