Among the Hampi boulders

It was kind of hard to drag ourselves away from Goa, but the boulders of Hampi were calling and we would have plenty of time for the beach upon arrival in Thailand. We hopped onto yet another night bus and spent yet another relatively sleepless night winding our way to through the countryside towards Hampi. As the sun rose in the morning I ducked my head out the bus and was greeted by hundreds of thousands of boulders as far as the eye could see... we must be close. About an our later we arrived in Hampi. Hampi is famous for its massive ruins and boulder strewn landscape, which provides endless things to explore. The area we wanted to stay on was on the other side of the river that ran through town so we took a tiny ferry to the other side and booked ourselves into a nice little hut, similar to the one we had in Goa.

A sampling of temples

We were both pretty lazy on the first day so after a little nap, we rented a motorcycle and roamed the streets to try and get a feel for the place. We stopped by a temple dedicated to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman located up on a hill. At the top we were greeted by amazing panoramic views of the area. There were boulders as far as the eye could see in every direction, a beautiful river running through town, and rice paddies galor. The only mistake we made was climbing the hill in the middle of the day when it was 35 degrees out. It being a Hindu temple they also made you remove your shoes. This meant walking on scorching rock so we didn't stay up there for very long.

I gave the monkey a banana and he was very happy

The path up to the Hanuman temple

Hanuman temple

Hanuman - a fitting god to be praised in Hampi

Crossing the river with the motorbike

The 80 rupee thali at the best restaurant in Hampi: The Mango Tree

Our next two days were spent roaming around the ruins that make Hampi famous. While the town is tiny now, it once had a population of 500 000 people and evidence of this was found everywhere. One of the most memorable experiences was getting blessed by the holy elephant that lived in one of the temples. You hand him 10 rupees, he'll pass the $$ to his handler, then give you a blessing that consisted of a pat you on the head.

Laundry time

Pass the elephant 10 rupees...

... get a blessing

Ruins

Eat your heart out Allan Ramsay

Ganesh the elephant god

Kiersten loves Hanuman

The ferry dock

Rice paddies

Too hard

It was always very warm out

Elephant stables

We didn't go for a swim

Even though we were both really badly out of climbing shape, we couldn't leave Hampi without doing a bit of bouldering. We were able to rent an old bouldering pad and some shoes that didn't fit at a little guesthouse around the corner, and spent the next three days (or mornings to be more exact) climbing. It started to get really hot by 11am so we were out in the boulders arond 7am and made the best of it. Anyways, we only tasted a tiny fraction of the boulders Hampi had to offer and blown away by the variety. You could spend a lifetime in Hampi and not climb the same problem twice. I just wish we had been in better shape.

How did that happen??

The ants go marching...

We also happened to be in Hampi for the Hindu festival of Holi, which essentially involves throwing paint at each other in the streets. We kind of botched our Holi experience though. The day of the celebration we went out climbing in the morning and by the time we were finished, so was the madness. We had filled about 50 ballons full of paint, which were now useless. I took a few and threw them at buildings to vent my frustration.

We found this dog passed out after a Holi adventure in front of our hut

Home sweet home

Afternoon siesta

Post-Holi tourists

Take that wall!

I didn't make it

Our german friend

Elephants need baths too

A typical meal

Aquaducts

Overall we spent about 5 days in Hampi before making the long journey to Kolkata. Anyone interested in checking out the climbing should try and get a hold of the Chris Sharma video "Pilgrimage." The entire thing takes place in Hampi.

Bombay and Goa

Mumbai

Even though we both love the snow and skiing, I can't say that we weren't excited to leave the cold behind in Kashmir and travel down to Mumbai and Goa for a little warmth. 
When we first arrived we were super lucky to have our buddy Nick, who grew up in Mumbai, invite us to stay at his parents place for a few nights so we didn't have to worry about finding a hotel. His parents live on one of the upper floors of a skyrise near the ocean in the northern part of the city with fantastic views of the Arabian sea. It was nice to see the ocean again after missing it for five months or so. The best part about staying at Nick's parents place was getting to eat Nick's mom's amazing cooking. I could easily spend the rest of my life eating her cooking and would be much healthier for it. Everything was really flavourful and fresh while being fairly simple at the same time.

View from the Joshi residence

The first thing we noticed after landing in Bombay was the heat. All our jackets and fleece pants were instantly transformed from a necessity into a burden. Hence, one of the first things we did was send back all the stuff that wouldn't use from then on, seriously lightening our load. I don't even have a sweatshirt anymore even though I recently realized I might need one when we return to the mountains in Darjeeling.

A lot of our time in Bombay was spent running errands and procuring things that we needed for the rest of our time in India and Southeast Asia. In reality we just wanted to get out of the city and down to Goa as soon as possible. Before leaving though, we did manage to go on a late night mission with Nick and his friend Shams to South Mumbai to see the city and some of its sights. Night is a good time to get around town because the lack of traffic means that a ride that might take you 2hrs in the day will take you 30min at night. Mumbai was absolutely massive and the number of people living there blew my mind mind. Along the way, we saw some of the sites that were targeted during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. It was unimaginable to think that something so horrific happened in those places.

Another evening, Kiersten and I took a stroll down the beach in front of Nick's parents place. The beach was filled hundreds of people from every part Indian society. Among the people were tons of kids playing cricket and soccer, and even a guy renting out his horse to people who wanted to ride down the beach. Kiersten decided that a Bombay beach ride was an opportunity too good to pass up.

Sunset on the beach

Horse for rent

Barefoot beach soccer is always fun

About 5OOm down the beach you arrive a massive slum that spills out onto the sand. Here you start to encounter even more people, many of whom are just living their daily lives and doing household chores. The slums look chaotic and messy but they are often well organised and the rent for some of the shacks is actually quite high, especially for beachfront.

Beach slum

Goa

We didn't waste much time before getting on night bus to Goa and leaving the big city behind. Nick came down to Goa with us and to meet up with one of his friends whose family lived down there. Kiersten and I just picked a random beach that sounded nice and beelined it straight there. We ended up at one of the state's northern most beaches called Arambol. It was much more laid back then some of the other beaches in the area and definitely had a big hippie vibe (mixed with a large Russian presence). There was even a nightly drum circle 5min down the beach. It made for some interesting people watching.

We settled in nicely to small hut at the south end of the beach. It didn't take us very long to get used to the lifestyle. Goa was a bit like a time warp - 4 months there would probably seem like 4 weeks. We stayed just over a week and it felt like nothing. Get up, swim, eat, relax, and repeat. We could of easily stayed a month but we wanted to move on and see more of India before our visa ran out.

Our little hut

One fun thing to do in Goa is to rent a scooter and explore the different beaches up and down the coastline. The roads are super fun to rip around on and the scenery is lush and amazing.

Cow sitting out front of the Olive Garden restaurant where we ate many a meal chilled out.

The best mode of transport in Goa

Nick was staying at his buddy Vardhan's family's place which was pretty much a dream home complete with a massive infinity pool. Kiersten and I spent a couple days chilling there and enjoying the sun with Nick and Vardhan. Vardhan also happened to be the chief editor of Lonely Planet India magazine so he was a good guy to talk about travelling with.

X-treme pool sk8ting

Abandoned building at one of the beaches we visited with cool graffiti

Near the cliffs on Arambol

Random Indian arm-wrestling

Many years of Portuguese rule in Goa lead to many of these

Finally time to shave off the Gulmarg beard

Goan fishing boats

We're in Hampi now and it's sweet. Pics to follow soon

Srinagar

We couldn't leave Kashmir without staying for a night or two in Srinagar. Srinagar is pretty gloomy this time of year, kind of like Victoria in November: cloudy, foggy, wet, and rainy. The architecture made the place sort of reminiscent of an old eastern bloc country. In the summer, when all the trees and flowers are in bloom and the views of the mountains aren't blocked by clouds, Srinagar is supposed to be amazing. However, the one advantage of being here in off-season was that prices were low and there was definitely no lack of cheap shikaras to take you around the lake. That being said because there weren't many tourists around, Kiersten and I stuck out and were often bombarded by floating salesmen stopping by our houseboat.

We opted to stay in one of the thousands of houseboats scattered along Dal lake. A few friends from Gulmarg recommended a couple boats so we just ended up staying in one of them. Nick, a friend we met in Gulmarg, came along with us and we let him do the houseboat bargaining because he spoke Urdu. He convinced the houseboat owners that he was a guide and he was setting up accommodation for us. Nick, however declined the commission the houseboat owners offered him for bringing us to their boat. We think he should have taken it.

There's not too much to do around Srinagar in the off-season. All the famous gardens aren't worth going to because nothing is in bloom so we spent our time roaming around town, going to Mosques, and riding around Dal lake on Shikaras. The most gruesome surprise of the visit was stumbling upon dead body right outside of a sweet-shop that we were going to. We didn't even notice what was going on at first. We just saw a big group of people crowded around something outside the sweet shop. Not really thinking about it, we walked through the crowd and quickly noticed what they were all looking at. It looked like cause of death was either the cold or alcohol. We felt sorry for the guy regardless.

We were happy that got to see Srinagar but now we both want to return in the summer to see it when everything is in bloom. When we return the tentative plan is to ride motorcycles from Ladakh to Srinagar, it's supposed to be rad.

Market in Srinagar

Many many shikaras to choose from in the off-season

Kiersten in front of our houseboat the "New Melbourne"

Indian sweets make Nick happy

Interior of the houseboat

Like most places we've been to in India, Kiersten was popular

Houseboats on Dal Lake

At least the chicken here is refrigerated

Srinagar

When you walk anywhere in India, you are bound to stumble upon some cricket games

The houseboat owners

Mosque