Admin day

-
Today we needed to do some admin for the next leg of our trip.  The WiFi at our accommodation is very up and down and the data signal is non existent.  However, whilst having our chai yesterday we spotted the mobile phone mast right next to us and discovered the signal was pretty good. 

So, up, washed and dressed we headed for chai and mobile signal.  However, today it did not seem to be working. We tried doing numerous things, waiting in case it was intermittent but nothing.

A quick scramble back to our accommodation to meet the 11am deadline to book our sleeper train for tomorrow night .... and hope the WiFi did not go off mid booking!  Success, we booked one sleeper ticket and would buy one general class ticket at the platform as buying Tatkal last minute often means sleepers in different carriages.

A few more admin tasks completed and it was time to get ready to go out for dinner.

This evening we are meeting up with some other travellers, arranged by the friend we are staying with.  The cafe we are meeting at is in New Hampi, about a 1 hour walk from where we are staying in Old Hampi.  As we walked the sun started to set. Suddenly a motorbike, which had just passed us came to a sudden halt and the rider nearly fell off.  We were not sure what had happened.  On closer inspection Darryl saw a large snake slithering across the road!  No wonder we had been advised not to walk back later but to get an auto as 'it is dangerous to walk'!


At the cafe we met 2 Polish and one Iranian girl, our friend and his Indian friend.  We spent the evening swapping travel stories and eating delicious food before getting an auto back.

Popular posts from this blog

Portsmouth

-
Image
Up at 6.55 to meet our 7am breakfast slot. Breakfast was amazing and we ate the lot from dried fruit to double bacon and eggs. All washed down with posh coffee - awesome. Packing the bikes was easy but it takes a little bit of time ... We started our journey about 8.30. We passed our friend's house, his kids school and his allotment. We got a little lost in Southampton due to road closures but after a little back tracking from the scary dual carriageway, all was good. A lot of our route followed the National Cycle Trail 246, however it kept disappearing into nowhere. We eventually found it again but miles away from where we last saw the signs. We passed over lots of water today, saw lots of boats and had puncture number 2! Fixed, we headed off again. A few diversions, some nice tracks and now we could see the Spinnaker tower in the distance. This added a little motivation to the pedalling. A quick stop in Waitrose to stock up on goodies and we arrived at our destination - Portsmout...
Read more

Travelling south

-
Image
Our alarm woke us early as we have to catch the 8am train, which is about an hour's travel away.  Two friends were due to give us a lift to the bus stop on the back of their motorbikes.  However one overslept so the other asked his brother in law to give us a lift in his car!  Rather than dropping us at the end of the road at the bus stop, he kindly took us to the bus station. A bus was about to leave so we jumped on.  This bus took us back into Kozhikode where it was a short walk to the train station.  On arrival we discovered the train we were going to catch was delayed by 1.5 hours.  However another train, which took longer, was running on time so would get us there half an hour before our original train now would.  We bought our tickets and waited.  The station was filling up fast, which is always worrying when you only have a general ticket, so no allocated seat ...  and the journey is 5.5 hours. The train arrived on time and we jumped in a carriage which was less crowded, alt...
Read more

First Day Explorers

-
Image
After a good night's sleep, we woke early...ish for breakfast. We were hoping for a traditional Indian spicy fair but got a traditional boiled egg, bread and jam. We washed it down with a hot cup of Chai, so all was good. We ventured out in search of a few sites, however were easily distracted by fresh fruit platters, mango lassis and mobile phone cover shops. Next, an ATM stop to test various SBI machines. One small branch failed but the head office one worked. This was near the Mumbai stock exchange, complete with bull outside. We ended up at Horniman circular garden. An interesting name but the garden was being 'refurbished' - dug up. Marine drive is famous amongst the people of Mumbai. A huge boulevard next to the sea for romantic strolls. The stroll today wasn't filled with romance, more noise pollution as the whole sea defence boulevard was being fixed. Almost all of it for mile after mile. We had to walk on the dual carriageway but soon got fed up and headed inla...
Read more