Update!

So Im finally getting around to doing another update. Illl start with North India. We (and by "we" I mean the tour group I was with) went all over the place. So Ill just select some of my favourite places. We started out in Dehli, and as you know I wasnt impressed, I kind of hated India then. So I was happy that we where leaving for Jaisalmer on a 20 hour nighttrain. A 20 hour nighttrain might soudn bad, but wasnt actuall that bad. You sleep(well try to sleep at least) for all the night, and the rest of the time we spent geting to know the peple on our group. Jaisalmer was really nice, that was the India I thought I was going to see. Its a desert city, also called the golden city. In alot of the cities in the north there are forts, and this is the only one where "the common people" still live and work. Its almost like a city within a city. With rooftop cafes overlooking the whole city. We also went on a camel safari in the desert. I thought we were going to sleep under the stars or in small tents, but we were taken out to this place with load of big tents, the tens had proper beds and tiled bathrooms, with a "western style" toilet and a shower. That was not what I expected, but still good. In the evening we went out in the desert on a camel safari, and we even got to race the camels. But even way out in the desert there were beggars and people trying to sell us stuff. Amazing sunset though.

After this we went on to Jodhpur and then on to Udaipur. Udaipur has amazing palaces buildt in a lake in the middle of the city. They are white palaces and look like something out of a fairytale. Search for Udaipur and lake palace on Google. This is also the city where the James Bond movie Octopussy was shot. By this time Im getting used to India, and the traffic and the chaos doesnt seem so bad anymore. The pollution is still difficult to deal with though.

More on North India later. At the moment Im in Kochi in Kerala South India. South India is so different from the north, its almost like a different country. Its warm, theres a gentle breeze coming in from the sea, people are more friendly.

I started by spending a few days in Varkala, which is a quiet beach town south in Kerala. A bit touristy, but a nice place to warm up after the cold of the north. Varkala has a high cliff overlooking a beach. On top of the cliff are all the guesthouses and many restaurants, Its a place where days can turn into weeks and months. After Varkala I took the train up to Allepey. Allepey has loads of canals called "the Backwaters" These are canals sretching on for miles, all surrounded by beautifuel palmtrees, and small villages. In my guesthouse I met a guy from New Zealand who speaks three Indian languages, so he got us a good deal on a boat for a few hours travelling trough the canals. It was amazingly beautifuel, and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever comes to Kerala. A bit o a downer about Aleppey was the dead rat in my room, but I think these are the things you have to excpect in India and I did ge a discont on my room. Me and the guy from New Zealand has joined forces and are now spending a few days in Kochi, before we tomorrow leave on the night train to Ooty. Ooty is a hill station, basically a village in the mountains where they grow tea and spices. He owns a tea plantation there which we are going to take a look at, before movng on to an elefant sanctuary, where I might be able to ride an elefant. Good times.

Im back!

Hello everyone. So after 3 very stressfull weeks in North India Im now on my own traveling trough south India. At the moment Im in Varkala, where its sunny and 30 degrees Celsius. Ive booked into a hotel where I got my own bungalow on a cliff overlooking the beach and the sea. Its amazing down here, and its nice to finally get away from the cold in North India. Ill be back later with an update on what I did in the north. I just have to collect my thoughts, theres just so much to tell.

Dehli and the smell of burning tires

I alway thought that cultureshock was somethong that happened to other people, thats until I arrived in Dehli. The traffic, the noise, all the people, the smell. Its an atack on all your senses. The roads are a free for all. Cars, bikes, rickshaws and people all occupy te same spac. And all the cars are honking the horn all the time. Theres beggars and tuts all over the place, and evryone who approached me and some people I met, wanted something from us. At one point there was a very helpful young man who showed us the way to a market, then a different guy came along and said that the first guy was lying to us, then the first guy came back and said the second guy was lying as well. Its very difficult to trust people here. In the end it turned out that the first guy was the real liar. Theres beggars everywhere, at one point a little boy who wanted to shine my shoes followed me for 500m trying to convince me. So all in all Dehli is very manic.

This was mostly on the first day though. On the second day our guide joined us, and showed us around a sikh temple. Where we went behind the scenes to see where they cooked food. This is food that everyone can come and eat for free, and you can get three meals a day here. We also went to the biggest mosque in India. It can hold 25000 people, it was the size of a stadium, So Dehli has some really bad parts, and some good parts. Did I like it? Not really, am I glad I went and experinced it? yes. At the moment Im in Jalsaimer, a desert town in west India, about 150 km from the Pakistani border. Me and my group will stay here for three nights, one of these nights we will spend in the desert.

Hello, so this is my travel blog. Where I will try to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing in Asia. Ill try and update it often, but cant promise anything. Ill start with a rough itinerary. Much of the trip isn't planned yet, but some dates and plane tickets are bought and have to be followed.

I leave Norway on January 2, then its off to Dehli where I will land on the morning of January 3. Then its 20-something days in northern India, including Taj Mahal and Varanasi. Then its off to southern India, where I will have a month to get up to Mumbai. From there I will fly down to Singapore, after a few days there the plan is to head off to the Philippines for 2 to 3 weeks. Then back to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, then Thailand for a few weeks, then Cambodia, then Vietnam, after Vietnam I will meet my brother in Hong Kong on the 28 of May. We will travel in China and Japan together before we travel back to Norway on the 28 of June. That should be about 6 months in total.