The first days in Kathmandu/Nepal. Interesting and different to the places I have seen in India. Kathmandu is a quite touristy place and I have never met so many tourists before then here during this trip. A lot of temples and interesting places…

Here is everything: Internet on every corner, shops, restaurants, bars, rikshas, tourism - the business is running! Also the people are a little bit different and quite “western-styled”. The prizes are low and its possible to have a complete lunch with drinks under 1 US-$. Trekking-Clothes, jackets, T-Shirts, shoe, hats and coats on every corner - faked brands quite cheap…

So far my first impressions from Kathmandu.

I made a long walk through the city today and after having this internet-break I am off to Pashupatinath - a Hindu-place in Kathmandu next to the river. Tomorrow I am planning to go outside of Kathmandu, visiting some smaller villages.

Yesterday evening I had a dinner at the Mocambo-Restaurant. I think, it was one of the better restaurants due to the prizes and the audience. I had a Kingfisher-Beer (640 ml), Chicken Oriental and a Brownie with Vanilla Ice. Everything was OK and very good. I payed 450 Rs (these are 8 EUR - most expensive dinner here in India ever, it is up to the prize of a room/night).

It was very interested, that the guests in this restaurant - although they are all from India - spoke only english. Very strange and quite a broken english. I verified this, as I talked with the man next to me. He is a doctor, living in Kolkata…

OK… This day I visited the BBD Bagh Part of the city - “Dalhousie Square“. Went there by taxi and walked around… Very interesting, very british. Many british buildings - you could mean, you are somewhere in the UK.

The gap is very high… The differences… between poor and rich. Best restaurants, top mobile-phones and computers and during watching new cars on the street you have to take care, that you do not hurt people crawling or sleeping on the pavement, street or floor.

Children and woman are begging. “Giving money to beggars is a crime”, I am often hearing from locals.

The hotel, I am staying… Sunflower Guest House… The building is very old and there is an elevator in it. Very very old one and operated manually day and night by a person. Does not look very secure… :)

@Albert: You are right… They are selling teaching books on the street… All kinds… TOEFL-test, German, all computer languages…

I am going to stay today (Wednesday, May 14) in Varanasi and visiting old city and some ghats. It’s now 10 AM and already very very hot in Varanasi.

In the evening at 6 PM I am heading off to Calcutta by night-train in the sleeper-class. Arriving there at around 8 AM next morning. In Calcutta I am going to stay three days.

“Innorama”: twitsay.com 

I am trying to use twitsay.com for some Audio-Updates. Just found out, that this is quite new… Let’s see how it works - you can easily check my voice-updates on my twitter-account twitter.com/sugarmelon in some hours…

This goes fast… After getting my holidays I was on Mariahilferstrasse this evening, buying a Lonely Planet for India. Wow, more than 1000 pages.

Route: Checked my route… Thought about travelling through North-India - from New Dehli to Darjeeling. Changed it later, want to go to the beach, enjoying sun and beach next to city and country. So - the primary trip from New Dehli to Goa is still up to date.

Flight: Well, booked my flight on www.checkfelix.at - a direct-flight from Vienna to New Dehli with Austrian Airlines for around 600 EUR. Price is OK for a 7.5 hr. travel. Super… It seems to run everything how I planned. checkfelix.at seems to be a very cool platform for booking flights - booking cheap flights. Never seen so many really cheap ones and especially flights, which are so easy available…

Exciting…