Majestic Mysore, Remote Coorg

Each time we write a new entry, we say to ourselves “This time the post will be shorter than the previous ones!”. As you may have realized, very seldom we achieved that aim. So in the last week, we carefully avoided every place where something worth reporting could happen and focused on the tourist spots and trekking routes. We started the week in Mysore (staying at Hotel Dasaprakash), the former capital of one of the Maharajahs’ dynasties. There we went to the “Chamundi Hill”, a holy Hindu site. Here you have to pay if you want to pray inside the temple, black persons want to sell “very beautiful sunglasses” and seemingly the devotes are convinced that the gods enjoy seeing them shattering coconuts onto the ground. Probably we will need some more time to fully understand this religion ….

Back to the profane world we visited the famous “Mysore Palace”. It is a wonderful building, full of lovely details, creating a marvellous atmosphere. By many tourists it is perceived as representing the traditional architecture of South India, but this is not true. The palace was designed by British architects at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a mix of many different styles from all over the world – actually resulting in some kind of fantasy architecture. And this is the main reason why you have so much fun visiting the palace, since you will experience new surprises in every room. It is just a pity for the Maharajahs that they only could live there during about 25 years, before India’s independence ended their residency. Continue reading

Long Live Couchsurfing

This entry is a bit difficult to write, but we hope it is still easy to read. During the past days in Hyderabad and Bangalore, we have seen only a few really important sites, but learnt very much about the country. The reason is that we stayed in rather normal and unspectacular cities, where we made intensive use of couchsurfing. There, we had many impressive and very personal experiences, which however are rather difficult to share.

After a relaxing 30 hours train journey from Varanasi to Hyderabad, our host Anand was so friendly to catch us up at the train station and drove us to his flat. 1000 taxi drivers hated him for this, but we were very happy he took his time for us, just as during the following days. Anand and his wife Anusha are really inspiring persons, because he knows at least three different worlds: the small village where he grew up, the US where he lived during 5 years and Hyderabad, where he studied and now lives again. Talking with him is priceless since he can compare and has reflected a lot about many things. From what he said we learnt a lot about India’s problems, especially about corruption, education, the relationship between Muslims and Hindus and influences of the caste system. But from his way of telling this and from what we experienced together, we started to love his country. Continue reading

“Namaste from India” – OR – “Religion is Business in Varanasi”

Our last station in Nepal was a very special one: Lumbini – birth place of Lord Buddha. After having seen the popularity of other holy places like Muktinath, we expected tons of pilgrims bursting out in enthusiasm at this site. But surprisingly, the contrary was true. There were nearly no pilgrims, only a very moderate amount of tourists and the place convinced us with its relaxed tranquillity. Contrasting other holy places, archaeological evidence suggests that Lumbini indeed might be the site where Buddha was born. It was visited by Buddhist believers in the first centuries after his death but then forgotten for over a millennium. Not before 1896 it was rediscovered and for about 30 years it is a so-called development zone: every nation can build a Buddhist temple here, so you get a good impression of the diversity of this religion’s architectures. You can find temples and pagodas from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam or Japan but also Germany and France. On the other hand, construction work is still in progress, it seems that the tradition still lacks. However, we really liked the quiet atmosphere and spent the days with three other travellers we met there, who in turn were international. All were doing an internship in Mumbai but they came from Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. And we stayed at the comfortable “Lumbini Village Lodge“. The next day we had to leave Nepal towards India and on the way to the border we conducted some research of tremendous importance. Whoever has asked how many people can fit into a car like a “Citroën Berlingo”, we now can provide the answer: 25 persons, if the roof is occupied by two huge backpacks …. but you need years of experience in taxi-tetris to achieve such a result! Continue reading