Last Destination: Mumbai (Bombay) - INDIA

My final destination was Mumbai, former called Bombay, which is the city where I was born.

Mumbai is a huge city, where luxurious building are next to enormous suburbs (favelas), where rich indian people or tourists walk next to beggers and homeless people.

Well, the contrast between poor and rich people in Mumbai is certainly like nowhere else in the world (or at least in Asia). On one hand one can say it is fascinating, but on the other hand, it is also strange and of course very sad, not to say alarming...

From touristical point of view, Mumbai offers some very nice spots and building, like the High Court, Chowpatty beach (too dirty for a swim...), the Victoria Terminus (railway station), the Gate of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel.





To be honnest, my coming to Mumbai aimed at one single goal for me: The visit of "my" orphanage. It is there that I spent the first 5 months of my life...

Franchement, ma venue a Bombay n'avait pour ainsi dire qu'un seul but: La visite de "mon" orphelinat. C'est la, dans l'un de ces 6 berceaux, que j'ai passe les 5 premiers mois de ma vie...





J'ai donc fait mon "pelerinage", ou mon retour aux sources si vous preferez, et j'en suis tres heureux, ou plus exactement: j'en suis pleinement satisfait, la boucle est ainsi bouclee...

La fin de mon periple est donc arrivee, et j'ai passe 3 mois absolument extraordinaires, mais je dois aussi franchement admettre que je suis vraiment content de rentrer dans notre belle Helvetie...

J'arrive en Suisse mardi 3 juin, a tout bientot alors et...HOP SUISSE !!!

LOL

P.S.: Ca me ferait plaisir de savoir qui a ete visite mon blog - laissez un commentaire (leave a comment) !!!

Nepal

I spent one week in Nepal, so as to reach some cooler temperature, to discover a new country and to meet the family with whom my father stayed already two times one month (last time was in February), as well as to meet David,my former resident manager in Georgia and Turkey.

I stayed first 4 days in Kathmandu , the capital city (1 million people). Lots of temples, tourists, shops, bars. It is totally different from what I saw up to now in India.


One of te greatest experience of my whole trip was the so-called "moutain flight" from Kathmandu. It was a one-hour flight in the eastern part of Nepal so as to reach THE MOUTAIN: the EVEREST...., the top of the world...8848 m high (actually it seems that a latest measurement showed 8850 m). This was really great, waouv !

The same day, I was invited by the "nepalese" family of my father for lunch, and then in the afternoon and eveving I drank some beers with David, attending typical nepalese dances.

Then, I went to Pokhara, the second biggest city in Nepal. I made a 24 hours "trekking" in the moutain with a guide. On the way, I could appreciate the local fauna and flora...

We also met a school where the children, as soon as they knew that I was a foreigner (because in Nepal everybody thought I was Nepalese), came and tried to speak english with me...and wanted to be on the picture ! I offered them a contribution in order to buy a football, hope they got it now

In the Annapurna chain, there is one moutain that looks a bit similar to our very famous "Matterhorn" above Zermatt. Its name: the Machhapuchhre. The main difference between both: The Machhapuchhre is...6997 m high !

I really liked Nepal and I would recommend anybody to go there...

Je suis actuellement a nouveau pas tres loin (c'est relatif) des montagnes himalayennes, mais du cote indien cette fois ci, et demain, je vais faire du rafting dans le Gange...!

INDIA: New Delhi & Agra

I arrived on 2nd May in the capital city of my Country of origin: New Delhi. I stayed in the Old Delhi, in the Paharganj street, where a lot of tourists with low budget are also staying. The main bazaar street is full of life, colors, smells, , dust, dirt and...poverty.

With the very high temperature, sometimes over 40 degrees, and with all indian continuously trying to sell (and cheat on)you everything they could, I must admitt that it was not such a good first impression of India.

What is funny, is when I dress shorts and Billabong T-shirt and carry a backpack, all indians on the street try to sell me something similarly as they do for white tourists, but when I wear long trousers with a simple one color shirt, without backpack, them I have peace, as everybody naturally think that I am a local indian guy, and of course they try to speak with me in Hindi...!

One day, I went to Agra, where the most famous monument of India is: The Taj Mahal. The price for indian people is 20 Ruppies (about 0.7 CHF) and the price for foreign tourists is 750 Ruppies...I tried to pass for an indian guy, but I failed !!! Here the view from the touristical and normal entrance:

And here is the view from the other side of the river, where almost no tourists know or go, but I still had to pay something (100 Ruppies, again I failed to pass for an indian guy...)


After one week in New Delhi and around, I spent one week in Nepal.

Les photos du Nepal suivront, aujourd'hui je suis a nouveau pour un tres bref sejour a Delhi, avant (demain ?) de partir un peu en dehors de la ville et trouver un peu de fraicheur...

Me reste un peu plus que 2 semaines, a bientot...

TOKYO

After 11h hours of flight from Auckland, I finally arrived in Tokyo, the main city of Japan.
Many many things to see in Tokyo. First of all, it is a very big city.


Secondly, it is Japan, which means that the people there are very respectful of everything, for example nobody would cross the road when the trafic light is red (even if there are absolutely no cars and it is 02:00 am..), absolutely no garbage laying on the floor, and even smoking is hardly tolerated in the streets...

Thanks to Cedric Vuilleumier (bientot papa...), a friend of mine in Switzerland, I had one contact in Tokyo, as Yoko (it is her name), a japanese girl from Tokyo, knew Cedric and therefore we get in touch together slightly before my visit. We had one on the first evening a typical japanese meal, called "Shabu-Shabu", which is very similar to what we call in Switzerland "Chinese Fondue", but without all these (delicious and) very fat and heavy sauces...and it was "a gogo" and costed less than 16 CHF, so NO, Japan is not that expensive !!! It was really a good meal...mmmmmmmmmmmh ! Thanks Yoko !

In Tokyo, there is no ONE famous things to do, or a must-seen place, or a huge monument or so, there are plenty of small to medium things to do and visit, which is very nice. One of these things is a visit in the early morning of the Tsujuki Fish Market. It a very big (for me at least) fish market where everybodu runs from one side to another, carrying big fishes, killing them, sawing them, buying them, well, it s...a fish market ! but very lively, new and interesting for me !


One day at the beggining, with Yoko, we went a bit out of Tokyo, to Kamakura, where there is this impressive Buddha, very famous in Japan.

I was suprised to learn that in Tokyo, there is a TV tower, very similar to the Eiffel tower, which is located among building in the Center of Tokyo and that is HIGHER than the Eiffel tower (333 m for Tokyo Tower vs 320 for Eiffel tower). From this tower, it was possible to see all tokyo, and even, during perfect weather, the Mont Fuji (90 km from Tokyo) could be seen, but that day it was unfortunately a bit cloudy...

There was also a place near my youth hostel where there are some nice temples, and a lot of japanese people go there. I visited them on the Week-end, as this was the Hangover programme...


Two days before I left, I was a bit fed up of visiting and walking everwhere in the city, and, as i already visited lots of big cities in my trip, we agreed with Yoko to go to Disneysea. In Tokyo, there are two Disney Parks: Disneypark and Disneysea, the latter being located just...near the sea ! So It was one day in the city of Minnie and Mickey and it was nice and also very funny to notice that lots of japanese adults like very much (much more than in Europa) to remember that they were all children some years ago...they even dress like children there !


We leave the magic of Disneysea to return in Tokyo. In a kind of "alternative" park, called Harajuku, lots of people out of the perfect japanese style could be met. From ravers to Elvis Presley rockers or teenage bands, there was also some young (especially girls...I guess !?) who dressed in such a way that they remember us our childhood with the japanese manga cartoons...Honnestly, it was not only in Harajuku, but a bit everywhere in Tokyo that I had some souvenirs (! c'est juste souvenir ?) of the mangas I watched when I was young..


My last day I woke up very early in order to follow the training of very famous sumotori. They trained for an important tournament schedulded in the begining of May...Look at these big babies ! I believe that's why japanese people like them so much, as they look like big babies...!


I know I am a bit late with the blog...I arrived one week ago in New Delhi, and tomorrow, I'll go for one week to Nepal.

J'espere trouver un peu de fraicheur au Nepal, parce qu'ici, c'est la fournaise...!

A+

Indonesia - Singapore - Sydney

After Bangkok, I went three days to Jakarta, one of the biggest cities in the world, in order to meet my friend Marc Giovanola, who graduated with me in 2003 and is working there for almost 2 years for Philippe Morris.

Unfortunately, a mini-catastrophe occured, as I encountered problems with my USB key and it seems I could not open it any more, which means I lost all the pictures i did up to now...Luckily, I also downloaded my pictures on facebook,which means i could recover almost all of them, except the pictures of Bangkok and Jakarta...

So no picures from Jakarta, where I took a baby lion in my arms...snif !

After these pleasant three days and three nights (nightlife in Jakarta is really good!), I went to one of the most famous island destination of the world: Bali.

Of course Bali is very famous for its beaches, its surfers and also the nighlife. Personnally, I did not try to surf and I hardly swam...





After 4 days in Bali, I decided to stay one day in Singapore,　as it was on my way Some people call Singapore the "Switzerland of South-Eastern Asia". It is clean, there are no beggers, people wait until the traffic light is green to cross the road...It was pleasant and I walked through Little India, which allowed me to breathe a bit of one of my next destination...



My next destination was Sydney, and the big event, maybe bigger than the visit of Singapore, was that I took the Airbus A-380 plane,which is the biggest commercial plane of the world and is currently only in use for Singapore Airline, between Singapore and Sydney.

Ok, you cannot really feel that there are two decks, but at leat you really feel that the equipment is very modern, with a very large screen, a huge amount of movies, cds, games and even languages courses or microsoft office is available on the screen...



Then I arrived in Sydney, and for the first time in the last month, I encountered temperaures below 20 degrees, and it was half rainy. and when I tried to make my visa for India there, it would have taken 5 to..14 days! So, because of my tight schedule, I had no time to wait 14 days and I decided to stay only three days in Sydney, and of course I visited the main touristic attractions but did not more...




Then in had to stay overnight in Auckland, where I just enjoyed a steak and a beer in a pub. It is for me the first place in the world where a 200g beefsteak is half the price of a pizza...and of course, it was funny to think that I was almost on the other side of the world, as the picture below can witness...



I am currently in Tokyo, visiting and waiting for my Indian visa, that I shall get on 29th April...

En me promenant dans les rues de Pekin, je revois quelques images issues des dessins animes de mon enfance...haaaa ces mangas !

Apres Tokyo, je ferais un mini-saut a Pekin (et je termine ainsi mon tour avec Star Alliance)、puis direction Inde,

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Thailand

After Cambodia, I went to Thailand, on the Koh Chang Island, to meet some friends from Switzerland. In detail, Eric and girlfriend, as well as Fabien, came directy from Switzerland, whereas Philippe is working (for one year) in the five star hotel we stayed.



I am maybe the only backpacker of the world who spent a week in a five star hotel...ok we got some interesting discount, as Philippe is working there and is the "number two" of the management.


It was a bit "holidays in my holidays", as the daily programm consisted mainly of sleeping, swimming, having some beers and playing Jass during Happy hour between 5 and 6 o'clock, then dinner somewhere on the Island and the partying during the night. I must admit it was also very pleasant to stay and party with true friends, instead of somehow "forced" friends met in the backpacker's hotel, even if some of them were also very nice...I hope you got my point !


The only particular activity for me was my first time of diving. It is very nice to feel like a fish, and even if we did not dive too deep, we could catch some interesting "seesightseeing"


After 5 days I left my friends and went to Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand. Some very nice buddhist temples to be seen during the day, other kind of temples to be seen during the night, the latter ones are certainly attracting more tourists than the first ones...I think you got that point too !





Et maintenant je suis a Bali, en Indonesie, apres avoir passe 3 jours (et surtout 3 nuits) a Jakarta, la capitale.