Heels, Himalayas and Hilarity!!: On the GO-A and ‘Hin-credible’ Hampi!

It’s now been over 10 days since my last post – apologies for that, but Dot has been having an absolutely fantastic time with loads of incredible people and hasn’t had a second to herself since the last post. She is now on her first full day in the North West of India in a State called Rajasthan, over-looking a stunning lake complete with majestical palaces – actually the setting of the Bond film Octopussy, and has diligently set her alarm for 7am to finally get this written!

The word HORRENDOUS doesn’t even begin to describe the bus journey from Kochin to Goa where my last post left off, so I won’t go into it here, but ask me about it when you see me if you’re interested, it’s definitely a story… of some sorts! It was also 25 hours instead of the promised 19 hours, which is always a bonus given the way the Indians drive!

Anyway, Dot did eventually make it to Goa, to Palolem beach to be more precise. To be really honest my first view of it was a little under-whelming, more than likely due to the somewhat subdued mood that I arrived in from the bus journey than anything else. On finding a little beach hut, splashing water on my face, and jumping into my bikini I shook myself out of it and put it down to one of those ‘experiences’ of India – what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and all that jazz.

I managed to find Mel and Jenny who if you read my last post you will know that I met in Kochin, and spent the afternoon, evening and the following day with them and a bunch of friends they had met just eating, drinking, swimming, reading, chatting and generally chilling out which was just what the doctor ordered.

Sadly the following day they all headed up to North Goa, an invite I declined having only just really arrived in Palolem myself. The morning before they departed I went on a ‘dolphin cruise’ with a couple I met on the bus and a few others, and there I met a very cool chick from Minnesota, Laura, who became my new best buddy in that transient way that backpacker relationships occur. The cruise itself was alright – ‘no dolphin, no pay’ being the sales mantra, and sure enough we saw a few fins in the distance, none of which I was quick enough to catch on camera sadly! Although I have to say, on pulling up to a deserted island for a quick dip, I did have a fleeting thought of all of you at work, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that a wee wry smile and chuckle didn’t pass my lips – I knew where I’d prefer to be! (Sorry, had to be said – but don’t forget I’ll also be broke while y’all are buying houses – we make our choices, but I don’t regret mine for a second!).

Laura and I shopped and chilled and swum and ate, and later went to ‘the’ place to go at night, a beach bar called “Cocktails and Dreams”! What a name - what could possibly go wrong!! After a few too many Kingfishers (local beer) and the most hideous Bloody Mary you’ll ever taste, and meeting a lot of cool new friends it was but a short stumble home to my ‘lil beach shack for some well-earned (ok, not really!) zzzzz’s.

Next day was scooter time!! Laura and I hurtled off to a wildlife sanctuary to see lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). Well, not quite! First stop on arrival was lunch time (well planned!), and we found a cute little homestay that served us incredibly average fish curry – apparently the local specialty. But we did make friends with the owners 3 children who having presented to us their pet turtle and rabbit like school show and tell insisted we go to the river with them to play. We trundled behind them somewhat warily as they thrashed through the river to get to the other side wondering in the back of my mind whether there were snakes or crocs in the water, and thinking better of asking lest I not want to hear the answer!

Hours passed with the kids, catching crabs and baby prawns and a quick dip (still not knowing the answer to the snake/crocodile question)! It was home time if we wanted to see the dam which was meant to be a lovely photo spot, so our ‘wildlife’ adventure consisted of us ‘spotting’ – 4x cat, 1x turtle, 1x rabbit, 8x prawns, 6x crabs, many many butterflies, and a few snakes all in enclosures – Dr Livingstone look out!! A quick shower and it was off to the ‘Mexican’ restaurant for more curry where we happened to meet the Frenchies from the night before – one of which was overwhelmingly excited to have found steak with blue cheese on the menu – despite having only been in India 2 days! Steak from a Mexican restaurant in Indian – hmmm, not so sure, but he was happy at the end so I can only assume it was up to par – the wonder of India! Next stop was of course Cocktails and Dreams again – where we ended up playing ‘Shithead’ (sorry Mum, it’s a drinking game!), with the Frenchies and a whole lot of local vet students who were holidaying from Bangalore. An international game – who knew?!

The following day Laura and I again hired bikes and were set to explore a Fort that the Frenchies had been to the day before and said had stunning views of Goa. First stop though, was the neighbouring beach Patnem to check it out and a quick dip as it was boiling, where again we happened to run into the Frenchies (are these guys stalking us?! Not really, as both times we showed up where they already were, so they were probably wondering that about us – we weren’t!).

The beach was stunning, and our first swim we ended up about 10 metres away from some frolicking dolphins – far closer than we had been on the boat on our cruise! I was so hoping they would come and play (and not bite or whatever dolphins do), but unfortunately they merrily flippered away from us, disdainfully ignoring our plea to become better acquainted. Surrounded by sun lounges and food, the Fort got quickly forgotten, and Texas hold’em became the name of the game. A couple of hours later I was the proud owner of the full stash of red and yellow Connect 4 pieces and all the scrabble letters, which translated to 600 rupees in my hot little hand! Not quite as much as it sounds, just over £8, but over here that’s a night’s accommodation, so I was pretty stoked!!

Having taken the boys money, it was time to head back to Palolem to get ready for the 12 hour bus ride to Hampi which Laura and I and a couple of English lads were departing on. The odd thing about this bus was that you had to share a ‘bed’ with somebody else, and with Laura and I having booked at separate times, we knew it wasn’t going to be with each other! ‘Please don’t be a creepy Indian guy’ was the repeated mantra for the duration of the wait for the bus! Thankfully I was sharing with a German girl who showed very little interest in speaking to me and promptly turned her back to me and went to sleep, and Laura was lucky enough to have a double to herself and slept soundly throughout the night. Myself, I was on the aisle end of the top bunk, and was clinging on for dear life as we hurtled around corners at top speed for at least 10 of the 12 hour journey – a night to remember for sure!

Groggily I got off the bus in Hampi to an absolute cacophony of touts literally grabbing and shouting at me as I tried to get down the steps with my stuff. The boys behind me were giving me a gentle nudge not being able to see what I was witnessing and wondering what my hold-up was, but it was somewhat bewildering having barely slept, slitty eyes adjusting to the bright light of day, and getting basically mobbed at the break of dawn! I grabbed my pack and basically hid behind the boys and let them deal with it.

Once we managed to get the mob away, we were able to notice for the first time that Hampi was absolutely STUNNING! We traipsed down huge boulders to get to the riverside, where locals were taking their morning bathe which was wonderful to witness. Sadly I was still a bit too bleary to get my camera out which was packed in my pack, a bit of a shame as the photos would have been stunning L.

A short boat ride across the river and a clamber up some boulders on the other side and we found our accommodation – a cute little place for 200 rupees a night (less than £3!). After some chill time it was scooter time again – and a fairly eventful few hours on the ancient machines it was! The clunking sound of my baby Harley (not really, but it kind of looked like it – a really, really old one!) I was assured was nothing to worry about, but I quickly realised I needed to keep on the gas even when I was breaking to stop the engine from cutting, a bonus when you’re riding downhill over pretty knarly gravel road! We found our way to the man-made lake on the island which was incredible! It was full to the brim, like the biggest infinity pool you’ve ever seen! After debate whether the hand-painted sign saying there were crocs in there was real or not, we decided better not to risk it and see what the locals had to say about it when we got back. Back on the bikes driving through magical scenery of giant granite boulders, lush paddies and banana plantations complete with frolicking monkeys, it really was something to behold.

Bumping back down what in most of the world would be considered off-road, my engine started to continually cut, despite my brake-whilst-accelerate technique. With about 5 tourists and locals alike, as well as my crew of 4 all assuming a was a silly girl that didn’t know how to work a bike (I felt like explaining that I’d owned 2 over five years, but let it go), it was eventually agreed that the bike really was buggered and it wasn’t my inability as the operator – or if it was then it put them all in the same category!

To say the owner was less than happy with the scenario was an understatement, and a stand-off ensued – me wanting my money back for the dud bike (fat chance!), and him accusing me of breaking it! No money exchanged hands either way, and I was reduced to passenger first with Josh, and then Ross after a bit more touring and Joshy hit a fairly large hole in the road which with my additional weight resulted in a puncture! Deciding we’d broken enough bikes for one day, we headed back to drop them off, where you can imagine they were less than pleased with the punctured tyre in conjunction with the broken bike. Needless to say the following day we went to a different bike hire place! After a lush but incredibly late meal (it took 2 hours to come – Indian time – we were told 20 minutes!) it was time to roll into bed for the fun-filled day to follow.

Next day it was back on the bikes and off to a local village to check it out. Given our success on the bikes the day before, Laura and I doubled, lest we ended up breaking every bike on the island, with me in the cock-pit. Singing at the top of our lungs Born to be Wild (Get your motor running, head out on the highway – it seemed fitting!), we made the 8 km journey with no problems. With cash in our pockets from the only ATM on the island and some great pics of locals who all seem to love having their photos taken, it was food time for me – and my first truly authentic Thali – served on a banana leaf and not a utensil in sight! The food was delicious – Thali means ‘complete meal’ in Indian cuisine, and consists of chapatti (like naan), rice, and different sauces and veg all served in segregated piles for you to mix as you desire. And if you’re doing it as the Indians do, that mixing is done with your paws – a very tactile if somewhat messy way to eat. When done properly a Thali is ‘all you can eat’ – they just keep coming around and topping up your plate – to my delight and theirs – they love a foreigner that loves their food! I was beyond the point of popping as I reluctantly admitted that we needed to leave if we were get to monkey temple in time to get Laura back for the boat as she was departing that evening (tell the viewers why Laura J )

The monkey temple is sited on the top of the boulder cliff that surrounds Hampi, and has magnificent views as far as the eye can see. Only down-side is that it’s 638 steps straight up to get there, which wouldn’t be a problem except I had a bit of a lame hoof from playing 5-a-side football with Frenchies vs some locals at Patnem and came off a little second-best (the hoof is fine now, so all good)! Anyways, I hobbled my way up the stairs to gorgeous 360 degree views and monkeys galore. After clambering around the boulders snapping the primates and wondering just how close was too close, we entered the temple to receive a holy red-stripe down the middle of our forehead. A few Namaste shots feeling very zen, and it was time for the even slower hobble back down the stairs. We had been given some sugar in the temple to eat (not exactly sure why), and having nibbled a bit so as not to appear rude, the rest I slyly discarded in my pocket. With monkeys on either side on our descent, I wondered whether they would like sugar, and whether I could get them to take it from my hand (and whether it was an entirely good idea to find out!). Naturally, there was only one way to find out, so I tentatively put my hand in my pocket and reached out flat-palmed to one of the smaller monkeys of the bunch and held my breath to see what would happen. He scrambled over and snatched at the goods from my paw, which was pretty cool – almost like a monkey low-five. On gaining the attention of the rest of the pack, and realising with the sore paw that I wasn’t going to be running anywhere fast, I decided not to risk round 2 and getting too much primate attention, and continued the trek down the remaining 300 or so stairs.

Back on the bike and more Born to be Wild renditions, I felt a little loss of control on the bike and pulled over to check out some passing ruins, and the bike. We had a flat! Brilliant!! Halfway to nowhere, on our own, a bung tyre and a boat to catch! And just as we were wondering quite what to do with time being of the essence for Laura’s departure, like knights in shining armour who turns the corner but the English boys on bikes on their way to the temple. Poor Joshy ended up doubling for the 2^nd time in 2 days, whilst I was left to drive our bike back on one wheel! Ironically, Josh had broken the chain on his bike earlier in the day – we really were having a great run!

The next day it was time to check out the mainland of Hampi where World Heritage Temples and Royal Gardens awaited. We met Lakshmi the Holy elephant, who turned out to be somewhat racist! For a coin you were meant to be ‘blessed’ by Lakshmi, which essentially meant dipping your head whilst she rubbed her trunk across your head – an elephant kiss if you will. On watching the locals and getting the rhythm for the action, I hobbled up to the giant beast, palm out-stretched with a shiny rupee. Once she had taken my coin with the end of her trunk and passed it to the half-asleep local sat on the ground behind her, I dipped my head and… nothing!! No kiss, no blessing, no nothing!! On shuffling off somewhat disappointedly, a local jumped in with his coin and low and behold, back to the blessings Lakshmi went! Most of the rest of our crew also tried, and not one blessing between us!! Apparently Lakshmi’s well-wishes doesn’t extend to foreigners!

After a tiring day of spectacular temples it was time to bid farewell to Josh and Ross who were back to Goa for a couple of weeks before heading onwards to Thailand and eventually Perth to set up shop. Luckily there were newcomers to the crew - Duncan and Maddy, so again I was fortunate to have friends and no time to update the blog!

All was pretty quiet that night and the next day. I am very pleased to say I was the proud recipient of a pedicure that finally fixed my scummy feet from the training and events of the year as well as the travel feet – I felt like a new person! Then it was time for my departure across the river for a 48 hour mission that included a 13 hour overnight bus to Mumbai, followed by a day in Mumbai with Jin, a Korean girl that spoke very little English where we went to Elephanta Island, the feature centuries old caves with amazing Hindu carvings into the very solid rock! We also had a very interesting local train ride to drop our packs at the station to save the rip-off of a tuk-tuk driver literally trying to charge us about 8 times what the fare was worth! Despite everything being cheap here when you convert it to pounds, you definitely do get sick of paying at least 4 times what locals do for absolutely everything. So we were literally shoved by some locals, packs and all into the local train at rush hour (about 9am), squished in between about 8 Indian men one of whom was grabbing my ass! But I had absolutely nowhere to go and no way to wriggle away, so I glared at him and tried to ignore it! It was a journey that made the London tube even at peak time look like a mouse!! Another Indian ‘experience’ under the belt!

At the end of the day Jin and I felt like we deserved a well-earned beer, and met a newbie from England who had just landed and was exactly like I was on my first day – what the hell am I doing in this mental place on my own?! I invited him over for cards and a drink, and shared with him the wealth of my 3 week Indian experience, which hopefully made him feel a little better. It felt like good karma being able to help him as Kirstine had helped initiate me not so long ago.

It was then time to bid a final farewell to Mumbai, drop Jin off at her train station as she was heading South, and try and make my way to mine to take on my next 19 hour train journey – next stop, Udaipur. Again I braved the local train preferring the 6 rupee fare vs the 400 rupee tuk-tuk, and found the ‘women’s carriage’ which was spacious and relaxed versus our experience that morning. On making it to Bandra I jumped in a short rickshaw to my train station, grabbed my water and pack and scampered to the info desk to see if I actually had a seat on the train, as my ticket only had me wait-listed. Fortunately I did, so all I had to do was relax and eat for an hour until my 11.15pm train. I found a small restaurant and ordered my 3^rd thali for the day, and was looking in my bag for my Kindle when I found my water bottle – which was not the one I had been swigging half a litre from!! Oh SH!T!!! I had been drinking the tuk-tuk drivers water, which was undoubtedly tap water and not the filtered water that tourists have to drink to avoid being sick!! And although a second before I had felt fine, I immediately felt sick with dread that I was about to board a 19 hour train, and was undoubtedly going to be unwell from both ends for the next 4 days!!

I trudged to my platform feeling rather sorry for myself but not really thinking I had any option but to board my train, and met a lovely English couple Guy and Rach! The train arrived and I clambered up to my top bunk surrounded by the loud chatting and laughing of the 8 Indians I was sharing my booth with, and promptly fell asleep.

I awoke to the call of ‘chai, chai’ in the morning, and slowly shook myself awake. And breathed a very big sigh of relief and self-high-5 that I in fact felt fine, and had not been sick once! Massive reprieve and probably a fluke which I was very grateful for! The rest of the journey passed relatively uneventfully. I jumped off the train to share a tuk tuk with Guy and Rach who had booked a hotel from Mumbai. I was going to go to another (cheaper!) hostel and meet them at a bar an hour later. However when the owner saw that he was only getting the custom of 2 of the 3 tuk passengers he cut me a deal so I was only paying 300 rupees a night for a plush (relatively speaking) double room in a mint (relatively speaking) hotel – for a quarter what the Brits were paying! So the Brits have learned it’s much better to wing it than to plan ahead, and I am enjoying the nicest hotel of the trip so far for way less than the going rate!

So that more or less takes us up to current, and it’s time for me to go and explore Udaipur with the Brits. On the agenda is the City Palace and the Monsoon Palace as well as booking our next movements which will probably be the desert city of Jaisalmer departing tomorrow if all goes according to plan.

I hope you are all happy and healthy and well. Would be great to get an update on any news from a more normal world!

xxx

PS – for anyone still reading this rather long post, neither my UK nor Indian sim are currently working, so mobile comms is a no go at the moment. I will endeavour to gt it sorted, but I daresay it may not happen, so email, post on my blog or facebook me to get in touch

PPS - pics to come - this connection is too rubbish to upload them!