Time is relative... isn't it?

Five months is not a very long time when you are grinding away at home, working, and not much exciting is happening... it seems to be hard to remember what you did three days ago sometimes... not when you are travelling, every memory seems so strong, vivid, and lasting.

Five months ago I flew to Singapore with certain expectations, but they were all surpassed by far, and now I am happy to be home for a short spell, to charge up the batteries and spend time with family.
This last part was very excitinglast and painful, as it goes sometimes. The last part didnt quite work out how i had planned and I had to come home 10 days early, what had happened?

We finished off the very nice trip in nepal by travelling from the trekking destination pokhara to the main city kathmandu via a big national park, royal chitwan, where we booked a jungle walk, river cruise and elephant ride to chase various animals (or get chased vice versa, we got told excactly what to do when encountering rhinos/slothbears/tigers, etc) ...once we got there I already had a strong case of flu and diarrhea, and had to stay home for most of the trip, but still got to do the elephant ride (saw several rhinos, a crocodile, etc)...

Streets of Kathmandu had some snake charmers too....

When we returned to Kathmandu, and met up with Joseph, a guy we knew from my hometown, who has been living in nepal for 10 years and is the head of a large aid organisation that builds roads for nepal (he employs 15000 people). We got a very interesting and thorough insight into his work...and since his wife owns a swiss restaurant there i got to have a terrific dinner, the best bratwurst outside of switzerland i have EVER had, seriously.!! He also showed us around the non-touristy parts of town and we got to see large stupas (holy shrines) and got an inshight into the almost medieval handyworks still carried out at the durbar square...

Buddha statue...

This is not for feeble stomachs, skip this section if you dont like gross stories or are about to have lunch. I like eating where locals eat in any part of the world, touristy restaurants just done have the charm I am looking for, 3rd world country or not..

We did this pretty much every time, but also forgot about the golden rule sometimes,....eating at a very sad looking and deserted restaurant (eat where a LOT of locals eat), i had Chow Mein, chinese noodles, when upon my second to last spoonful I noticed a big cockroach I was about to swallow, entangled in my noodles. I am used to lots of specialties but that was probably just some poor creature that had fallen into the pot and was fried to death... decided though to put it aside, eat the rest anyways, (was still hungry and decided if the food s been contaminated it was already too late anyways....) well that did not get me sick, but something did, days later....

Deli downtown... your usual New Deli street scene....

We decided on a whim to continue to India, and travel down from New Deli to Calcutta.
Well India sure was krass i must say... arriving there we soon realized that almost as many people in much less space than china makes very overcrowded and polluted cities... there is a lot of suffering on the streets, its extremely hot, enormous amounts of people hassle Tourists o­n the streets (the only way to make money for most), trying to lure you into obscure buys, transports even if you dont need any, or just trying to convince you of something you dont need... We were quite toughened up by our travels, and the many quite colorful reports of other travellers, and not so easily intimidated, but it was still difficult traveling at times. Overall, we were really enjoying our trip there though, visited many beautiful sights such as the Red Fort in Dehli, the Amber Fort in Jaipur, and most extraordinary, the marvellous Taj Mahal in Agra.

The beautiful Taj Mahal

However, all good things tend to come to an end and so they did a little too early... while eating, what else: Manfred and I are very different with different opinions and personalities, so when it came to eating, he would never eat something that was not peeled or boiled, while I, on the other hand, over the first four months, enjoyed many great salads, fruits and local specialities, even when those turned out to be unboiled, cooked, or peeled,....

At the Taj....

I was aware that I stood a greater risk of getting sick, and so in India I finally did... I am feeling a bit better now, after having had severe stomach issues and high fevers for the last 12 days. I visited a Doctor in Calcutta, and was told that its best to go home and get treated in Switzlerland since they could not really figure out which bug(s) were in me.....

I was easily convinced... I had spent 3 nights in two different overnight 3rd class train squat tiolets (sometimes up to 45 minutes at a time, barely being able to unlock myself from the squat position)... hey s@#$ happens!

The doctor in calcutta was working with a drug in an FDA approval framework of an american company which produces an antibiotic against travellers diarrhea, so I got paid to use it,.. not a bad deal!

Home now, I feel like i have learned a lot on this first part of the trip, and cannot wait for my 2nd.... my grandmother is dying so I will stay here a few weeks to spend time with her and then head out to South America....