Sickness and Holi at Hampi

---

Just as I thought my weeks would become routine, that the trips would become seldom and life would become a bit more ordinary I was shipped back to the east coast on Tuesday night, to tsunami hit Nagapattinum in Tamil Nadu. Another 10 hour bus journey, I received little sleep and had two very long, hot and hectic days. We had a meeting with Action Aid over a proposal we submitted, the outcome wasn’t too agreeable as they cut the budget by half, but I made a few good contacts on a more positive note. I travelled back to Bangalore on Thursday night, alone and by train for the first time, but was far more comfortable than coach, which was lucky as I was off again on my travels the following evening.

Around 10pm on Friday evening 11 of us interns met to begin our trip to Hampi, in northern Karnataka. The village of Hampi is a World Heritage Site, abundant with temples and memorials and well equipped with small shops selling ethnic jewellery and beautifully embellished clothes and bags. Half an hour after the train had left Bangalore for Hospet I came down with fever, fortunate for me still had another 10 hours of train journey to go. We arrived in Hospet, the nearby town to Hampi at around 8am and straight away went to Hospital. Convinced at this point that I had Malaria the doctor took a blood sample and put me on a drip of glucose and antibiotics. I didn’t have malaria, but after 8 hours of being confined in my hospital room he lightly told me I had Typhoid and needed to stay in overnight. The fact that I had pretty much recovered by this point, and his apathy towards my situation in the first place led me to believe this wasn’t the case, and as in most Indian situations I think his motives was run by money, you cant even trust the bloody doctors.

So off I went to Hampi that evening, and by the following day I was pretty much recovered, albeit I was a little weak. Without planning, our weekend in Hampi fell during the festival of Holi, the festival of colours to celebrate the coming of summer months, and my god was in colourful. On Sunday morning the streets of Hampi was taken over by hoards of locals and tourists dancing to drums and throwing coloured powder and water at each other, even if you wanted to you couldn’t escape the vigour of the young Indian boys and their loaded water pistels filled with an assortment of dyed water. All well and good but is now Tuesday and my scalp and chest is still pink.

The chaos finally died down and we took our rented mopeds off through the Banana plantations to The Waterfall Restaurant to stock up on our energy, there was no waterfall to my disappointment but we sat and chilled for a few hours. After which we set of to Monkey Temple, conveniently across the river which had an unfinished bridge which has probably been in that state for a decade, so we paid some guys to take us and our bikes across on wicker boats, the fact that he scooped the water out with a cup filled me will great hope but we made it across. We drove a few more miles on open roads, fringed with huge boulders, banana plantations and the odd temple, the place felt majestically peaceful. We arrived at Monkey Temple and still feeling a little weak the prospect of climbing a million steps to the top seemed a little daunting. After about 45 minutes and 2 litres of water I made it and the views was spectacular.

We left Hampi and Hospet early Sunday evening and arrived back in Bangalore around 7am, I took a days rest and am now back at work. No trips for me this week, I hope, and the weekend I finally get to spend some time relaxing in Bangalore.

Hope all is well at home, would be nice to get some messages!!!

Speak soon, miss you all lots!

Kate
xxxx

---

Photos

The guys!
All covered in died powder, which still hasn't come off! Notice how happy I am!

Comments

[Steve]

Hi Katy! Your dad passed on your details about this site. It really sounds amazing what you have been upto. hope you get better soon steve

[josie]

hey kate, wow still sounds so amazing, its probably only thing keeping me entertained down here in brighton - so bored of work!! so sorry to here of your typhoid, hope ur all better now!Anyway back to dissertation proposal for me, have a gd week xxx

[Brother Hall]

Hey kate. Are you there to work or to party? Sounds like fun tho. Everything is cool here. Any new diseases? x

[vivek]

unfinished bridge at hampi
hi, stumbled across your blog. That unfinished bridge has been stopped unfinished by UNESCO as it was believed that it would encourage heavy vehicle traffic and damage the monuments (despite locals lobbying for it for years). at least for once it was not the government to blame in India. I am happy that you all enjoyed Holi festival.