Mumbai – Hyderabad – Hampi
As
we touched down in Mumbai it dawned, on me anyway, that the section
of our trip that I had perceived to be our first big challenge
(clearly I hadn't put enough thought into what Egypt would be like)
had arrived. With the advise of many running through our heads (don't
touch the water, always make sure your hands are clean, don't ever
put your fingers in your mouth, careful what you eat etc) we made our
way through the dimly lit, and somewhat depressing, airport out to
catch our first glimpse of India. The scene of chaos which greeted
us, cars darting around, horns honking, taxi drivers shouting, near
miss running over incidents – all this considering it was about 4am
- did little to disperse any anxieties. Of course Matt was grinning
and finding it all fantastically exciting. The near death trip to the
hotel in Colaba gave us our first shocking sights of the slums and
more poverty stricken areas of the city but the sight of a battered,
skinny dog cowering at the side of the road just about finished me
off and I spent the rest of the journey with my eyes closed. But
that's the thing about India. It's a completely different culture,
it's like nothing we'd ever experienced before and although I can't
say I ever got used to the sight of desperately poor looking animals
everywhere, or indeed the many other incredulous sightings that you
will hear about, I came to accept it as part of a culture that I
couldn't help but be charmed by and that I certainly grew to respect
many aspects of
We
spent that first day acquainting ourselves with Mumbai, and it is a
CRAZY city! There are people everywhere – market stall holders
bombarding the many tourists to look at their stuff, bedraggled
children begging, women dressed in colourful saris.... one sight that
really sticks in our minds is of one of the afore mentioned women,
rooting around in the back of a dumpster truck. And then there's the
traffic. Roads are gridlocked, mainly with taxis, horns are a
constant noise for no apparent reason, rickshaws darting about,
public buses with people hanging off the back or jumping out while
it's moving. There are new and different smells everywhere from
delicious curry, roadside snacks, herbs and spices, poo, wee,
rubbish. It's a massive sensory overload and yet we were surprised at
how much we enjoyed the atmosphere and how comfortable we felt there.
Everybody we met was friendly and although the market stall holders
didn't let you pass without trying to make a sale, they always did it
with a smile on their face and a hint of amusement in their
eyes......there was definitely a feeling of fun. Something everybody
is told to do in Mumbai is visit Leopolds cafe and it didn't
disappoint. Full to bursting most of the time with both tourists and
locals alike, it had a buzzing, welcoming atmosphere that instantly
made us feel, if not quite at home, as this would be impossible in a
place so fundamentally different, then accepted and comfortable. And
it was our first experience of real Indian cuisine......let's just
say we enjoyed some amazing curries there over the next couple of
days.
We
also visited Elephanta Island whilst in Mumbai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephanta_Island). A somewhat
treacherous ferry ride saw us there and back, claiming many seasick
casualties along the way. We were taken round old temples with
ancient carvings inside, depicting the unique symbols of the Hindu
religion. I can't really expand on this anymore as I could only
understand about one in every 20 words that our guide was saying, and
Matt can't help me as, although he did a good job of pretending to
understand, when I came to ask him to fill me in, he was unable to do
so. Therefore, the highlight for us had to be the monkeys! There were
loads of them just roaming around including some tiny little
babies, it was hilarious. Oh, and this was also our first experience
of having our photo taken by Indians, something which we came across
on more than one occasion during our trip.
After
a last meal in Leopolds we headed to the station to catch the first
of many overnight trains. We were lucky with this first journey as
not only had we managed to get into first class (no mean feat as we
were to find out later) but we had also been put into a two person
carriage. Now, I'm not going to lie and pretend that it was 5 star
quality but I certainly felt it was acceptable – if I only knew
what future conditions lay ahead! Our final destination was a little
place called Hampi but we first had to stop for one night in the city
of Hyderabad.
Hyderabad.
Not a particularly inspiring name, and not really an inspiring place.
It's main claim to fame is that it's a big player on the Bollywood
film circuit. Having arrived in the main part of town with its
stinky, gridlocked roads and been gawped at by everybody that saw us
(including the ones who came over specifically to stare at us) we
made our way to the more wealthy part of town where we were staying
in Banjara Hills. This was a lot calmer and cleaner but just to put
it into perspective, when we arrived a farmer was herding his cows
past the front door – imagine a shepherd herding his sheep round
the residential streets of Chelsea and you'll see what I mean! One
thing that really touched us during our short visit to Hyderabad were
the staff at the guesthouse, some of the sweetest, kindest Indian men
we were to meet. After helping and assisting us throughout our stay
we will never forget the scene as we were leaving when all 7 of them
congregated by the taxi to wave us off!
One
thing we did attempt to do in Hyderabad was visit a popular market.
Disaster. There was a big muslim festival taking place at the same
time and, apparently, same place (nobody thought to cancel the market
for the day, obviously). The whole place was swarming, our taxi moved
no more than one hundred metres in an hour and yet for some reason
the taxi driver, who didn't speak english, wouldn't actually let us
get out. After much gesticulating and miming we pretty much jumped
out to be greeted by complete pandamonian. I won't go into too much
detail but some of the things we experienced were: groups of young
boys hitting themselves with chains until they bled; religious
leaders YELLING through loud speakers; being separated in the swarms
of hundreds of people, mainly women, who were just pushing and
shoving us out the way and all this whilst being harassed by the
stall holders – as if we were going to by anything at this stage,
we just wanted to get the hell out of there!
To
really put the icing on the cake, it started to really pour on the
way back to the guest house and our taxi driver drove through an
enormous puddle completely soaking an entire family in a rickshaw.
The rickshaw driver was understandably none to pleased and so decided
to stop his vehicle in the middle of the busy road and march round to
have it out with our driver. Needless to say he didn't open the
window but merely sat there looking at him, shrugging apologetically
but also not moving. At this stage we were beginning to understand a
little more as to why there is so much gridlock on the roads! For the
family themselves, this gave them an excellent opportunity to have a
good old look at us as they sat there shamelessly staring.
That
evening we were back at the station boarding the overnight train for
Hampi, for what we hoped would be our first stay in a more rural
India and something we were both really looking forward to (dangerous
– you never know what you're going to find!). Not so lucky this
time, we were in second class sleeper, sharing with 2 other people.
The standard of hygiene had dropped somewhat and there were some
horrible smells, but luckily for me Matt was still LOVING the train
experiences so was happy to prepare my bed for me so that none of me
or my clothes actually had to touch anything gross!
The
first sight to greet us as we arrived in Hampi was that of the local
Indian men, and an enormous elephant, having a good old scrub in the
river. Hampi is really a little shanty town so most families live
together in one room that has no plumbing system to speak of. The men
come down and wash in the river in the mornings whilst the women
clean the clothes in it. This does of course mean that they don't
have toilets either which explains why we saw so many men and
children going to the toilet pretty much wherever they please. As for
the elephant, she is Lakshmi the holy elephant who lives in the
temple and gets brought down by her keeper every morning for a good
wash.
Having
read all this you are probably now aware that this wasn't quite the
idyllic setting we'd had in mind and what with the mud streets and
the cows wandering all over the place, I was pretty subdued. As well
as all the locals who live there, Hampi is a popular spot on the
traveller trail and so there are a number of little guest houses
around, all ranging from about £2 - £4 a night. They are
all pretty similar – double bed with river stained sheets, rusty
bathroom, a fan and some even have little roof top restaurants
attached. We took just such a place in the Gopi Guest house. However
this was no ordinary guest house, this was the Gopi empire!! A mix
of family members (although all referred to as brothers) take up a
range of roles:
- Boss
man Gopi
- Restaurant
Gopi
- Gopi
tours (we must have spent a total of about 8 hours with this guy as
he tried to sort out our onward journey)
- Rickshaw
Gopi
- Maintenance
Gopi (this dude spent a day installing hot water in our bathroom. By
this I mean he installed a second shower
head! That's right, one to give cold water and one to give
hot. We never had to worry about how this would work, we never
actually got any hot water.)
- Chef
Gopi
- Gopi
mother, the original Gopi member.
Boss
man Gopi, the actual son of Gopi mother, is basically a local hero. His day starts with an hour long run, followed by two, free, hour
long yoga sessions with guests. He then spends an hour or so mingling
with guests over breakfast in the roof top restaurant. A visit to the
little local school to spend some time with the children comes next –
he also regularly visits their parents to try and generate in them
some kind of interest in their children's education. He may then
spend some time visiting local residents to teach them about basic
hygiene and preventions of malaria and other illnesses. He often
spends the day at the house he is building, in the perfect setting,
in the surrounding countryside. At the end of his day, he pays
another visit to the school to carry out an exercise/yoga session
with the children. He should be the prime minister.
And
despite all earlier reservations, from the first morning we just
relaxed and enjoyed being in this little village. Early mornings were
spent in the gopi roof top terrace, drinking a mango lassi and
smiling into the sun as we looked across at the children in the
little school across the mud track. That is a bit of a lie as we did
have some pretty heavy rain on a couple of the days we spent there,
but it didnt do anything to diminish the charm and laid backness of
this place! More often than not, both in the early morning and
evening, loads and loads of mokeys would come swinging through the
trees and running round on the roof tops, it was hilarious. Oh and
Matt got taught the rules of games called caram and
kabadi by Chef Gopi and Restaurant Gopi.
Another
important hot spot for us was The Mango Tree restaurant which was in
the most incredible setting. Its been carved into the hillside,
overlooking the river, with split level seating curving all the way
round. Everyone just sits on Mats on the floor, at natural wooden
hand built tables. In the day the view was gorgeous and in the
evening its all lit up by candlelight. The food was absolutely
amazing! Its actually illegal to eat meat or drink alcohol in Hampi,
but we had some of the most amazing vegetable curries there, plus
they had home made houmous! We pretty much lived in this place
We
spent two days looking at the ruins which Hampi is known for (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi). They
were very impressive and all within walking distance in pretty
countryside, so it was a nice way to while away some hours. That is
until one of our return journeys. We walked round the corner of this
track only to be confronted by a half naked (bottom half
unfortunately) man, lying on the ground, muttering something
incomprehensible (although Matt told me after he thought he was
saying “water, water”). We beat a hasty retreat.
Hampi
was also where we met Alison who was planning to spend months in
India (and by God she did it, I dont know how but she did!). It was
so nice to spend some time with someone who had so many travelling
experiences and she also gave us some great tips for Hong Kong –
dreaming about those cocktails got me through some of the more trying
times in India! We were to meet up again with Alison a little further
down the line.
But
it had to come to an end at some point, although this was about 3
days later than originally planned, and so we were off to Cochin on
what was to end up being a fairly epic journey...
