Tying the ends for a bit eh...

Well, so now am in Australia with my family - Ace of base :D - but I gotta fill some gaps of the last few weeks...

Well not in the mood for doing this, (don't get me wrong, am just jet lagged I reck) but will battle through me notes and tie the end of the India trip up a bit and then prob come back for more when I leave Aus...

So for the last 3 wks of my India trip I basically stayed in Gokarna, I've managed to make some really top mates, which is well nice and also had a nice amount of time to think and allow me mind to develop/wander/ponder/make mistakes and some small revelations...

I really wanted to make it to Hampi, but I left it well late as I was too busy putting it off with wanting to hang around at the beach, so I ended up doing a whistle stop tour for 2 days, bad idea. I needed more time basically, I was too rushed, prob not in the right mind set and there was a bloody festival going on at the same time so there were people EVERYWHERE - bit unsettling when I have been cocooned on a beach/small village - but ya need to do these things to find out eh, next time (and there will be one) I aint rushin nuttin.

Anyway, so I got the local bus to Hospet, which is near Hampi - proper rank town that - met this Danish bird ont he bus and we ended up takin a rickshaw there together. She was alright like, but not my usual cup of coffee... We ended up sharing a room as Hampi was packed and rooms were well expensive (well, comparatively so). I well fancied a beer when we went out for some grub, but forgot that you can't get alcohol there as it's a holy place n blah, so was offered this special cocktail (basically rum n coke) and it took about an hour and a half to get!! Well shouldn't have bothered, cost a small fortune too...

I was in an "easy" move after our long bus journey and ended up going in with this Danish bird on a rickshaw tour of Hampi for the next day. I usually well don't do this sort of shit - would rather go around on me own steam and I well should have, will deffo do next time - but meh, twas done and still got to see it all etc...

(God this sounds negative, it really weren't that bad, but just bear with me like ;))

Yeah, so, there were loadsa Indian tourists round the whole of Hampi so when me and this Danish bird was going round (and we're both blonde innit), we got loads of attention. Was cool sometimes, others not - well cool when we got surrounded by a swarm of school children - we littlerally couldn't move, they were about 6 deep around us in a circle, all giggling etc. :)

Hampi is cool, really massive ancient city, but after having seen Ellora caves first, they well smashed it outta the water for me. Ellora is breath takin, but I think time is needed to soak up the whole atmosphere of Hampi, slow down, feel the vibe and then one can get the most of what it offers.

I decided to do one back to the beach on the second day, after having seen sunrise at the top of this mountain - and thank fuck I decided to get back for then, or else I could have missed my bloomin flight!!! I was well on the wrong date/day of the week and only realised when a mate pointed it out the following day - jeeze, what am I like eh :P. So only had one more full day to proper relax, oh well eh :).

(Am well shortenin these tales by the way, but you'd get bored if I proper went into it all...)

Anyway, on the morning that I was leaving to get the train to Goa with a mate that was also going my way, we did the massive hike with all my shit, accross the km long beach, up the bloody stony path, waiting around n that, when I bloody realised at the last min that my small rucksack was sitting on a chair back at my guesthouse!!! So after a few fucks/shits, I had to leg it to retrieve me bag, swearing all the way, ran the full km of the beach without stopping (amazing I know) and I and my Israeli friend had thought that we were then gonna meet the others at the other end to get this cab, save all the running back and shit... Anyway, wires were crossed (twas all the boys fault ;P) and we were waiting for AGES. They didn't turn up til one of them came after an hour wondering what we were doing. Long story short - missed my train. So the only way to get to Goa for my train to Mumbai was by taxi - meh. Wasn't too bothered, had the rest of the afternoon to relax at the beach and had to think about money lost in English terms to not get too bothered - taxi was 25 quid for 3hour journey (bargain), but in comparison to the 30p train fare it wasn't...

So I managed to get all my connections in the end anyway, got out of stinking Mumbai - man I really don't like that city - and I'm in Aus and it's all behind me, ish... ;)