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Published: March 24th 2009
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Goa to Hospet
We left Goa and headed further down the south coast to the state of Karnataka. Our first stop was Hampi, a lovely ruined city in the desert, with what seemed like hundreds of ancient temples to see. The town that we arrived in Hospet was not so lovely - filled with rudish people and a lot of cramped hustle and bustle. It was a big change from the tourist friendly locals of Goa to the more closed conservatives of Hospet - Katherine quickly learned that her dress code had to once again change from the leering men and dissaproving women's glares!
As Kat was still feeling a bit ill we decided to get a 'modern' hotel in Hospet and transport ourselves into Hampi daily - the hotel was fine, however the staff had an odd habit of just walking into our rooms and one quick knock - we soon learned to dead bolt our door much to the surprise of the attendant jarring the door on the other side. We went to Hampi on our first day there and saw a portion of the temples - they were quite stunning - Ed particularily loved the history.
Doing the dishes
A woman makes a small clearing from the crud to do the family washing - the smell was vile From the chaos of the main bazaar (the equivalent of Oxford Circus in Croyden, I would imagine) there was a huge Hindu temple, and a huge reservoir with such polluted water I think they thrown dead people in it - please refer to the picture of the local woman doing her washing in it. Close by are lovely ancient steps leading to the riverbank (typical Indian style- women washing clothes, a few equivalents of 'Ed 4 Kat' carved into the rocks, and vagrant men either sleeping or passed out. We ventured across the river by a little barge to an island where most of the travelers stayed to get some dinner and explore. Time got ahead of us, and it was nightfall when we wanted to head back. Unfortunately, all boat trips are banned after dark, and we had to pay a local boy a fortune to arrange with his friends a little clandestine mission back across the river. The vehicle of choice for smuggling tourists is a little raft about 5 foot across, a bit like upside down chinaman’s hat, made of coconut branches and leaves. As soon as we left shore, we started leaking- big time. 5 minutes
Boat ride to Hampi island
The local's bikes come on the boat with us later, we made it to the other side, soaked from our waists downwards, having been squatting in the water. As we trudged back to the main bazaar in the dark, the effect of the fetid river water made my mostquito bite covered legs itch horribly (Ed). Luckily, we were distracted by a friendly young lad who came up to us, called Mr Raj. Once back on the other side we were waiting for the hotel driver and Kat decided to go in for a wet hug from Ed to which she was quickly yelled at by a group of locals for getting too close in public - getting India'd out!
We have also previously forgot to mention that men here, when they are close friends, hold hands - literally walking down the street fingers interlaced, yet we get glares for doing the same - truly makes no sense!
We ended up spending a whole day in our hotel ordering room service and watching HBO - we really needed to chill out and pretend that we werent in India for a day - and let me tell you it was bliss! Mr. Raj later came in handy when he
Rice boat back...
This boat was sinking as we made it across - despite the smile my dress was soaked through arranged a car to take us to our next destination, Bangalore - we had train tickets booked but Kat was a bit too ill to do another long train ride
Our car ride took about 8 hours. Our two drivers who Mr Raj has arranged- Dumd and Dumber- yabbered continually, and having no ac and crap hindi rap on the whole time, relaxing was difficult, esp for Katherine. At one point, they pulled over onto the side of the road, and Ed had a discussion ( I use this word loosely as they didn’t speak much english!) for about 5 minutes about where we wanted to head to in Bangalore. They seemed satisfied and we resumed our trip- it turned out we were about 5kms from the city at that point and actually they had no idea where we were going even though our hotel was off the main road in the centre of town). Even the map in the guide book was no use (this is something we have noticed before- rickshaw drivers especially seem incapable of interpreting them for some reason). We finally got to the hotel about two hours overdue after our drivers (“Indi-wallahers”, in the
Mr Raj
The enterprising guy even had a business card! lingo- because all private taxis seem to be little Tata Indica’s) asking for directions and fixing one flat tire.
The first morning, we headed for the hospital to get Kat checked out. We found a huge, and fairly modern looking building, which had the feel more of some sort of public building than a hospital. Within 10 minutes Katherine had been registered, paid a small charge and had her own plastic ID card. We found the nurse Katherine had spoken to on the phone the day before- in her day diary, it simply said “10:30- Katherine” and within an hour we were in front of a fearsome doctor. Indians seem to visit doctors en masse - each patient typically having at least one family member to accompany them.
After a quick consultation Katherine eventually got an x-ray (insisted on by the doctor, not her, to prove there was nothing wrong with her lungs) for the princely cost of about 240 rupees (about 3 and a half pounds). During the wait for it, Ed sloped off somewhere, then returned and sat down, looking traumatized and was very quiet for a while - turns out he had need to
On the road to Bangalore
worst trip topped off with a flat tire! properly use an Indian style toilet in the hospital for the first time...The doctor prescribed Kat some pills and off we went! We actually really liked Bangalore as it was a cleaner more modern city with amazing restaurants - our first night we had delicious chinese, another night burgers (sacriledge in India) at the Hard Rock Cafe and a wonderful salad and sandwich lunch at a hotel we wouldve killed to have stayed at!
The drama of the Box- Part 1
We also put together a box of a few things to send back to the UK - excess clothes, books etc and a small but not invaluable purchase Katherine had made - and after a bit of effort we found the main post office in the city. After about an hour of waiting we were told we had to scavenge for a box to put our possessions in to ship them (boxes are not for sale but you can pick up gold coins ranging from 1 to 5 grams!), which was then searched by someone for contraband. We then had to wait in another queue, at the end of which was the job of a lady to
STICH UP WITH A NEEDLE AND THREAD EACH BOX IN a CLOTH COVERING. We wondered what was wrong with duct tape but didn’t comment. The party in front of us had 4 boxes of various sizes to 'wrap'- one of which they wanted to take something out and she had to start again- and after another 45 minute wait we decided to abandon ship and head for our train as we were now in danger of missing it. The traveling light mantra was not going to plan- we now had two large rucksacks, a small rucksack, a security case, a camera case, a book bag and a 4 by 3 foot box to carry! Next stop, Kochi in South East India....
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Katie
non-member comment
Hi
Yoy two have the best blog EVER!! Your trip sounds amazing and i can't wait to hear more. I hope you start feeling better Kat. Lots of love