With the wedding portion of our India trip over it was back to backpacking and exploring the wonderful sites and sounds of the sub-continent.

Another early start awaited us to make our onward connection to Hampi. The 1 hour taxi ride was uneventful (for a change) and we arrived at Madgoan Railway Station with about 25 mins to spare. Our train would be taking us to Hospet Junction Hospet Junction (The main hub for Hampi). Geographically we were headed due west to the eastern edge of the state of Karnataka, India’s sixth largest state with around 61m inhabitants in 2011.

Our train rocked up only 5 minutes late and we quickly boarded. In the confusion and feeling sorry for an Italian family we ended up with a bunk swap and being surrounded by their bags. Thankfully it was just a daytime train and not overnight. The 7 hour train ride went fast with a combination of naps and some thorough conversations with a larger than life English guy across from us called Henry.

He was the ultimate slash person in that he had a combination of everything. He was a hair stylist/construction labourer/landscape gardener who had lived in Dublin (Inchicore no less ) / Nottingham / Israel / France / South Africa / Australia / Cambridge. He was currently travelling around India cutting hair and taking it easy. He offered to cut Karen’s hair and reached into his bag for his scissors before we managed to talk him down. The train was quite rattly so it might have ended in disaster and a missing ear. John was safe from his offer of styling as his hair was still only just one setting above  ‘Right Said Fred’.

The best thing he said was how much he missed Peter O’Toole (the actor) who had passed two years prior. He had never met him, just that he had missed him.

The train rolled into Hampi and we had to jump off as it only stopped for a second before taking off again. The old duck and roll method coming in handy. After dusting ourselves down we were met by our driver (Flash Packers!!) and were on our way.

The Flash Packers mentality ended when we reached our room at Mowglis. The walls were fluorescent-ish Lime Green (like that Chinese restaurant in Only Fools and Horses) and the hot water was rarer than a free table at Zaibatsu’s restaurant in Greenwich. The other rooms/cottages looked so much better…and we could not swap. Shame!

But we persevered. Paying up front will make that decision easy for oneself  🙂 .

The views however were amazing. Right on the rice paddies with the river off to the left hand side. The food was cheap enough too in the local cafes and restaurants and the wifi was good enough for a Skype call to South Korea.

Next blog post will contain the real Hampi… The wonderful ruins of this once great kingdom. To get there we needed to cross a river in a tiny boat.

Here is a sneak peek of the next post: