There are these seeds. They've been bad for me before, but why not give it another try? The three Bangalore guys I met here yesterday promise me it will be one hour of pure hell, meaning nausea emanating from the knots in your guts. These seeds are not meant it be in your stomach afterall.
But, and it's a pretty big but, they say that hell is definitely worth the trip you will ride for the next several hours. And just like that, I am sold. Afterall, I am all about taking calculated risks and won't miss out on a good looking strike, especially now that I have willing partners for the crime.
This trip to Sanapur village, near Hampi, is seven days through now. It will last another five days. I am travelling solo, As I do on many of my trips. It isn't always by choice but it is this time. What with all that went on the last year or so, and not just the pandemic either, this tour was definitely in the coming.
There are two dimensions to Hampi. What you mean by a trip to Hampi can mean totally different things depending on which side of the Tungabhadra river you are talking about. A saying goes "Thunga pana Ganga snana" which either means one should drink the water of river Thunga and take bath in river Ganga, or that drinking Thunga's water is as good as taking bath in the Ganga. Well whatever, I definitely drank enough of that water to cover both interpretations.
Anyways, the great river flows from East to West and the main Hampi, which has the world famous heritage sites and the holy Virupaksha Temple, is on the Southern bank. The old temples and ruins are a thing of beauty obviously so check it all out. There are lots of resources online to read about the history and legend of these ruins. One suggestion is to take your time with the ancient structures and their architecture and aesthetics. You can cover them all in a day. You will take three if you really mean to experience the place rather than take status pics. If that comes across as unkind, it will help to know that I completely skipped visiting the main Hampi this time round, so I am not the one to point my fingers.
The other side of Hampi, and more fun side if you ask me is the Hippi island (or even Hampi island). It lies to the north of the Tungabhadra and is now DEMOLISHED. Yep, gone forever. All the beautifully designed cafes, the rusty huts which can hold no more than one person in them, the abundance of super-chill vibe all around. All of them gone now. It was the place where foreigners came and settled down for a week, or six months. The famous sunset point still exists and the sun still sets, just not many people watching it set. Long story short, it was illegal, the Supreme Court allowed the Government to run bulldozers over the whole region and a thing of beauty is no more. Well, almost.
The people who ran the shacks on the Island have moved to nearby places along the rivers' northern shore. There are tens of shacks spread across the Anegundi - Sanapur road now. In fact Sanapur itself has 12 shacks by my count, offering pretty much the same natural and refreshing vibe, surrounded by paddy fields and a stone throw away from the river itlsef in many cases, or within walking distance from the Sanapur Lake - a place where Sunrises are so grand, you will sleep early for it!
I will wax poetic about the beauty of this place for the next fourty pages because that is the whole point of why you are going there. Just kidding, I am not being paid for writing this. But just know this:
"The only Zen you can find on the mountaintops, is the Zen you bring there with you".
"Hippi Hampi" doesn't give you much - it gives you nature, space and calm but not much in the way of entertainment. It is the mountaintop in that way. It totally depends on your mental space whether to dwell in peace or wage a civil war within yourself.
Incidentally, that statement is by Robert Pirsig, the author of the famous book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and that is the kind of book you would immerse yourself in on lazy afternoons sitting in the shade of a quiet cafe amid the cool winter breeze blowing across the green fields.
Getting back on track, the whole stretch is looking at a great influx of international tourism come the vaccine, and that will be a good thing for travelers like me for reasons I will not discuss here.
I am living in the dorm at the Waterfalls Guesthouse since I arrived here this day last week. It is run by a local, unlike many other newer shacks in the region, called Ramanjaneya. The place doesn't have a camping ground which would've been useful as I carried my own tent, but it has other charms. During my stay so far, all I did was stare at the fields, trek through them, play in various water bodies and have really fun conversations. I am a bit limited in my adventures though because there is a fear of Leapords running free in the mountains (long story)
I am having my share of loneliness and self-loathing that goes without saying when travelling solo, but hey, I can write a book about all the really brilliant people I met so far in this trip and the crazy conversations I shared with them. Maybe half a book but the trip is also only halfway through as yet. I met a stand-up comic who gave up a big4 job to pursue the art fulltime. I met a Himachal-based guy who recently gave up a lucrative Delhi job to start teaching at a smalltime college in his hometown among the mountains. I have just ordered his first book from Amazon.
And yesterday, I met these guys from B'lore who are with me now as I write this, tempting me to take these seeds with promises of an mind-blowing trip.
I moved to a new place yesterday, called the Wilderness. It has a camping ground where I pitched my tent. Wilderness is located further along the outskirts of the Sanapur village, and is definitely closer to "Wild" than other places. The place has a tightrope on which you can walk, a guitar, daily bonfires, and many other shady ideas in the heads of the Mumbai guys running it (never mind the "boss" Thimma). They play a lot of hip-hop but will listen to rock as well. This place is more for the people (really) young at heart - which I am, yes I am. I could stay here for a year, all else equal, that's how much I like it.
Anyways, I tried those seeds the other day in the Waterfalls Guesthouse and it was a troublesome-trippy experience. I vomited earlier than others meaning I had a better time than the B'lore guys as I was clear out of hell sooner than I expected and I did bliss out for a good part of the day. But I have come to a decision that the whole trip is definitely not worth the horror show that my stomach has had to endure. No more of the world famous Hawaiian Rosewood seeds for me, thank you. Unless you have a more humane work around, of course.
Later that day, the vibe in the place felt a bit pushed and I felt the need to move on. So I walked straight for the Wilderness with my backpack. I haven't meditated as much as I would've liked to so far in the trip but this place is made for being calm and present and let us hope that will happen.
Alright, let us make the "Things to Do" list for Hampi for a climax. Well, I don't know man, do you like to meditate by yourself and prefer to have a mountain to stare at when not doing so? Would you walk across paddy fields and trek through the mountains to reach a hidden gem of a place rather than ride a luxury car? Can you spend a week or two without much use for a phone or laptop or gossip? Maybe not gossip, it is more prevalent than mosquitoes which you can avoid with a repellant.
But you get the idea, if doing "nothing" is not your thing, then we have a point of departure.
I am here for almost another week. Maybe I will update this later on with what I have been up to. Maybe not.
(some pics with captions follow)
This is view from the Gowri Resort, right at the foot of Sanapur lake.
I worked from the Waterfalls Guesthouse for a coule of days.
