Hampi

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The last day at Palolem, I met a Dutch backpacker called Nils who happened to be taking the same bus as me to Hampi. We left Palolem beach together, heading into Chaudi, the next town, where we took our bus. It was 2 hours late, and totally overbooked! Luckily, Nils and I found an empty double sleeper amongst the chaos and confusion of who was supposed to sleep where, as seat (or rather sleeper) numbers meant nothing. I was assigned sleeper 30, but there were only 20 bunks on the bus. Typical! The journey was pretty bumpy, and we took pity on an English girl called Sophie who was crammed into her single sleeper by 3 local men sitting on it, and let her squeeze into our roomy double.
On arrival at 8am in Hampi, a hot, windless village on the Deccan plains, Nils and I parted company with Sophie who stayed inside the bazaar, the area that comprises the village of Hampi, and we headed across the river on a quick 20 second boat ride to check into a river side guest house (70 rupees a night, 1 quid, with attached bathroom and fan, as opposed to 200 on the other side of the river!). The views from just outside our rooms, in a small courtyard complete with a mango tree and hammocks below it, gave us a great sighting of the Virupaksha temple, a towering, tapering 16th century Hindu structure at one end of a 700m long colonnaded boulevard. Gigantic smooth boulders make up much of the topography of the area, including the hills, river bed and sides and plains. Some 6km south of Hampi bazaar is the Royal city of Vijayanagar, former capital of the Hindu kingdom in India, lying in ruins, virtually levelled to the ground after a Muslim invasion in 1565.
First thing I did was have a shower, and for a moment, after turning the single tap, I thought they only had boiling hot water. It wasn't until about 30 seconds later cold water run out the shower head, and I realised the sun had heated the water in the pipe to a scorching temperature! Nice way to start a shower though, hot before it turns freezing cold! After we freshened up, we decided to walk across the river instead of paying the 10 rupee fee for the 20 second boat ride, thinking the river was pretty shallow. We were quite wrong. It took us 30 minutes to find a path that was traversable and the water still soaked our pulled up shorts. Nils slipped in the deep part but managed to keep his bag and camera above his head.
Once in town, we headed to the Virupaksha temple, which was unfortunately closed for lunch. On the way out, we noticed blood dripping from the archway of the main entrance, and noticed a monkey giving birth in a strut above our heads! So we stayed and watched the miracle of birth. Yay!
So to fill in our time, we walked down the length of the boulevard towards the monolithic bull, Shiva's transport, which faces the Virupaksha temple at the other end. Climbing some ancient stairs over a low hill, we came into the Achyutaraya temple complex, empty of any of the tourists so readily visible around the bazaar. The temple complex isn't large, but it's fairly well preserved and was pleasant to view without anyone around. Another long boulevard leads from this complex towards the river, but we headed back the same way into town as it was quicker.
As we sat in a cafe, sheltering from the intense afternoon sun, made all the more worse by the stillness of the air (Hampi has a severe shortage of wind. Not even a light breeze ever blows there!), we spotted Sophie walking down the boulevard and joined her in viewing the Virupaksha temple, where they sat and spoke to a local as I paid my respects to Shiva and received a tilak on my forehead and ginger flowers to put behind my ear.
That evening, we had dinner at the Mango Tree, a delightful riverside restaurant 10 minutes walk out of town with amazing vegetarian food. The seats and tables are arranged on terraces unrolling down the slope of the riverbank, and a single swing under the immense mango tree helps you cool down in the still air. After dinner, Sophie headed back to her hotel, and Nils and I went to catch the boat (we weren't going to cross the river after our last attempt!), only to find it didn't run after sundown! We asked a local and paid them 30 rupees to show us the 'local' way to walk across the river. So thus armed with the secret path across, the following days we always walked.
The second day, I was going to buy my ticket to head on to Bangalore. I was only planning to stay two days in Hampi, but after the travel agency told me about the Yatra festival (more on that later) a couple of days away, I decided to stay on. Nils and I hired scooters and rode 20km to Hospet, a neighbouring city, to get some cash out as Hampi has no ATM facilities. The ride was pleasant, and we got a good tan that day, riding from Hospet back to Hampi via the Royal city to the south.
The Royal city is very large. It's easy to einvisage what it must have looked like during its heydays in the 15th century. Almost no walls remain of the place, totally destroyed by Muslim invaders after they captured it. The only structures remaining are a couple of temples and the enormous elephant stables. We ended up paying a guard 50 rupees each at the back gate of the elephant stables so we didn't have to pay the official 250 rupees at the front! It's so corrupt here in India! We didn't approach him, he simply came up to us and offered! On the way back into Hampi, we spotted some filming going on at Hematuka hill above town, and went to take a look. It's was amusing to see the immense crowd gathered (we were just as guilty!) at the edges of the set, curious and hoping to catch a glimpse of any known actors or actresses. The police were there in force, keeping the peace violently with strong swipes of their lathis (bamboo canes they are armed with) at any or all spectators that venture too far forward, or anywhere else the policeman decides. Men, women, children and old people are not exempt from such punishments, and surprisingly, it is simply accepted without any fighting, shouting or rebuttal at what would be construed as severe, unprovoked, police brutality in any 'civilised' country. That evening, we met up with Sophie and had dinner by the river in town before heading to bed.

The third day, before the festival, Nils, Sophie and I woke at 5am to head up the Matanga Hill, on top of which is perched a derelict temple to Hanuman. We sat on the side of the steep hill to watch what is touted as one of the most spectacular sunrises in the world (according to quite a few guide books), and it certainly was. The undulating horizon of boulder speckled hills and ruined temples amongst coconut trees and tropical vegetation provide a fantastic backdrop to the shifting colours of light as the sun rises out of bed. Monkeys came out to bask in the sun, hulddled together, shaking off the coldness in their bones under the warm rays of the morning light. We sat for near an hour, and climbed back down the treacherous path of boulders back to town, were Nils and Sophie attended a yoga class, as I headed to the Mango Tree for lunch and relaxation for a few hours. That evening, Nils and I found a nice restaurant on the other side of the river (same side as our guest house). Most places on the other side of the river have or are closing down since it's the end of the high season.
The Yatra festival (or Car festival as some locals call it) is a celebration of the marriage of the deities. In Hampi, they celebrate the marriage of Shiva and Parvati by placing their icons from the Virupaksha temple into an enormous chariot, some 15 meters tall. Preceeded by dancers, the temple elephant, Lakshmi, and drummers, the chariot is pulled by some 100 men down the 700m long boulevard as hordes of people hurl bananas into any opening of the tall 'car' as an offering. Sitting on the roof of a cafe on the roadside, I really had to look out for low flying bananas, after being hit on the head, arm and right in my bollocks one time. That really hurt.
It just so happened that an English guy, called Olly, came up to me. I had met him and his girlfriend Hattie a month before on the train station platform in Jaipur as we smoked a cigarette. We ended up chatting for ages, and we all headed to the Mango Tree that night for dinner, where I met two Canadians, Stef and Leonard, through them. After dinner, we found a restaurant in town that served alcohol (Hampi is totally dry, but there are a few secret places you can drink). We had probably the strongest and nastiest drinks I have ever had in my life. Half a glass of what must have been some Indian whisky made from cows urine, plus a splash of coke and a squeeze of lime. Tell you what though, two of those made each of us all quite woozy!
The final day in Hampi, I simply relaxed in the hammock, watching the visiting crowds of Indians left over fromt he festival bathing in the river, the buffalo grazing the banks, and the hostel dog begging me for food I didn't have. In the evening, Nils and I caught a rickshaw to Hospet where we jumped onto the overnight sleeper train to Bangalore.
It's raining here in Bangalore. It's the first bit of rain I have seen since Jaisalmer, nearly a month ago. It's a nice respite from the boiling heat, but it'll just mean it's going to be well humid afterwards! Accomodation here is really expensive (I'm paying 400 rupees, 5 quid), but I get a TV and hot water in an attached bathroom. There's no budget places here. All the cheap places are full, so we managed to find a semi-cheap place. It's ok since I'm only here probably for one night. There's not much to sightsee here, it's my junction stop before heading to Mysore (since I can't get from Hampi to Mysore direct). Bangalore is really an upmarket city, the most modern city here in India I've so far seen. There are modern, aircon shopping malls everywhere with Levi's, United Colours of Benetton, Nike, Reebok, Sony, KFC, Starbucks style coffeeshops, and plush office buildings housing some top software companies from around the world. This really is the IT software powerhouse of Asia.
So tomorrow, off to Mysore, and one of the most famous markets in South India!