90 days of summer

Hey everyone!

So we've kind of figured everything out! On sunday we arrived to Panjim and found a lovely guest house in a nice little neighbourhood in the middle of town. And since we've got here we have basically been walking around this little town doing what ever... shopping, eating, taking pictures... it's very nice just enjoying the last couple of days in peace. Panjim is a very nice town with many nice buildnings and shops, not that many restaurants though but we'll manage. Today our mission is to shop until we drop! Soon we are going to the tailor because Jacob is buying a nice tailored suit! Tomorrow we're hunting for a fab pool to cool off by and the day after tomorrow I'm getting a manicure and a pedicure and Jacobs getting a clean-up facial at this really fancy parlor!

This was basically it. A little update on our fabulous life. We have three days left in India and it feels really weird actually that we are coming home. It feels like we've been here for ages, a lifetime allmost, and we have allmost forgot what the Helsingborg-life is like. The life we have lived in this envoirment is SO different from our reality back home. Well, I bet it's all going to come back to us... but I still think that we have changed quite a bit. Time will tell I guess!

Now we are going to go back to enjoying our last couple of days in India! Talk to you soon!

Hi people!

Last time we spoke (or wrote?) we were in Varkala, after the-finger-in-the-fan incident we actually recovered by the pool the next couple of days. Very nice I must say. We met some lovely random people... it's funny when you are travelling and meeting other people who also are travelling and you're all the same. We had a few nice days with Barry from England who's sixty and Gary from New Zeeland who's fourty-two.

On thuesday afternoon we took a train from Varkala to Trivandrum and with a bit of excitement we jumped on a very fancy train into first class. And this was something else... the AC hit us like lovely snowstorm and the nice rug under our feet felt like heaven on earth... we had sheets, CLEAN sheets and nice blankets. It's hard to believe but when you travel around like this, with no expectations you get really really happy when the sheets are clean... and you never ever expect a soft rug. Then we had a three cours dinner which was quite boring but we ate it because our ticket had cost us eight-freaking(!!!)-thousand rupees and the food was included. Anyway, we had a good nights sleep and after breakfast it was time, we had arrived in Goa. 

We got off the train and took a very expensive taxi to Calangute that a new friend from Varkala had recommended, so we thoght we might give it a try. This place was the most awful little shitty town we've ever been to. People who thinks this is nice must be kidding or on some kind of drug. We went to the beach and we both just stood there and sighed. The beach was packed with indian tourists just standing there and looking at all of these watersports that was going on. It's hard to describe but it was just awful. Trash everywhere, people everywhere, little shops that sell fake stuff EVERYWHERE. And at least half of all these indian tourists were wearing the same t-shirt saying: "Everything is better in Goa". Lies. Or as Alex always says "empty words". On the evening we went out for a simple dinner at a very nice indian restaurant and got talking to the owners brother... and everyone says that "Calangute is the place to be", "It's the best place in Goa"... Our eyes met across the table and we got a bit sad. But we both are way to stubborn to just take people for their word and settle so we decided to get a move on the next day (today). So this morning we had a quick breakfast and then took a taxi to Anjuna. We went to the first Lonely planet guest house and rented a scooter and are now in a little town called Mapsa looking for a tailor. Anjuna is quite allright but we are not going to stay here for long... who know's whats going to happen...

We'll figure something out.

Lots of love to you!!!

Hi people!

Phu! What a week we've had! Since we got back from the andamans it's been quite exhausting being Melissa Kron and Jacob Norstrom. Right now I (Melissa) am sitting in KIMS (Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences) library beeing very very quiet. I've allready been Schhht three times in five minutes even though no-one is here accept the woman who works here. Oh well. For those of you who doesn't know about our little situation don't worry. We came here directly after the seventeen hour train aka "The train journey from hell" were Jacob vomited and had diarrhoea a couple of times every hour. We managed to get through it and arrive in Trivandrum. And then hop in to a taxi that took us straight to KIMS. We arrived to these two big buildings (check the linked website above) that just looked amazing and we were so happy to finally be here. We went in and within five minutes Jacob was lying down in a real hospital bed (that actually fit him! Something you can never take for granted) surrounded by a very nice doktor and three nurses in the emergency room. Withing ten minutes they had allready recommended that we should stay for the night. We were slightly shocked but very relieved because by now the time was seven o'clock in the evening and Varkala (which is the next stop) is about an hour away from here. So we stayed for the night. After Jacob got antibiotics and IV we got shown up to the room. At first we thought we we're just taking a pit stop i a little lounge before we got to our room. But then we saw one big hospital bed and one small bed and understood that this was our room! The room was decorated with a leather couch and armchair, a flat screen tv, a mini-fridge, a table and some chairs and in the other end of the room there was a door to a very nice bathroom with a amazing shower. We can order food when ever we want and the staff here is just amazing and apparently people come to India, to Kerala, to this hospital to get all kinds of surgurys. So we're allmost or we are actually honoured to be here! Anyway we just talked to the doktor and we will be staying one more night (totally three nights) here and tomorrow we're off to Varkala. We'll keep you all posted on this hole thing! At the time Jacob is absolutely fine, not fully recovored and still a bit week (the man has lost about 5 kilos the past week).

So that is whats up with us! I'm glad you like the pictures! Now I should hurry back to Jacob!

Lots of love to you all!

There are about 13 more pictures we would like to put up but we can't sit here all day, right? Today we've been watching a movie at the Skywalker mall's newly opend cinema... as we did yesterday too. Now we are planning on seeing one tonight aswell before we jump on the train to Trivandrum!

Talk to you soon!

Lots of love

(And no, we aren't that tanned...)

Halla alla fina!

PUH vilka dygn vi har haft. Igar var jag lite schysst och bredde ut en fin liten vit logn. Jacob ar ganska risig. Nar jag kom till hotellet motte jag honom i lobbyn och vi gick till ett apotek for att kopa en termometer sa vi kunde fa nagon humm om hur hog feber han egenligen hade, han har gatt omkring i sin hood liksom. Vi kopte en gammeldags termometer som ingen av oss forstod oss pa, jag sprang tillbaka for att se om de kunde visa mig hur den fungerade. Men eftersom det absolut inte var en apotekare utan en 18 arig kille (precis som i alla andra apotek har) sa var det helt forgaves. Istallet fick vi aka till sjukhuset, det fanns ju faktiskt en liten risk att det skulle kunna vara Malaria (jag kan lugna er med att det INTE var malaria). Hotellet som vi bor pa nu har supertrevlig personal och precis som alla indier ar de mastare pa att lagga sig i sa de fixade en riksha till oss och passar upp oss med valdigt jamna mellanrum. Naval, vi akte till sjukhuset och pratade med en valdigt vettig doktor som tog tempen pa honom och sen fick han ta ett blodprov. Eftersom Jacob i princip bara atit  frukost och klockan nu var atta sa fick han lite dropp och sov lite dar medan de fickade med proverna. Efter ett tag kom doktorn och 15 sjukskoterskor in och sa att han fatt en amoba, en infektion i magen. Detta sag vi som goda nyheter. Han fick en massa mediciner och efter fyra timmar pa sjukhuset begav vi oss tillbaka till hotellet. Nu mar han mycket battre, och vi har fatt var tv att fungera sa han ligger pa rummet och vilar. Ikvall sak vi komma tillbaka till sjukhuset sa ska doktorn kolla sa att allt ar som det ska... han ska ma battre idag eller imorgon.

Sjalv springer jag runt och far kanna pa hur det ar att vara en kvinna i indien, for real. Ganska trevligt faktiskt. Men valdigt annorlunda att inte ha "my husband" vid min sida... Jag ser till att gora mig lite extra ful och gora konstiga ryckningar om nagon kommer for nara. Forsoker se lite psykiskt sjuk ut ibland. Det verkar fungera bra. Jag ar lyckats fa en biljett till trivandrum den 1 maj... Tydligen borjar semestern nu och da ska ALLA traffa sina familjer runt om i landet sa AC klasserna ar bokade en vecka frammat till trivandrum, flyg finns men ar alldeles for dyrt och buss ar fullt. Men den forsta maj fick vi en tagbiljett till trivandrum. Utan AC... 17 timmar pa ett tag utan Ac... Vi hoppar pa taget 23:45 och ar framme 16:30 nasta dag. Det kommer bli intressant. When in India do as the indians do??? Det positiva ar att Jacob kommer att ha aterhamtat sig lagom tills vi ska resa. Om inte far vi val stanna i Chennai until the end of time.

Nej, nu ska jag svara pa era kommentarer!

Glad Torsdag pa er!

Heeeej familj och vanner!

NU ar vi tillbaka pa mainland! Jaaaay! :s Hmm... not so much! Vi har haft en helt underbar manad pa Andamanerna och kanner oss liiite ledsna i hjartat. Det ar precis som nar man aker hem fran summer camp eller nagot liknande... man vet att aven om man aker tillbaka sa kommer det inte vara samma sak, det kommer inte vara samma underbara manniskor dar. Naval. Manaden pa oarna har gatt extremt fort! Vi har bott en manad i en hut (en liten stuga gjort pa playwood (? eller annat traslojsliknande material ?), babu och lite plat. Sen var den forstas malad i en fin turkos farg - mycket frasigt! Golvet var betong och i och med att den i princip lag pa stranden sa hade vi konstant sandiga fotter. Toalett och dusch delade vi med vara kara grannar, inget lyx med andra ord men trots det kande vi oss som hemma. Den storsta delen av tiden har vi spenderat pa Havelock, en helt underbar o. Dar har vi solat, badat, atit... ah va fan. Vi har inte gjort ett skit. Vi var pa grann on Neil fem dagar annars har en utflykt inneburit 10 minuter pa en moppe till en strand eller till "stan" som i princip ar en svang med en liten supermarket och 50 kiosker och 6 food stalls. Helt underbart. Men som sagt efter dryga tva veckor borjade hammocken skava lite sa vi tog tag i oss sjalva och begav oss till Neil Island. Det blev sig en handelserik resa. Forsta kvallen hade vi en hundinsident med nagra aggressiva hundar vilket inte alls var roligt, det finna otroligt manga losa hundar har utan agare och de ar hungriga vilket leder till att de blir aggressiva. Direkt efter hundinsidenten hade vi tva (!) stora spindlar i vart rum... Forfarligt! Dagen efter hade vi en hundinsident till och pa kvallen hade vi en mus i var hut. Samma natt fick jag matforgiftning och spydde och sket hela natten. Dagen efter var jag sjuk hela natten och sen akte vi "hem" till havelock. Fan ta Neil med andra ord. En sak till... man kan i princip inte bada pa on. Det finns jattemycket doda koraller langs hela kusten och fran 10 pa morgonen till typ ett-tva pa natten ar det lagvatten sa man inte kan komma i!!! Lite ironiskt att det ar sa svart att bada pa en o.
Det basta med denna manaden har varit att vi traffat sa manga fina manniskor! Vi hade en helt underbar sista kvall da vi alla (inte riktigt alla eftersom manga hade akt hem) satt och snackade hela natten och stannade uppe och kollade pa soluppgangen. Riktigt maktigt. Det var nog den basta kvallen. Fick tva timmars somn sa dagen efter var kanske inte lika jippiekajjay.
Jag vet inte riktigt vad jag ska skriva... Fraga pa sa svarar vi!

Som ni sakert anar har vi helt fantastiska bilder och de kommer de kommer... snart. Nu ar jag alldeles for trott for att gora det men om nagra dagar sa... hall ut!

Nagot annat kul som har hant ar att jag har tagit dykar certificat och har nu sex dyk under baltet! Skitkul! Jacob har gjort nio dyk och i mandags dok vi tillsammans. Sa vi har faktiskt astadkommit en del! HA!

Nej, horni. Jag maste avrunda. Ska forsoka fixa tag biljetter till trivandrum innan det blir morkt. Jacob ligger pa hotellet och ar lite smasjuk sa idag ar jag hjalten som fixar ALLT! Och ni anar inte vad det innebar idag... PHUUUU!

NOTE TO SELF: Nasta inlagg ska handla om hur flyget gick idag. Ledtrad: 20 gamla indier som reser med flyget for forsta gangen. Sug pa den och sa hors vi snart igen... formodligen imorgon eftersom vi ar i Chennai och fullkomligt hatar det och som det ser ut  kommer vi inte harifran foren om tva dagar.

Hoppas ni fortfarande laser bloggen for nu kommer vi komma at internet var vi an ar (tror vi) och da raknar vi inte med att strommen gar nagra ganger om dagen!

Ha det fint! Vi har faktiskt lite hemlangtan ska jag be om att fa tala om. Eller om det ar Havelock langtan? Det var 39 grader nar vi kom fram hit vid halv fem.... och Chennai ar Chennai... Too much.

Nej, Puss och kram pa er!

OCH anledningen till att jag inte skriver pa engelska ar for att det sitter en sliskig man bredvid och kollar pa skarmen var femte sekund... Lite privecy!

Vi hors snart igen...

OCH vi har inte kunnat skicka vara vykort (eller bunt nummer tva) till alla men de kommer... vi kanske har hunnit hem men anda!

Hi! A lot has happend since the last update. We've been here in Pondi all the time enjoying life, basically living at our favourite cafees. The other day when we had finished our two hour breakfast we walked past a girl (tourist) and she smiled at us and then she said to her boyfried "ah dar ar nagra skaningar" (in swedish) and we started talking and it turns out that she is from Helsingborg (like me) and the guy is from Angelholm (like Jacob), what are the odds of us meeting in this huge country? Well, we did. After talking for about 30 minutes we decided to have lunch two hours later. They had given us a tip about their hotel that was a lot cheaper than ours and had a balcony with a great view of the sea. One our later we were checked out and checked in and all installed in our new cheap, great room. And just a two minute walk to our favourite cafe.

An hour later we had lunch at another cafe colse by and we sat there for three hours just talking about everything... then we went back to our rooms and went out for dinner later in the evening. We had a very nice day! It so fun meeting people here and talk about everything thats weird with this country and exchange experiences.

Anyway... some plans has changed... I think God is playing a sick little game with us. After a talk with mum and dad (Kate & Robert) about the boat that we're going on... (mum think it will look like a pirateship.. )The next morning I got a textmessage saying: "Frankly I'm not very happy about you going on that boat. Book a flight... we'll pay for it."

Okay... first we were a bit shocked... I hadn't realized that it was that big of a deal and that they were THAT worried (or that mum was that worried). We thought that this was a bit silly and we wanted to go on the boat because it's an adventure and that's what this trip is about. But then I thought about mum and that they are going on a vacation these few day when we're on the boat and I want her to be able to relax (which is not very easy at all times).... and of course.... honestly... who says no to a comfortable, two hour flight???? We're not that proud.

So we're leaving on wednesday the 31 of March. Arrive at 11:30 and have four full weeks on the islands. It seems to be good internet access in Port Blair but everywhere else it's not very likely that we'll be connected.  We'll do our best!

Today Jacob shaved off his "beard". Or he didn't do it, we went to a "barbershop" and paid 50 rs for the whole thing (about 8 kr), it was quite fun to watch. He looks like he is seventeen!!! And it's so smooooth... A big differens. Yesterday we went to some nice shops here in Pondi where they had labels such as levis, ray ban, nike... and so on and everything is so much cheaper her. A pair of levis jeans costs 300 swedish kr, at home they cost like 900 or more! A pair of ray bans costs 500 kr. It was really hard not to bye anything... well I got a ring (not an engagement ring!!) and Jacob got a t-shirt. Now our plans is to grab some indian parantha and find a nice cafee and write some postcards! (If you want postcards, send us an e-mail with your adress... we'll send as many as we can)

And tomorrow... It's a special day... 30 of march... lalala

Lots of love to you all!

What do you think about our pictures?!

Herregud! Bade jag och Jacob ar helt slut efter att ha flangt sa mycket de senaste dagarna. Fran Kovalam - Munnar - Madurai - Chennai och nu slutligen befinner vi oss i Ponducherry eller "Pondy! Pondy!" som alla busschafforer hojtar. Kom fram i eftermiddags och an sa lange gillar vi det.


Nu tankte vi slappa bomben. Vi tankte avsloja vara planer! Eftersom alla har spekulerat hejvilt och ni alla har sa fel, fel, fel!  Vi trodde faktiskt att ni skulle gissa ratt men nej, det gjorde ni da inte! Vi ska inte till Maldiverna (1 for att vi inte har rad med det och 2 for att vart visum inte galler mer an en gang in i Indien och da kan vi inte komma tillbaka till indien sen - lite trakigt eftersom vi trots allt har en flygbiljett hem fran Goa!), vi ska INTE aka ivag och gifta oss nagonstans som Nana & Granpa trodde (NANA & GRANDPA, WE ARE NOT GETTING MARRIED!) utan vi ska till Andamanerna. Vi ska till Andamanerna!!! Det ar nagra oar som ligger utanfor Indiens ostkust och ska vara nagot liknande "paradiset". Vi traffade en svensk kvinna i Kovalam som tipsade oss om dom och hon sa att det var hur vackert som helst. Varfor inte, tankte vi och borjade luska! Igar fixade vi biljetterna till baten som kostade 250 kr for oss bada - den tar hela tre dagar!!! Men det ska bli riktigt spannande och se hur vi fixar det. Tyvarr fanns det inga batar hem sa det fick bli flyg hem fran oarna. Vi lamnar Chennais hamn den 31:a mars och kommer fram den 3:e mars och sen flyger vi darifran till Chennai den 28:e april! Sa drygt tre veckor pa oarna!

Sen kommer det lite trakiga... Det finns inget bredband pa Andamanerna(!). Och det finns bara internet i huvudstaden Port Blair som ska vara nagot otroligt segt! Sjalvklart kommer vi besegra kampen mot den seg sega internetuppkopplingen och uppdatera andan, fragan ar val mer hur ofta? Det blir nog inte sa ofta. Sorry! Som kompensation for detta ska vi imorgon lagga upp riktigt mycket bilder imorgon och innan vi aker. Och sjalvklart sa far vi halla kontakt via teelefon for den ska funka dar! Haha

Hur kanns det for er dar hemma? Bra? Forstar om ni tycker det ar lite trakigt att vi inte kommer uppdatera sa mycket men samtidigt kan vi ju inte bara strunta i detta - vi maste ju passa pa nu! Tre dagar pa en bat, hur kanns det mamma? Om det ar nagon trygghet sa ar vi nog de enda som kan simma? (Glomde beratta att alla kollar pa oss som om vi vore galna nar vi var i Kovalam som bara slangde oss i vagorna pa relativt djupt vatten. Tydligen kan ingen simma vilket ar lite hemskt!)

Imorgon ska vi utforska Ponducherry lite mer och som sagt, ladda upp lite bilder!

Puss & Kram

We didn't finish all the answers that we promised you... here comes the rest!


Pictures
As you all know we don't upload pictures that often. The reason for that is that we don't want to spend our day in front of a computer! It takes quite some time actually. But at some internet cafes it's a bit tricky to get it all sorted out and at some places your not allowed to even put your usb-memory in the computer! Somedays it's good to have a reason to stay in though, when it's to hot outside and you don't want to get sunburnt! We'll upload pictures in a couple of days.


Holy shit?!
Farmor (Sivor) asked us if we knew about a cows poo beeing sacred. And honestly - we don't know! What we do know is that they use it. The shape them into a flat, round... thing and slap them on their little huts. Maybe it's good isolation?


Slumdog millionare
About the slum in Mumbai. It isn't actually that bad... they are poor, don't get me wrong. But the ones who lives in the slum are not the poorest of the poor. The slum in Mumbai turnover 600 million dollars a year - they have a lot of factorys there so it's more like a town in a town.


Our plans
We have been a bit (or a lot) sneaky about where we're going next. And we won't tell you yet... All I can say is that it's in India and it's slightly cooler there... And the coulor turquoise comes to mind... hmhmhm


I thought I should tell you what a wounderful experience we had a couple of days ago in Munnar. The second day we took another riksha tour with a german guy we met the evening before. We had a wounderful day and went on a trecking-safari (don't worry the guide had a giant stick that he was going to use to poke all the lions and tigers when they attacked us... and... all we saw was a deer and some tracks from some animal...), swimmed in a lovely little lake with a whole lot of monkeys around us and had a great lunch by the road. On our way back to Munnar someone in a car going the opposite direction yelled something to our driver. We stopped and our driver pointed at something down by the teabushes. At frist we didn't see anything... and then we saw a big wild elephant! Apparently there's only three in the area. After a while we saw that it wasn't just one elephant, there was three! Two big ones and a little cub! This was not a common thing that happens every day. No, all the people in the mountain villages came out from their huts and houses and looked at these amazing creatures. We drove off and stopped at a little road that led down to the teaplantations. At this point it was only our little group of four (the riksha driver, the german guy, Jacob and me) and we started to run through the teabushes (and yes, that hurt a lot!) in hope of catching the elephants and get a better picture! We saw them from about 20 meters! It was amazing! And my adrenalin was pumping like it never has before - of excitement and fear (the are huge). Allthough we've seen a lot of elephants in our time here, this was something else! Then, as me and Jacob was standing there, in the middle of some teabushes about 20 meters from the elephants our driver gave us some news. The elephants can actually climb up in the bushes (we where watching them from a little hill) if they feel like it or if they get angry. The fear took over and I started running up the hill.... Anyway, they didn't start to chase us but still, the thought of that they could have scares the hell out of me... Of course I was surrounded by matcho men who wouldn't show their fear! A very exciting experience!

Now we're in Madurai. Not a very fun city. We have stayed here one night and at nine tonight we're going on a train to Chennai. Chennai on the other hand is not supposed to be a very fun city either but we have some arrends to attend to... hm hm hm...

Talk to you soon!

Love
Melissa & Jacob

So we thought we might dedicate a blogpost to all of your questions! We have set up headlines... so enjoy!

The food
Most of the questions you have are about the food. We allmost always eat indian food. And 99 per cent of the time it's vegetarian. Suprised? At first it just felt good to eat vegtables instead of chicken or meat (to avoid getting sick) but as we got further along we just continued to go veggie! We're not doing it too loose weight or anything - the food is covered with fat. Our normal dinner contains of; two different kinds of vegtable mixes, it can be anything from tomato fry, vegtables, potatoes in a spicy-mix with fat (ghee). Sounds a bit stange maybe but it's good! Then we share some rice (sometimes with some kind of flavour to it if we want to be a bit more luxurious) and order in some naan(bigtime favourite!). We have discovered a very nice snack which is called Pakora. It's vegtables (or cheese, chicken) that are shaped into small balls and deepfried. And of course they are spicy!

Once or twice we've gotten sick of all this chapati, curd, curry, masalablablabla and yes, we have sined. We didn't write it on the blog... because we were ashamed. It happend in Varanasi. Our hotel was at least a halfhour with a bumby riksha down to a restaurant. We walked just a few meters from our hotel and a big light hit us! The big yellow "M" couldn't have come in a better moment. We went in orderd a hell of a lot of food (all vegetarian!) and before we knew it we had committed to a sin. At least while beeing in India. It was tasty, we enjoyed it. End of story.

We're thinking about taking a cooking class in the end of the trip (to keep it all in mind) and hopefully we'll be able to cook for you all!


The cellphone
We just want to remind everyone that you can send us textmessages BUT to our swedish numbers. I think we get them all! The thing is, we will answer you with our indian number but you still have to keep texting to our number. NOT to our indian number! For some reason we don't get those messages. Now, did I make myself clear? :D


Stomach disorder
We havn't got it! Yet. We're both amazed. We eaten everything that you schouldn't: ice cream, fruit, we even brush our teeth in indian water... I promise you that we'll get in now that were getting so cocky!


Our driver
As we promised our mums we have been sugar coding the blog a bit. Here comes a short version, but the real version about our driver Manoj. He was quite nice, talked a lot of shit (as many people do), drank to much (not while driving though!), smoked something that made him giggle (not while driving) and... the last day we found out that he was an alcoholic. Which made sense. Allthough... he drove unbelivably... quite well... The end.


The heat
Some people worry about the heat. We're down south as you may know and it's hot. We can't argue with that. We're quite used to it now because in the north it was about 25-30 degrees and down here it's about 35. Now when we are in Munnar up in the mountains it's about ten degrees in the night and about 25 in the day and we're walking around in our hoodies! Right now it's nine in the evening and I am wearing layers! But our plans for our trip will help us cope with the heat a bit...

We will give you some more answers another day! ( If you have questions - comment! )

Lots of love to you all!!!!

Efter en jakligt skumpig bussresa pa 8 timmar fran Trivandrum anlande vi till Munnar. Munnar ar en by som ligger hogt upp i bergen i Kerala. Byn ligger omgiven av berg och pa bergens sluttningar vaxer det teabuskar och det ar det man kollar pa har, teabuskar i mangder!

I dag tog vi en rikshatur runt Munnar och dess sagolika natur. Tank er grona tea fyllda berg, sma dalar, sjoar och eukalyptusskog sa vet ni hur fantaskiskt vackert det var.

Bada tva ar ganska forskylda sa det blev inte mer i dag an rikshaturen.
I morgon ska vi ta en till rikshatur runt bergen och forhoppnigsvis aka till en nationalpark och ga pa trecking!

Kram fran oss!

Nya resplaner vankas! Nu ska det bara smidas lite till och sen...

Om du ar avundsjuk nu Johan sa vanta bara...

Grattis Pontus till disputationen (eller vad sager man?) hoppas allt gick bra!

Kram pa er!

A typical Indian snack in Jaipur



Melissa in Udaipur



On the highway





Our driver Manoj changes the tires agian...



The Taj and Jacob



The Norstrom syndrome... Reading every (freakin') sign you can find!!!



A pimped out Riksha



Early morning at the Ganga river





Sunrise at the Ganga river (in a boat)



Varanasi meets the Ganga river





The old city in Varanasi









On the train to Trivandrum (we noticed now that we didn't have any pictures from Mumbai! And Jacob isn't as mad as he looks by the way)



A loooong train







Our balcony in Kovalam (Jacob is reading "Beach" by the beach he he he)



Birthday dinner at Fushion



Melissas gift - it was very tasty! Thank you!



Our daily breakfast at the German bakery

Hope you like our pictures!!

(Tack for alla gratulationer! Och Farmor, tack for den fina "presenten" :D Superbra! Ska kopa mig nagot riktigt fint, eller sa blir det nagra riktiga lyxmaltider!

Tack mamma, pappa & Alex for en fin pratstund! Pengarna tog slut om ni inte forstod det... det var mysigt att hora era roster!)

Lots of love to you all!

Hi everyone! Now we finally got the time to sit down and update you on our last couple of days. So last time we "spoke" we were i Varanasi having a good time. Since then a lot has been going on. We took the train to Mumbai which went smoothly, 26 h went by so fast! We arrived, took a taxi to our hotel that we had booked (sort of, you never know in this freackin' country!) and were pleasantly suprised when we actually got it! Amazing.

Mumbai suprised us aswell. It was like an Indian Paris... I guess we should thank the british for the "western style". Still there was a lot of poverty and slum (as in Slumdog millionare). We walked about in the city and realised how nice it was to see the sea for the first time in a couple of weeks! We lived just next to the harbour and the India gate and hopefully we'll be going there again on this trip. Allthough Mumbai is very expencive so we will see about that...

On thuesday we took a train to Trivandrum (30 h) and arrived there at seven in the evening. A half hour later we put our backpacks down in a far to luxurious hotel just by a road in what we thought was Kovalam. The hotel was supposed to lay just a long the beach... there was no beach... we couldn't even HEAR the beach. We banged our heads against the lonely planet bible (that we always carry around) where we had found the hotel. We looked at the map and couldn't get where we were. We took a walk around the road that we lived by and of course... it's India after all.... the power went out! We had a flashlight but we gave up and had some "fish'n'chips" (not) and went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

The day after we had an early star at seven o'clock. By day this whole mess felt much more 'fixable' and after a 45 minute search we had our room for half the price, compared to the very nice hotel by the road, front row to the sea. Neighbours with the exquisite german bakery. We have a balcony, two plastic chairs, a little table and someone (we still don't know who) who sweaps it every day. Our bathroom is shit, but we're getting used to that by now. The shower leaks and the toilet doesn't flush properly but we still love it. Now we hear the sea, very loudly too.

The people here are very nice and we think we're going to stay here for a week or more... The only thing that we can complain about is that we both got really sunburnt yesterday... we're worse than the pale british people who are here... we're red. It's allmost like Holi-festival all over again.

As you may know it's my (Melissas) birthday today! Thanks for the comments and texts I've gotten! Love you all very much! To celebrate it all we are going to eat at a fancy restaurant called Fusion... remember Helena? we're looking forward to that!

Tack Matilda! Du ar sa fin som kommer ihag min fodelsedag du. Kul att du foljer bloggen!

Tack Emma (om du rakar lasa bloggen)!

Kim! Gud vad Nora ar sot som ville baka en tarta (kandes som hon hade en agenda dock :D)! Tanker pa er JATTEMYCKET och saknar er tokmkt!


Johan! Kul att du har hittat hit! Trakigt med datorn, tank mycket pa oss (mig)! / Jacob


Lots of Love to you all!

Hey everyone! Puh! I have SO much to tell you. Right now we're in Varanasi and having a great time but it took a lot for us to come here...

It all started on wednesday when we were supposed to go to Arga but we had some truble with our car so we didn't leave Ranthambore until thursday morning. After about an hour in the car on very bumpy roads we stoped in the middle of nowhere in a village - there was something wrong with the engine... After about 30 minutes there we left... only to about half a km away get a flat tire. We switched tires and then stoped again to fix the otherone... To make a long story short... we had three flat tires, we had to stop three times to fix the other tire, we stoped eight times on a journey that was about 250 km long. It took us 8 hours. When we got to Arga we had to rush to the Taj Mahal because it closed at 4.30!!! We ran and got just in time, we hadn't been to the toilet for all those hours and we where dripping with sweat. So we came, we saw, we wounderd about and thoght about how much whiter the Taj Mahal looks on all those pictures (we we not very impressed) and then we got back to our driver who was waiting for us outside.

At the time we thought we had a lot of time until our train was supposed to leave (about halv past eight). So we drove of to get our train tickets and we stop at this marble-shop (they get comission for taking us to some stores). After a five minute visit we get out to the car and then our driver tells us that we don't have any time to go to our hotel because the train station is an hour away. At this point we were so mad that we allmost burst into tears!!! We convinced him that we actually had time and that we really needed to go to the toilet and take a shower. After all that "your the boss"-talk he did as we said and we went to the hotel and took 30 minutes to do what we had to do. We had no time to eat (we had only eaten breakfast and a small bag of crisps for lunch) or do anything else. Allthogh Agra didn't look to nice from the car. We got to the train station a good hour before we should (you know me) and had dinner outside in a dump with only indians around. It was dark and getting a bit cold. We took a seat at the ground on our platform and waited for our train. Just before hitting the train we met a large group of danish seniors from Copenhagen and we started to talk to them. And they were also going to Varanasi and allmost had the same seats as us so we thought we would tag along with them... In the meantime a train came in and we started to doubt that we were going on the same train as the danish senoirs. We asked someone and at the same time the train started to move. We started to run to see if we could find our coach number (apparently this was our train!!!), without any luck. We had missed our train. We started to panic a bit, this station was not an ideal place to pull out your sleepingbag and stay over night and it was quite far from Agra.

While panicing one of the danish seniors came and told us that she thoght that they had a few seats left. We talked to the danish guide and he said that it was possible to arrange something. A big discussion started between us, the danish guide and someone working at the trainstation as our new train was coming in. We hopped on the train and got talking to a very nice conducter who basically said "we'll figure this one out! no promblem!". We jumped and gave thing loads of thanks and airkisses, we were so relifed! We had to pay 2700 Rs (Less than 500 kr) but we were so happy anyway!

We arrived to Varanasi at five o'clock in the morning, we thanked the danish seniors and the guide and said our goodbyes. Next mission was to find our driver who was supposed to pick us up. We were so tired that we gave up after about a quarter of an hour later and took a riksha to our hotel.

What a freakin' day!!!! We were so stressed out! And I still am a bit just by writing about it.

After a few hours of sleep we had some breakfast we met som New Zeelanders (?) and went down to the trainstation to book some tickets together. So now we have a ticket from Varanasi to Bombay tomorrow that takes about 26 hours, then we have a night in Bombay and the day after that (9 of march) we have a train to Trivandrum (south of India) that takes about 30 hours. It feels so good to have the tickets in our hands! We ready to go! The train is not bad. Quite nice (tank svensk liggvagn till are), so mum please don't worry!

Varanasi is treating us good, done some great shopping and this morning we went on a boat on Gagnes during sunrise - really nice! Now were going to a really nice resturant just by the river to sit and enjoy life!

Very long update, sorry!

Lots of love to you all!

(we'll maybe catch a internet cafe in Bombay otherwise you'll hear from us in Kovalam)

Gick in pa eran blogg men det gick inte att kommentera (kolla over det pappa ar du snall)... Jadrans blogger! Har kommer min kommentar!

Hej Mami! Bra bloggat :D Har forsokt kommentera tidigare men fick inte ratt pa det da! Det verkar som ni har det bra dar hemma i alla fall... snart kommer varen! Och da ska du vara i form sa du far fasiken masa dig ivag till gymmet... kom ihag vad vi sa nu! :) Later kul med aspiranten! Du ar sa duktig.

Tack for att du forde over pengar, vi tog ut igar sa det borde synas om ett par dagar. Sen far du garna messa mig om Klara, jag vill veta! Okej?

Alskar er och ta hand om er nu... Jacob halsar! Pusspusspusspuss


/Melissa

Finally! Here you have some pictures! We picked one from each day except for today. As you can se we are covered with colour from head to toe. Today it was a Holy-festival. Google it! It's crazy. But take it easy we sayed in the hotel-area all day.

Picture #1: A kiosk in Old delhi (they are everywhere!)

Picture # 2: A cow on the motorway

Picture # 3: Dancing in the royal palace in Jaipur

Picture # 4: At the lake in Udaipur

Picture # 5: A typical indian lunch in Udaipur

Picture # 6: Rest in the dessert at the camelsafari at sunset

Picture # 7-8: Holy festival in Pushkar (today)

Now we are off to dinner here at the hotel.

Lots of love to you all!