Time moves slower (Hampi, India)
It would be very easy to skip past all of the moments that led up to (and out of) my trip to see the Vijayanagar Empire ruins in Hampi, but these are the stories that make traveling an adventure. I could quickly tell you how great it was to see the past coming to life today. I could also tell you how I truly felt like a “weekend warrior” after this trip. Both of these would be accurate, but would completely truncate the weekend to the point where it has lacks life - lacks feeling. Here is the full story.. The adventure began late on a Friday night when a group of friends and I ventured to the Gandhi Nagar neighborhood of Bangalore to board our overnight sleeper bus to Hampi. After a few circles around the area and only seeing the major tour bus names (ours not being one of them), we eventually found the miniature office for our bus company. Walking onto the bus, the only thought that went through my head was how badly the company had misrepresented the true condition of this bus on their website’s photographs and videos. Eventually after finding our beds and having the bus driver remove a couple of squatters from one, we were on the road. It never occurred to me or any of my friends that a sleeper bus would not be equipped with a bathroom, but about two hours into the ride and having not slept a minute, a group of us were ushered to the side of the highway to find a spot we preferred while the bus driver kept his eyes peeled at us. The bus continued to surge along and not without me feeling it then entire time. The sound of a bus horn is very distinct in India and with the mix of the horn and my bed being right above the rear tires, I had an extremely bumpy, noisy and overall uncomfortable ride. It wasn’t until the ride back to Bangalore that I was able to sleep at all on the bus and that was purely out of necessity and overall exhaustion. Upon arriving in Hampi we were greeted by a group of auto-rickshaw drivers looking to make some easy money from all of the tourists on the bus. We quickly fulfilled their request and agreed to take two rickshaws to our hotel. After traveling a distance that would have likely only taken us about ten minutes to walk, the rickshaw drivers won that battle and we paid them their one hundred rupees each and waited for the boat to cross the river from Hampi to Virupapur Gaddi. After crossing over the river (for the first of many times) in a boat that was as basic as a motor boat can get, we trekked to the end of the seemingly mile long road to our hotel. Being the tourist offseason in India, we had our pick of rooms and chose three small huts in a row with a beautiful view of the rice patties in the rear of the hotel grounds. We quickly showered, changed and started our walk back to cross the river back to Hampi. Throughout the weekend, we were reminded of how lucky (for the most part) we were to be traveling during the dreaded monsoon season. Without having to wait, we got back to Hampi in perfect time to see the temple elephant coming down to the river for her ritual morning bath. The treatment she received from her two keepers was similar to a five star spa treatment. After watching them scrub her head to toe and rinse her half-submerged body, we left to replenish ourselves with a much needed breakfast. Our dining options were limited, as most shops and restaurants close during monsoon season in Hampi, but we quickly became regulars at the Mango Tree Restaurant, having breakfast there both days and lunch once, as well. Refreshed and energized after a nice breakfast, we began to walk throughout the ruins. Again we were quickly reminded of how great it was to be one of the few groups of tourists in Hampi. Walking alone throughout all of the magnificent deserted structures, it almost felt as though we were the first people to discover these ancient ruins. While we were keen to walk as often as possible and probably walked over a mile or two each day, another perk was never having to struggle to find a rickshaw to whip us around to places when walking became a burden. This held true, however, right up until we were walking to find the famous Stepped Bath, which had eluded us even as we continued to circle around its location on our near-worthless maps we had bought at the bazaar earlier. At this point, we were tired, had taken a lot of the “roads less traveled” and were looking to find this last monument and then planned to make our way back into town. We were then reminded that we were in India - and it was monsoon season. Earlier in the weekend, each time there was a small shower it would only last a few minutes and we were able to avoid it by hiding in a temple or under a large tree. This time around, it wasn’t just a small shower - it lasted for nearly twenty-five minutes and it down poured. ”Time moves slower in Hampi” was our mantra of the weekend and this was most true at this point, as twenty-five minutes felt like hours. A huge tree, as well as my emergency poncho, would not shield us from the rain and afterward we found ourselves (and our bags) drenched and sunbathing on a few rocks hoping to dry off. We never would see the Stepped Bath in person, though as my hotel is adorned with photographs of Hampi all over its walls, it was the first photograph to catch my eye when we arrived back in Bangalore the next morning. After reaching the point where we were all fairly dry, we hired two rickshaws and made our way to Hospet. Hospet, deemed “charmless” by the author of one of our South India guidebooks, was roughly thirty minutes from Hampi towards Bangalore. When booking our return bus tickets back, I had wondered why we could not take a bus directly back to Bangalore from Hampi, but I had not realized how far away from each other these towns were. After trying to haggle with a driver of a larger rickshaw, we soon found out there was some sort of scheme to give more drivers more business, as none of the larger rickshaws would allow the six of us to ride in one rickshaw. Later we read that there was an apparent “rickshaw mafia” which did not allow busses to leave directly from Hampi or allow foreigners to take the larger sized rickshaws to Hospet, thus forcing larger groups to split up and support multiple drivers. We purposely reached Hospet prior to the sun setting to allow us to assess our surroundings, but this also left us with roughly six hours before our bus would leave for Bangalore. I picked out one of the only restaurants listed in my guidebook and we made ourselves comfortable. With various types of kebabs and multiple rounds of beer ordered for the table, we sat for hours and recounted all of the events that had transpired during our two-day that felt like it was weeks long. ”Time moves slower in Hampi,” but soon enough we were all on the bus back and passed out as we made our way back to Bangalore. Hampi itself was gorgeous and the entire experience is one I will not soon forget.