Hampi, India

Hello all :) very big merry xmas

After an emotional wk of saying goodbyes to my mysore family after a month of mysore fun - i set off for my first solo adventure in India (i know i know - ive been here for nearly 2 months and i haven't done the solo thing yet -heheh).

Train ride to Hospes
So it was just your usual train ride from Mysore to Bangalore - packed train cart, coffeee cooffeee teeeaaaa teaaaa and trannies (transvestites) clapping their hands and asking for money - this went on a rotation for about 4 hrs then i hit bangalore and it was triple the amount of people instantly - welcome back to the city...after a lot of beggars, cold waiting, and delays we were off on the hampi express - now ive traveled sleeper class in China and thought to myself that hey it should be a little similar - but i was wrong - cockroaches, no blankets and strange smells coming out from mysterious places :P thank god i had my sleeping bag with me - after securing my things i jumped into my sleeping bag and zipped up - clearing my thoughts for the night and just relaxing in the comfort of my cocoon.

I was woken in the middle of the night to two shadows doing stuff to bags - i couldnt make out if they were thiefs or travellers or maybe even those trannies rammageing through peoples shit, after about 10mins of guess who these shadows were i fell back to sleep with the faith that what ever happens will happen.

The next morning i was woken by a strange sound - i looked up and at the end of my bed/chair thing was a man sliding on the floor with a monkey - i was like WTF - but hey this is India and its just the norm here..

After arriving to Hospes and fighting through the hordes of rickshaws that try and tell u the bus stand doesnt exist and that u need to catch a rickshaw to hampi, i managed to be pointed in the direction of the bus stand - walking down through hospes was surreal - slums, rubbish, people bathing in the river, babies out on the street by themselves, children paying with sticks and what ever they could find as toys, wow toto we aint in Candace anymore. After walking for about 15mins a rickshaw man pulled over and said hey i'll take u to hampi for 50rps, so i jumped in coz i knew that normally it would be about 80rps. After the initial dang did i do the right thing - i relaxed and started to enjoy the countryside as it passed me - amazing change as we entered Hampi - it was like god had a handful of boulders and scattered them throughout the countryside, there were old indian empire ruins all around - feelings of Greece and Italy came flooding back as we crused the countryside - and as we entered the town a great feeling that i was in the right place at the right time came about.

Guest house surrealness
After catching the little boat across the river i walked into the guest house expect there would be a room waiting for me, but i was wrong there is no such thing as reservation book its all done by memory, after about 20mins of explaining that i was anthony's friend who's friend anna stays here and that she booked a room for me then he called to confirm blah blah blah I was approached by a man in an orange robe who automatically locked onto my energy - he said follow me to this hut, so i did wearily follow keeping my guard up and totally ready to kick him in the head if he pulled anything, he invited me to sit down and relax - he looked at me for 5 mins and said ok you can stay with me for 2 nights in this hut on my bed - i was like right, yeah umm thanks for your kindness my friend but i will find something else. As i walked out of his hut i looked to my left and saw a foreign guy peeing - ah you know just your usual thing here people peeing in nature - it wasnt until i saw the dude reach down to take a handful of pee to slurp it that i was like WTF!! Ive heard of urine-therapy but never saw it so up close and person.....

After breakfast and an intense conversation about the world i finally got the HUT - the Hut looks like something out of an African safari - mud hut with straw roof, bed, and tiny window, but for 100 rps i cant complain - it was comfortable apart from the monkeys jumping on my roof at 7am :P

Hampi boulder fields
After 2hrs of chilling on the hammock reading i was blessed with a surprise visit from one of my mysore roomies who just happened to be in Hampi - great surprise to see Marty again and in true Marty nature he took me on a world wind tour of the boulders - 3 hrs of climbing through the mountains of boulders - so amazing, there were so many rock climbers getting their grove on climbing through the boulders and here we were in Flip flops doin it backpacker style.

Must be off the internet is a killer here - till next time - shanti shanti!!