Hampi to Goa

Im sitting at a very sticky keyboad at the moment - so I dont know if I shall have the patience to continue. We left Hampi on the 26th Dec after an excellent christmas day. We got up and went down to the bazzar for a lassi, then wandered off to climb Matunga hill. Weve tried to get up 3 times before but woosed out when we reached the summit. You have to walk across a curved rock with a really steep drop to the side. Well I made it this time, Helen decided it was still too much and stoppped nearly at the top.
We left early in the cool and headed west. The road was good then bad - the usual thing but we made good progress, with nothing untoward happening with the bikes. Stopping at Dharwad for the night as we werent really sure which road to take next, The road west - the most direct and shortest was reported to be in really really bad condition, whereas the road south was reported to be in better condition, but much longer - and with a horrible border crossing - the notoriosly corrupt Goa police taking money off every foriegner who dares to enter their state and spend money! We went for the bad road - after all we had been on bad roads before. THIS ONE WAS THE WORST OF ALL. First gear a lot of the way, getting covered in red powdered rock dust, spitting grit and cussing a alot. The road is made bad by Tata steel trucks carting iron ore. Considering the money they make out of the steel youd think they would put in a road!
Down the mountains and into Goa - no problems at this border - they dont expect anyone to come this way. I noticed a huge buddha statue in the jungle on the way in, this is new and we are going to return to investigate soon. When we were here 17 years ago there was an article in the local news about a major archaelogical discovery in the mountains with evidence of a buddhist settlement with caves water tanks, irrigation etc. We havnt heard a thing since- so it needs further study.
We arrived at our usual guest house and relaxed we"d made it !! 2478 km. We were filthy, my bike was not running very well - a broken valve spring.
Helens birthday - on the 30th was celebrated in style, with lots of friends joining us. We all went out to dinner -14 of us in total, it was a great surprise to Hels [ and to me!!] Joe put on an amazing firework display, dinner was excellent, followed by a lovely chocolate cake and cocktails, to the accompanyment of the Arabian sea. We were really surprised by the singing firework birthday candle, and the table firework which nearly blew or heads off.
Lots of terrorist scares here at the moment - dont know whether to take them seriously or not, but they are making life a nuisance, the police stopping motorcyclists to check identity papers[yeah right] email monitoring, registering at internt cafes etc.
We now have to sell our Delhi bike so we have the money to continue travelling on our old bike, which is still running beautifully. Amazingly the Goan authorities have discovered a new way to wring money out of travellers - you have to have a new yellow nunber plate a nd pay yearly taxes to keep your bike here. Well yesterday, I went to see the assistant director of road traffic, South Goa to find out what to do, In my case I dont require this new plate, but the police dont know this and all I have to do is convince the pigs of this everytime they stop me -- yeah right!!!
Im going to see how this goes- but as you can probably tell, its pissing me off already!
I shall try and get some new photos up presently -- the beach is great, sea warm etc!