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Beautiful Lapland!

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Two days pass quickly in the shared room of the youth hostel in Kiruna and at Saturday I continue direction Abisko/Norwegian border. The Hostel in Abisko is fully booked so I go further to the next hostel at Riksgränzen. Also fully booked and I can get some use of my Arabic skills. The refugees are extremely kind but cant help me – and of course its not allowed for me to sleep here. But I get a hint to go to Björkliden-Fjällby, in between the border and Abisko. It has already been dark when I passed there but I had seen it and go back.

At the Gåmmelgarden I move into a tiny but beautiful single room. Symptoms of a flu become undeniable by now so I go straight to bed and only leave it at night when the sky is clear in the days to come. I experience several amazing Aurora Displays at temperatures well below -20˚C. When I get better I discover beautiful common rooms, a sauna, kitchen a real cozy place all around me!

Many people come for 2 days to see the northern lights and then leave again. Often they miss the best because of the cold and a lack of patience. A few days later when the forecast is god for Norway in the first half of the night I put two Turkish guys I made friends with in the car and we go. It takes a long time until we reach the first fjord on the snowy roads and we go on to another one for less light pollution. Unfortunately there are villages along the fjords everywhere so the light pollution just gets a little better. Finally at the bridge after Sandstrand I see the first Aurora of the night and show it to Emre and his brother. We try several spots, have some nice views and take some great picture of a relatively weak aurora.

Soon we go back to Björkliden and when we arrive there around midnight the sky is clear – but no displays all the way. The guys go straight to bed and in the hallway I meet Seth who has seen the weak Aurora from Sky Station in Abisko and is on the way to bed too. I warn all of them to stay awake because my guts tell me the best is about to come. Five minutes later when I go out to smoke and check the situation I meet Seth starring at the sky… It dances! I run back in, wake up Emre and Can and tell them to be ready in 10 minutes.

10 minutes later we all go down to the lake where we spend the rest of the night watching an incredible show in the sky. I cant resist to turn on some Psytrance and dance in the freezing night until my flu forces me back into the car. Its unbelievable amazing what nature shows us here!

Friday I have to go to Kiruna. The power stirring doesn’t work sometimes and sounds like Chewbacca. I am afraid it was damaged in my accident and hope I can do it until the Baltics where I hope to find cheaper mechanics. When I stop at the Mechanomen, the company the fixed my car in Sala, they tell me they don’t even have time to look at it before Wednesday and they recommend not to drive until then…. After some discussion they tell me to go to another mechanic who might have time. I like the guy at the QT8 petrol station near the Kiruna Forum immediately. He refills the stirring liquid (no I did not open the bonnet at -20 while having a flu) and all is fine. I give him a bottle of Jägermeister I had taken for occasions like this and he refuses any further payment.

By Saturday I feel healthy enough to think about flying. I had mentioned it at the reception several times and the seemed not really to understand what I want. Today I talk to the ski teachers and they get me immediately. Well it was my fault as it took me a few days to find out I am in an amazing little skiing area as I was awake usually at night and the days are very short and sometimes white out. At the moment there is a Blizzard pulling up but for tomorrow the conditions seem to be better to do a daylight flight at least. The guys are really interested and motivated to support me. I am really glad to be here.

In the evening I find out about the “Bastu”, the sauna. As ours is broken at the Gåmmelgarden we are welcome to use the hotel sauna. As I find out this is the social place in Sweden where to meet people and make friends. Like the hot springs in Iceland. I love it! (And it seems to help with my flu either!)

Sunday morning I meet Anders and one of his colleagues to make a first daylight flight. Conditions seem to be perfect so we get dressed, get the snowmobile and up the mountain. The sunrise is absolutely stunning and I cant wait to get up into the air. Unfortunately we got all permits and are up on the hill there is wind from the back – I can’t start up here.
Back at Gåmmelgarden I look for Katharina and her friend, the two Swedish girls who have never seen the northern lights before. Its Katharinas 60s birthday today and I recommended them to get up early as the forecast predicted clear sky in the morning. It had been clear when I got up but unfortunately not before and for the coming night – their last one here, it was predicted to be cloudy again. They seem to be not here so I go back to bed to rest and get healthier.

Sleeping until 5 I go out to smoke around 6pm. I look up and see stars and an incredible Aurora hardly visible because of too much light pollution. I run inside, tell everybody, find Katharina and her friend in the piano room and put them in the car. I am really happy to have found them, even more when they tell me they haven’t seen nothing last night. When we arrive at the lake a special birthday show starts and I am extremely happy to share the experience of the first Aurora again. Its just such an amazingly wonderful planet with such an incredibly beautiful nature!

How it all began!

Featured

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Published on: Dec 24, 2015

For the first time for 8 years I will not be abroad during New Year (dont worry I am about to leave soon) so I thought about a Christmas special this year. I started this blog in 2011 when I drove to India but how did I get there?

Actually it all started when I was a child. Two different channels to choose from on the TV and all I was interested in were documentaries about wild animals at faraway places. Not much time in front of the screen and a lot out in the nature… Later in school I was bored very easy – I just couldn’t manage to stay in a room all day and listen to stupid stuff when outside the sun was shining. I am glad not to be too stupid so I somehow managed my way through most of the time. Soon my best friend below the desk became my Atlas. I figured out how to read it soon and on rainy days I visited places at the maps in my mind. English I spent in the colonies and while math I calculated how long it would take me to walk there. While everybody else in class was learning biology I was dreaming about rowing down Ghambia river watching hippos and bee eaters. Needless to say I loved geography! (Biology either but I had usually read the book for the year before Christmas and was bored then…)

Needless to say I dropped out of school at the age of fifteen. I tried other schools and different apprenticeships but nothing really attracted me. (Tough I learned a shitload of really important things). At this time I met a guy living in a farm in Carinthia with his family who had travelled india. I was very impressed – mostly by his clear eyes. At this time it was not so much of a problem to make some money and I was still living at home! That has been my first decision to travel to india.

Even though it was not so much of a problem to make money then it took time so my first journey was to become a short one. I just wanted two weeks of and grabbed a last minute ticket which had been pretty cheap then. Teneriffa it said and La Gomera I decided. And what a perfect first trip it was! I had a room for the first three days and then slept on the beach feeding a dog who would warn me when police was looking for people who sleep on the beach each evening. Later I moved to a little bay a stonecast away from valley Gran Rey but only to be reached when the tide was low. There were caves and a crazy old guy – I loved it!

When I came back I soon met Dagmar – my first girlfriend. I really love her but unfortunately she is not into travelling at all. She broke up with me 10 years later, I really needed some time off again, and I remembered about India. Fortunately I had finished university by that time and time was rather an issue than money. It must have been November 2007, when I met another girl who asked me if I want to come to India with her in two weeks. Why not, I replied and two weeks later we met at the check in counter at Vienna airport. Vienna to Mumbai via London is quite a detour but the flight from London to Mumbai was overbooked anyway – at least the economy section of it! We traveled first class!

So I was in India for the first time of my life, well Goa actually – but a nice arrival zone to India at least. By that time in my life I had given up hope for humanity. I had accepted that we are are all cursed to run after a carrot we would never get and most important to always feel unhappy! In Austria, where I come from I see too many people obviously having all you can get (for money) still being totally unhappy AND still continuing what they are doing!

In India I suddenly met a billion of people who have nothing but…. nothing but a smile in their face! I immediately fell in love with this country! Having five weeks only I wanted to leave Goa and explore the country, see it in all its beauty and stunningness (word correct doesn’t know India obviously)!
Within 5 weeks and by public transport I went the route: Anjuna – Hampi – Hyderabad- Vijayawada – Puri – Bandhavgarh – Agra – Pushkar – Rishikesh – Delhi (!!) (to see it on a map click here)

More than 4500km by train and some of them by bus. Given the average speed of an indian train at 30km/h at that time (not joking) I spent one of the five weeks on trains!

Of course I had not seen enough, I had made amazing experiences and for the first time in my life it felt real. I was depending on myself responsible for myself – nobody to blame for nothing! (The girl I had come with stood in Goa most of the time)

At my second visit to India one year later I met Lina from Sweden. I was in love like never before, and she too. We spent an incredible year together and I still have feelings for her like for the first flower I see in spring.

Our relationship ended one year later in India again. I extended my stay and went straight away to a yoga ashram in Pushkar where I stood the months to come. I bought “Om Tat Sat”, my third love – a 1982 model 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet! Soon it was redesigned and on the road and it was to become and amazing trip – my first overland trip on my own wheels by the way. I simply loved it. You will find it documented on my youtube channel looking up the videos titled “Gods own country on gods own bike”. The map of this trip you can find here and here (not possible to put too many places in one routing)

When I flew home after that extended stay the sky was clear, I had a window seat and I am pretty sure there is still a cast of my face on that window. I wanted to see all of this close up – on the road! One of the last times I talked with Lina I told her about the idea going to India by car. “Impossible” she said to me – the Capricorn.

This Blog I started for my mother to let her know I am fine. Let’s all send her best wishes, she is at the hospital at the moment recovering from a knee surgery.

I know there are loads of mistakes in the blog, sometimes even sentences without an end. Please be aware that I am writing this while travelling, mostly in the evening after a wonderful exhausting day. Sometimes I fall asleep while writing but, and I am sorry for this, I never read it a second time. Simply because there are better things to do at that moment. I know its shit and I am sometimes ashamed of myself when I read what I wrote years after. So please keep this in mind and show mercy.

By now travelling has given me a seemingly infinite lot of joy, amazing friends and stunning experiences, beautiful relations, incredible Visions – moments of pure happiness and bliss…
Now go and get a ticket! (I got mine and I’d love to meet you on the road!)

Flying high @ Castelluccio di Norcia & Lago di Garda (Italy)

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September 20. – September 27.

My flying school offers a flying trip to the flying mecca Castelluccio di Norcia. Tomas, a friend with whom I´ve been flying a lot and I decide to join. I have a little doubt because I am used to travel alone and going in a group of 9 (8 guys and Silvia, the girlfriend of Hans who is running the school). Its an incredible opportunity to experience one of the flying meccas in Europe. 9 people in the vw bus with all the luggage is thight from the beginning but the ride passes quickly over night and we arrive in Castelluccio Monday early morning. We are tired like hell but “fortunately the weather is shit and the wind to strong so we can rest most of the day.

Tuesday morning looks way better and we are out early morning. Clouds are covering the valley of Castellucio making it an amazing sight, the little village just sticking out of the sea of clouds in the morning. Soon the clouds rise and we can do our first real flight here. In the afternoon the conditions are even better – hardly any thermals but a nice laminar wind which is lifting us up the surrounding mountains making it harder to get down than up. Unfortunately I miss the top landing because of a wing collapse which cost me about 20m in height while approaching for landing. I turn around and land at the car ten minutes later – no second try to land up there…

In the afternoon we go soaring the exercise hill – a height difference of less than 70m between top and landing…. I ground handle my wing up the hill and then keep soaring in the laminar winds on the hill for nearly three quarters of an hour. Soaring, sometimes so close to the hill that I can even touch the ground if I stretch my arm is neverending fun – and even though its the most dangerous way to fly (if something happens ten meter above ground there is no chance to react or throw the reserve so you would fall on the ground like a rock) it feels way safer than hundreds of meters up. I love it and its the most fun flight I do in here.

The group is amazing – even though I find myself being rather alone sitting somewhere and watching the scenery than with them when we can´t fly my concerns prove to be nonsense. Even though we have a shared room for all of us everything works out way better than I had expected. Unfortunately the weather turns worse again after those amazing flights on Tuesday. Thursday afternoon when looking at the forecast in a little restaurant while drinking cappuccino I find out the weather is predicted to become even worse in the days to come.

Now that is one of the points why I love travelling alone so much. I would pack my stuff within seconds under these conditions. I show the forecast to hans and he makes an unsatisfied face. Until the evening we decide to leave and a little after midnight we are sitting in the bus heading to lake Garda. This group is amazing – most of them are no travellers at all but from me they all get the traveller honour medal. Awesome guys, with that decision you really surprised me – I wouldn’t have thought this quick decision is possible in a large group like this!
We arrive at lake Garda early next morning. The conditions are great, the landing area looks like a lost stamp between lake and bank and everybody is required to wear a life jacket as strong winds parallel to the lake make the landing a hard challenge on such a tiny piece of lawn. The view at the take off site is stunning – once started it takes about ten minutes until I am above the lake. Height difference between top and landing is about 1800m making these flights quite the opposite of soaring the practice hill in Castelluccio….. and even though its way saver because you have several hundred meters to react if something happens (and you would fall in the lake where safety boats are waiting) its quite scary.

Markus (Silvias son) and Jakob ( a great photographer and friend of Markus) are experienced Acrobatic pilots and show several fast descending techniques like big ears and steep spiral. Doing my first steep spirals is really spooky. In fact the wing is vertical and I am circling around it being exposed to quite a lot of G force. Tomas who is sports student and has a lot of experience in jumping out of planes and from rocks and bridges with parachutes and bungee ropes makes a very good progress while I try to get confident with the steep spirals – I have to admit I am a little jealous with him! On the other hands I am a little more relaxed and do not so many flights as he does – the landing area is nice to chill and take pictures and I don’t want to hurry all day long.

Evenings we spend at the very touristic Malcesine, very beautiful place, great food and way cheaper than Castelluccio. I love this place.
That was really an amazing trip and fortunately my concerns had been nonsense! Thank you, Hans, Silvia, Karl, Kurt, Wolfgang, Tomas, Markus and Jakob for this amazing trip!
Enjoy the pictures!

learning to fly

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Learning to fly!

Soon after coming back this year I am sitting at home being pretty bored…. I need a new challenge! In the recent years I met several people who are paragliding. I have already been fascinated by this sport since I saw people flying in the alps when I was a child plus one of my best friends has been doing it all his life. I asked him several times already to show me how to do it not knowing nothing about it. This time after seeing so many paragliders in Nepal I am kind of hooked. And, honestly, we all have been dreaming about to fly since we were children, haven’t we?

After doing a little research I find a flight school not too far away from my home. I call them and immediately like Hans, the owner of the school I am talking with. A few days later the weather seems to be perfect and I go to flying school for the first time. I spend a very exhausting day “ground handling” which means trying to control the paraglider standing above you in the wind – not even coming close to take off.

Second day I am way better, and try the first short flights at the practice hill. I never go higher than maybe 20m and don’t fly further than 200m but I love every second from take off to landing. When you start you lay down the glider behind you – then you pull the “A lines” to fill it with air and rise the wing above you – you break it so it will not overtake you then make a few steps down the hill to accelerate. Your feet lose ground and slowly you are lifted into the sky – its incredible!

After some more days at the practice hill I do my first altitude flight in Plankenstein with a height difference of 340m (which usually takes about 5 to 7 minutes). My first flight was in the evening with the air being very calm but enough remaining thermal to keep me up pretty long. I just fly into the setting sun and enjoy – this is definitely one of the best things I have ever done.

From now on I spend every second I can flying. Soon I learn how it is to fly rough conditions. In thermals rising me with more than 5 m/s I get my first front collapse. Still I am trying, everything is new and its very hard to control the glider. I have to think about every action I take and it reminds me a lot of learning to drive a car. You need to think about thing like clutch, gear, brake,…. Before you do something. Flying rough conditions is exhausting and scaring but I learn very quickly. I fly many different spots and soon experience conditions when it is harder to sink than to rise.

Hohe Wand in the south of Vienna is a place like this. It’s a 400m tall, several kilometers wide rock wall facing the flats to the southeast. Another place I fly a lot is Oetscher mountain in the Mountains of lower Austria. Another amazing place where one time I share a thermal with an eagle flying next to each other eye in eye for several minutes.
After around 80 flights I slowly get a feeling for the paraglider. Like when driving a car I do not feel so much separated from the glider anymore – we start becoming one step by step. I slowly start reacting without thinking and during my best flight yet I make 40km (circling and soaring in a laminar wind which blows up the hillside) for a little more than an hour and then land for a break on the spot where I started! And all this within less than 3.5 months after my first flight. By now I own my own wing of course and go flying pretty independent. Though its always scary to be the only one starting out I enjoy exactly these moments most: alone or together with a good friend up in the air and getting blown away up!

my flying school close to vienna

Good news

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Good morning!

First I have to say thank you to all of you! For the first time since I am running this blog I checked the statistics about a month ago. I was very surprised and happy when I found out that there are up to 100 different people are reading my blog every day! And up to nearly 3000 every month!

Well that surprised me…. mostly because the menue and the gallery were really shit to use….

This has been changed now as u can see. Now the menue is by regions and journeys so the usability will be way better now as I hope!Gallery is more convinient to view now too.

Picture give away
Being surprised by so many views I would love to know who you are! If you have a few minutes time please tell me where you are from, what your age is and what is your purpose of reading my adventures. You can either leave a comment here and send me a mail to the adress in the contact section. Amongst all answers I get I will raffle a high quality printed photography of my journeys. Free choice for the lucky winner!

statistics april

Vientiane to Vang Vieng

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Wasted a few more days in Vientiane to get my Vietnam visa and then made the 150km journey to Vang Vieng by bus (7 hours!). In Vang Vieng I rent a 150cc kind of enduro and enjoy the surrounding. Once a few kilometers away from the tourist spot the landscape and the people become amazing. And I am little proud of some of todays wildlife pictures… enjoy!

Jan 11. – Jan 13. Laos (Pakse and arrival in Vientiane)

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The blog entries of this journey sound a little pissed I have to admit and to be honest, sometimes I am… But anyway I enjoy travelling a lot again, even though shit happens (not as much as it sounds like I guess) I make memories every day. I am on the road one month yet and it feels like forever. So many things happen I simply don’t have time to write all down. Compared to being at home where one day is like another and I have no idea of the time passing here life is intense, true, honest and filled with experiences and beauty – even though its sometimes hard to see.

 

I left 4000 islands to Pakse. On my first (out of two) morning there I see a BMW bike with a british number plate in front of the hotel. The owner sits opposite so I ask him straight ahead if he took his bike from Kathmandu to Nepal or if there is by any chance a way already to cross Myanmar overland. When he tells me he came all the way overland I become tempted to fly home as fast as possible to get my bike. Backpacking is fine but getting away from beaten tracks sometimes seems impossible so that’s why I prefer having my own vehicle instead of using tourist transportation…. We have a nice chat sharing our opinion about the most hospitable countries (Pakistan and Iran) we both have traveled yet. He even managed to cross nowadays IS territory in Irak only weeks before the armed conflict started there. But check his Blog yourself if you like at www.DanSkeates.com

 

In Pakse I rent a scooter to visit the Bolaven plateau to see the coffee farms and the waterfalls. I go up to a freezing cold 1500 above sea level and back again within a few hours. Unfortunately many waterfalls are drained by hydro power plants already and those that still exist are expensive to see (entrance fee equals an average main course at a restaurant and there are loads of them). At the last one I start discussing the price with the guy who is in charge. I tell him I would love to see the waterfall and it would make me happy to see it. I ask him for his religion – Buddhist he says but still wont let me in. I pull out one dollar and offer it to him (a third of the entrance fee) saying thatif it is money which makes him happy I would be glad to give him a little at least so at least one of us is happy. At the end he refuses to take the money and invites me in.

 

After spending one night in the most luxurious sleeper bus (having a double bed because not fully booked) I wake up freezing when arriving in Vientiane. I curse the aircondition and look forward to feel the warmth when getting out of the bus – well the aircondition had not been on its freezing cold a little before sunrise on the main bus stand in Vientiane. In town me and 3 girls who had been on the bus get a coffee. I ask them to take care of my luggage for a bit so I can find a room to store all our luggage there they want to leave tonight and I need a room to stay a few days to get visas for Myanmar and Vietnam before going to Vang Vieng. When I go back to the café after finding a room suddenly somebody yells “Hariom!” right next to me. I look and see Narayan whom I met in india and spend some amazing time with a few years ago. We hug each other and are both laughing about meeting up by chance. Life is amazing!

THAILAND

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After an incredible exhausting journey including a 14 hour layover in Moscow I arrived in Bangkok yesterday morning. First thing I recognize is the people here who are extremely friendly helpful and hospitable! After trying to install internet settings (its hopeless) I take the train to town to search a place a friend recommended to stay – hopeless either. But nevermind I find some very nice people in a small riverside café who organize a guesthouse for me. The river is full of fish and I regret not having taken any fishing gear at all. The host picks me up and in the afternoon I get an amazing room in between temples with air condition, fridge and shower for a little more than 10 euro per night! I find a barber just around the corner who is not willing to shave my head but at least cutting the hair with machine so I look like shaved 3 days ago (head) and one day ago (face). Nice guy but the quality of his work…. Well. After that I take a moped taxi to find me a guitar and change some money. Guitar is found immediately money changing takes a little more time . When we come back to the music shop it is closed already but my driver doesn’t give up knocking and asking the neighbours so 10 minutes later I get an amazing 40 euro guitar and the driver gets a great tip (smiling from one ear to the other when I put the money in his hand). Being very tired I fall asleep at 9pm and sleep until 3:30 pm next day which is 9 in the morning where I have been 2 days ago. I make a little walk so see the surrounding area and again I recognize people here being extremely friendly helpful and hospitable. I told my host yesterday I only have coffee in the morning and as breakfast is included he offers dinner instead. His daughter who speaks a little English helps me with everything I need and after dinner (kinda brunch in my time setting) I get a great relaxing thai massage. My host even drove me to the massage shop and I walked back later. Thinking about visiting famous Khao sang road I am just too tired… Tomorrow I want to continue to Ayutthaya temple a little north of Bangkok! Changed my mind and went to Koh Chang. Just sitting at a beach restaurant surrounded by old german who have booze while smoking pre rolled joints and discussing problems from their workplaces at home while getting really done…. Where am I? The beach is full of luxury resorts for >100Euro per night with real white people lying in front of them getting backed. Glad I found the last hippie place on the beach which is a little cheaper but no rooms for less than 3 nights. Still I think about leaving sooner, I really can’t stand that atmosphere. Cambodia is just around the corner and my host recommended not to go there because there is only criminals there. I heard comments like this in places like this several times on my journeys and it always proved that places being advertised like this where the places I enjoyed a lot. Mostly people are afraid to lose the customers going there – but hey better criminals than this! Still the nature on the island is incredibly nice and the local people are so too. There are beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds and rare short tailed makaks. I start understanding all the prejustice about Falang people and get a big compliment by my Bangkok host as she tells me I am not like them at all. I would love to experience more of the loving Thai culture I have seen and felt in Bangkok but this is hard in a place like this where tourists start the day with cocktails and beer. However if you come round Bangkok and need a clean, hospitable and extremely nice place to stay contact Baan Tunyatorn Guesthouse and Coffee shop in Phetkasem 19 Road in Thonburi Bangkok. You can call 092-046-5568 or 083-832-2220 or visit their facebook at www.facebook.com/Baantunyatorn
 

guessing game

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Finally I decided where to spend the winter! I decided to make a little guessing game about it. You can win a self chosen picture out of my last 2 journeys (high quality printed 20x30cm) by being the first one to guess my next destination. Send an Email with the name of the country to hariom(at)hariom.at !

TIP: the spoon is logically.