It took some pulling and prying to remove Lianna from the sands of Palolem in Goa but afterwards we boarded our sleepless sleeper bus for the 12 hour trip to Hampi. Immediately upon arriving we knew this was a place quite unlike anything we had seen.
My requisite for coming to India was a promise to spend Christmas in Goa. Besides being known as a hippy hangout from the 70′s onward, Goa also happens to be India’s highest concentration of Catholics as it was previously a Portuguese colony. Having never spent a Christmas away from my home and my traditions, I wanted to be somewhere that at least acknowledged the holiday.
We are near the end of our North India loop and before flying to Southern India for Christmas, our last stop was Rishikesh in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya. Getting there proved rather uncomfortable for us as we could not find any private buses from Chandigarh to Rishikesh or nearby Haridwar and were forced to pile onto a government bus bursting with passengers for the next 7 hours.
After having a rough week with our 2 day stay average starting to take it’s tole on our brains, we were starting to wish we had booked our Goa tickets for an earlier date for some much needed beach time, but unfortunately our tickets weren’t changeable.
We arrived in Chandigarh with the hopes of having a bit of a relaxation break considering there isn’t much to see in Chandigarh from a tourist stand. All those hopes were shattered the minute we stepped off the bus. Walking away after being literally surrounded by Indian men/boys to get our business for their rickshaws, I promptly had to turn around and tell the lot of them to “Please F*CK OFF!.” After a long bus ride having your ass grabbed is not a nice introduction to a city.
From here we got in a rickshaw and drove around to 10 different hotels being turned away by each (except one, which I walked away from on the account of a very apparent cockroach infestation.) When we got to our eighth hotel we asked if we could use their phone to call another hotel to see if they have room because we were tired of driving around, the receptionist obliged and called speaking Punjabi on the phone with the other hotel. After we thanked him and handed him some rupees for his help, we got in the rickshaw and arrived at the hotel he had called for us only to learn no one had called and surprise, surprise…they also had no room. After Nick used his very serious voice with the next hotel owner and assured him that we would not leave until we spoke to a hotel that had vacancy, we ended up at hotel AB’s which was $50 compared to our average budget of under $10. Although it was nice I didn’t feel it was quite worth $50, as in India $50 can generally get you a very nice place.
Waking up this morning we were well rested (on sheets that were pure white no less!) but were sitting uneasy knowing we were eating away at our travel fund. We decided to call one of our original budget options and stay the next night there.
We boarded yet another train this time in Delhi, and after falling asleep, we woke up the following morning just outside our destination, Amritsar.
Maybe it was my constant reading about Jim Corbett (famous tiger hunter/conservationist) and his hunting maneaters, or maybe it was my obsessive looking at photos of tigers online that caused Lianna to suggest we should try one last time for a chance to see a tiger. Our only logical choice was to head to Jaipur for a night before catching the next train to Ranthambore, Rajasthan’s best known tiger park. After discussing our budget and time frame before flying to Goa for Christmas we figured we could only afford to spend one day on safari in the park, not very much time.
Still sore from our camel excursion the past few days, we boarded a bus for the 7hr ride to Bikaner. Bikaner is another common place to depart for camel treks and originally we had bought a train ticket departing Bikaner because we were going to ride camels there but changed our plans last minute. Nonetheless, we still made it a stop on our loop of Rajasthan.
After some debate Lianna and I were signed up to join another couple on a camel trek into the Thar Desert outside of Jaisalmer. Sometimes in relationships, compromises must be made and this was one of those times. Lianna agreed to 2 nights provided she had a tent to sleep in instead of being exposed at night to the desert wildlife (spiders and scorpion she wants to add) so after paying a little extra for her requirement was arranged and we were off.
