India Part 6: Hampi

India Part 6: Hampi

Hampi, in the state of Karnataka India is the most beautiful place I have seen in India up to this point in my trip. It is an old city with many ruins scattered around. Another UNESCO site, and one that deserves the title. The ancient ruins, as well as the temples still in use today, give it the look of famous places in Myanmar or South America. However, it is also located in what must have been a giant river many hundreds or thousands of years ago. There are boulder structures scattering the countryside surrounding the ancient city.

The boulders make for great bouldering or rock climbing. I gave bouldering a try for the second time in my life. Bouldering is like rock climbing but it's much lower to the ground and more technical. The goal is to manuever boulders in certain ways rather than climb up a large mountain. It was very fun.

I also did something I had been putting off due to lack of experience and fear of traffic; I rented a moped. Most people in India rent mopeds to get around and I felt like I had missed a few experiences since I did not feel too comfortable doing so, however, Hampi had little to no traffic and was the perfect place for riding a moped. Riding around on country roads through the boulders, rice paddies, rivers, lakes, temples, small villages and towns was the highlight of Hampi for me. Also, Hampi was very photogenic so I have a lot to share here.

India Part 5: Goa

India Part 5: Goa

Ok, so I have never gone on a beach vacation. It is not something that ever appealed to me since it seemed to me that people who go on vacation at the beach generally just sit on the beach all day for the entirety of their vacation. Goa a very popular beach spot that is supposed to be quite different from a lot of popular tropical beach paradises. With so much time on my hands I figured I would give it a shot.

You may notice I have very few pictures of Goa and very little to say about the place. It was just a beach. A beach that is popular among hippies, Russians and Israelis. Trance music is very popular. And yes, people do just spend the beach vacations sitting on the beach, running into the water once every two hours and drinking a lot of tropical juices. It wasn't awful. It was boring, a good kind of boring, but boring. I only stayed for six days after being recommended an entire month. I guess I learned that, although I can enjoy myself on a beach, it isn't something I would go out of my way to do again.

India Part 4: Mumbai

India Part 4: Mumbai

India Part 4: Mumbai

Getting around in India has been more of a pain than I had expected so I decided to take a flight from Udaipur to Mumbai. The price wasn't too bad and the flight was an hour and a half compared to ten or more hours on a bus/train. This meant that when I arrived in Mumbai I had a full day ahead of me and I was quite rested.

Accommodations in Mumbai were much more expensive than the other places I had been to so far so I opted for a budget room found through Airbnb. I stayed with a couple of sisters, and their two cats, in the Bandra area. Bandra isn't one of the main attractions of Mumbai but it was pretty cool walking around and seeing daily life in the outskirts of Mumbai. There was also amazing food in Bandra.

Some of the highlights of Mumbai were the docks, the Gateway of India and the beaches. Another sort of silly highlight for me was seeing some giant bats in the trees outside of the place I was staying. These bats were the size of house cats, not something I had seen before in my life.

The docks were a place I just wandered into sort of by accident. There were no other tourists in there so I later looked it up and saw that it was in fact a destination that tourists can and do visit. It was mostly working fishermen doing all the things you'd expect to see working fishermen doing. People were fixing nets, sorting fish, de-shelling shrimp, fueling up boats and eating lunch.

The beaches that I was saw were not your typical vacation beaches (but I do hear there are some nice beaches to hang out in Mumbai), rather it was just a beach on the edge of a very large and busy city. It was cool to see the bridges and the locals who hang out on and around the beaches.

Mumbai is known for having its extremely apparent wealth gaps and that was something that I did notice despite not going out of my way to see the infamous slums.

India Part 3: Pushkar, Jodhpur and Udaipur

India Part 3: Pushkar, Jodhpur and Udaipur

For the rest of my tour through Rajasthan I went to Pushkar Jodhpur and Udaipur.

For me, Pushkar was the highlight of Rajasthan. I originally planned to just spend one night in order to split up the trip between Jaipur and Jodhpur. As soon as I arrived I realized that this holy city was a place worth exploring so I decided to stay an extra night. It is a very small place but everything about it stood out from the moment I arrived. I now wish I had stayed even longer.

Pushkar has 1000's of temples which must make it one of the mostly densely templed places in the world. This is what gives this extremely holy city the deeply spiritual feeling and vibes that you experience while walking around. It is also a particularly popular place for Isrealis to vacation or move to long term. Many signs are in Hebrew and there is lots of Isreali food which I did enjoy at a local restaurant owned by some Isreali expats. The owner of the hostel I stayed at drove me out into the countryside to meet the Aloo Baba. This is a holy man who has only eaten potatoes for the past 18 years. It seems people bring him potatoes and other non-edible treats quite regularly. Other than that I ate lots of vegetarian food in this strictly vegetarian society. The food was really good, and that is coming from someone who cannot go an entire meal without meat outside of India. I also walked around some temples and the holy lake that the city surrounds.

My next stop was Jodhpur, the blue city. Overlooking the city is an ancient palace that is now only used for tourists. From there you can really see the blueness of the city. Like most places in Rajasthan there was a lot of great food to try, mostly street foods. I walked around the fort, a few temples and just explored the city.

From Jodhpur I took a bus to Udaipur where I spent a couple nights before my flight to Mumbai. Again, Udaipur was filled with ancient forts, palaces and temples. It is also a popular romantic destination for couples. Lots of rooftop restaurants overlooking the lakes where some famous palaces are located.   

India Part 2: Agra to Jaipur

India Part 2: Agra to Jaipur

The Taj Mahal is a madhouse but it is beautiful.

I took an early train from Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. My train out of Agra was later that night as recommended to me by someone working at the hostel I stayed at in Delhi. This was a mistake because there were huge delays and I ended up splitting a taxi with a nice Russian couple.

My first stop in the state of Rajasthan was Jaipur. Jaipur is a beautiful city filled with palaces and a giant fort balled The Amber Fort. The architecture of these old forts and buildings surrounding the usual market and street scenes, as well as the occasional elephant or camel walking down the street, really give you the feel of what Rajasthan has to offer. This was the first day of many filled with the forts and palaces of Rajasthan. There was also delicious food as usual.