Getting There

We chose to fly into an airport close to Hampi rather than take a 12 hour train. Vijaynagar Airport was ultra tiny. We walked off the plane and passed by a small building that looked like it was only used for departing passengers.

We waited by a row of portable toilets for our luggage, that arrived in a cart being pulled by a tractor. Fantastic. Then we set off through the front gates. There were a few cabbies about but we had arranged a pick up from our accommodation. Apparently they forgot about us because nobody showed up. We called and they said they would send someone but we told them not to bother and caught a ride from one of the taxis out front. But not before I snuck back in through the gates to use the loo since it was about an hour drive into Hampi. The toilets were all squatters, but I had mastered these by this point in our travels.

A few minutes after driving off I noticed quite a few mosquitoes in the car so I started to put on my bug dope and wound down the window to shoo them out. It didn’t seem to matter how many we got rid of, the moment we wound the windows back up there were more. I swear he was breeding them somewhere in the vehicle. So much for paying extra for an air conditioned car. We drove most of the way with the windows down so we wouldn’t get eaten alive. The main dusty road to Hampi was pretty busy with larger vehicles and not much to look at aside from the cattle wandering on the roads and the occasional feral pigs. We passed through a small community at one point and it was cool to see how excited the kids were. They waved and yelled when they saw us and some of them chased after the car smiling and waving.

When we arrived in Hampi there were gates set up around the road that we needed to take to get to our accommodation. Our taxi driver told us we would have to walk the rest of the way. I knew there was no way in hell we were walking. It was hot as sin and Andre’s face said it all. We tried contacting our host yet again to figure out how to get to our place. But the network in Hampi is hopeless. Finally our driver was able to use his cell to contact them and they said they were coming to get us with a tuk tuk. We ended up backtracking the way we came and took a different road right up to our building.

 

Accommodation

As I had mentioned in a previous post, there were very slim pickings in Hampi and we booked the best room we could find. At $45.00 a night we were not overly impressed. But it did beat the hell out of last room simply because it was clean, and from what we had heard from other travelers finding a clean place was an accomplishment. For what they were asking though, it was a bit of a joke. I say this in comparison to other rooms we have had throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Like I said, the temperatures were high 30s. There was no air conditioning, but there was a fan. A very dodgy fan that did not look like it was secured properly and made the most annoying squeaking sound. As we lie in bed looking up at the fan we both started laughing. It was absurdly loud and it looked like it may fly off off and kill us as we slept. Andre turned it down to lessen the noise but it was just too hot to have it going that slow. So then he decided he would try to fix it. The ceiling was high enough that even standing on the bed he still had to pile travel cubes of clothing on top of each other to stand on in order to reach the fan. It was a precarious situation. He had out his mini tool kit and was trying to tighten screws, then he pulled out my coconut oil to try to grease it up.

Nothing helped. He’d lie down, he’d get back up on the cubes and faff. Up, down, up, down. Finally we both put in our ear plugs. I was just beginning to drift off when Andre’s hysterical cackling woke me right back up. At one point in the night I turned to see him with my airplane pillow wrapped around his head because the earplugs apparently just weren’t enough. It was a long night.

The next thing I remember is Andre waking me up and telling me that we were moving rooms. He had already moved everything. All I had to do was crawl out of bed and into the new one. The room was identical to the first but the fan was silent.

 

The room was pretty ordinary but the fact that we were right in the heart of the ancient bazaar with all the temples around was very cool. The views by the river were stunning. Although I will say, I can understand why they are trying to clear out the area by shutting down accommodation etc. It’s sad to see all the garbage around this beautiful ancient village. The juxtaposition of picturesque scenery and garbage littered everywhere is just one of many examples of extreme contrasts in India.

I Love Hampi!

I fell in love with Hampi. Hampi was magical… to me. Andre enjoyed it but he wasn’t enthralled with it like I was. Again, I love animals, so that probably had a lot to do with it. Take away the cows wandering the tiny streets, the herds of goats, and the monkeys that were everywhere, constantly getting into everything and causing havoc for the locals, and I probably would have thought it was just okay. The temples were pretty amazing but I’m not sure I’d go all that way just to see them. If you’ve ever been to the ruins of Angkor in Cambodia and loved it then you definitely want to visit Hampi.

For me the charm of this place was the town and the river. Watching the locals in the mornings and evenings as they bathed and washed clothes. The monkeys, hundreds of them, jumping around from tree to tree, running through town, getting into food, being chased off by the locals who hurled whatever was in reach at them.

 

As we strolled down by the river one evening I looked up to see a tree full of monkeys. It seemed like there was one on every branch. Passing by some of the vendors on the path we asked one of the women how they kept their goods from being stolen from the monkeys. She replied by pointing at the gray langur and said, “Good monkey. Temple monkey bad monkey.” It seems the macaques are the ones that are the trouble makers.

The other thing I loved were the cows that hung out in town. In the evenings you’d see them standing frozen in the moonlight. During the day they’d wander around drinking and eating out of pails where locals had left them treats. One afternoon I walked by a cow squeezed into a space between somebody’s home and their fenced off veranda area. It was literally just enough space for the width of the cow’s body.

As we walked through town we’d see ladies effortlessly walking down the roads with baskets of goods on their heads and the smiles of local shop people who knew just how to get our attention. I bought a few tops and a kurta and I really enjoyed the process. Yes, they started higher than what things were worth, but the spirit of haggling was fun because of their warm nature and their entertaining theatrics. I actually loved the process. This was a 180 degrees from what I experienced in Vietnam. I even returned to a shop to buy a top from one lady because she had cheekily hassled me so well about not buying anything from her shop and she let me give her a hard time back.

There was also the temple elephant that was taken down to the river each morning for a bath. I am not a fan of animals being confined anywhere, be it zoos, “sanctuaries”, or temples, but I will say that this lady seemed to have a better existence than many that I’ve seen in captivity. We saw her during her morning bath and later when we visited the temple. She “blessed” me by putting her trunk on my head. Her trunk was so soft and she was very gentle and I just wanted to give her a cuddle. In retrospect I don’t feel good about participating in this, but I was caught up in the moment and convinced myself that it was harmless for me to partake. Perhaps if people didn’t give a donation for a blessing they wouldn’t keep her there, although I think that they likely still would for ceremonies etc. I feel bad about it regardless.

 

Hampi Campers

They really should have shirts made. I saw a few “Don’t worry, be Hampi” shirts, but none with “Hampi camper”. We met quite a few happy souls in Hampi, including an entertainment writer for latestly.com, and her friend who was an actress who was transitioning from television to the stage. They told us all about India’s celebrities and Bollywood, and talked about their favorite actor Shahrukh Khan.

They never mentioned this guy, but he was everywhere, and I loved it!

During our stay we also met two beautiful ladies from Bangalore, Yuthika and Anjali. They both had day jobs in IT to pay the bills but their passion was dancing. We got to learn a bit more about the dances we had seen in Kochi, which were different than the cultural dances they perform. They were great company and we ran into them a few times. They even found a place that arranged to get us all a beer!

Mahda, the guy who ran the place we were staying, was pretty quiet but if we asked him questions he would happily chat. His wife had just had a baby and he showed us photos. When I asked what the babies name was he said they hadn’t yet named him. He explained that they don’t name the baby until after the birth, sometimes months afterward, and that the name is based on information provided by an astrologer. We learned a lot of interesting things from him.

Then there was Scott from Germany. A young man on his first big solo adventure. He was a really smart kid with a good head on his shoulders, and listening to him speak about his ideas and plans for the future gave me hope. I think he will do wonderful things.

Another Three Hour Tour

I had researched the temples in and around Hampi. There were a lot. I narrowed down the list to a handful of sites that would only take us around three hours to see. When it’s 36 degrees out, three hours is about enough for us. We started out with a few temples that were right outside the area we were staying and then set out for the first larger site, the Zanana Enclosure, but we didn’t get very far. The road had a slight incline and the tuk tuk we were in was struggling. Our driver asked us to get out and walk up a few meters to the Sister Stones and he would meet us there. This was 25 minutes into our tour. We sat on the side of the road waiting in the shade. It was clear that the tuk tuk had broken down. But within ten minutes our driver had arranged for another guy to come and get all three of us and drop us at the next stop.

He said that it would probably take us 45 minutes to walk around and by that time he should have his tuk tuk back and running. Forty-five minutes later, there he was, tuk tuk purring and off we went to the next site. Even with our minor break down we ended up back in Hampi 3 hours later.

But as it turned out 3 hours was even a bit much for me. I definitely didn’t drink enough water and I didn’t use our sunbrella as much as I should. I had no appetite that evening and just drank a mango lassi for dinner and went to bed early. The next day was our last and I was feeling alright but still not hungry at all. We took it easy and went to see a few of the temples within walking distance in the late afternoon after the temperatures had dropped. I barely ate again that night and packed up my bag early for our morning train before passing out. It was going to be an early start (5:30am) to get to the train station for our 9.5 hour journey.

 

236 days in…

Let’s get back to the beach. Bring on Goa.