Leaving India...

We left South Goa on 17th Dec and headed to the state of Kanartaka, to visit a town called Hampi. This had been recommended to us by several people, and they'd said it was one of the most beautiful places they'd visited. As always the trains were delayed and very slow - I don't know what it is with the India railway system they cant seem to get anything done on time!!!
We arrived in Hampi in the early evening after a 10hr train ride. We hired a rickshaw and drove to the site of Hampi. This place is absolutely amazing, it's like something out of the Flintstones! It's basically a little town settled in the middle of huge piles of boulders, ancient ruins, and a river running through it. The ruins date back to the 16th century when the Mughal empire ruled the state. It had lain undiscovered until the 1970's when excavation began.
We stayed in a brilliant little guest house which had a Tibetan restaurant next door that showed films every evening at 8pm, and even served beer!!! (Beer is illegal in Hampi as it's a sacred site so Jon was well pleased when he found this out!).
We stayed in Hampi two nights, both times we visited the scared ruins. They're spread over the whole town on two sites. On the second day me and Jon hired a push bike and rode to the more further away ones which was great fun! I haven't rode a bike in years but it was lovely riding through the Indian countryside. The ruins were really amazing to see, but as with everything, if you've seen one, a lot are pretty much the same. It was just nice to have a stroll around outside and take some good pictures.
The ruins aren't safe to walk around on your own unfortunately, as there have been several cases of muggings recently where lone tourists are robbed of their cameras and money. I guess it's a pretty desperate area and the site of Western people taking pictures with their 300pound cameras are too much for some locals to resist. Me and Jon had a bit of trouble with a group of teenage lads who wanted us to let them take a picture of us with our camera (uhhh no way!) and they started following us when we refused, so we had to make a quick run for it! It's sad because it's such a beautiful place, yet it's marred by some nasty individuals!
After three interesting days in Hampi we caught another train (three hours late) back to Goa. This mammoth journey took us about fourteen hours in all because we had to get a coach up to North Goa once we'd arrived at the train station, which took another two hours!

Once in North Goa, we headed for a place called Vagator. This was Jon's choice of place (normally I organise everything) and I have to say it was a very good one! Vagator is a little village on the coast, it used to be a big place for the hippies to come when all the trance raves in the 90's were going on, we were hoping to find something similar!!
I don't know if the news ever reached the UK, but the Israeli embassy put out an urgent warning to all it's tourists in Goa, saying they had received a concrete threat from Al Qaeda saying they were going to bomb the resorts in the holiday period. We heard about this and although we were worried, as the UK embassy hadn't said anything, we didn't let it affect out plans. Unfortunately it did affect a lot of other people's though. The resorts were a lot quieter than normal we were told, and a lot of the clubs were closed, or had shorter opening hours. This was really annoying for us as we'd planned a big Christmas, hopefully finding a few parties on the way. Nevertheless, we did go to the biggest trance club in Goa, called Paradiso. We met a lot of people and had a really good night, but it was pretty empty, which was shocking considering we went on 23rd Dec, just before Christmas!
We spent three days on Vagator and had a great time. The beach was amazing and we ate some great meals in the restaurants there.

On 24th Dec we headed even further north, to a place called Aswem beach. This is where I had booked us an eco-hut right on the beach as our Christmas luxury! The eco-hut was great, absolutely massive! It wasn't your average beach hut, it had a front room, bedroom and attached bathroom, plus it's own garden and dining table outside. We had an organic breakfast every morning which was great, and it was right on the beach. The only downside was that it was made of straw, so while you were trying to sleep you could hear EVERY little thing outside, so every person who walked past, every bug creeping around!!! Plus the resort had a cockerel that insisted on waking us up every morning at 5.30am - nice!
On Christmas day, Jon and I had a yummy breakfast, then a massage on the beach (which was rubbish - Jon felt like he'd been abused!!). Then in the evening we met up with two guys we'd met in South Goa from Luxembourg, Tony and Vinnie. We all booked into a restaurant on the beach which had laid on fireworks, music, and a massive roast. It wasn't quite the same as an English dinner, but it was nice to have some roast potatoes at last! (Even though no gravy). We got merrily drunk and had a good time even though I did miss being at home!!
On Boxing Day me and Jon lounged by the beach all day, then round this fabulous French restaurant which served the best steak in Goa... mmmm I wish we'd found that sooner rather than on our last day!!!

We left Goa by train on 27th Dec and headed up to Mumbai. This journey took about 10hrs also - we are getting good at passing the time though, a 6hr train journey now is nothing to us!!!
We arrived in North Mumbai - Kurla which is near to the airport. Our flight wasn't until the next evening so we had a day to kill. Urgh this city is the WORST!! Totally polluted, rude people, slums, beggars, people trying to rip you off etc. It's a lot different to when we last stayed in Mumbai, int he Colaba area. We jumped in a rickshaw then had to endure an HOUR of the guy trying to take us to different hotels, throughout the smog and pollution that was choking our lungs!! Finally we just demanded he take us to the hotel of our choice. It was a lot over our budget but we just wanted a decent room with air con and a place to escape the madness.
Even though we had a day and a half before our flight, we didn't leave our hotel room the whole time. Even looking out of our window we could see slums all around us so we just felt safer inside!! We ordered Dominos in and watched films all day so we still had a good time.

We flew out of India on 28th at about midnight on Thai Airways to Bangkok. Initially I felt a bit of relief having left. To be totally honest, even though I thought India was an amazing country with some beautiful things to see, it is very hard to travel, especially as a girl. The constant attention you get from guys over there is just soul-destroying. It might sound extreme to you reading this but until you actually go there you won't realise how bad it is. The constant staring like you are a freak show, calling out and grabbing at you, laughing at you etc. It might not sound like much but you try having it for almost two months and you'll soon find out how hard it is. It's such a shame because some of the people who are doing it aren't even teenage boys, they're grown men with families and it's a pity that they haven't been educated enough about Western women to learn how to respect them. Having said that, we met a lot of great people over there too, most of whom were only too willing to help us out if we were ever stuck.
The only other thing I would comment about India, is that it needs a good clean!!! The amount of rubbish on the streets appalled me. Ok, you expect it in the big cities... but we would be in the most beautiful, tranquil place, on a beach in Goa, or a river in Hampi... and there would be massive piles of rubbish littering the ground. It makes me so angry because India is such a beautiful country, yet the Indian people seem to have no concept of keeping it clean. In a few years unless something is done the places we enjoyed so much could disappear under a pile of rubbish!
I am definately glad I went to India. When I think back to how much I have seen and done it astounds me. I honestly never EVER thought I would ever see these things!!! The Himalayas in Kashmir, the desert in Rajasthan, sacred ruins in Hampi, and the beautiful beaches of Goa. It sounds mad even when I write it to think I've been to all these places in just under two months!!! In our Lonely Planet book the introduction says India will astound and challenge you, and it certainly does both!!