India Summer 2019 – Pieces of Infinity

Fruit markets and tropical vibes

Posted on 2020/02/09 by Maja Li

Right now, weather here in Germany is the complete opposite of typical weather in Rajasthan; it’s cold, rainy, the sky is grey and everywhere people are going crazy bc of the storm which will hit us in few hours…but somehow I’m not that concerned. However, maybe bc of these uncomfy, rough vibes I’m missing the tropical vibes of India; the heat, the sunshine, the palm trees, the unbelievable green of the forest and the warm orange everywhere in Rajasthan…and of course the amazing fruit markets, which we found absolutely everywhere in India, selling all the fruits you can imagine…Of course super cheap and – depending on the season – also very fresh, especially the mangos…so we ended up having several mangos each day…ohhh now I’m missing these days even more…

About Kasol

Posted on 2020/01/02 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

Kasol is a small hippiesque village in Himachal Pradesh (Northern India), placed next to a river and surrounded by mountains, forest, and rocks. It’s full of small jewellery shops, restaurants and cafés and attracting hundreds of Hippies from all around the world each day; it’s a beautiful, multicultural place and great to meet up with other backpackers. There used to be many outdoor parties in the forest around but due to some incidents there are no more parties; nowadays Kasol is famous for it’s nature and as a starting point for trekking tours, which can be quite adventurous. Definitely adventurous is the journey to Kasol; from the next bigger village it takes around 1,5 hours in an usually crowded, old bus, on a small, wavy and curvy road (the only!) next to a highslope and a hundred of meters deep valley.

Streetdogs

Posted on 2019/12/30 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

Streetdogs are almost everywhere in India, some are quite fine, getting food from people living nearby, or getting left over food from restaurants, stores… but many are starving, sick and afraid of humans, bc they usually get showed away wherever they are and have had bad experiences with humans. The situation of streetdogs in India made me feel very helpless; there are so unbelievable many of them; we anyway can’t help all of them…but at least we can help some of them; show them love, give them a cuddle, so they learn to trust humans again, and give them left over food or get them some medicine against fleas (very cheap in Indian Pharmacies!).

Jaisalmer – about the castle

Posted on 2019/12/29 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

Path through the “castle”, which is actually a small city inside of huge walls, separating the houses inside of the other parts of Jaisalmer. As the people in Jaisalmer told us, the people in the castle are living there illegally; they occupied the castle when it got abandoned long ago…and until now, they’re living there, earning their money with small shops, restaurants and through offering tours to tourists.

Jaisalmer

Posted on 2019/12/28 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

This magical place we found in Jaisalmer, in the old castle in the middle of the city, placed on top of a mountain. It’s just one of many shops we found in the castle while following the many paths which are leading to small restaurants with delicious food, homes, cafés with sweet smoothies, to viewing points and finally ending at the huge walls of this castle.

North to South by train

Posted on 2019/12/28 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

I can’t remember where exactly I took that picture, but it was somewhere on the way from Himachal Pradesh down to Goa. All together it took us around 5 days with the train to reach Goa, and even if others may have different experiences, I had only good experiences with train-travelling in India and actually enjoyed the days in the train, watching tbe landscape outside and being impressed by the huge variety of nature and landscapes in India.

Pushkar

Posted on 2019/12/27 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

That picture I took while we drove back after exploring some villages around Pushkar (Rajasthan). There were no other tourists at all, and I really felt like on a different planet, being stared at by the few people who were outside even it was around 40°C in the shadow. However, the landscape out there’s amazing, desert-like, but still some plants, very few lakes, grass, and endless roads,just sometimes getting crossed by goats and cows.

Kasol, and why I went another time to India

Posted on 2019/12/26 - 2020/01/02 by Maja Li

A lovely street dog and me, in Kasol, India, few weeks ago.
Sometimes I still wonder, how I ended up spending 4 months in India…as I had planned only two months, feb and march, mostly to do a yoga teacher course…India itself didn’t interest me that much, back then.
But from the first day on, it completly overwhelmed me with all the places full of beautiful, pure, chaotic life.
I still remember how thick the tropical air was when I left the airport, and this strange, different smell, the sounds of this – for me – new piece of earth…
I guess this was when I realized, that it would be damn different than my journeys before.
And so it was.
I travelled around, together with a lovely friend from home, explored, learned and mostly learned how less I knew because I were always staying in safe, clean and grey europe.
And I learned, that all my expectations how the people would be here were clearly influenced by stupid german media, western media.
So, forget all the western stories about this country and go and explore by yourself!;)
About how I came back to India…
I couldn’t get enough in these two months, feb and march, I couldn’t get enough of the nature, the mountains, the jungle, the sea, the fruitshops, the markets and rikscharides, the sunsets and coconuts, yogalessons and meetings with other travellers, culture and food, and all these people living here, and especially one of them, so that’s why I am here again.