Why solo is best

Let it go
A lot of people ask me if I don’t feel alone, traveling such a long time by myself, 420 days now. If I don’t miss my home and my friends. Truth be told, there’s too much happening to really miss something or someone. It’s like an adrenaline rush of new things. I hardly have time […] Read More

Out of ‘town’

Let it go
Mallory and I took a short stroll out of ‘town’, from the main street with all the shops into the old part of the village, with a few houses and then mostly fields with cows, pigs and other animals, roaming around freely. We passed a temple where a concert was held, talked to a couple […] Read More

Erotic Khajuraho

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The reason to come to Khajuraho are its Hindu and Jain temples. Most temples were built some time between 950 and 1050, during the Chandella dynasty. Records suggest that there were once 85 temples, but only about 20 survived the Muslim raids and conquests, and the vegetation growing over them for centuries. What makes them […] Read More

Khajuraho

Let it go
It took some time to remember the name of the place. Kha-ju-ra-ho. Funnily, even Indians sometimes shrug when I say it – or maybe I am mispronouncing it so badly that they can’t understand me. It’s a tiny nest of some 20 000 inhabitants, in the Chhatarpur District, in the North of the Indian State of Madhya […] Read More

Moving on to Khajuraho

Let it go
After five days in intense and colorful Varanasi, I travel on to the more quiet Khajuraho, home to a number of Jain temples with erotic carvings. It’s going to be two short hops, on the same plane with a short stop in Agra. I guess we can even stay in the plane. Here are the […] Read More

Varanasi Silk

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Our guide Manoj took us to a visit through one of the Varanasi silk factories. We had a guide who showed us how the silk gets woven, from the men who develop the patterns, make the cards that steer the electric looms, or weave the silk by hand. I can’t comprehend how you can invent […] Read More

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

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India is the birthplace of Buddhism, so I am running into Buddha over and over again. One of the holy sites in Buddhism is just a bit north of Varanasi, in Sarnath. It was here, near the confluence of the Ganges and the Gomati rivers, where Buddha first taught the Dharma. Today, it is a holy site to Buddhists, with many temples from all […] Read More

Night time on the Ganges

Let it go
Varanasi is one of the holy places for Hindus. It’s here that they come to die, and be cremated on the banks of the river Ganges. It is a Hindu rite of passage, where pujas (prayers) are performed and mantras recited during cremation. We hired a boat for the five of us, after tough and […] Read More

Tiny world

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You realize how small the world is when you’re sitting in a roof top café in Varanasi, and suddenly, across the tables, you see a familiar face from home. I met Fabrice from Brussels at the Brown Bakery Café in Varanasi. And then again while walking along the river. He’s traveling through India with a […] Read More

Ganges walk

Let it go
We woke up and headed over to one of the recommendations in the Lonely Planet: Brown Bread Bakery. They have a nice roof top restaurant, serve great breakfast – any German specialties from bread to Kässpätzle – and have a wifi. Which attracts the other tourists, too. There, we met up two other travelers, Ceres, […] Read More

Varanasi evening

Let it go
The flight with Air India was smooth, and I caught a prepaid taxi to the center. It was quite a wild drive over a rural road, with little villages lined up like pearls on a string. Despite being rural, the traffic was tough to navigate: the usual cars, busses, motor cycles, cows and pedestrians, just […] Read More