Blog Date: 26-07-2013

7 hours by train to Hampi! Taking a train during the day so probably won’t be able to sleep.. That’s pretty annoying since we’ll be stared at for 7 hours…. I don’t get it. Haven’t you seen what I look like after a few hours?!?

In Goa we’ve met 2 girls from US with whom we’ve shared a taxi with in the morning and decided to travel further together since they didn’t really have plan in Hampi like us. But in Goa a few french backpackers told us that when we are in Hampi, we should cross the river first and find a guesthouse there since it’s really quiet in that area and lots to explore. So that’s what we did and so happy that we did. We got dropped of at a guesthouse on the other side of the river. It’s such a beautiful place and has a relaxed atmosphere. We could sit there all day on some kind of lounge cushion and look out over the rice fields. We had internet there and could order unlimited drinks and food while we we’re there. In the end we’ve payed about 3700 rupees, which is about 50 euro for 5 days of relaxation. Hampi is really beautiful and had an amazing time. It was so much fun hanging out with Sascha and Emma. Also met a fellow Dutchie who has the same plans to go to Koh Tao in Thailand and probably will be there around the same time!

It’s very hard to leave, but the journey goes on. Everyone moves on and Hampi will no longer be the same if all the people we’ve met here travel through, so no more reason for us to stay. The next place we’ll go to is Udaipur. We’ve looked at all options, but the best way is to take the bus to Mumbai which should take us about 14 hours and then stay there overnight before heading to Udaipur.
We thought we would have normal seats and have to take our backpacks with us because thats what we’ve heard from other travelers. But we were pretty lucky!! Apparently we booked a sleeper bus and our big bags went in the back of the bus so we had so much space and it was really comfy! We even had a little DVD screen (jeej!! To bad it was only playing a weird bollywood movie though) But we were pretty tired so tried to get some sleep right away. That was quite difficult since the roads are so bumpy and the bus driver favorite toy is the horn.. Waking up every 5 or so minutes gets a little bit annoying after a while…
Apprently we allready arrived in Mumbai since the bus driver stopped a few times. It’s so hard though to decide where to get off since you just don’t have a clue anymore where you after 14 hours in a bus.. Eventually we just stayed in the bus until the last station which is called Borivali. Pretty convenient since that’s the station where we have to take the next bus to Udaipur.
I did some research beforehand about this place and I knew that there were almost no guesthouses close by.
Those annoying tuc-tuc drivers stormed us and asked about 3000 rupees to take us to somewhere, after saying no about 9000 times they started dropping there prices.. The price they asked to bring us to a hotel or guesthouse was still way to high so we decided to get away from the crowds so we could decide what we should do.
First things first, I really had to find a toilet haha! Walked into a dental practice to use a toilet and they could actually tell us there a guesthouse 3 blocks away 🙂 When we were on our way to a guesthouse it started pouring rain. Quickly stepped under a small shelter of some sort of underwear store. The people that worked there kindly requested to come and sit down inside. Chai tea was immediately brought for us (someone elke want through the rain to get it for us.) The people there really liked it that we were there and tried to ask politely if they could take photo’s with them (of course I was so good looking after a shitty 14 hour trip by bus so why not haha) When the rain got less one a man walked with us to the closest guesthouse which was really nice! To bad the guesthouse was completely full! Never expereinced that in India so far.. They knew another place we could go but that was 1800 rupee a night there (about 20 euro) which was way above our India budget for a room but we didn’t really have a choice.
Eventually I decided to call the bus company to ask if we could convert our tickets to today. They told me I had to call back in half an hour. So I did call back in half an hour and got told to call back again in about an hour but of course wasn’t going to fall for that again..
So next plan was to find a booking office somewhere to see if they could help. So we went through the rain again, fully loaded with our backpacks and after a 10 minute walk and a 3 minute conversation at the booking office it was arranged. We were supposed to continue tonight at 9 o’clock.
We were so glad we didn’t have to stay here any longer. People just keep staring at you and we don’t really got anything to do here, and still had to wait 7 hours untill our trip continued to Udaipur. Since we could leave our backpacks at the little booking office we decided to explore Mumbai a little bit more since it stopped raining. Went into a lot of little streets with tiny shops so that was quiet nice. To bad it started raining again an hour later or so. Found some shelter at a sanitary store. Where we immediately got tea and water again and of course they wanted pictures of us with them again (after a while you get used to it) I also got on the phone with the boss’s daughter who invited us to have dinner with the family tonight. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen….
After picking up our backpacks, we’ve spent the rest of the time at the bus office. Play games on our phones for a while and time actually went pretty fast by then. We knew this bus was going to be a local bus but it wasn’t to bad. Fortunately we had an upper sleeper and we closed the curtain and opened it 16 hours later.. Which meant we really needed to go the the bathroom but it was a pretty good busride 🙂
When we got of the bus we met a good tuc-tuc driver who immediately took us to a nice guesthouse for a normal fee. So now it’s time to relax and explore Udaipur!