Accompany Me On My Journeys

It has been eons since I wrote, also it always feels like eons since I have travelled. There has been a feeling of numbness when it came to writing. It happens every now and then and to best of writers. There are those days when life feels drab and grey. But on those dark, cloudy days there is nothing like indulging in a cup of steaming hot chocolate and curling up with a favourite book.

So what have I been upto?
I have been planning the trips to come, day-dreaming, obsessively reading travelogues for inspiration, over-enthusiastically mailing my husband link after link and sighing way too much.

But the first quarter of 2014 wasn't all that bad. I took a 5 day break and took off for Hampi with a few of my girlfriends. It was a very peaceful trip. I do want to go back again with Shayne and explore more sites and also stay at Shanthi. Shanthi is a beautiful resort, tucked away in Anegundi which is on the other side of the river facing stark green rice paddy fields. We went there for lunch one day and the place was just so tranquil that my friend dozed off waiting for our meal. The food is not so bad compared to other places. Food by the way is a trial and error kind of thing in Hampi. Definitely try Mango Tree restaurant.



Although we flew both ways from Mumbai to Hubbali, we spent way too much time travelling as there are no direct trains or flights to Hospet from Mumbai - which is the closest spot to Hampi, just a riksha ride away. However there are daily buses running from Mumbai to Hospet if you are not weary of long bus rides. Avoid taking the local buses unless you are feeling adventurous from Hubbali to Hospet. The buses take much longer and might not be direct buses which means a few changes. And with two other pretty girls by my side I had to fight off a lot of drunk lungi clad uncles poking their behind in our faces. Some of them were practically sitting on me and I had to elbow him as he didn't seem to understand any Hindi. The train journey from Hospet to Hubbali was so much more comfortable on the way back.

So you take a train/flight and get to Hampi, the melancholicly beautiful land of ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site. The former capital of the Vijaynagara Empire, is now captured by monkeys and you better be beware of them. While we all sat waiting for our riksha/bicylcle South Hampi tour and were admiring the beauty of the Virupaksha temple from a shady spot, guess what crime we became witnesses to? What we saw left us stupefied! A tiny langur sees a bunch of unattended bags lying. He sneakily opens the zip of the bag and removes a mobile phone and runs away! I wonder if that was for his girlfriend.

My mother and me stood besides the door with some luggage while people shoved, pushed, kicked and punched us to maintain their balance. I was just glad my mother didn't faint out of claustrophobia. We get off at the last stop-Dombivali and got on the luggage compartment of the train immediately leaving for Kalyan, still optimistic about making it in time for the train.

As it turned out, we missed the train by minutes and took a train back to the city and were lucky enough to get a friendly rickshaw driver (wish he had relatives in Hyderabad *sigh*) who took four of us with our luggage to the airport. Another night spent at the airport with the help of an espresso shot and it was sweet dreams all of next day.

ps: I had no intention of scaring people off, from the Bombay trains. They are awesome, really. And, besides you get used to it, eventually.
Moral of the story: always fight for free pizza and enjoy it.