Wanderlust Heaven!

My blog provider, BootsnAll, has stepped up and kept me in the fold. When I last left you I was arguing with the boys there – they had just ‘upgraded’ their system, the details of which entirely elude me. In addition, there was no warning given, at least not one that you didn’t have to go search for. To make a long story short, my complaining yielded results – my photo capacity, previously at 200 megs, then reduced to 50 megs during the upgrade, is now all the way up to 500 megs. By my calculations, that should allow me to post photos until I’m about 70 years old. BootsnAll works in mysterious ways, but for now I can call them MOST WISE AND BENEVOLENT BLOG HOST.

The point of that was to tell you that I went back and added a bunch of photos to last week’s entry. Mostly of beautiful beaches, ones that you should see, so please page down after this entry to see the photos in last week’s.

I’ve been reading like a demon, as you can probably discern. This has to be the most sustained reading binge of my life…largely driven by the desire to lighten my load while traveling. Books are ridiculously space consumers and sometimes quite heavy. Friend Al and I have discussed this issue in some depth, but both of us are reading junkies (the best kind of junkie to be) and I think we’d both rather lug books around than get caught out in an Indian dhaba staring only into our cup of chai…

I finished In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce, which I mentioned in last week’s post. I’m now working my way through Number9Dream by favored author David Mitchell, a Brit who lived in Japan (Hiroshima) for many years. It’s set in Tokyo and is a sort of coming-of-age novel – Mitchell is a great writer and his stories have the craziest plot turns. Will finish that shortly, and then my book pile will have dwindled (for now) down to just a couple.

When I was a little guy my parents seemed concerned that I wouldn’t develop ‘normally.’ I would bring a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia with me to dinner (in a restaurant), where the waitron would stare at me as I sat there reading. That stage lasted for a few years, until I discovered the wonders of girls and beer. That stage never really ended…but these days I do find myself reliving my early bookworm years, in that I usually have a book with me and there are nights when I sit at the bar or restaurant and read. I do hope that I’ve developed ‘normally,’ and have rudimentary social skills…for a while, in university and afterward, I was probably ‘overdeveloped’ in that sense.

Wound things up in Goa. Went for a last road run, dodging cows en route. The cows of India never cease to amaze me. Got back to Bean Me Up just in time to see two monkeys vault over the wall and onto the roof of the hotel. Not something you see at your usual Holiday Inn. Made my final rounds and took care of loose ends…tipped out my peeps at BMU, wrote last week’s blog and posted it, saw a doctor who gave me an Rx for the pharmaceuticals I carry with me, did some laundry, made some bookings. My last day in any spot where I’ve spent a good stretch tends to be super-busy…not much fun but probably no getting around it.

Noticed an alumni email from my old employer, Monitor Group – apparently one of the founders of the firm’s Johannesburg, South Africa office, Sheldon Cohen, was shot and killed in his car in Joburg as he waited for his son’s soccer practice to finish. Seems a group of thugs robbed someone nearby, and then saw Sheldon talking on his mobile – and thought he was calling the cops. They walked over and shot him right there. Unbelievable. I don’t think I met Sheldon, but heard his name when I worked in the Joburg office years ago. South Africa obviously hasn’t gotten its crime problem under control…and with the World Cup soccer finals coming there in 2010, I really wonder how they’ll assure safety.

Lisa, Richard and Lisa’s family gave me a very nice send-off that night. We pushed a few tables together, ordered some French wine, and sampled the best/priciest things on the menu. All gratis, of course – I did spend thousands of dollars at BMU over the past few months, and have named myself Customer of the Year 2007-8. Lisa did her impersonation of a Thai bargirl, we shared a few last dirty jokes, and talked about the future. I may return next season, need to see where I am and what I want to do. As it stands, I’m trying to get a speaking gig for Lisa at my b-school (Darden, UVA), I think she’d be a terrific speaker on entrepreneurship, marketing/branding, running a small service operation, etc. We’ll see if that comes off.

Richard and I ‘in our cups’:

Couldn’t sleep that night, was a bit too excited about finally setting off and seeing more of India. Got up and did my final packing…went for a ride and decided to stop in at Munches to eat something. Then went back to BMU and caught a few z’s before getting up at 8.

Said goodbye to the gang – bittersweet farewell. I’ll miss Lisa and Richard, Bini, Tupi, et al. They made me feel right at home again this season, and these sorts of experiences are why I love to travel. You don’t know precisely what will happen down the road, but you can almost count on good things happening to you, especially if you keep your eyes open and do a bit of homework. Which is more than many travelers do, to be candid.

Took a train south to Gokarna, literally ‘Cow’s Ear’ in Hindi. This is a beach town on the coast of Karnataka state, just south of Goa. It’s a holy town – hence loads of cows everywhere. I’d heard good things about it, that it was like a slice of Goa but not as flash/popular. My train was 2 hours late leaving Goa…I didn’t fret, I had a couple newspapers and sat there reading. Got to Gokarna around 5 p.m., caught an auto-rickshaw to my hotel, the appropriately named Namaste, located right on Om Beach. I should mention that Gokarna’s real draw is that it comprises a string of 5 beaches separated by rocky headlands. Om Beach is the most famous, where most people shack up, but you can walk or take a boat to the others nearby. Hanging at the beach and smoking dope is basically all there is to do, aside from spending a couple hours seeing the temples in Gokarna town.

Was tired from the journey, dropped my bags and went for a walk on Om Beach (I love that name). Long enough beach – lots of cows and dogs. Saw one dog straining VERY hard to take a dump on the beach – it almost looked human as it crouched in the sand, squinting from the effort. And there I was without my camera…

Got to the south end of the beach…the sun was setting. Appropriately enough, there was the Sunset Bar perched on the beginnings of the headland. Went up and in, ordered a cold Kingfisher and a grilled cheese sandwich. Had been a very long time since I’d eaten one of those…I recall living in Washington, D.C. and being so broke that all I could afford to eat were grilled BLTs, which I’d cook up in a pan. Greasy delights.

Watched the sun set…cows ambling down the beach…stoned Israelis talking jibberish at the other end of the bar. Had another beer, then wandered back to Namaste to hang out (did I mention there’s not much to do in Gokarna?).

Shots of Om Beach & Sunset ‘refuge’:

Gokarna in general is grittier than Goa – you don’t get the (semi)flashy Mumbai/Delhi crowd, you get foreign stoners and some middle-class Indian holidaymakers. I met some tourists who had been there for a few months, sitting around smoking chillums and ‘existing.’ That did not sound appealing to me…no real choice of place to eat, mediocre accoms (although there is one pricy resort now on Om Beach), slow Internet connections, etc. And the beaches are good, but not exceptional – I much preferred the beaches in northern Goa (Morjim, Mandrem, Arambol) and southern Goa (Agonda, Patnem, Palolem). So 3 days was enough for me in Gokarna. Spent a day walking from Om to the southern beaches – Half-Moon and Paradise. I actually thought that Om Beach was a far better ‘half-moon’ than Half-Moon Beach itself, which was pretty small. As was Paradise Beach. The attractions of these two beaches is that they are remote, and that if you truly want to escape everyday life you can shack out there and subsist on virtually no money for months on end. I swear I saw foreigners on these beaches that had missed 1-2 steps in the evolutionary process. Anyway, here are some pics of Half-Moon and Paradise Beaches:

The hike over the headlands was a bit harder than I anticipated, with some rocky cliffs, and I was pretty tired when I got to Paradise Beach. Ate lunch there – had a chicken curry and a Swiss rosti, which was a hash brown topped with mushrooms and cheese. Mixed everything together – absolutely delicious. That, plus a lime soda, set me back 120 rupees – about US$3. And I was living it up. I imagine some foreigners live for 3 months in the shacks on these beaches and spend US$150/month, or even less. A bit too gritty for me, but it works for them.

Decided to take a boat back to Om. Hopped in one along with a bunch of French tourists, and on the way saw the tail of a dolphin come out of the ocean…the rudder guy tapped my shoulder, but I had already seen it. I idly wondered about the possibility of sharks in these waters, but decided not to think about that. I put my faith in Vishnu and Om to protect me from all monsters…

Walked along Om that night, looking at the meandering cows and the feral dogs. One dog had dug itself a hole in the sand and was bedded up in there. Hard life, but better than nothing. Was this dog being penalized for wrongdoings in a past life, or was it on its way to a better incarnation?

Next day, got my act together for my next destination, Hampi. Hampi was the center of the Hindu Vijayanagar kingdom, which was probably the largest Hindu kingdom of yore, and one of the inspirations for Angkor Wat, Ayutthaya, Bagan, and Borobodur. It was sacked by the Moghuls in the 16^th century and lay abandoned for hundreds of years. Now it’s a tourist hotspot and I had always wanted to see it.

Booked an overnight train ride to Hampi from Ankola, near Gokarna. And made a hotel booking too, I heard that Hampi was a bit crowded in-season. Having spent so long in Goa, I’d gotten rusty and it was good to get my travel-planning hat back on. I’ll need it given my wild schedule over the next 5-6 weeks in India.

Went for a beach run that night on Om. Started out fine – then a couple wild dogs started tailing and harassing me. I could not shake them, even when I went into the surf a bit. Finally slowed to a walk, and made it clear I wanted them gone. Walked around the bend, out of sight, and resumed running. No dogs. Restricted my route to back-and-forth on this half of the beach – a little annoying and repetitive, but I could at least get my workout without tripping over rabid mutts.

Had dinner at Namaste’s café that night. Not too many appealing options around, this was the best. Had a very nice kingfish tikka – not quite up to the standards of the Goan legend Souza Lobo, but good enough. That, plus a couple large Kingfishers, promised to send me off to a great night’s sleep. At one point I looked up and noticed the lamp hanging above my table gently swaying in a circular direction. And as I looked around I saw all the lamps in the café doing the same. Might have been a bit of breeze, but might have been the rotation of the earth too. As a kid I’d go to the Boston Children’s Museum and watch this exhibit with a sort of stick hanging from a rope, swinging like a pendulum, all the while etching on sand on the floor of the room. The stick’s etchings moved over time, indicating that the earth was rotating. I don’t know how they got the stick moving in the first place, or how they kept it moving…perpetual motion isn’t possible, if I remember my physics correctly. Anyway, the lamps at Namaste reminded me of that. Any science geeks out there who can clarify??

I had one more day in Gokarna, and decided to hike to Kudle Beach, to the north, and then check out Gokarna town itself. My guidebook said it was 20 minutes to Kudle, and another 20 to Gokarna. Was expecting a leisurely stroll to Kudle, but no. The path was OK at the start, but after 10 or so minutes it seemed to head into a nearly impenetrable thicket. I decided to descend, down to boulders near the water, and try to find another path or way through there. That didn’t work so well, there were some hairy moments as I negotiated across some spaces between large rocks. Found semblances of a path again, and headed back up the headland…and again was dead-ended. I ping-ponged between taking the low road and the high road (neither of which were clearly the proper path), and at one point I grew concerned – I had to scramble up a steep bit with loose gravel and nothing to hold on to. Got some cuts and scrapes. I had obviously strayed badly, and my misstep was probably forgoing the thicket route early on. Hadn’t seen a single marking, by the way. Oh well. I finally decided to head to the top of the headland. That was the right move – I saw a motorbike up there, then a small temple, and finally a path leading to a road. Followed that for a minute and then Kudle Beach loomed off in front/below me. Nirvana.

Another 10 minutes brought me to the beach. Total time, Om-Kudle – 80 minutes, not the 20 expected. Ugh. I got right in the water to clean off my scrapes – it stung like the bejesus but soon I was clean and the bleeding had stopped. Does that count as ayurvedic medicine?

Got some water, cleared my head, and set off north down the beach. I saw the path to Gokarna town heading up the next headland, and it seemed a lot more reasonable. And it was. It was a clear path, not steep, and I walked for 20 minutes over farmland and scrub until Gokarna and its town beach loomed.

Walked into the town and checked out its sights. There are a few Hindu temples, dedicated to Ganesh and other gods. And there’s a huge bathing/ablution tank/reservoir used by Brahmins (and other castes?). Here it is – mind the sign, oh ye pilgrims:

Gokarna is pretty small and an hour or two suffices to see the sights. I was pretty hungry from my unexpected travails, and had lunch at a place on the town beach. There were some hardcore foreigners in there…dressed like Indian sadhus (holy men) and eating like Indians. One dude was eating a masala dosa with his right hand (the correct hand) and working a Palm Pilot-like device with his left. Modern-day India for you. I had a dosa and a biryani (veg – no meat in holy towns like Gokarna and Hampi, and finding a beer isn’t easy either). Walked out to the beach – which gets a bad rap in the guidebooks, as it’s probably a bit dirty from the town’s garbage – but it wasn’t bad at all. Perhaps in comparison to Om and the other beaches it suffers, but I can’t recall seeing a longer and flatter beach anywhere – Gokarna Beach was much longer than Agonda in Goa, which itself is probably 2.5 km. Here it is:

I walked off my lunch, but didn’t even get close to the north side of the beach, then turned back. Had to head back to Om to pack and get moving.

Took an auto-rickshaw back to Om – was not about to retrace my steps over the headlands. Told myself the main reason was bathing suit chafing and not abject fear over being lost forever on the Om-Kudle headland. Happily paid the 100 rupees for the ride back to Om.

Packed my stuff, paid the bill, and read for a bit. My bus wasn’t leaving till late, and I planned to take a cab with another traveler to the bus stop, one hour away. Got a call from brer-in-law Dave…he told me that the son of my high school classmate had died suddenly, he was 3 years old and had caught some sort of bug that quickly got worse and he died in hospital within a day or so. Absolutely awful…how (and why) do these things happen? Every time I hear about something terrible like this, any iota of religious belief that I have left shrinks a bit more. There’s nothing good in a loss like this – and nothing can convince me that it’s ‘God’s will.’ Bullshit. Just behind life’s pleasures lurks danger and death, and while it helps to put this out of your mind most of the time, it’s always there.

Met my fellow traveler, Victoria, an attorney from the UK. She was traveling round India for a month or so. We shared a taxi to Ankola, where we’d meet the bus to Hampi. Ankola turned out to be a real dump, at least the bus stop area was. At least I was familiar with this – almost all India bus stops are depressing places. We had a chai in the dhaba (cafeteria), which was fairly grim. At one point a feral/diseased cat leaped up on our table, putting us off our chai. We went back outside to wait for the bus…which was late…and then later. We had no news from the bus company, Paulo Lines. I called Namaste, our Om Beach hotel, and asked them for some news – they called Paulo, then told me that the bus would come in an hour. Finally, it came at 2 a.m., three hours late. Torture. The torture was compounded by the fact that I had popped a sleeping pill two hours earlier, when I expected the bus at any minute. The pill worked very rapidly and within minutes I was stumbling around spouting gibberish. Somehow I stayed awake, and on my feet, till the bus came, but it was a close call. I joked with Victoria that she’d have to lug me onto the bus and lay me out on my sleeper.

The bus, as usual, was less than advertised. A real junker, with double sleepers on either side. I had the privilege of bunking with some random guy, who was unobjectionable except that he wasn’t an attractive woman. I went right to sleep and apparently missed a hilarious episode in which we got stuck in traffic and various lassies on our bus got out to pee in the bushes while the bus was in stop-and-go. I was out till we got to the town/city of Hubli, where we pulled to the side of the road for a few minutes. Urine flowed and we moved on.

One final way-stop, at (yet another) dumpy dhaba. Had a couple milk coffees – couldn’t bring myself to eat anything there, not while half the guys in the place were clearing their nasal/throat passages and depositing loads of phlegm on the floor. Took a good look at my coffee first too, but it was fine. I could imagine an older Jewish couple – like the Slarzes from Florida, whom I met in Mapusa, Goa, in a dhaba like this, fretting and covering their entire bodies with Purell sanitizer. Some people simply should not visit India…

Pulled into Hampi well past the scheduled hour, it was now about noon. I was met at the station by a guy from my hotel, and Victoria came along with me. The station was mobbed with rickshaw guys and hotel touts and escaping was a wise move. We both got rooms at Gopi Guesthouse, a decent little place with a rooftop restaraurant, right in Hampi Bazaar.

I already wrote a bit about Hampi and its history. The place was deserted for a couple hundred years or so, and people started streaming back about 70 years ago. There’s still only 3,000 or so people in the town…whereas when it was the capital of the kingdom, half a million souls resided here. You really couldn’t name many other places in India where the population dropped over that period – I think that when the Brits left in 1947, there were 350 million Indians, now there’s 1.1 billion. Anyway, you already know my POV on population counts…

The guesthouse manager told us we had to register at the police station, all foreigners have to do this. We walked over to the station…which is set at the end of the long main street, and is itself in an ancient stone building with columns in front. Probably the weirdest police station I’ve come across, and I am something of an expert on the subject. Registered and left.

Went for a stroll around Hampi Bazaar, around the incredible Virupaksha Temple, which is over 50 meters high and dominates the landscape. Here’s a view of this from our rooftop:

We had lunch at the brilliant Mango Tree, which is a few minutes’ walk from Hampi Bazaar, and which overlooks the river. Classic spot – comfortable, good food, nice vibe.

Went back to Gopi and did some errands. Bought a bus ticket to Bangalore, my next stop, where I’ll stay with my old friend Harsh, also formerly of Monitor Group. He runs a group for Fidelity Investments in India. Also worked on getting a tour of the Hampi ruins – went to the state tourist office. The fellow there told me that every day there’s a tour starting at 10 a.m., cost is 155 rupees. Asked him to sign me up. Just outside I had been accosted by a rickshaw driver/tout who wanted me to go with him on a tour – 500 rupees, but it would be a private tour, unlike the state one. I told him I wanted to check out the state tour situation first. This tout followed me inside, stood there while the state office clerk tried to call and reserve me a spot. Phone didn’t work. I smelled a rat – perhaps the tout was in league with the clerk, and would get a cut of the 500 rupees. I told the clerk I’d return at 9 the next morning. I told the tout I’d think about his deal, and walked on. I had plenty of time on my hands, and no real worries.

Ran into Victoria – we made plans for dinner. Went back to my room, rolled out my yoga mat and practiced for the first time in weeks. Felt tight and heavy from the bus ride/lack of exercise. Had a good hour of flexing and sweating, then showered and met Victoria. We were both dying for a beer, and Hampi is a holy town so no booze or meat. I had heard that a few km away, in the nearby town of Kamalapura, there’s a government hotel that has chicken and beer. Bingo. Took a rickshaw there, went in, and feasted on Kingfisher and chicken. Really hit the spot. I enjoyed talking with Victoria, she’s quite switched-on and well-traveled. I can admire a woman who’s not afraid to travel round India by herself. Victoria seems more than capable of holding her own – sassy and sharp. I like that.

Got back to Hampi – considered a ‘special lassi’ at a rooftop joint but decided against it. Was pretty tired so read my Mitchell book for an hour, then crashed. Slept like a corpse and woke up refreshed.

Next day, met Victoria for breakfast atop Gopi, then walked over to the state tourist office. Another clerk was working – he told us ‘no tour today.’ Again, it felt fishy, but I suppose that was that. Asked him about a private tour – he went outside and found a licensed tour guide. Cost was noticeably higher than I’d heard the day before from the rickshaw driver/tout, but this fellow, Wasu, was a real guide and we decided to go with him. He gave us a solid 4-hour tour of the ruins – many of which are stunning. The Indian government has worked hard to excavate many structures, and the landscape around Hampi itself is a wonder – there are huge piles of boulders, many balanced precariously atop one another, which apparently spewed out of long-extinct volcanos. The net effect is a series of vistas and plains which comprise old Vijayanagar temples and palaces set amongst natural piles of boulders and lone trees holding out against the elements. Really odd and compelling. Here’s an assortment of pics I took during the tour:

As I often do, I wondered why I hadn’t visited Hampi years ago. I think it’s one of the more interesting tourist spots in India – besides the sights, the town itself is chilled and people ‘get stuck’ there for longer than anticipated. Not a lot of great food, not many diversions, but walking around and hanging out seem to occupy enough time. I only had 3-4 days, but could have spent a bit longer. Hampi seemed oddly familiar in a sense, and I worked out that the town was a bit like an Indian Cordoba – Cordoba, Spain being the city where my friend’s wife is from. Cordoba is also dominated by a building, in that case the Mezquita fort/chapel/former mosque, surrounded by little side-streets with hotels, cafes and shops. Hampi is a bit like this – obviously Indian, a world away from Spain, but there are similarities and I think that’s why I like Hampi so much.

I’ll wind things up here, it feels like time for a chai. I’ll see you next week, by which time I’ll have spent a few days in Bangalore, and will by then be up in Jaipur, the capital of the state of Rajasthan. On the meantime, donate a few dollars to the Obama for President campaign and keep it cool. Over and out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 1:28 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.