Coconutyoga Travels

Unbelievable. I can`t imagine to be back in Asia in the next two weeks.
I am thinking a lot about wher to start and where to go.
I feel unprepared like always. Will be interesting again.
News will follow soon!

Germany

Hello everybody!

It`s a long time ago that i wrote on my blog the last time. The cause was I had a very bad time. And in this case it is almost impossible to write something useful.
Still I didn`t escaped the shadows totally, but it is getting better day by day.
It is not the right place to explain exactly what happened. Let`s say I felt very dissapointed and hurt.
So I had after two mostly nice weeks in Crete, three mostly bad weeks following. I wasn`t talking to almost nobody that time. One cause was for sure that my greek is still not good enough to communicate about more than basic things. Another that I want to be alone when I feel hurt.
And our house is around 4 miles away from the next small town and the beach as well. Sometimes I walked there but i got tired of walking after a while. And I feel sometimes like haunted by other people, when I am in just a bad period. It was really a deep, deep whole.
But it wasn`t only bad. Still the weather was very nice, i cooked every day, listened to music and read a lot of books. More than 15 finally.
I just updatet my literature section. Just check it!
two weeks ago i came back to Germany. The first two days I stayed with Ulf in Mannheim, who was so friendly to give me a nice welcome. He was waiting for me in the middle of the night, even when he had to work the next day very early. Thanks a lot!
After these two days I went to Stuttgart and stayed for some days in Gilad`s flat.
Great to feel so welcome! He just went himself to Crete today and I hope he will have a great time.
Stuttgart has changed a lot in the last months, because of the protests against the "Stuttgart 21"; great to see the city alive, maybe it is the start of a bigger movement, that will increase the direct influence on politics. That would be very nice. Meanwhile I am almost sure, that they will stop the project.
I was almost every day drunk and smoked to much to be honest. But it was just necassary after this really bad time. Sometimes I would just love to have a "normal" life withou these heavy ups and downs. But it is sitll a long path to go.
Important is not to give up, what is difficult enough sometimes.
My Birthday was very crazy, i was much to early much to drunk, so I can`t remember a lot. I think I was drunk like two horses already at nine o clock, when my best friend arrived... You just have to watch the pictures...
But I was still alive at around two o clock when we left. Or lets say I was not sleeping or dead. We had a bill around 300 Euro to pay...
And i can tell you, we have not been too many people.
Still it was nice to see all my friends.
When I saw my face the next day in the mirror, I was very surprised, because i looked like after a fight. I learned later that I tried to fight with Gilad, what wasn`t sucessfull in this state. So my face got in contact with the street...
Even more worse was what happened to two friends of mine. They have been shouting loud on there way home (they are almost sure it wasn`t insulting). Somebody stopped with his car, hit one of them in the face, the other one in the stomach and drove away again. Crazy! Christoph got so horrible pain after a while, that it was necessary to call the ambulance and he had to stay in the hospital for 4 days. He was bleeding from inside. Shit!
The taxi driver who drove Gilad, Toni and me home wasn`t to surprised when we presented a stolen chair and explained him that we just buyed it now in the middle of the night...
Crazy people, crazy birthday.
when Martkus and me visited our friend in the hospital we acted like mafiosi, who are ordered to end our murder. "Do he think he can hide here in the hospital, Luigi?"
"Give me the pillow"; "I don`t like it when unguilty people get ivolved in that shit"
For sure we had to wear sunglasses and tried not to laugh.
Let`s say the people have been kind of irritated.
Whatever, you see, I am very far away from getting back to a serious life.

Actually I am staying in Bremen with my parents and I am trying to do something useful. And this is writing a lot for my book. That isn`t a nice or easy work, as anybody knows who tried to write. Sometimes I think I should stop to write about bad memories, because it is getting to painful sometimes, but after a while I know again, that I have to do it. It is so necessary to reflect the things and give them a place outside of my mind.
Maybe I get more free this way.
And I have seen Berlin finally. I just had some hours, but it was very interesting.
In some days I will head back to the south of Germany. The next weekend we will have a meeting from our education and I am looking forward to see some people agein.
And soon after I will head back to India!!!
I hope I will be still able to visit Ladakh, before it is not possible anymore because of the weather conditions. Varanasi and Calcutta are waiting ass well.
And this time I will make it to visit kerala and Hampi in the indian South. And to come to Goa is no question as well.
I know, plans are changing all the time, but I am almost sure that Cambodia and Thailand will follow as well.
Around May 2011 it is probably over with travelling for a longer time.
I hope I will have the power to make this plans true.
Anyway, I try to write more often again and hope you are well!!!

Much Love,

Mr. Coconutyoga

P.S.: also check the new pictures in the second last blog entry and the two videos in the last! A Tribute to phantastic Junkerry will also follow soon!

oh...before I forget: don`t drive drunk with the bike...can be painful as well...

Tribute to Laguna Vista and Kala Patar

View from the "Magic Rock" near the Laguna Vista over the Lagoon





View of the Himalayan Range while ascending to Kala Patar

Crete

Hello everybody!

I am still in Crete. The weather is fantastic. Meanwhile my family left. My parents, uncle and aunt already on monday, my brother followed two days later.
Now Manoli (of course the son of our friend Manoli and as well the father of another Manoki...) and his wife are learning in our house for their examins.
It is amazing how qiet I always get when I stay here for a longer time. But also my Greek is still in a miserable stat, so it is not easy to communicate to a lot of people.
But it is my home in a way and I feel always when i am here, how much this place influenced my personality. Often, when i was in Asia, i thought the people are in a way so similiar to the greek people. And for sure the Greeks influenced the asian culture and the asian influence especially on Crete is also not to negate.

The birthday of my mother was very nice. She enjoyed herself and we had some really nice guests. Another day we went like every year to a place, hidden in the mountains, where is celebrated every year a religious event, followed by some dance, eating and drinking. I like the atmosphere in this place. This time i used the time to climb on the top of the mountain as well. Probably i will do it again in the next days. I still love trekking!!! But the most funny part is always the way up and down with our friend Manoli, who is driving the Tractor.

The day, when my brother left I was on a raggae concert. This was fantastic, even if i couldnt understand a lot. There was almost no strangers instead of the charming english ladies and the jamaican Guy with them i went there. Still very young by heart, even if they are more than double my age...
On the dance floor I was absolutely the only stranger and i saw a lot of surprised faces. But it was great, i did a lot of dancing even if it was very hot in the wonderful stone theater. Some Pictures will follow!

As I heared my friend Johannes escaped out of Ladakh without injuries. I am very happy about that. It was a dangerous situation and i was full of sorrows.

I hope two good friends of mine will also have a good and safe tracvel. They will fly into Moscow, stay there 4 days and then going on the Transib Route. All the best for you!!!

I will go in some days probably to Naxos to visit one of my female cousins, Ruth. This will be very nice.
After staying another 10 days or something I will come back to germany for another 4 weeks before heading to Asia again.
I know, i am a very happy fellow at the moment. I am very thankful for that. It has been not only bright in my life...
Stay true, yours,

Mr. Coconutyoga

Himalayatrek

Hello everybody!

Time for a short Update. I am still in Crete and as I don`t have any flight ticket or anything else, I don`t know when I will leave this place. Probably I will stay another week. My parents and my uncle and aunt will leave tomorrow and my brother 2 days later. I will relax probably a little more... I am actually very tired from writing.
Actually I even don`t know where I will head to then. But I also really don`t care.
At the moment I am busy with writing down my experiences of the second part of my travel, waht is not only joy... But like last time it is a unique possibiliy to get out a lot of things out of my memory, that I almost forgot. Espacially the smaller details.
Maybe I will return to Germany for a second stopover, mostly to have some time to work on with my book. I have already material for around 300 pages, but there is so much to do, until I will be satisfied. There are still to many fragments and to less really ready parts.
The decision to come back to India is inbetween clear. There has to happe a lot to change this plan again.
And Cambodia and Laos are also calling for me already.
But maybe I could use the time in Germany to make some first connections with people, who could be able to edit the book or even publish it. Dreams are allowed!
The remaining time I am going to swim, sitting in the sun or reading. I just read a fascinating book from Tahir Shah about the magical India, about his experiences as a student of a magican and just started a book from Terziano Terzani: Flying without wings: a journey to the asian Mystiries. I can just reccomend both of them.
Check also the book reccomendments. I just started this section.
As well I finished my full report about the trek in the Kumbu-Region from Jiri to the Kala Patar and Everest Base Camp. For the moment it is just in german available.
Please check it and comment it!!!

Crete, Greece

Hello everybody! In between I arrived in Crete, the biggest Island of Greece. I will spend the next two weeks with my parents, my younger brother and my uncle and aunt. In some days my mother will celebrate her 60. Birthday, actually the reason I came here. Our place here is just amazing. The small but wonderful house is around five miles away from the sea. On the other side we are surrounded by mountains (okay, not like in Nepal, but majestic, especially so close to the sea). We are living very close to a small greek village, where are very good friends of us living. I was here the first time, when i was thirteen months old and since then almost every year. So it feels like a second home, even if i still can`t speak greek, like i would like to do. But one day I will stay here for a longer time and then I will finally learn it. My Grandfather was the first in the family, who visited Crete. He was a Translator here in the times of the second world war. And he came back with my Grandmother, after he was able to come again. And again and again they came. So they became friend to Manoli and his Family. My Parents followed and also stayed here, as often as they could. In the End of the 80`s my parents and grandparents started to plan this small house (my grandfather was also an architect and my father has a lot of skills as well), buyed some ground from our friend and my grandparents watched over the project, when it was built, what is very necessary in Greece... So in 1989 the house was finished. Still it was not allowed for Foreigners to owe own ground or houses in Greece, so it was officially Manoli, who was the owner in the bginning. Later he transcribed the house to us. That time it was so much cheaper than today. Later it would have been almost impossible to realise this house. It is a very peacful place, the views are like postcards, we are cooking for ouselves, sleeping outside and when the moon will get smaller we will have a phantastiv view at the stars, because there is almost no light pollution. I will have time to write down my reports about the second part of my big travel, improve this blog and also swim, read and relax. What will happen after staying here is widely open. As I had some very spezial meetings in Stuttgart, there is maybe a reason to come back. But still i would like to go to Asia again as soon as possible. My Family would like to see my in Germany again and would give my the time and space to write for my book. After I could still travel again. But now it is time to arrive in Crete and settle down for some days, before i make any decision. But how did I came to Crete? I didn`t wanted to flight. I had so many flights in the last months (10 in four months) and actually I don`t like to travel that fast. Especially flying directly from Asia to Europe is always a kind of nightmare, not because it is that long, but because the change is just too fast. So I decided to make the same travel, I did almost exactly one year ago, when I started to travel: I took a train from Stuttgart to Munich, to catch the night train to Venetia. As I had only a seat, I expected that I wouldn`t get a lot of sleep. Like the last time I meet some nice people, who are doing the Interrail; this time two guys from Brazil and another one from Norway. Very nice people. And they have been very pleased to meet me as I was, also because there was another german man in our compartment. And he was already fucking bloody drunk, when I arrived. He always tryed to talk to the other guys, but only in german and especially one of them was a little scared about him. He seemed to be a professional drinker, not totally stupid but had sadly a attitude of racism. But actually it was very funny to watch him. Conversation with him was also in german very problematic becaus of his state of mind... The Guys from Brazil and me went to the Bar to have some white beer and good talk. Later a english guy joined us and I came as well in contact with a german travel group, who finished there education and went with there teachers to Rome, the final destination of the train. I joined them after a while and it was very funny. As it belongs to such a trip after finishing the education they have been very very drunk and made a lot of noise. Some times they have been very short before beeing kicked out of the train... As i couldn`t afford another drink i just stayed sober and had still a lot of fun to talk to them and laugh with and about them. The remainig time i tried to sleep a bit. Also our german „friend“ was in the same danger to get kicked out of the train. He needed ten minutes to find his ticket again and talked nonsense to the italian service personal. And only in german... Once I heared him shouting from outside the train when we stayed for a longer time in Verona. He complained about his missing luggage. He just could`t realise that the train has been sepereted (the missing part was already on the way to Rome) and couldn`t find his place again as already often before. Then he asked my, if I could imagine if he could buy some beer at the train station... The plan of the three Interrail-travelers was to go to Milano in the morning and to come back to Venetia later. Once, when our train stopped, they saw another train, that would leave in some minutes to Milano. So they decided quickly to change the train. One of them forgot his sleeping bag. I tryed to bring it to them, but was not sure how long our train would stop. As I was already expecting, that they didn`t realised the missing item, I was already relaxing again, when I heared somebody shouting my name. It was one of the brazilian guys, who was staying in the train, maybe 7 meters away. „Throw my sleeping bag!“ And I did. Through the window, which was only possible to open 25 centimeters wide. And I was sucessfull, what affected a lot of joy and laughing at the other train... Finally I arrived in Venetia in the early morning and as I was very tired and absolutely sure I wouldn`t be able to stay awake the whole night, after so many days with so less sleep, I decided to go to the same hostel where I stayed last Year. The only problem there is that you can`t check in before 4 in the afternoon. So I lay down in the garden and had some sleep. After that I walked through Venice until the evening. Such a wonderful city. Very crowded in the summer and almost everywhere unbelievable expensive. Renting a Gondola for example would cost 80 Euro for 45 minutes, a espresso easily more than 10 Euro... But Venice is also nice without much money. And the dorm in the hostel costs 20 Euro and there is a supermarket with reasonable prices very close. Unbelievable how many beatiful women are in Venice... And my Charisma seems to be amazing in the moment. But you know: i am not like this, even if I`m not always pleased about it. I am still searching for real love. However. In the evening i meet one of the guys i would share the dorm with. A very nice guy from England. We had a nice talk. Then I went again into Venice. I love to get lost in this beatiful town. And it`s so easy if you don`t concentrate on the path. But as I was amazingly tired I was finally very pleased, when I found the Hostel again. Still the english guy was sitting on the terrace, in beetween acompanied by a guy from Taiwan. It was very funny to talk to them. I told them about some stories in Asia and how I became Mr. Coconutyoga. Especially the reaction of the Guy from Taiwan was interesting. He told my, that my life sounds for him like a movie (and i am not quite sure if he believed me everything). And I realised how right he is. Anyway, we had a good time and I smoked also some powerful Basilikum with the english guy, who looked then after a while very destroyed :-) The next day I had another short walk through Venice before I went to the port to get my ticket for the Passage to Greece. Leaving Venice by Ship is a very nice experience, because you are so close to the place of San Marco and the Lido. You can see almost the whole Panorama of Venice. Then I fall asleep. I had two beers with me from the super market and drunk them in the sun when i woke up... After that I met some very nice and funny people, who used to live in Berlin-Neukoelln for decades. We had a very good talk and I got invited for a ouzo. As I was already very drunk then I decided to make a drinking break (also because I had only money left for a hot dog and one last white beer. After having that beer later, i got invited by an austrian couple for a glass of wine and then by two guys from Salzburg for some Ouzo. But I just had a little bit and was prepared to fall asleep after. But this two guys had the certain plan to get in contact with girls... So they finally started to talk to a group of irish girls. They have been already amazing drunk. One of them had birthday. So we joined them. It was very very funny. Later we went to the disco on the ship and at least then everything went kind of crazy. It was a small dance floor, surrounded by small tables, occupied by lonely and greedy truck drivers who watched the girls dancing... The irish girls apoached the scene and tookover the place J They didn`t missed much crazy things to do: shouting in the mikrophone of the DJ, wasting the dance floor with their drinks, making very funny but also very displaced choreografies in the middle of the dance floor, so that everybody else had to leave and so on and so on. Sometimes i was laughing extremely hard about them. As I wasn`t able to afford another drink I got more and more sober but also got more and more into a dance feeling. Actually I stayed there until the disco closed... The offer of the girls to join them to go to Korfu was tempting but impossible to follow without any money and the birthday of my mother ahead. I met also some other nice people in this evening and it was a good one. The next day I had to sleep a lot and the journey seemed to be very short. And I was so lucky. Somebody gave me his cigarettes without asking him and the parents of the two guys from Salzburg and another couple from switzerland gave my a nice lunch package, as they heard that I was hungry and didn`t had any money. So great! From Patras, where I arrived at 8 in the evening I took the bus to Athens (for sure I had still the money for the bus and the ferry to Crete even if it was so tempting to use it for drinks ;-) ), where I arrived around one o`clock in the night. As I couldn`t afford any place to stay I went to the athenaen hill „Lykavettos“, where I found a place where I could sleep. I had another cigarette at the top, where you have the best view in Athens and then went to a short but good sleep (the only problem is that you have to sleep on a very steep ground). The following morning I went again to the top of the hill and then through Athens with a lot of Stops in Parks, at the Areopag, very close to the Acropolis and went through the Plaka, the most charming area in Athens, before I went to Pireaus to catch my ship. After another night on the ship with the last food of the lunch package I arrived in Crete. And here I am!!! Much love from Greece, Mr. Coconutyoga