bangles, books, and beaches

the next trip, and one of the last, actually, was a quick trip south before ending up in goa for the roommate's birthday (something that's been in the works since, literally, the moment we got back from goa the first time).

a beautiful site.. and char minar behind

first stop hyderabad to visit a good friend. while i had a lovely time catching up, seeing movies (kahaani! fantastic) and even doing some work, i neglected to do much that was terribly touristy or exciting. i blame this partially on my friend's laziness, but i deserve some of the blame too. i did eat plenty of biryani (although we didn't make it to the famous 'paradise') and i did manage to make it to char minar one day where i spent an inordinate amount of time strolling through bangle shops. and buying a few (dozen) too. i regret not seeing more of hyderabad, i've heard such good things about the palaces and museum. ah well, there's always next time!

bangalore's ngma, worth a visit

bangalore was.. well more of the same, really. not that there's all that much to see in bangalore. i had big plans to check out pottery village and wander through the lalbagh gardens, but well, it just didn't happen. i will say, though, that bangalore was lovely. the weather was perpetually beautiful (as promised) and the shopping was fantastic. between the two recommended bookstores (blossom and bookworm) i spent several hours roaming through stacks and came out with more books than i should have. also, at bookworm they gave me coffee which i thought was a nice touch. the shopping on 100 foot road (where my friend lives) was pretty great too - sales and all kinds of gorgeous anokhi-style clothes and housewares at (a little) under anokhi prices. i also visited the NGMA which has a shady, pleasant campus (although no one knows where it is! bah. but that's a rant for another day) and several promising children's programs, which is exciting to me. they, along with the AF and geothe institut also have pretty regular film screenings and events and there's a decent music scene (more than just metal). these things combined make bangalore a town i think i would enjoy living in. once they actually get the metro finished it will be downright pleasant.

sunny flowers, sandy beaches

and then, on to goa! another night bus (we're getting quite used to these) and we were there. from margao it was another not-unpleasant city bus ride all the way down to palolem. the beach was evidently all but empty as recently as 9 or 10 years ago. now it's developed but without being overly crowded - beach shacks, restaurant/bars, pretty much what you'd expect. after a day our other friends arrived and we were in full-on relaxation mode. the basic pattern was breakfast, sun, jump in sea, read on beach, lunch, sea, read, happy hour, etc. etc. you get the idea. we interspersed our beach time with other activities - shopping, yoga (for some), wandering and taking pictures down along the coast, and even kayaking one day. ambitious, given that the birthday celebrations were the night before. we went all the way out to a nearby island - much easier to get to than to get back from, as it turns out.

colors of agonda

we mixed it up a bit by heading to agonda one day, a lovely very quiet beach just a few kilometers north. (we had gone in hopes of finding hookah, but there was none to be had there either.) the beach seems almost deserted - it is low season, after all. we enjoyed some fantastic calamari, had a few g&ts and jumped in the water one more time before heading back to palolem for their 'silent noise' party. let me explain for you old fogeys reading this. the beach has a noise restriction after 10pm (to protect the sea turtle eggs.. or maybe because the locals just want some quiet) so to get around this one bar has a party every saturday where the music is disseminated through headphones that everyone gets at the door. it was a new experience and i think it's safe to say everyone had a great time.

leaving goa was, as always, a struggle. but i suppose there's a limit to how much you can sit on the beach and do nothing.

just kidding. of course there isn't!

hampi.. history, hippies, hummus

from pondicherry we hopped on a bus back to chennai, then took a train to bangalore, and from there an overnight to hospet. from hospet it was an auto ride to hampi, where we cross the river jammed into a tiny boat and walk the remaining kilometer along the path lined with guest houses. easy as pie.

where's dino?

hampi, as expected, was pretty much filled with white people. which for some reasons means that 'german bakeries' and restaurants with menus that feature israeli food or pizza seem to pop up all over. so, as i said, i was expecting the abundance of absurdly clothed and hairstyled (or should i say non-styled) foreigners. what i wasn't expecting was how beautiful it was there! everywhere we went we were surrounded by gorgeous green rice paddies, palm trees, and crazy rock formations that look like something out of the flintstones.

climbing to the top

one evening we were wandering around, taking in the scenery in the glowing orange light. an auto rickshaw passed by and two spanish girls yelled out with an invitation to go to the monkey temple. in a few minutes we found ourselves climbing the hundreds of white washed stairs that lead up the side of a mountain. it was a long hike so we made sure to stop plenty of times to take in the gradually changing view. the panorama, bathed in the golden light was really quite remarkable. and then we reached the top and arrived at the so called 'monkey temple' which apparently is thought to be the birthplace of hanuman. no wonder there were so many aunties climbing all the way up there. the view was beautiful as we watched the sun go down over the rocks. the unexpected discoveries are so often the best ones.

the next day we set out to explore the ruins of hampi, the remnants from the vijayanagar empire. evidently most of the remaining structures are only from the 16th century, which begs the question why are they in such lousy shape?

after crossing the river again we found a place to rent some bicycles - old and rickety as usual - and made our way towards the first set of ruins. we biked all around and still, i'm sure, only saw a fraction of the sites which span acres upon acres. we ended up making a pretty big circuit, in the end probably biking across 15 kilometers or so. but we had lots of breaks to enjoy the temples, scenery, and occasional popsicle.

exquisite carvings

the last temple on our must-see list was the vitthala temple. a long trek, but we figured we could finish the circuit on bike and head back to bazaar road and make the last-boat 6.00 deadline. the temple was pretty spectacular, especially in that gorgeous amber light of early dusk. the carvings on the pillars and exteriors were in fantastic shape. it was certainly worth the trek.

the ride back however... i should say i'm using the word 'ride' very loosely here. the first few minutes we did ride our bikes away from the temple complex. then we hit the rocks. at first pretty flat, nothing we couldn't walk our bikes over. then they got bigger. and craggier. and finally there were out and out hills. pretty much everyone walking by commented on the four strange white girls who seemed to think you could bike across a kilometer of craggy granite hillside. some favorites were 'mountain biking?' and 'power lifting?' eventually we had to carry the bikes part of the way - principally up the stairs and over the larger chasms.

but somehow we made it back to the main road, returned our bikes, and - yes! - made it back to the boat launch site with 25 minutes to spare. a hampi success. the rest of the night was spent relaxing over dinner and enjoying a few well-deserved beers as we watched one of the movies offered at the local restaurants (they know there's little to do in hampi at night and seem to know their audience pretty well, at least based on the movie selection).

the next day we spent visiting the nearby town of anegundi (this time by rickshaw/walking), just 7 kilometers away. the kishkinda trust has come in to encourage sustainable tourism and integrating the locals so that they can benefit from the economy. we wandered around and saw what there was to see, although it was pretty sleepy on a sunday.

the rest of our time in hampi was spent relaxing. with little internet connection and little else to do, we enjoyed our remaining hours sipping lassis and reading or napping in the sun on the swings outside our cottage. not bad, hampi. not bad.