Few pics from Hampi and Holi aftermath

Hampi - Gokarna - Bangalore - Mysore - Varkela

The map shows my trip so far, last post I was in Hampi.

I mentioned that we were in Hampi for the Holi festival, which was awesome, it was an all out war with powdered and liquid dye. The main street was filled with people covered in colors from head to toe, drums and dancing. 

From Hampi we took a sleeper bus to Gokarna. The bus arrived at 3am, and with nothing else to do we ended up sleeping on the beach until guest houses started to open up. 

Bangalore was a busy mess, it was the point at which I realized that I am definitely in India. One of my travel companions ended up getting a small operation on an injury that she had been dealing with for a month or so. After this she took a flight home from Bangalore and the other guy, Alex, and I went to Mysore for a day, and then to Varkala beach.

Alex left for Germany yesterday, so now I am off on my own to Kanyakumari, the southern most point in India, where you can watch the sunrise and sunset from the same location.

What happens when you give one monkey a piece of banana.

In Palolem, the group I have been traveling with stayed next door to an older couple from Finland. They were very hard to understand. Partially language barrier, but I they were also quite eccentric. Most of our extended conversations were a mix of bewilderment and trying not to laugh. The guy would tell us stories about the 15 times he has been in jail for various drug convictions. Below is one of the more memorable moments.

Finish Guy: Incoherent sentence, vaguely something about India.
German Guy: "Im sorry, what?"
Finish Guy: "I've had a lot of trips"
German Guy: "To India?"
Finish Guy: "No LSD"

Oh yeah, so when you throw a piece of banana to a monkey on the street, from the second floor. Four more materialize out of nowhere and come screaming up towards you for more. Don't do it, its scary.

I am on my second day in Hampi, after taking a sleeper through the night. Sleeper buses in India are a bit like riding a bull while laying on your back. Its generally no fun, cant stretch out, its hot, there is 3000 pointless speed bumps on a 9 hour ride, and if you are not holding on, you can go rolling off the side of the bed when the driver decides to swerve around someone in passing.  The speed bumps send you head banging into the wall when the front, second and thirds sets of wheels go over.

Today was Holi, a big day of fest, which happens in a giant dye powder/water fight, which takes place all over the city. I would like to post pictures, but am not allowed to in this particular internet establishment. Ill try later.

cockroaches, cold showers and burning trash

Cold showers aren't bad when its hot as hell, and the cockroaches keep
to themselves. Here they deal with they're trash by burning it in
random piles usually early in the morning. Its odd if you wake up
early for some fresh air but instead you are surrounded by tiny smoke
stacks
and a haze of something you dont want to think about. Then a big ugly
cow comes to chomp on on whats left of the rubble.
They have had a hindu festival called Holi going on for the last few days. Other than drums and parades and
throwing colors, it also involves enormous amounts of fireworks at any
hour, random street closures, and not serving alcohol. Yesterday i was
sitting having some coffee in the morning with my back to the street,
and someone set off a 20 second string of large firecrackers right
behind me. Something like "the best part of waking up..." popped into
my head.

I am leaving for Hampi today with a guy and girl from Germany. Its a
nine hour bus ride through the night, we get in at 7am the morning to
start looking for a place to stay.

squat toilets and loose cows

Sorry for the delay. I arrived in Goa today after 4 flights and 30 or
so hours. After an hour ride from the airport, all i can say is that
driving in india seems to be a full on war, and it makes mario kart
seem like what it is, a kids game. The "oh shit" handle on the
passenger side if the taxi cab was extremely worn out. The driver
would squeeze between a moped with a family on it, and a truck coming
the other way, missing each by inches while driving on the dividing
line.

The first place that i stayed was Anjuna beach for which i booked 4
nights in a dorm, costing me 800 rupees, about 16 dollars.

Currently in the state of Goa there is a government election going on.
For some reason this means most places close around 11, so there is
not much of a night life. It also means there a lot of police
(compared to normal) roaming around.

So far, traveling alone has been anything but. I have found that it
actually takes more work be alone. In Anjuna I spent time with a cool
group of people that were at the guest house i stayed in. Two days ago
I met a group from Germany and we took public buses for about 70 km to
palolem beach. At about 10-30 rupees per bus it cost less than two
dollars. when you get to your destination. All you have to do is start
wandering around close to the beach and you find a room and pay 150
rupees(1.5 dollars) a night.

Italy

While Hanna was in Denmark we bought some cheap tickets to Italy and spent a week road tripping. Driving in Italy was a bit of a shock, the closest comparison I can make is that its like Mario Cart. There are pretty much no rules, it took a while to get used to but eventually I was racing along with the maniacal flow. We flew into Rome, grabbed the rental and headed for Florence. Somehow we made it onto the toll road with almost no cash, and there was not one ATM to be found at any of the rest stops. On top of this, I have had an extremely hard time getting any of my credit/debit cards to work in most of Europe. I was a little concerned about what was going to happen at the toll booth to get off the freeway. It ended up in a confused one way conversation in Italian where I got through the toll booth without paying 20 Euro, due to the growing number of rabid Italian drivers lined up behind me.

After a stay in Florence we headed to Venice. We had an extremely tough time find the hotel, eventually I stopped to ask for directions. After a store clerk and I spent some time looking helplessly at a map, an elderly man came by, whipped out his iphone, and then thinking about it for a second, handed it to me to figure the thing out. After some confusion due to language barriers he ended up driving  in front of us (he insisted and would not be denied) to show us all the way to the hotel, which was super nice, and one of our few good encounters with the Italians.

Venice was like being in a movie set, it was great. We had all day bus/water bus passes and just explored. Next we drove to Rimini, which is a beach town invaded by Russians. It was new years and there was a gigantic firework show. Finally we headed back to Rome where we spent the last few days seeing all the sites.

More pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/103375821623178424943/Italy2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIDXyPuD08mbVg&feat=directlink

Denmark

I been in Denmark about 10 weeks. My language skills are getting really good, unfortunately I still can't write very well. I was taking language classes for this, but gave up after the holidays as my mind was not in it and was therefore was a waste of my time. Lately I have started working part time for my uncle Jesper. I have been able to put my 3D drawing and CNC skills to help out with whatever projects he has. I have been living at different family members homes, trying to spend time with everyone.

The weather here is cold and from what I can tell much dryer Portland, and only been couple days of snow so far. Recently we had a couple weeks in the 20F range, sometimes down to 5F. By the end of this period we were able to drive a car out onto the the Fjord. It also gets quite windy, and we have had 3 hurricanes so far, the worst of which the winds got to around 80mph!

The other week while Hanna was still here we went winter bathing. This involves swimming in almost freezing water, and then running to a sauna, and repeating. The first time all I could feel was pain, the water is so cold that your nerve endings just freak out and it feels like being stabbed all over. The next few times this sensation dies down into very cold.

More pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103375821623178424943/Denmark?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL6I1va69YGXpwE&feat=directlink