Fuq-shit

Now that Fuq-shit (I kid ye not) the pale eyed concierge has settled me into my hotel in Delhi, I finally have found a proper internet cafe to pen my new report to you.

The last few days in Hydrabad has been a very very interesting experience! Let me elaborate....

SO, on Thursday, we got up at an ungodly hour, showered in our outdoor showerhut behind the house in Patnem (avoiding the many unseen bugs that im sure lurk there in the dead of night) and hopped into a taxi to Margao - the capital of Goa, in order to catch our train at 8am to Hydrabad. We were seen off by Nela's "special friend" who had risen early to give us a thoughtfully prepared breakfast before we left. Dear of him.

On arriving in Margao station, we dutifully found our platform and started the long wait til the train departed. We drank chai and talked to the waiting locals as well as other tourists. The train arrived, and it turned out to be the longest train in history...and we were right at the wrong end for our carriage....so after an hour and a half of waiting, we had to dash with all our baggage down the whole 1/2km long platform. Nela has missed two trains before because of this, so she was chanting "keep calm, walk quickly" over and over again...making me sweat with exertion and panic! Within about a minute, we still had not found our carriage..and the train started to move off from the station! In a panic I squarked to Nela to jump on any carriage and we would walk through the train. Encumbered with my HUGE rucksac and other baggage I could hardly move quickly, so I followed her with a lot of puffing and panic...gave her a healthy shove onto the train, threw my stuff into the carriage, and then grabbed the rails on the outside of the train with all my might - whilst launching my body with heavy rucksac attached into the moving train! we both collapsed onto the floor of the second class carriage in fits of hysterics - causing the innocent looking Indians in the carriage to jump up in alarm and help us up! soooo funny! It transpired that the carriages were not linked by a corridor, so it took us several stops of leaping off running down the platform and leaping back on again until we found our rightful place in the aircon comfort of the sleeper carriage. PHEW! We bedded down for what was then a rather uneventful 20 hour journey.

We arrived in Hydrabad at 5am and took our first look at the place. At first glimpse, it seems to be a similar city to Delhi or Mumbai - large and bustling with all the usual traffic and noise. However, we were soon to learn, Unlike the other cities, Hydrabad was really quite unprepared for tourists, especially the backpackery types. Firstly, NOONE spoke English, which is very unusual in a big city. It took us 10 minutes to find a rickshaw guy who could vaguely understand we wanted to go to a hotel in the LP - and when we got there the night porter wouldnt let us in..saying that the hotel didnt take anyone who couldnt speak Hindi (this was, of course, untrue). We then trollied about with the rickshaw guy looking at other places - there are no hostels or guesthouses in Hyd. so we were forced to look at a line of really disgusting business hotels. The last of the bunch was just about acceptable, except for the large pile of food and rubbish on the landing, and the cockroaches in our room. We bargained the price and fell into bed - we were knackered! Within an hour (about 7am) we were woken by a HUGE furore in the corridor outside our room. I thought there was an emergancy - as the staff were shouting at the top of thier voices, and a phone was ringing off the hook - blaring and echoing in the "marble"corridor. On sticking my head out of the door, I realised that this was just the staff going about thier morning work.....so now were were not only in a dirty scumhole, but possibly the most noisey dirty scumhole we could have found! nice.

Grudgingly we got up and vowed to find another place and check out first thing tomorrow before they could charge us another night.

If you remember, we were visiting Hydrabad, because Nela had a pen pal from her childhood, who we were going to meet up with. Just before we came to Hyd, he phoned us and said he had had a family berevement - so the meeting was off. Meaning...we had to make the best of a few days in Hyd....

Having shaken off the worst of a bad sleep, we wandered out of the hotel and through the local bazaar - which was selling a gobsmacking amount of fruit and flowers -really beautiful. We walked and walked until we came upon the station we had left earlier that morning. By fate we had a look at the first hotel near the station -and it turned out to be BRAND NEW and sparklingly clean. It was also cheaper than the hotel we were staying in. Without hesitation, we booked in for the following two nights.

Bouyed by our new options, we decided to go for breakfast. Now, this is where Hyrdabad varies from other cities again - in most places you can usually find some sort of toast and tea combination for breakfast - but in Hyd we had to make do with Dosa (a kind of Indian pancake with chillies and onion) and curry for breakfast. Having been softened by Goa (where all kinds of easy western options for food abound) we found it hard to adjust to the Indo food again. Stiff upper lip and all that. Also very good for the diet anyway!!

Next we decided to do a bit of sightseeing. We had to be careful not to do TOO MUCH on the first day, as there is not THAT MUCH to do in Hyd, so we needed to save something for the following days. We decided to head to one of the main attractions of Hyd - the Mecca Masjid. This is billed as "one of the World's biggest Muslim mosques" and "nearly as important as Mecca" I remembered this was also said about the mosque in Ajmer, so I was curious to see it.

As we drove over the river out of the main new part of the city, the streets started to change subtly. All the women were wearing bhurka's and the men thier moslem white shirts and little round white caps. As well as this, the shops began to be housed in ancient looking bazaar areas - with lovely arched entrances to the shops. The whole area felt like the oldest part of the city -it was very beautiful, paint peeling and decrepid. We were dropped off at the Masjid gates where we could see a huge courtyard style place at the front, and behind, in the large building, what looked like a huge function hall. Later I found out that the yard area was where the women and children prayed, and the indoors bit (near the alter) was were the men worshipped. Nela and I took turns going in, as I was the only one with a scarf for head covering. The place was generally not THAT impressive - just bricks from Mecca and whitewashed walls, carpets rolled out in the courtyard, so that people could prostrate themselves if they wished. However, I think it would be quite good on a Friday- as the guide told me that up to 10,000 people came to pray. Also kept to one side was the tombs of the Hyd Royal line, in little marble coffins. Not much to see.

We werent that impressed by the mosque, so we decided to have a walk around the moslem bazaar to get a better feel for the community. We wandered and took photos - the shops were mostly selling moslem clothes and books, as well as perfumes and insense. The most interesting shops were selling pearls - for which Hydrabad is famous. We didnt buy anything, though we were sorely tempted to try on some Bhurka's....we chickened out though.

We hopped into a rickshaw and got him to drop us in a more modern part of the city, so that Nela could do a bit of clothes shopping in Levi, Pepe and Nike shops. We also spotted our first KFC in India - so we got very excited and gorged ourselves on chicken bits and chips! YUM.

Thats another thing about Hydrabad - the rickshaw guys actually allow tourists to use thier metre system - almost unheard of anywhere else in India - I wonder how long that will last.

After an afternoon shopping - Nela broke the bank on western style clothes, and I broke it further on a new camera (my old one died in Patnem), we hobbled home to the minging hotel. Chilli Pizza in the corner shop for dinner, and off to bed (with ear plugs this time..)

Next morning, we fled the bad hotel and jumped into a rickshaw to the new hotel, which seemed like paradise compared to the old one. After a hot shower and another strange curried breakfast we decided to go to the other big highlight of Hyd, which is a 17 metre high Buddha statue in the middle of a lake. Simple you might think.....NOPE. We hopped into a rickshaw, showing the man the place on the map where we should catch the trip boat to the statue. He then completely ignored the map and drove us around the whole of Hyd asking for directions. We first landed up at the Hyd sailing association building, where the kind, english speaking Nepali security guard directed him further round the lake. We then were dumped at a water slide park that wasnt open or working (it was very spooky!) . We then made him carry on round the lake. By this time we were getting annoyed with him, and him with us!!! After driving past a very nasty looking motorbike/scooter/rickshaw pile up (where an injured man bleeding from his head was being trollied off in the back of a rickshaw) we finally came to "Eat Street". This, of course, was NOT where we were going...but at least, from here, you could get a ferry to the statue.

Eat street reminded me of the inside of a westernised mall or cinema. Placed on the lakeside, it was a combination of a clapped out fairground, and a food court. It had several coffee bars, sandwich shops and other food outlets as well as brightly coloured seating areas overlooking the lake. The whole place was piped with a mixture of uppy Bollywood tunes and Europop like the Venga boys and the "Macarena". We slumped into some red and orange plastic seats and looked out to the object of our mission.....

Well, the statue was decidedly unremarkable. It was small, and in the middle of the "lake" which provides Hydrabad with drinking water. In true Indian style, the edges of the lake were encompassed with slummy buildings, so most of the humanity were washing, bathing, drinking from, and using the lake as a toilet and a dump. It smelt. Bad.

We figured that we had come this far to see this damn statue, so we were going to go and see it! We then found out that we had to kill another 3 hours in eat street, as the boats didnt start till 2pm. OH WELL!!!!

We had several coffees and some sandwiches etc and read the local paper and generally people watched. Eat st seemed to attract a young urbane quite rich crowd (coffee cost the same as a meal in the cafe by the railway). There were little groups of young men dressed as though they were in a Bollywood film - western jeans and slogan t-shirts - and the obigatory wrap around shades. Little groups of giggling girls - mostly in Bhurka's, but still showing high heels and the bottoms of thier trousers - usually in day glow colours. All socialising with each other - some were even on one to one dates! Obviously the place to be on a Saturday.

2.30 rolled around, and we boarded the boat for our 30 minute Buddha odyssey. Lets just say, it wasnt worth the effort. haha.

So, having "done" all the sights of Hyd city, we decided to go out of the city for a full day the next day - on an organised trip to "Ramouji film city" - India's answer to Universal Studio's in the USA.

On boarding the bus early in the morning, we were given instructions over the loud speaker, and also some further information on the park in a leaflet.....all in Hindi. We memorised the sari's of two of the ladied on the bus - so that we would vaguely know what to do!!! After an hour of driving through Hyd city and then out into the barren surrounding countryside, we spotted a huge "Hollywood" style sign on the side of the road, saying "Ramouji"...so I guessed we were there. We piled out of the bus and were given our tickets. All the men on the bus - mostly elderly Indians in very conservative tank tops and slacks, immediately bought themselves brightly coloured Ramouji baseball caps.....dont know why. We then all were shepherded through a security check - where the xray machine constantly bleeped, but noone was stopped. We then exited the building and were bundled back into the same bus. By this time we were very confused. The bus drove us about 7km into the dessert past small villages and cattle herders, until we could see this stange looking desserted city. This must be IT!

We parked up and were shepherded off the bus again, and taken into a back entrance of the park. The driver kept saying "five" to us and holding up five fingers, then pointing to the bus. By this we took it that he wanted us back in the bus by 5pm....we hoped....

So then we spent a day in the park - it transpired to be quite a laugh. The park was sectioned into WILD WEST, ANCIENT TIMES, SILVER SCREEN, FUNDUSTAN (kids fairground) and the actual film bit, which you had to visit on a special tram. Each of the areas had a few ride type things, and restaurants. Being Sunday, the whole place was CHOKKA with Indians having a whale of a time - screaming like loony's on very slow fair rides and crowding round some street entertainers like they were aliens..when they were dancing to a blaring version of...yes, youve guessed it...the old favourite of these parts...the Macarena.

We attended a huge dance show, where troops of young bollywood hopefuls strutted thier stuff in holey ragged costumes and huge black boots (even the girls - who tried valiantly to look dainty, but failed) They did give the performance 100% though, and the crowd appreciated it. Also we went to the Wild West show, which had a great deal of hammy acting and really dangerous huge explosions. Excellent!

Once again we were the only white tourists there, so we (especially Blond Nela) were getting pestered for family photos with the Indo's all day.

When we went around the film studio's proper (on the tram) we were treated to a very fast tour half in broken English and fast Hindi. We positively whizzed around the "Set city" which was all made of plaster of paris (or P.O.P as the guy kept saying) full size houses, beautiul gardens and even replica's of the Taj Mahal and other famous Indian sights. All very interesting..but the tour was very fast, and we were dumped at the bottom of a massive hill in the heat of the day to burn and bake our way back up again.

The day finished very nicely with a closing ceremony consisting of a concert by the Indian version of Take That/the Chippendales (though it was a family show!!) Unfortunately we were dragged away by the bus driver who had come to find us....we were late...

Best day in Hydrabad, we agreed.

So now, after another 24 hour train, Im in Delhi again, awaiting my flight to Nepal tomorrow. Its raining and cold in the capital. The rain has made the streets round my hostel get knee high with mud.....and Im wearing a jumper. Feels like Home!!! hahaha

Shiva Loves Banana's

So the 16th February is a big day in these parts - the day we all celebrate how great Shiva is...or something like that. No one seemed to be able to explain WHY I should get up at 6 in the morning to see dawn over the beach, but I wasn't complaining - something to do isn't it!

Nela and I clambered over the edge of the cliff to get to Rajbag beach (the one with the 5 star resort on it and not much else) just as dawn was breaking over the scene before us. We thought no one else would be silly enough to be up at this hour, however, as we crested the top and saw the beach beyond, we had a great surprise. On Rajbag, a temporary market place had been set up selling all types of toys and trinkets as well as offertory gifts, incense, chai and banana's. The place was already heaving with people. On the shore there had been a temporary temple erected with woven banana leaf walls as well as a kind of archway to the sea. As we squatted on the sand with our glasses of tea, gradually more and more people arrived. As 8.30 arrived, there were about 500 people crowding around the makeshift temple, and lined up looking out to sea. Some small children were already in the sea, but with the Indian healthy respect for the ocean, everyone was being very tentative. As dawn broke, there was a large commotion at the top of the beach - a brass band and a small procession of priests holding a model deity above their heads. They processed around the beach and finally came to land in the temple under the arch. There was then much shouting (I think it was a prayer) and then the deity and the archway was lead to the shore. At this very moment, all hell broke loose - like a tidal wave, hundreds of people on the shore started to throw banana's into the sea - and hundreds more - mostly young men clad in only brown pants, and some children - whizzed into the sea in order to retrieve said banana's. It became a massive throwing contest - lots of people ended up throwing banana's AT the swimmers rather than just into the sea!! Very funny! We felt very privileged to witness another of India's unique customs!

Within about half an hour of banana throwing and chanting and singing, the crowds started to subside, so we meandered back to our house for breakfast.

The rest of our recent days have been consisting of hanging out at Patnem and on Palolem beaches just biding time till we head off to Hydrabad on Thursday. We are both a little crotchety because we are getting bored, so roll on Thursday and another 2 day long train!

Bongo Allergy

So after a long and lovely time on the beach, it was generally agreed that it was time to venture out into "real India" again. We decided to head towards the classic "next stop" from South Goa - the legendary city of Hampi in Karnataka. Hampi is famous for being in the middle of one of the most inacessible and inhospitable areas - a huge lunar landscape of boulders and rocks. The reason the ancient citadel is in this area is because it was an monolithic stronghold for the Indians during centuries of attacks from the Mogul empire. As Hampi is about 300km inland from Patnem, the only way to get there was by overnight bus from the local village of Chaudi.

The busses which run the route are "luxury sleepers" (or rather Indian Luxury) which means double decker sleeping cabins on either side of a central aisle. We piled ourselves and our luggage into our cabin, and then spent the next half hour jigsawing into a half decent position for sleeping - while the bus careered through the Goan countryside at high speed. Sleep is merely a concept when bouncing a foot off the bed every five minutes. Was good fun though.

The only thing that marred the journey slightly by a loud and annoying Isreali lady who complained and was "high maintenence" throughout (for example, her pillow dropped out of her bunk while she was asleep, and she complained a lot and said that someone had stolen it...) Interestingly enough, her husband not only slept at the other end of the bus, but when we arrived in Hampi, he seemed to keep a strict 5 meters away from her at all times!

We arrived in the very early morning into Hampi and were greeted by about a hundred rickshaw wallah's shouting and trying to climb the windows again. Not the sort of thing one wants after such a journey...No worries though, it was exciting to be in a new place.

At first sight, Hampi was really gobsmacking, huge cliffs and boulder fields surrounding a bustling little town. Amongst the boulders were ancient ruins on the scale of Machu Picchu and bigger - huge temples and ruins everywhere the eye could see. The main town itself reminded me of Pushkar - in that it was very well set up for travellers - to the extent it seemed to be built and developed specifically for them - little guest houses and b n b's, internet cafe's and chilled out rooftop cafe's serving ice cold drinks and all manner of western food.

We had heard that the accommodations over the river from the main town were even more chilled out, so we decided to go straight there and check them out. One of the guys from Patnem had recommended a hotel called Goan corner - which is run by a Goan lady - meant to be full of COOL people. The Rickshaw dropped us at the river where we had read it was possible to cross only by Coracle - unfortunately this turned out to be a myth - there were coracle's there, but the ferry was a proper boat. It was however overloaded in true Indian style. Each crossing, the boat was filled with 20 or so passengers, many of whom were travellers with huge backpacks, as well as plenty of Indian ladies carrying things to and from the market, and finally at the last, they would jam on one or two bikes, motorbikes or scooters and thier riders. We were thankful to reach the other side without taking a dip - something which many people were doing at the time - the crossing went across the river right where the local ghats were - so there were literally hundreds of men women and children bathing and washing themselves and thier clothes.The boat also nearly mowed down a whole heard of buffalo which were bathing at the same time. Very photogenic.

After a short and beautiful walk though paddy fields, we arrived in Goan Corner. We realised AFTER we had checked in, that it really was full of COOL people. We sat in the lounge while they banged thier bongos, swung thier poi and tried to walk the tightrope in the garden. The aroma of weed wafted over the whole place while we sat back in Ag-ed scorn! Really made me feel old and FLASH-PACKER-EY. I suppose there are some moments when you have to admit defeat and realise you are OLD!! har har.

Anyway, the accommodations were cheap and cheerful - we had our own adobe hut in some very pretty gardens -and the bongo coolio's stopped banging on by about 11pm.

Next day we had rented a Rickshaw wallah to take us around the whole site of Hampi - an area of approximately 25 square km's. Lots of people opt to cycle it, but seeing as you all know how good I am on a bike, the rickshaw descision was a good one. Also, later we found out that it was very difficult to locate all the good sites, AND the Rickshaw man was a part time guide too - so we got lucky. We spent the whole day whizzing from site to site looking at these incredible ruins - some with giant sculptures in thier midst - some fully preserved underground temples - a huge ancient market place, and finally, just at sunset (impeccable timing from our guide) the largest temple complex which features a massive stone chariot and several temples. The colourful people at the ruins were as photogenic as the ruins themselves. Generally very impressive.

We made it by the skin of our teeth to the ferry before it stopped for the night, and I managed to do a rather impressive falling over on disembarkation...almost taking a gaggle of Indian ladies laden with goods into the water with me...though amazingly none of us got wet (I managed to stay on the 1ft wide pontoon...)

Next day we had booked the bus back to Patnem, so we just spent the day chilling out our own side of the river - which was more peaceful and more Indian than the Hampi village side. Even though we were the more peaceful side, we still were harassed endlessly by rickshaw drivers. We asked one how much it would be to go to a lake our side of the river. When we didnt agree a price, we decided to just go for a normal walk instead...or rather it turned out to be a walk accompanied by a slow moving rickshaw....as we walked his offers of the price to go to the lake dropped.....

Us: How much to go to the lake?
Rickshaw: 700 rupees.
Us: Oh, no thanks, I think we will go for a walk instead.
Rick: How much you want to pay?
Us: no thanks! we are going for a walk now (starting to go for a walk...)
Rick: (following us) How much?? 600??
Us: No thanks! (100 metres...)
Rick: 550?
Us: (200 metres...ignoring the slow moving Rickshaw..)
Rick: Ok Ok 500?
Us: (300 metres...still ignoring...)
Rick: Ok Ok 450?????
Us: (40 metres...still ignoring...)
Rick: Yes??? Yes????
Us - finally decided to go OFF ROAD to get away!!!

So then we spent a very pleasant hour or so by the paddy fields and on the river side watching the local sari clad ladies walk thier buffalo herds into the river to bathe. A really beautiful spot. The afternoon was spent lazing about at Goan Corner, and then we leisurely wandered back to the ferry to meet our pre booked rickshaw man.....who never turned up. We waited until we thought we were going to be so late we might miss the bus and then agreed to go in another rickshaw with a nice driver we met whilst walking to the rickshaw rank. He was very nice, but our hearts sank when we saw the rickshaw. I swear it had to be the oldest and most rickety rickshaw I have seen in India - and that is saying something! Anyway, too late to care now, we hopped in and hoped he would put his foot down....which he didnt. He merrily drove at a slow walking pace the 10km to Hospet where the bus was picking us up. Not only that, he insisted on stopping at all the interesting sites enroute to tell us the indepth history so that we could visit next time we happened to be in Hampi. After the 3rd stop, I, in a rather strangled voice, ended up asking him in no uncertain terms to stop messing about and get us to the bus stop. Which, he duely did (at a slightly faster pace) and we made the bus in alright time....phew!

Another 7 hour journey of bumps in the night, and we were unceremoniously dumped on a pitch black road somewhere near Patnem. Luckily my girl guide sense of direction leapt into action, and we strode off into the darkness. I was perfectly right, and we ended up in Patnem in no time. The only hazard to negociate was a rather nasty looking snake on the road which had recently been half squashed and looked really really pissy. I nearly stood on it (in flip flops), but was saved by my pal who shoved me sideways at the last minute. I then promptly nearly threw up and cried with terror (as you all know, snakes are NOT in anyway acceptable to the Abster) Noice.

We watched the sun rise over Patnem which was magical.

Since our escapades in Hampi we have really been chilling out again. Nela came back victorious from Nepal, and so we have been reunited.

One of the days last week we visited the unknown Cola Beach - which is the next bay along the coast from Agonda. Its a really really beautiful place - just the sort of place you would see in films. Its a white beach at the bottom of a tropically covered black rock cliff. At the back of the beach there is a lovely green fresh water lake which runs out into the sea. Really lovely - and best of all - NO PEOPLE! We sunbathed on a deserted beach for most of the day, and agreed it was worth the effort of getting there (700 rupees and also one peevish rickshaw wallah - he nearly popped all three tyres on the pitted road!) the best thing about the beach was that there is only one tiny beach shack - which was proudly sporting a HUGE KERNOW FLAG! Yay! Didnt have the chance to go and talk to them (too busy baking in the sun and flying our kite!!) but its good to know that we Cornish get everywhere - even to the most deserted places in India!

Nela and I have been planning our next steps all week - we have now decided to travel together for the rest of time we are in India -until May - and even after that, as we both want to explore Asia a bit - and it would be fun to do it together.

We have now booked our train tickets to go to Hydrabad next, where she has had contact with an old penpal of hers - who wants to meet up and show us around. Then I will go to Delhi and on to Kathmandu to renew my visa too. Then when I return to India, we will rendezvous in Bangalore to commence our South India escapade! Its all falling into place!