15 to 17 Day Saturday, 16th January 2016 Hampi

 Don't Worry be Humpi

It is truly astonishing the different enthusiasm that this country repeatedly arouses in me on a daily basis. One day, I am exhausted from the chaos in India's cities and streets, and another day, the abundance of spirit and monumental sights literally overwhelms me.

Hampi, a small town, or rather a village (about 2,300 inhabitants) in Indian terms, is one such place that surpasses many previous experiences and encounters.

In the morning at 7 am, I left Madgao by train with the aim of reaching Hampi. Soon it became clear that this journey was going to be something very special, as the first part of the trip took us through the foothills of the Western Ghats (as far as I know). From the front of the train, I could see the locomotive of our seemingly 500-meter-long train struggling up the mountains through a completely green landscape, yes, through a completely overgrown jungle. Truly dreamlike, and for a sadly brief moment, I even caught a glimpse of the Dudhsagar Waterfalls, which roared impressively directly behind a viaduct, too short to grab my camera, unfortunately.

In the afternoon, or rather the train, reached the city of Hospet, where I was received by my private tuk-tuk driver. Even during the approach, I saw the imposing landscape stretching out before me. A surreal mountain landscape. I have never seen anything like it, it looked as if someone had dumped a few giant piles of stones there. And on top of that, everything and everywhere was covered with a large number of monumental historical temple buildings, stunningly beautiful to look at.

The next day, at the resort, I met a very nice tuk-tuk driver who drove me around the area all day, from one temple to the next, although you actually only had to leave your bungalow and you were right in the middle of the 26 km² large historic temple complex.

I was also lucky again with my driver, as he was very accommodating and offered me a very good price, first for half a day 600 INR (€8.30), and in the afternoon, I added another 200 INR (€2.80), so he drove me to 3 or 4 more sites, including the Hampi Museum and another highlight, a holy temple complex high up on a mountain. As soon as I entered the courtyard, I was greeted by chanting religious songs.

Through the opposite break in the wall, I came across a small Shiva shrine, where I received my first blessing in a mystical atmosphere inside. All I had to do was leave a small donation, and I was consecrated. I received a flower (which is supposed to ensure that the wallet is never empty) and a small banana (perhaps the most expensive banana of my life, 100 INR (€1.40), that was the amount of my donation). I had to drink a few drops of holy water (!), spread the rest in my hair, and eat a few crumbs of sugar. And just like that, I got the famous red dot on my forehead. What a show ;-)

In the evening, I climbed Matanga Hill, and when I finally arrived, sweaty and breathless, I was rewarded with a magnificent sunset.

The next day, I took a small ferryboat to the other side and took a 3 km walk along the road through stunning scenery of rice fields and banana plantations to the Monkey Temple. Once there, it was time to climb up again, this time on many hundreds of steps, sweating again...

At the top, there was another shrine where many pilgrims entered to pray. After a short time, a very loud (as it should be in India) singing started, words of holy songs. They were so loud that they accompanied me for at least half of my way back down.

Back in Hampi, I was about to become part of a great spectacle once again, although I already knew the drill (had read about it before), I couldn't avoid being an actor there. While walking, a nice guy approached me and asked about my origin (this happens all the time, and you can't always block and fend off), "ah, Germany, look, this is what the other Germans wrote in my book" (an alarm bell and a question mark immediately went off in my head), "what does he want now?". Before I could react, he started working on my ears with spatulas, cotton swabs, liquids, and tweezers. Well, I let him go ahead since he removed tons of dirt (it looked like mustard) and, as a grand finale, he used tweezers to pull out a tiny stone (I could barely hold back laughter internally). Of course, this spectacle had to be well paid for. He started with 500, then 400, then 300 INR, and in the end, I gave him 50 INR. Such a show must be paid for.

In the evening, it was time to say goodbye to this magnificent place by taking the night train to my next destination, Bangalore.

Namaste...