Hello from Hampi!

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Hello! How is everyone?? Been a while again. Not sure where the time goes over here. It just flies by from one wk to the next. All good though. Having a fantastic time.
Last time I wrote, I was in Pondicherry. I only spent a few days there in the end. One of the days I cycled up to Auroville. That's an amazing place. It's got such a lovely peaceful feel about the place. I can see why people leave their everyday lives in the western world to go and live there. I think I mentioned volunteering there. It turned out, there were loads of opportunities doing various things, including forestry and replantation. I'd loved to have stayed and done that for a while, but they wanted people to stay a minimum of two weeks and to be honest, I think I'd have wanted to stay longer. Another time maybe,..... when the weather's a bit cooler!
I had a bit of a nightmare trying to book my train ticket back to the hill station Ooty, or Mettapalayam, where you catch the toy train up to Ooty. The guys behind the ticket counter didn't speak English very well at all. An older guy buying his ticket tried to help me out which was nice. He was really funny too. He was talking about the british and how much they'd done for India. He then went on to say how they'd wanted to give India its independance earlier but its a good job they didn't because unless the people are ready for independance, its like giving a flaming torch to a load of monkeys!!!! I cracked up! It just sounded really funny coming from a local guy! Anyhow, eventually having gone up to the ticket counter several times asking for different trains and being told they were all full (you have to fill a form in over here to buy a train ticket, so if the train is full, you have to go away and fill another form for the next train) this other guy took over behind the counter who could speak really good english and told me I could pay an extra 150 ruppees and get an emergency seat. fab.
The train was in a couple of days, so I decided to go and see Mamallapuram for a night on the way. It was fab there too. I could have spent much longer if it wasn't for having the train ticket from Chennai the following day. There's not an awful lot there apart from rocks and stone carvings, but it's got a lovely feel to it.
I left Mamallapuram about four o'clock to catch the night train from Chennai. I caught the bus in, but i think the conductor forgot to tell me when to get off in Chennai. Hence I was driven around Chennai for a good hour and a half and ended up having to catch another bus back to the station. I got there about 5 minutes before the train was due to leave and had to leg it up the platform to find the train.
After Munnar, Ooty was a real disappointment. It's just a sprawling town on top of a hill. Even the toy train up wasn't the experience I thought it would be. They basically have one public carriage which they continue to sell tickets for right up to when the train leaves, so you end up piled into the carriage with nowhere to sit or stand come to that! I only stayed one night there. The best bit was probably the botanical gardens which were a nice place to chill out.
From Ooty I went on to Mysore. there's an amazing palace there which they light up with 70000 or so lightbulbs every sunday for one hour. I'd managed to time it right as well, so I'd be there on the sunday evening to see the lights. Apart from the palace and Chimundi hill, there's not an awful lot in Mysore.
I left there and headed towards Madikeri, stopping at Kushalnagar on the way. Just outside Kushalnagar is a Tibettan settlement with a fantastic buddhist monastary and the golden temple. It's an amazing place and well worth a visit. If you go though, it's worth getting a PAP or protected area permit. For some reason you need one to stay inside the Tibettan settlements. I managed to persuade the guys to let me stay one night, but ended up not really being able to go in and out or talk to people comfortably in case I got into trouble for not having one.
After Kushalnagar I stayed one night in Madikeri. Its a very small place with not much to do. There's a nice viewpoint and some waterfalls, but that's about it. I treated myself to a really nice room there ....... Comfortable bed with cusions and pillows! hot water, tv, even had pot plants! It was very very nice!
From Madikderi, it was over to Mangalore and then up to Goa where I was meeting up with Ben from Verkala again. The train journey was really nice. I met a catholic nun, who really reminded me of my Gran, and another local lady who was so lovely. It passed really quickly......and I finally got to try the chicken biriani on the train which James and Lisa had been raving about. It was nice too! Funny, i'd never have gone for chicken anything on a train in case I ended up spending the journey in the loo, but it was absolutely fine and really really tasty!
Anyhow, got to Goa and the train stopped at just a few miles from Agonda. I was heading to 'Sandy Feet' where Ben was staying. Agonda turned out to be fab. Sandy feet was probably the best place on the beach, run by nepali guys. Amazing food, nice little huts, cold beer, good music, and a lovely dog called 'kanchi' which is nepali for 'little girl'. It was great to catch up with Ben again too. I spent a wk or so there in the end. We didn't do an awful lot in the wk. We did hire a couple of scooters for a few days though and drove up the coast a bit. We went to Colva beach which is amazing. Very quiet and its got a fresh water lagoon as well so you don't go home all salty. We also found another beach with potential for being just like Colva, but when we got down to it, it was full of rubbish. Shame, it even had the fresh water lagoon, but the bottom of that was covered in rubbish too! We also checked out Patnum and went to Palolem to go to Smugglers bar which I probably mentioned in the last blog from Goa. The chicken n bacon baguettes are still just as good!
After a wk or so, Ben headed up North and I headed to Gokarna......and so did the rain! Gokarna is a holy town, just south of Goa. It has the main beach which is really a fishing beach and then another four beaches, separated by cliffs. You can climb up over the cliffs from one beach to the next. The first beach is Kudle, then Om, then half moon and then paradise. I spent the first night in one place on kudle beach which I really didn't like. The toilets (shared) were miles away, the room just about big enough for a bed with no windows and I got woken up about 8 by someone hammering away outside. When I shouted out they stopped, but then i heard someone go 'It wasn't me shouting' in a real empathetic voice as though I shouldn't have been asking them to stop hammering at 8 in the morning. Not sure really. Anyhow, I'd decided to move by that point. I was going to stay in Gokarna town, but stopped for breakfast at Ganga cafe right at the end of Kudle beach. It seemed quite nice so I asked about rooms. They were much better than the last place, the toilets and showers were closer and they were cheaper. It was the sort of place you could stay a long time. It had a perfect hammock spot right outside the room looking out over the bay, so I invested 150 rups and bought myself hours of pleasure! The room had some beautiful paintings, outside and inside, and some lovely shell mobiles. I think a lot of people get 'stuck' in Gokarna and really make it like home! It it wasn't for the rain, I could've got stuck there too. It threw it down. We were showering outside it was that heavy! At first we thought the monsoon was early, but apparently it was the edge of a cyclone just catching us. Along with the rain came the rubbish. It basically washed it all down the hill onto the beach. the next morning the beach was covered with it. Also, the sewage which overflowed was pretty horrible too. It continued to rain for the five nights I was on the beach. We did get a nice day where I walked down all four beaches to Paradise beach and then caught a boat back to Om. When we got on the boat there was an enourmous black cloud moving in which we chased all the way back to kudle. Just made it before that night's rain!
Anyhow, after five nights of it, I decided to move on. The sea wasn't all that tempting once you'd seen what the rain was washing out of the toilet block into it! I stayed one night in Gokarna town as the bus for Hampi left at 7 in the morning. It was a hell of a journey. 10 hours nearly with only one stop. Luckily it was worth it! Hampi is cracking place. Its probably one of my favourite places so far in India. It's on the world heretige list as it's packed full of ruins dating back to 15th century and earlier, all set in amongst this spectacular scenery of huge rock mountains.....like loads of individual huge boulders balanced at some impossible angles to make these amazing mountains which surround Hampi itself. The rocks are broken up by incredibly green paddy fields, rivers and lakes. It's very beautiful. I'm staying in a lovely little guest house called Manju's place. Manju is the owner....a lovely guy who can't do enough for you. He has 10 or so little thatched mud huts set under palm trees surrounded by paddy fields. It's really quiet and peaceful. Perfect for the shanti shanti lifestyle that hampi envokes in you. You're surrounded by nature here too.... both outside and inside! Incredible birds, squirrels, butterflies, monkeys, fireflies, bees, ants, frogs, toads etc etc etc. The frogs are amazing. All sizes from tiny tiny, say about 2cm long, up to really big. When it gets dark, all you can hear are the frogs. It's really lovely.
When I arrived, I initially stayed on the town side of the river which is much busier and really very much like any other town on the tourist map. After a couple of days I decided to check out what was on the other side of the river and I'm really glad I did. It's so much more laid back over this side. No shopkeepers or rickshaw drivers pestering you, plenty of restaurants and little 'sell everything' type stalls, rocks to climb on etc etc. For me, Manju's is the only place to stay here.
I'm spending days very chilled out.......going to see the ruins, climbing around on the rocks, going to the lake to swim/chill/soak up some rays, watching sunrise and sunset from the rocks behind Manju's place, reading, watching the world go by from my hammock. My little hut is lovely, very basic, but fab. I had a couple of sleepless nights when I first got there. The first night, I wasn't too sure what the noises were climbing over the roof at night (.....there were rats in gokarna where I'd come from so kinda had the rat thing in my mind) and the second night it rained and the huts aren't exactly waterproof. Hence I spent an hour or so sometime in the early hours holding the blanket over my head trying to keep the one strip of the bed dry!! he he! It's all good fun though and I still love it there. It's even better now I know what the noises are in the night. I was lying in my hammock watching the different animals go about there bits n peices and noticed the squirrels playing about on the roofs of the huts. I think they'd buried some goodies in there, so they'd dissappear into the thatch and then reappear munching away. Hence the noises in the night! Quite happy with that and there's been no rain since so am sleeping like a baby now!!
Anyhow, I've been loving it so much here and I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go next so kinda thought I'd just relax here for as long as it took to get some inspiration. Anyhow after a wk or so of being here I still had no idea where I was going to head. That was ok, but the trains are getting really full now and you need to book most routes about a wk in advance. I'd heard of the Andaman Islands from a few different people.....All good reports. I came really close to going there when I was over in Pondicherry and Mamallapuram, but ended up booking a train back to see Ooty instead (which turned out to be nfg!) Anyhow, I was chatting to Alex from Switzerland over breakfast and he'd just come from the andamans. As I said, I'd been waiting for inspiration and as soon as I started talking about it this morning, I knew inside that was the place. Just talking about it, I felt so excited. It sounds fab, almost paradise! It'll be hot though. It's not really the best time of year over here now because it's really the height of summer just leading up to the monsoon, but I guess there'll be plenty of beaches to cool off on if it gets too much! When I went to the internet cafe later that day, I managed to book a flight on line myself with no hassles! Last time tried to do that for Sri Lanka, it took days and days of not getting it confirmed and then ended up paying stupidly high last minute prices. Obviously meant to be!! The flight is on the 10th from Chennai so it gives me another 4 days here, which is fab, and then leave Hampi and head to Chennai on the 8th on the overnight train. Hence, not only am I loving where I am, but I'm also really excited about the next place too. What a lovely position to be in!
I'm really really loving my time away. I can't believe it's been 8 months already. It's just flying by, but I'm loving every minute. Sometimes I have to remind myself what I'm doing because, not that you take it for granted as such, but it kind of becomes like normal life! Every so often you have to remind yourself what you're doing, just so you appreciate every second for the amazing adventure it is!
Anyhow, I'll stop rattling on! Just to say, hope you all back home are well n happy. Keep me up to date with any exciting news.....love getting your emails! Loadsa love to you all. x

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