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.