Monte Sulze (1117 m) - my first mountain in 2012

In March, I joined the German Alpine Association, so I thought it's about time to make use of this membership and signed up for some tours. Last saturday, I bought some new hiking boots and was wearing them since to have my feet adapt to them.

I met the other hikers at the main station in Munich from where we took a train to the Alps. We changed trains in Rosenheim and were joined by our guide Michael. In Branneburg - a little village on the foothills of the Alps - we got off and started our hike uphill. 

Chapel near Brannenburg

Michael led us on old paths through the woods. At first, it started gentle before becoming very steep on the last 400 vertical meters. The weather was keeping okay, but after it was quite cool on the top.

On the top, we were rewarded with a good view on still higher and still snow covered mountains and with our packed lunch.

Sulzberg (1117 m)

After lunch, we headed down to a café for cake & coffee. 

the hikers

There the sun was shining and we enjoyed blue skies. Later in the afternoon, we returned to the train station and caught the next train to Munich.

Alpine Foothills

On the road to Delhi & back home

I left Jaipur late morning and headed again with a Volvo Bus to Delhi.

Volvo Buses at Midway Stop

On the road, I made some snapshots through the window capturing usual situations on the highway.

truck graveyard in Jaipur's Transport Nagar

five star hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur

classical transport option

Toll Station causing traffic jam

tyre change possible at roadside

In Gurgaon (near Delhi), I was met by some more MAN managers and we drove to Ghaziabad for meeting our local dealer.

In the evening, they dropped me off at the airport where I boarded my plane back to Europe later in the night. This time I could sleep very well in the business class.
The layover time in London was very short and I had to run to my connecting flight home.

At noon, I was back at my desk at work.

Jaipur

I spent three days in Jaipur visiting friends, seeing Jaanya running around and do some serious shopping.

Lakshmi Narayan (aka Birla) Temple at the foot of Moti Doongri fortress

Of course, there was also business and I went to see our local dealer and the construction where they will start a new outlet on the highway to Mumbai this year.

MAN Mobile Service

Happily, I also got all my favorite food: bruschetta at Little Italy's, roasted potatoes by Chhavi and fresh Mangos at Sankalps home.

Yellow Mangos

Chennai

After a layover stop in Bangalore, I landed with two colleagues in Chennai (aka Madras) in the evening. The Hilton sent a car to pick us up and brought us to the hotel. We got nice rooms and checked out the pool and health centre. Unfortunately, it was already too late to jump in as they were preparing the evening bar on the roof top. So we decided to meet later in one of the restaurants where we enjoyed a great Italian buffet.

Hilton Lobby

my room

The next morning, I tested the roof top pool - very refreshing and a great view.

pool

Later, our conference on Megatrends Commercial Vehicle India started and we attended the different sessions. In the afternoon, I skipped the sessions and went to see some local dealers with our business manager. We visited the MAN dealer, Mahindra Navistar and our biggest customer before we returned to the hotel.

On the way, there was a lot of construction ongoing for a new metro line and I saw a lot of Volvo and Ashok Leyland buses. Especially, articulated buses fascinated me as they are not common in India.

Ashok Leyland Vestibule bus

The next day, we spent only at the conference in the hotel, but on Friday we had to be ready very early to go to the Daimler factory. Daimler has built a factory for light & heavy duty trucks near Chennai and will star selling trucks under the new Bharat Benz brand by September.

From the bus we could see not only the usual traffic but also some temples.

We returned to the hotel in the afternoon and I took another dive into the pool before heading off in a BMW 3 Series to the airport. From there I took a flight to Delhi and then a Volvo bus (not as good as last year:-( ) to Jaipur.

View on Chennai

Pune

Every morning a company van (Force Traveller) picked up all the MAN colleagues staying at the hotel. During our stay more and more showed up: accounting, IT, marketing and product strategy.  Same way we got back after six in the evening. The working week here is Monday to Saturday so we joined our Indian colleagues on sixth day.

The first days, we kept on clicking all the scenes that we could from the car.

cows in the street

camels, too!

But with time passing, we retired of this task a bit and started reading the local newspaper.

Garbage trucks we saw mainly on sundays.

Sugar cane wallah

Another way of transporting goods.

On our first weekend (mainly sunday) we went shopping, sightseeing and dining out. For more see the separate blog entry.

At the end of the second week I started visiting dealerships of MAN & competitors and had a look at their branding.

Friday evening, I spent with Saswati (an Indian colleague) and her husband talking, cooking non spicy Indian food & pancakes with Nutella and watching cricket. Next morning, she took me back on her scooter to work.

We stayed at the Royal Orchid Central. They offered exceptional and fast service: welcome, set up of internet, alteration of clothes and much more.

The hotel has three restaurants, but I tested only Pinxx for breakfasts and one dinner. It was okay but most of the times we ate at the mall opposite to the hotel or in the restaurants around.
We enjoyed also the pool and health centre. The hotel did send a car to pick me up from the airport and also brought us back there for our flight to Chennai.

Pune - sightseeing

The hotel organised a car for the six of us heading out for sightseeing. We started around 11 after a late breakfast and the longest night of sleep of my whole stay. 

Our first stop were the Pataleshwar Caves that were carved out in the 8th century but remain unfinished. In front of them is a shrine to Shiva and Nandi.

Despite the other tourists and a Volkswagen colleague, there were some Hindu worshippers.

From there we went to Shanivar Wada, the palace of the ruling family that was built in the early 18th century. Today only the outer fortification walls and some ruins within remain. As there are a lot of trees it is a favorite hangout place for couples and families.

Then we took a walk around the old city looking for some nice architectural structures.

Driving past the closed shopping street MG Road we made our way to the south of Pune and visited the Parvati Temple and hill. 103 steps lead up to the about 700 m high hill from where we had a great view on the city.

We finished the tour with a visit to Inorbit Mall. As most of the people have to work 6 days a week, sundays are used for shopping. The mall even had a Spar supermarket and a McDonald's.

In the evening we took a walk from the hotel to ABC Farms (next to Westin Hotel) and enjoyed a great diner there. Unfortunately, the Mosquitos also came for their dinner - us.

Indore

There was not much leisure time in Indore as we were busy organizing the first dealer event of MAN Trucks India Pvt Ltd. After some presentations we went to Pithampur for a plant visit.

On the drive, there were some classical situations - so here are the pictures:

Keep a god or guru with you!

Big trucks, small autorickshaws

2 horse(!)-power cart

MAN plant

Attention!

Before leaving the Radisson I took advantage of their sports facilities - jogging with a view on the surroundings and enjoying a swim in the roof top pool.

In the afternoon, I experienced a very quite Indore Airport that was nothing compared to the bursting and loud Mumbai Domestic where I spent half a day on my inbound flight. I got picked up by a hotel car and received a very nice welcome by the staff of the Royal Orchid Central Hotel.

In the evening, I met with colleagues and we went out for some food. They were very brave eating at a roadside Dosawallah. Luckily for me, we went also to a restaurant where I got some spicy wrap (I took a bite) and some less spicy chicken kebab (finished that).