Hampi and Goa. The End Is Nigh.

And suddenly, I only had a handful of destinations left. How it happened I'll never know but it was the final very few weeks of my trip and, like with water going down the drain, the end seemed to be moving faster than the rest. My emotions about moving home were slowly turning from fear and sadness to optimism and excitement, I was becoming more generous with my money knowing that, surprisingly, my bank balance was looking better than expected, and I was really freely enjoying myself with the end date moving closer. 

No one could have prepared me for my next stop, Hampi, a truly mind-boggling place. Victoria and I caught our overnight train from Mysore and arrived in the early morning, hopped on a bus and found ourselves driving past ancient temples after ancient temple and an extremely peculiar landscape with piles of huge boulders stretching as far as the eye could see. When we arrived in Hampi we walked through the bazaar to the river and, just like countless travellers I had met along the way had told me to do, got a small boat across the tiny river to the other side to find our guesthouse, Sunny's, straight away. We had booked to stay in a beautiful little yellow bamboo shack and the guesthouse seemed perfect.

I bumped into Jack again (surprise surprise) and also Rachel from Rishikesh and their two new travel companions Rob from Blackpool and Jess from Auckland. That day Victoria and I walked around the temples on the other side of the river and climbed next to the winding river to find so many ruins hidden in the piles of boulders and loads of carvings in the rocks themselves, finding these discoveries making us feel like real explorers. 

After thoroughly exhausting ourselves we walked lazily back to our guesthouse and went out for some dinner with the others before an early night. The explorations continued the next day when I rented a bike along with Jack, Rachel, Rob, Jess and another Jack from Manchester and we all set off as a biker gang. I have done quite a bit of riding during my trip but this journey may be my favourite. My mouth was constantly open with amazement at the landscape around me as we glided past fields, temples, boulders and lakes. We stopped at Hampi Lake where there was a sheltered area fit for paddling and we relaxed there with some music before we started to get hungry and jumped back on our bikes to find the nearest chai stop. We found a nice little guesthouse not far away where we drank chai and decided to put lots of glitter on our faces, because thats what biker gangs do right!? Well, that's what the Jack Star Five + Jack Crew, our David Bowie inspired gang does. Well, why not right? 

Needless to say we left the guesthouse looking fabulous, but just as we were leaving I got a flat tyre and we had to stop in a nearby village to get it looked at. The villagers looked at us strangely (could it be the glitter?) but we were soon entertaining the kids and on our way. We had spent all day out on the bikes and got back as it was getting dark for some dinner and a beer before removing the glitter and hitting the hay.

The following morning Jess, Jack and I went out for a spot of shopping and Jess and I bought some poi (two colourful balls on the end of strings that you spin around and do tricks with) because they were super cheap and we felt like learning something new. In the early afternoon we head out on the bikes to visit and nearby town where there were some more ruins by the river. Down by the river lots of women and children were playing and washing their laundry so we sat and people watched for a while until lunch time, delighted by the laughter and the amazingly bright clothes.

After lunch (and re-glittering our faces of course) we drove back to the lake and relaxed there for the evening where the guy who sells food at the lake had organised a meal and a bonfire for us. It was so great to be sat under the stars in such a gorgeous place with brilliant people and I had a bit of a moment, appreciated the beauty of the situation. We all drove back together in a convoy in the dark, which was pretty cool, and decided to continue the night by finding a bar to have some rum and beer in. That evening I moved into a hut with Jess and we stayed up chatting into the night.

I spent the next day being lazy in the heat. Jess and I took a short ride to the nearest ATM and in the evening Rachel, Jack, Jess and I climbed up to the top of a big mountain of boulders to watch the sunset and listen to a big group of Israelis (there are a lot of Israeli backpackers) make some music accompanied by some local children who were up on the hill trying to sell chai and lemonade.

On our last day in Hampi we were determined to be cultured so after checking out Jess, Rachel, Jack and I hired a rickshaw on the other side of the river and spent the day visiting some of the endless ruins that scatter the area. We visited huge temples, ancient marketplaces, the queens bath, and the elephant stables each of which had their own unique beauty and story. I especially enjoyed the queens palace which was the ideal romantic Indian design.

I also really liked the water hole in the ancient bazaar area where you could just picture the hustle and bustle that must have gone on there when it was in its prime.

Its amazing how seeing so much in such heat can tire you out so quickly but by the time we had seen the final temple, we were all shattered. We retired to a cafe and had some food before it was time to say farewell to Hampi, a place I really think I will see again some day, and also to Rachel and Jack (again). Jess and I had realised that we were heading in the same directions so we caught a bus from the main bus station near Hampi overnight to Goa. I didn't think I would miss the beach as much as I did but the idea of returning to one filled me with excitement, So much of my time has been spent by the sea and what better way to end the trip than by relaxing on the sand in the sun for a few days (and having one last desperate attempt to catch a tan). We got off the bus after a bumpy nights ride and caught a tuk tuk to Vagator beach, in the North of Goa next to the more famous Anjuna Beach. We found a hostel called Jungle Hostel and checked into a dorm room there before walking the short distance down to the beach and spending the day lying in the sun and eating food. The beach there was more beautiful than I was expecting. Maybe it was because I had heard that the north of Goa had gotten too touristy or tacky but I had low expectations for the beaches. However, my expectations were exceeded, like with so many places in India. The water was clean and warm and the sand was soft and relatively litter-free. The one thing I had heard that was true was the amount of Russian tourists there, so many that some stall owners would start a conversation with us in Russian before English. That evening we got an early night, even though there was a party going on in hostel as the lack of sleep we'd had on the bus had rendered us pretty unsociable. When we had re-energised the next day we caught a lift to Anjuna, where the weekly flea market is held. Originally this was a market where the local gypsies and some old time Goan hippies would come to sell their goods, now it is a huge market with many stalls where you can find great stuff if you are willing to wade through the rest. Our first purchase was a giant coconut. Brilliant find number one.

Next we found a beautiful little vintage boutique shop where I fell head over heels in love with a floor length green, sequined gown which I attempted to justify but in the end realised how much of a ridiculous thing it would be to buy and sadly returned it to its hanger. Here's a photo to show how great it was. I bought another lovely top from here. Brilliant find number two.

Brilliant find number three was a bronze, turquoise and red bracelet that we bought from a Tibetan stall owner and brilliant find number four was the creme de la creme. Emma bought a chair. Yep. Who doesn't go to Goa and buy a hanging chair they have literally nowhere to put when they get home? But I have no regrets, it's a beauty, and one day I will give it a home where it will be my reading chair, surrounded by books and fairy lights and carrying it around for the last week of my trip will have all been worth it.

After we shopped, we dropped onto the beach at Anjuna, where we stayed until sunset. It was here that I took some time to go away on my own. I had been carrying, in my backpack, some of my Mum's ashes in an old mint tin waiting for a time when it would be right to let them go. 30-something years ago my parents had visited the very same beach together when they were not much older than me so it made sense to do it here. I walked along the beach to a quiet rock-pool area and leant over the water, tipping the ashes into the sea. Of course I was sad, and I cried wishing that I could share all I have done with her, but it was also a beautiful moment to let go and know that she would have been very proud of me. I sat on the rocks looking out to sea for a while and watched the ashes that had landed on the rock being lapped up by the soft waves. I felt an unexpected wave of pride for myself at this point too, wow, I'd done it!

That evening we had some drinks with people at the hostel and went out for a boogie at a club in the jungle and the following morning I really paid for the amount of Old Monk rum I drank. I felt rough. Luckily so did Jess so we both felt rough together. We managed, eventually, to drag ourselves out of bed and to the closest restaurant where we had a life-saving mango juice and sat feeling sorry for ourselves before going to nap on the beach. As we were walking back to the hostel I recognised a guy on the back of a moped and it turned out to be Ben, who I had met in Colombo! Small world! We caught up and relaxed at the hostel and then played some Jenga with Ben and a guy from Germany before heading out for some late night food, nothing like a midnight snack!

On mine and Jess' last day in Vagator we, you guessed it, went to the beach and lazed around, stopping briefly to buy a couple of very nice very cheap dresses. That afternoon we set of on two crowded, sweaty, horrible buses to another beach destination further north called Arambol. We arrived after dark but managed to find a beach shack at a place called Laughing Buddha for a very reasonable price. We took a stroll around the many stalls that were set back from the beach, uh oh, more shopping, then sat with a beer listening to some live music which started off being good, but headed up being just awful, great memories. 

Another day on the beach awaited us when we woke up, YAY! It really did feel good to be able to relax and do very little after such a whirlwind over the past couple of months in India. We practiced a lot of poi and learnt some new tricks and bought a couple of cool things at the shops. That evening we splashed out further and got some cocktails and wandered down the beach to find a bar that was open. We met three British guys, two of which were in their early twenties and had actually grown up in Spain and Dave, an older old-school Goan visitor, we sat on the beach and talked over some rum and when Jess' speaker died it was time to call it a night. Check out was the following morning, and we managed to squeeze in some last minute lying on the beach, poi and pottering around before my last exotic beach sunset of the trip, I have been blessed to see so many of them this year and luckily it was a beauty to send me off.

We got a taxi to the bus stop and got our overnight bus to Mumbai, which felt like it was travelling at 100mph and didn't make me feel rested at all, and arrived bright and early in my FINAL destination and a place that already holds a lot of great memories, Mumbai.

So, I fly home on the 9th and so my next post will be written when I am back in Brighton after exactly a year of being abroad. It has been the most exhilarating year of my life and so much has changed for me now. I have enjoyed sharing my journey with you and thank you again for taking the time to read it. I am likely to get all soppy in the next post but I will end this one with a quote I wrote down in my little brown notebook before I left Brighton in 2014 (without fully realising how true it is).

'Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote, and I know I will be happily infected until the end of my life'

- Michael Palin

Thanks for reading,

Emma x

Welcome To The Beautiful South

I don't think I was fully prepared for just how different the south of India was going to be compared to the north. I had just got used to the chaos which was Varanasi and Kolkata when I found myself driving in the taxi from Kochi airport, on a flat well maintained road, past lots of green palm trees, European style buildings, and very little litter. It was a bit of a shock to the system and truely felt like I had landed in a completely different country. I arrived late at my hostel in the seaside town of Fort Cochin, and tried to sleep as the air con over the last couple of days and on the plane had given me a cold... again. In the morning I woke and realised another difference, it was extremely humid, where the north had been dry heat. I had to adjust myself to feeling sweaty all the time, just like I had done in places like Thailand. I decided not to waste any time and rented a moped that day with an American girl called Maddie and we zoomed around the town. We stopped at the Jewish sector of the town. Yes, I was just as surprised as I am sure you are to find that there was a old Jewish quarter in an Indian town. There was even a synagogue whoch I had a quick look around and learnt some of the history of the area. 

The king of Kochi had seen that Jews were being persecuted and had decided to dedicate a part of the town to any Jews seeking refuge. Nowadays, only 2 Jewish families remain and the synagogue and surrounding beautiful terraced buildings are a popular tourist destination, many of them turned into shops selling lots of very tempting items (Bonnie, I may or may not have bought your christmas present here)

You can imagine how disoriantated I felt, walking around these very European streets, but I must admit, it was a welcome change and I was very interested too see this side of India, a country that has hosted so many cultures (welcome or not). Maddie and I had some lunch and continued on our bikes out of the town and into the nature that surrounds it. Kerela, the state which Kochi is found in, is most famous for its series of interlinked rivers which are known as 'the backwaters'. We drove past many small towns and lazy rivers and noticed, strangely, a lot of communist political posters, which I never got the chance to ask a local about. 

Kerela is India's wealthiest and most educated state, with nearly 100% literacy. You can feel this as you move around, almost everyone is able to speak English and there is a definite lack of litter compared to other states I have visited. So, perhaps with this focus on education, people feel more free to challenge the current political system? That evening Maddie and I went to watch a traditional dance show which was pretty weird but wonderful. The whole story is told through music, singing and gesture. Every movement the performers make means something and the performers study for years to perfect their act. Both dancers had detailed make up and costume and it made for a pretty fantastic spectacle, reminding me a lot of the dance show I had been to see with Jess in Bali, which makes sense as that style had been bought there by Indian tradesmen many years ago. 

On the 20th I experienced the backwaters with a day long backwater tour on a traditional wooden house boat. We spent the day floating slowly down the mirror-like rivers and the surrounding where just so green and dense, I felt like I was in Jungle Book. It was extremely peaceful to watch the man gently paddling our boat in the right direction using a long bamboo stick and to hear nothing but the nature around us. 

^ very proud of this photo, one for the album.

We had a delicious thali for lunch and moved onto a smaller boat to make our way through the narrower areas. We stopped at various points of interest including a sodium hydroxide factory, where they used clam shells from the river to make the powder, a house where they make coconut rope using a simple spindle and coconut husk to make the super strong rope and a spice farm, where I saw a cinnamon tree for the first time (to be honest I didn't even know it came from a tree!). It began to rain heavily and we jumped in the minivan and drove back to Fort Cochin. 

The next morning a caught a bus with two other girls from my hostel and journeyed to Munnar, a green, cool, tea plantation town in northern Kerela. I arrived and booked a private room with a very very comfy bed and relaxed for a while. I decided to go for a walk alone around the local area and had a great time. I was walking and smiling to myself through the incredible scenery thinking about how lucky I am and enjoying as the sky turned different colours as the the sun started to set. Travelling solo is awesome.

I had an early night and was up bright and early the next day for a morning trek. I met a few more people who were staying in my hostel including an American couple and a woman from Germany who had packed up her job and followed her dream to come to India and train to be a yoga teacher, which was pretty inspiring. We walked for hours up into the mountains, getting some beautiful views and eating a big breakfast at the top. It started to rain a bit, which was a bit of a downer but we battled through and it was totally worth it.

 

The main downside of it being so wet there was that the leeches were out in full force. So when we made it back to the town we uncovered all the bites on our feet that just didn't stop bleeding for ages afterwards. Eww.

We were all so hungry by the time we had returned (unlike the leeches who had already feasted) we went out to a restaurant that the American couple recommended and I had the largest, most delicious thali I have ever had. Oh my word, it was good. And they just kept filling up your banana leaf plate every time you finished something! All for only about £1.80 + £0.20 for the best chai so far.

As it gets closer to the end of the trip I realise that I can't stick around too long in one place, so I caught a long bus out of Munnar to Mysore the following day. Getting the bus ticket was another classic Asian backpacker story where everything works out in the end. The day before I had asked the owner of my guesthouse how I would get to Mysore and he had told me that I would have to catch three buses or a very expensive taxi. The day I was going to travel I was stressing myself out thinking about the journey ahead and when I checked online it looked as though the sleeper bus I was supposed to take was fully booked! I saw the owner and in passing told him about my situation and  whether he knew any other way there and he replied 'Get the bus from here.' I paused, looking puzzled and he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world 'The bus to Mysore leaves here at 3.' Of course it does. The journey itself wasn't great an involved me sitting upright all night with a big snoring Indian guy next to me, but it got me there.

I arrived really early in the morning in Mysore and grabbed a rickshaw which got lost, then finally found my hostel where there was a sleepy guy waiting to let me in and give me a bed to catch some shut eye. When I woke up I met the other girl who was sharing my dorm, Victoria, who was from Hampshire and who I hit it off with almost instantly. We decided to go and explore the town that day and head for the Palace first. It was a very impressive building, built not too long ago and designed by a British architect which you can tell by the real mix of Indian and European design within. 

We went for some lunch and then wandered around the markets for hours, taking in all the sights and smells. There was an especially beautiful flower market, which went on for ages and was a burst of colour.

We met a man called Sam and he took us to some other little shops, including a beautiful little old pharmacy, some skilled carpenters and a incense and oils shop where we both bought some oil, got some free insense sticks and relaxed with Sam and the owner for a while. We knew Sam had probably been trying to sell us stuff this whole time, but we didn't mind because we had a brilliant time being toured around by him and learning about the old trades of Mysore (plus my oil smells amazing and was a right bargain). The next day we began with a very early yoga session with a professor of Yoga and the four girls who were staying at the hostel. It was Astanga Vinyasa yoga and was mainly focused on flexibility so for many of the poses I found myself in strange positions and in a lot of pain. I really enjoyed the challenge though and managed to do a free standing headstand to top it all off, which I was very proud of. I think I will look for this style of yoga classes when I get back to Brighton and become a super flexible yogi.

After such a 'shanti' (the hindi word for peace/relax) start to the day, Victoria and I stressed out about buying her a last minute train ticket to join me on my journey to Hampi that evening. One thing I will NOT miss about India is their train booking system, I realise how much I love nationalrail.co.uk, which is not something I thought I would come to India and discover. We left the lovely hostel, Sonder, where the staff had been so friendly and helpful that evening and caught our overnight train to Hampi, a destination I had been very excited about for a while after hearing so many good reviews.

I will write a seperate post all about Hampi, because you guessed it, I absolutely loved it there. 

Thanks for reading

Emma x