Dear friends,

right now, as I am waiting till departure of the night train to Bikaner, I have some time to update my blog and even to upload some pictures. As you can see on the picture below, travelling alone can also be a lot of fun.

Since I got sick I was even able to stay in this lovely room for about 24 hours. However, now I have recovered and am able to tell you the 7 great survival rules for India:

1. Rule: Do not dress like a tourist to avoid catching attention and being an easy target for touts, pickpockets and other bad people. I, for instance, jumped into the role of a professional photographer. Just by putting my big camera on my left shoulder and my tripod on the right, people would not recognize me as tourist anymore!

2. Rule: Never pay attention to anyone smiling at you or claiming to help. Better immediately run away, shouting "help"!

3. Rule: Randomly change direction every 5 minutes to make it difficult for other people to follow and eventually kill you!

4. Rule: Pretend to be totally insane by doin crazy actions e.g. sitting on the sidewalk and getting up again or running in circles while screaming. People will be scared. Be creative!

5. Rule: Avoid getting close to suspious people. In India those people are suspicious who do not stare at you. They are the big minority.

6. Rule: Never reveal your true identity and intentions. In India, I am only known as Ottmar Haselnussbaum, a guy in his mid-thirties who gave up his farm near Berlin to help people in India to grow better potatoes and sell them to McDonalds. However, due to the beauty of India he has sold all his belongings in order to afford his camera equipment and become a professional photographer.

7. Rule: If everything fails, however, and someone is trying to do you no good, there is one last chance to safe yourself and your valuables. Go on all fourth and make the sound of a cow - "Muhhh". As cows are holy in India, this might be your rescue of getting away unharmed.

So this is it for today. If I survive the journey with the night train I will post another entry soon!

Cu Fabian