Gokarna

We left hampi in high spirits and boarded a sleeper bus to gokarna. The term sleeper should have been taken with a pinch of salt, i would have been more comfortable running up a mountain than laying down on this bus. Like a bucking bronco we were bounced up and down through the night and eventually got to what we thought was gokarna (only it wasnt) at the convenient hour of 3am. We had to board what looked like some old soviet military bus and headed the last 20kms to gokarna with red eyes a plenty. We started chatting to a few folks including a lovely lass called clare from london who we buddied up with over the next couple of days. We spent a surreal night chatting on om beach in the full moon waiting for the sun to come up and shack owners to arise. After reading the guide we (inc clare) came to the conclusion that we were more intrepid than the average reader and took a fishibg boat to the fairly isolated half moon beach. We were greeted by a miserable sod who owned a few mud and coconut shacks and a cafe. The proprietor was consistently and jovially heckled by his tenants for his attitude as he showed us round the available rooms. We quickluly concluded that we definitely werent intrepid and running water and an actual bed rather than a sandy floor should be used for sleeping. So back to om beach laughing about how middle class and daft we were to even try to be intrepid and settled in a quiet and beautiful place called nirvana cafe. Small villas and quaint shacks set amongst flower gardens and well kept sandy paths.

The next few days we enjoyed the beach and sunshine and generally took it steady. The only drawback was throngs of indian lads here after holi who would take pictures of anyone western at point blank range, especially girls in bikinis. Naturally niki and clare became pretty frustrated with it but there's not much that can be done by just swearing and shouting. Having said that we heard a story from one of the local tat sellers that a woman grabbed a mans phone and threw it i  the sea aftet he was caught red handed. We were a bit sad to leave om beach as we had found a bit of paradise at nirvana cafe, the guys who own it were great including one older looking fella who was like a friendly grandad. I soon found out he was only 40 years old so they must be working him hard on his shifts.