Beautiful Hampi

Having begun our stay by seeing the sights and experiencing the festival, we have spent the last few of days getting away from the town and walking into the hills to take in the natural beauty of the area. We started by taking a long walk to a lake that had been mentioned by several people as a good place to spent some time and go for a swim. The lake actually turned out to be a reservoir, but it was still a nice spot and despite the sign saying that there were crocodiles in the lake and swimming was forbidden we were undeterred and made our way around the rocks to find a good spot to hang out. We did go for a swim, but neither of us wanted to spend too much time in the water.

On the way back home we took a slight detour to stop for some refreshment at a place, Baba Cafe, that Maren had visited day before whilst I recovered from a minor stomach upset. It’s a popular place with the many climbers that visit the area and you’ll normally find a friendly Sadhu hanging out there. Another one of the regulars who we started talking to is Squib, a climber originally from the Isle of Man that has been coming to Hampi to climb the rocks since 1997. He fits one of my romantic traveller stereo types having rejected the rat race back at home after working in investment banking. It’s been a while since he’s lived in the UK and he made us laugh when he gave us his email, squibinindia@xxxxxxx.com. He now spends his time solo trekking (for a week or so at a time) around the mountains for the north during the summer and places like the hills of Hampi in the winter. He was a fountain of knowledge about the area so we spent some time picking his brains as we enjoyed a Thali.

There were several interesting conversations. In one of my first posts in India I speculated how the credit crunch and the financial turmoil of the last couple of years might have affected the market sellers in Mumbai. Well it has certainly had a devastating effect on the poor in India and no doubt the rest of world. Squib explained just how poor the local villages near Hampi were and how the price of rice had varied so much in the last couple of years with rice now double the price it was just over a year ago. When you already spend a fifth of your money on rice this can have a dramatic effect and has no doubt made life very hard for many people. We have also seen the effect on the tourism industry in Goa. One of the restaurant owners in Palolem has said that he’d never seen it so quiet in January which is traditionally the peak of the season. Whilst Goa is one of the richer states in India and relatively rich restaurateurs and guest house owners might be able to ride out a bad season, it’s all the businesses that support the tourism industry that are really hurting and as the money coming into the state dries up, it’s the poorest that suffer most. This is one of the reasons that Squib not only doesn’t enjoy his old career but now morally has a problem with gambling money on the behalf of investors in a system that allows such recklessness.

The other thing that both shocked me but really got my attention was the imagery used by Indian press when reporting about the Haiti earthquake which Squib was reading when we arrived. It’s far more graphic than anything that would be shown in the majority if not all of the press in the UK. I saw two images, both showing the piles of dead bodies that had been recovered from the rumble. What hit home so hard though was the man who was casually tossing the body of a dead child out of his truck on to the pile below unable to afford to show any more care than if it was a bag of rubbish. It was shocking but for me it showed the true human cost far more than the tears of those still living or the sight of thousands of buildings levelled. There is a link to the picture here if you are interested but you have been warned.

The last thing of interest that Squib told us about was the local wild life after we asked about the sign warning of crocodiles at the lake. It turned out this sign had been erected by a local business man that had invested in a swimming pool at his guest house and was fed up with people swimming in the lake for free. So there are no crocs in the lake but they can be found around the rivers. Also we warned about snakes, the most common of which is the poisonous Cobra, something we hadn’t given any thought to whilst wandering through the rice paddies, bushes and rocks. Leopards can also be found in this part of India, however the most dangerous animal is the Sloth Bear, which is apparently anything but. The males weigh up to 150Kg, can out run humans and whilst they don’t seek human confrontation they do not like to be surprised. They kill more people than any other animal in India (apparently) and just a single blow with their long claws (normally used to dig into termite hills) can easily prove to be fatal.

This was certainly food thought the next day as we planned to take Squib’s advice by first taking a walk down the river in the afternoon and then to go for a wander out in the hills at night whilst the moonlight lit up the landscape. Both were amazing. Firstly, the walk along the river was truly beautiful. As you wander away from Hampi the green grass along the river banks are quickly replaced by the same crazy volcanic rock and boulders you see up in hills. You can almost imagine the laver flows that had run down the hills thousands of years before and see how they’d cracked and fractured over time and then been eroded into these strange shapes by the weather. We found a spot up by ourselves on one of the rocks looking over the water and the sunset we witnessed has to be the most beautiful either us have ever seen.

After returning back to our guest house and stopping for refreshment we waited for the moon to rise and become bright enough so we could look at the landscape in quite literally a different light. After packing a few provisions, torches, a candle and first aid kit we headed out. As we wandered up in the rocks it felt like we were exploring another planet. Even the places had become familiar during the day seem strange and alien. Along the way we were joined by a very skinny and very itchy dog (who we later called itchyandscratchy), who in exchange for a bit food made us feel a little bit safer by accompanying us. I was sure he’d run a mile if there was any danger, but he’d probably spot it long before us, so he was good early warning system. We weren’t brave enough to go far, but we did make it over the first hill so we could no longer see any artificial light from town. We found a good rock climb up on to and lit a candle, whilst soaking up the almost magical atmosphere of the landscape at night.

So that is pretty much it from Hampi. I feel it’s my first “proper” backpacking experience after what has been not much more than an extended holiday on the beaches of Goa. It’s an amazing place and worthy of its reputation as one of the more exceptional places to visit in India. What made it even more special were the two guys, Tanzen and Sky at Shesh Besh (our guest house) who made us feel so at home that we never ate anywhere else for dinner. That says a lot since we’d normally want to try out as many places as possible and Shesh Besh is the Indian equivalent of a sports bar. That said the food was always very good. We became close with Sky in particular since, as I have previously mentioned, Maren had met him last season at the Sunshine Cafe in Kerla. After a couple of days he started referring to us as ”his family” and we in turn called him our "brother". He’s an interesting bright guy and we’ve had several long chats with him during our stay. More than once he had some pieces of wisdom that resonated with us both so it was something of a surprise when we learned that he was just 22 years old. He said that “perhaps when you live 22 years in India you see a lot of things”. I felt very small at the time. He is so right and most pampered westerners like us really have no idea about anything at 22, if ever. Anyway, this wise young man is just about to leave Hampi to head north to run his own restaurant for the very first time. Over the last few days we’ve had many conversations about his plans and he bounced ideas off us and we’ve even made a few suggestions. We already have plans to go to the north later in the year and we will definitely be paying him a visit if we do and I look forward to asking him whether he has anything special on the menu, beer served in chilled glasses and whether he can play some music off the iPod Maren has given as a gift (hopefully he’ll leave a mix of mine on there) to help him get started.

All the photos from hampi - http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Hampi