Hampi-- sightseeing

First bit written night of Nov. 19, finished Nov. 20, in Hampi, in the center of the south of India. I hope to post an entry about my recent birthday shortly. I still haven't taken the time to get pictures on here; in the meantime, in case you might happen to be interested, the Swedes I met in the Bollywood filming have posted a photo of us at breakfast one of the subsequent mornings: http://www.resedagboken.se/Default.aspx?documentId=81&userId=63535§ion=myimagegalleries&journeyId=44166. The picture is currently at the bottom of page 4 (did I mention that my eyes are mostly open!). Christoph on the left was my first pal in India, Thomas is another really cool German fellow I also hope to see again, Esta was the female half of the Kiwi couple, and C-J is one of the Swedes. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Ten days after arriving in India, I think today was first day really, truly here. I spent it exploring Hampi, a sacred Hindu city once the capital of one of the largest Hindu empires in history (then called Vijayengar) but now in ruins, with a really nice Israeli fellow named Danny.

Hampi happens to be a place that I've hoped to visit a few years now, well before the notion of traveling to India otherwise started to appeal to me this past summer. Set in a valley filled with so-called "hillocks" covered in high quality granite boulders, it is among the world's best bouldering destinations. I may climb before I leave, but this is by no means a focus for me at the moment. By and large bouldering feels like something from another lifetime from where I stand in my life presently. That said, there is a certain amount of familiarity for me in the boulder strewn landscape, especially since the hills themselves are only sparsely vegetated since they are mostly rock. But quite unlike the arid places the boulders remind me of, between the hills are acres and acres of lush banana farms, with coconut palms here and there, the occasional sugar cane farm, and a river at the valley's center.

The differences don't end there: built amongst, out of, sometimes against these boulders are scores of anonymous monuments of Vijayengar in varying stages of decay. Spread out over the valley are the remains of four or five major Hindu temples, still stunning today. Predominantly made of the golden and white granite of the valley's boulders, these open air temples house countless depictions of what I presume to be Hindu gods and their various incarnations carved out of the stone. Over the entrances stand tall pyramidal towers--also carved entirely with various figures. Smaller towers rise up at other points in each temple. Throughout what was the main temple are sets of small columns that, when tapped upon, sound varying musical notes; the sophistication of this blows my mind! The notes are low in pitch and kind of muted, perhaps the sound you would get if you extended a xylophone a few octaves lower. While it's novel to go around tapping these columns, listening to their different sounds, what really excited me when visiting was imaging how beautiful and religious it would be to hear a musical piece arranged for and played on the columns (which is to say played on the temple itself!). I don't know if this was done, but (clearly) I would like to think so.

Having said all this, I should mention that I didn't enjoy visiting these places as much as I might have made it sound above. I spent much of the day vaguely frustrated with the nature of sightseeing. First, being treated like a human bag of cash (meaning having every Indian you encounter try to sell you something) gets tiresome quickly. Second, sightseeing is just so . . . passive. You go, you see, you cross things off your mental to do list. And what else is there to do, really? Like with the temples described above, I enjoy having seen all these things. So we'll see whether I continue to sightsee as the trip progresses.

Perhaps my favorite part of the sightseeing excursion was when Danny and I took the bikes we were renting for the day to get around the sites down a small path through a grassy area, away from the main sites. There we found a smaller ruined temple, and two small boys, brothers, who wanted some money in exchange for our taking a picture of them. We avoided the issue, instead joking with them by asking for them to give us a "school pen", as many of the children do to us. They laughed, and as we walked back to our bikes they followed us, and then when we began to ride away they jumped on the back of our bikes and rode with us for a while through the grass. Once we had made it clear we weren't going to give them money, they became a bit more real with us, and it was just a really fun, unexpected moment.

In the evening after our return to our guesthouse, as sunset approached I went wandering on a ruin covered hill above the town. The sunset was a brilliant red, and as the light faded the ruins became dramatic silhouettes against the sky. As I walked about the village after dark, I found myself greeting the various hawkers with a big smile to accompany my "no thank you". For some reason, this made them seem to let me go without further harassment. In general, I felt thoroughly happy, and like I was hitting my stride a bit. Afterwards I grabbed dinner with Danny, and we talked over all sorts of travel related topics.

Prior to my arrival here, after my departure from Mumbai, I spend about four days on beaches that look like a New Englander's mid-winter dream of a tropical paradise. They were beautiful, and my time there was okay, but by the time I left I was dying to get out of there. They're just super touristy, and, when you get right down to it, quite artificial-- developed with bars and palm-frawn covered beach-hut accommodations to satisfy the Western tourist's notion of that "tropical paradise". I could imagine myself enjoying it after months of grueling travels, but it turned out to be a lousy place to start a trip here-- there was very little distinctly Indian about these beaches. My main hope in stopping here was meeting people to travel with, but it turned out that many people at touristy beach destinations don't have an interest in India extending beyond such beaches. Those who I met who were traveling were mostly wrapping their trips up.

Okay, that's all for now.

Josh