We ended up taking a bus to Jaipur which again had its ups and downs... firstly you couldn’t purchase a ticket until the bus was docked - even though there were 100 people waiting, so we tried to line up at the ticket counter in an orderly fashion which Indians are not used too! Luckily there was a male and female queue but when the counter opened, that didn’t matter and you were pulled and pushed every which way. I made sure we got the tickets and we managed to score an A/C bus which was great until 45 mins outside of Jaipur the A/C crashed and every man and his dog on the bus complained demanding refunds (it was really hot) until we pulled over at a mechanics and got it fixed there and then. After an agonising trip we made it to Jaipur and even before we got off the bus, we were being yelled at by rickshaws touts who just wouldn’t leave you alone! Back to city life... although as painful as it was we made sure we had a meat feast that night to compensate for all the veggies we had eaten in the past 5 days!
We headed off to the Kerala Coast the next day and after a 12 hour door to door trip we were in Fort Cochin which was exactly what we wanted, old buildings with character, great food and friendly people. Slightly more expensive than we’d hoped for, we decided to be good and opt for just a fan room, which we later found out was a stupid idea with it coming up to Monsoon season as it’s the hottest time of the year. We ended up spending 4 days in Fort Cochin, not that there is really very much to do there but we visited a few churches and temples, local spice markets and the iconic chinese fishing nets which they have been using for over 600 years! It was so nice though to be in one place for longer than a day and we enjoyed the fresh Seafood on offer. We also took a day trip to Alleppey to explore the back waters and enjoy some traditional Kerelian food and I wrestled a baby goat! The backwaters were quiet beautiful - even on the world’s slowest boat being “pole driven” by two very old local guys for 7 hours. While in Fort Cochin we were also able to see a traditional Kerelian Kathakali musical story, which some fellow travellers recommended to us the previous night. The play itself was only a short story but the entertainment also included a 1 hour pre make up application show, which the guy the night before raved about but honestly was boring as hell. The play itself was good and very different to what we are used to but it was in dire need of some editing and Jason even went to the toilet for a break from the noise and came back to find the same thing still going on!
Leaving Fort Cochin we had another early start to fly to Goa, Jason again encountered another annoying child that vomited all over its family and the tray table, which with Jason’s weak stomach made for a rather funny flight of him gagging! Slightly unsure of where to go in Goa, we followed my uncles advice and went to Calungate which is a fairly touristy part however that wasn’t before being abused by the local taxi drivers for going with a unlicensed driver and not lining up at the govt stand... honestly we were hounded by about 12 drivers all yelling at us. Arrived in Calungate with no accommodation so wondered around for a while trying to find a cheap place and luckily found someone’s house close to the beach, with A/C and a TV... we were totally stoked especially for only $12.50 a night, although a three day wedding ceremony was being held next door and music went all day and even started at 6am the next morning.
Goa was very similar to Kerala in that we didn’t do much other than eat, drink and sunbath. Going to the beach was an experience as not only do the locals come right up to you and check you out in your swimmers but watching them frolic in the sea either fully clothed in jeans and Sari’s or in their daggy undies made for a fun afternoon. The sea itself was rather dirty and the beach was nice minus the millions of water bottles, cows walking up and down it and dogs shitting on it. God we miss Manly beach! We managed to find a cheap restaurant which has the best Chicken Muglai in the world so in total we have been there 9 times in 7 days... addicted slightly! Jason’s birthday finally rolled around and with his “love” for the country I had to try and make it somewhat special and the only thing that came to mind was finding him a steak. The next few days we hired a motorbike to go down to Old Goa and Fort Aguda to visit the old Portuguese churches and the local Fort which was a great day out of Calungate but the sites weren’t that special, although driving on the Indian road, made the day rather eventful. While in Old Goa we stopped at the tourist quarter for lunch and I ordered a mutton Biryani not realising that mutton in India is Goat...needless to say my tastes have diversified. I guess I was trying to get back at the baby goat for beating me in the wrestling match! Knowing that we had another 6 days in Goa and with low season rolling around things were closing down so we decided to go inland to Hampi to look at the boulders and ruins so we went to a travel agent to help us book the 9 hour train ride. All was going well until, the horniest and stoned guy decided to not only help us book the train but insisted we sit, drink Fenni (a locally made coconut spirit) and listen to him talk about how many women he had been with. It was funny at first but after 3 hours and drinking the worst tasting drink in the world, we escaped. The only problem was that the next morning we realised with the Indian holidays getting a train back from Hampi might be an issue... which we shortly found out that it was and had to visit Sunny the drunk agent again to help us get back from which we also learnt was another meat and booze free zone! So we went back to hungry eyes the night before we left for Hampi to eat as much meat as we could preparing ourselves for 3 days of nothing but Coca Cola and veggies!
After a horrible night sleep as the neighbours decided to stay up til 5 cooking, banging pots and pans and having the blearing music turned up load, we made it to the train which actually wasn’t as bad as we expected and was fairly clean and cool, hopefully preparing us for the Transsiberian in a couple of weeks. Arrived in Hampi only to find it was an utter shithole and with no meat, booze and power, Jason again wasn’t a happy man. We later found out that they have scheduled power cuts 3 times a day for a couple of hours which isn’t too bad but it’s so fricking hot there that having no fan and no light at 9pm means you have to sit out on the street watching the cows and dogs running by and the Indians spitting every 3 seconds. Next day after finding a new hotel for $3 a night, we hired a bike to tour the local ruins and boulders which was great sightseeing and even posed in a couple of family photos with some randoms of course! We also went to visit the local waterfall which required a 2km walk through a banana plantation and muddy fields and turned out to be a river running over some oddly formed boulders. It was still good to visit however the fact that my thongs broke, Jason had to walk bear foot along burning hot stones – who says chivalry is dead! Luckily though the self volunteered guide very generously offered Jason her manky shoes to borrow which of course was added to the “tip” which we were forced to pay. Having no shoes in the middle of nowhere was slightly an issue but luckily MacGyver aka Jason found some toothpicks and mended them! Next day we had to make our way to Hospet to get the 4 hour train to Hubli so we could get the bus back to Goa, the only way we could get back to Goa in time for our flight to Mumbai. So after waiting around in Hospet for 5 hours for the train, get to the train station only to find the train was delayed by at least 2 hours which wouldn’t be too much of a problem but the later we boarded the train the later we arrived in Hubli and had to find a hotel, of which we didn’t have a map. So we were contemplating getting a taxi for $50 when luckily 2 Germans turned up and had a connecting train to Goa later that night so we shared the 4 hour ride with them. Typically for me and Jase, the taxi was going to cost 1800rps but for 4 people it was going to cost 2200 as we needed a bigger car for more people and baggage; however the funny part is the bigger car was smaller than my Yaris just with a luggage rack, with no ropes to tie on the bags! Anyway we made it safe, just, to Hubli and found a decent hotel and even splurged on beer and pappadums for dinner just to end a perfect day! Next day at 6 we had the bus organised for Goa, and after 6 hour journey and not eating for 24 hours, the first thing we did was head to Hungry eyes and get our Muglai chicken which arrived after an hour as someone lost our bloody order.. Grrr! Happy to be back in Goa and at the same guesthouse, we slept, had steak again and my delicious apple vodka to celebrate being back from Hampi and in civilisation.
So today has been a rather nothing day as after a few travel days and knowing we have Mumbai coming up, we slept in til 11.45 (well I did), research how the hell we are going to get our Chinese visa and watched crappy movies whilst Jason sings the theme tunes in a foreign language... sorry forgot to mention its Jackie Chan month on one of the movie channels so we have to be back in time to watch the movies so Jason can recite word for word the dialogue and songs just in case I was interested! J
