happy in hampi

wow. what an amazing few days. before my trip i was incredibly excited about hampi. situated in central karnataka, hampi houses the ruins of the 15th century city of vijayanagar set in an insanely beautiful landscape of huge granite boulders, banana plantations, rice paddies and hippies. i had heard that the best place to chill out and enjoy the sunsets was across the river in virupapar gaddi so i got the boat across the river and trekked along the road to my hotel, the shanthi guest house. it was a lovely place, i had a bungalow all to myself with a bed-swing on the porch which was the best place in the world to relax and read a book with a nice cup of chai. i had made vague plans to meet jaclyn and karen (the canadians from goa) but the first couple of days were my own.

i spent much of the first day wandering around completely awestruck at my surroundings. temples poking out from behind coconut trees and big huge boulder formations, the bazaar was noisy, crowded and filled with colour, and the views along the river down towards the ghats where the women would wash their clothes was breathtaking. the last boat across the river was at 6pm so i made sure i was in good time and made it back to the dining area of my shanthi guest house just in time to watch the sun slip behind the hills. and oh my, what a beautiful sight. the rice paddies started less than 10 feet from where i sat, framed by a few palm trees behind which you could see the river and the boulder-strewn bank rising up in the middle distance with the odd temple poking through the trees. it is close to one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen and as i sipped mint tea on my swing that evening i felt that i had finally found a place where i could get inside my head a bit.

the next morning i rose early and headed over the river to find a pushbike. the ruins cover an enormous area and i didn't really fancy paying over the odds to have a rikshaw driver take me around. turns out i needed one, but i'll tell you about that later :D i went to the first rental place i could see and i was presented with the crappiest, oldest, most beaten up bike i have ever seen. the steering column was wonky, the pedals were loose and the seat was really hard. emblazoned along the side in big proud letters was the word "hurricane". harry the hurricane had clearly seen better days but i liked the look of him so i paid my 40 rupees, jumped on and bell ringing loudly we bombed it along the crowded bazaar heading for the royal centre where there are some really well preserved ruins of a big trading and financial district, and the stables where the king's elephants were housed. the first hill out of the bazaar is pretty steep but harry did me proud as i arrived at the top, narrowly missing a wildly swerving school bus with kids hanging out of the window yelling "halloooooo!" while grinning and waving at me. after a few more hills harry and i rocked up at a sunken temple to shiva which was quite interesting, and then to the royal mint area which was again interesting and had some good examples of islamic architecture. i'll skip the next bit because you'll read it and you'll be thinking "cool, so you saw some ruined temples... oh, and more ruined temples eh? hmm... ruined temples you say?" lets just say there were a lot of ruins. i got to the elephant stables and paid my us$5 to get in and was presented with a walled area containing a few ruins but one really well preserved temple, the lotus mahal. shaped like the leaves of a lotus and with intricately detailed islamic pillars and arches a-go-go this thing was beautiful. there were a couple of people sat under some trees taking advantage of the shade (by this time it was beyond really hot) and there was a real air of being somewhere special. the lawns were really well tended and there was none of the dust and litter that seem to fill every other corner of india. i sat and had a ciggy and drank in some of the peace before heading to the main area which contained the stables. and wow, they are big (as you'd probably imagine if bloody elephants lived there i guess...) and in really good condition. they are fenced off and the gap between the fence and the walls is too small to get the whole building in one photo which kind of sucked ass. i had a stroll through them (and nearly had an underwear incident as i disturbed some roosting birds in one of the domes) trying to imagine what it would have been like to see them in the days when the elephants and their keepers lived there.

i toddled back to harry and with a wail of anguish i saw that he had picked up a puncture. i was over 5km away from the main area of hampi bazaar and the hills were pretty big. there was no way i was pushing him back so i enlisted the aid of a nearby rikshaw driver. 100 rupees to take me and harry back, as he would get told off for having a pushbike in the back apparently. i wasn't really in a position to argue but i got him down to 80, manhandled harry into the back and off we flew. at around this time kim and hannah text messaged to tell me they had a mobile in india now so we could text each other about the cool stuff we were doing. i of course had to text right back, one hand on the phone, one hand on the front forks of the bike and somehow keeping myself in the back of the rikshaw at the same time as we flew around blind corners, over hills and onwards towards hampi. i gave the rikshaw driver the 100 rupees he originally asked for (something i have started doing, as the smile they give you when you give them that extra bit that you beat them down on that they didn't think they would get is always the same - big, toothy and genuinely happy) and i went back to the little boy who rented me the bike that morning. he looked sad when he saw what had become of the once mighty harry hurricane, and offered me my money back. i thought about it but i had been gone a good 4 hours and it wouldn't have felt right, so i said no and headed off to my next destination - the vittala temple. the walk is about 3 km along the side of the river, across boulders, big expanses of rock and past decaying temples and bazaars.

the vittala temple is little newer than the rest of the ruins, and as such is in better shape. the carvings and structure are far more detailed and are the best in the whole complex. this is another place i was excited to see as there is a stone chariot outside the main temple which archaeologists have determined from some ruts running from the stone wheels to the main temple that the whole thing was able to move during ceremonies and the like. it was really good to see with my own eyes, and the rest of the temple complex was pretty sweet too. the walk there had taken its toll though, the heat was pretty intense and i had forgotten to use sunblock so because of the malaria pills i was (just a tiny amount) red all over. i haggled with a rikshaw driver and headed back to hampi for the last boat and some sunset goodness. as i was wandering through the backstreets of the bazaar looking for some baggy trousers i bumped into jaclyn and karen, and some more canadians a new yorker and a brit that they had been hanging out with that day. they were staying at the next guest house to the shanthi where i was so we headed across before the riverboat curfew at 6, had some dinner and again saw a wonderful sunset.

the next day was loads of fun. the canadians had all agreed to meet up and rent some bikes for the day so i tagged along. it was great, the girls all had bright pink miss india shopper bikes (as did kevin the new yorker, which was rather amusing) and we all had loud bells and bad brakes. i visited the places i had visited the day before but found i got more out of the experience as i had people to share it with. that gave me food for thought for a decision i made later on (as you will see if you're a good boy or girl and are still reading this) so we had a day of fun, we sat and spoke about our experiences in india and for those that had been there south-east asia, what life was like back home for us all and how we knew going back would be really hard. before long the conversation turned to poo (as it always seems to with travellers) how often, how much, how smelly etc. it's important stuff to discuss as we all have our horror stories now and it's good to hear that you're not alone, and also to pick up tips on how to deal with it (i've learnt that banana lassi is totally the way to go when things go squishy downstairs) so we had a few laughs there. we had a lovely meal at one of the rooftop terraces and went our separate ways as the others were on the main side of the river and couldn't get across to us to see the sunset which sucked. well, they could, but they'd have to pay 100-odd rupees for the pleasure instead of the usual 10.

we sat and watched the sunset and some english guys that the canadian girls had met the day before came and joined us. things got a bit rowdy and we had a good time teaching jaclyn how to do a british accent. the trouble was the lads were from grimsby which made it a bit tricky! the next day was all about the vegging out as our bus to bengaluru wasn't until 10:30, and checkout time at our guest houses was 9am. this wasn't a big deal though as we had all been here long enough to know how to do nothing in a productive fashion. this mainly involves eating, sipping chai, playing cards (i taught the canadians shithead - a little slice of british culture for them hehe) and writing in our journals. after a few hours we realised that we hadn't seen the hanuman temple, on the virupapar gaddi side of the river up one of the bigger hills. so off we trudged, sweaty and tired and my word was it worth it. the temple itself was a bit crappy and run down, but there were monkeys flying about all over the place eating coconuts and bananas and the views across the whole hampi ruin complex were mind blowing. i seem to be seeing a lot of this mind blowing stuff over here, i hope i have a brain left when i get back.

anyway, after that awesomeness we rolled back to hampi in our rikshaw singing bob marley songs with the driver and his 15 year old brother and i decided that i liked india a lot. it's pretty hard sometimes travelling on your own but there are always people along the way who keep you company and share their crazy with you. i had met some more here, karen and jaclyn are ace and i've had a real good time with them and i'm really glad to have met them. everyone follows a similar route here so i know for certain we'll hang out again somewhere else.. pushkar, kolkata, chennai.. who knows?

we ate and then the 3 of us and the house that is karen's rucksack somehow squeezed into a rikshaw to hospet where our bus left from. i hung my head out of the side when i realised there was no artificial light and looked at the sky. i was struck dumb at how many stars there were in the sky - so beautiful. as we got to the bus station our hearts sank... israelis... everywhere... for the uninitiated isreali travellers are the worst kind of arsehole ever to grace the earth. sweaty, arrogant, loud, obnoxious, smelly, drug-addled arses. they argued with everyone, the conductor, the driver, the indian passengers. they refused to move when told to move, took the piss out of the indians on the coach, played their guitars even though it was an overnight sleeper, and stunk the whole coach up with their hashish. despite that the trip to bangalore was miles better than the one from goa to hampi. i was sat next to a young professional from the area who was heading back to bengaluru to start the working week. he was lovely, and he hated israeli travellers as well so he was ok in my book. i had 10 hours to sit and collect my thoughts so i whacked my ipod on and tried to relax as the bus rattled around at warp speed.

i thought mainly about what to do next. earlier that day i had spoken to kim and hannah who if you've been paying attention you'll recall i had hung out with in goa. they are in the north of the country at the moment and it's crazy but they are missing my company just as much as i am missing theirs. i had toyed with the idea of going up to do some stuff with them in the north for a few weeks when i left goa and after we spoke on the phone i had pretty much made up my mind to do it. i sat and had a think while i was on the bus about how this would affect my time here and my reasons for coming etc. and decided that the stuff i was seeing has in every case been enhanced by seeing it with other people and most of the important thinking i have done has been done on the journeys between places - the 15 hour bus trips, the overnight sleeper trains, the 16 hour konkan railway and there are always quiet times when you wander off and do your own thing. so yeah, here i am sat in bangalore with jaclyn and karen deciding on how much to spend in their palace hotel in mysore while i tell you people about my week.

bengaluru is lovely. very western, clean and with great shops, entertainment, bars and food. the people all look well-off, educated and very western in their dress. the lonely planet (which we have started calling the lonely liar) said this place was dirty, brash and smelly but it is anything but that. this isn't the india i came to see but it is a nice change and is very welcome after nearly 4 weeks of complete immersion in the dirt, dust, noise and everything india that has become my temporary home. this is the new india that wants the world to see how advanced and ready for the 21st century it is, and it is full of life and promise here.

i'll be heading off to rajahstan to see kim and hannah maybe tomorrow or tuesday. and i'm excited :D