Two Rucksacks One Boy

From the moment we got off the night bus and look around us we new we had made the right decision to come to Hampi. The people we had talked to about Hampi had compared to the set of the Flintstones; They couldn’t have been more right. Everywhere you looked there were strange rock formations and strange buildings jutting out of the lush landscape. As we walked from the bus stop we walked towards the river where watched the sun come up over the landscape as we waiting for the mornings first river boat service. We caught the first boat across the small river – a journey of no more than 10 meters – towards the main Baazar where our guide book recommended we stay. After finding a place to stay we had an hours rest (a night bus isn’t a great place to catch up on sleep) before heading out to rent some scooters to explore the temples and the surrounding area. We spent a couple of hours climbing rocks and exploring the exquisitely carved temples before deciding to head to a Sl...

  South Goa, compared to North Goa, is a paradise. We stayed at Palolem beach which is a beautiful beach lined with palm trees and beach huts. We spent another 5 nights here and relaxed….. alot.   While I was at the beach I partook in a Yoga class (Goa is famous for it’s Yoga). I can safely say Yoga is 1. harder than it looks and 2. definitely not for me! We also hired kayak’s and were lucky enough to see some dolphins playing in the bay and more interestingly we also saw them hunting.   At first I made out a wave that didn’t seem to be part of the sea’s regular ebb and flow, after watching the same spot of water for a couple of minutes I began to make out the odd fin or snout protruding from the wave in question. The dolphins seemed to be working together to create a wave and to drive their prey in to a frenzy where they were able to pick them off – it was amazing to watch!   On one of the days we took out scooters along with two friends we’d met. We made our...

  Not much to say about Baja beach – it is a tourist trap. With a rough population ratio being not that far off 90% Russian tourists : 10% locals and everyone else, it isn’t the greatest place to go for any reason. Nevertheless it had been about 3 weeks since we had started in India and we felt like we needed a rest. We spent 5 days at the beach topping up our tans, doing our washing, and doing some general relaxing. At one point we gave a banana boat a try (a very unstable banana shaped inflatable that is dragged behind a speed boat with the singular aim of making sure everyone falls off when the boat turns a corner), we were immediately ripped-off and spent a stressful half an hour trying to either get our money back or another go on the boat. To put it simply the best bit about Baja beach was the kebab place opposite the supermarket.     After 5 days of North Goa we headed towards South Goa that has the reputation of being a lot less touristy and a lot more relax...

We arrived in Mumbai in the early morning and began walking from the station to look for a place to stay – after 10 minutes we gave up and jumped into a small taxi - that had a roof a foot too short for our long necks – and headed to the Mumbai backpacker district of Colaba. I had been reading a popular book called Shantaram - mainly set in the Colaba district of Mumbai - in the weeks leading up to the trip to Mumbai and so I was excited to see all the sights the book had described (unfortunately many of them had turned into tourist traps!). We eventually found accommodation in a dorm room before we headed out to explore Colaba which is home to the India Gate and the Taj Hotel which was the scenes of the terrorist attacks a couple of years ago. We walked around Colaba and eventually found our way to a park where we found thousands of young people playing India’s favourite game. Whereas in the UK we have a leisurely game of football (and sometimes cricket) in the park, in India th...