Narsing Bharat Yatra

Amesh in India

pravinn — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:08:39 -0400

Amesh in India

Outside a rail station in Mumbai

pravinn — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:59:04 -0400

Outside a rail station in Mumbai

We stumbled upon an area where they didnt care that Carnival was...

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:16:28 -0500

We stumbled upon an area where they didnt care that Carnival was cancelled!

Ending our scooter journey at Vagator Beach.

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:13:36 -0500

Ending our scooter journey at Vagator Beach.

Scooter!

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:11:41 -0500

Scooter!

The Badgers.

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:09:22 -0500

The Badgers.

The view from Chaporta Fort.

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:08:13 -0500

The view from Chaporta Fort.

Anjuna Beach

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:05:56 -0500

Anjuna Beach

Goa

ameshnarsing — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:28:24 -0500

After leaving our biodiversity hotspot we drove back into Goa. On the drive into Calangute we saw a familiar face walking up the street. His swagger and wavy long hair made him distictly recognizable against the sea of Russian tourists. It was none other than our good friend Dan Dale! We shouted for him to get in the car but he didnt hear nor did the driver stop. We eventually met up at the hotel.

After spending two weeks in budget accomodations we decided to upgrade for our extended time on the beach. Carnival was suppose to happen during our stay but it was unfortunately cancelled so we proceded to spend the rest of our time on the beach, drinking cold kingfisher beer and freshly squeezed juices, reading and going on adventures. Hard times indeed.

On our adventures we explored the many beaches Goa had to offer. After making our way to Mapusa and doing our 300 Rs Market Challenge (see our earlier post) we cabbed to a beach called Anjuna. It was much quieter and was a quirky hub for hippies and German bakeries. We had a bite to eat at the bakery and decided to walk the way back. We figured it would take an hour max after consulting google maps. Following a road on the map that looked like a shortcut to the beach we came to a dead end. Thanks Google. After backtracking to the beach we found a trail over the hill conecting the beaches but quickly lost it somehow. We ended up trekking though thorny jungle. Dan was up ahead trying to pick up the trail again and found a wall that lead down to the beach. I was wearing the wrong footwear and skidded down the hill cutting my hand. Pravin lost his lens cap too but we made it down to the beach where we saw the actual trail. It looked a lot easier than the route we took.

The next day Dan, Pravin and I took a bus down to South Goa where we walked about 10 kilometers of a 55 kilometer strech of beach. We saw an alarming number of dead turtles. We counted 8 in total. It didnt seem natural and they all appeared to have died recently. If any marine biologist might know if this is natural or not I would like to know. There were many undeveloped stretches along the long beach and since a scene from Bourne Supremacy was shot in Goa we decided to recreate it. I will post it soon once there is sufficient bandwidth.

The last half of our Goa adventure was spent with our cousins, Deepika and Minesh and our Masa and Masi. They came to India to do some shopping for Minesh’s wedding and decided to take a break from shopping and hang out with us at the beach. We did more than that though. At the Anjuna market we employed Masa’s expert bargening skills and procured matching tropical shirts for 200 Rs each. We then reunited the Badgers scooter gang sporting our new tropical uniforms and rode up and down the coast exploring some of the northern beaches.

Spending time in Goa was a much needed break in all the stop and go sight seeing we’ve been doing. It was so different to the rest of India and was hard to leave. I would definitely have not minded spending the rest of the trip on the beach but there were more things to see and our time here was running short.

-A

Waterfall trek

pravinn — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:17:14 -0500

Waterfall trek

The agenda for the day.

pravinn — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:11:56 -0500

The agenda for the day.

Our guide on a sunset hike.

pravinn — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:52:44 -0500

Our guide on a sunset hike.

The Western Ghats

pravinn — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:47:09 -0500

The Western Ghats

The wild wild nest!

pravinn — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:41:14 -0500

After our fun adventure in Hampi we reluctantly moved on to a city called Badami, still in the state of Karnataka. Unfortunately some of us were sick and were not up to seeing the temple and ancient fort palace but we did see the ancient cave temples that the city is known for. The next destination was a place called Wildernest Resort located deep in the Western Ghats mountain range. The scenery was unbelievable with out cabin completely surrounded by protected forest. We went on a few forest treks and also attempted to see some leopards on a couple jeep safaris, including a night safari! No luck with spotting the cat but still a great ride in the open air jeep surrounded by nothing but nature. The treks were often timed around sunset and never disappointed. A big group of us went on the waterfall trek which during the monsoons is in full flow but nonetheless it was still trickling fresh water and not lacking in magnificence since it was located at the edge of a high rock basin. The resort organized the entire day for the guests; one evening included a bon fire before dinner. That day there were people from all over the world including the UK, and Finland, as well as Indians. After introductions around the fire within 15 minutes we were all friends and dancing the hokey pokey, literally! Since it was such a diverse group we decided to share dances and songs of our home country and the British kindly taught everyone the hokey pokey. We helped out a newly wed Indian couple teach everyone how to Garba, which is a traditional gujarati folk dance typically done around a fire. It was all so much fun and afterwards we all enjoyed some freshly baked potatoes and onions that were roasting while we were dancing.

View of the rice fields from our room in Hampi.

pravinn — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:05:22 -0500

View of the rice fields from our room in Hampi.

Hampi was fun!

pravinn — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:48:38 -0500

Hampi was fun!

Final sunset ride in Hampi. While cruising, a few young...

pravinn — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:44:31 -0500

Final sunset ride in Hampi. While cruising, a few young children returning home from school held out their hands for some drive-by high-fives.

Hampi

pravinn — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:40:28 -0500

We all easily agree that Hampi was one of our favourite placea we have visited on our two month trip to India. This unique place lent us some magnificent views, motor cycles, old ruins, and a wonderful place to stay! After leaving the buddhist circuit and a one day stop over in sunny (Russian) Goa we drive through the western ghats mountain range into the state of KarnataIa to find Hampi 6 hours later. Upon arrival we were considerably confused as to where our guest house was. After our driver asked around we learned that our guest house was on the other side of the river and the bridge across collapsed 3 years ago. To cross we paid a local 20 Rupees ($0.40) each for the minute long boat journey. After settling in for the evening we were pleasantly surprised at the amount of hippies, old and new, inhabiting this place. The next day we rented motorcycles and crossed the river to explore the old ruins .Again, since there was no bridge we had to load our bikes onto a boat and cross the river. We spent the day looking at the many ruins, and ended by visiting the Virupaksha temple. The temple also houses Lakshmi the elephant who loves coconut and bananas and blessed us on the head after giving her a ten rupee bill. While stopping for a drink outside the temple we meet Rejive, an Indian-American from Varanasi. He told us that he just spent 7 nights living in a cave and was in search of another one near by to spend the night. With the sun at it’s hottest we headed back to the room to cool off before heading back out in the evening for one last ride on our bikes into the sunset and through some local villages.

Sunrise boat ride in Varanasi.

pravinn — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:10:48 -0500

Sunrise boat ride in Varanasi.

Varanasi

pravinn — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:09:12 -0500

Varanasi