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Wednesday January 24, 2001, Madikeri
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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. |
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