South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Andhra Pradesh
Anantapur
Navayuga Lodge +918554225621
Just adequate single room for INR 150.- or US$ 3.40 only per night.
Indifferent Indian staff.
Indifferent Indian staff.
Beer: 650-ml bottles of ice-cold Kingfisher Premium Lager (c. 5 % alc./vol.) for INR 100.- or US$ 2.05 per large bottle from any of the filthy “wine shops with attached a/c bar” nearby.
Click below for an interactive road map of the Navayuga Lodge in Anantapur and for directions:Matt: Overnighting in Anantapur, a rather average and nondescript hopeless Indian city, exploring the depressing city centre and analysing the ubiquitous substance of Genuine Indian Muck, the mysterious liquid or goo commonly found on the pavements and in the streets of all South-Indian towns which gives them their distinctive smell, as being mostly of pure-organic origin and made from cow patties, dog shit, human excrement and the rotting juices of animal carcasses, all sufficiently diluted with urine of well-known origin, enriched with pavement-pureed fruits and veggies and the phlegm of three-packs-a-day beedi smokers and compulsive paan and gutka chewers (psychologically, their spitting might be the result of an excessive disgust for the life Indians live in India), all this in varying proportions, well-mixed by a barefoot pedestrian traffic which allows it best to ferment at summer temperatures of more than 40°C, when it is too hot for the flies to fly and when they start crawling around, and makes it ready for a grandiose ISO 9001-2000 certification as India’s latest top-of-the-world bio-technological achievement.
“The contrast between the familiar and the exceptional was everywhere around me. A bullock cart was drawn up beside a modern sports car at a traffic signal. A man squatted to relieve himself behind the discreet shelter of a satellite dish. An electric forklift truck was being used to unload goods from an ancient wooden cart with wooden wheels. The impression was of a plodding indefatigable and distant past that had crashed intact through barriers of time into its own future...”
Matt: Taking an rundown A.P.S.R.T.C. (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) bus from Anantapur’s central bus stand (hitting a new high, so far, of breath-taking urmit stench and Genuine Indian Muck) to filthy dirty Bellary (c. 100 km, 3 hours, INR 61.-), thus entering the state of Karnataka (the name is a derivation of the name of the local language, Kannada, spoken by virtually all of its 53 million inhabitants), thereafter an N.E.K.R.T.C. (North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bellary to Hospet (65 km, 2 hours, INR 43.-) and eventually a local bus to the ruined Vijayanagar city at Hampi (12 km, 30 min, INR 13.-), whose lost temples and derelict palaces stand amid an arid landscape of surreal beauty.
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt
Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos
2011 Map Konni & Matt
Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos
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