Dear friends and followers,
I will give up posting my stories here for a while but continue on Instagram.
The latest India updates will be dropping in there within the next couple days.
I’d be looking forward to meet you there again:
The Chateau near Starnberger See
It came that I am volunteering on an international event in Berg near Starnberger See.
I wanted to share this wonderful morning view with you, from my window in the Chateau I am staying.
Quite a bargain actually found at one of these travel booking websites, I find it to be a pearl among all stays I have been so far. Even though bathrooms are shared, but there are enough 🙂
Spring 2018 arrived inside our German garden
Mumbai again
4 days before my flight back to Germany it was time to get back to Mumbai again.
I am having a great time with my friend and working colleague, along with his family.
Yesterday I got stuck in Mumbai traffic for 3.5 hours.
With all these Ubers, OLAs and Merus there is still some drawbacks. To me it happened since it was peak hours (5:30 PM) 2 Uber cars cancelled my individual ride. So next I tried OLA, however there was no single ride available.
My phone battery was about to finish, and since I lost my power bank several days back I decided to book a shared ride before I get finally stuck. And so it happened that it took me that long from the very south of Mumbai up to Sanjay Gandhi. Well, at least for only INR 195 😛
The Dam
Yesterday we took the bike and went for quite a long ride – down to Tungabhadra Dam.
This incredibly huge masterpiece of engineering created a lake which appears rather than a sea. You cannot even see the other end of it – it simply vanishes at the horizon.
Some more scenic places around Hampi
Pampa Sarovar:
Sanapur Lake:
Chandramouleshwara Temple:
Anegundi:
Hampi and its surroundings
Before I went to Hampi I thought it would maybe get boring during an 8 days stay. It turns out I was far from being right.
Apart from the historical center of Hampi there are so many things to see.
Countless old temples all around the area which are easy to reach with a scooter, the Tunghabadra river and some nice lakes where you can take a swim, Virupapur Gaddi island with its old and young wannabe hippies, which is great for souvenir shopping and eating. You can also see many youngsters doing bouldering, rocks are there, more than enough.
We also came across some interesting cave paintings northerly from Hampi and across the river.
And not to forget many nice accommodations, situated in very quiet and natural surroundings.
By the way: there are also accommodations available within Hampi historical old town (at Hampi bazaar which doesn’t exist anymore), but they are not listed on any booking website. It is probably worth going to Hampi and check those out before booking something else. I was told these places are cheap (below INR 1000) and decent.
Visiting my friends in Hubli
On my way towards Karnataka I was finally able to visit my local friends in Hubli.
We spent 3 great days together. It gave me the opportunity to be guest at an engagement party, and we visited a tibetan refugee camp with beautiful temples.
On our way back we passed this dam with its wonderful lake, where I thought it would have been so nice to spend one or two nights in a tent.
A hop over to Delhi and Chennai
My brother in law is a famous chess grandmaster. And since currently the national India chess championship is taking place of course we decided to meet. I was in Churu and he was in Delhi, so it became obvious that we should meet there.
My experiences from the past told me not to go to Delhi again but well, in that case I ignored it and went back into dirt and dust. But still I had the opportunity to visit some very nice places which are not that much polluted, and from those I’d like to share my pictures with you today.
The images are from the Rose Garden and Ashokan Pillar, both just a few hundred meters from the Red Fort.
After Delhi we went to Chennai where my bro in law is pursuing his chess games. From there I went to Bangalore and further to Hubli where I am currently staying with some local friends.
Tomorrow I will leave for Hampi where I am planning to stay for one week, so I shall provide you some nice impressions from there as well soon.
After 10 days of Vipassana in Churu – something you will never forget
In short: Churu was great. I will not elaborate about the actual course, because anything I would tell you about it could not be sufficient. One really has to go for it. It is worth every second.
Before I started the course I thought that probably the 10 days of silence would be the most challenging part, but in fact it was not. It was the garbage which had accumulated in the subconscious mind for so many years, which all came up to be processed finally. In the end it was such a relief.
I tried several mecitation techniques before Vipassana, but now I am confident that I will keep going with the latter. It requires quite some practice and experience, but then again it is likely the most effective one.
I encourage everyone to try it. Book a course for 10 days in any Vipassana center around the world and you will get an experience you never regret.
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