Hampi
It’s becoming a ‘norm’ that buses in India depart from the most seemingly, random of places.
Having paid an extra RS 500 (£5) to remain in our room in Calangute until 4 pm. We had an early supper then took a taxi from the restaurant to the side of the main N66 highway. The ‘travel agency’ named as our pick up point, was nowhere to be seen. The business now in the location knew nothing of the travel agency we searched for. We made ourselves confident with our choice of location by looking through old site images on Google Maps.
As always we were early, but this gave us time to visit an ATM and undertake a slow coffee in a local Subway.
Eventually, arriving just a few minutes late, the bus and our bed for the night appeared in the darkness. We shuffled into our allocated curtained box.
Night buses, like night trains, are not friends to those who want to sleep. With the train, it’s mainly the overuse of the ‘horn’. On a bus, you become painfully aware of the state of some sections of Indian roads. It makes for a long night, light sleep and occasional stops at a service station to use the facilities. Finally asleep, you are then rudely awakened by the bus conductor. Having arrived at your stop he is trying to get you, and half of the passengers on the bus, to leave immediately.
We are deposited in an unfamiliar town 13km away from Hampi. It’s very early in the morning, and it’s not yet light. An army of Tuk Tuk drivers is on hand to bridge this 13km gap. Our driver knows everyone. We conclude that this is the norm with Hampi being such a tiny place. Having arrived hours from ‘checking in time,’ our driver kindly contacted our hotel and then arranged for somewhere to sit and ‘wait’. We sat with a coffee in the rooftop cafe watching both the sun and the monkeys make an appearance. Slowly we became aware that I had made the booking for the right dates but in the wrong month. No one had been expecting us.
Our host was very accommodating. I would like to think that it was as part of his efforts to help us, that led to use being allocated a room with an unfinished bathroom. I am sure that the other rooms in the hotel did not have a bathroom with patched wooden walls and a shower with no 45-degree bend, which necessitated standing on the opposite side of the bathroom to wash.
Hampi itself was all around the tiny nucleus of the village, You couldn’t miss it, with its temple towering into the sky. This used to be the capital for one of the Earth’s greatest civilisations, second only to Rome, and yet today it barely gets a mention in student history books.
On our first day, we visited the sites within walking distance. On our second day we took a Tuk Tuk to visit the sites further out, this place made more amazing because so much of it is standing. There is a comprehensive programme of protection and renovation; our guide advises us that eventually the whole area will be ‘unearthed’. I can only imagine a town or city larger than Pompeii. Currently available sites, even in the shoulder season, were busy with tourists and guides and the heat was stifling.
On the morning of our last day, we lingered over breakfast and then lemon, ginger and honey tea, route planning. We wandered the bazaar, purchasing just a few key usable items rather than gifts or trinkets. We explored the site of the ancient bazaar and climbed up to the top of a neighbouring hill. In just three days we had become used to finding parts of Hampi ‘hiding’ in the countryside and this hill was no exception for on the far side, in the valley, yet another, almost perfect, but deserted town was hiding from the tourists. This whole area is a treasure trove for the inquisitive about ancient times and cultures.
Recent rains however had made our plan to cross the river by local boat and explore the far bank impossible. The height of the water also obscured the huge boulders in the river for which the area is famous. The banks of the river were home to water buffalo roaming in banana palms, accompanied by Egriets. I tried, and can highly recommend the banana flower curry – which we didn’t see anywhere else during our travels.
We made our own entertainment. Refusing the continuous requests to buy a fridge magnet. Agreeing to the continued requests for selfies. Seeing the funny side when robbed of my Sprite by an ingenious light-fingered monkey. Helping cow who had decided to wear the ‘flip top’ part of a bin like a medical cone, so hated by dogs post-operation.
The return to Goa was purely a rerun of the outward leg with a couple of service stops, (one of which saw me rescuing a terrified girl from a tiny green frog), lights that didn’t work and asthmatic air conditioning units.
We had opted to leave the bus at Canacona as we had booked a beach hut at Palolem Beach. On arrival, the bus was an hour or so late and deposited us on the side of the main highway. Google Maps helped us get our bearings and we walked in the dark the 30 minutes to Palolem where we sat on the beach and watched the sun come up over the bay.
