Wandergliding: Goan Out for a Little While

Sept. 2^nd-Sept. 5^th, 2013

As she’s done the past couple of years in September, Naomi returned from Israel for another Indian holiday. I met her at Dabolim airport and we headed a bit south to Colva Beach for one night. Colva is near the Margao train station and the following day we were to catch an early morning train to Hampi for a week. Naomi made a reservation for us in a “fancy” hotel (read: $40/night! Lots in this neck of the woods.) and I was treated to my first hot shower in over a year! The room was spacious with a couch and a comfy bed but we thought it a bit odd that there was a monolithic old school TV in the middle of the room facing the bed. If you sat on the couch located on the opposite side of the room, you had a beautiful view of the massive black plastic backside of the television....oh India, will you ever learn about interior design?!?

We boarded the train the next morning and within an hour we passed the highlight of the ride, Dudhsagar Falls. Since the monsoon is just finishing, the waterfalls were running at full power and the jungle was super lush.

All Aboard!

Naomi checking out our 2nd class A/C cabin:

Lunch...not so yummy, cold but super spicy:

Dudhsagar Falls from the opposite hillside:

Dudhsagar Falls close up:

These two nice, middle class Indian fellows somehow spoke incessantly for the first 5+ hours of the trip...non-stop!

Arriving in Hospet, we took a rickshaw for the 14 kilometres to Hampi for 200 rupees. We could have gotten it a bit cheaper but our driver named Coffee was a decent guy and the poor guy got a flat tire just a few hundred meters before we arrived. We crossed the river in the small but full boat and headed to Mowgli Guesthouse that we had researched online but there weren’t any rooms available the first night so we opted for a cheaper place called Nargila (which means a hookah or water pipe in Hebrew). The food was decent there but our 300 rupee room left something to be desired. The thatched roof of the little hut didn’t provide much soundproofing and allowed many bugs inside (most of which thought that Naomi was the tastier of the two of us). The mattress seemed to be made of straw and the best part was that the communal Indian style toilet for the restaurant was right next door, a couple of feet from our bed, so we woke up in the morning to the lovely sounds of the staff carrying out their daily business! Lovely way to wake up... Poor Naomi was ready to leave Hampi already as she’d been travelling for most of the past couple of days and hadn’t quite mentally landed in India yet. Luckily we were able to get a room at Mowgli’s, at more than double the price (700 roops) but it was totally worth it and Naomi grew to love Hampi.

Rickshawing through ugly and smelly Hospet:

They can fit up to two motorbikes in this tiny boat if they want to:

Our new room at Mowgli:

The nearby neighbourhood:

And one of our neighbours:

I snuck a photo in of these two cute girls:

But then only one agreed to a portrait when I asked:

Thanks to my friend Robin, I've gotten into pictures of goats:

The second day we were in Hampi was the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah which is the start of the new year in their calendar. There is a Chabad House (a Jewish house) in Hampi just a few hundred meters from the Nargila Restaurant. Naomi inquired with the young Rabbi and we were invited to join their Rosh Hashanah dinner. We were the first to arrive just before sunset (when the New Year begins) but later the table swelled to about 20 people. Two years ago I attended my first Rosh Hashanah dinner with Naomi in Palolem but this time was definitely a more religious affair. During one section, the women left the men (really they just sat behind a dividing curtain at the end of the long covered gazebo) while the men read some prayers. I couldn’t understand the Hebrew chants but occasionally the thoughtful Rabbi told me in English the essence of what was being said. The dinner consists of many little courses, many of which represent something such as the hope for prosperity in the coming year. Near the end, everyone took their turn to say something, be it a wish, a positive thought or some kind of piece of wisdom for the New Year which I thought was a nice idea. I appreciated the openness of this community and it would turn out that over the next couple of weeks we would spend some time with some of our new friends from this dinner.

The Rabbi and his young family:

Rosh Hashanah dinner:

Every morning the one resident elephant of the main temple in town is paraded down to the riverside for her bath. We lucked out and arrived at the little ferry boat just as she was walking down the concrete steps on the other side of the river. Only 10 or so other tourists were hanging about watching the handler scrub Laxmi who was lying on her side in the water. “Anybody want to help washing her?” a local guy in his mid-twenties with a lazy eye standing in the river with his toothbrush asked, he seemed to be performing is daily hygienic routine at the same time as the elephant. Sure, why not, so I jumped in and the handler passed me a flat stone and told me just to scrub away. This must be Laxmi’s favourite time of the day as she was very relaxed. Naomi took a turn too and then Laxmi stood up and gave herself a rinsing off with her built-in hose. The handler barked out a command. Laxmi bent one of her front legs and the handler was lifted up onto her back and they began to walk back to the temple. Many people, including locals, were giving her small amounts of money which she gladly accepted with her trunk, gave to the handler and then put her trunk on the donor’s head for a blessing. We gave her 100 rupees in thanks for letting us help in the bathing process and we received 3 long blessings each...super cool.

Laxmi walking down for her bath:

Scrub-a-dub-dub:

Anyone in there?

A baba getting blessed by the pachyderm:

The self-rinsing system:

Naomi feeding her some bananas:

We ate breakfast at the Mango Tree restaurant on the advice of some other foreigners we met. All meals are served on a banana leaf on a plate and the food was decent and nice staff. We inquired with the waiter about getting a guide for a temple tour and before we’d even finished eating we had a guy waiting for us. Kumar is a local and is a certified tour guide (by the tourism department of Karnataka). We proceeded to go for a 2-3 hour walking tour of the Achyutaraya Temple and a few other sites nearby. I hiked around this area when I was in Hampi a couple of years ago but I had no idea what I was looking at and Kumar was very informative so I was glad we had forked out 600 rupees for his services as he made the walk much more interesting. Regardless however, it didn’t take too long before Naomi and I were “templed out” but we agreed that we would call Kumar in a few days to take a rickshaw temple tour to some other spots that I had not visited last time.

Time to let some pictures finish off this entry...

The start of the walking tour:

Kumar, tour guide extraordinaire:

Looking down at the temple compound:

Me in the Matrix...Naomi took a panoramic shot while I phased in and out of existence:

Naomi soaking in the information...the test will be at the end:

A beautiful water reservoir:

Super large centipede:

Looking back to the main temple in town:

Templing's tough!

Goat's coming home:

Naomi pulling her Middle Eastern look:

The King's Scale (and some idiot under it):

This banyan tree has thousands of pieces of cloth tied to it. Couples tie something to the tree in hopes of soon having a baby:

Naomi tied something on for a friend of hers:

A traffic jam on the path back:

Such a cute monkey baby:

This family from Andhra Pradesh wanted a pit with me:

There's a tall wooden chariot in town by the main temple and most of the time it is covered by corrugated sheet metal...and it sure makes a nice home for monkeys: