Being on the road as  backpackers, books like people &  places are mind expending and are very important part of our journey.

We keep saying every time  we have to pack the backpacks to the next destination that we have to give up few of them, but again and again we find out that the pack of  books we carry in our backpack gear are just growing.
Now with Ebook and Ipad joining our journey we hope this part will be solved.

Tim Ferriss’s book is about gaining the courage to streamlining your life… But even more than that, it challenges the reader to seriously consider an essential, yet rarely asked question:  What do I really want from my life?
Although much of the advice the author gives  I already use and are well know to most of us , it is very useful in making you significantly more productive.
It is a great inspirational book with a great number of useful methods for improving work and life balance.

Shantaram is one of those books that you wait to find for  years. You know how it is. Once  you open the first page the entire world stop around you, and the reality of the book become the only reality for you for several days, you can’t place it down until its last page and then you wish you had additional 1000 pages.
Shantaram is a love story from start to finish: love of mankind, love of friends, love of a woman, love of a country, love of a city,  love of a way of life, love of a people, love of adventure,  and, most apparent, love for the reader.
Truly inspiring book

This book crossed our way few days after we have been trekking high in the Himalaya and heard amazing story from a fellow traveler about being dead and managing to come back.
It sure makes you think. It makes sense when you can’t find sense in anything.
Made us think of how we perceive life and death, and our being in this world.

This book is journey of faith, of trust, of forgiveness, of love, of self-discovery, and of battling the darkness within ourselves, and wanting to change. As Paulo states, “Faith is a different conquest, and it requires daily combat in order to maintained.

My favorite books are the ones that transport me from my world into someone else’s and by that criteria, The White Tiger is 100% successful. I admired this novel rather than enjoyed it, same like reading Shantaram it gave me an insight into India that is not revealed to us when traveling.  Some of the different worlds of India may well be accurately depicted, and they are neither comfortable nor pleasant. The tension between the haves and the have-nots that underpin this story and the modern slavery that are the destiny of so many.

Mr Vertigo by Paul Auster is  magical book.I got it on Havalock island and start reading it with the beautiful ocean in front of me, I never wanted to finish reading it!
Auster writes it in such a delightful, realistic fashion that never once do i doubt what i read.  His dialogues are pure joy.

Tell no one by Harlen Coben is one of this books you either read on a flight or on a beach vacation like i did ( again beautiful Andaman Islands )  when you feel like having something light, never Coben books before and was not expecting much of it, enjoyable read if you don’t expect master piece.

The underwater world is beautiful!

Many people never get the chance to see & explore it… I got, and I took that chance…!

Diving is amazing! A bit scary in the beginning but after a while, when you learn how to dive and feel relaxed and natural underwater, it is just so much fun!

I love it!

I had my first dives here in Havalock Island, one of the most beautiful islands in Andaman Islands, a real paradise place.

I got a one on one course, my father says that I’m extremely lucky because normally no one have the luxury to get a dive instructor teaching him privately!

My dive instructor was Natan, he is Israeli so the language was no problem.

Day 1
The first day was theory. I had to look at some movies and Natan explained me everything I had to know underwater; how to breathe underwater, how to be balanced, the signs you have to know and many other things. I got a PADI book so I could read and learn by the beach in our guest house.

Day 2
The second day we went with a boat to a place where we could practice in shallow water.

First Natan explained how I had to put all my equipment together.  Then I had to do it myself.

We went into the water and I had to put everything on while in the water, it took some time to get stabilized before being able to place the tanks on me.

Then I had to try to get to the bottom without using my hands to help me. Man this is so hard! I just could not manage to go underwater and reach the floor. I tried and tried and tried but it was just impossible without using my hands. When I at the end came at the bottom we exercised the signs you give each other underwater.

But all the time I was floating up. That was so irritating!

After we exercised few things, we went for a dive in shallow water.

The fun part finally start =)

We saw quite some fishes and they where so cute!

Then Natan pointed at something and I was like “huh?”, and then I saw that is was an Indian woman that one of the local instructors was taking her by the hand and taking her around underwater (I was afterwards told that most Indians cannot swim). It looked  like someone was walking with his dog or something! And when I first saw her I thought someone died! It was just so funny!

I saw really beautiful Nemo fishes <3 they were so cute.

I love Nemo fishes.

Day 3
We dove at a place  called the aquarium I have one problem; i just can’t get underwater without using my hands. I HATE THAT !
but we saw really beautiful fishes and shells and things you only see underwater.
it was really fun, Its like being in space, it is so much fun!

I got instantly  in love with diving!

Day 4
We dove at a place called  the wall and at the lighthouse, and when we dove at the lighthouse we entered  with a camera so we made photos.

That was really really cool. Cause it combined my love for taking pictures and my new love for diving, Yippee.

I saw few fishes that were really big, flat and black/dark blue with yellow and white stripes  it was a very very beautiful fish.

When we went to the wall there was quite a bit of stream and it was not very clear…. The wall is not really round but you can swim around it so we took a round and i felt it was 2 min but when i asked my dive  instructor  how long we where underwater he told me 45 min. I was like WOW, I lose myself underwater, it is all so fascinating that I lose the sense of time!

When we came back to the place where we did things- I had to take a test with me to the guest house that i had to do to see if i knew all the things about diving.

This  was the end of my course, and I already missed the underwater and wanted to explore more of this new world that I had discovered.

Luckily it didn’t take long, immediately after I finished the course, my parents organized with Natan, my dive instructor, to dive together all 3 of us with him 2 deep dives to a location called  Dixon, about 2 hours from Havalock Island, to 30 meter deep .

 Dixon

At Dixon you have like 3 pillars in the water, one big in the middle and 2 a bit smaller one on each side, top part starting at 17 meter.
Dixon is 30 meter deep and I am actually  only allowed to dive up to 15 meter with the Padi Open water certificate, so I was really lucky that I could do that diving with the dive instructor that had taught  me and agreed that I join,  otherwise I  would never be allowed to go that deep just after my course.

We dove there 2 times; the first dive was breathtaking beautiful! it was crystal clear to at least 20 meters in all sides, it felt like diving in a huge Aquarium. There where an amazing amount of groups of fishes all over and colorful corals and all sort of plants and other really beautiful things there.

I saw an octopus and huge napoleon fishes! and there where so many colors! Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple, White, Black & Many more anywhere  you turned your head.

It was a really stunning dive…

Luckily we had found in the dive-center a case which fitted perfectly for our Canon G12 camera and which we could borrow,  we made really cool pictures and Videos, you can check them out in our Photo section if you like.

It was really fun to dive with my parents, cause they are super experienced divers and dove in many places around the world and now we have one more thing we all love and can experience together along the way in our travel.

Kai, my brother will soon be in the minimum age allowed to do the course and join us as well.

Can’t wait for my next chance to dive, maybe in Thailand or Australia later this year….

Dr. Brené Brown is a researcher professor at the University of Houston, Graduate College of Social Work, where she has spent the past ten years studying a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness, posing the questions: How do we engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to embrace our imperfections and to recognize that we are enough — that we are worthy of love, belonging and joy? Brené is the author of I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t): Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power (2007) and the forthcoming books, The Gifts of Imperfection (2010) and Wholehearted: Spiritual Adventures in Falling Apart, Growing Up, and Finding Joy

How to make the curd:
Each bowl of curd is made by cooking 2 liter milk for half an hour on low fire, then add a little regular yoghurt while warm and place in the fridge for a few hours to make the thick curd ready.

And then, the next day….. the first customers eagerly waiting at 8 o’clock for a taste of heaven. Everybody wants lassi at The Blue Lassi. Well, this is not lassi as you know it, it is a whole delicious meal! Thick, smooth, fruity perfectly sweetened yoghurt served in a big, handmade, red clay-pot (which is the Indian version of disposables).  Eat with a wooden spoon, and throw it away! (Even tea on the street is often served this way, drink your tea and break  the clay pot in the garbage or straight in the street)

It is full of any  fresh fruit you want, with any possible combination you desire, Banana lassi with coffee, with pineapple, mango, mix lassi, sweet lassi, sour lassi and bang lassi for the ones that can handle it and wish to fly high for several hours above the noise and the chaotic old city & ghats of Varanasi.
The menu is large but feel free to make your own combinations, like a banana-Apple-Coconut-Chocolate-lassi, Or maybe a Grape-Ananas-Pommegranat-lassi, we kept ordering new versions day after day for all three weeks of hour stay in Varansi Wow what a delight!

Each portion is made by hand with love and care; one at a time, by putting ingredients into a tall pot and rolling a thick wooden stick very intense for several minutes until the base it becoming blended enough, smooth and thick in the same time.

How to make the lassi:
If you want banana lassi, a cut banana is added together with one glass of curd and a spoon of sugar, and then mixed well; and if you want some other fruit  or ingredients with it, you add it after some minutes mixing and then mix some minutes more till thick and smooth.

If you make fruit-lassi not from banana, you mix first only one cup of curd with one spoon sugar and mix well, and then add the fruit followed by some more mixing.

Before serving decorate with banana, fruit, some chopped pistachio-nuts or whatever you like.
Just fantastic and feels like more.

We will surely remember the Blue Lassi as one of the great experiences from our stay in Varanasi.  We arrived first to taste the Lassi we heard is special from a fellow traveler, and kept coming because of the wonderful family proudly making it for several generations, passing the knowledge and tradition started by the grand grand father, many years ago, to the new generations that will follow exactly the tradition of how to make lassi; and although they surely make enough money to be able to expand and change the place, the original 2 by 4 meter tiny shop is still in the same place.

For our entire stay in Varanasi the Blue Lassi became our home, daily visits, sometimes twice including being invited to delicious dinners with the entire family, made over fire.

If you ever come to Varanasi, be sure to not miss it. ENJOY

We finally reach Varanasi after 17 hours bus ride from the border of Nepal, almost at midnight. We stuff all our bags and ourselves into a small rickshaw, what reminds me the old joke about how  is it possible to place 6 elephants into tiny Fiat 600,  answer – 3 in the front seats, 3 in the back seats .

The driver this time is very friendly but try to sell us some hostels that probably he gets commission from ( everyone are middle men of some sort in India ), this will repeat itself from now on with almost every single person in our stay in Varanasi and probably everywhere else in India.  We had heard good recommendations about Alka Hotel, located on the main Ghat, but we find out that it is  full and we are lead again through the extremely narrow alleys of the old city to the Teerth , another lodge owned by the same owners of Alka.
It is already one o’clock at night, we are very tired after 17 hours on a falling-apart local bus and  we are ready to take anything at this point until next day.
We are lucky, the place and the employees running it are very welcoming, friendly, and the rooms are big and clean, with a big communal court yard and roof top full of light, nothing fancy. The roof top definitely need some coloring to make it smile again, but this apply to all Varanasi from top to bottom.
We decide to make this place our home while we are in Varanasi.

Indeed Varanasi becomes our home for the coming few weeks, this city has all the magic you can possibly look for, if you just stop, stay and let the city slowly be revealed to you, behind the tourist traps ( and there are many of them) under the noise, the  extreme dirt in  the ancient narrow alleys, with thousands of thousands of poor & rich pilgrims waiting for hours to enter into the Golden Temple or any of the dozens temples spread all over the Ghats and old city.

What is the most fascinating about Varanasi is the active, deep connection between past and present, the pride of young people to be the sixth, the tenth or fifteenth generation in the family tradition and skills, whether it would be the family running the Alka &  Teerth, owning the lodge where we are staying, announcing with pride that they are the fourth generation running and developing the business the grand father started 75 year ago,  a generous and helpful family that make our stay here very comfortable and homey.

Or the loving big family running the Blue Lassi, having by no doubt the most delicious lassies we ever had and probably will have. Thick, heavenly creamy yoghurt served in handmade clay-bowls, with fresh fruits & nuts in endless combinations; The Lassi is made by rolling a thick wooden stick inside a metal bowl with yoghurt, exactly like it was done when grand-grand-grand-father made his first lassi….

A tiny place started generations ago and now the grandson who is a grandfather him self, passing the knowledge to his sons, grand sons & grand-grand sons. We count 4 generations now involved in running the business, changing turns, sitting on the front of their shop making the lassies with love one by one, warmly welcoming their customers in a friendly and attentive way.
The place is crowded all day, but nothing has been changed since the day it was first opened .
An amazing family that welcomed us so beautifully and opened their house & heart for us.Blue Lassi is definitely part of our daily diet through all our stay in Varanasi.

Next discovery is the family running a silk production business; we are invited into their home, front part is the shop and in the back a big court yard, with 3 storage building where all the extended family live together, from the grand father, to father, sons and cousins & their family’s, all sharing same space, their own small family temple is in the cave-like space beneath the building, the place they believe is the source of  power and wealth of the family, they maintain and worship it with the highest devotion possible.

We stay with them for several hours to be explained how silk is made, how to be able to recognize real silk and fake silk (real silk when burned will smell like a burning hair, fake will smell like plastic), different qualities, and endless amount of designs.

What is real Pashmina wool and what is fake (real Pashmina is very light and for instance a shawl can be slid trough any normal finger ring, if it stucks it is not real Pashmina). Pashmina is made from the hairs of a special kind of goat living high up in the Himalaya; the most expensive items can cost up to tens of  thousands of euros and are made from only the hairs of the beards cut from the very young goats….

Our lesson will end with one of the family members taking us for  a long walk, deep into the Muslim neighborhoods, to one of their many family-run silk manufactures. They reveal to us that silk making tradition is solely the property of Muslims, all knowledge and know how is in their hands, again generation after generation of doing, Hindu people will sell and make the business part, but all products are done, by hand, by endless amount of local families in their homes.

Each single designed  Sari takes 16 days  full time work to make,  6500 lines of thin silk threads set up in different colors are manually woven one into each other to create these pieces of art.

We decide to order from them custom-made silk sleeping bags, for each one of us, super light, 2 meter long by 1.10 meter wide, soft and inviting that will serve us anywhere we go as our bed-sheet;, extremely comfortable, practical and useful objects to have when traveling, perfect for any condition.

One of the things you discover here in India as a tourist is that at first sight locals will try to overcharge you because you are tourist ( and because bargain is part of the culture and calculated in the price given to you as part of the communication between people , knowing that the final price will be lower ), but once you return to a place second and third time, with a smile, with open heart to share your story and hear their story, the attitude will completely change, they will welcome you with a big smile, offer you free things and discount you or guide you with free valuable friendly advises.
It happens in the market with the fruit sellers, with the chai stalls in the street, the Masala Dosa makers in the street and goes up to any one we meet a long the way.

Our most valuable lesson in Varanasi where ever we go, either would it be Lassi making, silk experts Ayurvedic oil making or Tabla master that teach us playing the Tabla is, Respect the past, know where are you coming from and what is your responsibility in this life, with your family tradition, do it right, do it with pride, do it with your  heart; this is the key to everything you do in life according to Varanasi people.

And much more to learn as we soon discover….

Here we are, waiting for the train in a chilly grey morning at Varanasi train-station, it is just one and a half hour delayed; no big surprise…

Our first train-travel at this trip in India.

The station in Varanasi, area looks like any train-station just like we remember them from years back, nothing seems to have changed. Dirt and rubbish everywhere, crowded with people sleeping all around in the hall or outside,totally covered under thick blankets; beggarsevery few minutes approaching with an hopeful outstretched hand; and sellers yelling sharply, offering different snacks often from a basket balancing on their heads, or selling sweet delicious chai (milk-tea) which we all four very much love. From distorted speakers we are hearing continuous undecipherable messages informing about incoming trains….
Varanasi train station

Fat rats and limping sick dogs searching for food, even a cow have found its way into the waiting hall wandering around, nibbling at people’s bags, to Kai’s hilarious entertainment. Outside people are waiting patiently along the trackswith heaps of bags and packages, looking like they had been sitting there for days…

The train finally arrives, and we find ourselves running along an seemingly endless row of carriages in search of the right number, and locate it almost at the very end, jump up and search for our seats, which turns out to be occupied by some people but they move without argument. So now we find ourselves in a surprisingly spacious and relatively clean wagon, with quiet and friendly people.

Is this India??

Train passage, Kai a sleep peacefully

This has for sure to be called even a comfortable ride in Indian terms, definitely not like it used to be.  The only sort of interruptions are the famous vendors, passing by every few minutes with their funny shouting voices offering everything from chai, sandwiches, samosas, peanuts and all variations of spicy snacks which makes such a trip a non-stop culinary experiment as long as you take care to keep a couple of water-bottles close by…..

But that makes the trip just more colorful and fun (or exhausting for some).

Our destination is Bodhgaya, one of the most holy places for the Buddhists. It was here PrinceSiddhartaGautame 2600 years ago spent 6 years in almost continuousmeditation, reached enlightenment and developed his philosophy of life.

Now for 10 days it willbecome the very center for Buddhists gathering from all over the world due to the 32^ndKalachakra, which is a Buddhist initiation-ceremony for new Buddhists, involving teachings and lecturesheldby the Dalai Lama over several days.

Put 400 000 people together in a small village where normally 30 000 people live, and you get chaos, with or without Buddhist Zen…

First of all of course no accommodation available.

Upon arrival, locals are offering the visitors basic rooms in their houses no matter the condition, for 10 times normal hotel price; many people try to ask for one night the equivalent of a basic monthly wage in India (approx. 50 euro)

While we are trying to arrange what is needed to get a pass for the premises of the opening the next morning, still not knowing where we will sleep, a young guy is approaching us. His name is Vijay, and he tells us he is renting out a room in his family-house for “as much as we could donate” as he say himself, genuinely not being greedy.We really have been lucky. He turns out to be a beautiful and pure person, being responsible of taking care of his whole family as well as being a student, and still finding time for a lot of volunteer work at a local school.

His good heart springs out from his strong belief in karma, believing that positive thinking and good deeds will improve your status and condition also for this life and even morein your next life. He and his family lives in a traditional house at the outskirt of a small village 15 minutes walk from Bodhgaya, keeping 3 cows and a small piece of land to grow vegetables.

Kai and Maya and cows

Wow! What a bliss for body and soul to relax for a while on their roof-top surrounded by heaves of hayand grainwhich is laid on the roof to dry.

Smelling of farm and nature; and with a fantastic view of green fields and rural landscape; seeing in the distance the holy mountain where Buddha is said to have been sitting in a cave meditating for 6 years in his search of his way to enlightenment.
Clean air, peace and quiet.

Such an appreciation of silence after the intense sound pollution of the streets in Varanasi where everyone are literally hanging on the horn non stop, sharply penetrating your inner ear to the level of pain.

  Village roof top moment hosted at local village house

Bodhgaya itself ispacked with people, a never ending wave of colorful reddish cloth in all nuances of burgundy, orange, and yellow, the traditional colors of Buddhist monks, nuance-variations depending on which monastery or direction within Buddhism you belong.

buddhist monks

The morning when Dalai Lama is scheduled to give his opening speech in English, to welcome all the 40 000 people expected to enter inside of the gates of the event, we are getting there relatively early, but find a lot of people ahead of us…, lines which of course ends up being many hundred meters long.

We are in the meantime informed that camera, mobile phone and sharp objects must be left outside, so no photos please. We take the risk and leave everything at a hotel reception nearby, a bit unsafe, but trusting that it will be ok…

Well inside the gates we manage to get quite far ahead, tumbling with the people, being squeezed in a lot of pushing jumble of arms and legs, butmanage to finally find a spot between the monks, quite close to the front stage, about 50m from Dalai Lama.

He is welcoming each country which has participants at the gathering, one by one by one;endless amount of nations, no matter how few visitors. I must be the only Norwegian waving when he welcomes Norway as country hundred-something down the list.
After this very long opening, he gives a general introduction to Buddhist spirituality, with a lot of laughter and jokes. He seems for sure to be a happy guy.

It is an interesting and powerful experience to observe this enormous red sea of
40 000 excited religious devotees in front of their spiritual leader; listening, chanting and praying.

Our legs are starting to hurt after several hours on our knees, and we decideto leave, but trying to get out is a mission worse thanentering, we get even more squeezed and pushed, falling over others sitting. A lot of people are still pressing onto get ahead to see His Holiness, and at the same time Buddhist monks who have been handing out Tibetan to the crowd inside, are pushing and running aggressively through the crowd with empty breadbaskets above their heads, wanting to get out for refill.  Good intentions, but what about Buddhist calm spirit of peace and respect?? It feels like the worst stampede we’ve been in for a very long time, if ever, especially with Kai in the middle.
Quite a relief to get out (and to pick our equipment which lucky enough is still there).

Masses of people gathering infront of Dali Lama palace

Before arriving to Bodhgaya, we had imagined an event with a lot of quiet spiritual energies, joint meditations, peace and harmony; so the bustling fusion of festival, market and fiesta amidst the crowded religious event is quite overwhelming.

A lot of the excitement derives of course from the fact that this is the biggest Buddhist gathering taking place every 2-3 years, an important event especially for the many Tibetans who are spread all over Asia in different countries, with Dalai Lama being in exile in Dharamsala in North India. This is just as much an event in the spirit of joint fight for Tibet and its independence, to inform about abuse on human rights and people’s condition; as well an opportunity to meet friends and family with a common language, culture and religion; eat Tibetan food, or buying Tibetan goods or shop some new clothes for your monk-outfit with a matching bag (Kai is now a proudowner of 2 monk-shirts).

This is also a special event for beggars. They are everywhere. Rows and lines of hundreds of beggars wherever we turn our heads. Normally not hanging around you, only children sometimes, but mainly sitting there along the road, one after the other, or moving around between the people.

Beggars with leper, old and sick people, others deformed in indescribable ways; some with missing limbs, mothers with children.
It is painful and heart wrenching.
This event is almost like a paradise for needy people, coming from far away, wanting to seek the luck with over 300 000 Buddhists filled with compassion and with a wish to give, especially in this holy city. The chance to get some decent money in your bowl is for sure larger here right now than most other places.

There is even a special coin-service if you needsmall change to give, people are selling bags of 90 rupee-coins for 100 rupee, to make things much easier. Lin and Kai are having their pockets filled with coins and can at least feel a tiny bit of relief by putting money into many bowls one after the other along the way, as a lot of people do.

After our experience inside the compound of the first day, we decide the other days to instead listen to Dalai Lama’s lectures by simultaneous translation broadcasted on FM radio frequencies from the outside.  We find a beautiful quiet spot in a meditation park beside the amazingly beautiful Mahabodhitemple.

This temple marks the place where Buddha finally reached enlightenment under a Bodhi tree.

Much of the lectures are readings from scriptures and books, quite complicated to grasp; while other parts are reflections and personal opinions of Dalai Lama himself about human relations and the path to awareness.
A lot of food for thoughts from a wise man.

After five days of following the stream and being pushed around; and five nights fighting with 5000 mosquitos, we decide to head back to Varanasi.  We are happy to have been in Bodhgaya, it has been a special experience, but now we are quite ready to leave.

Ready to go back to Varanasi to search for the best Tablamaster …..

Conclusion; always leave a window open, otherwise you might find yourself dying frozen on the floor from dropping body tempruture fainting from a leak in the gas shower, somewhere far away from anywhere you might recognize as home, in a pointless death. 
 But on the other hand, is dying this way any worse than any other useless death?

Fainted and frozen in a cold shower room 5000m high in a Nepali Himalayan village, no pulse or active brain activities already for dozens of minutes.
Blends of peaceful feelings, immensely good, flying between borders of now, past and welcoming future of other dimensions, thoughts floating extremely slow through her mind peaceful.
She is surrounded by relaxing pink clouds,
Stairway to heaven?
Who am I?
What am I?
An amoeba? A fetus?
Am I being born?
Where am I ?

The collapse of empires, we are all small-scale universes which collapse into the void in one point.

It is one thing none of us can escape from.

Yes it is true, but I didn’t finish my book!

This is what came through her mind, after long time passing out…

She has to finish the book she started before she is allowed to let go and move on.

She can feel the time having passed only according to the stiffness of her body.
 Or is it only seconds since she passed away?
Distance calls next to her ears, names, whose is this name?
In a slow flight reaching back.
Who are these people??
Is it her name being called by this stranger?
Does she know him? He looks like Mongolian prince,.
Am I In a Mongolian palace?
Where am I?
What am I doing naked on a cold floor surrounded by all these faces?
Why everything around is blurred and in slow motion.

The pain. Now finally she feels the pain drilling in her forehead and through her cold and stiff body.

I have to ask him.

“
Excuse me. May I ask you a question? Am I dying?”

He gives her a royal big smile, extremely relieved.

We will all die one day; just some die, at least almost, before the others.

“Good to have you back in this life cycle”

(This short story is based on a true story told around a fire, 5000 meter high in the Himalaya mountains, shortly before i got the beautiful book “many lifes, many masters, by Dr. Brian Weiss” from Cloe our sweet friend trekking with us. Everything is connected)

Mr. Bidal, who is the appointed guide for Ted, is waiting for us on the stamping point on the Indian side and lead us again to the “Tourist Express bus” that soon will be revealed as a completely broken, wrecked bus; again different people approach us and one by one try to convince us that this fallen-apart bus is the express tourist bus, but I reject them firmly. In this point they ask for the ticket which just a few minutes ago was given to Ted on the other side of the border, and the real ticket of 209 Rupees appears, he understands that he was cheated.
While we are witnessing all this, 3 Indian aggressive men then approach and tell us that we must purchase tickets in the office. I ask the man who stands next to the door and looks like the tickets man, whether he sells tickets and how much it cost, but I get no reply, he do not seem to understand any English at this point.
I don’t have much choices and I follow the guys to the office, where they for the fourth time are trying to sell me expensive tickets for a rusty worn-out wreck. They ask 2400 Rupees (about 35 Euros) for our 4 tickets, I know that the tickets are supposed to be 836 Rupees (around 12 Euros), and I keep telling them that I refuse to pay more than the official price and that I know they are liars, but they are insisting that this is the government price and an express bus which will arrive in 7 hours, and if we don’t pay now we can leave the bus. It seems that I am stuck and need to make a decision whether to have the kids out with all our bags at 7 o’clock in the morning and figure out what is going on and find alternatives which seem to be very few, or just pay and get going. I decide to pay although I am sure I am fully been scammed now, but nobody around seems to being helpful to tell us the truth.
A minute after my payments is done, a new big Indian guy, with bad aggressive energy, appears to give me the real tickets bought in front of me from the bus-ticket-man who all of a sudden perfectly understand English, the total is 627 Rupees, Apparently Kai is not required to pay on this Buses because he is under 10 years old, same like in Nepal (in Nepal kids under 10 years old are free from every official tickets and fees). The big guy ask me to give him the ticket they gave me a minute ago, but I refuse and it almost gets into a physical fight in this point. I tell them to get lost and raise my voice as loud as I can so everyone around will be aware, with words I know Indians are sensitive to, about their Karma when facing themselves as thieves and liars. The local people on the bus seem impressed and agree to my words, nodding with there heads and for the first time seems like having some involvement in all what was happening in front of their eyes.
17 hours later, we enter Varanasi, very cold, our backs hurting from the stiff wooden benches and with a slightly beaten ego; still having a hard time to face the fact that we have been scammed in such a way; but nevertheless, we are still smiling. We hope this was a cheap lesson to how things sometimes work here in India. (It does not matter how experienced you are, how much you saw in life and how many attempts of scamming you managed to successfully avoid without any damage, it might happen to you as well when you expect it the least)

Welcome to India

Sure it’s fun traveling and its such an adventure!
But still, it’s hard because I miss everything I left behind.

I can still speak with my friends on Skype, Facebook and stuff but it’s different. Not the same as laughing with them in the class and at the brakes.
For me going for such long travel is on one hand really fun & exciting cause I love traveling to new places and meet new people, but on the other hand I also really wanted to stay with my friends.
Even now, after already traveling more then 2 months I still don’t know what I want more; traveling or going back to school with my friends.

My father says I always can come and say to him that I want a one-way ticket to Holland…  maybe I will use this option one day!! Hahaha

Nepal is beautiful country and I would love visiting there again!
The people, the food and the country itself are so wonderful!
We keep meeting beautiful people on our way, not only in Nepal but also in India.

We treked the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, 21 days, over 160KM. The first days was really hard for me but after a while I got used to it; waking up at half past six in the morning and walking 5-6 hours a day in the beautiful nature.
And the food! Man I just loved the food on the way. It was just so delicious!
And the mountain views on the way was just AMAZING!!!

Really, I just loved Nepal <3

Varanasi in India is also a very special city.

It’s so old and it has so much history.

And cows! So many cows everywhere! And of course the cow shit…
Holly shit! Hahaha!

And ofcourse THE BLUE LASSI <3
BEST LASSI IN THE WORLD!

Man I love that lassi and the family that are running it, they have such a big heart, for few weeks the Blue Lassi became our home in Varanasi.

Christmas and New Years Eve in the Alka hotel was really fun: music, food, drinks & dance! And CAKE!

(My Crazy father with friend from Korea practicing cake eating !!)

We also went to Bodhgaya for the Kalachakra Buddhist ceremony to see the Dalai Lama & hear him giving lectures 50 meter in front of me.
Dalai Lama Lalala! <3

It was really interesting but very crowded!
So much Buddhist people! I never knew there were so many monks in the world! All you saw was red, nothing else but red!

Some more photos we made on the way,

Keep following us, i will do my best to keep posting what ever i am experiencing.

What an amazing world we live in with so many beautiful and smiling fellow human beings, and breathtaking and inspiring places.

6 weeks in Nepal was a heartwarming experience, amazingly friendly people with such big hearts, all over, and a relaxed by nature.

We decided to go trekking the famous but challenging full Annapurna Circuit, a range of amazing mountains that are part of the top 10 highest mountains in the world in the Himalaya-mountains for 3 whole weeks, walking a circle-route around the three Annapurna-peaks, which are between 7500, and 8100 meters high. You feel so unbelievable small but at the same time so charged, blessed and powerful, being part of the immense eternal universe.

Life is indeed a precious gift!

Every day we were waking up with sunrise, hiking all day with amazing views to lush green valleys with turquoise foaming rivers and  fantastic mountain-peaks swept in blue layers one after the other; in the evenings lodging with friendly local families or small guesthouses along the way, eating delicious homemade food cooked over open fire in their basic kitchens.

Thereafter relaxing for a couple of hours reading a book or playing cards around the wood-burner, resting tired feet, feeling worn out but in a beautiful way; and already at 8-9 o’clock crawling into our sleeping-bags under thick blankets in often icy cold rooms where the wind sometimes swept through gaps in the walls and temperatures would fall below zero in night-time (but nice warm in daytime).

Living and breathing in tune with nature, the sun and darkness, with no sense of weekdays or dates.

It took us some time to really let go of all the pollution and stress we had accumulated before leaving Holland, and to start to relax and really recharge, but the medicine could not have been better, a magic herbal remedy of sun, fresh air and freedom at the top of the world!

The highest point we reached was the Thorong-La Pass of 5416 meter and it felt like a milestone when we after 14 days of walking finalized that specific day of 11 hours walking, arriving to the closest village on the other side just in time with the beautiful sunset.

The altitude went fine due to taking the increase in height quite slowly and also adding a couple of rest days when we were above 4000 meter; the only symptoms were being slightly short of breath the last couple of days and a bit of stomach pain and headache, but nothing serious. We met people who had to return and didn’t manage to get over the pass, but that happens when you go up in altitude too quickly.

The children were really amazing all along the way, especially when you know that they were carrying their own backpacks since we did not want to take any porter. Kai found the distances sometimes quite long, but with enough small encouraging breaks he was normally eager to get ahead, fully charged even by arrival. He really was in his right element, being able to be in physical activity and outdoors all day long. Lin on the other hand was walking steadily every day without a word of complaints, but concluded after ending the trip that “This was the last 3-weeks-trip ever!”. Kai was ready to start a new 3-weeks trek immediately after ending this one!

We would love to be back soon. Nepal is beautiful and the people even more.