we have pictures!

finally managed to upload a few pictures - enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidouch/

happy in hampi

wow. what an amazing few days. before my trip i was incredibly excited about hampi. situated in central karnataka, hampi houses the ruins of the 15th century city of vijayanagar set in an insanely beautiful landscape of huge granite boulders, banana plantations, rice paddies and hippies. i had heard that the best place to chill out and enjoy the sunsets was across the river in virupapar gaddi so i got the boat across the river and trekked along the road to my hotel, the shanthi guest house. it was a lovely place, i had a bungalow all to myself with a bed-swing on the porch which was the best place in the world to relax and read a book with a nice cup of chai. i had made vague plans to meet jaclyn and karen (the canadians from goa) but the first couple of days were my own.

i spent much of the first day wandering around completely awestruck at my surroundings. temples poking out from behind coconut trees and big huge boulder formations, the bazaar was noisy, crowded and filled with colour, and the views along the river down towards the ghats where the women would wash their clothes was breathtaking. the last boat across the river was at 6pm so i made sure i was in good time and made it back to the dining area of my shanthi guest house just in time to watch the sun slip behind the hills. and oh my, what a beautiful sight. the rice paddies started less than 10 feet from where i sat, framed by a few palm trees behind which you could see the river and the boulder-strewn bank rising up in the middle distance with the odd temple poking through the trees. it is close to one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen and as i sipped mint tea on my swing that evening i felt that i had finally found a place where i could get inside my head a bit.

the next morning i rose early and headed over the river to find a pushbike. the ruins cover an enormous area and i didn't really fancy paying over the odds to have a rikshaw driver take me around. turns out i needed one, but i'll tell you about that later :D i went to the first rental place i could see and i was presented with the crappiest, oldest, most beaten up bike i have ever seen. the steering column was wonky, the pedals were loose and the seat was really hard. emblazoned along the side in big proud letters was the word "hurricane". harry the hurricane had clearly seen better days but i liked the look of him so i paid my 40 rupees, jumped on and bell ringing loudly we bombed it along the crowded bazaar heading for the royal centre where there are some really well preserved ruins of a big trading and financial district, and the stables where the king's elephants were housed. the first hill out of the bazaar is pretty steep but harry did me proud as i arrived at the top, narrowly missing a wildly swerving school bus with kids hanging out of the window yelling "halloooooo!" while grinning and waving at me. after a few more hills harry and i rocked up at a sunken temple to shiva which was quite interesting, and then to the royal mint area which was again interesting and had some good examples of islamic architecture. i'll skip the next bit because you'll read it and you'll be thinking "cool, so you saw some ruined temples... oh, and more ruined temples eh? hmm... ruined temples you say?" lets just say there were a lot of ruins. i got to the elephant stables and paid my us$5 to get in and was presented with a walled area containing a few ruins but one really well preserved temple, the lotus mahal. shaped like the leaves of a lotus and with intricately detailed islamic pillars and arches a-go-go this thing was beautiful. there were a couple of people sat under some trees taking advantage of the shade (by this time it was beyond really hot) and there was a real air of being somewhere special. the lawns were really well tended and there was none of the dust and litter that seem to fill every other corner of india. i sat and had a ciggy and drank in some of the peace before heading to the main area which contained the stables. and wow, they are big (as you'd probably imagine if bloody elephants lived there i guess...) and in really good condition. they are fenced off and the gap between the fence and the walls is too small to get the whole building in one photo which kind of sucked ass. i had a stroll through them (and nearly had an underwear incident as i disturbed some roosting birds in one of the domes) trying to imagine what it would have been like to see them in the days when the elephants and their keepers lived there.

i toddled back to harry and with a wail of anguish i saw that he had picked up a puncture. i was over 5km away from the main area of hampi bazaar and the hills were pretty big. there was no way i was pushing him back so i enlisted the aid of a nearby rikshaw driver. 100 rupees to take me and harry back, as he would get told off for having a pushbike in the back apparently. i wasn't really in a position to argue but i got him down to 80, manhandled harry into the back and off we flew. at around this time kim and hannah text messaged to tell me they had a mobile in india now so we could text each other about the cool stuff we were doing. i of course had to text right back, one hand on the phone, one hand on the front forks of the bike and somehow keeping myself in the back of the rikshaw at the same time as we flew around blind corners, over hills and onwards towards hampi. i gave the rikshaw driver the 100 rupees he originally asked for (something i have started doing, as the smile they give you when you give them that extra bit that you beat them down on that they didn't think they would get is always the same - big, toothy and genuinely happy) and i went back to the little boy who rented me the bike that morning. he looked sad when he saw what had become of the once mighty harry hurricane, and offered me my money back. i thought about it but i had been gone a good 4 hours and it wouldn't have felt right, so i said no and headed off to my next destination - the vittala temple. the walk is about 3 km along the side of the river, across boulders, big expanses of rock and past decaying temples and bazaars.

the vittala temple is little newer than the rest of the ruins, and as such is in better shape. the carvings and structure are far more detailed and are the best in the whole complex. this is another place i was excited to see as there is a stone chariot outside the main temple which archaeologists have determined from some ruts running from the stone wheels to the main temple that the whole thing was able to move during ceremonies and the like. it was really good to see with my own eyes, and the rest of the temple complex was pretty sweet too. the walk there had taken its toll though, the heat was pretty intense and i had forgotten to use sunblock so because of the malaria pills i was (just a tiny amount) red all over. i haggled with a rikshaw driver and headed back to hampi for the last boat and some sunset goodness. as i was wandering through the backstreets of the bazaar looking for some baggy trousers i bumped into jaclyn and karen, and some more canadians a new yorker and a brit that they had been hanging out with that day. they were staying at the next guest house to the shanthi where i was so we headed across before the riverboat curfew at 6, had some dinner and again saw a wonderful sunset.

the next day was loads of fun. the canadians had all agreed to meet up and rent some bikes for the day so i tagged along. it was great, the girls all had bright pink miss india shopper bikes (as did kevin the new yorker, which was rather amusing) and we all had loud bells and bad brakes. i visited the places i had visited the day before but found i got more out of the experience as i had people to share it with. that gave me food for thought for a decision i made later on (as you will see if you're a good boy or girl and are still reading this) so we had a day of fun, we sat and spoke about our experiences in india and for those that had been there south-east asia, what life was like back home for us all and how we knew going back would be really hard. before long the conversation turned to poo (as it always seems to with travellers) how often, how much, how smelly etc. it's important stuff to discuss as we all have our horror stories now and it's good to hear that you're not alone, and also to pick up tips on how to deal with it (i've learnt that banana lassi is totally the way to go when things go squishy downstairs) so we had a few laughs there. we had a lovely meal at one of the rooftop terraces and went our separate ways as the others were on the main side of the river and couldn't get across to us to see the sunset which sucked. well, they could, but they'd have to pay 100-odd rupees for the pleasure instead of the usual 10.

we sat and watched the sunset and some english guys that the canadian girls had met the day before came and joined us. things got a bit rowdy and we had a good time teaching jaclyn how to do a british accent. the trouble was the lads were from grimsby which made it a bit tricky! the next day was all about the vegging out as our bus to bengaluru wasn't until 10:30, and checkout time at our guest houses was 9am. this wasn't a big deal though as we had all been here long enough to know how to do nothing in a productive fashion. this mainly involves eating, sipping chai, playing cards (i taught the canadians shithead - a little slice of british culture for them hehe) and writing in our journals. after a few hours we realised that we hadn't seen the hanuman temple, on the virupapar gaddi side of the river up one of the bigger hills. so off we trudged, sweaty and tired and my word was it worth it. the temple itself was a bit crappy and run down, but there were monkeys flying about all over the place eating coconuts and bananas and the views across the whole hampi ruin complex were mind blowing. i seem to be seeing a lot of this mind blowing stuff over here, i hope i have a brain left when i get back.

anyway, after that awesomeness we rolled back to hampi in our rikshaw singing bob marley songs with the driver and his 15 year old brother and i decided that i liked india a lot. it's pretty hard sometimes travelling on your own but there are always people along the way who keep you company and share their crazy with you. i had met some more here, karen and jaclyn are ace and i've had a real good time with them and i'm really glad to have met them. everyone follows a similar route here so i know for certain we'll hang out again somewhere else.. pushkar, kolkata, chennai.. who knows?

we ate and then the 3 of us and the house that is karen's rucksack somehow squeezed into a rikshaw to hospet where our bus left from. i hung my head out of the side when i realised there was no artificial light and looked at the sky. i was struck dumb at how many stars there were in the sky - so beautiful. as we got to the bus station our hearts sank... israelis... everywhere... for the uninitiated isreali travellers are the worst kind of arsehole ever to grace the earth. sweaty, arrogant, loud, obnoxious, smelly, drug-addled arses. they argued with everyone, the conductor, the driver, the indian passengers. they refused to move when told to move, took the piss out of the indians on the coach, played their guitars even though it was an overnight sleeper, and stunk the whole coach up with their hashish. despite that the trip to bangalore was miles better than the one from goa to hampi. i was sat next to a young professional from the area who was heading back to bengaluru to start the working week. he was lovely, and he hated israeli travellers as well so he was ok in my book. i had 10 hours to sit and collect my thoughts so i whacked my ipod on and tried to relax as the bus rattled around at warp speed.

i thought mainly about what to do next. earlier that day i had spoken to kim and hannah who if you've been paying attention you'll recall i had hung out with in goa. they are in the north of the country at the moment and it's crazy but they are missing my company just as much as i am missing theirs. i had toyed with the idea of going up to do some stuff with them in the north for a few weeks when i left goa and after we spoke on the phone i had pretty much made up my mind to do it. i sat and had a think while i was on the bus about how this would affect my time here and my reasons for coming etc. and decided that the stuff i was seeing has in every case been enhanced by seeing it with other people and most of the important thinking i have done has been done on the journeys between places - the 15 hour bus trips, the overnight sleeper trains, the 16 hour konkan railway and there are always quiet times when you wander off and do your own thing. so yeah, here i am sat in bangalore with jaclyn and karen deciding on how much to spend in their palace hotel in mysore while i tell you people about my week.

bengaluru is lovely. very western, clean and with great shops, entertainment, bars and food. the people all look well-off, educated and very western in their dress. the lonely planet (which we have started calling the lonely liar) said this place was dirty, brash and smelly but it is anything but that. this isn't the india i came to see but it is a nice change and is very welcome after nearly 4 weeks of complete immersion in the dirt, dust, noise and everything india that has become my temporary home. this is the new india that wants the world to see how advanced and ready for the 21st century it is, and it is full of life and promise here.

i'll be heading off to rajahstan to see kim and hannah maybe tomorrow or tuesday. and i'm excited :D

panjim to hampi

stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting kicked in 2 hours before i was due to leave for hampi. goddamn squid... tasted great though. or it could have been the iced coffee... if it weren't for the immodium i'd still be in panjim.

15 hours in a sleeper bus compartment that was 6 inches too short driven by a man with a deathwish. i thought i was going to die.

i nearly did when i saw how beautiful it is here. i'm off to look at some cool stuff, i'll talk to you soon.

panjim

i left anjuna beach yesterday and i am now in the town of panjim. it was pretty sad to leave my new friends behind as we had the best time doing nothing together, but it's time to move on. i had a bit of a lump in my throat as i was leaving as i had become so used to their company. everything we did, absolutely everything, was about having fun. back home i think i had forgotten how good it felt to be happy all the time, but it turns out i'm still really good at it. the prospect of being on my own again filled me with dread as i looked out of the taxi window at the beach getting further and further away but i know that i will be ok. whilst i'm pretty certain i will see kim and hannah again (in fact, we're meeting in mumbai on april 6th) it will never be the same. goa was special and i'll remember it for ever :D i also met two wonderful canadian girls, karen and jaclyn. they got hit by some nasty food poisoning for one of the days but they were always happy and smiling and full of life despite this.

our second day in anjuna was about as perfect as a day can get. we spent all of the daylight hours in the little cafe next to the rocks with the floor mats and low tables alternating between reading, talking, laughing, eating, listening to music, reading, talking, eating... as the sun moved so did we move, deeper and deeper into the shade. that evening we went to one of the beach-shack bars that we liked and sat looking at the sea lapping the shore only 4 or 5 feet away from where we were sat. we had a beautiful meal and agreed that the day had been perfect. as soon as we said that fireworks started going off right next to us... ok.... now it was perfect.

so... panjim. for those of you that aren't india buffs, goa was first colonised by the portuguese. as such there is a wealth of old portuguese and christian architecture. churches, little town houses, tree-lined squares with old men sitting and playing chess. you can see the portuguese influence in the faces of the locals - there's a definite iberian look to most of the people here. i have been for a wander this morning and seen half a dozen churches, cool little backstreet markets and beautiful pastel-coloured houses. my room is sent directly from heaven. after 4 nights in what can only be called "basic" accommodation i now have a huge 4-poster bed, sitting room and separate cool, fully tiled bathroom. oh... and AC... hehe. i'm off to hampi tomorrow, apparently i'll be completely sucked in and it will be more difficult for me to leave there than it was to leave goa. i like the sound of that.

who is hoggard?

i've had a few messages asking me who hoggard is so i thought i'd introduce him quickly - he's my little polar bear travelling companion and though the food is too spicy for him he's having a great time.

if you look closely at the construction of goa it becomes that it is made entirely of win. i love it here, i have managed to perfect the art of hanging out (i'm a renowned fidgeter) have met some cool people, and eaten some of the hottest, yummiest food i have ever tasted. it is easy to see why people stay on here for longer than they planned, as the pace of life here barely gets above a crawl. i'm here for maybe 2 more nights tops though as i'm starting to get itchy feet.

goa baby

i'm in goa. sat on the beach in fact - the bar we are at has laptops that they bring to you, how cool. the weather is fantastic, the water is warm and it is fab. i came here to have a bit of a break from the day to day hassles of indian life, but that has proven to be a dream, every 5 minutes someone comes up to try and sell you shite necklaces, sarongs, fruit, drinks, trinkets, massages. i was starting to get a bit annoyed around lunchtime but once i accepted that while i was in india, i would have no peace everything was lovely again. dogs and cows roam the beach, one dog taking a poo right near us which was gross. again, i just had to realise that i was in india and i had to leave my western opinions and sensibilities at home.

i went to the osho meditation resort in pune a day or 2 ago and lasted 2 hours. i have never been to a more unfriendly, stressful place. i went there to try and get inside my head a little bit, to be calm and have some peace in which to explore myself. it turned out to be the most stressful experience i have had here so far. pune is a horrid city, dirty, full of touts and noisy. the second i got off the train i was hassled by rikshaw drivers, pushing me, jostling me, telling me they had "very good room good price" and my trick of completely ignoring them didn't work they just became more aggressive "listen is free sir, listen to me" etc. i really need to start emitting stronger get lost vibes. so i checked into my ridiculously expensive hotel at osho (1200 rupees for 3 nights) and went to register in the meditation resort across the road. it was closed. ok, i'll go grab some food back at the hotel. "sorry sir, this is for guests only" said the guard at the gate, an ageing english hippy bloke. "i am a guest, let me in please" i replied, confused as he had just seen me and the porter going in. "show me your ID card" said the guard, starting to get pissy. "they didn't give me one" i replied. i was starting to lose my rag a little bit (the train journey was 2 hours longer than it should have been, leaving mumbai at 6am - i was tired, dirty and just wanted some goddamn food in my overpriced hotel!!) and so it went on. i went to get some lunch and was stared at by about 500 people in red robes as i was wearing normal clothes because the welcome centre was closed. when i got to the till i was told that they didn't deal in money, i would have to go and buy a meal card. so i went back to the other side of the road, bought a meal card and headed back. the hippy had been replaced with a younger (but still wrinkly and grey) french hippy. the same rigamarole about guests only etc. before i could go in. i went and got some food, was ignored by the 3 people i said hello to, and looked for somewhere to sit. as i approached tables with spare seats, bags and books were suddenly put on chairs, and people spoke to one another behind their hands as they looked at me. i ate alone, and then went to get a robe. 3000 rupees for the robe. at that point i thought "screw this", went back to my room, grabbed my bag and said to hoggy "let's go to goa mate" before going to the hotel reception and kicking up a royal british fuss to get my money back. bunch of elitist hippy arseholes, where's cartman when you need him?

all the trains to mumbai leave in the morning, so i was faced with a night in the hellhole that is pune, or a bus journey back which claimed to take 3 hours. i took the bus, and whilst it took 3 hours to get to mumbai, it took another 2 to get to the centre. i was not a happy bear. i jumped into a cab to colaba and near cst my driver was pulled over and fined for running a red light, taking half an hour more. the one bloody traffic cop who does his job in mumbai and he gets my driver on the night when my new found attitude towards patience and tolerance toward others was being severely tested! on colaba causeway i had a bloke come up who insisted i go and stay with his cousin's hotel, even though i had told him about 10 times that i had a room already. i then took a leaf out of sarah macdonald's book and yelled "look, will you just go the fuck away please?" to which he laughed, put his arm around me and said "why so angry friend? here, have a cigarette and tell me about it". he agreed that i had had a day of it as we walked down the causeway and he said sorry for hassling me. when you least expect it india really surprises you.

i bumped into hannah and kim from aurangabad in the piccadilly cafe, which has become my morning haunt for caffeine and newspaper reading in mumbai. they had gotten the overnight train the same as me but a day later and had just arrived back in mumbai. i offered them my room to dump their (enormous) bags in exchange for some company for the day. we had a wander to cst, then up to crawford market, full of fruit and veg stalls which were so aromatic and colourful. we took loads of photos of the peppers, big bowls of garlic etc. and ate some fresh fruit from one of the stalls. we had lunch at a local place for 17Rs (a huge minced lamb kebab and roti) and then jumped in a taxi to chowpatty for ice cream and on to the banganga tank for some holy water washingness.

that evening we had a beer before they got the bus to goa, i was getting the train as the konkan railway is supposed to be one of the prettiest trips in india by rail. and boy are the supposers right?! the scenery was just beautiful, the track winds through the western ghats all down the west coast from mumbai to kerala, through the deccan plains in the north (another orgy of volcanic scenery) passing through villages, fields, mountains, the longest tunnel in asia, the highest bridge in india, and then on to jungle as we hit goa. i met a couple of interesting people on the way, mostly i had the 4 berth cabin to myself but for a few hours i was with one of the doctors hired by the railway company for employees and their families. the conversation we had lasted about 3 hours and covered everything from cultural differences to the way to happiness. he was a really interesting chap and i thoroughly enjoyed talking with him. later on one of the linen porters, knowing that i was the only person on the train with a compartment to myself, ducked in for a lie down. he adored hoggy, talking to him in kannada and stroking him (the hogster approved of the stroking.) we spoke about his family, his work, and how he was enjoying being a bachelor. he worked as a contractor, unlike his brothers who were employed directly by the railways. he has no days off, but hegets to spend a night in goa each week which he said was great, and because he has no time to spend his earnings he has a big fat savings account, which he also said was great. all too soon he had to go back to work, and i said goodbye to him and that i was pleased to meet him in my fledgling hindi which he seemed really happy about.

i got to goa 4 hours late. the girls had reserved me a room but were very sketchy about where it was (that or i wasn't listening when they called to tell me about it... you decide :D) so i jumped in a rikshaw and asked to be taken to anjuna beach which is where i was pretty sure they said they were. scariest ride so far, the oncoming traffic was non-stop, how the thing stayed on the road i have no idea as the approaching lights were blinding. at one point his wife called, so we had to stop while he spoke to her. he seemed to be getting told off about something, and as he put the phone down he said sorry, shrugged his shoulders and said "women huh?" which made me smile.

when i finally got to anjuna nobody had heard of my guest house, but one with a similar name was at the end of the road. i headed down the unlit street behind the beach convinced i was going to be mugged, raped and my body parts sold to the highest bidder. hannah and kim weren't at the rooms with the similar name, so i headed back to the lit area. just as i was about to give up i saw the guesthouse, back from the street hidden by coconut trees. i whooped, and headed to the nearest restaurant. sure enough there they were, sporting new suntans and big grins. i felt a wave of relief and sat down. we laughed at how late i was but it sounded like their bus trip was awful. they had to sit with their huge bags as the driver said they wouldn't be safe, the windows wouldn't shut so the night air froze them, and the main speaker blaring the soundtrack for the hindi movie at full volume was right above their heads. the driver seemed determined to kill them and by all accounts came close a number of times. we headed to a beach shack bar and sat and had some food and drink listening to bob marley. i was in goa :D

today has been all about the tannage, sitting in the palm-lined beach in the hot hot sun, taking the odd swim and generally chilling out. well, trying to anyway. we're going to try and find a party somewhere tonight but we aren't too hopeful as thursday is apparently "no for partying night"

i don't care what we do, i'm in goa. i might head to another beach further south tomorrow as my room sucks, only 200 Rs but i had 3 gekkos for company last night and a cockroach or 2 in the minging bathroom.

aurangabad, ellora, daulatabad and ajanta

(this is only a draft post i'm afraid as i only have 15 mins of time left at this webcafe)

what a cool-ass couple of days, with a dinner on the first night at which i was guest of honour! i took a coach trip on the first day to the buddhist, hindu and jain caves at ellora, including a stop at the fort in daulatabad. run by the state tourist department, the guide was well-informed and took his time to explain the history of everything we were looking at. on the trip i met a couple of german people, steffi and robert, and robert's girlfriend from ireland. steffi is staying with a family in mumbai and robert and his lady arrived a day or 2 after me. daulatabad fort was stunning, a classic example of islamic architecture. built straight out of the mountain the defences were pretty formidable, and the view from the top was sweet.

ellora was awesome, the buddhist caves were really tranquil and peaceful, the hindu temple enormous, and the jain caves remarkably well preserved. in the buddhist caves we saw the accommodation for the monks, meditation rooms and a huge temple, all dated around 2AD (i think). Then there was the hindu temple, the largest rock cut temple in the world - twice the size of the parthenon, and bigger than petra. it was constructed by cutting straight down into the mountain, and is like something out of indiana jones. the jain temples were less awe-inspiring but still remarkable, and really well preserved

after the caves we visted the jyoti linga in ellora village. it was impressive, but just as smelly and filled with beggars as trimbak. that's 2 down, 10 to go! the australian guy who was with us, robert, was a magnet for the touts. the poor fella always boarded the coach having bought another book or trinket. by the end it had turned into a running joke. we headed back to aurangabad and visited the bibi-qa-maqbara, which is the taj mahal in miniature. as i had already visited the day before i just sat and watched the birds flying around the minarets in the setting sun, it was very pretty indeed. then we went to a water mill but by this point we were all hot, sweaty, covered in dust and filth and just wanted our hotels.

i had arranged to have dinner with a lovely chap named dynanprakash (i had met him on the train to aurangabad) that evening so i legged it back to my room, showered quickly and was picked up by his son. imagine my surprise when i was greeted by dynanprakash and a photographer. endless pics of us shaking hands, smiling and so on! it was like i had arrived at an awards ceremony or something. the biggest surprise was yet to come. it turned out that all the prominent businessmen and educators in the area had also been invited. oh, and the state government of bihar were in town so they had been invited too. it was a surreal night, ending with me having to give a speech about my experiences so far, which i delivered in perfect hinglish.

the next day i went on a trip to ajanta, 100 kms from aurangabad, and the less said about that the better. the lonely planet describes it as being the louvre of deccan rock-art. hard to imagine but it was worse than the louvre.. overpriced (relatively speaking) crowded and commercialised to hell. some interesting artwork inside the caves but we couldn't hear the guide telling us what they depicted for the million and one screaming kids. the highlight was seeing the exterior, the caves are carved out of a horseshoe shaped gorge, and the bus trip there and back was pretty cool, 4 hours each way through the deccan plains.on the last day in aurangabad i vegged in the hotel, travelling is tiring you know ^^ i met 2 cool girls from home, and we spent the latter part of the evening while i waited for my overnight train to mumbai drinking beer and giggling a lot. we arranged to meet later on in the week in goa, which should be cool.

so now i am back in mumbai, heading to pune tomorrow. i'm going to the osho meditation centre for a few days to unwind and get inside my head a little bit. it sounds lush: swimming pools, tennis, massages, meditation classes - proper 5 star luxury.

if i get the chance later i'll flesh this post out and add some pictures. if not, i'll see you in goa :D

nasik and trimbak

ok... it's been a while since i've had a decent connection so you're all going to have to go away, make a brew (and maybe a sandwich) and settle in for a bit of a read.

ready? ok then let's begin. on monday 7th i took an early morning train from cst to nasik. the station was heaving as it was peak rush hour time and the volume of people getting off the train and dispersing into the already busy streets of mumbai was almost beyond comprehension. i had left the hotel really early and had missed breakfast, so i chanced my first bit of street food from the platform side. fearing the galloping squits i gingerly took my first bite of a crazy spicy omlette triple decker sandwich - 20 Rs. it was great, so in my usual fashion i breathed it in and was ready for more. i opted not to tempt fate however, and set about finding some caffeine. the coffee over here either comes black and bitter or milky and oh-so-sweet. i opted for the latter, figuring the extra sugar would give me the energy for the 4 hour trip to nasik. as i sat on the platform (my rucksack is a pretty comfortable seat btw) i was surounded by porters, all in their distinctive red uniforms. "from where are you? are you married? are you working? do you like india?" the questions came thick and fast. i responded as best i could in my newly acquired hinglish accent, and when i pulled out the wodge of photos i have of my family the group got even bigger and more questions were thrown my way. a crazy, bearded old man came and started talking with me, i couldn't really understand much of what he said but we shared a cigarette and then it didn't matter if we could understand each other or not, we had some common ground. as we smoked the sun rose, bathing everything in a wonderful pinkish grey.

i boarded the train - i was in 2AC which means two-tier air conditioned (not 2nd class ac as i first thought.) i had opted for the upper berth so i could sleep if i wanted without having to wait for the rest of my compartment to vacate the bottom bunk / seat. part of me was very scared at leaving the bubble of the westerner-friendly city and heading out to a town that is really a pilgrim's rather than a tourist's destination. as the train pulled out i decided to leave the worrying about it until i got there. i sat and sipped chai and watched the outskirts of mumbai blend into the hills and plains of northern maharashtra. the journey would take me through part of the deccan traps, about as volcanic a region as you can get. parts of it looked like the surface of the moon - the worrying could definitely wait as i had plenty of scenery to keep me occupied. sharing my berth was a family from lucknow, mr and mrs shukla and their adorable little daughter shivyanshi. i don't think i've ever seen such a cheeky face! they had been in mumbai to visit mrs shukla's brother who is in the navy, and they were travelling back to their home in lucknow (here's a map - pretty far eh?) we got to talking, and mr shukla is a geologist, working for the indian geological survey. nedless to say we sat and spoke for most of the second half of the trip, all the while taking chai for 5Rs from the boys who came down our carriage every minute (or so it seemed!) yelling "chaichaichaichaichaichai". there was a vegetarian breakfast, which i again ate at lightning speed. since i have been here i find that even if i have just eaten, i am always ready to eat more. maybe i will one day be able to hold my head up high and stand proud in the presence of the great mr. blunt when it comes to eating :D

after exchanging contact details and a promise to meet up in lucknow i left the train at nasik road. i had booked my stay at the hotel abhishek the day before, so i grabbed an autorikshaw and headed off - nasik city centre is 10 km from the train station. wow. now i was in india. the traffic was barmy, the driver seemed to lean on his horn the entire time, weaving in and out of motorcycles, cement trucks, buses and the like showing absolutely no fear. i held on for dear life and hoped i would make it there alive! i checked into my room, and decided to stay there for the rest of my time in nasik. what i had seen on my trip to the hotel was nothing like the india i had seen in mumbai. hopefully the photographs will go some way to explaining. i smoked about 5 cigarettes and drank an entire 2 litre bottle of water and decided to man it up and get out there.

nasik is beyond insane. i felt uncomfortable for most of the 2 hour walk i took around the area close to the ramkund, attracting lots of stares. i was the only westerner i saw during that time and it freaked me out. the city is a hodgepodge of temples, shrines, street vendors, collapsing houses, building sites, people, rikshaws, vans, motorcycles, cows, bathing ghats, shops, chai stalls, and litter. as i rounded a corner and went over a bridge i was met by the spectacular sight of the large ramkund on the banks of the godavari river, one of the 7 (i think) rivers which are of great importance to the hindus. i have just sat here for a few minutes failing to put the feeling i had when i first saw it into words - hopefully this picture will give you an idea. i walked across, and took some photos of the temples i passed and some street scenes. everywhere you go in nasik there is a temple, shrine or other holy place. it is a very holy city as it features prominently in the hindu epic the ramayana as the place to which rama and sita were exiled to. after my walk around the teeming backstreets attracting stares everywhere i went i made my way down to the riverside and had a drink and cigarette. it was amazingly quiet there although the street was still very close by. a couple of teens came up and stared at me, so i waved and said namaste. the instant i did that they broke into big wide smiles and peppered me with questions asking me my name, where i was from etc. after that i found that if i waved and said hello the people would grin at me and do the same - maybe i would be ok after all.

i had some street food, a crazy potato and spinach deep fried ball of yum, and headed back to my room to plan the next day's trip to trimbak to see one of the 12 jyoti lingas. these are the holiest temples to hindus, they believe that by visiting all 12 they will be released from the eternal cycle of life and achieve freedom. i had kind of made the plan to do my best to see all 12 on my trip so i was quite excited about seeing one so early on. trimbak is a small village around 30 km away from nasik set in the hills and only reachable by local bus. little did i realise at the time but trimbak would make nasik seem like vienna.

i woke at 5:30 - my sleeping pattern is so very screwed up at the moment (as i write this it is 2am local time and not a whiff of tiredness.) as i lay there trying to sleep i wondered if i had made the right decision coming here, as i was so far away from my comfort zone. i spent a great deal of time thinking this over and decided that this was exactly the reason i was here. overcoming the fear i had felt in the afternoon on my walk around had felt so liberating, and the sense of relief and joy at seeing the grin on the boys' faces when i had waved and said hello was exhilarating. as long as i kept my wits about me and stayed calm i knew i would be ok. i left the hotel at 7am and found somewhere to grab some breakfast nearby. nasik in the early morning is very different to the hustle of late afternoon when i was out in it before. as the sun rose everything was in a steely grey light and very calm. it was quite chilly and i found that i was cold even though i was in long sleeves and trousers. there were lots of kids around, all very smartly dressed and heading off to school. the lane next to my hotel houses a couple families who lived in shacks, a few of the elder members sleeping outside on mats. as i watched the dawn from my window i saw a mother and her young daughter emerge from one, immaculately dressed and on their way to school. i saw a lot of bookstores the day before devoted entirely to educational books - "learn C++" "learn secretary skills" and so on. it seemed to me that a great deal of importance was placed on learning here - maybe this will be the case in all the cities i visit but i have nothing to compare it to so far. at around 7:30 the roads started to liven up and the noise of the day before started to return. i ate in the manas pure veg family restaurant, having an idili fry and a coffee. i have no idea what it was but it looked like a load of potato wedges, and i couldn't make out what it was by breaking them open or indeed by their taste (all i can say is they tasted of fried, if that makes sense?) for 30 Rs including the coffee i wasn't complaining!

after i had eaten i headed towards the bus stand, over the holkar bridge once again. i had a stunning view of the ramkund with the rising sun in the background. it really took my breath away and i took some time to stop and drink it all in - early morning worshippers coming down to the water's edge to bathe and wash away their sins. i got a bit lost on the way to the bus stand. i made the mistake of asking "is this the mg road?" rather than asking someone to point the way. not understanding and not wanting to offend, people would just smile and do the crazy head wobble thing they do here which means yes. being lost wasn't such a bad thing as i got to wander around the back streets and take some pictures without feeling like i was intruding on people's lives too much or being stared at. eventually i conceded defeat and grabbed a rikshaw to the bus stand.

the bus was everything i had expected it to be, basically a tin can on wheels with no suspension. the journey took 50 minutes through stunning countryside, small villages, and vineyards (this region has a microclimate very similar to the wine producing areas of the mediterranean) and cost 29Rs. when i got there i joined the throngs of pilgrims and made my way towards the temple. trimbak is a maze of markets, stalls, street food vendors, beggars, touts and open sewers. all the while i was there i felt slighly nauseous, the sweet smell of incense mixed with human faeces. an interesting combination to say the least. non-hindus are not permitted in the main temple so i took a few snaps of the outside and moved towards the gangadwar bathing tank where pilgrims come to bathe in the waters fresh from the source of the godavari. an immense feeling of calm came over me as i watched the procession of pilgrims immersing their bodies in the water, young and old, rich and poor. i felt priveliged to be able to witness what is an intensely personal religious experience, and i was hesitant to take pictures. a robed man saw me and came and offered me a cigarette. his name was piush and he was from gujurat. we spoke about the 12 jyoti lingas and he was very happy to hear of my intention to see them all. he said it was ok to take pictures, posing for one himself. as i made my way back to the main temple through one of the fresh produce markets a younger man came up to me, fresh from the tank. he looked invigorated, something about him seemed so alive, so fresh. we chatted awhile and then went our own way.

the bus trip back was uneventful and feeling tired i headed back to my hotel. when i awoke i was determined to see more of the city, especially the area around the ramkund in the full swing of the day. i was far too nervous the day before and the saraf and bhandi markets seemed way to scary. feeling a renewed sense of purpose following my trip that morning i went for it. and i am so glad that i did. i spent hours wandering, looking, talking, drinking chai, sitting, soaking up the atmosphere. it was a stunning experience, one i am certain i will carry with me for ever.

next on the list is aurangabad, to see the caves of ellora and ajanta, the fort at daulatabad, a mini taj mahal, and dinner with a local businessman his friends and some important politicians from the state of bihar.

elephanta island and cst

yesterday i went to elephanta island, a world heritage site. the island is the home to a complex of caves dating from the 9th to 13th century carved directly from the rock, with intricate statues of the gods in various poses. to get to elephanta island - 11km off the coast of mumbai - i caught a ferry from the gateway of india. standard was 100Rs, luxury was 120Rs. i of course chose the luxury option.

on the boat i met a man called mukul who was on holiday with his family from bangladesh. he told me of his "very old man friend from england mr. chris" and he insisted that i come and stay with him next year in bangladesh. the journey took just over an hour and on the way we passed a couple of small islands, fishing boats, divers, massive oil tankers, and a crazy fishing boat that i thought was going to ram us at one point! we also saw a submarine surfacing about 300 metres away which was hella cool. as i sat and spoke with mukul about family, work, and our different lives he asked me if i was married. i told him no, but showed him some pictures of claire. i couldn't think of a way to explain to him the craziness of mine and claire's relationship so i fibbed and told him i was to be married next year. he said that was very good, as i was getting too old to be having children. by the time they are teens i would be an old man!

on arrival at elephanta i had the option of taking a mini train down the jetty for 10Rs, or walking the 500m or so. as i walked down i was accosted by a local villager, who offered his services as a guide. i told him that i was happiest when i was alone as i liked to see things at my own pace, which he accepted with a smile and then he told me about his life on the island and his family. one day he dreams of living in mumbai and dining in fancy restaurants. his english was impeccable, he said that he learnt from the tourists and talking to people like me helped him to practice.

to get to the caves there are steps built into the hillside, lined with market stalls selling hats, shawls, necklaces and all manner of trinkets. for the lazy there are scores of porters at the bottom offering to carry you to the top on a chair for 250Rs. though tempted, i thought that i could use the exercise. and it turns out i do need the exercise, at the top i was a big sweaty mess! to get through to the complex proper you have to pay - 10Rs for indians, 250Rs for foreigners. when i had paid and gone through i saw my first monkey!! he was sat gnawing on an old crisp packet, which couldn't have been good for him.

on entering the main cave i was struck with the enormity of the task that must have faced the people who constructed it. everything was carved out of the rock, and it was on such a massive scale. the air inside was calm and the groups of people walking around spoke to one another in that hushed tone you tend to hear in holy places. the walls were lined with statues (again carved straight from the rock) of shiva. at the back of cave 1 was a 20 foot high statue of the trimurti sadasiva - an image of the 3 headed shiva carved into the rock. this is a pretty awesome spectacle, and remarkably well preserved given that many of the statues had lost arms and legs and were generally in a bad way.

walking around the outside i saw village children at play under a huge stone gazebo, singing and laughing and clapping. beyond them there were a lot of monkeys, and a few of us had a giggle at one male monkey who kept showing the female monkeys some lovin'! after that the path went uphill to the cannon hill station, but time was running out as i needed to get back to mumbai to buy my train ticket for monday.

i went back to the bottom of the hill and was faced with a few different options for food. a couple of the places were pretty much empty save one or 2 people sipping chai and nibbling on some food. i chose to go to the busiest one, and had a vegetable biryani, a roti and a bottle of coke - 54Rs!

i really need to get over how cheap the food is here!

the trip back was wonderful - it was 1pm and the heat was starting to become unbearable. sat on the lower deck in the shade with a cool breeze was a welcome relief. as i watched the islands slip past i realised that this was all real, the palm lined beaches, the fishing dhows, everything was really happening - i was in india. as mumbai slowly approached us people started jostling for position at the front to get the obligatory snap of the gateway of india. because of its proximity to the shore the only real way to get a good snap is from the sea. i think i got rather a nice one, don't you agree?

walking back to my accommodation (i had moved that morning from the swankiness of the apollo hotel to the modesty of bentley's hotel, backpacker central in colaba) i thought about walking to cst - the recently renamed victoria terminus, now chhatrapati shivaji terminus. looking overhead at the afternoon sun, and peeling my wet shirt away from my skin i decided that a shower and a change of clothes were in order. i went back to the hotel and did just that, and then did the sensible thing and grabbed a taxi. the driver fleeced me out of 50Rs, quoting 100 at the start and demanding 150 at the end. i didn't really quibble too much, 60p isn't worth getting into a fight about! in fact, i'd hardly call it being fleeced..

my first encounter with indian bureaucracy was intriguing. to reserve a ticket you first have to register at one building, then skip across to another building with a completed form, which is checked and stamped. you then take the form to another window and a number is stamped on your form. then you have to go to a booth on the 1st floor which corresponds to the number on your form and then you are finally given your ticket. mumbai to nasik, 08:20 on monday morning. a trip of 110 miles in 2nd class AC for about a fiver - beat that virgin trains! i had a wander around outside to take some pics, but it was approaching rush hour and the light was pretty poor. i stood for a while and watched the mass of humanity descend on cst, fresh from a day's work. i have never seen so many people in one place at one time - apparently 2.5 million people pass through cst each day!

i jumped in a cab back to colaba, this time costing me 50Rs. i was starting to get tired so i headed to leopold's again as i couldn't be bothered to find somewhere new. when i was seated and reading my book with a kingfisher a camera crew arrived - apparently a famous australian author was eating there this evening. the place filled up very quickly but i was too sleepy to get excited. damn my jet-lagged body! i ate quickly and went to bed at around 1900. i had an awesome dream - i could fly! in my dream i rescued dr cuddy (from house) from a burning train and she let me do naked things with her afterwards as thanks. i was devastated when i woke up - at 2:30am. i tried to get back to sleep but i was wide awake. i turned on the tv and watched a cooking show in english called lock stock and two smoking tikkas! i love this place, i really do. i called home and wished my brother a happy birthday before settling down with my book. it's called holy cow by sarah macdonald and it's a really good read.

today has been all about the web cafe hunt to upload my photos, i can't have you all thinking i bailed and went to cornwall or somewhere instead can i? lonely planet tucked under my arm i headed to the fort / churchgate area and began my hunt. it turned out to be unsuccessful (the 3 cafes listed were long-gone) but i got to see some cool-ass sights on the way. sunday is cricket day in mumbai, and on the maidans (long, wide avenues of grass next to the mg road) there were dozens of cricket matches going on. i walked through the maidans, and was struck by the beauty of my surroundings. behind the fields were palm trees and poking through were the tops of huge colonial buildings. i finally found a webcafe with a decent enough speed to upload photos, and here i am! i have been here for 90 minutes and i am currently 34/170 uploaded! whilst it is kind of a waste of an afternoon, i won't get the chance to upload again for 2 weeks as i head to nasik and aurangabad tomorrow so it needs doing. the photos are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidouch/ if anyone fancies a look-see. i'm starting to get used to it here, the culture shock hasn't happened yet but i hear it takes a week or so to set in. all around me the buildings are decaying, the streets are lined with stray dogs, sleeping children and the ever-persistent street trader.

it's hot, smelly, chaotic. and i love it.

mumbai - city of dreams

the flight was tolerable, with some cool entertainment. i watched run fatboy run, which could have been better, and the best film i have ever seen - superbad. i was sat next to a woman called freda, who was lovely and from the top drawer of the 40 year old scally cabinet. she was off to goa to see her boyfriend who was currently in the phillipenes on a sex tour!

passing through customs i think i saw a victim of a dowry burning. her entire body was covered in burn scars. she seemed happy, giggling and chatting away with her colleagues. my taxi driver was a sikh chap called jagjeet, who said that sadly dowry burnings still happen, though not as much as in the time of his father's childhood. a prepay taxi from the airport to colaba cost 450 Rs, and the trip took about 2 hours through insane crazy traffic, past slums, hawkers, new tower developments, palaces, railway stations and small mini-villages. we passed the time talking about family, religion and the problems that face the new india such as the ever widening gap between rich and poor.

on arrival in colaba i wandered around colaba causeway hoping to soak in a bit of the mayhem that surrounded me. the weather was hot and humid - the temperature close to 30 degrees - and the pace of life here is just insane. i sat and had a beer on the street and watched india sprint by. i have to say it was awesome, though i must have looked the complete goggle-eyed tourist! i bought a mobile telephone and sim card for 1500 Rs (81 Rs to the pound) which was pretty sweet.

in the evening i went to leopold's, which had been recommeded to me by the good people over at http://www.indiamike.com/ and they were right - such a great place to eat cheaply and people watch. i had an enormous mutton biryani and a litre of kingfisher beer for 300Rs! i ate with a chap called bruno, an italian pilot. he comes to mumbai often and we talked about his days in the italian air force, training with the raf near newcastle. we agreed that a night out in newcastle was guaranteed to be filled with crazytimes. after that i went for a beer in the bar across the street from my hotel, which had great big murals on the wall in the jetsons cartoon style. did i mention that mumbai is slightly barmy? i met a lass from brighton called hanna, who apparently knows jim... lol. we went to a nightclub at the gordon hotel, which was chock full of westerners boogying on down to cheesy 70s and 80s music. i was in my element.

i rolled in at 5am, and that's when the jetlag hit. 13 hours later i was hungry - and i wanted to see chowpatty. a 100Rs taxi ride and a stroll along marine drive and i was there. chowpatty is not like any other beach i have ever seen. there are electric street lamps in parts of it, and lots of food vendors. the water is too polluted to swim, so everyone is fully clothed and the beach is more a place to meet people, walk and talk. no beach volleyball here! friday night is when families come to chowpatty to say goodbye to the working week together. all over the beach there were groups of the indian extended family sat on mats - the grandparents talking loudly and waving their arms about while the kids ran around playing, flying kites and chasing one another. the parents looked as if they were happy to just be there and not at work - most of the parents i saw were just smiling and holding one another's hands, watching their kiddies having fun. i made my way through the hawkers and beggars and found a stall that the majority of the women and children were eating at. one rule of street food, if a mother will feed the food to her kids it's a pretty safe bet that it won't set your guts alight! i had a ches bhel puri, and it is my new favourite thing. i sat and wrote in my journal, with the still calm of the arabian sea to my left and the constant din and hubbub of marine drive to my right.

as i was crossing one of the footbridges over marine drive my phone rang. unable to hear whoever had called over the din of the traffic i retreated back to the relative calm of the beach. being on the telephone didn't stop the beggars and people offering me massages from hassling me. i really need to perfect the "get to f*ck" face that peter moore advises the indian traveller to adopt in his travel books!

i then took a taxi to the gateway of india and i have to say i was massively underwhelmed, mainly because of construction works being carried out there and the stream of "please sir, please sir, only 10 rupees for me please sir please sir". so i took a few snaps, lit a cigarette and looked out over the arabian sea. i will be back there tomorrow as i will need to get a boat from there to elephanta island.