Out There: Hampi

Leaving our memories of Goa behind, we decided on Hampi for our next destination. As may become standard, this post will begin with a crazy transport story: There was no train from Goa to Hampi but being a well-travelled tourist route there was a ‘sleeper bus’ which sounded doable so we promptly booked it, despite Anneke’s reservations about motion sickness. As it turns out, the slightly nauseating rhythmic sway of the bus would have been a delight compared to what we actually experienced. Anyway, excitedly we boarded and discovered our spot was at the back of the bus which was one giant bed which we were sharing with a bunch of other new friends. With others jealously looking on from their bunks at the front (well, we thought so anyway), we were all remarking about how we were soooo lucky to have the whole back to ourselves, like a giant slumber party… it was going to be the best journey ever!

After all laughing and joking and finally settling down to sleep we were rudely awakened by our bodies flying into the air and thumping back down with a back-shattering smash. What the? We thought, as Anneke popped her anti-nausea pills and tightened her motion sickness bracelets, and I swallowed another sleeping pill. Weird. But it was only the beginning…. I can officially report that the road from Goa to Hampi contains approximately 352 of what I can only imagine are very large speed bumps and while the driver slowed down to take the front wheels over the bump, and we had just managed to get two seconds of drug induced sleep, he then promptly speed up and we all awoke in fright as the back wheels hit at an astonishing speed. So it was with very bleary eyes that we alighted at 6am in a new place, after no sleep, with about 20 tuk-tuk drivers shoving maps in our faces and offering us temple tours. Having once again done no research on our destination we were quite surprised to discover that Hampi actually had temples, but in any case the thought of doing anything but sleeping was making us both feel ill so one guy offered to help us find a guesthouse for just 10 rupees (20c). Gosh that’s awfully cheap, I thought, but we agreed, only to find that the ride was just 30 seconds long. Mission successful though as we found the first decent place and passed out.

Hampi turned out to be completely awesome! When we had recovered from our pharmaceutical hangovers we went out to explore and found that the area was completely surrounded by ancient temples! But unlike preserved tourist spots we had explored previously, such as Angkor Wat, there was no entrance fee, or restricted area or anything. In fact, one of the temples was in use as the main place of worship for the area and smaller remains had been claimed as convenient shop fronts. Yes, I’m sure this was adding to the ruin of these precious archaeological sites but let’s be honest: HOW COOL DOES AN ANCIENT TEMPLE LOOK WHEN CONVERTED INTO A SHOPFRONT! (photo below). We spent the day exploring these sights and more, until temple fever hit and they all started blurring into one under the massively hot sun.

The main market area was the most colourful and interesting place we had seen in India, there were stalls selling all sorts of stuff from chalk to chickpeas. Monkeys played all over the place. We wandered around in the evening and noticed there was a strange feeling in the air which we discovered was due to a festival in progress. We heard a loud booming coming from the temple and went to investigate. Walking past a group of women singing with a huge crowd watching, we discovered a strange procession of drummers. Chained to the wall opposite was an elephant, painted up with chalk and munching on chickpeas. The animal rights activist within me was slightly upset but the cultural enthusiast took over and we watched eerily as the progression emerged, consisting of 4 men carrying an empty chair on their shoulders which looked like it represented some sort of deity. People came up to the chair and smashed open coconuts, juice spraying everywhere, placing the flesh on the chair. A man carrying one leg of the chair started eating some of the coconut flesh but I’m not sure if this was related or whether he was just hungry. Anyway, the whole thing was quite fascinating. Then finally came the elephant, unchained, parading along. People were handing out coins which the elephant picked up with its trunk, gave to its handler, and patted the donor on his or her head. I wanted to participate but I felt too sorry for the elephant and also the whole scene reminded me of a clip I once saw in the doco series ‘When Animals Attack’ from which I have mental scarring.

The next morning when awoken at 6am by the guesthouse owner noisily washing aluminium dishes outside our bedroom window which wouldn’t close, we decided to move to ‘the other side of the river’ that everyone had been talking about. This was fabled to be a travellers paradise, relaxing and peaceful with a river on one side and rice paddies on the other. It was everything we had been promised! I tried my first Indian yoga class and loved every minute of it, the teacher was so strict but inspiring and I managed to do a headstand without using the wall for the first time ever (considering I have been attempting this for the past 4 years it was really quite an achievement). The teacher was unbelievably flexible, and he kept demonstrating, then saying 'if still comfortable... then do this...,then this.... then this' at which point Anneke started hyperventilating and another girl in the class took photos.

The next morning we decided to get up ridiculously early and watch the sunrise at a ‘Monkey Temple’ which was also supposed to be amazing. So we hired bicycles the night before and set off at 5am to find this elusive temple. Once again, a slight bit of research may have been useful as we were going off some guy who told us, it’s about 2k up that way – pointing vaguely to a road. It was pitch back so we shone our torches in front of us. After a little while, Anneke started saying she felt nauseous. While I did feel bad for her, mornings do not bring out my more sympathetic side and I was like- we got up at 5am, let’s just get to the damn monkey temple and see this damn sunrise- also feeling slightly nauseous but passing this off as a side effect of the early rising to which I am not accustomed. So when we saw the first hill-ish looking thing on our right we both decided – that’ll do. There seemed to be no path so we got our torches out and climbed some rocks which led nowhere. Anneke decided that she was over it and going back but then I saw a guesthouse in the dim light which boasted a ‘sunrise view’ so we parked up there, snuck up behind the guesthouse and climbed the hill. Hooray, a sunrise view, of sorts, there was a small temple-ish, thing and some dogs, and a lizard. And the sunrise over the paddy fields WAS amazing, temple/animal/sunrise experience: Check!

We slunk back to the guest house and Anneke feeling decidedly ill planted herself down on the loungers to chill out while I, still in denial, decided I would go to another yoga class. Bad idea. It was about a quarter of the way through that it dawned on me I was not feeling good. Attempting backbends and stomach twists suddenly started to make me feel very strange. I kept telling myself mind over matter mind over matter but then it just became too much and I had to run outside and spew. NOoooooo! Cue horrendous day of drinking water then spewing it back up again all day. When fragile and shaky I checked my facebook that evening I noticed that Anneke had tagged me in a post the previous day : ‘I love travelling with Jen, even the food is an adventure, ordered two totally random dishes for lunch and it was delish!’ Grrrrrr. Luckily, in an attempt to master the various Indian cuisines, I had written down the names of what we ordered for future reference. The names now come in handy for knowing what NOT to order as that particular combination of spices still makes me feel queasy. So basically, the rest of our time at Hampi was spent in a kind of forced relaxation, where we sipped on lassis and watched the days go by as we recovered. Not too bad really :)