Goa

We made it. From the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India to the Arabian Sea on the west. The prime real-estate on the west coast is in the tiny state of Goa (smallest state in India). We headed to the very north of Goa to a small town called Arambol where the first thing we did was swim.

Goa gets compared to Thailand and we could see why. The locals are very relaxed and it’s a haven from the frustrations you can face whilst travelling India. The best way to see the sights is on a scooter so we hired one and headed to the Anjuna Market.

This market sells everything. From food to fake football merchandise, hookah pipes, tattoos, drums and spices it’s all here for you to browse and haggle over as you melt in the relentless heat.

Goa has the reputation of being the Indian party capital so we had to go out one night for a look around. Hiring a driver (who slept in the van until we were ready to go home) we headed to Baga and were immediately disappointed. We walked into a meat market where the clientele consisted of drunk Englishmen (no surprise there) and greasy Indian men. Still it was an interesting experience and the beer was cold.

We’d heard you could surf in Goa so we combed the beaches looking for breaks. Whilst at Candolim we chanced upon a state disaster called ‘River Princess’. A beached shipping boat that his since been abandoned for the last 9 years.

Random Fact: In the west men have cool accessories, it could be a watch, sunglasses, or jewelry but everyone usually has something pretty neat. Indian men also have cool accessories but one is far and away more popular than the rest – the moustache! Curious to see exactly how popular the mo is we conducted two random surveys. The first returned the result of 64% of men wear a mo and in the second a whopping 78% of men were seen sporting a mo (note the margin of error is quite wide). In total 99 unwitting Indian men took part.

Highlights:
- Lazing on the beach and soaking up the sun
- Catching up with mates from Rajastan. Normal people are hard to find over here so its great to meet up again!
-Scooters and cruising around

Lessons Learned:
- If you give a young boy a small toy to play with you’re a real sad guy if you ask for it back
- Goa was originally a Portuguese colony and you could be forgiven for thinking that it is now Russian such is the popularity with our friends from the eastern bloc.
- If a policeman catches you without a helmet or with a drivers license that he doesn't think is of international standard, elect to keep your passport and pay "the instant fine" instead of the fine at the court house next week.

Hampi

As our last post advised we have decided to traverse from the east coast to the west coast of India. After Bangalore we set sail (not literally) for Hampi. Set in the surreal landscape of golden-brown granite boulders, leafy banana fields and rice paddies Hampi is ridiculously small but it is a must see on the Indian travelers itinerary for two reasons; ruins and rock climbing.

At the moment summer is fast approaching and it gets incredibly hot in Hampi (37°C to 27°C, note that its not a moist heat, its dry and fierce). Risking sunburn, heat stroke, dehydration and worse we hired bicycles and set off to explore the ruins.

The ruins are of Vijayanagara. For the ignorant this was of course the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire. The name translates as 'City of Victory' and in its day it was the prosperous capital of the largest and most powerful kingdom of its time in all of India. Nowadays its a neat little circuit covering a few km's which you can mission around in a few hours on a bike.


As alluded to earlier Hampi is famous for its rock climbing or more specifically its bouldering. Littered everywhere are massive granite boulders just asking to be climbed and judging by the chalk marks a lot of them have been. Scrounging some free shoes and crash pads from our accommodation (Goan Corner) we found some experienced climbers to show us the ropes or holds as the case may be. The photo below is of Dan using a strong right hand mantle to glide up the face.


Technically the climbing was very difficult with mostly tiny holds so our initial idea of powerhousing our way to the top didn't pay dividends. Instead we had to shred our fingers on the sharp granite in order to get to the top.


Deciding to cool off we hired a rickshaw and headed to a nearby reservoir for a dip.


Hampi is a great little town and when you're not too busy staring at the rocks and trying to find a way to climb them you can take in sights like the one below.


Random Fact: Mahatma Gandhi appears on all the rupee bills 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000.

Highlights:
- Hanging out with other travelers who aren't hippy weirdo's
- Bouldering. Physical, challenging and rewarding.
- Having a routine. Get up early and climb stuff. Hide from the heat. Climb stuff. Sleep. Repeat.
- Climbing lingo.

Lessons Learned:
- Indian men can be perverts. Whilst at the watering hole we observed plenty of non-swimming Indian men hanging around the western girls and not so secretly taking photo's with their mobiles.
- Shredded fingers are called Hampi hands. At the time you know its not worth it but pride does funny things to people.
- Train before coming to Hampi so you can hit the rocks climbing. Lots of people come every other year for 2-3 weeks.
- Some countries need to tighten up their passport qualifications. Whilst climbing we ran into a young Israeli guy wearing only underpants, socks, climbing shoes and a cap. Being terrible at the climbing he reverted to cracking yoga poses on small boulders. We thought that his "guru" would be particularly proud of the photo below.

Bangalore

We decided to traverse from the east coast to the west coast of India. This is a very long way so we're breaking it up by spending time in the middle, first up is Bangalore.

Bangalore (or Bangers as we've been calling it) has been coined as the silicon valley of India as it is the IT hub of the sub continent. It came as a surprise that it took us over two hours to find some internet and then it was the worst we've encountered. It looks like all the good connections have been reserved for the hardcore computer coders (hiss hiss).

There isn't much to see in Bangalore but we found it to be very large, very busy - and by Indian standards - very westernised. At a loss for things to do we strolled around Cubbon Park located in the inner city.


Compared to the surrounding sights the park was a big green magnet that we couldn't resist. It was a rather modest park but it gave us what we were after, an escape from the concrete jungle.

Not wanting to dawdle we were eager to resume our travels West.

Random Fact: It is election time in the worlds largest democracy (i.e. India). It's hard enough collecting the votes from 4 million New Zealanders - 99.9% of which have birth certificiates, so imagine the logistics of collecting 1.2 billion votes, many of which are from remote villages.

The best story we've heard is that one gypsy women voted three times. Once for herself, once for her deceased mother and once for her deceased sister. The driver for her voting thrice wasn't her political fanaticism, it was the 1000 rupees ($40 NZD) that the party she was voting for gave her per vote. This story courtesy of her Australian husband who advised that instead of money the locals were often paid in alcohol and that voting for deceased relatives is common practice - as long as the state doesn't know they are dead of course.

Highlight:
- Watching Indian women ride escalators. Some seem to have limited practice at 'riding the moving staircase' so there are plenty of wobbles on the entry and exit.

Lessons Learned:
- Computer coders are notoriously dull (and we are yet to be proven otherwise ;-p) so why would a city full of them be any exception?
- Either silicon valley isn't as impressive as we've been lead to believe by the American media or Bangalore has some catching up to do.