Bijapur
We were pretty amazed to have arrived at the town of Bijapur in one piece. The six hour bus journey from Hospet was probably the most hair-raising so far. Despite passing numerous serious-looking accidents along the way our crazy bus driver persisted with his aggressive erratic driving style. One of his favourite manoeuvres was to undertake a slower vehicle by driving off road onto whatever happened to be there.
We celebrated our safe arrival by taking a relaxing horse-drawn tonga from the train station to our hotel. From the moment we arrived at the town we seemed to be the centre of attention for the locals. We can only assume that the residents of Bijapur do not have a lot of exposure to Westerners. Pretty much everybody we passed on the street wanted to stop and talk to us, shake our hands and have photographs taken. We had a number of cups of chai brought for us from people we had just met. Whilst sitting in a cafe, enjoying a chai, we overheard an enthusiastic father talking to his small son – “go on, go and talk to aunty and uncle, ask where they are from – America France or Japan!” It would be fair to say that Bijapur was one of the most friendly places we have visited in India.
There were many impressive Muslim monuments dotted around the town which we enjoyed exploring during our two day stay.