Arriving in Hospet early in the morning after our night on the sleeper train, we were immediately accosted by a tout doing his best to get us to go on a city tour in his Rickshaw. He was very persistent but in the end we let him take us to our hotel for a few rupees an told him we might call him later if we wanted a tour (we knew that we weren't going to, but it was the only way we could get rid of him). After a quick shower and change of cloths, we snuck out of the hotel in case the tout was waiting for us. We found a bus to Hampi which was dirt cheap and set off on a 30min ride down yet another bumpy road, arriving at Hampi for the main purpose of our stop.
Hampi is an ancient ruined hindu city that was sieged for 60 days by the moguls several hundred years ago. It is 25km square and set amongst the hills and huge boulders, used for fortification. The ruined remains of the city are a collection of stone buildings and temples spread across the area, with the main
temple at Hampi. We started there and paid a small fee to look around the temple, but realised that it was more for hindu pilgrims rather than western tourists and the best sights were to be had outside looking at the temple architecture. One good thing though was the elephant in the temple who performed a blessing on Stacey (hitting her over the head with his trunk) when she placed a rupee in its trunk.
We had another coconut on one of the ghats by the river, stocked up on water and headed out into the hills in the heat of the day to see the remain of the city. Stopping in the shade where possible, we wandered for 4 or so miles before hitting the main road again and headed for the bus stop.
The ruined city was worth seeing although it was hard to navigate amongst the hills and in the heat. That night we went to bed early ready for our 5am wakeup to catch an early train to Goa.
The train journey was fairly uneventful except crossing the mountains on the border of Goa which presented some fantastic views of the tropical
forest with high peaks, river and tumbling waterfalls amongst the lush greenery which had all been enhanced by travelling at the end of the rainy season.
We arrived at Margao, the main railway station and got a rickshaw to one of the beach resorts (Benalium) for our three night stay at the infamous coastal region. Finding a cheap, no frills guest house, we freshened up and headed for the beach. The beach is very long, continuing for miles in either direction passing through a number of beach resorts. It was obvious that we had arrived out of the main season as we only saw a handful of tourists as we walked along the beach when otherwise it would be heaving. This was nice and peaceful and meant that we had our choice of beach from cafes to eat and rink at but also meant that we were magnets for every tout around trying to sell pashminas, bracelets and henna tattoos. It was all friendly enough but in the end we were both so bored with it that anyone trying to flog us something received a firm NO and no further communications.
the near vicinity, we spent our days laying on the beach, usually in the shade of a palm tree or sitting cafe with a beer, reading a book. We met an Israeli guy on the beach who had been in India for several months who had come from the north of India and was heading south. As we were heading north next, he gave us some info and some tips on bartering for accommodation. Fishing is a big occupation in the region which as a result meant that all of the cafes served sea food very cheaply. We ate prawn currys with fresh king prawns for about £1.50 and one night got and entire fresh tuna grilled and served with veg and chips for 300 rupees for the two of us which worked out at £2 each.
In addition to this, the beer in Goa is very cheap, about 70p for a large bottle of kingfisher or cobra. The only problem with this is that beer produced and sold within India contains a large amount of glycerine (for preservative I believe) which has some strange effects, such as giving you very strange and intense dreams/nightmares. A minor drawback.
There are a large number of stray dogs wandering around goa, mainly on the beach. They seemed friendly enough towards people but occasionally scrapped amongst each other quite violently with pack animal mentality. We generally kept our distance but on one occasion I took some tuna scraps from dinner away in a napkin and fed one of the more hungry looking animals.
After these few days relaxing and eating seafood, we stocked up on supplies for our 36 hour train journey between Goa and Udaipur.
Taking a year out and leaving England to travel the world! After 5 years in teaching for Stacey and the completion of a EngD for Warren, it is time a for a well earned break and to try new and adventurous things :-)... full info
The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in...more history
david blewitt
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As always, very jealous.
Looks like you are having the adventure of a lifetime. Wish I was there!