Jog Falls
- Luka Hewitt
- Apr 7, 2015
- 3 min read
One morning at Nirvana we went into the cafe for breakfast and realised on the table next to us were some people that we had met in Hampi. Once we'd gone over and met the others they were with, we all spent the day on the beach and had arranged to go to Jog Falls the next day. Apparently it was going to be a 1-2 hour journey, so a mini bus was arranged for 10am the next day an we were all looking forward to seeing this amazing waterfall.
We set out a little later than expected, with Ash and I taking the rickshaw with a guy we'd met called Raoul, and Nirin and Carolyn on a motorbike after realising the mini bus was overbooked. We followed the bus as well as we could, but they had to stop to let us or the bike catch up every now and again. After about an hour and a half of driving, we decided to ditch the rickshaw by some shops and hop in the bus to try and make the journey a little quicker... Especially with another 100km to go (1-2 hours my arse!).
We finally arrived at the gate around 3pm (That's four hours travelling, definitely definitely not one or two :|) and the driver explained to us that we had to pay to get in; 5 rupees for Indians, but 95 for foreigners. He then had this genius plan to fill the window seats with Indians (we had 6 girls from Delhi and our friend Joey from Calcutta), and those that could pass for Indians (ie Raoul who is English but of Indian heritage, Ash who apparently could pass for a North-east Indian, and the few seats remaining to have girls with dark hair with headscarves on), and put the rest of us on the floor or leaning over in the aisle seats. It was so funny, as we drove up to the counter everyone was sniggering waiting for the embarrassment of being rumbled to hit... And then we moved. It worked! About 10 meters away from the ticket box and everyone just burst out laughing, thanking the driver for his great idea and saving us all 90 rupees.
We parked and got out of the bus to find that the waterfall had prettttty much dried up, hahaha massive DOH! After some photos, disappointment but slight amusement, we went to get some thalis for lunch and decide what to do with the afternoon. Everyone had come ready to swim, so when the driver told us a nice lake we could take a dip in we decided to get back on the bus an drive the ten minutes to the spot.
Not too much of a waterfall in the hot month of April!
We got to the water and everyone jumped in for a paddle. I was sat on the rocks at the side watching a couple of people attempting to teach some others to swim, when I noticed that a full on film crew had come down to where we were and set up about 25 meters away. I hoped on stepping stones over to where they were, and had a closer look. It's funny, at home I can't say I'm not nosey (by a long shot, and I prefer 'inquisitive and curious'), but I would never really go over to people that had nothing to do with me just to snoop... But since coming to India and having every nosey man rock on up next to us and linger for way too long, I've decided to join their mentality :) They were very welcoming and invited me over to stand behind the camera, while they filmed a music scene (of course) for a film they were creating called Law Book. It was pretty funny, the guys dance moves were absolutely awful but I was loving the tune! Half of our group was soon with me watching them shoot the scene, and chuckling with me trying to copy the main guy. I was tempted to try and get a cameo, but managed resisted the urge...
Aaaaand, action!
Busting some amaaaazingly awful moves, alongside his exasperated choreographer
We made our way back just as the sun was setting, and picked up our rickshaw on the way. Ash decided that we wanted to try the motorbike for the last hour back, so Nirin got in the bak of the rickshaw and Ash had his first proper manual motorbike ride - he was so excited, haha! And naturally, as Ash always seems to, he picked it up right away and rode all the way back fine... I have a feeling that biking is becoming one of this new hobbies!
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