India in all its glory !

McCleod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives :Isn't this just the funniest picture!
Inge opt dak van den otto:
Do I really ....?

The Himalaya's :Getting out of Rishikesh and the plains of Uttaranchal. Byebye beautiful country:
McCleod Ganj , and my guesthouse somewhere in the right of this picture:
It is exactly what it lookes like:
Malari Malari we love you sooooo:
Malari:
Malari the morning we left:
Roadblock!
Love you all!
xxx

Reminicing

1 june 2008, McCleodGanj, India
Listening to the rain outside my window I am counting the days left for me in this beautiful but tiring country. Having met Rachael again, with whom I shared a room in Mumbai, made me retrace the steps of this trip in my mind and consider that all that has happened to me, good and bad, has its value.
The start of this journey wasn't very auspicious, with my entire bag being stolen. Having been in Mumbai for two weeks, acclimatizing both fysically and mentally, and also thouroughly enjoying my time there, I realized that I hadn't come all the way to India to stick around in the most European city of the nation. I also remembered the words of a friend: "don't get stuck in Mumbai too long, It's easily done"
So I set out to get a trainticket, the first of may to come and, as ever, it would probe to be more than just a pop-around-the-corner-to-the-ticketoffice-and-purchase-your-ticket. I was sent from one office to another, from one ticketcounter to another and overall was treated like a criminal in a high-risk-prison.
But I got it and two days later I was gonna set off what I came to do: living my 15 year old dream and travel in India.

Learning-money they call it in the busyness world. When you enthousiastically throw yourself in an adventure and then loose everything (go bankrupt). My lesson cost me about 2000 euro, more than my entire budget for 4 months of travelling.
I could have followed the ambassadors advice and 'cut my trip short' but I was determined not to let this thief steal my dream as well.
And with a temporary 4 page green passport, a handwritten paper that stated my visanumber and about 30000Rs sent to me by my grandma via Western Union, I bought a planeticket to Goa, missing out on what is supposed to be the most beautiful trainride in India...