Don't forget: Life is a glory (R.M. Rilke)

We had a totally relaxed week in Agonda Beach in Goa, where we took the opportunity to do nothing but go from our hut to Ulrike, Udo, and Iven's hut every day, hang out there and let the nice people from the Agonda Waves Restaurant supply us with food, shakes, beer, and cocktails. Every afternoon, a white horse came by at about the same time to get cabbage and bread and, in return, to pose for a photo or two. 

Towards the end of the week, I slowly felt a slight restlessness - the travel bug and curiosity about what was to come next started to kick in. And so it was a good thing that the train ticket towards Hampi was already booked for January 9th. After almost 400km, which is a eight-hour train ride, we arrived in Hospet, from where we still had to take a few kilometers with the auto-rickshaw to the river and from there take the ferry to the other side to our hostel. Hampi is located in the state of Karnataka and was the capital and trade metropolis of the Vijayanagara Empire from the 13th to the 16th century. It's hard to imagine today as Hampi is a very small village, surrounded by a completely surreal, incredibly large rocky landscape and bright green rice fields and banana plantations. 

Only the many old temple ruins remind us that about 500,000 people once lived here. When we planned our stay from Hamburg in September, I had no idea what the place was like and thought that two nights would surely be enough. But when I saw the first huge rocks in the landscape, I knew that I could have spent a whole week there. It looks as if giant giants once lived here and played a kind of Tetris with the rocks.

On the train ride, I read in the guidebook that Hampi is really popular for bouldering. However, I didn't plan on trying it outdoors and on real rocks after only doing indoor bouldering twice in the past two months. But on the way to the hostel, I noticed a shop that offers courses and I somehow got the urge. After dropping off our luggage, we went back and I asked if the courses were suitable for absolute beginners: 'Of course, very easy, for absolutely beginners!' So the plan for the next morning was clear - bouldering at 8 am with Thimma. 

What can I say: it was simply amazing. I never thought I would dare and manage to climb such rocks - the last one was about 4m high. Thimma was a really good motivator: 'No Pain no gain!' and 'Trust your feet!' were helpful phrases. ;-) The feeling of having accomplished it is definitely stored deep in my heart, ready to be pulled out again in future 'I can't do it' situations.

I was a little sad that we only had so little time planned for Hampi, because I would have loved to do a multi-day course. The rest of the time, we visited a temple complex on the other side of the river and explored the impressive rocky landscape. On the evening of January 11th, we had to go to the night train, which would take us to Mysore, further south. As the ferry across the river only operated until half past five and we didn't need to be at the train station until much later, we decided to take a ride over the slightly more distant bridge with the auto-rickshaw. It was a real highlight as a farewell from Hampi. At noon, I had negotiated the price and time with Lucky, a young rickshaw driver, with a handshake. We were a little early and saw Lucky driving up and down the street on his scooter with a few other guys, looking for us. When he recognized me, he said he thought we might have already left with someone else. He seemed a little relieved when I explained to him that he could rely on a handshake with me. Lucky and his friend, who came along for support, were in high spirits and seemed to be looking forward to the tour. On the way, we briefly stopped at Lucky's house in the neighboring village, where his grandfather was waiting and gave the guys two thick jackets - sweet. With loud Bollywood music playing and honking in rhythm, we had a pretty funny one-hour ride on a partly extremely bumpy road. One of the guys sitting in the front kept calling out 'Check your bags', very attentive. Nothing got lost though. There was a brief commotion when we overtook a scooter a little closely and a little too quickly. The three older gentlemen sitting on it didn't like that and suddenly drove very closely right next to us and the guy in the middle held onto our rickshaw at full speed, which wasn't very smart as it almost caused the scooter to topple. After a short discussion, the three realized that they didn't stand a chance against us and we took off and arrived at the train station on time, where our train departed with a one-hour delay.

I then spent the night of my birthday sleeping on the train, totally unspectacular, and if I hadn't read a lovely first birthday SMS on my phone after waking up in the morning, I probably wouldn't have immediately thought that it was my birthday. Thank you very much for all the lovely greetings that reached me from afar, especially for the two phone calls including a serenade, which ultimately provided a little more birthday atmosphere. Since the overnight train ride wasn't particularly restful, we spent the first day in Mysore rather calmly and relaxed in our small apartment with a roof terrace.

The next day, we explored the pleasant city with its impressive palace on foot. 

In the palace, we had a guided tour by Baba, who explained everything to us in great detail. He seemed a bit unsatisfied that we hardly took any photos, so he eventually took Eric's phone and took about 1000 pictures himself. We had to constantly stop to have our picture taken in front of various paintings, pillars, or large halls. 

In the end, I got a bit annoyed because it was really crowded everywhere and we were constantly in the way of other people, or other people were asked to move so that we could be alone in the photo - but Baba meant well. 

On our way back to our accommodation, we visited the really nice and colorful Devaraja Market, where you can buy colored powder, fruits, vegetables, beautiful flower decorations, and essential oils. It's just fun to walk through the aisles, inhale the wonderful aromas of spices and herbs, and observe the people doing their daily shopping.

Everything is so beautifully colorful

Someone would constantly ask us what our names were and where we were from, and occasionally vegetable vendors wanted to take a selfie with us. 

I don't know how many Indian smartphones now have pictures of us. At some point, a man spoke to us very charmingly as we walked by and asked, 'Do you know how to make incense sticks?' and before we knew it, he had led us into his little shop to show us. He told us that he and his brother Mohammad are continuing their grandfather's business, which he founded when Germany was still divided. After we had learned about the incense sticks, we were shown various pleasantly scented essential oils. Mohammad and his brother, whose name I unfortunately didn't remember, really knew how to sell their goods. Mohammad told us that he has a friend who lives near the Fish Market in Hamburg. Unfortunately, he hasn't had enough money yet to visit him, but he knows four German bands, as he proudly told us: Fettes Brot and Jan Delay from Hamburg, Die Toten Hosen and Helge Schneider from Düsseldorf. When he started singing 'Fitze Fitze Fatze', I burst out laughing. With a few oils, gifted incense sticks, and a nice commemorative photo, we eventually said goodbye to the two of them. One of the many encounters that will surely stay in my memory for a long time.

That's Mohammad on the left - a funny guy

For our last day in Mysore, we booked a guided city walk with dinner in the afternoon. In the morning, we spontaneously decided to climb the 1000 steps up to Chamundi Hill. 

The hill is a very popular excursion destination, especially on weekends. Masses of people are driven up by buses, auto-rickshaws or taxis, some also use the 1659 cable car. After about half of the way up, you pass a very large stone cow, which is worshiped by Hindus. 

Quite early on the stairs, a few girls approached me, which wasn't initially anything special. One of them asked me for some water for her little sister as they had forgotten theirs. Luckily, I had enough with me. Since Eric was already much further ahead, I walked a little bit with the four siblings. In between, I was occasionally approached by other people, but somehow we kept meeting again. At the top of the mountain, where a Hindu temple stands, we lost sight of each other, as it was really crowded. But when we started to descend the stairs after half an hour, I heard someone shouting behind me: 'Feli! Germany!' There they were again: Ashmita, Bhoomika, and their two younger siblings. We then walked the entire way back together and talked. 

The girls tried to persuade us to go with them and their family to their village and spend the night there. It wasn't easy to talk them out of that idea. Apart from the fact that I didn't believe that the idea had been discussed with their parents, we already had our bus ticket for the next morning to continue to Ooty. Ashmita wrote down a few words in Kannada (the language of Karnataka) for me, which sounded very beautiful, and we shared stories about our families. She was surprised that I 'only' have three siblings. I tried to compensate with eight nieces and nephews, but I had no chance against her extended family. At some point, she said I was now her big sister and took my hand for the last steps. When we arrived at the bottom, we were warmly welcomed by a lot of people. Ashmita had mentioned her large family, but not that they were celebrating a festival at the foot of the hill. We met the parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, and other relatives, and many pictures were taken. Then we were invited to have a meal together, which the family had brought in huge metal containers. About 70 people sat at long tables in a kind of stone pavilion and suddenly we were in the middle of it, with rice, raita, and various curries on our plates, and if you weren't careful, they would constantly refill them.

After the meal, we said goodbye peacefully. Ashmita wrote down a few more names for me so that I wouldn't forget them, and she gave me her father's number for WhatsApp. 

I hope Ashmita's father will send me some of his pictures because I hardly had the opportunity to take photos in the midst of all the chaos. But even without photos, I will probably think back to this incredibly beautiful excursion very often. To be so warmly and naturally invited to a family celebration by people who were actually strangers is an incredibly wonderful experience for which I am very grateful. 'Dhanyarvāda, dear Ashmita and your family!'

After this wonderful experience, the day could have ended, but we actually had a really nice conclusion with our guided walk through the city center of Mysore. We were really lucky as we were the only participants and had Abilash, a student who makes money by giving tours, all to ourselves. So we could ask many questions and also get to know him a little personally. He told us many interesting and funny anecdotes about the history of Mysore, and at the end, we made several stops to eat local snacks, drink lassi and chai.

Mysore was definitely worth a visit, and we could have filled a few more days for sure. Many yoga courses are also offered here, but we didn't have enough time for that.

Now we have arrived in Ooty in the state of Tamil Nadu - the first hill station on our trip. The bus ride here was unexpectedly relaxed. 

We traveled almost 200km in a little over four hours. The last 70km consisted only of hairpin bends, and I couldn't get enough of the view from the open bus window of the mountains and tea plantations. The place itself is not particularly beautiful, but our guesthouse is located in the neighboring village, where it's very relaxed.

Now we always take the public bus to the city, which was pretty funny last night. 

Oh, by the way, it's extremely cold here: 18°C during the day, but only if the sun is shining, at night it's only around 10°C and I had to put on thick woolen socks. They don't have thick blankets or heating here.

Let's see what awaits us in the next two days until we continue towards Kerala on Thursday. I'll get back to you in early February. Take care!