India - Goa & Hampi

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2nd -11th March

Goa to Hampi

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After all the help we’d received from Khushroo and the guys at the Brokerage office John and I had decided to get something for both to say thank you. I enlisted the help of our top man at the Hotel to help arrange some special cakes and a photo of John and I in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia framed for Kushroo.

Sylvia and I were still frantically trying to get all our stuff together, not to mention a whole load of excess luggage and presents to send home. John in the meantime collected one of the cakes and the photo and frame. Finally our bikes were ready and so we set off into town the three of us in a taxi. My luggage was sent off with the presents, we bolted down a McDonalds Indian style, and we presented the cakes and photo to the brokers and Kushroo who were both very pleased.

We finally got back to the hotel after many check-out time extensions and were finally ready to set off at about 3 o’clock. We rolled the bikes out and got on them. Then, as we fired the engines up, the small crowd of staff and passers-by alike all cheered and clapped us off. A very nice finish to a very nice stay. We set off into a very hot afternoon and managed to hit the beginning of rush-hour just about right, which left us at more than one junction sitting there twiddling our thumbs whilst we melted. We rode in the end for about 2 or 3 hours being mindful that we didn’t want to ride in the dark. Finally we found a reasonable looking Hotel which I checked out.

Somehow I managed to confuse the exchange rate and thought the Hotel to be very expensive until John reminded me of the rate..which left me very pleased as I’d negotiated the tax off of the charges. We settled in, grabbed our first out of town meal with the assistance of the waiter and had a relatively pleasant evening. On arrival the power had been off and we’d been advised that a generator would kick in and provide us with air conditioning or we would get a rebate for the difference of an air conditioned and non-air conditioned room. We went to bed and all was well for a while but somewhere in the middle of the night the power dropped out. We didn’t bother to argue for the difference in the morning as generally we’d been satisfied.

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The reason Indian children eat their greens...

An earlish start the following morning as we had quite a few miles to do and we wanted to try and avoid as much of the heat as possible, so we finally managed to get on the road for about 08:45. Traffic was quite slow and the roads quite poor so we rarely found ourselves riding about 40 or so miles an hour. I’d always thought when reading others accounts of driving in India that these low speeds were more about their driving ability, however now I’ve been here, it is plain that anything faster most of the time is just suicidal as you just don’t know what people are going to do next. India is the country where you have to expect the unexpected.

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Ganesh, one of the Indian Gods.

The day was fairly long and our first real driving in the heat-It is hard-you have to keep 100% concentration all the time, and that with the unpredictability of driving makes for a very tiring day. We were quite set on reaching Goa on the Saturday as there was the festival of colour on the Sunday where we’d heard that road blocks were established to get money for the Holy day. Nearer the end of the day we were driving in the dark and still had about 50 miles to go to get to Goa. The Indians driving deterorates further still in the dark and after seeing how crazy some of it was we elected to find a hotel and start again on the Sunday. We’d actually seen a Hotel not long before we arrived at this conclusion so it was a simple matter of back-tracking a mile or two and checking in. Hotel price was fine and the room were good so that was us settled for the night.

Next day we had only a few miles to drive so we started late and had a lazy breakfast. Finally getting on the road for about 11. Soon we were in Goa and after a look round settled into some very characterful accomodation called the Panjim Inn. Panjim and Panjai are different names for Goa. The Hotel was very relaxed and we took the day easily. Panjim was very hot, fortunately we all had air conditioning.

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Our first sighting of the festival of colour, ordinarilly the powder is thrown over people !

The following day Sylvia and I popped into town in the morning to check our e-mails whilst John wrote another web update (how we spoil you !) We joined up again for lunch and I started to write the web update for Egypt whilst Sylvia started looking at areas of interest in India and John checked his e-mails.

The next day we visited a beach which was highly recommended called Camdolim, with a visit to the neighbouring town, Calungate, planned for late afternoon where there is some native dancing in one of the Hotels. In reality the beach was very poor with the main view being that of oil tankers, one which seemed to be a permanent resident as it was actually featured in a post card. Camdolin is actually recommended in both English and German guide books !!!! When we got to Calungate we discovered that the dance show had stopped over a year ago …even though we were travelling with the latest edition of the Footprint guidebook !! Great !!! This isnot thefirst piece of information from Footprint that has proved unhelpful either !!!

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The "joys" of Camdolin !

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The only unexpected joy of Calungate, a sugar beet drink making machine. Looks suspicious but the juice is very nice and they add a small amount of ginger to spice it a bit.

The following morning we left early for Hospet, a neighbouring town to Hampi, which has a vast amount of historical interest (more of which later). The road detailed on two of our maps and the GPS had the road as a major road. In reality 25 km of one track had been dug up leaving very deep dried mud holes as a result which had the many many lorries we saw bouncing around at 2/3mph !! So we doubled back and found another path which we were told was much better but 3 times the distance. After some group commiserations we set off on the longer route only for that to deteriorate to gravel and mud soon also. After some discussion with a local we were assured that the gravel and mud only continued for a km or so. In reality it went on for about 40-50km. During which there was an attempt to stop us to collect some money for the Holy day- as far as I could determine the money went to themselves so I drove around their blockade and continued, however John was a bit behind me so I waited of him and radioed him to ignore them-he did and we were off again.

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The Tuk-tuk mafia set to hustle any unsuspecting tourists....

Progress was generally quite slow and Sylvia and I nearly came to a very abrupt end to our jouriney when 3 young men on another motorbike just came straight off a side track and into our path, which forced me to drive across the centre of the track which was covered with about 9 inches of thick gravel, effectively throwing my bike out of control and us off the road into a small gulley where the bike and I wrestled with each other for 4 or 5 main bucking attempts before almost piling into some very large rocks we were rapidly approaching. Finally after which I brought it and us to a standstill. The men on the bike stopped and laughed as we’d escaped as they saw it, but there faces changed when we gave them a good telling off. Soon we were off again and finally found a town where we managed to get a cold coke and a seat. After which we were given some more travel directions and headed off again.

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Boys will be boys....taken not long after Sylvia and I's detour into the rut and just before a cold coke !

Later we were hungry and noticed that nearly everywhere in town was closed-Finally we found a small café-type place who were selling snacks…so we bought them and enjoyed the opportunity of taking a few pictures of the local boys celebrating the festival of colour.

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The boys celebrating the festival of colour.....you'd have never guessed !

As we neared Hospet the level of lorries we came across grew to an unbelievable amount. We passed through one traffic jam which had about 15miles of lorries tailed back, and yes, I do mean 15 miles. Anything that wasn’t a lorry drove wherever they could, and that included us. We drove on the dust on the near and far hard shoulders-we drove against the traffic, we drove on a footpath across a bridge on the wrong side of the road and generally anywhere we could drive to keep moving ! Finally we had to accept that the track and lorries had beaten us so we found ourselves a stop-over in Koppel, about 50 miles from Hospet.

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Some of the crazy driving (and things) we saw on the way to Koppel...note the position of the traffic...remembering that the Indians drive on the same side of the road as us.

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We all agreed that Bus drivers are the worst of all drivers in India...a fact the Indians too agree on. This shot is genuinely of one of the better condition buses.

On leaving Koppel we encountered some more lorries but not on the scale of the previous day. It turns out that Hospet is next to a steel and coal mine, along with a high sugar beet producing area, hence all the lorries. We soon found a decent looking hotel and settled in.

The following day we had breakfast in the hotels second restaurant as the main one stopped serving at 09:00!!! Porridge with banana was Sylvia’s preference which bench-marked the beginning of an upset stomach which lasted her for nearly two weeks !! We’re still not sure of what caused it !! During the morning Sylvia and I went into town to find somewhere to get my now, very bent rack, straightened and strengthened. We soon found somewhere with an owner with a good imagination for solving problems, for which I was grateful. Between the two of us we found a decent solution., and what’s more discovered that I could also have the rack re-sprayed as well as the welding for the all-inclusive price of 500 Rupees, which is about £6.50 !! So I confirmed that I wanted it re-sprayed and set off to get the new TKC80 tyres fitted. That turned out to be a nightmare as everyone and their uncle stopped to look at the bike and us. Eventually the owners of the tyre changing shop asked to move the bike off the road as otherwise the Police would get involved for causing obstruction of the road. I did this and so most of the crowd came with me….which when everybody watches every move you make when taking off your wheel, becomes a real nightmare. Sylvia did a great job of keeping them occupied and hanging on to the tools etc. Finally wheels back on we returned to get the rack and re-fit it. It was done and the spray job was fine, if a little wet. Finally I decided to re-fit even if still tacky as we needed to get going. We returned to the Hotel and met up with John for dinner. John had been writing a web update and written some e-mails whilst we’d been out-he also wasn’t feeling that great so wanted to keep in the cool as much as possible.

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Off to get the tyres changed whilst in Hospet.

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At the tyre changers......sweaty hot and over crowded !!

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One of the many scenes you see over and over again.

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The team responsible for repairing and strengthening the rack.

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Two of the team had spent I don't know how many hours welding and shaping this tractor radiator grill.

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Some would-be team members.

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A local sister and Brother...we think

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Another local girl in traditional dress.

On the Sunday we visited Hampi, which was founded by two brothers, Harihara and Bukka in 1336 and is known for holding a monopoly for trading in spices and cotton, and was enormously wealthy, some say greater than Rome. It was also a thriving market town for diamonds and pearls, where diamonds are reputed to have been sold by the Kilo !!!. It was well fortified and defended by a large army....well, it would have to be selling diamonds by the Kilo !!

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Take one guide and add to.......

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...to a local taxi and you're all set for the day.

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John contemplating joining the Hippy Trail.. he was considered too way-out man..so had to rub his spot off ...........

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...some others who were not so fortunate....and had to join a Wizard tribute band.

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Some of the scenes around Hampi.

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Some rice growing.

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Rocks resembling an elephant..which is seen as significant as one of the gods, Ganesh, has an elephant head.

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I know, he's missed a bit !!

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This building has/had an early form of air conditioning in so far as it was designed for water to trickle down the inner walls and cool the occupants as the breeze blew.

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This squirrel-looking thing seemed to perfom guard duties as it came to this small "window" and looked at the visitors...you can't see the scale here but this window was high up and the squirrel made for quite a sight.

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........the squirrel is in the picture above this one...for those that couldn't tell the difference !!

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...and another application for bamboo...never saw Handy-Andy try one of these !!

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The elephant houses.....now unused.....look fit for a few GS's to me

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Some local woman bathing

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Me leaving the Queens personal baths via the unorthodox method...as the door had been locked.......honest !!

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Indiana Jones....eat your heart out !!

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Some of the phenominal carvings we saw.

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This was a sight I wondered if still existed so quite a moment for me.

We hired a driver for the day and hired a guide for the day when we arrived at Hampi itself. The day was very interesting and we saw many amazing carvings in various temples, including one where the rock pillars were actually used as a musical instrument. Apparently the “musicians” used to hit them with sticks. We actually had this phenominan demonstrated at the cave in Ellora (see entry.) and it is both impressive and amazing. Apparently there is no explanation as to why they sound this way…obviously somebody knew at some point !!! I won’t wite too much more as the photos and their descriptions are probably more helpful.

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Some children "unwilling" to have their photo taken !!!

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The musical temple. The thin-ish spindles are where the musicains used to strike.

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One of the main resaons Indian food is hot-these were the only ingredients in one restuarants store house !!!

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At the entrance to the musical temple

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Bats spotted hanging about in one of the temples.

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This was used for storage water that was supplied from an aquaduct system.

On our final day in Hospet I still had to finish off bike maintenance and so whilst I did this John and Sylvia worked through a time/distance plan for India so that we could be confident of seeing all that we wanted without breaking our necks riding all the hours left.

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Sylvia and I near the end of the day.

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A few shots around Hospet

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For those wondering, the water was black and stank.

Sylvia struggled all week-end with her stomach but felt strong enough to set off on Monday morning. On our last evening Sylvia and I chose to have a Vodka and Orange, however what turned up was Vodka and Pineapple and after some fairly heated discussions with the waiter refused them, only to be given, we think, the same ones back again with more fruit juice, which kicked off another argument. In the end I refused them and they were taken off the bill. He was stupidly arrogant that they were orange juice and embarrassed one of the other waiters we’d been served by a few nights before by trying to force him to taste them and say they were orange juice. He refused !! A bit of a dissapointing end towhat had been otherwise a nice stay.

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.......more tourists !!

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Adios from Hampi for the three amigos !!

Mike
 


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