Blogs from Karnataka, India, Asia - page 12

Nach ausgiebiger Erforschung der Städte, Strände und Berge dieses Landes wurde es Zeit mich ins ländliche Indien zu begeben. Der an Goa angrenzende Bundesstaat Karnataka schien mir dafür gut geeignet. Nach einer rumpeligen und daher etwas schlafarmen Fahrt mit einem Nachtbus (ironischerweise Sleeperbus genannt) kam ich dort in einem mir zuvor völlig unbekannten Dorf namens Hampi an. Dieser Ort befindet sich inmitten des Ruinenfeldes der vor 500 Jahren untergegangenen großen Stadt Vijayanagar, die zur Zeit ihrer Zerstörung 500.000 Menschen beheimatet haben soll. Typisch Indien hat sich in all diesen Jahren niemand gefunden dort aufzuräumen ;) Das Ergebnis ist eine unwirklich scheinende Landschaft voller eigentümlicher Hügel aus großen Felsbrocken zwischen denen Ruinen alter Paläste, Tempel und Forts verstreut liegen. Das Ganze ist oft von Nebeln durchzogen und in ein seltsames Licht getau... read more

Determined to hit the beach immediately after lunch, we left home by 5.30am. The drive was scenic with great roads Router: Tumkur- Davangere - Yellapur- Ankola - Gokarna. Reached Kudle Beach resort by 2pm with a couple of breaks. It was a lovely resort with an awesome view of the Kudle beach. The beach is a 500m trek away which was fun in its own way. The first evening was just beach beach beach. Having totally fearless kids adds to the beach fun :) Bang opposite the resort is a beautiful hillock. We had heard that the sunset from up the hillock would be good, but were awestruck when we reached the top. The ocean view, the rocks, trek down to the waters and the entire green area left us spell bound and to top it ... read more

Hampi; described as one of the most bewitching and spell-bounding landscapes with sandy temples and ruins dotted across some of the most spectacular scenery. Now a world heritage site, but in its prime it is believed Hampi was once one of the richest and largest kingdoms in the world. Take that you other built up ugly capital cities. In other words Hampi is generally described as a place not to be missed on a trip to southern India. Furthermore it was off the tourist trail of Rajasthan. Saying all of this, before we arrived we could not get ourselves excited for Hampi as we enjoyed our few days of relaxation in Goa and had seen enough palaces and temples to last a lifetime by now. Did we really want to see another one, two or even ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Mysore, in the Indian state of Karnataka. Just arrived here a few hours ago, and other than saying this just seems so far the most comfortable, swankiest hotel I’ve stayed in so far, I will save writing about my time here until my next. The reason is I think there is plenty to relate already about these last few days, and I will add my afternoon in Mysore on to my next blog entry. So last up, I believe I had just arrived in Ooty, at the most unusual Mount View Heritage Hotel, wonderful faded colonial grandeur with absolutely zippo on the service-front. It’s a shame, as I think they could do so much for the place if they spruced it up a bit and added a few friendly faces, what with ... read more

I’ve been back on the land for two weeks and all kinds of things have happened since, but let me use this post to explain the few weeks I spent at Auroville. After a few more days with the Auroville guys, I left with Ilango and Vikram in the Bolero with all their gear and we drove to Auroville in 10 hours. The trip was mostly uneventful as we listened to a broken Bob Marley cd with the two main highlights being another twister passing us on the road and a very, very tight descent down the mountains with 27 needle pin bends. We arrived at the AV youth centre in the evening. The first few days there were kind of boring to me but then I decided to go out and explore on my own. ... read more