|
After more than a month back
home in November visiting friends and family we were excited
and a little nervous to board our plane from Heathrow to
Mumbai and start the next stage of our journey. We had our
new foldable bikes with us and had left behind all our
camping gear this time so it was quite nice to just check in
with 2 bags for a change.
Our introduction to India was
made a lot easier by Simon’s good school friend Spencer and
his girlfriend Natasha who had been living the expat life in
Mumbai for the last 2 years and would be excellent hosts
over the next 10 days. We had a great time in Mumbai and
although it’s probably one of the most dirty, polluted
cities with a lot of poverty, it’s also full of life,
colour, history and you’re constantly distracted by
unbelievable sights. We also unfortunately had an experience
of both ‘dental tourism’ and ‘Delhi Belly’ so we were happy
to be staying quite luxuriously and could rest and
recover.
From Mumbai we planned to
take the train but as we were running late we flew down to
Goa instead. It instantly felt like we were back home even
though it had been 8 years since we met there and we spent 2
weeks just relaxing and catching up with friends. Goa had
become much busier and built up but the scenery, beaches and
nature are still just as amazing as we remembered. It was
also Christmas and New Year so it felt like the whole of
India had driven into Goa for the party season.
So now after experiencing the
expat life, dental tourism and the package holiday world
again it was time to join the backpackers and so we booked a
sleeper bus for tomorrow to the temples of Hampi in the
neighboring state of Karnataka. |
