The Ruins of Hampi, the Beaches of Goa.

The evening after the last blog post, was a beautiful one. I feel my last photo didn't quite do it justice, so here is a more accurate depiction.(it also happens to be probably the best photo I've ever taken, which helps.)

Watching boys playing volleyball on the beach in Gokarna.

Since Gokarna we have  been to Hampi and are now all the way back in Goa. About 10 hours to Hospet, half an hour to Hampi, 12 hours to Panjim (Goa's capital) and finally an hour or so to Anjuna beach. Hampi had a large collection of abandoned temples, making the town itself into a tourist hotspot but it only took a little imagination to revert the village to a genuine market town trading goods up and down the river. The temples were beautiful. but i was surprised given their religious nature, to see so many unashamedly sexual sculptures. It appears that while people are expected to dress very modestly, religious depiction does no tiptoeing.
For the journey to Panjim we took a night bus. Had almost reasonably sized bed type things to sleep on. Wide enough to lie on my back with shoulders touching each edge and long enough to lie as long as I didn't stretch. Indian people are on average, shorter than me. The bed was nowhere near long enough for John. Being at the back of the bus meant occasionally a bump would lift us all right off of our beds.
Panjim and Goa generally are odd. Being ex-Portuguese has resulted in it operating a little differently, Christianity is widespread and everything starts later in the day. I'm not sure if it was an effect of local wealth, Portuguese influence or Christianity, but women here seem slightly emancipated compared to their restricted role in the rest of India.
Arrived in Anjuna (a Goan beach town) yesterday morning and saw the flea market. In amongst all the usual tat we found some exquisite hand crafted wooden items. Personally I was much more excited by delicious smelling tea leaves and spices. Some spices were familiar from home but all had a stronger fresher smell than those on supermarket shelves and the tea stall s had leaves infused with all sorts like mango, strawberry and chocolate. No artificial flavours here!
Jamie

Quite bit has happened since my last post so yet again there's so much to tell, I'll try to keep it brief.
Hampi was such a beautiful place as I'm sure you can see from the pictures. As Jamie said it's quite the tourist hotspot but that wasn't a downer on our stay. We met a guy named Thomas on our second day in Hampi, he joined us for lunch and we haggled a shared boat ride downriver with him which was really nice. There are some pictures from the boat ride we've put up.
One day after watching some baby monkeys wrestle (which was one of the funniest things I've seen yet), I gave some biscuits to a group of monkeys and, as expected, was swarmed with in seconds. It was a bit shocking at first when they all ran towards me and surrounded me, screaming and jumping, but once I'd moved away from a nearby 30 foot drop it became much more fun!
The sleeper class bus ride from Hospet to Panjim wasn't too bad; I didn't get much sleep but it was a good experience. There was a guy selling snacks as we got onto the bus and after finding out we were English he immediately said 'Oh lovely jubbly, cheap as chips'! Other sellers have said similar things; we hear 'cheaper than Asda price' quite a bit.
The flea market at Anjuna sold quite a lot of crap but as a whole was nice. The persistence of some of the stall owners was incredible. Lots of them would ask you to promise you'd return before you left the market and some would shake your hand in greeting but then hold onto it while they tried to sell you things! The beach at Anjuna is beautiful and we'll be staying here for another night after tonight before moving up north. We're not entirely sure where yet but somewhere between here and Varanasi.

Peter

Playing with Monkeys in Hampi

The morning after that beautiful sunset, (I slept horribly thanks to hideous sunburn) we set off for Hampi on a direct bus. The area around hampi was truly beautiful. Hills and vegetation scattered around dusty half-desert, with lmassive sand-coloured boulders piled seemingly at random around the landscape. The ruins of the abandoned city could not be in a more picturesque setting.
We were staying in a small (pink and green) guesthouse in Hampi Bazaar, on the river. It was a lively and bustling place, although felt almost exclusively aimed at tourists. We spent the next few days wandering the picturesque ruins and temples in the blistering sunshine, and eating delicious food overlooking the river. As mentioned above, we met a charming French touriste named Thomas, who became our companion for a couple of days, accompanying us on a picturesque (seriously the whole place was picturesque) boat trip up the river and joining us for meals and Chai here and there. He even recommended a restaurant for us! What a nice guy.
We left the gorgeous city of Hampi after three (or four?) nights, and caught a sleeper bus from the nearby of town to Hospet, that would take us to Goa overnight. We shared a small compartment at the back of the bus with a German couple for most of the night. It was cramped to say the least, especially for me with my long legs, which put me at a bit of a dilemma. I couldn't really sleep on my back, as I couldn't lie my legs straight,
which forced me onto my side, an equally uncomfortable position as great concentration was required not to tip over every time the bus turned any sort of corner. The ride itself was incredibly bumpy also, and as we were over the wheels we felt every bump, occasionally being thrown clear into the air. Needless to say me or Peter didn't sleep a wink. (Jamie slept like a baby, that boy is not human.)
Panjim was a nice place, but didn't really have much going on. Odd to see the Portuguese influence so clearly (Goa was owned by the Portuguese until 1961, when it finally became part of India again.), with Christianity everywhere and Portuguese style buildings.Moving on to Anjuna was much more interesting. We got to see the famous flea market held every Wednesday, which attracts tourists from all over Goa to come see the various crafts and spices on sale. Relaxing on the beaches at Anjuna has been as fun as you would expect, the sun has shone and the sea has been warm. You really couldn't ask for more.
However, all this relaxing has made us restless, and so tomorrow we embark on a crazy long journey that is going to take us halfway across India to Jabalpur. We are planning to get way off the beaten track, before coming back onto it to spend some time in the Kanha National Park. We might even get to see a tiger, which would be nice. As a result, this may be our last post for a while, as we can never predict how internet services will be. Till next time,

John

As always, please leave a comment below, and more photos can be seen in the slideshow to the right. 

Bobble head dolls on sale at the flea market.

One morning in Hampi we woke up at dawn and climbed up to the top of a hill to see the sun rise over the ruins, which was a beautiful experience to say the least. What also was quite entertaining, however, were the hordes of monkeys (i know more monkeys) that also hiked to the summit, to bother the tourists at the top for food. They resulted in probably the second best photo I've ever taken. Which can be seen below.

Sunrise over Hampi.

More monkeys. =D

 

The long winding road, with a beach at the end.

The day after our last post, the three of us embarked on an epic journey Aurangabad to Goa. Waking up at 4.30am, we got to the train station at Aurangabad at 5.30am before getting a local train to Manmad Junction at 6. From here we were to get a train to Goa, leaving at 10.30am and arriving 9 hours later at 7.30pm. At least that was the plan. 
During a conversation with some Indian travellers that evening, we learnt that there was not 1 more hour to go as we had thought, but 12. The train was due to arrive at 6am the next morning.

The sunset from the train.

Our 12 hour journey had become a 24 hour one. Sleeping on the train was an interesting experience to say the least. The seats folded up to form three-tier bunks, of which we each managed to get one, with a family of four sharing two next to us. Our stop must have passed us sometime during our broken night, and we got off the train at 6am at Magao. Our new plan was simple: Find some accomodation. Sleep.
However, leaving the station, something caught my eye. The train which we were planning on getting in a day or two, that would take us on to Gokarna, left this station at 2pm. So, after a short discussion we decided to go find a beach, stay there for 8 hours, then come back and get the connection to Gokarna.

Our first taste of heavy rain at the station in Magao.

We arrived in Gokarna in the dark, and quickly made our way to the beach we had planned to stay on, named Kudlee. Since then we have done very little, relaxing on the beach, taking walks over hills to more beaches and exploring the small town of Gokarna. Unfortunately, the beautiful sunny weather and clear skies we were expecting  was nowhere to be seen, and instead we have been targeted by high winds and monsoon rains, interspersed by periods of calm sunshine. It's made the walks more interesting, and the chai more appetising, so I'm not complaining, but overall its been very quiet and very restful, which we needed after the effort it took to get here.

The beach we've been staying on for the last week.

We leave tomorrow for Hampi, where we will stay for a few days before heading back to Goa, hopefully for more than 8 hours this time.
That's all for today, we'll post again when there is more to say.
John


As always, please leave us a comment, and there are more pictures in the slideshow to the right.

Locals bringing in the morning fish.

Monkeys, Caves, Temples and Tombs

We have spent the last six days in Aurangabad, a small city in the north of Maharastra. We've seen temples, tombs and caves till they came out of our ears. More details below.


On the train to Aurangabad.


Getting from pune to aurangabad took about 10 hours on the train (most of which we spent sitting still). As is becoming the norm, people were very keen to talk to us. In particular everyone asks which country we are from. This was most peculiar when we were visiting Dualatabad fort and about 70+ school children , on a field trip, wanted to say hello, introduce themeselves and shake out hands all at once. The fort itself was amazing. Having passed a double layer of wall an attacker then faced a short swim and the clamber through pitch black cave all while being attacked by men  and traps.
The next day we went to see man made caves at ellora. The most impresive of which can barely be described and ceased to be a cave because the work was so extensive. Nothing in the picture was built, all of it was hewn from the surrounding rock.
Yesterday we saw a genuine, local market for the first time. The colours and smells were fantastic. It was nice to see people selling their own products which they took some pride in , unlike the knock-off tat we had seen for sale previously. The town was Muslim, almost entirely, reminding me of the historical religious division which seems absent in the fast growing cities we have visited. India's greatest impresion on me is still its busyness. Everyone everywhere is working all the time, roadsides and pavements are permanently clogged with small business operations.
Jamie



The rock-cut temple at Ellora. This whole enclave was once solid rock.


This week's been pretty different from our last. I've gotten used to most things now although it's still supprising when the someone asks us if they can get a picture with us for the first time each day. It's quite funny that you don't hail taxis here, they hail you! Then they tell you where you should go, that it's much further that you can walk and that their price is the best!
The caves at Ellora and Ajanta were incredible, as you can see from the pictures, the most impressive one we saw was in construction for 200 years (10 generations)! The paintings were less exciting due to the damage and the fact we could barely work out what any of them meant, but were amazing none the less.
The apparently impregnable fort at Daulatabad was pretty cool and damn well fortified. Khuldabad was nice too, lots of pristine tombs, and the market there was particularly good. We bought some soap to wash clothes with there but have been decreasingly fond of the smell. It smells baaaad, but we'll get used to it (it's currently quarantined in our bathroom!) We're off to Goa tomorrow which is exciting, up at 5am and probably wont get to our next hotel until around 9pm or so! I'll give you more info asap!
Peter

Being swarmed by schoolkids at Daulatabad Fort.

The train from Pune to Aurangabad was painful to say the least. 10 hours without a seat on a cramped and dirty train. We made friends with a young indian who Jamie spent most of the time talking to. The train took a lot longer than we expected, due to hour long waits at certain stations, for connecting trains to arrive on the opposite platforms. Lunch consisted of samosas and other indian snacks bought from merchants who would come up to the train at every stop. Dirty and grimy, but hot and tasty as hell.
Aurangabad, though a relatively uninteresting city in itself, acted as a useful launch pad for day trips to the beautiful carved caves at Ellora and Ajanta, as well as colourful muslim tombs at nearby Khuldabad, and the impressive fort at Daulatabad. Our cheapest accomodation yet turned out to be one of the nicest, with a clean room with attached bathroom working out at £2.80 each a night. Everything here is so cheap its still not quite become normal. I bought a genuine leather wallet with zips and decent stitching yesterday for a grand total of 43p.
The caves were beautiful, and it was nigh on incomprehendable that they used to be solid rock, and nothing had been built from the ground. They were used by buddhist and hindu monks and preists as places of worship, and places to live.
Tomorrow we leave for the party capital of india, Goa, albeit a month before the party season properly begins. I'm looking forward to the white sand beaches and coconut lined shores, beautiful sunsets and walks along the coast, but less looking forward to the 13 hour journey getting there. Hope you enjoy the photos!
John

Dyes on sale at the marked in Khuldabad.

A buddhist cave at Ellora.

As we were leaving Ellora, we came across a troop of monkeys playing and begging for food off the visitors. Needless to say, we didnt end up leaving Ellora for at least an hour, as they were endlessley watchable (and incredibly human). Even after deleting every photo I could bear to lose of the primates, I still have 20 of them on my camera memory card. Here's my favourite.

The only thing that could make this better would be a newspaper...

Please leave us a comment, and as always, click on the slideshow to the right for larger pictures.

Our First Impressions of India

 We've been in India for a week. Here's what we've been getting up to:

Arrived in Mumbai to an insane temperature, but the humidity was what made it bad. In the airport I certainly didn't and I don't think the others knew what to do. We got a taxi down to Colaba Causeway (where we stayed) and the traffic was terrifying. Most roads made Picadilly Circus look like a carefully organised high street in a sleepy village. Horns here are used to let people know your coming not tell them you are annoyed. Very few cars have a left wing mirror so when a motor cyclist decides to cut across the bus in front from the left hand side a horn is the only way to pre-warn them. Mumbai is a city full of extremes with slum housing stacked several stories high with each room (largely made from 5 pieces of corrugated iron) right next to sky scraping hotels and offices. We moved on to Matheran quite quickly. It is a small town on top of a hill, rather touristy but absolutely beautiful. Most young people are very interested in us and everyone is very friendly.  Unfailingly the first thing people ask is where we are from and sometimes if they can have a photo with us. Right now we are in Pune, a fast growing business centre which seems very western and rather wealthy. I better shut up and leave something for the others to say.
Having a great time hope you like the photos.
Jamie

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

I don't think Jamie got across just how hot it was in Mumbai; when you shower you're clean and cold for only a few minutes before the humidity bakes you again! It was really fun and a pretty big shock but we've acclimatised quite well I think. Several times day people will come up to you, children included, and ask for food or money. Sometimes they are just skinny but other times they're disabled and it's so much harder to refuse.
Matheran was really beautiful and quite the opposite from Mumbai; pretty cool in comparison (we even turned off our fan one night!) and it's much quieter. A few power cuts a night seemed to be the norm as well as load of thunder and incredible lighting which amazed us but didn't seem to attract the locals attention whatsoever.
Moving on to Pune was quite an interesting journey; up fairly early and after a rickety taxi ride we ended up waiting for one of our trains to depart for 2 and a half hours once we had boarded, lot's of people were very interested to speak to us which was nice (most of the attention we drew up until then was just stares, which we get non stop). When speak to someone on the train, the subject of our ancestors ruling over India came up half way through the conversation to awkwardness and amusement from us. It's kinda embarrassing that most Indians can speak English well and we can just about manage a hello in Hindi.When we arrived there were lots of people trying to get us in their taxi and take us to their hotel recommendations (where they'd receive commission) which we had to constantly watch out for but on the plus side we were able to haggle our taxi ride and hotel room prices to about a third of the price! So much more to write but I'm outta time..
Peter

A view of Mumbai harbour.

Mumbai was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Looming city skyscrapers are placed right next to shockingly dirty slums, there is never a quiet second because of the horns, and there are people everywhere; Jamie said something similar, but Oxford street is empty in comparison. We had a taxi driver take us on a semi tour round the city on our second day there, and saw this one place called fisherman's village. It is a small slum on the coast of Mumbai, where forty years ago a group of fishermen beached their boats and never left. It is an area where the houses are boats with corrugated iron and tarpaulins variously affixed, with a view that stretches across the harbour to the busy city centre, where hundreds of skyscrapers stand.
Moving on to Matheran couldn't have been more of a change. Gone were the car-filled streets, replaced with pedestrian only winding roads through the quiet forest, where the only sounds that could be heard were the wind in the trees, the birds and the monkeys. We spent two days walking around the hill station, seeing incredible landscapes from the various "points" around its perimeter. The photo below of all three of us was taken at "Porcupine Point", the most popular of them all. When we woke after our first night in Matheran, we were met with a completely impenetrable mist that covered the entire hill. Our morning walk to the viewpoints became gazes into the void which, if anything, were nearly as scary and impressive as the views themselves. The weather cleared up for the next two days (barring the terrifying displays of thunder and lightning, which shook the island every night to no-one's amazement but us) and we left again after three nights. Our train journey to Pune was as eye-opening as anything else, and we engaged in an hour and a half conversation with a couple of friendly and talkative Indian men, discussing our plans and home life, as well as receiving detailed recommendations as to what we should see next. Pune is similar to Mumbai, without the deathly heat and with (slightly) less crazy roads. We are leaving for Aurangabad tomorrow, to see the famous Buddhist and Hindu carved caves at Ellora and Ajanta, so I guess we'll post again after that. Till then, we are surviving fine and having a great time, washing behind our ears and only drinking bottled water, we're only one week in out of twelve, and I think its only going to get better. (Touch wood). Over and out.
John

Check the sideshow on the right for more pictures, or the same pictures but bigger ( or go to http://picasaweb.google.co.in/johnpeterjamie/JohnPeterAndJamieGoToIndia# ), and please leave a comment below!

Porcupine point in Matheran.

We were followed throughout our third day in Matheran by a scrawny but very loyal dog, who we lovingly named Jemil. (It seemed the obvious choice really) Here he is in all his canine glory:

Jemil followed us for 8 hours. Good boy!

Jemil can't hack.