Hampi to Bangalore
December 23rd 1995
I wanted to stay in Hampi for the new moon, which was on the 22nd, along with the winter solstice, or northern hemisphere new year. I guess new year must happen on the new moon once every thirty years or something, but it seemed like a specially good time to start a journey. However, the next day seemed like the right day to leave so i booked a sleeper on the night train from Hospet to Bangalore for that evening.
I was heading to Pondicherry, but there was no really easy route from Hospet. I wanted to go all the way by train as i was thoroughly sick of buses, but that meant going to Madras first and involved three changes of train on the way. The easiest way - and the way that didn't involve getting to Guntakal first, was to take the night train to Bangalore and work it out from there.
I had a couple of beers with Jenny in the afternoon and then we walked to the bus stop at about dark time. The bus to Hospet went via Kamalapur, where she was staying, so she was going to come with me as far as there. We waited for quite a while and no bus appeared and i began to get a little bit anxious. I thought the train was due to leave at eight o'clock and although there was still plenty of time it was getting a bit tight. The bus should only have taken half an hour to get to Hospet but, especially in India, what should take half an hour can easily end up taking two.
In the end, i decided to take an autorickshaw, which was much more expensive than the bus, but should have been much quicker too. I asked the driver to go via Kamalapur to drop Jenny off. As we left, two men, who the driver said were friends of his, got in too. I wasn't very happy about this, but it seemed a bit difficult to do anything about it - specially as it wasn't a major problem.
The rickshaw was even more of a wreck than usual and with four passengers on board it travelled at a slow crawl and came to a halt on hills unless the two spare passenegers got out and walked. However eventually we got to Kamalapur and dropped Jenny off at her hotel. But the driver didn't start off again straight away, even though i asked him to keep going. He went off a little way with his mates and they had a quiet conversation round the back of a pillar. He came back and i asked him again to get going, but he was evasive and didn't do anything. He also had a weird look in his eyes and he was definitely up to something dodgy. I didn't know what it was, but i had the feeling that it wasn't going to end up doing me much good whatever it was and i got my bags out of the rickshaw and, ignoring the driver's protests, forced him to take the normal fare from Hampi to Kamalapur. I walked into the hotel so he couldn't keep arguing with me and waited for them to go.
Then, of course, i had a worse problem than before. I still had to get to Hospet and there was now a lot less time than there had been at first. There were no buses or autorickshaws around the hotel normally and the nearest bus stand was a bit of a walk away. Luckily though there was a long-distance taxi, which wasn't really for hire, as it was already engaged by people who were staying in the hotel. But the driver agreed to take me to Hospet anyway. It was a pleasant and fast trip, although much more expensive than the rickshaw would have been. When i got to Hospet station i found the train wasn't due to leave till half past eight anyway.