The apartment: We live next door to Michelle and Avi, it's all technically one place with a door in the middle with a lock on it so we can all have some privacy when we want it. We live about 5 minutes walk from the beach in an area called "Gaura Waddo". We've been here nearly 3 weeks now and our apartment is just perfect. We have a nice clean shower room, a large lounge with pull out sofa bed and Sky TV, a kitchen that we never use (It's so much cheaper to order Punjabi) and a reasonable sized bedroom with a small private balcony which always catches the sun first thing on a morning.
The Bike: Well we've had some fun with this. We love it, turquoise in colour and somewhat old and antiquated, but it gets us from A to B whilst making some interesting groaning noises. Daniel and I nip in and out of traffic, it's truly the best way to travel here. We have been all around Goa visiting places up and down the coast on it, there's no better way to visit places on a hot day, as soon as we get too warm we're back on the bike heading to the next place. I don't think the traffic here is that bad and once you get use to the fact that there's no right of way as such you just go with the flow of things.
Last weekend we took our first big trip out of Goa to Karnataka which is east of Goa. Michelle and Avi had introduced us to a group of friends they had met through the charity they're volunteering for so we all travelled together. There was seven of us in total. Daniel, Myself, Michelle, Avi, Sam, Prya and Peter. Very nice friendly people with a true passion for helping which I admire very much. The plan was to go to Hampi for Sam's 25th Birthday.
On Friday morning we all had to be up at the crack of dawn. 6am sharp. It was still dark outside and I struggled to convince myself to get out of bed. We packed our bags last minute and rushed out of our apartment with Avi and Michelle following close behind. The taxi was waiting at the end of our road and we were heading to Prya and Sams next to pick them up. The train departed from Vasco da Gama and headed to Hospet which is the closest town to Hampi. We boarded the train at 7:40am and set off on our 8 hour journey to Hospet. This train was second class sleeper which was perfectly fine, in fact exactly the same as 3 tier AC but without the AC! The one other difference is there are alot of beggars in second class.
We all sat down made ourselves comfortable and began playing card games to kill a few of the eight hour long journey. Part way through our embark to Hospet an Indian man joined us and told us he was an under cover police officer. He seemed to take a particular liking to Prya and stayed and chatted to us for the next few hours. This smartly dressed gentleman with impressive gold jewellery and excellent English then did something that totally shocked me. A woman or what I though was a woman at the angle I could see her from, pounced on him. A green and pink sari covered her and she was demanding something in Hindi. Suddenly I heard this sharp sound that peirced the air, alarmed and unaware of what was going on I turned around to see the smartly dressed under cover police officer giving this woman the hardest slap I think I have ever seen on both cheeks. Her face was shocked and then a realisation of who he was suddenly swarmed over her. She ran off and we didn't see her again. At this point I was confused I didn't understand why this man had just hit a woman in public so asked Prya what had gone on. Prya explained that in India men often dress up as woman and pounce on other men to make them feel uncomfortable and threatened, so the man pays them to go away. Often they are seen to put curses on people if they do not give money. This lady-boy however obviously got more than she bargained for. A sharp slap to the face is often given in public to disrespectful people. I better be careful ay!?
We arrived 8 hours later in Hospet. Tracking down 3 Tuk Tuks to take us 15 minutes down the road to Hampi was very easy and very soon we arrived in the most picturesque place I have ever seen. The first night we stayed in Hampi Bizaar. The side with no drinking, no meat and lots of beautiful temples. It's mounds of ginormous boulders make Hampi look like a prehistoric landscape. This once dazzling Hindu capital was apparently devastated in the early 1600 which left it looking like a ghost town, it has a certain magic to it and every view is breath taking.
We managed to bag a room for 150RPS each a night between two (About £2.50) and we all slept amazingly well after a long day of travelling, watching the sun set over the Virupaksha Temple as we all sat in a row looking down over the Hampi Bazaa in the warm air of the night against the still impressively hot stones which hadn't yet cooled down from the midday sun. We had a lovely meal and scurried back to our beds for a good nights sleep.
The following morning we were up bright and early 7.30am with 4 bikes waiting outside for us. We hired them to see the temples further a field and that we did. We visit the Lotus Mahal and behind which was the elephant stables. A series of high ceilinged stables built from stone with arches for the elephants to enter, extremely grand looking. It was a fantastic day with lots of new sites to take in after which we headed to get the boat across to the other side "Virupapuragadda". Apparently they were going to build a bridge across but the boat company that charges tourist to travel across paid off the police. I don't know the exact amount but it's a lot of money. They now charge you 15RPS for a 2 minute boat ride across the river and there's no getting round it!
Once arriving on the other side we managed to get another room for 150RPS again thanks to Prya's excellent negotiation skills, she's a very handy person to have about as she speaks fluent Hindi and is a very lovely lady! We had a reasonably quiet night with a few spirits and a couple of easy going drinking games. Another early start in the morning and hangovers and sun don't mix well!
The next day we hired more bikes and explored this side of Hampi: it's alluring, stunning backdrop sincerely makes this my number one spot in India. We visited Hanuman Temple which it involved climbing an unholy amount of stirs in scorching midday heat, although the monkeys that sat and followed closely behind you were a real pleasure. All with their own personalities and smiling faces. A day of following small dirt roads and going off the beaten track! Just idyllic.
Back home we went on late Sunday night on a sleeper train back to Vasco. It went really fast and I am getting increasingly competent of sleeping wherever I'm put! A fabulous weekend all round and my writing just doesn't do Hampi justice. I really really loved it!
Since then, we've had days exploring Goa, window shopping and relaxing. We have found a hotel up the road from us that will let us swim in their pool all day long for about £1.40 and it means we get to use the sun loungers too! Perfect way to make us feel like it's a holiday and a good way to balance the adventuring and the relaxing.This weekend we're hoping to travel to Palolem which will take us about 3 hours on the bike in the far south of Goa. Apparently, deserted beaches and a real hippy hangout....we'll soon see! Anyway know that we're having the time of our lives but that we miss you all very much. Please keep reading and leaving your very much welcomed comments.
Love and Light x
