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Good morning!       (–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

started in Jordan, after almost 2 months of driving through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, we arrived in the next major country that we wanted to visit: India!

Honestly that was a huge effort to arrive here. That was hard 5.000 Km of driving :-0 But we made it! Our expectations about India became diverse during the weeks before arriving in that exotic country of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Curry, Chai, a lot of traffic, poverty, garbage problems etc. We talked to a lot of other travellers who often warned us because ‘so many people, so awful traffic and a country full of very (very!) curious people’ who are all willing to find out what (the hell) a traveller from Europe wants to find in India. So, we were expecting a very vital passage of our world trip, still being very enthusiastic about finally seeing India.

And what did we find out since now? As so often: expectations and judgement about a country or its people a very (very!) subjective. Of course, all the time people are coming to the truck asking, ‘where are you from!?’ or ‘how do you like India!?’ Usually, it does not take even 5 minutes until the first Indian stands at the truck, sometimes only watching, only investigating what that big, strange vehicle is doing there. And when there is one Indian it only takes minutes, and the crowd grew to ten or twenty fellows. It is difficult not to be alone in India. The question is: how do you get the privacy that every person needs? How does a person from Europe can stand this!? Since we were a kind of prepared towards the very curious and non-shy Indians we quickly found our way of saying ‘sorry, we are busy right now’ or ‘thank you, now I need a rest’. And it worked nicely! We found a good way of communication with the locals. We were having nice conversations but also pointed out (in a friendly, respectful but clear way) when it’s enough. A gentle ‘no, that’s it for the moment, …please leave now’ works well, and everybody is happy. Handling that kind of situation is another big learning from our world trip. In addition, we must say that it is a very good thing to travel in a big truck because you just can close the door and shut the blinds, …then you are invisible and usually nobody bothers you.

Our trip started in Amritsar, in the north-north-west of India, arriving from Pakistan. New Delhi and the region of Rajasthan (Jaipur, Udaipur, Pushkar) where the first areas where we travelled. Unfortunately, in February Heike had to fly back to Germany/ Kassel for a while to take care of some family business. So, Carsten started to be a part-time-solo-traveller 😉

Enjoy the pictures 🙂
Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!       (–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

To travel through Pakistan on our voyage to India was of extraordinary excitement for us (3 trucks). From what we heart from the media and government information ‘it is not possible’ because very dangerous etc. But once more that was absolutely misleading. It was easy and nice to travel even through Belutschistan guided by the Levi-police. For us it was very pleasant to meet the Pakistani people on the streets and in the villages during our trip. But we had to learn and accept that it was of biggest importance for the locals when we arrived. Everywhere people joined us in big groups (because for them it is almost not to believe that 3 trucks from Europe are travelling in Pakistan). We had a great time and could enjoy it. One more great experience!

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!       (–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

Christmas 2023 was of a different kind: we did not travel back home to Germany since we have been there already twice in 2023. Our travel family got bigger since Nuria & Antonio did join our group in Iran. The plan was to celebrate Christmas and New Year together in Iran and then travel together in a convoy of 3 trucks to India via Pakistan.

After travelling more than one year in the Arabic world (and we loved that very much!) Iran was a very refreshing world. Persia for us is a much more liberal world where Europeans have a much easier time to get around since the rules are not so strict and the life on the street feels much more familiar for us. Maybe it is only the fact that Iranian women take a normal part of everyday’s life (you can see them, you can talk to them) what makes the difference. We felt very welcome and we were very happy to be able to get back to Iran for a second time!

So enjoy some impressions from Iran!

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!       (–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

today we have some more pictures from Jordan for you, including pictures from the famous ‘Wadi Rum’ where we were following the steps of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ 🙂

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!       (–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

Jordan is another country in the Arabic world that we did not know so far. Even if we had a great time in Jordan, visiting the famous World Heritage Site ‘Petra’, Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea, we – of course – found much more tourism than in the months before in Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq etc. That made a significant change to our perception: the pure Arabic soul was not to be seen so clearly, often we had to struggle with the side-effects of tourism (e.g. when it comes to bargain fair prices without getting ripped of). That was not a big problem, but during the months before we really enjoyed experiencing the pure Arabic spirit, friendliness and honest hospitability (that we liked so much).

But still: Petra, Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea were great (if we don’t think about the millions of flies that come over at the Ded Sea to say hello in the afternoon :-0)

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten