Winter in Meersburg

It is snowing at the lake and is turning Meersburg into a "winter wonderland" - well if the sun is shining what did not happen a lot. Mostly it was snowing this weekend. There are almost no tourists here right now, and the streets are emtpy and most of the restaurants closed. Quite a difference to summer time when it is very busy here.  My camera is on the way to get cleaned just before the winter holidays. These are some of the last shots.

India

Well, best would have been to just to fly to Agra, see Taj Mahal and back. Ok I am sure there are nice places in India, maybe Goa or the South, but Delhi is the worst city I have ever been. Such a dirty place. When I got out of the Airplane I had the smell of eggs in my nose. The SMOG was unbelievable. You could hardly see 100m. And Agra or Jaipur were not really better. The whole time you could see the sun as a little red dot at the sky.
Lets start from the beginning. I arrived well at Delhi and found myself a Taxi what couldn't find the hotel and charged the double price of the usual cost. Then I was dropped at the wrong place, at least in a 20 Minute walking distance... Like in Nepal I joined a Tour, this one called "Golden Triangle" going to Agra and Jaipur. Everything went well, but after the clean air in Nepal it was just horrible. The sights were nice, but honestly, Taj Mahal is nice, but for me the Hagia Sophia or Blue Mosque in Istanbul do deserve a lot more to be a "New Worldwonder".  Well at least I have all 7 now :). And that was the reason why I came to India. The rest of the sights were ok but not that impressive for me, but that was maybe because I just wanted to get away from all that dirt and Smog. I visited Agra Fort, Jaipur Fort, Fatehpur Sikri....

But yeah I am sure, there are some parts in India as well.
What I liked was the food. The curry is really good. And I didn't have any problems with my stomach :)












After that week I was just happy to get back to Germany.

Nepal - Part3

From the Basecamp it took 4 days to get back into civilization. To describe the first day only one word is needed: downhill. Well it started with the sunrise but it sadly was a little cloudy still one or two nice pictures came out. But afterwards almost 2000m down from 4200m to 2200m... to a place called Bamoboo. We had to go back the same way we came up. More and more clouds moved in and it started to rain (in the basecamp it was snowing, but we were to low for snow). Luckyly we were going towards the good weather :).


Until Chomrong where we had lunch the next day, the path was exactly the same, but from Chomrong we went South-East to get to one of the highlights - the Jhinu Hot springs. That was amazing. By the river in the valley two little pools were filled with warm water - lovely. Also a family of monkeys was playing very close. The last 2 days (Pothana and Phedi) you could feel that you were not far from the civilization. The Lodges were quite nice and had good food. Also a lot of agriculture (rice) which was a nice contrast to the mountains.


And finally back into the dirty and noisy life of Pokhara - for me sadly just 1 afternoon (Pokhara is not that bad, just a shock after all the nature) . I had to rush to see at least a little bit of the Pewa lake. A lot of locals were at the shores, try to rent boats or fishing. In the evening our group had the last beer at the Bee Bar. They had German Footbal on television - it was snowing in late Oktober... Good that I was far far away ;)


The next morning I took a Taxi to the airport. After a very intense security check (A look and the question: "Do you have a knife") and the run to the Airplane (I run faster than some Japanese...) I had a nice seat in the Yeti Airlines - Jetstream propeller plane and an amazing 20 Minute flight back to Kathmandu. A couple of hours later I was again in an Airplane, now with Air India (after a stupid security check that delayed the plane for 1hour). This flight was also amazing, the picture from the Airplane shows the Annapurna Area. Fishtail is the mountain to the right, the Mountains left are Annapurna South in the Front and Annapurna 1 very left. The view was just great, and then a nice sunset... and suddenly I was in India. But this will be the next blog entry.

Nepal - Part 2

After Chomrong the Lodges got a little more primitive and a lot colder. It took 2 days to get to Machhapuchhre (Fishtail) Basecamp (also called MBC). The path went through a valley and ascend from about 2000m to 3800m at MBC. As usual it was sunny in the morning but the final 600m of height were in fog. The Guesthouse at MBC was nice, they even had Wireless Internet. Later in the afternoon the clouds moved away and I could take some shots of the Fishtail Mountain in evening light. Although Fishtail (Machhapuchhre) has a basecamp, it is forbidden to climb the mountain. It is holy.
The last day to Annapruna basecamp was a short one. The climb was about 400m and did take 3hrs due to lots of photo stops. And finally the destination was reached. Annapurna Basecamp - or Sanctuary. All around the Annapurna range and a big glacier. Stunning view! You could hear the Ice cracking from the Glacier.
Everyone in the group made it to the Basecamp. Especially I had some problems with my wisdom tooth and stomach. But the view was worth it.
The weather was brilliant - until the afternoon. The evening got a lot colder than the nights before, but for 100 Rupies a Gas Burner (with open flame) was put under the table to warm everyone up. I had another Pizza which was good, and also the Hot Chocolate was really nice and well deserved :).
For the night I set my alarm clock to 3 am to take some shots of the Milky Way. Suprisingly it was not that cold and I managed to get out of my sleeping bag. To be honest I saw better nights skys but still it was impressive. Now here are some of the pictures from those days...

Part 3 with the rest of the trip will follow soon

Nepal - Part 1

Nepal - Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and first Trekking Days...

Exactly one week ago I came back from my Tour in Nepal and India. Everything went well (except for the part of staying healthy) and last week I was working on my pictures. Here are some of them I shot during the first couple of days in Kathmandu, Bhakatapur and during the first Trekking days.

12th of October I left Germany and flew with Air India from Frankfurt via Delhi to Kathmandu where I joind a tour group for the Annapurna Sanctuary Trek. But the first days were a little of sightseeing in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur.
In Kathmandu I visited Swayambhunath (the monkey temple), Pashupatinath (one of the most important Hindu temples in the world), and the Stupa of Boudhanath (one of the most important buddist sites). The second day we went to Bhaktapur an ancient city (Unesco World Heritage) where we stayed for the night. That was very nice, a lot of Tourists just come for the day and don't stay for the night, and especially in the evening hours a lot of locals were around.





 








The following day was a very long bus ride to Pokahara (200km) that took almost 7hrs. The streets were in horrible condition, partly only on one side and it is not advisable to sit in the first row and look how the bus is overtaking other buses in corners or when there is traffic...

In Pokhara we just spent the night before going on the Sanctuary (Basecamp) Trek. Unlike the Everest area (Yaks) here only Porters carry the luggage. The first two days the route was mainly uphill (more than 2000m) to Ghorepani, which is the Town just below the world famous Poon Hill, from where you can get one of the nicest looks in the Himalays, especially for sun rise, what we did.

You can see two mountains > 8000m. Annapurna 1 (8091m, 10th highest peak in the world) and Dhaulagiri (8167m, 7th highest peak). On the picture (left of this text) Annapurna 1 is the mountain on the left.

From Ghorepani we followed the route to Chomrong for 2 days. A lot of ups and downs... and a very nice place in between - Tadapani. Such a nice view from the Lodge in the morning.
Chomrong felt like a modern place. In the Lodge they had a Internet Cafe, vacuum cleaners and even a washing mashine. And the Pizza was suprisingly good - a little change to Dal Bhat or Fried Noodles.

The Tour will continue with the next blog entry...

Nepal here I come

Finally the waiting time for the next big holidays is almost over. Only a half day of work tomorrow. My flight will be around 10pm Friday evening from Frankfurt to Delhi with Air India and from Delhi to Kathamdu were I will arrive Saturday in the afternoon. After some sighseeing in the Kathmandu valley I will go by bus to Pokhara where the 11 day trekking will start. Highlight of the Annapurna Sanctuary Trek will be the Annapurna Basecamp and Poon Hill. Right now is the best season to go trekking. So I hope for nice weather and pictures.
Here is a small overview of the Tour. The Trekking is the left part connected with lines. Not the exact points but about the area.

Nepal 2012 auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

After the Trekking Tour I will fly with Yeti Airlines (I flew them before and I am still alive ;) ) from Pokhara to Kathmandu and with Air India back to Delhi. Here I will go on a 1 week tour "The Golden Triangle". Highlight will be the Taj Mahal. This is the last of the 7 New Worldwonders I have not been to. So if everything goes will have visited them all :). After that tour back to cold Germany.

Fall time at the Bodensee

The good weather is following me. The view is from the Gehrenberg close to Markdorf. Sadly the weather was not clear and we could not really see the alps. But the sky was clear and the milky way was visible.

Hamburg

What a weekend. First to mention of course is the 1:0 victory in the Bundesliga vs Hannover with the world largest choreography for the 125th anniversary of the team, and second to mention is the fabulous weather. I can not belive we had 2 days of sunshine and 1 day cloudy but warm. The last times I was there it was always raining or it was bloody cold.
Of course the first thing we did was the harbour cruise to get an impression of how big the harbour is. I did it at least 5 or 6 times but still I like it. Also I have never walked the old Elbtunnel that is not in use anymore for cars but for pedestrians and bikes. Saturday afternoon was the football match - 57000 people sold out. Sunday there was lots of walking - Michel - Hafencity also the sailing ship Rickmer Rickmers. Monday I went the second time into the miniature wunderland which is still amazing. Especially the new airport with planes starting and landing. WOW! After some time in the museum we took the ferry down to Övelgönne for a walk at the Elbe to Teufelsbrück. Check out the pictures. Many more are on my homepage (www.jsbpics.de)