Trip to Konkan and Kerela- Day 1&2

Hyd-Belgaum

We took the Rayalseema express from Lingampally station in Hyderabad. Before leaving i checked the train schedule. it stopped after every 30 min on average. I was very happy to see that. It meant spending more time in the country side, getting down at all those small stations.
Next day in the morning, after crossing Hubli the forests started. I have not seen a greener India in my life. The train slowly moved right through the jungle area, with light drizzle all along. This was like a meadow area, all up and down. In between there would be small farms. Because of the slopy terrain, people do step farming here, much like in the lower Himalayas. The farmers working in the field were using a jute bag covering their back as a rain coat. I think the crop they were sowing was rice, and so that would mean spend the whole day bending down and sowing seeds. Only the back is then exposed to the sky and hence the rain. And so a jute back on the back acts like a raincoat.
In the train we met Nezar Karam, a Sudanese national. I would have mistaken him for any other south indian had he not said he is from Sudan. He had been in India for a over a month and traveling, traveling alone. He was headed for Goa. He would have got down at a station named Londa and from there taken a bus to Madgaon. He told me about Sudan. They recently found oil, and so the economy is now booming. Even many Indian firms are investing in Sudan. I asked about Darfur, as Sudan is in news only for that here. He said Darfur is like Kashmir in India, at one end of the country. What happens in Darfur is restricted to that area only. He said it takes a 7 day drive by car to reach Darfur from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

We reached Belgaum at noon. Beautiful weather, nice quite town, the highest point in this region.We had a nice lunch and then took a Goa state transport bus to Sawantwadi in Maharashtra.

Sanwantwadi-Kudal

We met Kanwarjeet at the Sawantwadi bus station. We thought we would go to his place in Goa, but he had other plans for us. He told us to leave for a small town Kudal right away. We were to stay there for 2 days, see the bamboo constructions in nearby villages and then return to Goa at his place. He quickly made a map for us, and guided us to the bus which was leaving for Kudal. And so off we went to Kudal, totally unplanned, completely new territory. I sure was excited.
We stayed at the training centre of Konbac. Konbac stands for Konkan Bamboo and Cane development centre. I guess its a govt fundede organization working in Bamboo in the Konkan region. They have a training centre where they train the local people to make different artifacts of bamboo.