For our English-speaking friends - South-India

The first hill station we visit is "Mount Abu" in Rajasthan. To flee the heat and dust of the big cities, the British founded several socalled "hill stations", small towns with luxury hotels, golf grounds and clubs. They are situated in hilly surroundings and guarantee cooler climate. The landscape is very alpine and familiar - but for the palmtrees, of course. We walk a lot and enjoy to get away from the noise of the bustling little town. At nighttime it gets very cold and we put on every pullover and longsleeve we have with us.
One day we visit the beautiful white marble temple of Delwara. A masterpiece in handicraft!

By the time we reach the city of "Udaipur" we have seen so many fascinating forts and palaces that its famous city palace can't impress us anymore. Shame on us ...

A hazardous two days-trip takes us via "Dhule" to "Jalgaon", from where we visit the famous caves of "Ajanta". In the 5th century, Buddhist monks lived here in absolute solitude. The caves have beautiful carvings and huge Buddha statues. They are situated above a river bend in the rock and one wonders, how the monks got there and how they managed to create these temples.

Also in Jalgaon we do some restoration work to the bikes. Due to the extremely bad road conditions we have two broken windshields, two broken back mirrors (the new ones only cost us 1 Euro altogether!) and several minor defects. We also have our first flat tyre - a puncture. But with the help of our hotel manager, we find good people to fix everything and it hardly costs us anything.

The bad road conditions keep on while we travel down to "Goa". So by the time we get there, we are really annoyed and need a couple of days rest. No problem, as the food and the beaches in "Goa" are perfect! Fresh fish from the grill, beer, wine, clean beaches and water, hardly any traffic - somehow un-Indian but exactly what we now need. We stay at the little town of "Benaulim". One day we rent two "Enfields" and drive to the town of "Old Goa". What an experience! Elmar enjoys the bike ride very much, Joerg isn't impressed at all. After having welcomed our guest "Heike", we move on to "Agonda", a small village further south. There we spend five lazy days - nothing more joyful than that as you can see!

But "Hampi", the old town full of temples and palaces - most of them in ruins - is waiting, and so we drive on. The landscape is fascinating and reminds us of Australia's "Devil Marbles". Ricefields and banana plantations eveywhere and in between huge hills of rock marbles - fantastic!

Next we go to "Ooty", another Hill Station, up on the Nilgiri plateau. The small and busy town is situated between lush green tea plantations. We book a guided trekkingtour, enjoy a drink at the "Fern Hill's Palace Hotel" (the former Maharadsha's palace) and get interviewed by the local press. Heike and Elmar take a trip on the "Nilgiri Blue Mountain Railway" (a narrow-gauge railway) and Annette and Joerg visit the "Tea Museum".

It is end of January by now and we have to leave for "Chennai", India's 4th biggest city. In "Goa" we had met a couple from Berlin who were looking for a partner to ship their truck to Malaysia. It is a lot cheaper for both parties if we share one container, so we change our route plans and they delay their date of departure. Here in "Chennai" the paperwork will be done and the vehicles will be loaded and lashed. Meanwhile Heike and Annette try to find sights worth visiting but finally give up. The city is comparatively young. The British East India Company founded the city in 1639 on a 5 km long strip of sand. Today it is the centre of the Tamil film industrie. "Chennai" is hot, loud, dusty and dirty - a 7 million populated city without any flair. So we do some last-minute-shopping instead. Girls!
We get to know Andrew and Amelia, a really nice British-Australian couple. They travel with their Toyota Landcruiser and we exchange travel news and experiences while in Chennai.

The last three days we spend in "Mamallapuram". Andrew and Amelia follow in their truck. This friendly little town is situated 60 km south of Chennai at the coast and got heavily hit by the tsunami some years ago. Today tourism is back and a lot of small shops and restaurants invite tourists to spend their money. More shopping is done, a little sunbathing, too, we meet for the traditional 6 o'clock beer either on the balcony or the beach and have a lot of fun together.
"Mamallapuram" has an old stonecutter tradition. And even today you can hear the sound of hammer and chisel from dusk to dawn.

An Embassador taxi takes us back to Chennai where me meet Mark and Anita (we first met them in Yazd / Iran) for a last Indian dinner. Then we say good-bye to our travel mate Heike (she will go back to Germany the next day) and head for the airport.



After two month of travelling and experiencing India with all its goods and bads we finally say "fare well" - with great relief but little melancholy, too.