The Hampi landscape is truly one of a kind
with its lush palm trees, rice patties and banana plantations in the lowlands
and its sparse and thorny desert succulents in the elevated areas. Huge granite boulders litter the area,
precariously perched on one another and forming hills that look like waves
moving across an open sea. The sun spectacularly
rises and sets over the hills setting the granite ablaze and washing the
landscape in fiery light that no camera could ever truly capture. The Vijayanagara people that inhabited the
area roughly 500-700 years ago took advantage of the endless quarry they had at
their disposal and used the granite for all of their structures despite the
difficulties presented by its hardness and crystal grains. The Vijayanagara people filled the entire
area with structures of every sort ranging from grand temples and palaces to
trivial porticos standing alone in the middle of a field. The more important structures were grouped
together near the center of town, but even the furthest outlying areas had a
smattering of seemingly random, painstakingly created, granite constructions
left to be viewed and appreciated only by those who ventured away from the
beaten path for one reason or another.
In my case, because I just learned how to drive a motorcycle and I
wanted to cruise around a little reveling in my new found understanding of why
people would risk their life unnecessarily whilst performing everyday tasks.
The leading theory on how Hampi’s landscape
was formed goes back to when the subcontinent plate collided with the pan Asian
plate forming the Himalayas. The bedrock
of the subcontinent plate was mostly granite and much harder than the bedrock
of the plate it collided into, thus the bulk of Himalayan mountain range being
north of the clearly defined southern ridge.
But, as the subcontinent came to a halt there was rippling as the ground
scrunched together and the hills of Hampi were formed. The subcontinent was underwater at this point
and rocks that splintered off were held in place be other sediment that eventually
eroded away leaving the boulders set atop each other in peculiar ways. Sorry for the digression, but if you look at
the pictures and aren’t curious how that happened… then I guess you just aren’t
as big of a nerd as I am.
Hampi is part of a route through India known
jokingly as “The Hummus Trail,” the route that many Israelis take through India
after they have finished their military service. Most all of the places along the trail
including Hampi have a certain attitude about them that is perfect for those looking
to, not “let off some steam” per se, as much as turn off the flame heating the
kettle. There were several days when I
never made it past the small restaurant seating area only 10m from my room. I simply sat, ate, played various card and
board games, listened to music and read the day away. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more relaxed
and care free in my life.
There were several occasions when I did
actually take the initiative to rouse myself and enact a plan for the day. Seeing as the area was littered with giant,
granite boulders, there was some pretty good rock climbing around and there was
a party that left at sunrise every morning to seek out the next challenge. There were the sites to see and empty roads
to get there. That last part combined
with the ability to rent a motor scooter for about $2.50 + fuel for the day or
a motorcycle for $3 + fuel led to an activity all in itself. The first two times I rented a motor scooter,
they were fun to drive around and kept you honest on speed simply out of their
sheer incapability, but it was a nice intro to what came next. On day seven of nine a Kiwi named Mark taught
me how to drive the Honda Hero he had rented and I spent the next 45 minutes
moving through the gears, doing hill starts and all together adjusting to
control scheme of a motorcycle. The
following day I sprung for the nice, relatively new (the gauges still worked
and the tires had some good tread) 135cc Bajaj Discover and a whopping 3L of
fuel costing me a grand total of $10 for the day. I got my money’s worth too noting the
odometer claimed I drove over 70km just around Hampi that day (from one end of
Hampi to the opposite side is maybe 3km and on the small roads you never get
moving that fast, so the 70km was about three hours of driving).
What a place‽
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