Sānāpur

We were up and out of our hotel room, despite not wanting to get out of the comfy bed, by 440 and arrived at the check-in desk at Kochi international airport just after 5. It was interesting being at the airport with the worry of Coronovirus pretty much global now. People were walking round with masks on and there was definitely a lot of measures being taken to ensure it didn’t spread. We checked into our flight and compared food prices in the airport. To both of our discomfort we ended up sharing a meal from KFC with additional loaded chicken fries, our first western food of the trip and of course it was our most expensive yet (still only like £3.50 total). We boarded our flight to Hubli, it was a propella plane and was probably the smallest plane I have ever been on! The flight took off into the smoggy air that hovered above Kochi and we could see the final stages of the sun rising over the horizon.

I managed to get some sleep on the plane, my head swinging around in the aisle like a pendulum. After I woke up, we listened to some music and before we knew it the seatbelt lights come back on as we begun our descent into Hubli. It was such a short flight, but had cut out a lot of hassle with trains and buses, all for just £20 too. We got off the plane, walked towards the airport terminal - just a single building - and we were pleasantly surprised that the air was cool...a welcome change from the stifling air in Alleppey. Our bags were first off, so we grabbed them and headed out to grab a Tuktuk to Hubli train station with the intention of going to another town called Hospet where we could then get to Hampi. Unfortunately when we got there at 9am we discovered the only train that day to Hospet was at 13:30! As it was still early and cool enough, we walked to the bus staying a few kilometres away to see if a bus was a better option. We’d been warned about not taking this journey by bus as the road was shocking and it takes over 5 hours. We also found the bus was 120 rupees each compared to the train at 65. We thought we better get the train as it would save money and be pretty similar in time overall. On the way back we grabbed some street food which was amazing - a mix of rice and dhal and raita! This killed plenty of time, along with looking for an ATM (which we didn’t find) so the wait for the train was ok.

We got our general class tickets and attempted to get on. As it was our first train experience we had no idea, but we got onto general class which was jam packed full of locals and went on the hunt for some seats. We eventually found some, and got sat down, but not even a minute later a man came back and started shouting at us that these were his seats (even though there are no reservations). We were so British about it all and just got up with only a small resistance. We then got on a different carriage which had loads of space, but was a sleeper so our tickets weren’t valid. Oh well, we’d risk it...we got sat down and could have a little relax. We were quickly joined by a bunch of Indian guys who took great interest in us asking loads of questions etc etc. It was basically a three hour train ride/ interview. One of the group was a bit odd and decided to FaceTime his friends and showing he was sat with two white guys clearly saying in Hindi that we were from London over and over again. Anyway, we made it nearly to Hospet when the ticket conductor came round and busted us for being in the wrong carriage - the fine was just the difference between the two tickets, but we just said we’d stand by the door and not pay the extra £0.80 each.

We got off in Hospet and were met with a barrage of Tuktuk offers, at the same time a tiny woman in a face mask pounced on me demanding information, I asked what fit and she just repeated “INFORMATION!!” I told her I wasn’t giving out information without a reason and we started to haggle for a Tuktuk. She then started video recording us and was on the phone to someone. We assumed it was all to do with Coronavirus, but it was all a bit unofficial. We managed to get a Tuktuk for 175 rupees, down from an initial 1200 and went in search of an ATM. It was a nightmare, none were open or they didn’t have cash, and our Monzo cards didn’t work. I was trying all cards in one ATM and eventually managed to use my trusty NatWest card to get money...as Hampi didn’t have any ATMs it was panic stations for about half an hour. After a short drive we arrived in Hampi, a town famous for its vast expanses of boulder mountains and temples. We got dropped at the south side of the river and we’d heard about the ferry across - but this was not a ferry, it was a tiny rowing boat with a motor on the back and it wasn’t more than 30 meters across the river. To take this, a 40 rupee charge was in place, 20 for the person and 20 for the backpack. After a long day this felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth, but oh well. We got to the other side and actually had a free pickup from the hostel...happy to get our stuff of our backs, we immediately went to a sunset spot near the hostel and chilled for a bit before deciding where we’d go for dinner.
We didn’t venture far, maybe 50 meters to Nayana hotel, A tiny kitchen shack, but it was well reviewed. We shared a veg thali, masala dosa and poori to try a few things. They were all amazing and we decided there and then that this family would feed us for the next three days as it was also very cheap!

Exhausted, we chilled in the hostel and met a few cool people including Tobias, a German guy who had been travelling for the last two years. He had already been to Central America and some other places we were interested in, so we just chilled and picked his brains for a bit. Eventually it was time to head to bed as we were going to have a few long days ahead seeing Hampi and the surrounding areas.Read more