India: Mumbai, Hampi & Goa

Life happening on the streets of Mumbai.

I was under the impression that I knew humidity. After all, I spent the first 21 years of my life in the South, where going outside in June and July is like walking through soup. I thought I'd be at least moderately prepared for what India had to serve up in October. Oh, how wrong I was. By day three, I was laying in bed staring at the ceiling fan (nope, didn't book AC) deeply dreading the thought of going outside. 

This is actually not the most packed bus we rode.

My chief error was that I failed to account for the fact that in Charlotte, North Carolina, I really only had to "deal with the heat" when walking from an air conditioned car to an air conditioned building. Not while walking around all day, or squished into a sweltering local bus, and certainly not while lugging around a big backpack. 

In the first week, my clothes were embarrassingly drenched with sweat about 80% of the time. My face specifically seemed to be fighting extra hard to regulate my temperature, giving me a permanent sweat 'stache. I guess what I'm saying is that it was a very attractive time for me. 

Aside from the heat, a slew of other things left me slightly to very culture shocked in the first days, including the nonstop beeping of traffic and the omnipresent signs of poverty. But I also discovered many wonderful things in the first two weeks. 

Tried and loved my first vada pav (potato sandwich).

The food has been a true highlight. I ate a butter chicken in Goa that was so flavorful I ordered it three nights in a row. I've also gotten to try food I didn't  even know existed. In Mumbai, we went to a buzzing street food stall called Ashok Vada Pav for vada pav, a fried potato dumpling in a soft bun, drizzled with spicy and sweet chutney and eaten with spicy roasted peppers. It was ahhh-mazing. I promptly ordered a second.

The 12-hour night train we took to Goa.

The long-distance trains have also been really enjoyable. You won't find Deutsche Bahn levels of cleanliness (especially not in the bathrooms), but Indian Railways has been giving them a run for their money in terms of punctuality and comfort, at least in the 2A and 3A classes we booked. The most delay we experienced so far was just an hour, and this was for a train we caught that started a day earlier from the other side of India. I'm sure it isn't always this good, but I was really impressed.





Getting to travel while laying down is also a game changer. I've been more comfortable on an eight-hour journey in India than going the four hours from Frankfurt to Berlin. When I wasn't napping my way across India, I was sipping tiny cups of chai and staring out the window, or just writing this blog offline in a reclined position.

I was living for the color combos on display here. 

I'm also a little in love with Indian fashion. Women here look so elegant and casually stunning in their vibrant saris. You'll also frequently see them rocking a bold lip. It's a really refreshing contrast to the shades of black that are favored in Germany. No hate to the all-black look--that's 100% me at least half of winter--but the colors do just bring me joy to look at.

Hampi's Virupaksha Temple peeks out of palms trees.

Last, but not least, the ancient town of Hampi was a showstopper. You'll get the full rundown below, but the area is like something out of a fantasy world. With dozens of temples and stone structures dotted across its lush landscape, it takes almost no imagination to picture what an epic metropolis this place must have been. 

Two-Week Itinerary

We started in Mumbai, went South to the state of Goa, hopped over to Hampi, and then returned to Goa.

Actual travel dates: Sept. 30, 2019-Oct. 14, 2019. Vasco da Gama was just a stopover for us.

If you're short on time, I'd recommend skipping Goa and just doing Hampi. While Goa's beaches are relaxing, I feel like there aren't many places as amazing as Hampi. 

Mumbai: The Jungle City

Part of me was expecting to find the Bombay described in overt detail in the novel Shantaram. A loud, dirty place full of unpleasant smells, poverty, and violence. So when I landed in an upscale airport with an art exhibition, I was a bit thrown off. While the taxi ride to the hostel revealed that poverty was still a very real issue, at large the city was much more modern and less foreign than I expected. There was an Adidas store and McDonalds for goodness sake. 

That said, I wasn't prepared for how jungle-like Mumbai is. Thick vines hang from massive trees along every street. The city and much of the southern part of India have a very tropical climate that becomes more tropical in monsoon season (June-Sept.), and takes a serious toll on infrastructure. 

Our first taste of this was the extreme dankness of our hostel, and as we explored the city it became clear that nearly every manmade structure was struggling in its fight against mother nature. After reading up, I learned that building decay and collapse is a serious issue in Mumbai, with the fire department receiving near daily calls due to building collapse (read report here). Unfortunately, the fire department also frequently has issues reaching collapsed buildings, because of the hectic traffic and narrow streets.

A city this chaotic and full of life was extremely interesting to take in, but also utterly exhausting. The following day, we only left our hostel at 4pm to make our way to a night train to Goa. On the way, we had some major food wins. We grabbed paan (betel leaf) and black currant ice cream sandwiches from a place called K. Rustom Ice Cream that's been in business since 1953. We walked down the street to Marine Drive and ate them while watching the sunset over Mumbai. 

A divine thali we ate near the Mumbai train station.

For dinner that night, we had a super tasty thali, or mixed plate, at a packed place by the train station. We were a little nervous considering our stomachs hadn't been given much chance to adapt to Indian food and we were about to board a 12-hour night train, but you gotta eat. In the end, we didn't have any digestive issues, and still haven't to this day (fingers crossed it stays this way). I'm sure some of this is luck, but we've also been vigilant about using hand sanitizer before eating and after handling money, and of course being selective about where we eat. 

Celebrating Gandhi in front of the Taj hotel.

One of our last sights in the city was the Gateway of India Mumbai, which is just across from the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. I laughed when I heard a hotel was a top thing to see in Mumbai, but it was pretty majestic at night. It was packed that evening as well due to celebrations for Gandhi's birthday. A number of locals even asked to have pictures with us--a strange experience, especially since I was soaked in sweat at the time. It has turned out to be the first of many picture requests in the country.

The Beachy Region Of Goa

We broke up our time in Goa into two chunks, North and South Goa (taking a trip to Hampi in between, which I cover below). The former is known for being more touristic and having a party scene, and the latter for being more relaxing and hippie-dippie. Unfortunately, I can’t say we fell in love with either, or saw much of said scenes. 

Bugs made it hard to enjoy this pretty hostel courtyard.

This was in part because our expectations might have been a little high, but mostly because the rainy season was more drawn out than expected this year. We got a fair amount of rain, the muggy heat never lifted, and while there weren’t many people to meet, mosquitoes were everywhere (in North Goa I killed about 30 a day indoors, which was really only barely indoors because the walls of the building didn’t reach to the thatched ceiling). Many hotels and restaurants were closed, and the ones that were open were still setting up and cleaning up the water damage from the off season. I have a feeling that come December things look a lot nicer, the area will be more lively, and the weather will be more agreeable. 

On the plus side, we did enjoy how peaceful Goa was compared to Mumbai, and got in two sunny beach days in North Goa. Vagator beach was very calm and clean, and we spent an afternoon reading our books while drinking a beer at the more touristic Baga beach. The downtime also helped us recover from a bit of travel fatigue.

Hampi's Ancient Splendor 

You'll see the current town in the background behind the beautiful ancient temple!

Anddd finally, my favorite part of India so far, HAMPI! The current town is very, very small. A 10-minute walk down its narrow dirt roads is enough to see everything. There are a handful of basic restaurants and accommodations, no ATMs, as we later discovered, and the sound of bleating goats can be heard at all hours of the day and night. It was rural and calm, but nothing to write home about. Hampi’s claim to fame though is its grand past. 

Back in the 14th century, Hampi was the wealthy capital of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire, and a major trade center for the Persians and Portuguese. By 1500 CE, it had become the second-largest medieval-era city in the world after Beijing. But this came to an end in 1565, when Muslim sultanates conquered and destroyed the city. 

There is an impressive amount left to explore though. The UNESO World Heritage Site has more than 1,600 remaining ruins from the Hindu empire that are spread over 4,100 hectares (16 square miles). These include everything from temples, shrines, and royal complexes to market places, water structures, and elephant stables. 

On the other side of the river was "Hippie Island", where people hang out and go bouldering.

I can't say enough good things about Hampi. The landscape is captivating. Thick fields of banana and palm trees were broken up only by rivers and mounds of massive, artistically stacked granite boulders. It looks like something straight out of Zelda Breath of the Wild. 

A typical sighting in Hampi: Lush terrain, granite boulders, and a beautiful stone structure.

Day one was spent exploring all the free nearby temples on foot, and there are plenty. To the left is one of the most well-recognized temples, the Virupaksha temple, which is dedicated to Shiva. It stands directly outside the small town, and lots of little monkeys are sitting inside, playing around, and waiting for kind tourists to feed them bananas. For sunset, we climbed up a small hill of boulders to get a look at the area from above. 

The second day we had a rickshaw drop us off at a further away point so we could check off all the sites included in the main monument ticket (cost €6.50). Included was this monolithic stone chariot built in the 16th century, which was intended to represent the beauty and artistic perfection of the Vijayanagara Empire. Many of the structures we saw were actually monoliths. Turns out the people who lived here were pretty great at putting these gigantic boulders to use. 

To the left, me monkeying  around with a gigantic carving of  Hanuman. 

To the right, the Lotus Mahal, which has some Islamic architectural influence. 

Another special highlight of Hampi was that we happened to be there during Dasara, a celebration of good over evil. There was live music, the local women were dressed up in beautiful outfits, and there was a small parade, which included the elephant Lakshmi. Little boys were running around giving leaves to people in their community they admire and respect, friends and family wished each other well, and we heard that even enemies are meant to hug and wish each other the best as to have a clean start for the next year. 

Needless to say, we felt so lucky to be there to take in the beautiful celebrations. We also could easily have spent another entire day in Hampi exploring the sites that were a bit further off, but alas we had to keep moving.

Anyone could light a candle and wish something nice for the next year. 

Lakshmi made his way to the temple, surrounded by lights, music, and cheering.

Weekly Spending

Just a note that I'm covering two weeks here. 

Costs are my share of traveling as a couple. 

I would highly recommend using iVisa to get your visa for India, although it costs another $25, because the official government website is a nightmare to use. It crashed approximately 50 times using various browsers (not an exaggeration). We successfully fought our way through to the payment page in about two hours, but then it crashed twice more and we received a message that if it failed again our visa would be denied. iVisa was quick, painless, and extremely user friendly. They even have a live chat for any questions, and I had a few! 

Transport in India can be stressful and challenging. We used local buses a number of times and it was fine, but they can be very, very packed and hot. As such, we frequently used Uber after long travel days to get a quick stress-free ride to our hostel or hotel at a fair price. We also used Uber or tuktuks evenings even for short distances, because it was a bit dangerous to walk narrows streets without sidewalks, given poor visibility, fast drivers, and not always friendly stray dogs.

Jordan: Petra & Wadi Rum

Almost every building in Amman is made of white stone, which is readily available and good at reflecting heat. 

I'll be honest. My sole interest in coming to Jordan was to see Petra, or more specifically the Treasury. I realize this is cliche, but I'm an American 80s kid. I grew up watching and rewatching Indiana Jones movies on VHS. I even went through a phase where I thought I could be a relic hunter/professor when I got older. Adventure and academia mixed in with a little combat--it sounded like the life to eight-year-old Dani. 

Somewhere along the line though, I became an editor instead of Indiana Jones (similar, I know). But to honor my childhood dream, my adult self was set on seeing the spot where Indie rides out of the canyon on horseback with his father after thwarting Nazi attempts to steal the Grail….bumba dundunnnn. Bumba dunnn. Well, I'm happy to report that I've now checked Petra off my bucket list, but even happier that in the process I discovered so much more than I was looking for in Jordan. 

Jordanian hospitality, for one thing, blew me away. In the seven days Thore and I were there, we were invited to dinner no less than three times. THREE TIMES! And one of those times was while we were getting a free lift from Wadi Rum all the way to Amman (a four-hour ride) from Samer, the host at our bedouin camp, who just happened to be driving back that day. 

Traditionally you eat mansaf standing & with your hands.

After chatting on the ride to Amman about everything from religion to politics, and Germany's surprisingly close relations with the country (I was shocked at how many people spoke German there!), we asked if he knew anywhere that we could try Jordan's national dish, mansaf, which is lamb cooked in a tangy fermented yogurt sauce and served with rice. Not five minutes later, Samer asked if we'd like to join his family for mansaf that night. He'd made a quick call to his mom and asked if she'd cook it. We could hardly say no, or believe our luck!

The food and the company were fantastic, and after dinner (and despite our protests that it wasn't at all necessary) Samer even drove us to our hostel in Amman's crazy traffic. The definition of going above and beyond. And the most shocking part was that this generosity was something we encountered again and again in the country.

The following day, I found myself going to cook dinner with one of our hostel owners' mothers in Amman--a dream come true for this foodie. On the way, I chatted with the hostel owner about the role of cotton and slavery in the Civil War, the abolishment of Jim Crow laws, and how my generation was the first in North Carolina to have schools experiment with desegregation busing to improve race relations. I think these exchanges are really what makes travel a wonderful thing. You learn and you share, and the world becomes smaller and bigger all at the same time. 

Itinerary  

Looking back, I'd spend three nights in Amman, and use it as a base to take a day trip to Wadi Mujib, which has a gorgeous canyon hike through water that we didn't get to do. I'd subtract one night from Wadi Musa. One full day is enough to explore Petra, and the town was unpleasantly touristic. Vendors frequently significantly overcharge tourists, which you definitely feel given how expensive everything is in Jordan (this read gave me insight as to why it's so pricey). Numerous supermarkets refused to scan items, preferring to just make up prices. One man even shouted at us to leave when we asked if he would use a scanner. Not especially pleasant. 

Petra: More Than The Treasury  

The walk to the Treasury is dotted with countless
other buildings carved into rock.

We rocked up at the Petra Visitors Center 6.30 am the day of our visit, with me dragging Thore along, and not in the cute Instagram “flow me, this is so fun” way. No, it was literal dragging. The doors opened at 6 am, we were late, the man wouldn’t move his feet fast enough, and I NEEDED to see the Treasury before the crowds arrived. How else could I pretend I was an early explorer discovering it for myself?!? (why yes, it is a miracle he puts up with me sometimes).

I was incredibly pleased to find very few people felt the same way. At most you saw the odd couple here or there, but hardly the hoards of visitors I’d expected. Apparently the tourist buses only start to pour in around 9.00 am, so for the first few hours the vast settlement carved into red sandstone by the Nabataean people back in 9,000 BC is spectacularly solitary.  

Walking through to the Siq, a long natural gorge with 80-meter-high rock walls on either side, and peering around the corner to see the Treasury reveal itself is an experience like none other. You are immediately humbled. The canyon's beauty alone is enough to make you marvel, but add the architectural talent and immense effort required to chiseling something so stunning into stone and it's immediately clear why Petra is considered a wonder of the world. There are a few spots around the Treasury that offer a view of it from above as well. Be sure not to miss those! 

I wanted to have the Treasury to myself, but someone beat me to it.

After this highlight, we took the rest of Petra at a more leisurely pace (translation: I chilled out enough to walk at a normal speed again). The layout of the park is such that you walk in one direction until reaching an endpoint, and then return on the same path. 

The entire loop, including a few side stops for this or that tomb or viewpoint, was about 10-12 kilometers. The majority of the trail is very easy, but it starts to go uphill as you reach the "end" of the loop, which is marked by the Monastery, a monument I found even more impressive than the Treasury. 

Before anyone gets upset, hear me out! It's bigger, you can get closer, and there are fewer people who made the trek to see it. Plus, there are a few pretty great vista points nearby, so it's definitely worth the hike!

Nestled in the corner of a mountain, the Monastery is lesser known,
but every bit as striking as the Treasury.

The Serenity of Wadi Rum 

To reach the bedouin camp where we were staying, we first had to drive about 10 minutes from the visitors center through the desert in a four-wheel drive. We bounced along the sizzling sand dunes and past gargantuan rock formations made up of layers upon layers of red rock that seemed to be melting on the edges, while breathing the hot, dry air into our nostrils. 

When the engine finally cut off and we arrived at camp, it felt like we'd landed on another planet. The landscape was so unique, the scale of everything so vast, and the silence so unfamiliar. The terrain looked like a mix between Mars and a Dali painting of stacks and stacks of pancakes covered in dripping syrup (at least to me). Otherworldly and mystical. I can definitely see why Hollywood comes here to film movies like the Martian and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Our host at the camp said he even managed to sneak into the filmset of a few movies, most recently Aladdin, and even got to meet Will Smith!

After resting up in the communal tent where meals are held and you can take shelter from the beating sun, we decided to venture out for a short hike of the surrounding area. To our surprise, the landscape, which on first glance seemed so inhospitable, was actually teeming with signs of life. The silence that at first felt almost uncomfortable started to take on a peacefulness. 

Every sand dune was covered in tracks of various animals. We learned that the desert is home to lizards, mice, snakes, foxes, Arabian sand cats, and wild dogs, among other animals. Here and there, we found bones of a deceased animal, and managed to get close to a few lizards. 

We sat at the campfire evenings to stargaze
 (photo credit to Stardust Camp).

At night, the camp cooled off considerably, giving us a welcome break from the heat. We were lucky enough to visit during a new moon, which made for some of the best stargazing I've ever had. The Milky Way was so clear that you could see the spots where it became more and less dense. A total treat for this city girl. 

On our last day in the desert, we did a jeep tour. I got to hike up some dunes, pet camels, see ancient artwork carved into stone, and climb to a hidden water source, which fills up in the winter months, but at this point was almost entirely dried up.

Weekly Spending

*Costs are my share of traveling as a couple.

Jordan is not a cheap country, as mentioned above, so expect to spend a fair amount. I think if you are at least two people renting a car would also be a really good option, because the buses all went very early in the morning and were not especially cheap! If you don't get your own car, be sure to use Uber for local transport rather than trying to hail a cab, because you're likely to get charged considerably more otherwise.

I'd also like to mention that our costs would have been higher if we had to pay for the three meals that we ate for free and the additional bus ride from Wadi Rum to Amman. 

Traveling Turkey: Travel Days & Cappadocia

This week consisted of both the most and least glamorous parts of the trip so far. I found myself floating over Cappadocia's fairy tale landscape in a hot air balloon on a crisp morning--hands down one of the most memorable experiences of my life and worth every penny of the €220 it cost. There was even a celebratory champagne toast on landing. I would wholeheartedly recommend doing a flight to anyone visiting!

And every morning there, we'd wake up to a table full of fresh fruit, eggs, yogurt, various cheeses, olives, and spreads, because breakfast was just included in the room price. A dream! Evenings were spent on the terraces of various restaurants eating delectable dishes and drinking a beer while mulling over the day's happenings. But it definitely wasn't all this charmed.

There were plenty of options at Anatalya's bus station

We spent the other half of the week in long-distances buses getting from point A to point B, guesstimating just how far off from the stated time we'd actually arrive (adding 30% seems to get you close), and trying not to take our hanger out on each other. 

While en route, there was a lot of anxiously waiting for the next bathroom stop (nope, no bathrooms on board the buses), eating odd combinations of nonperishable and inoffensive smelling food as not to enrage fellow travelers (peanut butter is now my best friend), and trying to avoid getting car sick by keeping my eyes on the horizon. 

I managed to get plain old normal sick once I arrived in Cappadocia too. Probably from all the physical exertion and sleeping poorly, thanks to roosters, which seem to be literally everywhere in rural Turkey, and the melodic calls to come pray that play from the minarets of every mosque at all hours of day and night. Nothing dramatic, just a classic cold, but it had me holed up in bed for an entire day instead of hiking "Love Valley" (the rocks are apparently very...errmm penile in shape). 

There was also the night we spent at a “hotel” in Antalya that was so sketchy I was still strongly considering paying for a taxi and another accommodation at 10pm. If you know how frugal I am, this should speak volumes. We stayed and all was fine, but not the kinda place you want to spend any more time than absolutely necessary. We probably should have known that paying €9 per person was too good of a deal to be true for that city. Lessons were learned. 

Itinerary

Many, many hours were spent on long-distances buses this week.

After hiking back to Kabak in the morning, we took a nearly two-hour bus ride back Fethiye to collect the belongings that we’d left at our hotel before setting off on our hike. There, we had a quick lunch and stocked up on snacks before catching what should have been a roughly five-hour bus ride to Antalya (it was closer to eight). We spent the night there, but saw nothing of the city, because we took another very long bus ride to Cappadocia the following morning, where we spent four nights. Later that week, a series of buses took us to Ankara, where we spent the night before flying off to Amman, Jordan. 

Cappadocia's Captivating Landscape

Before arriving in Turkey's hot air ballooning capital, I was a little worried that its rise to fame on Instagram might have turned it into a grade-A tourist trap. I'm happy to report that while its definitely touristic, the town is still small and charming, and the surrounding area, with its unusual fairy chimneys, is both stunning and surreal.

Rose Valley's fascinating formations take on a pink tint in the setting sun, unfortunately we were there at midday.

We spent the first day exploring the area from the ground with a hike of Rose Valley. It took us on a winding trail through rippling and domed rock formations that were created over millions of years by the erosion of layers of ash from the region's three volcanoes (Mount Argeus, Hasan, and Güllü). 

Adding to the mystic landscape are the churches and multistory houses carved into the soft rock by early Christians in the Paleolithic era. I was totally impressed by their ingenuity. You'll even notice small holes high up in the rocks that they created to attract pigeons, so they could collect and use the droppings as fertilizer.

On day two, we were lucky enough to go up in an air balloon and appreciate everything from above. We got up at close to 5am for a sunrise flight. I think it's probably one of the few times where having more tourists enhances the overall experience. Watching dozens of other balloons inflate and gently lift off made for a magical morning. 

Once in the air, we floated where the wind took us, gliding by the gorgeous rock formations, past a number of tourists having photoshoots, and up to an elevation of nearly 800 meters. 

Landing was an experience of its own! There are no breaks on these things, so the pilot just did his best to bring the balloon down on a soft spot when the wind was calm. The basket drags across the ground until friction brings it to a stop. As a passenger, you just squat down, brace yourself by pushing your back again the basket wall, and hope for the best. It was definitely a little bumpy, but exhilarating! 

We toasted with champagne to celebrate a safe landing, as is tradition apparently. We learned that one of the first air balloon flights with human passengers took place in Paris in 1783, and legend has it that they landed in a vineyard and then a bit of wine was involved. There are different versions of said story, but I am perfectly happy to accept one that involves a sip of bubbly.

Our last full day in Cappadocia was supposed to be dedicated to another hike, but it wasn't in the cards. Another day hiking and a suppper early start pushed me from rundown to sick, so I stayed put in bed. It was all as well though, as the weather had taken a turn for the worst. No balloon flights took place for the next few days, due to a drastic change in weather that brought much cooler temperatures, wind, and some rain. We just relaxed in the hotel and felt extra lucky that we had such a wonderful experience in the sky the day before.

Ok, I lied. I almost stayed put the entire day. About midday, I wander out for food and couldn't resist stepping into one of the many stores selling handwoven rugs. I managed not to buy a rug, because funds just are not there at the moment, but I did leave with a pillowcase made from a repurposed antique rug that was damaged in parts. I'm thrilled it will have a new life with me, and that I can take a tiny bit of Turkey back with me to remember what a wonderful time I had! 

Weekly Cost Breakdown

Another week of expenses. While the hot air balloon ride was pricey, it's something I've been planning to splurge on for the last two years, and I think it's probably some of the best money I've ever spent! 

Cappadocia is a tourist town, so prices for accommodation and food were higher than in rural areas (even 2x). That said, we did find some solid budget eats. For €5-€8, I got a delicious meal with some free appetizers at Büyük Adana Kebap.