Day 15 - Hospet and the Hampi site
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2008
1
15
30
Trip End
Sep 06, 2008
Hospet, Karnataka, India
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The guys in our compartment got out about 2am and they disappeared out of the compartment quite a while before the train stopped. I didn't sleep much after that. Sometime during the night the train had changed direction. When we set off I had my back to the engine (though it didn't matter when I was lying down) and by the time we were waiting to get off we were going in my direction. We started to put our shoes on about 4.30am - made an early morning dash to the toilet - which due to my blocked nose I couldn't smell, but Kaye said smelled just as bad as all the others.
We then pulled our suitcases from under the bed and got ready. We decided to go to the door to wait and just as we got up to move the suitcases to the end of the carriage - the train stopped at a station. There was a made scramble down to the end of the carriage. A guy sleeping in a bunk near us said that it wasn't Hospet because he was getting off there (we don't trust anyone in India and kept trundling our suitcases to the end). The guard was standing on the platform and told us that the train was running an hour late and we would get in about 6am. Or this was implied with a lot of head bobbing and shoulder shrugging.
Kaye lay down on the bunk and closed her eyes for a few minutes but I stayed awake - and we kept our suitcases at the ready. So when we arrived at Hospet at 5.25am we weren't surprised and we were ready to get off the train - with no-one to meet us.
A porter, with excellent English said that he thought our guide would be waiting for us on Platform 1 because that is where the train normally comes in - and so we told him that we were going to stay where we were until he found us. About 10 minutes later he came back with our guide in tow. This guy then asked if we needed porters. By this time I'd had enough and said - it is your job - you have to meet us and organise to get us to our hotel, if you need a porter than you organise it. So he did. When we got to the car Kaye and I just got into the car and left it up to him to pay the porter. They are wiry little guys and can carry two suitcases on their head.
Got to our hotel about 10 minutes later and went straight to bed.
Back up at 7.30am and went to breakfast. We had been told that our costs at the hotel only included one breakfast (tomorrow) and we had to pay for it ourselves and it cost us about $7 each.
So on to Hampi.
My cold was much worse and I trudge around after Kaye and the guide - thought the buildings were magnicent and well worth the heritage listing. The site covered 60 miles and I took lots of photos. Everywhere there there were charges, some small some large. To take a video camera in cost 500 rupees (about $15) and to have your shoes protected was 2 rupees. and so it went on during the day. Visit to the toilet was 3 rupees.
For lunch we dropped the guide off and the driver took us a a restaurant called "the Mango", which was a lovely spot. I had a lemon Laksi which is great. The restaurant overlooked the river and there were a lot of tourists there.
After lunch I felt a bit better and we did 20 million more temples. It is amazing just how many temples there were and the carving was great. Took lots of great photos.
We didn't go out to dinner because neither of us felt like it and so we had a muesli bar instead and went to bed early.
I had a miserable night with the cold and made so much noise that Kaye shifted her bed during the night to move away from me. Luckily I didn't have to go to the toilet during the night or we would both have had a great surprise.
