| DIARY |
| Friday, 22-11-02 Hi everybody :) today is the fourth day we are in Mumbai, and already so many things happened ! First we had to wait so long when we got off the plane for the passport control, there were so many people and only a few officers... The air was hot and humid, we hadn't slept for 2 days and we were smelling like pigs ! And guess what? One of our bags wasn't there! I felt like crying even I wasn't out of the airport yet...Welcome to India! Now we are starting to get used to the hectic environment around us but the beggars and the smells are stressful sometimes, the effects of the jetlag are disapearring, so we can start to enjoy. It works completly different here, for exemple when you ask a question, they answer always lots of things except what you want to know ... Or when we picked up my bag in the aiport the next day, it took us 5 hours because each person sent us in a different direction, we were getting mad... but I guess it's normal, That's what is called cuture shock in a proper way. We have organised our departure from Mumbai, we will go to Goa in the south on sunday, where we will be able to chat with fellows travellers, enjoy the sun the beaches. the next time we will write from there. Kisses. Amandine |
| Monday, 25.11.02 Hi again! :-) maybe I'd better not tell you where we are right now...you'd be too jealous :-) we are in Goa now, we arrived yesterday evening. We booked a little cottage made of bamboo, which is about 10 metres away from the sea! There are palm trees all around us, it's absolutely beautiful. We have met two Irish fellows and are having a lot of fun with them. This morning we got up really early and since we are lying on the beach and go for a swim once in a while. The water is beautiful too. Hope you are all well too! Soeren |
| Saturday, 23-11-02 Today we were playing in a Bollywood movie! Bollywood is a huge cinema production company in Mumbai. They make all these really cheesy films, and they want foreigners (westerners)to appear in them. So we had to wear these really funny clothes and we had to play tourists in a thai bar, which was part of the film. It was good fun, also because we met some nice other travellers there. It was great to see how movies are produced. Although it was very tiring..(we're not so used to working anymore..hehe) |
| Saturday, november 30th - Hampi Hi everyone, we finally left our little paradise... first we wanted to leave on wednesday, then on thursday, and then some friends arrived, so we stayed one day more. It was so beautiful, thursday morning we went for a boat trip with our friends to see dolphins! It was incredible to see them diving around us! can you imagine a beach surrounded by palm trees, warm water, bamboo huts and dolphins swimming around us! Friday evening we stayed in Margao, a town in Goa for the night, we went to a covered market, which was really original. it was like a maze inside, tiny streets, we were surrounded by mountains of dried chillies, chourisso sausages (did the portuguese bring this back in europe known as chorizo? or the contrary?)exotic fruits, clothes, everything. Then we left in the morning to Hampi, a village in ruins a few hundreds kilometres east of Goa. We will take a guide tomorrow, we will stay a couple of days and we will head north of india. And by the way, I would like to annouce you the birth of my little brother, Lucas, who was born on the 22nd november, and who is perfectly healthy. Hoping everything is going well for you. take care, Amandine |
| Sunday, December 1st - Hampi Hi there! Today we took a guide who showed us the whole day around Hampi. It was once the capital of one of the greatest Hindu Empires. That's why it is surrounded by incredible temples and their ruins. There are huge statues of the Hindu gods. One fascinating thing was the "music hall" in a temple. It had many stone pillars that were each surrounded by smaller pillars. If you knocked at the smaller pillars, they made a sound, even though they were of bare stone. Each of the large pillars were representing a different music instrument and thus creating its sound when you knocked against it. Special Architecture made this possible. The landscape around Hampi is incredible. It looks like a stone desert with its brown sand and big rocks lying around. The temples in between give the whole thing something unreal. We have put one picture on the picture page.(unfortunately we could only develop one film) |
| Tuesday, 3. December 02 Today we went to visit a temple which is built on top of a mountain. It is called the monkey tempel, because 1. the monkey god was born there and 2. the mountain is full of monkeys :-) To get there, we had to cross the river that divides Hampi. There's no bridge, but little round bamboo boats which are driven by some boys, that carry you across. From there on we rented bikes and drove some kilometres to the mountain. To get to the top, we had to climb 670 steps that led up the steep way to the temple. On top we had an absolutely amazing view over the landscape around Hampi. It is hard to describe, but it felt like the scenery of some biblical story. The dry land of sand and stone, with its green dots of palm trees and the river in the valley made it look like an Oasis in the desert. |
| Wednesday, 4. December 02 Amandine got a beautiful "henna painting" done on her hand, it's really nice. I went to enjoy a nice massage :-) The rest of the day we went shopping, Amandine bought t a special Indian dress called Salwar, which was specially made according to her wishes and measurement. (it's so cheap here) |
| Saturday, 7. 12.02 On Thursday we left Hampi and headed north. It was very nice on the train: in the evenings all the Indian families started eating their dinner. We wer always asked if we have eaten already. When we declined, we were invited to eat with them. Today we arrived in Aurangabad. From here we are going to visit the famous caves in the area. They were carved by men into the rock. Looking forward to seing them. |
 |