Mysore to Hampi

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After another 5 days in Mysore, I set off with Chris, Jamie and Cath to Hampi, where I was due to meet my brother Kevin. Kevin left the UK a month before me and has been travelling here over ground through Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Siberia, China, Tibet, Nepal then into India. We go on my first overnight Indian train and it was a terrible experience. I wasn’t feeling great which didn’t help, but the place stank of urine no matter how much incense I burned, there were mice and the men in sleeper class just hocked, farted and snored all bloody night in some kind of wretched harmony. Arriving in Hospet I was exhausted and in serious need of some space (which 4 weeks later I still haven’t had!). We met Chris’ mate, a rickshaw driver called Xavier and run out of fuel within 5mins! Got to laugh sometimes.
Hampi is without a doubt stunning, its like Bedrock from the flintstones… just gigantic rocks everywhere! To get to where most of the tourists stay you have to cross a little river on a boat and climb up a little hill. After the cold of Ooty and the lack of sun in Mysore it was great to be in the warm and the peace a quiet that surrounds Hampi. I instantly like the place. I leave Chris and go to find my brother, who, in true Kevin style has found the cheapest most dingy accommodation available and made friends with everybody in the place. Its great to catch up and see some of his amazing photos and hear some of his stories. Kevin doesn’t give me chance to rest, he just flings me on the back of his motorbike and drives me up to this amazing reservoir where we swim and lie on the giant rocks, its silent, peaceful and beautiful with a feeling of space that I have not experienced in sometime.

Over the next few days we hang out with Quinn, Adam, Ross and the others I came with and I meet what turns out to be my travel friends … Becka, Johnny and Jane. Kev and I take a few trips on the bike, the most memorable being up to the monkey temple. Here you climb a lot of steps and arrive up at this little temple where you can see the Hampi landscape for miles. This is supposed to be one of the most stunning sunsets in India but we were a few hours early and pretty tired at this point. The monkeys are, as usual… ridiculous and steal all of our bananas at once.
A distinctive feature of Hampi is that it is full of Israelis smoking gigantic chillums. This was most likely made worse by the fact it was Hanika. The one advantage of this is that you can eat the most delicious falafels ever, which I did, dozens of them. I was not however offered any of the delicious cakes being distributed in the restaurants as I am not Jewish!

Kev and I leave Hampi with Johnny, Becka and Jane with the intention of getting on the same bus and most likely getting off and Gokarna despite having tickets to Goa. We end up getting split up prematurely at the bus station and Kev and I end up on a sleeper bus to Goa (Palolem) and the other guys Gokarna. The sleeper bus is quite brilliant, a whole double bed with your own window! It is of course dangerous and if you’re on the isle side, as I was, you are quite likely to fall off on the various sharp turns and bumpy roads. Not much sleep later we arrive in Palolem at about 5am.

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Comments

[gypsy2010]

hi
welcome to my country.

[Mark]

Thanks for bringing back some fond memories
I travelled from Goa to Hampi in 2008 and absolutely loved it. I'm not a religious person but Hampi does have a very tranquil spiritual vibe. Thanks again for jogging some very happy memories!

[Trip to India]

hi
It seems you had great time here, there are more places in india to visit here, nice post.