Blogs from Gokarna, Karnataka, India, Asia - page 4

21st of Jan 2010... 4.30pm. Bus from Hospet leaves 6, journey from Hampi to Hospet, 30mins... Daniela and Saskia. NOT READY!!!!! Packed and on the right side of the river Daniela & I went to the tarlors we had ordered some clothes from the day before, plan was, grab clothes then jump in Auto to Hospet, oh how very misguided we were... 5.30pm finally in an Auto, after a little wrong, colour, size and design problem at the tailors. Just a typical Auto drive, overtaking, cows, trucks, buses and at a point even a train! We managed to make it to the bus stop in one piece and at 5.58pm just in time for our bus, or not as just after 9pm the bus pulled up! Someone mummbeled something about a crash and fixing the lights, ... read more

Our first night on paradise beach was spent in a small room, one of three in a hut made out of woven palm tree leaves. It had no bed, just a roll mat, which we wrapped our mossy net around and the door was just a door shaped woven palm tree leaf propped infront of the entrance and attached with string and that was it! The beach consists of several huts like this and about 5 cafes and the only light at night is from the 3 cafes which have solar panels to give them power, the rest is candel light and torches and a bonfire that is lit at the central cafe everynight. This fire is the gathering point where everyone comes at night to play drums, digeredooos, guitars and other strange eastern instruments, its ... read more

Gokarana... where time didn't stand still but the rest of the world definitely melted away into the relaxing surroundings of Kudle beach! We arrived in Gokarna Sunday evening after a long winded train journey from Mangalore. We'd bought the cheap seats and after trying to sneak onto the sleeper carriages we soon found ourselves shoved about, moved on and grumbled at by those who's seats we'd sat in. Understandable, but slightly annoying especially when they're so rude about it! So after a while we got told where our carriage was - the last two carriages, one was titled 'Luggage' and so we stumbled into the other. Only then did we realise 'Luggage' was code word for women and the carriage we were in was for men. But no one seemed to mind, and after all the ... read more

We had to take another three local buses to make the journey from Palolem to Gokhana. We were far too English when it came to boarding the first bus, we waited while everyone got on and when it came to our turn there was no room, people were hanging out of the doors. Luckily the conductor let us ride up front with the driver which worked out to be rather more comfortable than being squashed in with everyone else. The second bus we were again too polite and there was standing room only by the time we got on. By the third we had realised what needed to be done ino order to get a seat. As the bus pulled into the station we barged our way through the crowd, elbowing and shoving people out of ... read more

Namaskar (Hello) all! Hope everyone is well back in Sunny England... We are still having the time of our lifes you will all be pleased to know! Here in the baking sunshine may i add! Right....lets bring you all bang up to date.... After leaving Thrissur we went to another place in Kerala called Guruvayur, where we visited Punnathur Kotta Elephant Camp. Elephants in India are used for all the festivals and special events at temples and are considered lucky due to the God 'Genesh', at this camp there was about 50 elephants of all different ages, each one having 3 personal 'Mahouts' to look after it - they get washed and scrubed a few times a week, and you can tell they love it! We got to walk around amougst them all and got to ... read more