Yet another early start awaited us to make the 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 to wait on our train to Hospet Junction (The main hub for Hampi).

Our train rocked up only 5 minutes late and we quickly boarded. Before we knew what had happened we had been forced into a bunk swap and had to put up with being surrounded by a ton of bags. Our fellow travelers were  Tricky Italians!!

The 7 hour train ride went fast with a combination of sleep and thorough conversations with a larger than life English guy called Henry.

Henry was a hair stylist/construction labourer/landscape gardener who had lived in Dublin (Inchicore)/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, while we were rattling along on the train and I have to say she was tempted. I was safe from his offer of styling as my hair is still only just one setting above  ‘Right Said Fred’.

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. 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… 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 and the wifi was good enough for a Skype call to South Korea.

Our balcony view!

Lounging Buddha!

Next blog post will contain the real Hampi… The wonderful ruins of this once great kingdom.

Here is a sneak peek: