The stars fell out of the sky in Gokarna!
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2002
1
52
158
Trip End
Aug 08, 2005
Udaipur,
India
Thursday, November 6, 2003
We're still in hectic and very hot India. Things at home must be getting cold now and we are actually starting to miss winter! Anyway, here's the latest so grab a coffee.
We arrived in Gokarna on the West Indian coast on Siān's birthday where (for $3) we found a gorgeous hotel room with T.V and balcony before wandering through the small, traditional town to a long sandy beach. We watched the locals play cricket and paddled in the warm Arabian sea, then watched sunset, accompanied (as is normal everywhere in India) by (beach) cows. The next day, after visiting one of the many ancient temples in the town, we set off to find Om Beach, a picturesque and secluded beach far from the hassles of everyday India (and God did we need it!). We trekked for hours in the hot sun, past the town's open air communal swimming, bathing, washing and who knows what else tank
01 Gokarna Beach
. We then climbed high into the hills, before eventually decending to the beautiful, unspoilt, sandy beach where a handful of locals lived in huts and a few foreign tourists hide in the palm trees in a small café / hostel. Our route back was a little more adventurous as we followed the meandering cow paths along the long rocky coast to another sandy beach where the stars had fallen out of the sky and left hundreds of imprints all over the sand (they were star fish that had been washed ashore!). We eventually arrived back in town with enough time for Siān to do some (obviously essential) clothes shopping before dinner. After another long, gruelling bus journey inland we arrived in Hospet late at night and clambered into a rickshaw to take us to the ruined city of Hampi. Once the capital of the area and full of tales of gold, gems and impressive buildings, the small town that now exists is littered with ruined temples, monuments and grand, granite buildings. Arriving in the town at night with the moon lighting up the ruins was really cool. The landscape was surreal, like someone had dropped huge boulders from the sky littering the landscape as far as the eye could see. They were precariously balanced one on top of the other with the columns of ruined buildings perched on top, contrasting against the sky. The next day we lazily wandered around the shops and gypsy stalls, snacked in the coffee shops and prepared for our early morning guided tour the next day
02 Hampi
. We set off with two other couples on hired bikes, going round all the monuments, temples, palaces and gardens with an excellent guide. After lunch we took a small round boat (coracle) down the river, (which looked like teacups floating along), to the facinating Vittala temple. The solid stone columns of the temple ring like bells when tapped, each having a different sound yet looking identical. We then climbed up a mountain to watch sunset over the ruins, before wandering down to the town's main temple during worhip time (puja), where a cheeky young girl entertained us with her antics.From Hampi we headed for Badami, home of more magnificent cave temples carved into a mountain side rich with amazing decorations, statues and scenes from ancient Hindu tales and myths. We again climbed to the top of a temple packed hill (gradually getting Siān ready for the Himalyas!) for a view of the town. Another bus ride North took us to Bijapur and now is probably a good time to describe the hell of Indian bus journeys! A bouncing, swerving metal cage with bench seats (just like the truck was in Africa) absolutely packed with Indians of every generation, background and wealth with no space for our backpacks (oh and children throwing up!- nice). Amazingly, everyone ensures they get a seat for the frantic, bumpy journey ahead. As the buses career down the narrow roads, sounding their horn at every opportunity and winding in and out of the traffic, it's often best to concentrate on the scenery or 'people watch' the locals as they do us incessantly. Staring is not considered rude here and they just look you up and down for ages whilst you shift about uncomfortably.
Bijapur was nothing special really, we visited a massive mausoleum, where after climbing up the high towers, you reach a whispering gallery that echoes every sound over ten timnes
03 Hampi
. Unfortunately, it is packed with loud Indian tourists who as normal, have no qualms about being as loud as they possoibly can be with little or no regard for anyone else! It has really surprised us just how,(by western comparisons), rude and obstructive people can appear to be and what's more amazing is that in a country as populated as this, with so many cultures, languages and religions, somehow it is all just accepted, and everyone just gets on with it. There is no concept of quiet, even at 4 in the morning when most are still sleeping, they yell and scream at each other and on transport, personal space is non existant. It's taking some getting used to! In the train and bus stations, queues of people wait in turn while others just barge to the front, when getting on the buses or trains, grown adults push and shove each other like children to get on, even before others have started getting off, leaving no room for anyone to go anywhere. But that's India! From Bijapur, we started another long, gruelling journey North by bus and train to Aurangabad, after which we slept solidly for a day, only venturing out to eat at the friendly local restaurant and watch the fireworks for Diwali. Diwali is one of the biggest festivals of the year across India and the beginning of the Indian financial new year. It combines celebrations, fireworks (randomly and dangerously set off in the streets by the children and bursting all ear drums in a 20 metre radius) and street art (rangoli) to welcome Laxshmi, the godess of wealth into their homes
04 Hampi
. When we eventually recovered we visited the small town of Ellora, famous for fabulous Buddhist cave temples from around the 6th Century. The size, scale and work that went into the elaborate scenes and statues, all hewn from the side of a mountain, is amazing. Even more so, a whole temple cut from the rock was just too incredible and we left feeling a bit 'templed out'. The next site of Ajanta was a bit of a disapointment, really touristy (local tourists) with limited access to the temples and the highlight, the 2nd Century B.C cave paintings, really badly lit and clumsily 'restored'. The site itself was really impressive, a horseshoe shaped cliff face with grand cave entrances looking down onto a winding river running below. But this alone wasn't enough to impress. We left Ajanta later that day after peacefully sitting with our bags by the side of the road waiting for a bus. We found a gorgeously clean hotel room (the best in India we're sure!) that night in Jalgaon and arranged our 11 hour train journey North to Ahmedabad the next day. We are gradually coming to accept that hotels with anywhere near clean bedsheets are a rare find in India which can be really horrible at times. The following day the train was packed! Siān found a seat next to a disgruntled Indian family (so far we've found that generally the more educated and wealthy, the less friendly and generous) while Kev sat with an Indian soldier on a bunk high up in the train carriage. It was long, tiring and bizarre. Travelling by train is a whole other experience that we just won't understand .....ever. Sometimes tickets can be reserved in advance, sometimes not, mostly not for the class of travel that you want, but often you can just jump on with a general ticket, fight for a seat and try to avoid the inspector. It varies so dramatically from being led to your bunk and handed towels, pillows and clean sheets by the inspector, to standing for hours in a carriage packed with families, being bumped and abused by the vendors of chai, highly annnoying kids toys and Bombay mix type stuff and other snacks
05 Coracle
. Our original plan was to head to Nepal next for a bit of trekking during peak season, but there are a few problems there at the moment so we decided to delay a little and head North to a hill resort called Mount Abu. We arrived at night and endured a long winding taxi ride which took us to Indian tourist central in the peak season (we thought Diwali was finished but the holiday lasts longer there). All hotels were full with no room to spare, luckily we found one with a wonderfully peaceful rooftop terrace where they offered to let us sleep in the open but we convinced them to allow us to pitch our tent much to the delight of Kev who has been carrying it for the last 5 weeks with no sign of using it. We had thought of sending it home as we won't really need it until Australia. Staying on the rooftop terrace in Mount Abu was so relaxing. The guy who works there, Lalit, does morning and afternoon walks to little known and unbelievably peaceful sights considering the tourist chaos of the rest of Mount Abu. We went with him and a few other foreign tourists to a deserted 'secret' lake and to a mountain ridge for sunset. However, by far the most spectacular sights were the Jain temples. Jain's are a very strict branch of Hindus who do not believe in killing any living thing (because God is present in everything) and their temples carved completely out of white marble are spectacular, even for the most temple weary visitors
06 Vittala Temple
. From the outside, very plain, but inside the most amazing, intricate, elaborate and beautifully carved patterns, figures, animals and scenes on columns, walls and ceilings on such a large scale. We left Mount Abu early on Monday 3rd Novemeber on a 5 hour coach journey to Udaipur, famed for (amongst other things) being the set of James Bond's Octopussy. Udaipur has been and is, excellent. The India we had been hoping for. We have been staying in a peaceful and friendly family haveli (a large, converted mansion surrounding an open courtyard). The first couple of days turned into extended shopping trips with Siān getting beautiful, made to measure, silk outfits. We also visited the elaborate city palace and cruised the lake at sunset to the sound of Indian army bagpipes! and we found some of the best food in all of India at a small local café. Udaipur has been really good but tonight we move North to Jaipur by sleeper coach. Nepal is still on the cards as we have a Canadian couple, Winston and Jen, heading there to report on it for us! We are really hoping it works out and we can go.Anyway, that about brings you all up to date.
Take care all and write to us with what you've been up to.
K & S.
