Blogs from Bijapur, Karnataka, India, Asia
February 27th 2012
I was roused from sleep by the call to prayer this morning there are few things more exotic in my opinion or annoying if you are trying to sleep in. The shower doesn’t work so a wet one bath was all I could tolerate, we left Badami after another crap breakfast of tiny pieces of toast and tea and headed further north to the predominantly Islamic city of Bijapur the former seat of the Adil Shahi kings (1489 - 1682). This crazy Indian practice of laying speed humps across the highways every bloody kilometre turned a reasonably short drive into a much longer one, but we arrived around 11.30am and stopped on the edge of the city to admire the Malik-E-Maidan or in English the Monarch of the Plain an extremely large 55 tonne canon left ... read more
A Journey to Northern Karnataka, July 2009
Published: January 30th 2011Asia » India » Karnataka » Bijapur
January 30th 2011
Last night, Monday, we returned to Bangalore. Immediately, on arrival, we changed clothes and and attended a joyful birthday party held for a friend of ours. He is an accomplished musician, and many of the guests shared this attribute. Our friend sang, and many of his friends also did so. Some played the guitar and others the mouth organ. Even though the party finished late and we had been travelling for more than 8 hours, we did not feel tired! A week earlier, on Monday the 13th July, we set out from Bangalore in our hired car, heading up into northern Karnataka. A remarkably good motorway (autoroute/Autobahn) took us in the direction of Pune and Bombay. After 2 or three hours, we stopped at the village of Sira to take a quick look at the remains ... read more
February 18th 2009
This was our last port of call in the state of Karnataka and after six hours on local bus, we pulled into a dusty, dilapidated market town. After trudging around a few dingy hotels, we finally got a clean but very basic room. Finding somewhere decent for a meal, however, proved to be an even tougher challenge. At the start of our trip in India, we would have eaten in hotel restaurants exclusively but over the last few weeks we had discovered really clean cafés where the food was amazing value, a south Indian breakfast of puri and coffee cost about 50 cent each. But cleanliness didn't appear high on the agenda in Bijapur, something that would come back to haunt us with a vengeance in the days ahead!! Whilst in Bijapur we first headed to ... read more
June 12th 2008
From Panchgani, we came to Kolhapur by bus. My mp3 player has a pleasingly bizarre mixture of Roy Orbison, Frank Sinatra and Bollywood soundtracks, and nothing beats watching Indian life racing by with the sound of 'Chicago is My Kinda Town' in your ears. It's greatly weird. Kolhapur was a typically busy Indian town, with a nice Mahalaxmi temple (she's the Goddess of wealth) which had a pretty black, carved base (10th century) and a modern, painted roof and spire. (As eclectic as my music taste, really.) Lots of the locals wanted to shake hands and talk, and there was a great atmosphere plus the best damn mango lassi i have ever tasted. It rained hard and we managed to find the city's wrestling pit and watch young trainees grapple in the mud. Personally, i have ... read more
17) Bijapur, Gulbarga and Bidar - Muslim architectural treasures
Published: March 14th 2005Asia » India » Karnataka » Bijapur
March 14th 2005
We were heading north but did not want to go via Goa and Mumbai (former Bombay), so we had to find our way inland. A direct bus to Bijapur would have left one hour later, so we decide to go there by changing bus. The first part was perfectly ok, a local bus as usual, but in the meantime we had got used to this means of transport. Then we made the mistake (afterwards you always know better) to take an express bus. It looked good to us, with far more comfortable seats and more leg freedom. We took seats in one of the front rows, but were immediately ushered to the back because the other seats were reserved. We thought this a sham because this had never happened to us so far, until we found ... read more
