Happy Hampi!

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Hampi!

We’ll open this blog entry with a report from the Death Bus. It turned up an hour late at Mapusa (obviously) to take us to the old town of Hampi. We’d booked an overnight sleeper bus that was to take 11 hours but took around 17… After boarding the bus and being allocated our ‘cell’ we realized this would be a long journey. We had a ‘bed’ on the top row right at the front of the bus which gave us a good view of all the driver’s antics... This came with a window that literally fully opened onto the road below. We’ve realized there are no health and safety regulations in India. Funny with hindsight but at the time you can find yourself longing for the organization and safety of the western world! We cowered in the corner for a few hours, hoping the driver would stop for a toilet break. No break came for 4 hours and Nikki was actually considering peeing in Gail’s sick bag. Anyway, we did stop for wee’s and to let on about 30 local (illegal?!) passengers - mainly men that stared at us in our cell for 3 hours till they got off. No privacy… Anyway, did managed to get some sleep, how we do not know as the roads in India are AWFUL!! If you thought Sheffield had some pot holes, get over here and take a ride on one of these buses to snap your spine.

Hampi is a little town in Karnataka state. It is basically the Indian equivalent to Rome in its heyday (empire) and is about 25kms of ruins and temples. It really is beautiful. For those of you struggling to imagine it, it’s like the Aztec Zone from the old Channel 4 Crystal Maze or a back drop to a Wild West film. Breathtaking.

So we arrived at about 9am and again, as is customerary we were accosted by 10,000 rickshaw drivers. One drove us to the hub of Hampi Bazaar and we haggled with The Shrewdest Business Woman in India for the room (more on her later). Bags dumped we headed for food and sightseeing. We took a walk down by the river which is a stunning area. Headed for the Mango Tree café in a ‘pilgrim to Steve from Nikki’s work’ styleee… only to find if we had done it ten years ago with him, this would have been what he described. Unfortunately, the Lonely Planet may have given it the kiss of death as you now have to queue to get in. We did not stay and headed up the river through the banana trees for the water fall. Met a Korean girl on the way and discovered another way locals can make money out of you… a man offered to take us all for 10rs each. We were quite pleased as the terrain was unstable and we were in flip flops. Obviously Nikki’s foot ended up in a pool of disgusting stagnant water. In monsoon season the water can rise by 25 meters and so the rocks are eroded into some beautiful shapes. It turns out there was no waterfall as it not monsoon season! As we headed back, the man got really angry and said it was 100rs each. We all refused, argued for a while and gave him the 10 and left. Annoying!
Back at the ranch, the water and electricity had gone off so we had to share a bucket of cold water by candle light to wash, whilst being eaten by more mosquitoes. Romantic?!

Day two… We hired a moped to explore the ruins further afield. The moped looked retro. And it was. It failed to start on numerous occasions leaving us looking like helpless English women to the local rickshaw drivers who sat and watched us struggle (note - there are never any women around in India!!). A few kind ones helped us start in whilst we gushed ‘thank you’s’. We visited The Royal Centre, the Vittalla Temple and a few other bits and bobs. (Another note - never ‘slyly’ take a picture of a cow with a gold thing on its horn as you will get into a full blown argument with a 7 year old boy over 5rs payment. This boy will then try to give you a tiny, literally just born, wet, goat to hold for another picture. Only in India we think…).
The temples are really impressive and we’re learning a lot about Hinduism. No alcohol served in Hampi so mint tea was had by all.

Day three… started with a lovely lie in (a luxury!). It was then ruined by The Shrewd Business Woman asking when we were leaving. It turns out the bus tickets we bought from her a few days earlier for Bangalore, were for tonight’s bus, not tomorrow night. ERROR. Basically, we’d lost a day in our heads due to the overnight bus (thought it was the 23rd, it was the 24th). Kindly, she knew we’d made this error, not told us and then charged for the room. Clever bitch. We need a diary.

With one afternoon left we panicked slightly and hired a tour guide to take us round the bits we’d not seen. This was touristy, yet the best decision we’ve made. The guy was lovely with betterer English than us! He knew so much about the history of Hampi and explained what all the temples, ruins and Hindu Gods were. A festival was starting that evening in Hampi. 50,000 Indians from all over the country were making their pilgrimage as it is regarded as a Holy Site; some from remote villages. These people had not seen Europeans and thus boosted our ‘celebratory’ status to C-list. We are now officially posing for photographs (although a lot of men insist on taking many unofficial photos which is a bit creepy and intrusive). The tour ended with a lovely little boat trip in a boat called a Corical - made from Bamboo and tar but very effective! A day that started as chaos actually turned out to be one of the best we’ve had! Really sad to leave at such short notice, another day would have been perfect.

That evening we threw on our badly packed, but getting lighter as we shed clothes and crap, backpacks and headed for another death bus to Bangalore…

Lots of love and watch out for those pot holes…
xxx

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Photos

holy powder
for street art in preparation for the festival

Comments

[Rich]

Gaily's pics
Love the picture of just you Gaily, looking very pretty. But then why in the one below do you look like you're having a stand up wee, hahaha x ps. sounds like lots of fun. By the way the indian locals obviously went on the same 'how to rip off tourists' as the Peruvian locals I met!