Kingdom of Knuffel

damn, i wish i could, but i've got to attend college in march. bummer.

i live in hyderabad, but attend college in manipal! neither of them are very touristy spots, though. even so, if you ever pass through hyderabad especially and i'm there on break, hit me up

Seeing Hyderabad on Google actually makes me wanna get on a plane straight away xD
I'll definitely pop you a message, but I have no clue when I would get to India. Then again, three months ago I didn't think I would go to Sri Lanka, either :')

Just out of curiosity, are you really of Indian descent or do you just live there?

Are you going there by yourself, Merry?
And indeed, I guess it wouldn't make either of the countries justice if you try to visit them both in a limited amount of time.
I know friend who have been to India and they've been there for at least 3 weeks.

Haha the thing with the oven.. I just open the door and leave it open when it's on xD

The Southside festival is in the west of Germany I think, so no, 3 hours to get there xD
(But in Ireland you would need three hours to get from east to west, super funny :D)

Yep! Staying with a homestay family, so I should be fine.

And I'm rather sure I'd know the answer if you asked them if it was enough. ;D
I know I had a tough time visiting China and North Korea both in three weeks last year, but then again, we were only visiting China because we couldn't go straight to North Korea. But in the end, just 2 weeks of China is absolutely nothing... we even dropped a city and still we felt like we were hurrying all over the place xD
But really, what do you expect when two people from a country as tiny as The Netherlands visit a country as immense as China... I still cannot believe it took twelve hours by train to get from Beijing to Shanghai. That was also the point where we decided to turn to flying instead of taking the train everywhere, like we planned to. Then we'd have been traveling full time during those two weeks, and Zhangjiajie wouldn't even have been reachable
Asia Crasia...

Hmm, I hope you're right! Please let me know x'D

That's cool, I used homestay to find a place in Ireland as well, I was super happy with it :)

I can totally imagine that you were hurrying through all of China! My friends lived in Peking for 6 months (because they are studying Chinese Studies and it's obligatory to study in Peking) and they LOVED the city and still say they haven't had enough of China xD

haha I will, but it's supposed to be like that :)

I use homestay as much as I can, since it's the best way to experience day-to-day culture and to make new friends. Bonus: it's cheap af compared to hotels. And so much more fun.
And homestay mommies have a habit of dousing you in food.

Did they see more of China, though? 'Cause no one who's only been in Beijing can have seen enough of China.

Just bought a new underwater camera and various tools to not die of icky water in Sri Lanka. RIP Christmas bonus.

yep, i am of indian descent and i'm born, brought up, and live in india.

the next time i'll be in hyderabad is in the summer, around may until july/august

homestay sounds adorable! if i travel i'd prefer that too, but i've only ever travelled with my family. i thought that homestay was only an exchange student thing; so it's for holidayers too. that's lovely

I think that homestay is actually more of a thing for travellers than for students :) Both combined works as well of course :D

Merry,
I am sorry, but could you send me the last three links of the Salzburg pictures again? I know it might be troublesome, sorry, I was not fast enough with downloading them all cause it almost crashes my old laptop and takes ages

They've seen more of China, but they honestly only talk about Beijing all the time, they loved it so much xD

oooh, i see! that's interesting. i've known of the kind of thing where someone lets out their house to holidayers when they're gonna be away from home for a while, but i didn't know people took holidayers in like a brief family. that's so nice.

what are the things they loved about beijing? there's many east asian places i want to go, but i've only been out of my country twice.

Oh, that's awesome, Mynah! I don't think I actually know any actual Indians, neither on- nor offline. I don't know enough of your gorgeous culture! Do you like to cook?

And yes, homestay is absolutely perfect for travelers, if you're on a budget and/or like to go all the way when it comes to getting to know the local culture. That's something you really miss out on when staying in hotels. It does take a certain degree of flexibility and social discomfort at time (remember, you're also in a different family!) but it's so, so amazingly worth it. I'm not sure about students, since I'm only a holiday traveler, but I can imagine it's perfect for them too!
Which countries did you visit on those two trips with your family?

No problem, Julie. Not sure when, but I'll send them again <3

Beijing was nice, but when it comes to Asian capitals I loved Tokyo and Seoul more. I feel like China has way more to offer. ^_^
But then again, I'm really spoiled. I've seen so many big cities, they're all starting to look alike. It's the rest of the country that's way more interesting xD
It was sad to see that Beijing was pretty much constantly covered in smog though...