Victor Feinman

Ok, wow, I just got out of class early! Something that hasn’t happened in a long while. Well this gives me the time I need to write in my journal about last weekend. I didn’t know taking pictures and writing about my travels would be so time consuming. But one day I will look back at all my pictures and my journal and remember that I once had the freedom and ability to travel to India for six months.

This past weekend I went to Hampi, India. Hampi is known for its historical significance. It is pretty far from Mysore about 11 hours travel time. We decided to leave on Friday night at 5 o’clock from campus to the city train station. From there we took a train to Bangalore and then a train from Bangalore to Hospet - the closest train stop to hampi – and finally finished our travels with an auto rickshaw to Hampi. The train ride from Mysore to Bangalore was quick. We were sitting next to a group of Indians who work with us, so naturally we spoke with them for a while. Before we knew it we were in Bangalore looking for a place to eat to kill the one hour and a half between our next leg of the trip – an 8 hour, over night, train ride. We had bought sleeper class tickets. Thank goodness we did because the next lower class was wooden benches sitting upright next to strangers for 8 hours through the night.

The sleeper class was pretty cool, there were 8 people per cabin, each cabin had three beds inside and two across from it. These were not the most comfortable beds, but they were good enough for me to sleep on. I woke up at 6am to the train hustlers running up and down the isle screaming coffee, coffee, coffee, chai, chai, chai. They were saying it so fast the words all blended into each other. It is a mystery how anyone could actually understand what they were saying. And the fact that they were screaming it, as if people weren’t expecting to hear them after the one hundredth time they screamed it out. I can’t believe that even when 90% of the train was still sleeping, these buffoons would insist on waking everyone up. Seriously, if I was awoken by one of these guys, I wouldn’t by coffee from them (which is nestle instant coffee anyway). Not to mention the fact that we weren’t sure if these guys were beggars with an idea or if they were employees of the train. BIG DIFFERENCE. If they were beggars, you can expect to digest some kind of parasite, but that’s not to say you couldn’t if they were train employees anyway.

We arrived in Hospet in good time – about 8am – and we were ready to go to Hampi. This is where I knew I was going to have a difficult time. Since the first foot off of the train we were asked by many auto drivers for a ride. It is amazing, they see white faces and the race begins – may the fastest auto driver on foot win. The reason is simple; white faces equal 3-5 times the usual price. Victor was prepared, however, he read it in a major publication, published only two years prior that the fare should be around 80 rs.. I am willing to give a small premium to compensate for inflation so lets say 100 rs (that is per auto). I think that is fare. Well, one other person on the trip must have read wrong, because when the auto driver said he would only charge us 300rs to take us there, he immediately – I mean EMMEDIATELY – said we’ll take it. I was shocked and appalled! My blood was really cooking. The moron said he read somewhere that autos charge 300 per person to take them to Hampi. There were 5 of us, and would have totaled 1500 so a mere 600rs (for two autos) was a bargain. Oh my god did this put a divider between the two of us. Even if we were saving 900rs you NEVER agree to the first price quoted by an auto driver. Boy did this get me going. I could already see this weekend taking a turn for the worse.

Before we got into the auto, I told the group that I read about a good recommendation to stay at Rama Guesthouse and agreed to go there first, then to look around if we didn’t like it. So of to Rama Guesthouse we went. For some reason or other, our driver took longer to get there then the other auto. When my auto arrived the same person who took the “deal”, said there are no rooms available at the Rama Guesthouse and we got two rooms here. The other place was across the street. They had already seen the rooms and wanted to take them. The problem was, this place only had doubles and we needed on double and one triple. So I insisted they go over to the Rama Guesthouse to see if there one room was a triple. We waited outside for them to take a look at the room. When they returned he said, they have one double and one triple available and it looks better. It makes me wonder if he even asked about the rooms at Rama Guesthouse. God this kid already was pissing me off, which is a pretty incredible thing to do considering how much I try to like people and make myself likeable.

We placed our stuff in our rooms and the same auto drivers waited for us to finish and take us around Hampi. We had agreed on letting these guys take us around the city for a little bit more then the 300 we were going to pay them.

Now the places we went to were too many to recall how I felt at each place. Hampi is full of ancient ruins, temples (both active and not active), and natural wonders. I will do my best to identify which location I took which photos at. Please look at my photos on flickr to see the places I went to. http://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_feinman

I decided to be very passive on this trip and just follow the lead. Without any challenge I agreed to everything. Thankfully there was only one night in Hampi.

The trip back was horrible. First, the bus was late. I know, we took the train there, but the others wanted to take the bus back for some god damn stupid reason. So it was an half an hour late. We all piled on and I quickly found my spot and tried to get comfortable. The problem was, I couldn’t get comfortable! The whole darn trip back, all 8 hours of it, I was awake. I could not fall asleep. Boy was I miserable the next day. When we arrived in Bangalore, the others wanted to stay and spend the day there.

I couldn’t take it anymore. By this time I was drained of all my cash, because of a kid who paid top dollar for bottom shelf service; tired due to a restless night on a bus; had laundry to do back on campus; had a test the next day; needed to finish some assignments; and fed up with the ring leader. For these reasons, I went off on my own for the journey back to Mysore. It was only a 3 hour train ride, then 20 minute auto ride and I was back. I did it my way. I bought a general seating ticket on a passenger train (23rs). I got on the sleeper class car and laid down. As soon as my head hit the padded medal bed, I fell right asleep. Of course I woke up at every stop to make sure I didn’t miss mine. Then once I reached Mysore, I walked up to the prepaid rickshaw stand and got a 75rs fare back to campus. It cost me less money to get back to Mysore from Bangalore (about 150 km) then it did to get me from Hospet to Hampi (only 15km). Given that data, I’d say I paid about 15 times more then I should have to get to Hampi. Urgg that makes me mad. Stupid stupid kid.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time in Hampi. I saw a lot of beautiful and historical things. I believe Hampi is super relaxing! The atmosphere there is really relaxed. We went walking around the bazaar and found ourselves at a guesthouse called tourist paradise. Nestled in a back corner of the bazaar is this lake front resort. Each “room” was it’s own little hut. In the common area were hammocks which I found much pleasure in by swinging in one of them.

On top of Hemakuta Hill, I fell asleep on the rocks. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The rock had a slight slope upwards and with the breeze blowing by and the river running in the distance. If I closed my eyes I was back on the shores of Ventnor, New Jersey with my family. This type of illusion or fantacy has been very few and far between so I wanted to stay there.