It is now the 28th of April and Jenni, John and I have been in Hampi now for about a week. Here is a bit about the journey: After leaving Thailand we flew to Bangalore airport (India) and secured a taxi ride through the government run taxi stand. Now, I would have figured that getting a taxi through a government agency would have ensured a speedy, direct ride to our hostel. In fact, that is exactly what I figured, and I was oh-so very wrong! Either we had been given the most incompetent newbie driver in the whole fleet (possible), or our man was trying desperately to get a commission from a very expensive hotel (likely). Either way, or chauffeur acted like he had no idea where he was going even though the hotel we had booked was very close to the most busy train station in all of Bangalore and we had shown him on a map! Eventually he did get us to our destination, but only after taking us to the same wrong hotel twice, calling for directions twice, trying to get John to call for directions and stopping to ask other drivers (also twice, I think!). I guess the man loves symmetry.

So, around 2 am we arrive at the Royal Lodge Hotel, a place that at its conception was truly a grand place. Time had taken its toll however and it now proved to be a semi seedie budget lodge in an overwhelming part of town. It seemed safe however and as it was cheap, had a cleanish bed, a sometimes hot shower and 24 hour check in/out, we were happy with just being able to lay down. We already had our tickets bought to leave Bangalore that evening so all we wanted was a place to hide out and get some rest.

We spent the day doing just that, making one long foray to the train station to check on our tickets. Soon 10 pm rolled around and we found ourselves at the city station ready to leave for Hospet. Boarding the train proved uneventful and we were soon off, John chatting away with a nice man that had taken a seat next to me. All seemed to be going well, but before long I received a sharp kick from Jenni, one that was strategically aimed to secretly get my attention. However, being a guy, I stereotypically did not get the hint and replied with a loudish retort along the lines of "what! why are you kicking me!?!" Jenni angrily stared into my eyes with a look that could have rivaled the most annoyed 4th grade teacher and nodded downwards while mouthing "look at my hand!" I finally understood and looked down to see that her hand was in the shape of a pistol and she was nodding in the direction of the man sitting to my right. "Ahh" I casually thought, "I get it, the guy next to me has a gun." I resigned my self to not worry because if something was about to go down there was not much I was going to be able to do about it, and anyway, there had to be a better explanation for the blatant display of a gun than "train robber." Come to find out, the man and his "associate" were police officers and as they were both packing their heat in there waist bands, I can only suppose that holsters are not standard issue in India. He was nice though, he even invited us to dinner, which we are all pretty sure was actually a ploy to get John to marry one of his daughters!
Other than that, the train to Hospet was also uneventful and after getting off we quickly picked up a rickshaw to Hampi. It took a couple of days on the bazaar side of the river (basically in town) before we realised that where we wanted to be was on the other side, lovingly termed Hippie Island. We are now staying north of the river at a chill place called the Gopi and are spending our time bouldering, relaxing and exploring the ruins and boulder fields.
Hampi has turned out to be a very cool place, a place where the beauty of India can be seen with far less of what has been called "the dark side" of India. Here, the golden boulders intermingle with ancient temples and green rice paddies, all bathed in the same brilliant red-orange glow of a spectacularly setting sun. Here, pilgrams worship at the granite temples set amoungst the boulders from which they were hewn, while climbers from all over the world worship in their own way, on the boulders themselves. Here, you know that amidst the overwhelming crazy that can be India, you have found something special. Here, you have found something so very worth it, whatever "it" may be.