25.10.2009: varanasi to kathmandu: just arrived in kathmandu after a 24 hour journey from varanasi. i really enjoyed getting lost in the narrow back streets of varanasi, watching people and observing the way of life which doesn't seem to have changed much in the last hundreds of years. now waiting for my sister to arrive in kathmandu. added my PackList with an inventory of my backpack, in case someone is interrested. and GuestHouses with some notes on good (and recommended) guesthouses. since i start to loose track of when i was where i added a TimeLine.

20.9.2009: big foto update: finally i completed the big foto update from my motorbike journey of the last two month! beginning in dharamsala, i drove very slowly to DehraDun, learning how to ride a bike on indian roads. from there i went up north, thru KinnaurValley into SpittiValley. enjoying the amazing landscapes in spitti, i met 'beat', another austrian on a motorbike, and we teamed up to drive up the RoadToLeh together. unfortunately i didn't have much time to explore all of LaDakh, or do some trekking there. i continued the circle thru KashMir, paid a short visit to the golden temple in AmritSar and returned to dharamsala just in time to return the bike to 'stuart', who was so nice to lend me his bike for these two month and enabled me to do this most amazing motorbike ride of my life.

28.8.2009: leh, ladakh: after an amazing motorbike ride over the second highest motorable pass in the world (5300m) and thru fantastic moon-like desert landscapes i arrived in leh, the capital of ladakh, yesterday. i'm still a bit tired from the exhausting journey and still very high in spirit from the beautiful landscapes on the way. stay tuned for the fotos!

12.8.2009: kinnaur and spitti valley: i'm on the road again! now driving thru the dramatic landscapes of kinnaur valley up to spitti valley. i have the motorbike for one more month and i hope to have enough time to go up to ladakk and kashmir as well. it's great driving thru this amazing landscapes on your own bike. i hope to have some pictures soon.

21.7.2009: yoga in dehradun: after driving with a motorbike thru the himalayan foothills from dhramasala, i'm now doing a three week intensive iyengar yoga course here in dehradun with rajiv and swati chanchani (http://yog-ganga.com/).

2.7.2009: credit crisis explained: here is a nice animation movie explaining the reasons for the credit crisis: http://crisisofcredit.com/.

11.6.2009: alone in dharamsala: now i'm back in dharamsala. judith went back home to berlin and i am here trying to do some yoga, relaxing and adapting to the new feeling of travelling alone.

30.5.2009: fotos from the annapurna base camp: here are the fotos from our AnnapurnaBaseCampTrek. the view up there was described as one of the best mountain views ever and we were not disappointed. ju handled the altitude of 4130m very well, playing volleyball with the guys while i suffered mild altitude sickness and had a headache (what happened to my austrian mountain genes?). after that we took it slowly thru the villages in the annapurna region.

14.5.2009: in nepal: we are in nepal since a few days and like it very much here. the people are so much more relaxed that indians - a relief... the bus ride from kathmandu to pohkara was supposed to take 6 hours, in fact we had to wait the whole night in the bus because of a landslide and arrived 18 hours later. in the early morning hours just before our arrival we saw the first glimpses of the himalayan 8000m peaks - some contrast high in the sky, i was not sure if it was clouds but as the sun got stronger the white peaks got more clearly visible. very impressive! tomorrow we are going to start our 10 days trek right into it, to the annapurna base camp (4130m). fotos: AnnapurnaBaseCampTrek.

7.5.2009: last days in india: we are now in delhi, flying to kathmandu, nepal tomorrow where we will spend the next month. here are the newest pictures from india: AramBol, TajMahal, HaridWar, DharamSala and more from HamPi.

21.4.2009: kerala, hampi foto update: new fotos from the last month: AuroVille, KeRaLa, BackWaters, MunNar, HamPi and some pictures from TriChy (still in tamil nadu). that's roughly where we have been and more fotos from the last destinations are missing: yes, we also made it to goa (AramBol) for a couple of days then, after a 48 hour train-ride with a short stop in TajMahal we stayed in the pilgrim city HaridWar, where hindus from all over india come to bathe in the ganges and bathing-fun meets spiritualiy meets chillum-smoking sadhus. right now we are in rishikesh which is just a watered-down and tourist-friendly version of the same.

23.3.2009: kerala: we are in KeRaLa since about a week. its very beautiful here and the people are really really nice.

13.3.2009: auroville: fotos from TamilNadu, AndamanIslands, NatyanJali. since more than a week we are in AuroVille an ambitioned project of building an experimental kind of utopian new-age city, where about 2000 people from all over the world try to live a different, better form of society and build a city for about 50.000 people in the future. it's a bit esoteric, but very interesting people, projects and ideas can be found here. (more infos on auroville)

21.2.2009: andaman islands: we spent the last two weeks together with my brother ingo in a true paradise on the AndamanIslands. now we are in south india, mammalapuram. everything is so different and very interesting and we are excited to see more of india in the next months.

30.1.2009: back on the beach: after PhnomPenh we went south to the coast of cambodia. in "kep" we rented a cool motorbike to drive around the countryside and found some beautiful sea salt fields (CambodiaSalt). then, after nearly 2 month of countryside in laos and cambodia, we got back into beach, sun & sand mode on "otres beach" in SihanoukVille and from there we went on to thailand to relax even more (KoChang2009). now we are in bangkok, waiting for our flight to kolkata (calcutta), trying to prepare ourselves for india and getting excited about it.

8.1.2009: phnom penh: here are some new pictures: AngkorWat, CamboDia, LaOs. currently we are hanging out in ellas and jens house in "phnom penh", enjoying the company, the comforts of having a house and waiting for our visa for india. phnom penh itself is a very crazy city with lots of dirt, pollution and a very obvious big gap between rich and poor. the richest don't even bother to get license plates for their new black mercedes, or obey laws at all, while the poor invalids from the war and the landmines have nothing at all and have to beg on the streets. 30 years ago (1975-1979) under the rule of the "khmer rouge" the capital was completely emptied and all inhabitants were forced out to the countryside to become farmers or be killed. the khmer rouge killed 2 million people for reasons like being educated, coming from the city or wearing glasses, anything that would hint at being "intellectual".

3.1.2009: campon chhnang, cambodia: it's been a while since the last update and obviously a lot has happened. we have been in cambodia for one week now and at the moment i am travelling alone, since judith is in a village with her friends who make a film project there. AngkorWat was really awesome and after that i spent a few days alone in "battambang". now i am in "kampong chhnang" which is on a really beautiful location on the tonle sap lake with a lot of floating villages and full of very friendly locals. one good thing about travelling alone is that it's much easier to make irrational decisions, just following ones feelings - instead of doing the obvious things - which in turn gives you a much higher probability of leaving the beaten path, meeting friendly locals and finding interresting experiences. if you have to make decisions together you tend to discuss and rationalize things, which mostly leads to doing the obvious, more common things.

10. - 26.12.2008: 'ban na' elefant tower: after only one night in laos capital "vientieane" we tried to see wild elefants in an elefant observation tower near the village of "ban na". a few years ago this village was suddenly threatened by a group of about 40 wild elefants which came from the national park nearby. for some reason thet decided to stay and eat the farmers sugar cane crop. the smart villagers decided to build up a tower for viewing the elefants as a tourist attraction. we stayed there for 2 nights, but unfortunately didn't see any elefants. during a day-trek however we got really close to them and could hear them breaking thru the bamboo forest - very exciting since they really are wild and can be dangerous. after that we rushed thru southern LaOs to be in CamboDia in time to meet judiths friends.

10.12.2008: vang vieng: finally we made it into laos and thanks to antibiotics we both feel better now. after a two day boat journey on the mekong, passing only very small villages on the river it was magical to arrive in luang prabang with it's many old temples and its rich culture. it's even more strange to be here in vang vieng where the average 18-years-old traveller watches the 'friends' tv-show in nearly every restaurant and gets totally drunk while floating down the river in truck-tubes. the vibe is very friendly however and the nature is amazing.

30.11.2008: chiang rai: we are both a little bit sick, as we catched a cold on the air-con nightbus to bangkok before and the pollution in bangok and the cold nights (10 degrees C) up here in the north did the rest. so we were exending our stay in chiang mai and took another stop in chiang rai. if we feel better tomorrow, we want to move on to laos, really...

28.11.2008: chiang mai: on our last stop in thailand before we move on to laos here are some new pictures: KoLibongMuk where we tried to find dugongs and visited an amazing lagoon "emerald cave", KrabiClimbingJu with judiths first climbing experiences in krabi and BangkokChiangMai with some of the temples.

12.11.2008: ko lipe: finally uploading some pictures of the last one and a half month (KoPhangan2, KoLipe). we have been travelling pretty slow and stayed in ko lipe for more than two weeks as well. KoLipe is still beautiful but the fast pace of touristic development is really obvious here. we were lucky to arrive before high season so we could still enjoy some quietness, but the change of the island was frightening as it prepared for high season: construction sites everywhere and new shops and restaurants were opening every day. still two years ago KoLipe was a secret paradise hideaway with only a few travellers but now luxury resorts are building concrete constructions 24hours a day and digging away the beach with machines. most residents were shocked to discover that a concrete road appeared on the island within the last 6 month and motorbikes start to pollute the place. bye, bye KoLipe... anyhow we discovered that we can be chilled out even more than before and stayed on the island until our last bath.

21.10.2008: ko phangan: we are currently unwinding and chilling out in ko phangan, south thailand and getting slowly adapted to our new tropical lifestyle: plenty of mango-shakes, spicy thai food and massages help us to completely relax and enjoy all the other pleasures of this crazy island like saunas, diving, psytrance-parties every second day and the beautiful beaches. rainy season is slowly hitting the island so it's soon time to start our "real" travels. (fotos: KoPhangan2)

26.09.2008: travel part 2: in one week i am taking off to bangkok again. the second part of my travels is about to start stay tuned for new fotos on this site...