Maharashtra and Gujarat

It has now been a couple of weeks since my visit to Hyderabad. It was great to see my old friends again after more than a month of traveling. After Hyderabad I went to the state of Maharashtra to see the hill stations Mahabaleshwar and Matheran and the city of Pune. The hill stations were nice places. Mahabaleshwar because of nice sceneries and fresh strawberries and Matheran for the ban of all vehicles (including bicycles) making it an extremely pleasant and relaxing place to stay. The city of Pune did not manage to attract me so much, although the restaurants and the multiplex cinema were nice

Back from Andaman Islands

Hello! After 10 days without Internet I am here again, at the Central Train station in Chennai, writing my blog, putting new pictures online and reading emails. The Andaman Islands were an experience I was still this morning hoping to last a little longer. On Thursday I found an excellent place for my hammock by the Bay of Bengal, hanging from an old tree branch over white sandy beach, looking at the tide go out slowly. Perfect. And I thought I am not a beach person The 10 days I spent there (on the Havelock island) were not exactly enough, so still this morning I was thinking whether to use my place ticket to Chennai or cancel it and get a new one, paying 5000-6000 Rupees more for already expensive plain tickets. I decided to be cheap and not pay up, so I am here now.

The Andamans are definitely a place to chill out and relax and I might go there again someday. What surprised me though was the number of tourists. The first two nights I had to sleep on the floor of a restaurant (50 Rs per night) because there simply was no room. For the third night me and Colin managed to find a tent in Village 7 (the villages on the island are numbered 1-7), next to a beach that has once been voted the best beach in Asia. And truly amazing it really is too!

So the first couple of days we basically just spent finding accommodation. Several people sleep on the beaches in hammocks, by the way, and I actually had one made for 340 Rupees just in case… After we got the accommodation I spent a couple of days snorkeling and riding my bike around the island (there are only two roads though and then the last day in the hammock by the beach. I put some pictures from Havelock into the gallery, go check them out!

Tomorrow morning I will arrive in Hyderabad. It has been two months since I was last there, so it is about time I go see what is happening there.