Hospet to Hampi
December 17th 1995
We didn't really want to leave the hotel too early - not after paying all that money for it, but we checked out about midday and caught a bus to Hampi.
Hampi was a big walled city that was the heart of the Vijayanagar empire and was built about six hundred years ago. It was systematically destroyed by muslim armies from northern India a couple of hundred years later and at that point the Vijayanagar rulers moved their base to Chandragiri. As well as Chandragiri, Vellore and Senji were part of this empire and the forts are all built in a similar style.
There was a village inside the old ruined city, which was centred around the bazaar, or main street, leading to a large temple. This village was quite a tourist centre and was populated by a transient bunch of foreigners - mainly "alternative" types (the more conservative tourists stayed in the civilized safety of Hospet and went to Hampi for the day!)
Before the bus arrived at Hampi Bazaar, as the village is known, we passed through a gateway in the fortification walls and suddenly we were in this incredible ruined city. Arriving at the village was kind of strange, as the ruins came to life and the dead past flowed rapidly into a living present.
The main bazaar at Hampi was really weird in a way. At the temple end, it was all shops and restaurants and looked pretty much like any other touristy indian village. But about half way to the other end, it started to change and a few shops, restaurants and houses alternated with the skeletons of ruined buildings. By the time you got to the far end - about a quarter of a mile away from the temple - the buildings were all ruins, empty shells with stone pillars and no walls. Well, that's how it looked to me, anyway, but it's possible the buildings at that end never did have walls. It was hard to tell.
We looked around a bit and found somewhere fairly cheap to stay. We had a couple of small rooms which were furnished with thin mattresses and nothing else. The toilet was filthy and smelled disgusting - which was a bit of a drag, as my room was right next to it. But we thought it would do for the time being.
As soon as i got to Hampi i had a strong feeling i was going to meet someone i knew, and i began to wonder who it could possibly be - would it be someone from Australia or from Britain? Or maybe it wouldn't be anyone at all. Perhaps it was just imagination. Or wishful thinking...
- - -
I didn't sleep very well the first night and woke up in the morning feeling like shit and aching all over. I thought it was entirely due to some really irritating dust that the room - and in particular the bed - seemed to be full of. I didn't know what it was, but i assumed it was some sort of mould dust or something, as i seemed to be quite sensitive to mould. Whatever it was, it was producing a nasty allergy-type reaction in me and made me feel like i didn't want to stay in that place very long. The next night i tried to sleep on the roof, but it was too cold and i didn't have any warm bedding with me. Anyway, it didn't make any difference as i was still sneezing and finding it hard to breathe up there too - i'd obviously taken whatever was causing it up there with me in the mattress!
After that second night, i just had to get out of that room. The previous evening i'd asked in a guest house called the Shanthi Lodge if they had any rooms. This was apparently one of the best places to stay in Hampi and was clean, pleasant and spacious. But there was a permanent queue of people waiting for rooms there, and the chances of getting one the same day were pretty low. They'd told me to come back the next day at midday and when i did that they told me to come back that evening at seven and there would be a room for me. But i didn't feel like hanging around outside all afternoon and there was no way i could bear spending any longer at the other place, so i got a room at the Baju Lodge, across the road from the Shanthi.
This room was much larger and cleaner and a lot more pleasant and i moved straight in. However, whatever had been in the bed at the other place was here too - although it wasn't nearly as bad. But still, when i lay down on the bed it made me sneeze a bit. Shit! i thought, don't say it's everywhere in this town!
Anyway, in the evening i took the room at the Shanthi and Jenny decided to take over the room at the Baju as she was sick of the filth at the other place too. The next day she was going to take a room in a hotel in Kamalapur, the next village, where people she knew from the state archaeology camp were staying.
The Shanthi was a nice place, with a central courtyard with trees in it and rooms around the edge. There were also rooms on the first floor, off a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Even there, though, there was a trace of whatever it was in the beds that was making me ill. I never worked out what it was and i didn't suppose i ever would. And i didn't know if it was affecting other people the same way, although it seemed to be having a similar effect on Jenny.
Later on that day i went to a restaurant just up the road and was kind of surprised to meet Yoki in there. I'd last seen her on Koh PhaNgan in April, when she was travelling with Kelly. She told me she'd heard a couple of weeks ago that Kelly had been killed in a car accident recently.
It's a weird world!