the world is not enough!!

Osho in Pune;;;;; absolutely excellent;; well I was the only one laughing watching the video in the meditation center.. the interviews:: " I found joy in my life after having been to the center// Osho oppened my mind..." and you them all dancing with the red or white outfit like devish turners.; Well in theory I have got no problem with people bielieving in whatever they want // my only issue with this is that the center was the most wealthy place in India : you could smell the money this corporation was stealing from the poor spiritually lost people,,, and it was somehow terifying. I left Puna straight after to reach Aurangabad. From there I could access the sites of Ajanta and Ellora easily. Ajanta and Ellora are two site of each more than 30 temples caves dug in the rocks,, each temple is monolitic.. Once again I was blown away by the beauty of these sites. I spent an awful night in a bus to reach Ahmedabad (Gandhi's city...) and the following night I took the night train to Udaipur. I arrived abslutely naked// you can imagine!! Udaipur is a splendide calm(for india) city with palaces in the lake. the lake palace was used in Octopussy (... james oh james). In Udaipur, a sort of weird miracle happened.::: I saw in the morning on facebook that one of my best and first fiend was in India for hollidays with his fiancee.. I was quite upset because he didn't inform me about it ;;; well I think he forgot I was at that time in India......Anyway as I did a boat trip on the lake, I saw a boat with a couple on it and their figure looked familiar although it was almost impossible to be them. Just to double check I went to see if it was them;;;; and I can still see the uncomposed face of mon Gabs and his Steff recognising me.... hahaha unbeleivable!! I shall be the best man in a few months time for their wedding... I planned before to go to a yoga class but of course we changed that for a nice happy beer.;;; what a joy!!! As if it wouldn't be enough, their travelling plan was just the exact same as mine;; Jaipur , Delhi and bye. In Jaipur, thanks to some great connections I got to have lunch with the Maharaja of Jaipur heheheh yeyeye. Today I am in Delhi with my friends for the ultimate day of the trip// tomorrow I'll be in London.
This trip was absolutely amazing, I have learnt a lot and understood a lot more about our world. It was fantastic and I can only recommend it to anyone. I met people of every age during the past 7 months; so everyone can do it at any time, and I really wish you to do such a journey once in your lifetime. Actually you all traveled with me along side, I always thought of you my friends,, when I laughed about something it is because I imagine you are with me seeing the situation and we laugh together. When I see amazing parts of the world, I think of how I would love to share this moment with you and that is why I wrote on this blog. These 7 months were the most intense of my life and I hope you enjoyed the reading, and that I managed to free you for some moment of the routine with each reading. Thanks a lot to the travel joiners who came for a few days or weeks heheh: mister Gil, Dad and Mam, misters Robi and Bi, Miss Nat, Mister Gabs and Miss Steff. and all the one who I met during the travel and I had amazing fun wih.
A yaer ago I flew off to London the same as tonight;; I'll stay there for a week before taking the eurostar for ze big come back and a nice nice very nice party there. So I will see most of you very soon. And for the others ;;; well I love so much to travel that I'll as well you soon hehe.
read me, see ya there

Ultimate India!!!

What a slogan;;; it is the slogan of india/// but it is so true ;; it is ultimate. I went the following day to Fatepur Sikri and Agra to see zzze 'Taj'. I met some people who told me I could see it from the back and that it was pretty much the same so that I would save the entrance fee blablabla... heuuu no // it is not the same, I paid to enter and see the beauty from very close; and I definitely did right. The Taj Mahal is the grave of the wife of a Mogohl king,, like a pyramid of Egypt in some ways, but what a building, the simplicity of the architecture and the complexity of the wall elements make it a wonder from near as from far. Lovely!! << even a bit more then that.
It is in Agra that I developed the BRST 'Boris Rickshaw Scam Technique';; there you go:: you agree on a price with a rickshaw let us say 80 roupies to go somewhere; then you tell him 'I pay half price if you bring me to a shop (where he gets his commission) just for looking not buying, then he agrees, then you say you bring me in two shops and I get the ride for free/// and it works; so pretty much all my rickshaw rides are for free now I only need to spend 10 minutes in various shops looking not really interested by the fake stones or the fake pachmina challs etc. It always works!! It is important to always agree on one shop then a second one otherwise they always want three shops > and that is too much time 30 min/// Anyway, I then went to Delhi see the Indian Gate and others Delhi specials and took the plane to Bangalore where I met Natacha Ben's girlfriend (one of my very good french mate). We traveled together for the next 2 weeks and had lots of fun. In Bangalore, I tried to get some web contacts and did a bit but I'll go to some more firms in Pune and Delhi later on. We headed to Hampi;; a surreal place it looks fake !! temples spread out between massive stones, beautiful light, shaved women who give their hair to the gods etc. absolutely unique. We rented a motorbike << well it was more a motor on a bike but it was gorgeous::: I was singing to myself 'born to be wild' and had all the flashback of last year while I was traveling in Europe. After Hampi we arrived in Badami to see the temples in caves;;; that was of course amazing one more time// but the most appealing thing there was the shooting of a Boolywood movie;;; hahah what a laugh to see these indian boys band dancing all together: some of them were to small and were walking on their pants but they still were the stars heheh. We managed to speak to the main singer ''Sandy"// a real nice bloke actually he said:"me too it makes me laugh these movements but it is my job"...
The following day we were meant to take the direct bus to Goa at 6.30 am...> ok buses in India are not exactly punctual or good or anything... We waited until 8.30 am for the direct bus and then decided to take another bus with a change. At 9.30 we were still in the bus station so we decided to take a rickshaw to go to the next bus station and hope to get a bus from there.... At the end of the day; we took 3 buses and 4 rickshaws to arrive to Panjim in Goa/// ultimate India my friends heheh ///Goa Goa;; I thought everyone spoke Portuguese there and that I would be able to communicate easily, but actually, only very few old people still peak portuguese/// let us say I didn't impress the ladies ... the beaches were extremely dirty and with thousands of dead fish so the ultimate swimming was pretty little. We were looking for some good old 'trance Goa' and saw some rests of hippies and weirdweirdweird people, like this Iranian girl almost naked on the beach with piercing and tatoos everywhere as well as pink make up like American Indians on the face, who couldn't say a word because of the drugs at noon// apparently she was DJ on the beach.... (un)fortunately we didn't stay to listen to her set... This time we rented a greater motorbike and did quite a ride for 2 days exploring the different places and beaches of Goa. We went clubbing of course but it was rather soft compared to the reputation of Goa.
2 days ago we arrived in Mumbay, with one thing in mind Boollywood!!! People told us that westerners were often casted to be extras in movies.... and and::: of course they casted us!! hehe watch out my friend we are now Bollywood stars! The film will be called 'Bhavanraa' not too sure of went it will be out but I will definitely try to get a copy. My git what a funny experience! they gave us some cloths to wear::: the guy saw ma and gave me a pink girl top,,, very slightly far too small for me and a flower necklace hahahaha a beauty. The actors were awfully bad and we had to jump for each camera movement about 15 times as they newer got it right. Anyway, unforgettable I met a French with who we had good fun; we shall be creating a group on facebook for tourist extras in Boollywood;; lots of funny picts. Tomorrow I'll go to Pune to see some more firms. Pune is the city of the guru Osho... let see the strength of sect.
sa ya , read me there.

Back to Indiaaa

Breaking News!!!! thanks a lot everyone I am proud of you!, thanks to your votes, Prashant won and all Nepal twisted into a great partyland a pitty I can't see him live! Annapurna was undescribable;; it is by far the best treck I have ever done. The stunning landscape is constantly changing over the few days and you go from beautie to beauties. I made sure this time to have a guide who could follow me ,,,, but unfortunately even if he was much better I still had to wait regularly. I found out what big legs are good for: for running in Mountain. The guide had never seen anyone like that and wants me to do the Eversest marathon on the 29th of May hahah. one day we have been liturally running down and we did a 7 hours ttreck in 3..... well good fun on the day but the day after the legs were gone!! this guide was really cool. he was singing and playing the flute none stop while treking, so I am pretty aware now of what is Nepali music,,,, at the end I couldn't hear it anymore but it had some folkloric taste. On the last day we went riding horses ( the first time for me) hahaha I thought it would be really relaxing >>>> well not really/// god it is a hard sport!! After a few local raksi (local alkohol) my guide and the horse guy were absolutely wasted and as the explanations were in Nepali, I didn't completly understand the subtilities of speed riding and got a massive butt irritation, which was not really great for the bus the following day...... Anyway Annapurna was great! and I went after to a Safari in the Chitwan national Park. The only little problem was the moonsoon rain again;;; when it rains the animals hide like humans << not stupid those animal,,,, so why did I go anyway?? to get wet really.. after a few tries we finally got to see a Rhino and a tiger......footprint,, still it was great fun. Back to India,, and to none stop scaming operations. I landed in Varanasi (Benares) and it was fabulous. Here comes a nice story: as every good tourist I went in the early morning on a boat to see the people bathing in the Ganges and do other religious practices. I was comfortably sitting on the boat when something punched me big time on the back. "what was that?" I turned my head to my back and almost felt of the boat realising that I had a bird shit abou the size of a tennis ball on my back,, I looked up:: it was an eagle!! Do you think it is a good sign? Anyway after a few minutes of cleaning in the Ganges( my shirt not me) I decided that it was unfair that the rower of the boat was only 14 and really skinny and that the big boy me was sitting watching him;;; so I told him I would do the rowing..... Well I am not too sure of my technic and I might have to leave out the oxford Cambridge competition this year as instead of going anywhere we started doing very gentle circles... oh my god!! hilarious. Tourists from other boats seeing me suddenly thought it was really cool to row and to get pictures of themselves rowing on the Ganges/// I couldn't believe it I launched a new trend! Today I arrived in a great and mystic place:: Kajuraho.... Temples a bit like in Bagan but with KamaSutra sculpture on them facinating, an open book!!! I enjoyed a lot the idea that there was once a religion that was based on pleasure// a good change for once. Tomorrow Agra and the Taj Mahal.
sa ya, read me there

Vote for Prashant!! 52525

There we go, finally in the night train with Robi and Alexis direction Darjeeling, hoping for a bit of more relaxed time after the crazyness of Kolkata... In the train I think of all the good and the bad time I had with my computer which died a few hours earlier after fantastic services during the past 4 years. Suddenly, we see every passenger giving some money to two travestites who where sort of begging down the coach..... what ???// that is really strange// earlier on in the day another travestite tried to pickpocket me pretty aggressively/// what is going on in this country the ladyboy are rather strong;;; we finally got the explanation. In india, they are a sect and the throw the bad eye to who doesn't give them money, and apparently it is a great business to be travestite in here, it is like the mafia every single one in the train/// appart from us three /// gave them money.... Normal in India is just different. Once in New Jaipa... can't remember the end of the name let us say Siliguri, we took a jeep to Darjeeling. Some people said we were meant to be abovee the clouds ,,,, well we have been "in the clouds!!! oh my god!!
We were meant to see amazing landscape of the Himalaya, and we saw winter, white everything white.... so we spent most of the days eating momos (local dish).... one night, as we were coming out of a retaurant (basically after 3 kilos of momos) we suddenly heard a massive crowd singing and dancing coming up the hill. A really emotional image like the end of a war or somethinglike that, of course we joined and started yelling some phonetically closed sounds as the crowd and dancing with the people. We asked a few people what it was but it took long to understand as the reaon so crazy was>>>" it is for Prashant !!, Prashant he is in final!! youpi! " Prashant is noone else than a policeman from Darjeeling who is now in final of Idian Idol the singing contest/// and that is the reason for the crazyness. In the morning, every house had a poster for supporting Prashant, mentioned the name to anyone and you will get a shiny smile. Prashant is a national hero; funds were collected from everywhere to send sms to vote for him. To help him to win you too you can send an sms to 52525 ( you probabaly need the indian code first). WE spent money to support the boy and felt part of his success. Facinating! After the crazy party we decided to go on a trek for a few days to see the amazing mountains/// once again not much chance there. But the money was well spent // we had the crappest guide on earth to guide us..>> his name was pretan and I can only derecommend him from all my strength. Pretan looks white but speaks Nepali; he has 5 rings on each hand and has this skill of being able to speak about 10 words per second for hours without breathing but only in Nepali...... in english during the trek, he was mute. To start with, we were on a jeep for 5 hours where we thought we'd have a private one/// ononono we were 25 on a jeep where in Europe you would fit 10 persons max:: 18 inside + 7 on the roof. As the locals are not used to cars, Alexis had to hold the old lady adn her daughter who vomited the food they ate during the last year for 5 hours so that they wouldn't fall of the jeep. As you would have understood it, we were happy to walk after this long time in the jeep. And we soon understood something:: Pretan and his Sherpa were not good walkers!! and we had to wait for them all the time:: as soon as the way was going up, we would lose them and we had to wait for them each time there was a crossing in order to know where to go. At night the highlight was to eat some Yak and drink some undrinkable alcoohol, which name I can't remember, listening to the fashist arguments of Pretan...... lovely! Anyway I had a great time with the two frenchies who came along. and we even got to see the mountains on the last day at 6.34 in the morning as the owner of the hotel still brushing its teeth woke the whole hotel up so that his clients could finally see the mountains;;; he did well, 15 min later the clouds went back on stage..... After Darjeeling I made my way (alone,,, it had been a month I have been travelling parents and friends) to Nepal to reach Kathmandu. In the bus, we got stoped very often ( I think by the maoists rebels but I am not sure::: there was plenty of marches adn aggressive slogans...... indeed there are elections in about 2 months and I think that the pressure grows);;; and I was dead scared when we were turning right, I am pretty sure that the metal was touching the wheel, it was very loud but noone cared...... Anyway, I made it to Kathmandu, which is such a weird city... the roads are in mudd but the shops and other thing look really wealthy. Some Hippies here and there, but mostly rich tourist eager to start fantastic treks with their brand new fake "The North Face" material.... And guess what:::: I am going tomorrow rafting and then trekking around the "Annapurna" above 8000 meters (well not the trek);;; after that the plan is to go for a Safari to see Rhinoceros and tigers on elephants back in Chintaw before going back to India to Benares.
Saya, read me there!!

the bourne Identity

27,,,, I am 27.. what an old boy! is the first thought I had when I woke up in the middle of the forrest. As I mentioned in the last post, for my birthday, I was experiencing the Gibbon experience: you go for three days in the jungle trecking in the mud and sleeping in treehouses in order to see some wild gibbons. Well to be honest, we didn' t see any but we heard them at 5 in the morning and went chasing them a good hour; and unfortunately we were unlucky. Not a big deal, we saw loads of other massive insects and one snake. but the most amazing part of the experience was the zipping system::: to go from one treehouse to the other you zip you litterqlly fly from one to the other it is hqrd to describe, you roll on a cable and ziiiiiip. great great great but really hard trecks the last day we walked for 8.5 hours in the mud and I got sucked by around ten leechies/// little bastards I hate them§!!. I met the people who started the project and as the boss was french we got on pretty well. I staid one more day to work for them and create a map of the area with all the zip cables and so on. I got paid with food and a T-shirt heheh so if you happen to go there once and see a map you'll know the designer. after that I quit Laos and went quickly through Thailand to get my plane from Bangkok to Yangon. In Yangon I met my parents who I hadn't seen for 10 months,,, quite an emotion!! To get in Yangon I did in Hanoi my visa, but as they didn't have all the details they needed to process it, they invented my life hahaha I felt like Jason Bourne in The bourne Identity::// there you go I live in Zurich but I can't remember the exqct adress. I am 1.72m tall, I work as a marketing consultant for marketing Zurich ltd. and I have black hair hahahah 1.72m // yeh right not too sure about that one anyway, passing the border check I bent my knees and hoped everything would be fine. ... ouf thank the lord I went through. then I had two weeks of a different lifestyle with my parents heheh more palace then crap hostel; so my vision of Myanmar was pertty different then the way I see places normally in this trip. It was grest as a break and the people are ssoooo nice there;; great country with amazing places like Bagan or Inle lake. Well It looks like the things are changing there now and we can only hope for these poor people. After Myanlar I flew off to India to Kolkata where I met this old mate of mine The Robi.heheh quel bonheur!! India is just a different world!! It is so funny in particular the moves with the head that people do to say, yes, no, maybe;;; it is like a dance I love it. tonight we are going to Darjeeling but my computeris pissing me offffffff!! anyway
saya red me there

you buy from me?? you promess

Get the number! get the number!! was Jono (the Irish) telling me, as the bus which just crashed us flew off... Yes Vietnam is famous for the bus crashes and as part of the trip, our bus was involved in a nice one. It must have been around three in the morning on the bus journey between Hue and Hanoi. Jono had is sleeping mask on and most of the bus was asleep. We entered a dangerous curve with a white line (don't overtake) separating the sides of the road.... behind us arrived a bus full of really weird guy like pirates:: their driver decided to overtake of course.... at the same time on the other side of the road we see a massive truck coming>>> so instead of braking and not fully complete the overtaking process, the pirate driver made some signs with the hand to tell our driver to drive off in the ditch.... yeh right bangggg on the side >> the whole wing of our bus was gone, but noone was hurt. As we went off the bus to get some explanation from the artist, the guys from the pirate bus grabbed metal sticks and screwdrivers pointing them at us as they started the motor before fleeing. That is the moment when we had to write quickly down the number of the bus,,, We then had to wait for a good 1.5 hours for the police <<< but that wasn't disappointing << after 1.5 hours then arrived one policeman on a scooter hahahah! we couldn't believe it,,, just surreel. Anyway the positive thing of the experience was that I got to know everyone on the bus and I met two swiss on the 1st of August (I am traveling as a swiss dueing this trip and it is our national day) so we had a few crisp to celebrate.
Every tourist traveling from north to south in Vietnam told me that the famous Halong Bay experience was completely ruined by the crowd of tourists around and that they would have thought twice if they would have known blablabla.... Well, that is a lie!!! Halong Bay is just hoooooo so many tourist aaaaaaa, ooooo woaaaaaaow look iiiiiii uuuu my git !! wowowowowowo heeeeeee look there woaaaaawwwww........absolutely amazing. It is true that when you first arrive there and you see the crowd you get shoked and that when you jump on a boat, the amount of boats going in the same direction makes you think of the pictures of the D day when the americans and the english landed in Normandie. But there are enough islands to hide all these boats and the landscape just blow you off!! It is a place to propose someone !! After that we went to the next biggest attraction in north Vietnam::: Sapa. And once again that was full of tourist but really splendid,, I had the impression of being in a geography book on the chapter on rice fields in south east Asia. During your treck in the mountain there are always little girls from various local hill tribes following you there in general they are (black hmong) and they are trying to sell you some bracelet or bags or whatever,, 'you buy from me, you promess', the difference with others is that they follow you the whole treck so if you do a one day treck they will be one day with you maybe 5 of them just a few meters behind, they ask you but a really gentle and cute way so that everyone buys from them... These people have nothing but they look happy. That is probably the most important thing I have noticed during this trip: you don't have to be rich to be happy and actually, a lot of poor people are much happier than rich ones... So I really enjoyed north VietNam although it is extremely touristy.
After this, I went back to Hanoi to pick up my visa for Myanmar and get a flight the day after to Vientenne the capital of Laos... but as often the visa wasn't ready on time and I had to change my flight for a flight going to Luang Prabang (Laos as well), which was shit because I wouldn't have time to go to Vientenne anymore bouhouhouhou. Laos is coool,,, it is a big calm after the hectic Vietnam. so laid back and beautiful mountains are everywhere covered by green forrest blankets and separated by the curves of the Mekong. A fantastic place for meditation, a pity I don't do any!! I went to the different temples and chatted to some of the monks::: that is really interesting >> as in other south east Asian countries, every elder of a family can be monk for a few years, this way, they get some free education, but when you speak to them they are just like normal young people wanting to learn computing and english, they say swear words without problems and have no tabou, From Luang Prabang I tool the bus to Vien Vang to go tubing!!! and that is really cool!! they drop you in a river with a tube and you let the currant get you down. Normally it takes about 1 hour to get down bur there are a few bars where you can stop in between with big swings to jump in the river. I met a french bloke and we did the tubing in about six hours......... yeye at the end the jumps on the swings were not all very glorious..... but it was a really good fun afternoon.
I am now on my way to the 'Gibbon experience' at the border with Thailand>> everyone I met told me they had a great time doing it,, it is basically being in treehouses for three days at 30 meters above the ground trying to watch some monkeys,,,,, well I'll tell you all about it after,,, it'd better be good as I will spend my birthday there * the 18th of August just in case *
sa ya,
read me there.

piiiiip tuuuuuut tuuut

It is stronger than what you see, 24/7 in Viet Nam you hear horn of scooter trucks cars and buses!!! It is incredible none stop. The reason for it is simple: they do not use rearview mirrors nor indicators, so the only way to know the presence of a vehicle behind is to listen to its harmonious 'horning'// Xin chau!! There you go, I am in Viet Nam, and this country has really little in common with Cambodia.... We arrived in Ho chi Minh or Saigon as a start to discover a new world;;; Ho chi minh is facinating it is the exact picture of a city developping economically at an enormous speed in a chaotic way, where the state seems to lose slightly the control, buildings grow around like mushrooms, over 3 millions scooter fly like mousquitos in the streets with no traffic light to organise the jam. On the first day I almost got killed 4 times just trying to cross the big avenues running and stopping to avoid the scooters!! a bit stressful/// but thanks to an email from my uncle I managed the next day to have no problem anymore when crossing::: the technic is to walk slowly but with constant speed, this way, the scooters can anticipate your movement and avoid you without any problem;;; sometimes you see old granies like 90 years old crossing this way peacefully while you start praying for her<<.
How strange it is to see this city and its economical development and at the same time the flag ( a yellow star on a red flag), or other flags showing the sickle and the hammer. The contrast is absurd and finds its meaning in the history of the country of course. It is thank to the communists that Viet Nam is a free nation:: So the communist leader Ho Chi Minh is a national hero even if the whole political and economical systems celebrate every second capitalism. In Saigon I visited the war museum and saw all the atrocities the french and then the americans did to the people of this country, that was awful, I don't think I will ever be able to understand war.... but that is just me.... Anyway after a few days of intense cultural visits we went ( I am still travelling with Jono the irish) to a waterland:::: at the entrance we bursted laughing seeing the crowd going to the park,,,, the oldest one were maybe 11!! hahahah well it was fun inside anyway... no comments..
After that we left Saigon to go to the north and stoped first at Nah Trang.>> I was meant to stay there only one day but as we arrived and saw the diving possibilities for soooo cheap,,, I finally ended up staying 4 days to do my SSI advanced course and to admire the underwaterworld. Absolutely beautiful!! and I felt a bit of narcosis (like a little buz from alcohol you get when diving deep because of the azote in your blood) at 32 meters,,, really cool I loved it!! I can only recommend it to everyone... it made me even think of the possibility of becoming divemaster;; because that is a pretty nice job isn't it??
The next stop on the north ride to Hanoi was Hoi an, a beautiful city on the cost with fantastic beaches, and amazing taylors:::: yes yes very cheap taylor mean I had to let them make me a suit, but as they could basically do anything you want from Hugo Boss to Channel or copy any style>>> I decided to design my own suit and shirt heheheheheh. I designed an asymetrical suit with a colar on one side only hihi and it is longer on one side than the other with chinese buttons::::>>> I really enjoyed the process and the result is not too bad// I'll show you when I'll be back! it is good fun!!...
We arrived today in Hue and will take the night bus tomorrow for Hanoi as I am a bit on a time pressure now with the time I used for diving etc. I hope I will still be able to see everything I wish in Viet Nam as north Viet Nam is supposed to be amazing, but it might be tricky.
Hanoi, sa ya
read me there