Bangalore: city of shopping

Bangalore is a mad place but it has got a great atmosphere. Not as touristy as Mumbai, Bangalore has grown organically so has very few slum areas (that we saw anyway) and is full of brilliant shops. Kieran was very very happy as this is his second favourite activity ;-)

We went to the botanical gardens in the morning and about 3 sets of people stopped us to ask if they could take our photo (?) funny white people, including one man with a TV camera so we might be on Indian TV (makes up for not getting into Bollywood in Mumbai).

We then went to the shopping centre (although to be honest the whole of Bangalore is good for shopping) and bought some lovely things from some very friendly people. You do get hawkers here but on the whole the place is so vibrant and busy getting on with its life that you don't mind a bit of hassle.

Bit disappointed that we've been in India for a week and not smoked any hash yet but actually we don't really care: papaya lassi is just as good (I'm getting old - El).

Flying to Trivandrum tomorrow (30 Nov) to check into our yoga course so may not post for a week or two. Will send cosmic yoga vibes instead (ommmmm).

Hampi: the best place in India...so far

We love Hampi. Soph and Phil you were SOOOOOOO right to make us come here.

After another sleepless night on the "luxury" sleeper coach (like a tractor really) we worked out why the ride was so bumpy - after seeing a speed bump sign flash by, the drivers must go over speed bumps at 60 mph. We booked a hotel in advance this time so on arrival we jumped straight in a rickshaw and went straight to the hotel which was clean and cool.


We spent the whole day with a rickshaw showing us all the main sites - well worth it as Hampi is huge and walking would take ages. Punpa, our driver, was the bad boy of Hampi and as soon as we left the village he asked us if we liked music and then turned on his bass bin (yes, you really CAN fit a bass bin in a rickshaw!) so we saw Hampi to the sound of banging Hindi house music. Brilliant.

The temples are beautiful and some of the statues are amazing. We especially like Ganesh - the God of luck with the head of an Elephant (you'd love him too, mum/Anita). The last one we saw had musical pillars made from granite that resonate when you tap them all at different pitches (dad/Francis, you'd love this) so they would have 100 people all tapping at the same time to make this incredible sounding like an orchestra. Each pillar was supposed to sound like a different thing: a bell, water, an animal, etc. so the music would tell a story.



We went to Geeta's on S&P's recommendation and I have to say (El here) that my lady finger curry was the BEST curry I've had in India, and in fact, in the world.

The next day we just had a quiet wander around Hampi Bazaar and ended up in Mango Grove restaurant (thanks for the tip John McCauley) and just chilled out watching a great view of the river and the weird boulders that dominate the landscape - it is almost like something out of a star trek set!

We headed off in the evening to catch the overnight train to Bangalore. The train was only 1.5 hours late and we almost travelled on the wrong one too (thanks to the helpful gentleman opposite us who made us get off!).

Anjuna Beach, Goa - chilling, oh yes

So we got to Anjuna and spent 2 days just sitting around on a bar at the beach, drinking coca-cola, eating curry and banana & honey pancakes (not with curry, obviously), and chatting with our friends. We even did a spot of sunbathing (well, one hour) and bought some cheap clothes and stuff. Anjuna is really nice - very chilled out with quite a rural atmosphere, despite being full of hippies.

We went to a night market which was FULL of white people with dreads and pseudo Indian clothes (none of the locals wear tie-dye) selling vastly overpriced crap to other tourists who look like they might not find their way home either.
That said, it was still Indian as the power went off down one of the aisles and the hawkers were still asking us to look at their stuff - in the dark!

We finally started to relax and wash Mumbai out of our hair. We even went swimming in the sea...lovely. My tummy upset didn't really happen so all good on the pooh front!



Was a real shame to say goodbye to our new gang but Hampi was calling our name and we couldn't disappoint Sophie and Phil. Shame we had to get another overnight bus but the time came to say goodbye and head back to Panaji to pick up the bus. The bus station was MANIC incarnate and the taxi driver dropped us the wrong side of a busy road (all roads in India are busy) but this one had about 10 lanes. Took us about 15 minutes just to get across the road, and only by ganging up with some local boys and following them!

We were just missing the start of the Goa Bollywood Film Festival and so all the stars were coming into town. Shame as we're now almost experts after having seen one film (ahem). Got delicious dinner in roadside cafe and boarded ready for Hampi.
(Internet very slow so will have to upload pictures another time).

Goan Fish Curry

We're now in Goa and it's finally sunny!! We've met a few nice people on the overnight bus from Mumbai (which is a story in itself!) and are hooking up with them today to have an idyllic stay on a beach for a night - Anjuna. Goa is not quite what we expected but there you go. We've went to 3 towns yesterday. The first (Panaji) was frankly a horrid shithole (and where we made the mistake of getting a room with our first guest house Nazi: checkout was 8am, ouch); Baga, the second was like Costa del Sol with 5 rows of fat, white, package tourists on the beach; and the 3rd (Anjuna) was a very nice quiet beach with hippy traveller types getting stoned and being cosmic (man). Suffice it to say we're heading out of the first place today to stay at the third!!! Lots of stalls selling chillums and bongs, with hammocks outside the rooms and lots of dreads and tie-die.

Made the mistake of having a Goan fish curry yesterday (which was delicious) and spent quite a lot of time on the toilet this morning...no more fish for me (although Kieran had prawns and he's fine - bastard).

We're really tired from too much travelling and bad night's sleep so really looking forward to chilling on the beach today and doing bugger all. Then off to Hampi tomorrow night on another overnight "luxury" coach.

Mumbai - city of contradictions

So we're 3 days into our trip and we're just starting to settle in. Mumbai is, well, hot, sticky, smelly, busy and, frankly, a bit of a dump (well quite a large one really). Not an awful lot of sights to see here but we've seen some cricket at the maiden oval (large public park), seen statues of Shiva at Elephanta island (lovely cool breezy boat trip there and back), and loving curry for breakfast!!!

It's been very hazy, although not sure how much of that is pollution and dust, but the people seem friendly enough and we don't seem to have much problem ignoring beggars and hawkers...to be honest they don't really hassle you that much - I think it's just too hot!

We thought it would be easy to get the train to Goa but every other tourist in India has booked the train so we're going on overnight "luxury" coach to Goa, staying there for 2 days, then overnight "luxury" coach to Hampi (Soph and Phil: it's been such a pain getting there but we're DETERMINED to do it on your advice!), then overnight train to Bangalore, and then, yes sorry folks, we've sold out already and are flying from Bangalore to Kerala so we can get to Trivandrum in time for our yoga course on 30th November.

We had a fantastic travel agent through our hotel who has basically run around and got all our tickets for the journey - bus, train, the lot - and his office is straight out of Being John Malkovich: only 5 foot high so you have to bend over when standing up - you couldn't make it up!!!

Anyway, we like India so far, but are very keen to get away from the big and expensive city. So, off to Goa tonight to become the worst kind of Hippy tourists...pass me that chillum...

Off we go

So, clutching our Lonely Planet book we start our adventure. Somehow between last week and today our packs have put on 2Kg each...me thinks that El has added something [yes large pot of marmite - El].

Off Yoda goes, mmmm yes

Spot Yoda in our pictures as he follows us around the world...and supervises our training in the Force.

One Week to go and counting

This is the last Tuesday we are going to have to work for a year, can I hear a hallelujah!!

Everyone is asking if we are really excited, and you have to say "yes really excited", but to be honest, I think we will start getting excited when we are on the plane! After a year of planning and trying not to think about it too much, it is hard to let go and allow yourself to start getting excited.

The last thing we had to get was an international driving license, so that Eleanor can get her green Lambretta in Thailand and I can hire a old Triumph motorcycle in India :-)

So first stop is Mumbai (old Bombay) in India. Where we hope to be discovered by some Bollywood director. I think that I could play an evil English count very well, and El could play a beautiful English rose or... a zombie. (depending on the time of day of course).