arambol and hampi revisited

the sleeper bus was not the most comfortable mode of transport, but it got us to pernem without much trouble. fortunately, there was a couple of girls also wanting to go to arambol, so we shared a taxi there from the roadside. we went to see laura, and there i met an old friend leah... who said we could stay at her place until we found a place for ourselves. so whilst marta slept, i went to look around... and found a place not far from the main drag. om ganesh place in town. i went to collect marta so she could have the final say... and she was happy. we paid up front for a couple of weeks rent, with a little discount.

the seaside and relaxed vibrations of arambol produced the desired effects in marta’s mood. the days spent recuperating in the sun and sea made the nightmare of mumbai seem like a distant dark cloud long gone away. days of just chilling, enjoying good food and good weather. the foot was recovering slowly but surely as marta ventured around without crutches.

the days passed quickly and after three weeks of beach life, we packed our things, said goodbye to zilu and took a taxi to mapusa. another overnight sleeper bus... to hampi.

we got into hampi bus stand around 6 in the morning. we quickly found a room and recovered from the bus trip. we took the boat to the other side and hired a motorbike, thinking it would be a long and tiring trip to find a suitable place especially with the state of marta’s foot. as it turned out, marta fell in love with the first place we tried. a family run guest house not far from the old ruins of the stone viaduct.

the room was great... but we had a few run-ins with ‘bibi’, the woman running the place.  we ate there for the first day or two, but the food was not great and overpriced. so we ate out after that, and i think that didn’t endear us to her.

another time, we took a trip to hanuman temple on a hired bike with marta having her first go at riding a moped. it was a very hot day and a long climb up the steps to the top. in the temple, i felt a bit dizzy and nauseous...  and i felt i was overheating. i went out and soaked my head under the cold running tap. i was running a temperature and we decided to get back to our room. marta drove back and i was glad to get back in time for the toilet... another stomach infection! it took only a day of eating just rice to get over it... and then marta got sick. we had assumed it was a stomach infection too, like she caught in arambol. a few days of a high-ish temperature and in the end, bibi’s son offered to take us in his rickshaw (the bastard ripped us off) to find a doctor, who diagnosed a throat infection and wrote out a prescription. marta took the pills and already we were looking to head back to arambol.