Kolkata

From the plane, I got a nice view of Kolkata and the Hooghly river that meandering its way to the Bay of Bengal. The weather was just typically monsoon. I took a prepaid taxi to Vinay's house and then went for a stroll in the neighborhood. In the evening, I met him and his wife Ekta at Banana Leaf (a South Indian restaurant). Later I met Nitesh at Mocha's (my favorite Mumbai hang out) and after some food, we roamed the streets of Kolkata.

The next morning, I went to see the Victoria Memorial that contains a lot information about the British, Kolkata and the history of both. The park around the sight invited a lot of couples to hang out there and enjoy the nature.

Then I bought a ticket for the Planetarium and had a look at the night sky of Kolkata.

On my second day, I went to see the South Park Street Cemetery with Gabriella from Ecuador who I met at the Post office. There were a lot of British tombs dating back as far as 200 years. It was very quite and a lot of trees made it a lovely place.

Then I headed to the Sikkim House for my inner line permit for Sikkim by a hand pulled rickshaw - Kolkata is the only place where they are still in service. After some hassle and providing two pictures and copies of my passport & visa, I finally could pick it up in the evening.

Because of this, I nearly missed the Marble Palace - an outstanding piece of architecture and with an amazing atrium and collection of statues, vases and paintings. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to make pictures inside. Also for the entry a special permit was necessary from the tourist office. But to obtain that was no problem.

The final spot I visited was the Kali temple which I already tried to find the first day, but as it was off the main street, I could not find it in the darkness. Back home I packed my things and took a taxi to the train station. At 8:30 pm my train for Darjeeling departed.

AIESEC - Global Alumni Congress

I met some people I already knew like Daniel and Alex from Germany, Kais from Tunisia and Antonio from Italy as well as a lot of new people. After the opening that was some two hours late, we headed to "Bottles & Chimney" (an in-bar). I got some pasta and talked with a lot of people, just the music was a bit two loud.

The next day we had two panel discussions. One from three different NGOs and the second about creativity with people from a Bollywood background. This was much fun and very interacting.

In the evening, we joined the International Congress in the neighboring hotel for the Alumni Hall of Fame and India Night. There was a Bhangra dance performance, Mehndi painters and a lot of stalls with Indian clothes and souvenirs. And of course, we all dress up in Indian clothes.

On Sunday, the congress finished with a lazy brunch and a cricket match (I think). I did not stay for the cricket as I wanted to go sightseeing around Hyderabad.

Hyderabad

After another long overnight bus ride, I arrived in Hyderabad. Sneha, Sindhu's sister, and Kumar, a friend, picked me up. On the way to their home, we had a look at the Charminar (4 Towers) which was built by a Qutb Shahi ruler to thank for a victory in fight. Unfortunately, we were to early to go on top.

In the afternoon, we went to Shilpanam, a market in a garden environment. I bought some lovely earings there. Then they dropped me off at the Global Alumni Congress and I continued sightseeing only on Sunday.

Then I went to the Qutb Shahi tombs, that were also set in a garden environment and it is a nice place to hang out and enjoy the silence.

From there I took an autorickshaw to Golcanda Fort that was the capital city of the Qutb Shahi rulers, before the city was moved to nowadays Hyderabad. It's very big and you an easily spend some hours there. But be prepared to climb a lot of stairs. On the premises are also a mosque, a Kali temple, a prison and a lot more.

I was so impressed I stayed back for the sound and light show and did some amazing pictures.

After that, I met Sindhu for dinner and the next morning I nearly did not make it to my flight to KOLKATA as the airport was far away from the city and I was running late. I just arrived 25 min before take off, but so I did not have to wait at all.

Hampi

I took a bus from Hospet to Hampi - the road was not that easy as the rain has caused some serious effects and we had to drive through a river looking a bit like this.

Hampi was the royal city of Vijayanagar Hindu empire and features a lot of temples, compounds, stables and pleasure baths surrounded by an astonishing landscape. I took an rickshaw to take me around all the sights, as by walking I would have needed several days.

Lotus Mahal

Elephant stables

carvings at the side of a temple

water tank and viaducts

Bangalore

Bangalore is also known as the Silicon Valley of India. I was warned by other travellers that there is nothing to see, but I came mainly to meet Sharjeel from my CC team 5 years ago.

We spent a great afternoon and evening together eating Indian and Italian food, hung out at a mall and went to cinema for The Expendables - a film you can miss.

The second day, I spent sight seeing. First, Tipu's summer palace and the garden around. Tipu was a Muslim ruler in South India (Mysore, Bangalore, ...).

From there I went over the city market, where all kind of food and non-food was sold. You could get also get some cooked just there.

I also visited the old fort, but of this nothing much except for some walls with some funny carvings remain.

Last stop of the day was Lal Bagh, a big garden with different gardens: Japanese, Rose garden, ...

In the evening, I was catching a train to Hospet - from where I wanted to visit Hampi.

Mysore

I decided to make a detour for Mysore and spend there one day. The city in Karnataka is known for its palace, sandelwood and silk products.

I started with the Palace that was very colourful and contained a lot of beautiful things. Also from the architecture it is very impressing. Unfortunately, inside it is not allowed to take pictures and I even had to remove my shoes. In the ticket price was included an audioguide that told all the interesting stories.

From there, my rickshaw driver took me to Chamundi Hill on which there is a temple for the most famous goddess in Mysore: Chamundeswari (= Durga). She fought against an evil demon and brought good luck to the reigning family, that's why every they still celebrate the Dasara festival.

Also on the hill is a giant Nandi sculpture - the vehicle of god.

Later, it was time for shopping: I bought a silk sari for a friend and got myself some silk kurthas as well as some oils. At the oil shop, a woman rolled incense sticks - she is doing 10.000 pieces per day!!!

Next morning I left Mysore in direction of Bangalore - on the way to the train station I got the chance for a typical picture: woman in sari balancing concrete bowl on her head for road side work.

Backwaters - the place to relax

Another must do in Kerala is a Backwater trip and I even wanted to the stay the night there, so I booked with Wilson Travels and was picked up in the morning and driven to a Backwater farm.

There I boarded the houseboat (kettuvalayam) and two men navigated the engine-less boat through the backwaters and the cook prepared lovely fish & sea food for me.

The trip was very relaxing and I saw a lot of different birds, coconuts and Chinese fishernets.

In the evening, the cook showed me around the village before we returned to the boat for dinner.

In the night, I was sleeping well under the mosquito net and was woken up in the morning by the birds.

On the way to Munnar and back

Early, I and an Italian couple were picked up and started our way to Munnar - a Hill Station in the Western Ghats. We had several stops on the way.

First, we watched how an elephant family took its bath in the river, before they returned to their home.

Then we went on to a pineapple and rubber plantation. The trees are cut every day and the white rubber milk is collected in the morning.

Next, we visited a Spice Farm and the woman there explained us all kinds of different fruits and spices - we have seen: cacao, jack fruit, spicy leafs, cardamom, lemon grass, papaya, coconut, vanilla, cinnamon, pepper, tamarind, nutmeg, ... We also tried the cacao fruit.

In the back of the farm, they were processing the rubber milk and made mats out of it that would sell for 100 Ruppies each (ca. 1.75 Euro).

Then we continued our way uphill passing several waterfalls and ate some lunch.

Finally, in the afternoon we arrived in Munnar. Unfortunately, it started to rain and went on for the rest of the day, so we just stayed inside and tried to stay warm.

The next morning, the sun woke me up and it became a really nice day. We drove through the tea plantation to Munnar Town, where we visited the Tea Museum, the local market and a spice shop (more pics to come later).

Before we returned to Kochi, we took a little ride on this elephant through the wood. Twenty minutes on the back of the elephant is more than enough to make your butt hurt.

Kochi

So what to see in Kochi?

Definitely, the Chinese Fisher Nets that are still operated today. Every some minutes, the fishermen dip the net in the water, wait some time and pull it up. I also helped them. Only in the rainy season the catch is not that big as to much sweet water mixes with the sea water and the fish does not like this.

As fresh fish is always available here, you can see one of my lunches at this stall. I tried snapper, prawns, tiger prawns, makrele and calamari. What ever you buy here, you can get it cooked in a nearby restaurant.

Usually, you find seagulls at the seaside, but not so in Kochi - here there are thousands of crows.

Other sides to see are the Dutch Palace and the Synagoge - but it's not allowed to phoograph there. So I went to some cultural dance and martial arts show from Kerala. Very interesting, but also very loud.

Martial Arts

Kathakali - already the make up takes an hour to apply. Shows can run up to 8-9 hours.