From Salzburg Street to Salzburg

Not yet a week back home, I travelled with some contacts from Xing to Salzburg. We used a Bavarian rail ticket (38€ for 5 persons = 7,60€) that was even valid till Salzburg. We met at Munich main station and then went by train for two hours. 

Shopping street

In Salzburg, we bought a day pass for public transport (3,20€) and took a bus to the historic centre. Short after that the group split and I found four other women who wanted to a bit of shopping. 

We started with a little decoration shop that was selling all kinds of Christmas stuff: candle holders, Christmas tree hangers and much more. The store was in a inner courtyard with a passageway to the street behind. 

There was a food market with fruits, vegetable, meat and fish. We stopped at a stand to buy warm sausages and at another to buy fruits and chocolate. We meandered through the streets until we reached a bigger place and went for coffee, tea and cake into Cafe Tomaselli.

cake at Café Tomaselli

There we ordered the drinks with the waiter. After that a waitress with a cake buffet passed by, so you could choose right by sight at your table what you would like to eat. 

When we felt warm again, we went out again for a tour of the Christmas market. We found several nice stands with hats, candle holders and liquor. In the centre was the dome and we went in to hear the choir sing Christmas.

Afterwards, we continued our shopping spree and I found a new pairs of winter boots.

Shopping in the city

Shopping in Jaipur

There are a lot of different ways to shop in Jaipur.

Most people spend their sundays in one of Jaipur's malls - being a regular visitor for years I saw the rise and decay of several of them. Here some I visited often:

• City Pulse
• Pink Square Mall
• Gaurav Tower
• MGF Mall
• World Trade Park (newest)

Anokhi

My favorite stores for traditional and modern prints are:

• Anokhi - a favorite with locals and tourists offering textiles with block printing produced in an ethical factory just outside Jaipur.
• BIBA - is the Punjabi word for a young and pretty girl. It is also a fashion label with stores all over India offering Salwars, Kameez and Dupattas in ethnic and contemporary style.

BIBA store

• Cottons - as the name suggests this shop specializes in cotton fabrics with local block printing.

I also found several new labels:

• Anupama Bose - the teacher of my friend Nidhi - Anupama Bose specializes in hand-woven salwar kameez and sarees with detailed embroidery. 
• Kunar - the mother of friend offers the products of this NGO at her home - shawls in Katha style, blouses, trousers and more.
• Nidhi Jaipur - my friend Nidhi is a designer who interpretes the traditional fashion in a modern way and is concentrating her work on cotton designs.

Nidhi Jaipur

Rathambhore National Park

I left Jaipur by train in direction of Southeast to Sawai Madhopur - just a day before I finally could secure a tatkal ticket on Cleartrip to and fro as well as a hotel. Short after 8 pm I reached and the hotel sent an auto-rickshaw wallah to pick me up. A short drive later, I was at Hotel Tiger Safari where I got a nice room, dinner and a booking for the safari next morning.

Hotel Tiger Safari

From 6:30 am I was waiting in the lobby - around seven one of the numerous canters (truck with open top and 20 seats) stopped and I boarded. Several pick ups later we made it to the entrance gate where the flying sellers already awaited us to buy hats, shirts and fleece jackets.

Entering the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve

Another gate to pass

We headed for Zone 4 & 5 on our tiger hunt and came across 3 of the 4 different kinds of deer:

• Nilgay: antilope looking a bit like horses and the favorite food of the tigers. They can live 4-5 days from that. 
• Samber: normal deer.
• Dotted deer: with white dots and the males with antlers. 

Samber deer

dotted deer

Samber deer

I also saw an owl, peacocks, a crocodile and many birds. Only the tigers were hiding somewhere else. The afternoon safari was not any better.

Peacock

Banyan tree

monkeys

Believers on the way back from the temple

At the end of the second safari, I asked the guide how often he saw tigers and his answer: 2-3 times a week out of 14 safaris. I did not have the time to stay longer and go looking for the tigers, so I left with the evening train. I might have to go to Africa to see the tigers.

Royal Chitwan National Park

Early morning, I started out from Kathmandu - the first hours being the same as to Pokhara. Only less traffic - in preparation of the elections the whole country was on strike and only vehicles with tourist permit were allowed to cross the country.

lunch stop

I got the last seat on the bus in the driver cabin and could rest my legs on the engine compartment.

street market

In the afternoon, the bus dropped me off in a town and some time later I was picked up from the jeep from the resort I booked. We roamed around a bit until we met another bus and picked up two more travelers from Canada. Then we started the drive to the Machan Wildlife Resort - Paradise View. The road led through small villages, fields and banana orchards.

bungalows in Machan Wildlife Resort

We relaxed in deck chairs and later in the evening listened to a lecture about the flora and fauna of the Royal Chitwan National Park. Some of the slides showed tigers that we hoped to see also in real life.

Early morning, we started on elephants in the dawn and rode around the park for 1-2 hours. We saw kingfisher and other birds, rhinos but no tigers.

mama and baby elephant

rhino couple

After a good breakfast, we learned more about the elephants of the resorts and also got the chance to climb again on the back of the big animals.

Namaste

Riding an elephant

We had lunch at the resort and then set off in a jeep for an excursion through the forest - we saw the left-handed pine that was tearing down trees and killing them.

left-handed pine

lake in the forest

termite hill

In the middle of the park, there was a crocodile farm that breeded gharials (very long jaws) and mugger crocodiles (broad snout, man-eater). We saw them in different age stages from hatchlings to adults.

gharials

Some hundred meters away, we boarded a canoe and were joking about seeing crocodiles and only some minutes later we saw the man-eating muggers lying on the shore and then slowly starting in the water.

a mugger sun-bathing

We continued in the canoe to the sunset with the Himalaya as a backdrop.

In the evening, we had a barbecue, sat around campfire and enjoyed a dance performance of the Tharu people from a nearby village.

Tharu dance

It was a great experience in the resort - only the tigers did not show up. After another night, I returned to Kathmandu by bus and took a taxi to the airport. From there I flew with SpiceJet to Delhi.

Pokhara

I enjoyed being back in civilization by sleeping long and taking a hot shower. After breakfast, I went with some of the group in the town. We window shopped, had good food at the seaside and relaxed.

Hotel Snowland

boats on Phewa Lake

After lunch, we started the real shopping:

• knitted hat, gauntlets, scarf, socks in rainbow colors
• earrings, bracelets, necklaces and key ring pendants
• T-Shirts with embroidery
• bags
• incense sticks
• post cards and
• paintings of the mountains.

 Getting my Mustang Shirt embroidered

In the late afternoon, we decided to have coffee and cake at the Fishtail Lodge - the most spectacular and posh venue around Pokhara. We went on a pontoon and sat in the garden with a great view.

Ferry across to the Fishtail Lodge

view from Fishtail Lodge

We read the brochure and had the idea to come back in the morning for breakfast. We asked our waiter to reserve a table.
At 8 am, we were back for a great breakfast, a wonderful table with the best view on Machhapuchhare (Fishtail mountain).

Machhapuchhre - Fishtail

Fishtail Lodge

Flowers in the garden

 Relaxed after a great breakfast

We did some more shopping on the way back to the city centre and then went each on our own last trip around Pokhara. I strolled along the seaside before having a lunch at beach shack.

My lunch beach shack

 beach fast food

Later in the afternoon, we took a taxi to the airport and had no problems clearing all our luggage without paying excise weight. We boarded our flight on time and I got a window seat on the mountain side. So I made some great panorama pictures.

Himalaya panorama

Jomosom to Pokhara

I was woken by sunlight tickling my nose and my hopes for a flight rose. At breakfast, we bid the first two of our group farewell who were booked on the second flight. In the meantime, we watched the little airplane of TaraAir come and go. The next two got ready and went to the airport next door. The guides with a weighing machine kept the rest of us busy with our luggage. We were allowed only 15 kg, so the question was not if we have excise luggage but how much. Rumors had it that we would have to leave stuff behind but we were quite confident that there would be a chance to pay for it. 

Heavy winds cloud our hopes

Twenty minutes later, that was of no interest anymore as the remaining flights of the day got cancelled and only the first two were already sitting in Pokhara. Krishna took care to organise a jeep for all of us, our luggage was tied up on the roof and we got in: two together with the driver in the front row, 3 on the middle row and another three on the last row and two in the trunk - we felt like sardines. 

Packing the jeep

So we started our 123 km drive to Pokhara. 

stone bridge

The road being a gravel strip in the riverbed or mountain mud piste nearly washed away by a mud slide. 

The mud slide ...

... already being cleared for us.

Average speed around 15 km per hour. After 4 hours we passed another checkpoint and short after something like a bus/ jeep changing point. We had to get off and while the next jeep was arranged had lunch. 

last checkpoint of the Annapurna Trekking area

The next jeep was even smaller and so I ended up sitting in the trunk with the guides and two of our group. It was the best part of the trip down - we heard music and talked in English and Hindi. 

Outside the landscape ...

... got greener.

And so another four hours passed and the road got slightly better. 

Bus/ jeep changing point

We changed the last time and got on a mini bus that had more seats than necessary for us - what a luxury! Another two hours and we reached Pokhara. This time we were staying at hotel Snowland on the Main Street. 

The early morning flyers already awaited us. Most of the group were exhausted and went to bed, but I joined some for a Nepalese dinner around the corner before calling it a night.