World Trip – Stage 9, Goa to Hosapeta

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10th -12th April

Journey

What an unexpected delight was the drive to Londa Junction over the mountains of the Western Ghats and through the Mollem National Park and Bhagwan Mahavir Wild Life Sanctuary. There was little traffic, but as the road wound up through two high passes, we imagined that being stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle could make a serious addition to driving time.

The mountains shimmered in the morning haze. Some of the roads through the park are closed at night on account of the tigers and leopards that roam the jungle. The views were glorious.

As we entered Karnataka state, the road became a concrete road; well mostly. There were unfinished stretches, where on-coming traffic competed for the least rutted bits. Often these unmade sections lasted less than a kilometre, but we came across a major road building project, which will take upwards of 5 years, ending up as a toll road. The road was being built high above the ground, with tunnels to allow animals to cross under the road. Presumably also it could withstand the monsoons, which apparently create beautiful waterfalls.

We could see vegetables and bananas growing, but most of the paddy fields were in need of rain. We were fortunate to see three eagles circling close above us before settling on a tree.

We got to Londa junction railway station in about two and a half hours,  just as Google maps had predicted, a much closer estimate than the hotel had suggested, but who knows what traffic we would have encountered if we’d left later? 

So we had a very long wait, but the station was clean and not crowded. The waiting rooms were Upper Class, one for Ladies and another for Gentlemen, though not many took heed, with families staying together. The waiting room had a fan and the toilets were pristine. It’s quite usual for passengers to spend hours waiting for trains, so we didn’t feel extraordinary. 

We were the only westerners there, and Peter was engaged many times with people asking – Where are you from? How old are you?

The station had many kiosks with hot food, snacks, biscuits and cold drinks, but all denied to us as the notes we had were too large! It was very hot – somewhere just above 40C. We had plenty of water with us and made do with a shared protein bar that we’d brought with us from England for just such an eventuality.

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Peter took the opportunity to figure out where we would need to board as the trains are very long indeed – up to 19 carriages and up to 600m long.  The ticket includes the train number and carriage number. There was an earlier train which was late, so there was a bit of confusion as to which platform our train would arrive on, but announcements are in English and the displays show where the carriage numbers will be, so we boarded quickly to our air-conditioned two-tier sleeper car.

These have, on one side, a bay with facing lower and upper berths, and  on the other side one upper and lower berth along the narrow corridor. Lower births convert into seating.

We were joined in our sitting bay by a couple of young ladies and we spent an amenable 5 hours in their company. They shared some of their biscuits with us. They had enjoyed a short break in Goa and were heading back overnight to Hyderabad, a 19 hour journey. They were optimistic that our bottom births would remain empty after we alighted at Hosapete.

We crossed the plain, stopping a few times en route. We had taken a screenshot of the timetable and noted that we were running nearly an hour late, so we spent the last hour increasingly enveloped by darkness outside the carriage. 

Hosapeta

We arrived in Hosapeta sooner than we expected, having made up about 20 minutes, and had to alight quite quickly. It was dark and we had to walk the gamut of hawkers and rickshaw drivers to find our way to our hotel, Hampi International, which was indeed only 60 metres from the station.

It was difficult to figure out quite what sort of hotel it was from Booking .com, so it was with great relief that, not only was it still open for our later than expected arrival, but was really very nice!

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Once inside, we were delighted to learn that they had a restaurant as we were feeling more than a trifle peckish. We had expected more at breakfast that morning, but they were in no hurry to serve us before we left, so Peter gave up on his omelette and shared Lynne’s scrambled egg. Peter’s verdict was that the restaurant served us freshly cooked and delicious both spicy and milder dishes. One of the best Indian restaurants ever – including our previous trips to India, but not quite Bamboo Yoga retreat…

Hampi

In the morning we took a rickshaw the twenty five minutes, to one of the starting points to explore Hampi – a World Heritage site. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire that spanned the whole of Southern India. By 1500 it was the second largest city in the world, but was destroyed in 1565 by a coalition of of Muslim sultanates and has lain in ruins since.

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We saw many grand stone structures and carvings, amid the impressive rocky landscape. Some of the buildings required additional more recent columns to avoid the structures collapsing. We were there out of season and without the traditional garlands and music, (except for the still active Virupaksha Temple), we found it difficult to appreciate its significance and context; we did however relate to the extreme heat.

We must have walked for six or more kilometres in temperatures of 41 – 43C, with the sun blazing down. Even though we had plenty of water, we succumbed to buying a bottle of cooled lemon fizzy drink, which was just perfect!

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After successfully negotiating the right price for our return rickshaw, we cooled off in our air conditioned room.