It's been a while since i last wrote anything up here and i'd love to be able to say it's because i've been to busy, but that would be a big fat lie. In fact, i've been extremely lazy! I woke up on christmas morning staring at my feet, having only made it as far as the hammock outside my hut the previous night, and I also had a groovy little hangover, not that i drank very much, but it was just about the first alcohol i'd seen for two months, so it didn't take a lot... Christmas day was cool, went for a swim, had a beautiful KingFish dinner, watched an amazing sunset etc. etc. you know how it is.
Left Goa a couple of days later and headed to Gokarne, another beachtown but a little quieter, because the beaches are quite a long walk from town. It was also much cheaper, 40Rs (60p) a night for thatched hut so I could save some wonga. Didn't do much more there, other than swim a bit, wander about, eat a lot, chat to folks, find the odd snake. While I was there a couple of Indians fell off a cliff, and a chai shop in the next bay was burnt down by a bunch of guys in ski-masks, but apart from that it was pretty quiet. New years eve was very relaxed, lots of people wandering about looking for a party that wasn't there, and the natives letting off fireworks in a comedy fashion i.e. just holding it and pointing it vaguely away from most people. The odd rocket went zooming into the hut compound at eye level, but that's just about par for the course. I'm getting a lot better on the harmonica these days, entertaining the troops with renditions of "Puff the Magic Dragon" and so on. I'm now in the small town of Hampi, again not doing very much, slowly exploring the fantastic ruined temples, eating lots of thali's, hanging out with a couple of danes, a swede and a dutch dude, being mistaken for an Israeli and a Punjabi, and being ferried across the river in a coracle on a regular basis. The monkeys here are funny, I saw this little dude creep up behind these two guys who were cooking, grab a massive bag of peanuts, and then nick off up the stairs stuffing his face with them, much to the irritation of the blokes. I'm here till monday, when i'm gonna catch a train to Chennai (madras) and then head to Mamallapuram for the dance festival there. Tops!
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