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Published: December 19th 2006
Hampi
Boulders scattered through the landscape.Hampi is located a quarter of the way up India towards the center amidst a sublime boulder scattered desert. The town itself is small and relies on the tourism that flocks to examine the fascinating temple ruins of Vijayanagar which dates back to 1336. It is an extremely hard place to explain and describe but would be one of the most unique places I’ve ever been. During it’s peak period the city would have been covered kilometers, but only a small portion of the once mighty empire remains. The buildings, temples and bazaars appear to be something from Rome with it’s arcade of columns, pillar temple facades, aqua ducts and public bathing enclosures. Then there is the landscape which is something out of this world. Boulders appear to be placed on boulders to form mountains, its all supernatural. Together with the calming light of the sunset in the afternoon the area has an unsurpassed ‘aura’ and beauty about it.
Its hard to explain, and I will have to rely on the photographs to actually describe what the city is about and you can only imagine what it must have once been.
To explore the region we hired scooters for
the day, bombing around the dusty ruins exploring every nook and cranny. By the end of the day though I’d been having some issues with my stomach, so I think the combination of food, drink, bumpy roads and something dodgy a nasty surprise was awaiting for me by the end of the day. Now I have lasted rather well without even the slightest feeling of being crook, but that night the flood gates opened, both ends. I can hear you all laughing now, finally the Delhi belly has caught up with me, and it was not pretty. I spent the next day a bit vulnerable waiting for an overnight bus back to the coast heading to the beach side village of Gokarna, a 10 hour sleeper bus ride that I was not looking forward to in my current condition. I survived the journey, although with not much sleep and my arse cheeks clenched firmly tight. But it did not end there.
Our destination of Gokarna was a deserted beach cove called ‘Om Beach’ with beautiful white sandy beaches and basic beach hut villas scattered in the dunes back from the sea. When I say basic I mean basic, half
built shacks with a mat on the sand and a mozzie net suspended above, a communal swat toilet (also a bamboo enclosure) and a bucket of water to wash with. At the time this wasn’t an issue, you know its like camping! All of this seemed fine until that night when my stomach turned on me again and all hell broke loose. Lets just say at 2am in the morning when your hands and clutched to the bamboo door for support while you swat over the hole in the ground with chronic diaahoea, wishing to god, any god and all bloody gods for a normal toilet, bed and shower, you really know what luxuries you miss. Worse part was I still had 8 hours left of this disaster to go.
From what they tell me about Gorkana, it’s a lovely place, lovely people and great beaches with a good night life. I spent most of my time either in the shitter or curled on the floor of my shack praying for no more. Real top place.
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Kellie
non-member comment
Shiiiiit!
You poor bastard. Seriously - i laughed at first. But then i just felt really, really bad for you. That lasted a little while. Now I'm back to laughing! Ha! Just kidding! Take it easy babe, go with the flow. One day you'll look back and laugh. Loving the blog - it's my favourite way to procrastinate. Miss you Tucks.