Day Four - Hampi - Badami

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All,

So having not been able to sleep all night, I eventually decided that enough was enough around 5 o clock and started to walk around Hampi. Managed to find a tuk tuk driver who was awake and he in turn (much to my embarrasment) woke someone else up when I mentioned that I really wanted water!

As I hadn't been able to get any money out the day before, and with only about 300 rupees to my name, thought it best to just leave. Now other people had managed to stay there for a 4 or 5 days but im not sure how, it felt a bit like queenstown in New Zealand, beautiful and all but the place itself was so out of place with its surroundings it felt so touristy...given that I didnt have enough money to actually stay another night anyway the decision was kinda made for me!

So decied to wander over to one of the other temples that I hadn't the day before and watch the sunrise from there and then walk to the Mango cafe which the bible says was really good. I had tried to visit the night before but as darkness had descended and with no other lighting had turned back like the wimp I am!
So caught the sunrise over Achyutara temple before then having a omelette for breakfast. I was in fact up so early that by the time that I arrived for breakfast they were still clearing up from the day before. I wont say that the food was as great as it was billed to be but maybe breakfast wasnt where they shined....nevermind...

So got the bus back into Hospet and then tried my cashcard at State bank of india, which I had managed to get money out of when I had arrived. No luck it just chucked something back out at me saying unauthorised, I tried another couple of banks but with a similar result. So cursing Natwest, I went on the hunt for somewhere that i could make an international call from, hoping that it would be less than the 100 rupees I had left and wondering how I would explain the situation if it wasn't. Despite going into numerous places, everyone said it wasn't possible. Eventually I found someone who could speak english and who said that I could make a call from where I was. Despite having only been out the country 72 hours, it felt well bizarre having a full english conversation, with no misunderstandings etc with the guy on the other end of the phone....anyway hoping that when the guy the other end said it would be re-authorised in 20 mins it would...I sat about waiting...I left it a good half hour just to be sure....the call had cost 49 rupees....so I had only one more chance if it didn't before I was out of money!
It worked! One thing that Hampi taught me was that I didn't really just want to follow the tourist trail as goa seemed to be next on most peoples agendas...saw that a place called Badami had some caves that were meant to be kinda good, so decided that was the place to go....so off I went back to the bus station.

When I got there, there was a german guy Dirk who was also going that way....so off we went. Now the journey although as expected was bumpy, dusty and loud was made all the better by both the driver and tikcet man who were really funny and helpful - in actual fact I almost didn't want the journey to end as they were such a good laugh...

We eventually arrived in Badami about 7 and began looking for a place to stay. Unfortunately those that were available were 300-400 rupees which out of both of our budget ranges...so on we went, finally resigned to having to go for somewhere that was 300 each. In going back into one of the hotels we were then told that there was somewhere for 150 each. Despite being slightly bemused we took it and forever thereafter wished we hadn't....it was hell and i think actually the workers quarters....needless to say the toilets smelt even worse of piss and shit than usual and as it only had one bed, one of us was to sleep on the floor....this by far beat the previous winner of shitiest place I have ever stayed which had gone to somewhere in Vientienne in laos..in fact my comment was im gonna need to get pissed to stay here...so off in search of booze I (we) went....

So we wander into a bar which is all cubicled off and has curtains so you cant see in. Look around the curtains to see if any were available. We are all of a sudden ushered into one (from which a drunken bloke looks to be forced from) and sat down opposite two locals. Now all of a sudden alarm bells start ringing. 1) Why would they want to speak to us, the two words that we spoke, showed that English was not a strong point and 2 (and more importantly) from here I couldn't see what was happening to our drinks and food between the bar and where we sat due to the curains and position 9two opened beers had just arrived for our 'friends'. Whilst Dirks english was ovioulsy far superior to my german, I realised that I couldn't simply turn around to him and say 'Mate i think this is a bit dodge' as he would just look at me but knowing that his english wouldn't be far better than our friends opposite explained the situation to him and he agreed and we made our excuses and left.

So we went to a place opposite and over the course of a few kingfishers, currys and blackouts. I think by this point we both thought we would just head to the caves then straight off again elsewhere tomorrow. Being german Dirk had obviously been a metaller in the past, so we managed to bore each other on the subject until such time as we couldn't get anymore kingfisher beers and went back to our shithole room. I had been granted the bed but as I didn' t have anything to put over the mattress (and wasn't sleeping on it skin to mattress s it was as dusgusting as everything else) decided that trying to fall asleep on the plastic chair was a better idea...this didn't work and so spent the whole night listening to my ipod waiting for dawn...another excellent nights sleep!

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