to all our friends we met while travelling

When we started our journey around the world in November 2008 we didn't pay attention to the fact, that we might meet many people, who are interested in our trip and don't speak German. Therefore we created our blog for the people we had to leave at home.
Now we have been travelling for 6 months and we met many great people from all over the world. Thanks to all of you for the great time, it was a pleasure for us to meet you!

We started our trip in India and stayed there for only one month. One month is not as much as you need for India, but it was our first time there and we only wanted to get in touch with the people and the culture. We visited Bangalore, Mysore, Udipi, Goa and some places in Rajasthan as the big and sometimes awful cities Mumbay and Delhi. All in all we can recommend travelling in India. India is a great country with very friendly, open and tolerant people and an exciting culture. Unfortunately all negative arguments you might have heared about India is also true. India is dirty, crowded and there are lots of very poor people and children. For us it was a challenge to travel there and it was also a kind of culture shock coming from a rich country like Austria. But we never wanted to miss the experience and for me, Petra, I am sure, I will once return to India for its culture and people.



After India we flow via Kahtmandu to Lhasa. Lhasa was one of the highlights of us. Now we can say, Lhasa is an interesting place, a nice city sorrounded by great mountains, but the spirit of Lhasa, the buddhism, has nearly died. The situation there was awful - soldiers on every street corner and you barely see Tibetans - you only see Chinese people. To say your opinion is not expected and you are not allowed to talk about the Dalai Lama. This was the next cultural shock for us - because we live in Europe - and saying your opinion is part of daily life there!!! We are glad, that we have seen the Potala Palace, the Jokhang and Ramoche temple as two monastries in the surrounding but we were very sad about what had happened with one of the most important religious systems in the world there!



We took the skytrain to Xian and as the train was nice and comfortable we were not very happy with the Chinese people. You do not get into touch with them and as a foreigner you are sometimes treated like a bad disease! All over that we had great problems with our visa in China and we had to stay one day at the police station in Bejing. We were really happy when we could take our flight out of China to Bangkok.

China is a country we can not recommend for individual tourism!

After our China shock we spent two months in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia travelling around. Thailand was great and easy for travelling. The only thing is, that in some regions there are too many tourists. We enjoyed travelling in the north and Pai was one of the places we liked best. Thailand is a nice mixture between, people, culture and nature and backpacking is very easy there.



















We also visited Laos, which was very expensive - the prices tripled in the last 2 years.







Cambodia was great - and the Angkor wat is worth a visit! We also enjoyed the Cambodian people! We can not recommend you the bus from Bangkok to Siam Reap it was as bad as if you read in the travel guides.




We really got used to the culture in south east Asia and we were a little bit sad when we had to leave. But the next adventure was waiting for us and we travelled to New Zealand.

New Zealand is the country, where we most enjoyed the nature. It is very easy to travel there and we were happy with our campervan. We had 4 week for both islands, which is not enough time! Hiking is the best thing you can do there and there are so many great places to visit and to enjoy the nature. We did not get so much in touch with the people there. They are friendly, but it is more an European culture and the are more reserved.









After New Zealand we flow via Tahiti to Santiago the Chile. To Tahiti only one statement: we can not recommend it - it is not the paradise, it seems to be and it ist really the most expensive country we have ever been - including Europe.

We are now travelling since 4 and a half week in Chile and more Argentina and there only 2 and a half weeks left. For us it is the place we enjoyed most because it is the perfect mixture between the friendliest and openest people we ever met, great nature and nice cities! We did our trip down to the south and visited the famous places like Perito Moreno glacier, the Fitz Roy massive, the Torres del Paine and Ushuaia. Patagonia was great although it was very expensive and the weather is the main factor for having a great day there. We also visited the lake district in Pucon, Bariloche and El Bolson. Pucon and El Bolson were nice places, but Bariloche was to touristic for us. After visiting Mendoza including the vineries and the mountains (Aconcagua) we are now in Cordoba - a very important city for the Austrian soccer!!!




























There are only a few places left for us to go (iguazu, Buenos Aires, Urugay and than Dallas, Alaska, Canada) and we really enjoyed travelling around the world! The most important thing on our trip for us was to meet you - all of the great and nice people we got to know during our trip!
We really hope we will stay in contact and once maybe we will meet again at any place of the world because when you once started travelling you can not stop it!!!