Hampi and Holi

I have returned from a second successful trip to the distant lands outside Andhra Pradesh. Though I had never heard of Hampi before coming here, it was definitely a trip worth taking. Hampi used to be the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire but was invaded by Muslims in the 16th century. They destroyed a lot of the temples in an attempt to wipe out Hinduism but many still stand. Apart from temples there are very large boulders, caves, a river, palm trees, lots of animals, and hippies. We gave in and did a two hour tour with a local and he said Hampi has always been a large pilgrimage site but then the hippies got a hold of it and trashed a lot of important things. There are still plenty of strange people there, but hopefully now they are more respectful. We went into one cave that used to be a meditation site around two thousand years ago and it was pretty much trashed. It's a recognized UNESCO world heritage site but that doesn't mean everyone follows all the rules.
Back to the beginning. With only minor difficulty locating our seats/beds, we departed on the 10ish hour journey to Hospet, the city connecting to Hampi. The sleeper cars are like giant hallways full of bunk beds. Nothing glamorous, but definitely manageable. It was non a/c but with fans and open windows in the middle of the night we didn't have a problem and I actually slept a few hours! We got off the train right after sunrise and again with minor difficulty picked up our bus tickets for the return trip and then rickshawed it off to Shanthi Guest House. The tourism atmosphere of Hampi was similar to Goa: streets lined with huts, vendors, rooftop restaurants, and animals. Our guest house (I guess the closest word is motel, but rather than the sleeze of a motel it's just simple and kind of gross) was brightly colored with a tropical courtyard in the middle which was really nice. It's very easy to meet people, if only just for a quick conversation, in situations like that. There were a set of squat toilets in the back and two showers by the front with a communal sink in the middle but that wasn't bad at all. The rooms were two beds with an ineffective mosquito net and a small metal desk. "Bare necessities" as Baloo would call it. For 3$ a day you can't really complain though. After checking in we were told the temple elephant was having her morning bath so we headed down to the river to watch. I went down to help wash her which was really neat. My first elephant! Then hunger took over so we ate at a decent restaurant with a wonderful view and a massive fly problem. The bugs in Hampi are the worst. It was hard to even eat your food. After breakfast we stocked up on water and headed towards the ruins. We weren't exactly sure what to do so we just wandered around at our own pace with no plan in mind and stumbled across some great stuff. Nicole walked into a small room with bats. We found a giant single stone carving of Ganesha, many broken statues, lots of trash, and other cool things. We returned hot and sweaty for a rooftop lunch and wandered to the other end of the bazaar where we found a giant mountain. We were advised to go the next day because the trip down would be dark and scary so we made that our goal for the next day and continued at our leisurely pace observing the last bits of what was once a great empire. Opposite the mountain is a huge Shiva temple visible from almost anywhere we went in Hampi. It is still active and we ran into Lakshmi the elephant! We brought her some bananas (good karma) and if you give her a rupee she blesses you. We stayed with her for a while and these old Indian men had a great time getting blessings so we watched them too. Other than that we saw some deities and....monkeys. They are so cute but not things to be messed with. We saw them fight, attack some guy, and pee on someone. So that was the end of day one. We started bright and early the next day (we were told to climb the mountain for sunrise but no way were we getting up that early) so after nutella pancakes, eggs, toast, chai, lots of water, sunscreen, hats, and cameras we headed off. Matanga Hill is one of the coolest, most beautiful things I have ever seen and done. There are steps carved into the rocks which was really neat and slightly difficult. We mostly had on flip-flops and the rocks were slippery so barefoot was the way to go. We took breaks when we found shade and after some tough spots we made it to the top. It was stunning. There is a small Shiva temple at the top and if you climb on the roof you get a full panorama of Hampi which was so amazing. The temple itself was a cool building and it was so cool thinking about all the monks and pilgrims that made it up there and lived up there. That ended up being the coolest thing we did in Hampi by far so everything else just wasn't as exciting or pretty after that. After a lunch and some lounging about we met a local tour guide for a coracle ride and to see some more ruins. The coracles are strange bamboo and plastic boats that look like big baskets. They were nice to go on a quiet ride down the river but they can also spin in circles very fast, teacups style which was kind of sickening. Back on dry land we saw a wishing tree, meditation caves, and a market that was a place for dancing, marriages, food, ect. They had some strange kama sutra carvings (strange as in depicted people and animals though our tour guide said they were mythical. hmm) and one of the rooms was just light enough to make out all the bats on the ceiling which Nicole did not enjoy but I found pretty neat. Even though we were far below the good mountain, we still watched the sun set behind huge boulders and temples which was nice. Followed by dinner and, of course, dessert (nutella pancakes, a pot of cold chocolate-kind of like richer,Indian style chocolate milk- or hello to the queen-a bowl of basically chocolate soup with graham cracker cookies and bananas topped with ice cream. so so good) we went off to bed to once again start the day early. Goal for day three: Hanuman's birthplace and temple. We were told it was on the other side of the river and was a 600 step climb. Just a quick boat ride and rickshaw drive away, we found ourselves at the base of a giant white stone staircase. We brought much more water with us this time and it was maybe even hotter than the previous day but it was a regular staircase rather than the slightly carved rock from Matanga. We stopped a lot and found caves that were like natural a/c. the top wasn't such a great view and we had to take off our shoes and that rock was hot. Inside the small temple there was a monk and we left an offering and got a tilaka and ate some sugar. Then 600 steps back down which was ok because at the bottom I fed monkeys! Monkeys are straight up tiny people. These monkeys were used to taking food from people I'm sure and they were so polite! I paid 25cents for some little bananas and you break off a piece and they very gently took it from me. There was no fighting or competing or biting. Once I was distracted when I handed one over and I didn't let go immediately so the monkey very gently picked up my hand and took it off the banana. It was so cute. We'd heard that there were a lot of monkeys at Hanuman temple (afterall, Hanuman is a monkey) and it was nice to find good monkeys. Fast forward through all the lounging and being tired and get to the bus ride. It was actually on time which was nice but I don't think I will take a long distance bus in India ever again. We had a/c seats and the bus was pretty nice but it was incredibly bumpy and loud and Indian drivers use their horns to let people know they're there or to ask to move around so there was constant honking. The a/c cut off a lot and then it would get super cold. There was always something to keep me from falling asleep, it was awful. We also stopped in the middle of nowhere and I used what might have been the absolute worst (squat) toilet I've used in my life. We weren't exactly sure where to get off the bus and the driver's buddy helped us out but it was at least a 30min rickshaw ride from the bus stop which was rough. A few minutes in our Muslim driver stopped to go pray for a solid ten minutes which is fine that he was praying but we really just wanted to go home and the rest of the way our driver nodded off a few times and looked like he would just fall asleep. Ahh, the rickshaws.
While I wished I had a sweatshirt for that freezing morning drive, it is now officially summer. Happy Holi! Despite getting back at 7 this morning, we got up to go play and I'm so glad we did. We bought packs of colored powder and in celebration of the coming summer months, the powder is rubbed on people's faces. It's pretty gross and overwhelming and doesn't taste too good but the colors were wonderful and everyone looks so great. We went to the women's hostels and there were guards there so the men couldn't pass through our gate but we could go out. It was a fun game of them taunting us and we would run out and get covered in all colors and have water poured all over us and then we would run right back over the line. Some of the girls were just as bad as the boys. If someone came out clean there was an instant crowd to cover that person. I think if I could pick one holiday to be in India to celebrate it would be Holi. I don't think I'll ever experience something like that outside India. I didn't get to take any pictures since everything on you gets absolutely covered in powder, water, egg, and tomato. After much scrubbing I am still covered in dye but it was definitely not something I could have missed.
Let me just recap for you what a fantastic weekend I had. I did everything associated with what India is. We made this list on the bus ride: took a sleeper train, bathed an elephant, had an elephant bless me, fed elephants bananas, fed monkeys bananas, our first temple experience and tilaka, successful management of squat toilets, climbed a mountain mostly barefoot, rode a coracle, ate a sugar cane stick, walked 600 stairs to see the birthplace of a god, saw a snake charmer, found new and delicious foods (mostly desserts), sleeper bus, saw a kingfisher bird and some bats, and ended it all with a Holi celebration. This is why I am here. This is amazing. There are some things I miss about home...the people, the food, easy transportation, and some other minor comfort things but I can't believe how quickly this semester is going. We're trying to plan more trips and we're running out of weekends. Someone, after covering my face in a new coat of hot pink powder, asked me if I actually enjoyed this and I was like yeah, absolutely and he seemed surprised.
It has been a very long day so I should get some sleep. I'm not looking forward to the constant increase of heat, but other than that I am living the life here.