Hampi and the rocks

A very different unique scenery is what we got to see in Hampi, 300km inland of Goa.
The whole area is located in a valley, washed out by a gigantic river thousand of years ago. The village is spread out along the quiet river surrounded by Vijayanagar ruins of the 14th century. One temple is 52meters high and some parts of these ruins are part of the World Heritage.
What really gives Hampi its magical touch is the combination of the ruins and the boulders. Those rock formations look like piled marbles and are very inviting to be climbed (playground for Stufi!) or to have a rest in their shade.
But you always have to be aware of the cheeky monkeys. They are very quick in stealing food (not only bananas) and waterbottles.
The climate is getting hotter day-by-day, even the nights can be very sweaty and from 12 till 3pm moving too much is very exhausting. That is one reason why five days later we decided to head back to the sea, to Gokarna.
For getting there we booked an overnight sleeper bus.

Goa and the portuguese influence

We arrived in Arambol on February 27 and left on March 7....nine days of "vacation" on our journey...
Arambol is the northern most beach in the state of Goa. You can imagine it like this: no big tourist resorts, mostly just simple bamboo-huts on the beach or small, familiar guesthouses in town. Not too many charter tourists, but food and snacks from all over the world.
First night we shared our room with cockroaches and spiders. So first thing on the second day was moving to another place, where we found our little paradise. Chandra, who is taking care of the beautiful garden and the guests, prepares the best masala chai (tea) we have ever had.
The days passed with going for long walkes along the beach, swimming in the sweetwaterlake just off the shore, shopping, eating self chosen tigerprawns and lots of other delicious seafood, listening to livemusic and of course sunbathing. Even though our skin is used to the sun by now we got pretty red one day due to a non-working shitty indian sunscreen. So we got back to the reliable NIVEA.
Also, we have a new favourite drink...is is called Feni, which is brewed from local cashews or coconuts and is strong and tasty and comes lika a hammer. Unfortunately we can not bring it back to Switzerland (sorry Janiel) as it is only sold in Goa.


Most visitors of Goa just go to the beaches, which is a big mistake. As this state is a former portuguese enclave, the influence of this period still can be seen. Especially in the capital city of Panjim.
Just a few meters off the busterminal you can feel a very differend vibe and admire the numerous churches and the architecture of buildings. And it is very clean. And a many of the remaining portuguese women wear pants and have their hair cur short...but on the other hand it is very strange to see indian nuns put in dark robes instead of the colourful saris.
It is wonderful to see how people of three major religions can live together door-by-door! It is possible to see hindu temples, christian churches and muslim mosques whitin a couple of hundred meters. FANTASTIC!

On the way from Mumbai to Goa

There is nothing spectacular to write about Mumbai except that we foud shelter at the Red Shield Hostel run by the Salvation Army - JAAH, d Hiufsarmee. The rooms included three meals, but no Holy Bible...
What we were crazy about were the Mumbai-Cabs, looking like the 1950 Fiat. But it is just the indian-imitation of this european car...just big enough for two passengers with big backpacks ;-)

Two days later we caught the ferry to "sun, fun and nothing to do"...which means to Murud. This is a quiet fishing village the big tourist resorts haven't reached yet, but the beach is long, the water shallow and warm.

Staying at a family-run small lodge, surrounded by palmtrees an hammocs, we certainly had an easy start into the beach-chapter.
We shared those days with Ipalo, a lovely finnish-slowakian couple (Ipa + Palo = Ipalo).
Not just lazying around we did rent some bikes to visit the famous Janjira-fort, 5km away. This sight is situated on an island 500m of the shore. Altough we have seen many forts this one is extraordinary because it's just a ruin and overgrown by trees and bushes.
During the same period Stufi was the first one to fight against the famous indian-traveller-disease. Fabis stomach was a bit stronger, but as we are usually eating the same food, she was struggling a couple of days later - happy to have Letas precious toiletpaper with us... ;-)
Nontheless, we continued our travels, from sealevel up to Mahabaleshwar on 1300m in the hills of Maharashtra-state, by three different local buses during seven hours. Arriving in Mahabaleshwar we could see red, beautiful, nicely arranged strawberries all over. This area is famous for these delicious fruits, unfortunately not edible for Stufabi, whose most important concern was finding a hotelroom with sitting-toilet...But do not worry we did recover and could enjoy the impressive landscape and great spots of this hillstation.

After three days we bussed back to sealevel and enjoyed the silence of the deserted beaches of Malvan and Tarkarli.
While looking for a place to stay we bumped into Rita. Rita was going to play an important role in the following days. She's a grandmother-like, 64-year old, always smilling and very happy swiss little lady living in the States (Rita, whenever you read this please let us know how things are going with Dicky, the park, your trainride to Mumbai and your dreams of your own property at Tarkarli). As Rita is a very communicative woman she knew the whole neighbourhood and everyone called her just Mamma.

One day we all went to a busy fruit, vegetable and fishmarket, returning home with bags filled with food for the at least one week!
An other day the three of us booked a boattrip to the backwaters...sunrise, watching fishermen at work, walking on a Tsunami destroyed island, collecting shells, eating coconuts, sipping its juice and playing Titanic on the boat.
What else do we need?
A couple of days ago we left this magical site and Rita with an invitation to Arizona on our mind.



Even though Malven is really close to the Goan-border, it took us an other six hour busride to get to Arambol, our current location. This is backpackers heaven. We like it lots, we feel good and healthy and might stay for a little longer. Who knows? We will keep you posted.

Please feel free to put any comments or send e-mails, we want to know how YOU are as well...!