Day 604 - Hopefully Hubli

We had our final breakfast in Dinesh's (the owner of Evergreen Restaurant - the best food across the river from Hampi), and said goodbye to new friends. Adam loaded up with all the Adlibers' bags in order to save the 5 rupees (NZ20 cents) extra charge if you're carrying luggage on the mafia controlled boat!

In Hampi bazaar the 3 of us managed to catch the local bus to Hospet where we continued to bus hop on a new bus bound for Hubli.

We arrived in Hubli at 4pm, so we had 7 hours to kill before our overnight train back to Goa. We were a little worried because we only had wait listed tickets, but sure enough, by 8.30pm we had our tickets in hand, with seat numbers!!!

We gobbled down another masala dosa for dinner and hung out with the other millions at the train station until our train rolled in, and then rolled out with us on board.

Adlibing small town Hubli.

Day 603 - Rooftops and rocktops

After our mammoth day yesterday we decided to kick back and relax today. Consequently there's not a lot to tell, as we spent most of the day on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the glistening paddie fields as a kaleidoscope of colourful saris tended to the crops.
A few hours before sunset Adam's need to move motivated us to go for a walk amongst the fields and a scramble up the boulder playground that acts as a natural fort around Hampi. For the next while Adam was in climbing heaven as he bounded from boulder to boulder, and played with exercises in this exciting natural gym. Meanwhile Liv absorbed the warmth from the rocks and read her book in between taking photos of Tarzan.

Lazing like lizards on the rocks we farewelled the sun as it snuck its way behind the shadowy mountains in the distance. For dinner we and Peter were joined by Tabitha and Rowan, the awesome couple we met while doing battle with king cobras!

Adlibing rocks.

Day 602 - Out on foot!

We set out early this morning to try and avoid the heat of the day, a plan that failed as we decided not to hire bikes that would propel us on a much faster journey through Hampi's history. By foot we began our sporadic search of the rocky creations of a long expired Hindu empire, amazed at every turn.
Throughout the day we saw a mix of red and grey-stoned temples with carvings, beautiful friezes, and the columns that held these mighty temples up. We also saw some intriguing stand-alone statues of Hanuman (the monkey god) and Ganesh (the elephant god).
The great thing about these temple ruins, is that almost everything is free to get in - so we can see so many different things without having to worry about the budget!! The only thing we had to pay to get into was the Royal Temple and Elephant Stables. The Stables were pretty cool - a long building with separate chambers for the state elephants - unfortunately no elephants there anymore, but an amazing thing to see nonetheless.
After walking for hours in the heat, we decided to catch a cheap rickshaw back to the bazaar where we had a good Indian lunch - Adam had a thali, which is an all-you-can-eat meal of rice, roti, and several different favoured curries; Liv had a masala dosa, which is a savoury pancake with spiced potatoes inside with a couple of small bowls of curry as a dip.

Back across the river we met up with Peter who had spent the day relaxing at the hotel, and so we promptly joined him and set about relaxing ourselves!!

The relaxing didn't last long as some of our new found friends reported a snake in her bathroom. The snake was happily eating a frog (one of the many thousands that control the paddie fields nearby), blissfully unaware of the stress it was causing. When its bucket-shield was moved, it raised and flared out his head and moved as a pace that had us running in the opposite direction. After consultation with the guy at the hotel he solemnly declared it was a cobra, and set about ending its fear inducing life. While this is pretty sad, we're in a populated area and none of us were keen to have a poisonous snake roaming the grounds.

Adlibing monkeys, elephants, and snakes.

Day 601 - Searching sights in the searing sun

With Peter as our guide we headed off to explore what Hampi is famous for - the magical array of ancient temples scattered between towering boulders along the riverside. The journey began as we made or way down the dirt road lined with old stone columns, now claimed by residents to form the base of their homes - a mingling of ancient and modern. The more we explored the more we were blown away by the detailed carvings and sheer amount of it, it seemed like everywhere you looked there was something new to see.
At one stage Liv and Peter sat in the shade and enjoyed the view while Adam climbed up a path that zig zagged around the boulders and brought him out among the birds allowing him to look over the entire ruins. While most Pilgrims went into the temple Adam detoured through a rock archway and soon found himself squeezing through a series of caves revealing hidden religious statues and eventually coughing him back into the outside world. After our few hours of ambling around we came back to the river, where a modern and functioning temple was buzzing with worshippers and coloured by their drying clothes washed clean in the ghats below. Back across the river we settled in for an afternoon and evening of food, fun and friends. Oh, plus a bottle of rum which Peter and Adam managed to finish around 2am after an evening of battle with the swarms of mosquitoes drawn to the paddie fields. Adlibing it amongst the ruins.

Day 600 - From sun-up to sun-down

While waiting on the side of the road at 6.30am for the local bus, we lucked in when a taxi offered to take us to Magao for the same price as the bus (which we weren't sure was coming any time soon anyway)! Once in Magao we wandered the slowly awakening morning streets and made our way over the train tracks to the station. Come 8am we were sitting on the train and setting in for the 7 hour train trip to Hospet.
Along the way the train climbed a huge mountain and we eventually settled onto a plain that was a combination of dry and barren, and lush and green - if that's even possible!!It was in Hospet that Adam bargained the deal of the day when somehow we managed to get us a rickshaw ride to take us the 14km to Hampi for a mere 40 rupees!! The usual price is 100 rupees, so we were totally amazed at our good luck (and Adam's skills!). Not only did we get to jam to the Vengaboys at full volume while racing all the other rickshaws, we also convinced our driver to avoid the toll gate and thus save us another 10 rupees!!We jumped on the tourist rip-off boat to take us away from the hustle of Hampi Bazaar and found ourselves walking along a dirt path surrounded by rice paddies and an amazing puzzle of stacked boulders. For lunch/dinner we lazed in the hotel garden/restaurant that overlooks the river and up onto the crumbling ancient Hindu remains.
For sunset we went for a small wander along the paddie edges and settled on a warm rock to watch night come as it changed the green rice paddies into red and triggered a chorus of frogs into their nightly songs!

Adlibing it to Hampi.

Day 599 - Back to beach bum business

On our way to the beach this morning we made our way along the sandy palm lined alleyways past old Portuguese villas, as Goa was once a Portuguese settlement. The zig-zagging route to the beach gave us a change from sun, surf and swimming Indians and eventually deposited us in the middle of the fishing part of town where millions of fish lie out to dry in the searing heat, and the life of a fishing family goes on like it has for centuries.

Feeling like we'd seen something for the day we settled in to the difficult task of absorbing the picture perfect palm lined beach scenery. We sipped and gobbled our way through the day, only tearing ourselves away for a swim or two - one Peter had to take after being shat on by a seagull!!!Watching the fully clothed Indian women in their gorgeous saris paddling in the surf is an interesting sight - and is a reminder why the nearly naked foreign women are the object of oogling Indian men.

Adlibing an Indian beach.

Day 598 - Rolling beach bums

After drinking and dining our way through several sunny days it was time to revert to the usual adlibing travel ways! This meant we wandered our way through the sleeping town to the side of the road that was our number one bus stop for the day. Bus stop number five was our last, and it at this one that we were deposited at Colva beach. The buses granted us superb scenery, especially when we crossed the huge waterways flowing westward towards the nearby sea.

The final bus to Colva had us questioning for the first time in a while whether we wanted to travel super budget anymore - in a bus made for 20 we managed to pack at least 100 sweaty, stinky people, which then took 40 minutes to cover a 6km drive!! We could have done it in 10 minutes for only $2 more between three of us ... ?!In Colva we found huts in a quiet part of town, following Peter's memories to lead us in the right direction. One of the main reasons we came to Colva is that Peter's Indian advice has yet to let us down, and with the man himself in the lead we could continue our beach-bum relaxing!After lunch we made our way down to the beach where we came face-to-face with thousands and thousands of Indian holiday makers. In complete contrast to Arambol beach, which is a beach for foreign tourists, Colva is mainly used by Indians. While this means Liv doesn't feel comfortable swimming here (due to the huge groups of Indian men who stand staring and taking photos of white girls in bikinis) is nice to remember which country we're in. Plus it's always so nice to see Indians out and about having a ball!!

Oh, and Goa's not a dry state, which means there are many cold, cheap beers for the boys to enjoy while we watch the sun set on our day again. Adlibing it beach to beach.

Day 597 - Beach bums, take 3

Today was almost exactly the same as yesterday, which was the same as the day before! The only variation from the sun, sand, and sea theme was the hour or so we spent browsing through the colourful street markets. Since we didn't buy anything we figured we could spend a bit more on drinks and food so we settled in for another sunset every bit the artistic display of colour that it was the night before!

Adlibing sunsets.

Day 596 - Beach bums, take 2

The shape of our day was pretty much exactly the same as yesterday - with one slight variation: after a late lunch we took a 20 minute walk along the beach and around a rocky outcrop where a smaller beach and freshwater lake awaited us. Along the way the resident beach cows lay in the sun, taking their afternoon siesta!

Between the lake and the sea was a 20m stretch of sand and here we found another restaurant to continue our theme, and Adam was the only one with enough energy to jump into the lake for a dip.
As we made our way back to our bungalow paradise, Adam parted ways for his evening run under the setting sun. During the run he came across huge groups of modern day hippies dancing, playing music, and generally chilling to the beach vibe that Goa provides.

Adlibing fun in the sun.

Day 595 - Beach bums

As usual our travel over the past few weeks has been pretty full on, so our stop at the beach for a few days is a very welcome break! Some may even say reward for the power travelling we tend to undertake! So today we woke late, had a lazy breakfast, then settled in to a day of chilling, chatting, swimming, eating and drinking on the beach.
With three of us now, conversation is a bit more interesting as we have new topics and experiences to talk about!!
Adam got his energy in the evening and went for an hour barefoot run along the sand, while Peter and Liv stayed back for more drinking and eating. Our first sunset at the beach was as beautiful and colourful as a tropical sunset should be - it's always magical watching the setting sun paint the ocean a colour that a sea only possesses for a short period each night. Adlibing paradise.

Day 594 - Down the coast

We managed this morning to jump on a local bus to the main train station in Mumbai where we found our train to take us all the way to Goa where we would meet our great friend Peter. The train was a 12 hour journey through lush green fields and over clean (!!) rivers (after we made it past the men coming to the side of the railway tracks for their morning "deposits"), and we managed to fill our time by eating delicious Indian snacks and drinking sugary chai.
At 6pm we jumped off the train in Pernem, a desolate station that had us wondering whether or not we should be getting off there. We wandered past the waiting tuktuks and taxis out to the street where we waited for over an hour for a public bus to take us the 20km to Arambol beach. It became more and more stressful as night became darker and more and more buses ignored our waving arms!

But our persistence paid off and by 8pm we were sitting in a restaurant next to Peter enjoying stories of his last 6 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia. It's awesome when we catch up with new made travel buddies, as often attempts to reconnect fail. We were so excited to be off the train and with Peter that we forgot about finding accommodation and sat down to a meal and beers, so at 10pm we set off wandering the streets looking for somewhere to stay. Eventually we scored ourselves a sweet bungalow 200m from the beach!

Adlibing it together again.

Day 593 - Caves and Cinemas

We woke up today and our legs refused to do more walking! So after brekky we decided to give our lower limbs a break and instead boarded a boat to take us out to Elephanta Island. As we departed the shoreline from the Gateway of India we got great views of the Gateway itself and of the Taj Mahal Palace. The hour long boat ride was pretty boring considering the haze meant we couldn't see anything around us - well except for a few oil rigs floating among the debris of the mainland rubbish.

We were expecting great things from the statues carved inside caves as far back as 450AD, but were slightly disappointed to find the majority of caves empty. The main cave was duly impressive, with huge towering carvings showing their age as they crumble from their previous glory. The highlight of the day were the naughty monkeys that rule the island. One charged at Liv and got hold of the water bottle, but let go when Adam came charging towards it. We saw a woman's bag get snatched, rummaged through, before the monkey scrambled up a nearby tree with her handbag. We also saw another cheeky monkey drinking from a water bottle it had managed to claim!! The monkey attacks brought back bad memories for Liv of the charging cow in Jodhpur that got its horns into her! Don't they know she's on their side - maybe she'll start eating animals again, they obviously don't appreciate it!!
We also climbed up "Cannon Hill" where Adam had his fun sliding down the huge cannon barrels, and where we got some views over the harbour. But eventually the island left us hot, sticky, and bored so we headed back to the mainland for lunch.

Afterwards we went to the movies!!! After all, we couldn't leave Bombay without seeing a Bollywood film (we were asked numerous times to be extras for the day)! We saw "From Chandi Chowk to China", which was awesome as lots of the movie was in Chinese so Liv could understand some. But then again, as with most Bolly and Hollywood movies the plots aren't to hard to follow. We had a great time and thought the movie was pretty awesome - enough singing and dancing for Liv and enough fighting for Adam.

After dinner we packed our bags in preparation for our early morning train to Goa and our rendezvous with Peter for storytime on the beach!!

Adlibing Bollywood.

Day 592 - Walking ourselves into the ground

Mumbai is the biggest city in India, with a population of over 16 million, so needless to say we have a lot to fit in in only 2 days here!! Our day started off on foot as we made our way past the rather uninteresting Town Hall to the St Thomas' Cathedral. The church was interesting, but also quite sad as inside the church were memorials to young colonials who had died of malaria - maybe we should start taking our malaria pills again?!

From there we strolled to the CST train station - the busiest in all India - that's deservedly famous for being one of the most stunning colonial buildings in Mumbai. The Victorian Gothic styles are blended with pure Hindu and result in a magical display of carvings and architecture.
By this time the heat of the day was getting the better of us so we made a stop for a sugar cane and lime juice - vendors line the streets of Mumbai all fighting to serve you this delicious concoction of flavours. The sound of crushing sugarcane reverberates within the honking and chatter of a busy and the scent of lime drifts in the breeze: how could you refuse?! In fact we have such difficulty refusing that during the day we had at least 3 huge mug fulls each of the stuff!!!

We also made a quick call to Daddims to wish him a happy birthday (we don't have the big numbers on our keyboard so we can't tell you his age!).

Our next stop was the High Court where we both felt kinda out of place amongst the black robes - the Mumbai High Court was definitely a lot more bustling than the Wellington High Court, that's for sure. From here we peaked into the grounds of the University, where in contrast to the court was completely deserted - where are all these educated lawyers coming from?

We checked out the cricket oval next - a classic example of free open space being utilised for the national pastime. There were about 10 games going on at once ranging from young lads in school uniforms to semi-professionals decked out in their whites with umpires.

On our way back to our hostel we passed through the Colaba street markets where amongst other things for sale was jewellery, clothes, giant balloons, and trinkets galore. We ended up in the local fruit, vege and fish market that hangs on the edge of town - it never ceases to amaze us that in India slums such as these can be within a kilometre of such grandness as the Taj Mahal Palace. Back at our hostel we had our free lunch, which was surprisingly good, and gave Adam Aquinas memories by having food served on a tray in a cafeteria.
As if we hadn't packed in enough sightseeing for the day, we then jumped on a bus and made our way to the Crawford St markets - luckily the metro the day before had perfected our barging skills and we managed to get the first bus! We spent a good hour or so at the markets, where Adam was in heaven watching the delivery men slaving away in the heat carrying their loads in baskets on their heads. We also spoilt ourselves to a punnet of fresh strawberries - we couldn't claim to have had a Christmas without them!!
Our last stop was at Chowpatty Beach, where we joined the locals sitting on the sand and looking out over the filthy water and eating icecreams. Having had dessert, it was time for dinner - there's no order in India! So we jumped back on the bus which fought its way through Mumbai traffic (predominantly occupied by ancient black and yellow cabs) for the next hour!Adlibing a jam-packed day in Mumbai.

Day 591 - Rolling into the metropolis of Mumbai

The day started off pretty good - after Adam taking the precaution of sleeping with our shoes on his bed, we woke up with the 2 pairs of shoes we got on the train with - an improvement from our last train ride!!!

For brekky we tucked into a bag of peanuts and a couple of chocolate balls purchased in Udaipur for this purpose. The highlight of our day dispensed with we set in for the monotonous day of rolling along the Indian railway. The only notable thing was the air getting stuffier and hotter the further south towards Mumbai we got.

Arriving in Mumbai we set about trying to get crushed to death by travelling on the suburban train system to get us closer to our final destination. With the train barely stopping at each station and a million people getting on and off it's an "all-or-nothing" adventure. We missed the first train that came by as it all happened in such a blur, but the second time round was ours!!

After our near death experience we were in a slight daze and so walked around for quarter of and hour trying to decide between catching the bus, a taxi or walking the few kilometres to Colaba where we would be staying. Walking won, and we soon found a hostel that suited our budget - and although 3 times as much as anything we've ever paid for in India it's still a bargain for Mumbai. At least we had some beautiful old colonial buildings to wander beneath as we made our way to Colaba.
Despite the recent terror and sadness that overcame Mumbai, in the evening we enjoyed walking in the sea breeze and stopping to be dazzled by the majestically glowing Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

Adlibing it to Bombay!

Day 590 - Pleasant people watching

Our train to Mumbai leaves at 9.30pm tonight, so for our final day in Udaipur we decided to chill - we know that Mumbai will be fast paced and budget breaking, so today might be our last day of peace for a few days.

After breakfast we crossed the lake via a semi-redundant bridge as the lake slowly evaporates when the monsoon rains are light. On the other side we found an even quieter and more relaxed part of town, semi wishing we'd found it earlier for the cheap food and quiet. We sat on the edge of a washing ghat amazed at the green slime being pushed away so clothes could be dumped in the murky waters. We had company in the form of 2 kids wanting conversation and rupees - they got conversation (well the little we could scrape together with our hindi and their English) but lucked out with the rupees!!The afternoon post-internet, was spent continuing the people watching theme on our rooftop where we sat drinking chai and admiring the sun piercing the clouds, before jumping in a rickshaw to deliver us to the train station. Adlibing it easy.

Day 589 - A walk full of surprises

After we spoilt ourselves with cakes for brekky (we felt this was justified after sitting in a different restaurant and being ignored for ages) we decided to shun the rickshaws and use foot-power to explore some sights 4km out of town. We broke out the trusty compass and were soon on our way and stoked to find plenty of friendly Indians willing to point us in the right direction. At one stage we were walking the way we though was right and were stopped and redirected the right way - and this by a rickshaw driver who wanted nothing in return!!

One of the benefits of walking was that we walked past a Jain temple, and though it was chained closed when we showed an interest the guy in charge came out and gave us a quick tour around the various temples. We were stoked to be able to take photos and learn a thing or two. The first temple was built on this site thousands of years ago, and since then has been continuously rebuilt and repaired. It was especially cool to see some statues from ruins kept here for protection against illegal trade.

From here we made it to the sea of ancient cenotaphs of Ahar built over a 350 year span. Once again this place was closed but we were let in - apparently the Adlibers are allowed in wherever we want these days!! Then cenotaphs were built for royals and nobles - the most impressive being for the Maharajas of the area. We wandered around, under the snowy coloured domes, checking out the carvings, and we basically had the place to ourselves!

Afterwards we went to a small museum that showcased Ahar culture from up to 4000 years ago. we questioned whether the jugs and things we were seeing were actually that old, but we're no experts!

To get back into town we jumped on a cheap public transport tempo (like a big rickshaw), where the friendly passengers told us where to get off! It's crazy how once out of the tourist zone you find the real India and it flows a bit easier with a lot less hassle floating in the air.

We dined on lunch in the soaring sun, before getting online to chat to home and do some travel research ...

For dinner we took advantage of a soaring rooftop giving us wonderful views of the glowing lake palace. We decided to splurge on the meal and sat back for the next few hours watching James Bond Octopussy, which was cheesy in the classic Roger Moore 007 way! It was pretty exciting to see all the places in India that we've been visiting, including the palace just across the lake from us!

Adlibing it with a license to kill.