On the Road Again

Finally left Hampi.

In the morning, I played one last game of cards with my Israeli friends, posed for photos together, exchanged emails, and then left...

Gokarna, my next destination, is prety far away.. about 8 hours by bus - and frankly, I don't like waking up early, I don't like night busses, and I don't like arriving in a small town late at night - meaning my only option is to split up the trip.

Thus, I now find myself in Hubli.

It was an amazingly beautiful bus ride, with fields of sunflowers as far as the eye can see. It was also a reminder that i'm in India - which, after 2 weeks of spending all my time around foreigners - is something that needed to be refreshed within my mind.

I tried to give the peanut selling kid on the bus an 8 rupee tip (on a 2 rupee purchase), and the 3-4 rows of people behind me on the bus took this as an invitation to start arguing amongst themselves about if I was allowed to give a tip or not.. in the end, they forced the kid to give me back the money. Quite strange.

My plan is to stock up on goods here - booze (as gokarna is a holy city), mosquito coils, soap, and most importantly - more money, as there is no ATM where i'm going.

With any luck, i'll be on the road by noon tomorow, putting me in Gokarna by early afternoon tomorrow.

The israelis told me that Paradise Beach, the spot i'm heading to is very remote. it's 1 hour by foot from gokarna town, has no electricity except for one bar, and no internet except for a 30 min walk away.

So don't expect too many updates.

I'll see if i can find internet again tomorow morning, and find somewhere to upload my pics....