The India Chronicles 2000-2001

Stone Chariot at Hampi

Well, the overnight bus ride to Hampi was an experience, probably one time only. The bus was one of the newest we have traveled on in India, but that doesn't mean it was comfortable. The bus has about six rows of regular upright seats in the front and then six sets of two tiered bunks. I was expecting single bunks, like the trains, but they are all double. If you are not traveling with a close friend, you certainly get very close to a new friend on this trip. Ray & I shared an upper bunk and it's a good thing neither of us is very tall as there was room for me to stretch out, but anyone over 5 ft 9 inches would have problems. This wouldn't have been too bad, except the road was extremely bumpy and the bus was missing a few of its gears. The driver had to keep shifting, very noisily, and each time the bus would loose power. We left at 8:30 PM from Margao, Goa and limped into Hampi about 9 AM, having managed little sleep. It could have been worse. Two couples arrived at our guesthouse two days later rather the worse for wear. It seems the bus finally broke down in the middle of the night and they all had to disembark and wait for a replacement to continue the trip.

Anyway, Hampi was worth the trip. We stayed in a very simple but friendly Guesthouse and spent four days exploring the area. Hampi, or Vijayanagar, was the capital of one of the largest Hindu empires in India, rivaling Delhi, until it sacked and ruined by Mogul invaders in 1565. In its hay day, the city covered 33 sq Km and had a population of half a million. This whole city is in a semi-desert area strewn with large, smooth boulders, much like I would image the badlands, or Fred Flintstone's home in Cactus Rock to look like. Apparently it had volcanic origins that were later covered by an ocean, which washed the many boulders smooth. Excavations of the area started in 1976, with the majority done after 1985. The ruins include seven very large bazaar areas, one for each day of the week, the foundations of numerable houses, temples and other public areas.

We arrived in Hampi on the day of one of the major religious festivals in the area, celebrating the change in the angle of the sun, so instead of a sleepy town, we were surrounded by thousands of Indian Pilgrims coming to pay homage in the still operating Virupaksha temple and bathing in the Tungabhadra River, next to the town. The majority of people left that first Sunday and the remainder were gone by the end of Monday, when the town re verted to its usual quiet self.

We spent the first two days exploring the area on our own, using a not very good guidebook. I got frustrated getting lost and not knowing what I was looking at, so we hired a local guide for the day and really saw the sights. One of the highlights for us included the Virupaksha temple complex, complete with a resident elephant, the symbol of royalty, right in the village. Numerology played a big part in the design of the temple. The temple consists of seven main towers of varying heights, arranged so that worshipers say their prayers at specific locations where all 7, 5, 3 or just one tower is visible. There was also a side pavilion with a roof held up by many stone pillars, many of which consist of one main pillar and three side pillars. The stone contains quite a bit of iron, so that when the side pillars are tapped with the hand or a baton, they emit a musical note. The diameter of the pillars varies so that each group when played together makes a chord. This same m usical pillars are also a feature of the Vittala temple, about 1 Km away. During major festivals, up to 80 musicians would strike the pillars to provide the music to accompany dancers.

Some of the temples in the Vittala temple complex had been designed with a complicated system of channels to funnel off the monsoon rains and with built in stone loops to attach curtains around the open sides to shield the worshipers from the rains. In the courtyard of the Vittala complex stands a huge, heavily carved, stone chariot whose wheels used to turn. It was used to transport priests from one temple to another as part of their ceremonies.

King's Balance Gateway

Outside the Vittala complex is a large stone gateway, called the King's Balance. A few times a year the King and his noblemen would gather for a unique form of taxation. A large scale was suspended from the center of the gateway and the King sat on one side. The noblemen were then required to contribute enough gold and jewels to balance the King's weight. The fatter the King was, the more he collected.

To get to the Royal enclosure area, about 2 Km away from the town, you walk through banana plantations irrigated by ancient canal systems. In this area there are the ruins of foundations for many of the nobelmen's houses, several watchtowers, a Royal viewing platform, an audience hall with a secret underground room next to it where private arrangements could be made without fear of being overheard. There was also the women's compound, the heavily walled Zanana, with temples and the lovely Lotus Pavilion to sit in and enjoy the views.

Lotus Mahal

Step Tank

Bathing must have been an important part of their lives as this is where we saw an advanced aqueduct construction that provided water to three major baths. The most elaborate was the Queen's bath, an eight-foot deep pool, filled and emptied every day with fresh water. The pool was surrounded on four sides by rooms on two stories. The bottom floor rooms were open to the pool and designed to let in the maximum light and air while the upper rooms were fronted by large stone bay windows. Nearby was an interesting bathing tank for the noblemen, called the Step Tank. The four sides descend from the ground to the bottom of the pool in a series of steps, arranged artistically from each corner and in the middle of each side. This allows access to the water no matter how deep the water was. Even the public bath was impressive, as it was easily as big as two Olympic sized pools.

The Royal elephants were obviously prized as there was a large, elaborate home for 11 elephants with individually decorated rooms and a large building next door for the Mahoots, their handlers.

Our last day in Hampi, we walked to the temple at the top of Matunga Hill, just outside of town. From the rooftop of the temple you can get a great 360 view of the surrounding countryside. For lunch we walked alongside the river to a restaurant called Under the Mango Tree. You sit on straw mats on a series of concrete terraces built on the hillside overlooking the river. It was a very relaxing and popular spot to spend a few hours.

In the afternoon, we crossed the river in a coracle, a small boat made of woven bamboo strips, the size and shape of a satellite dish, and waterproofed on the outside with tar. We arrived at a busy time, so we were two of about 12 people, at Rs 5 each, squished into the bottom of the craft and propelled across by one man using a single paddle. We walked around the guesthouse area favoured by the longer term travelers who like to pay about Rs 50 for a crude straw or mud shack with a mattress on the floor. We followed a road that turned into a dirt path through rice fields and along the bottom of the rocky hills. Our objective was to reach the river further upstream, where I had seen another landing spot for the local boats. By clambering over the rocks, we finally came to the river where we could see some boats and owners on the other side. I hailed one of the men on the other side, who did cross over to pick us up. I think he was having a boring afternoon, as part way across he stopped to demonstrate how the boat could transform into a merry-go-round. We made the other side safely.

Wednesday night we took the overnight train to Bangalore, and then transferred to another train to Mysore, arriving by 10:30 AM. This was the easiest trip yet. The 2nd class sleeper was relatively comfortable and the trains were even on time. My only problem was that Hampi was very hot when we left and Bangalore was considerably cooler. Consequently, we were soon putting on additional clothes to keep warm in the train.

Mysore is known for its silks, sandalwood oil and sandalwood carvings, so we took a rickshaw ride to visit several operations. In one small shop we sniffed several different oils that are an important part of Ayurvedic medicine, reputed to ease pains and cure various ailments. I bought some water Lily oil to keep mosquitoes away and sandalwood oil for massages. In a silk shop we placed an order for a new nightshirt for Ray and new travel pants and top for me. We also paid a visit to the huge Deveraja market, where besides the displays of fruits and vegetables, there is a large wholesale section selling flower garlands bought by people to bring as gifts for the temples or to festoon their homes and vehicles as good luck charms.

I took a double take at the cows wandering the streets of Mysore. Instead of their usual white, or black and white colour, these animals had their horns painted green, orange or red and their whole bodies were covered in yellow or chartreuse coloured chalk. I was told that their owners did this during a special Puja, or prayer ceremony the day before we arrived.  

Most of Mysore is a rather dirty, garbage strewn commercial area, but the Mysore Palace is a welcome change. It was designed by an English architect for the local Maharaja and built in 1912 for the sum of Rs 4.2 million. Opulent even for those times, decorated with stained glass, mirrors and gaudy colours, the current Maharaja still lives in the rear portion of the palace and opens the palace and grounds to the public. When we finished our tour of the house and grounds, we tried to find a doorway out to the street at the north end of the complex, instead of returning to the far south end. The gates were locked, but we saw locals climb over the fence, so we just followed suit. I expected to hear whistles blown any minute, but all was quiet.

Saturday we boarded a bus to Madikeri, a market town built on the side of several ridges in the mountainous region west of Mysore. The three-hour trip wound through coffee plantations and citrus groves that cover the sides of the steep mountains. This certainly was the most scenic section of India we have been in to date. It reminds me of the foothills in Nepal, only more heavily forested.

We came to Madikeri to go on a trek up some of the surrounding peaks, a popular activity in this mainly undiscovered area. We had phoned ahead, intending to do a three-day trek starting on Sunday, but I ended up with another bout of Delhi Belly, so we delayed one day. Instead, when I felt better later in the day, we walked to a garden with a small pavilion, the Raja's seat, on one of the ridges in the town to enjoy the view and explore the area.

Monday we were driven just out of town where we joined up with our guide, Bharath, and two young Israelis, who had slept in a hut nearby overnight. The mountains with the best trails are quite spread apart, so we hopped a rickety local bus for a 45-minute ride over bumpy, winding roads to a small village where we were to start hiking. We left our overnight bags and blankets to be used that night in a local house and started out through a coffee plantation and through the jungle. There were no civilized stairs to climb on this route. Instead we followed a dirt path that became increasingly steep, but not overly difficult, as we came nearer the top at 1,300 M after about two hours. The hill must have been logged at one time, as it was covered only with grass and scrub bushes. The view of the mountains all around was spectacular, reminiscent of the Adirondacks, although visibility was limited as it was a partially cloudy day and the more distant hills were shrouded in mist.

After eating our pack lunches, Ray wandered a little way towards the next ridge. He called back that he had heard an elephant trumpeting in the forest below him, and sure enough we all heard it several times again. Bharath was quite worried that it might be a lone wild elephant, considered dangerous, but he finally concluded it was a herd of wild elephants and not quite so threatening. Try as we might, we could not see them under the heavy cover of the forest, we just heard them trumpeting and breaking off tree limbs.

Finally, we gave up and descended to the road, picked up our bags and boarded another bus to the tiny village of Bhagamandala, 15 minutes away. We went to find our assigned rooms in the local temple and to meet another couple waiting for us. Paul, from Australia, and Eleanor, from Sweden, had been stranded in the village by a bus strike the previous day. Their guide had to return to Madikeri to pick up more trekkers, so they had spent a lazy day in the village and now joined in with us.

The temple consisted of an inner and an outer courtyard. The outer walls were lined with guest rooms and there was a temple dedicated to Ganesh in this courtyard. Inside the inner courtyard were three other small temples dedicated to Rama, Shiva and another God (there are 3,000,000 gods to choose from). Our room was certainly basic and the public toilet and bath facilities were 100 M down the road. The room was just a concrete cell with a simple wooden door and one electric light, so we folded some of the many blankets we had brought to make a mattress for ourselves.

At 7:45 that evening we all assembled to watch the resident priests perform their Puja ceremony. We had witnessed several versions of these prayer ceremonies, but this was quite elaborate. I think that one of the requirements for becoming a priest is the ability to play the drums or a flute as these instruments accompany many of the ceremonies. While the head priest did his thing in each temple, some of the local people gathered rang bells to wake the gods. After the head priest finished his duties in the three inner temples, he emerged suitably garbed in a red headdress and sash over his white robes and carrying a large, gold icon. All the resident priests then formed a procession and circled the inner temples three times and then went through the doorway to the outer courtyard, which they circled five times. Much drum playing, symbol banging, flute playing and bell ringing accompanied all of this.

We ate a simple, but good meal that night in a local restaurant and retired to our rooms. Unfortunately, we did not sleep as well as we had hoped. I had a hard time adjusting to the lack of padding on our bed, but Ray was soon asleep, only to be wakened after 1 AM by loud voices in the room next door. There was an extended family of six adults and two small children crowded in there, and they decided to have a very loud discussion lasting several hours in the middle of the night. Even our earplugs were only marginally effective. Then at 5:00 AM, the drums starting morning prayers began, followed by loud, recorded Hindu music for 1/2 hour, to make sure everyone was awake. This of course woke up the family, who continued an even more angry discussion. Our wake up call at 6:45 wasn't really necessary.

We got up, packed, ate breakfast in the local restaurant and were on the bus at 8:00 heading to the next hill. Fortunately, we got on at the beginning of the bus route and had seats, for the bus traveled for the next hour crowding more and more school children and other people inside. Of course, this is the norm for Indian buses, and everyone manages to keep their good humours. We got off the bus and a few minutes later, boarded a second bus for another fifteen minutes. We walked to a local store where we stored everything we didn't need for the day and started up the road to Taidyendamol, a 1,745 M peak. About 1/2 hour up the road we took a break at an interesting looking lodge, the Palace Estate Guesthouse. The original two bungalows, probably built by the British as summer homes, are set amongst lovely gardens amidst coffee and cardamom plantations. The owners built a row of five rooms opening onto a balcony, about two years ago, behind the bungalow, for trekkers who wanted to stay longer in the area. The rooms are simple, but the beds had mattresses. There were no ensuite toilets but the row of facilities across from the rooms had western style toilets that flushed by pouring a bucket of water down them. It looked like a peaceful place to spend a couple of days.

We continued our walk through the jungle and out into the open to the top. It took us less than three hours, counting rest stops, to cover the 1000 M distance from the bus stop. The last section was quite steep again, but no one had any difficulty. No elephants in the vicinity this time, but the views of the mountains were just a good as the previous day. After lunch at the top, we made it to the Palace Estate in less than two hours, with a small side trip to rest and cool our feet in a pool at the bottom of a waterfall. Finally, we returned to the road, collected our belongings and hopped on the bus for the return trip to Madikeri, a 1/2 hour ride through small villages and joining up with the main road from Mysore.

We were looking forward to going out again today for another trek, but I am not over Delhi Belly, so we just stayed put in Madikeri and I got a chance to write this episode. Tomorrow we take a long bus ride through the mountains to Udhagamandalam (Ooty), another British summer residence in the nearby Nilgiri hills. I hope I will be better by then and that we can explore a little of that area on foot.

We are starting our countdown to the end of our trip and trying to fit in all the other places we want to visit. We anticipate a busy time on our return visiting all our friends and family again. We trust you are all well and enjoying the winter. We plan to come back with good tans to make you all jealous.