We woke up as early as 8am. We continue our so-called expedition by walking and discover the historic profile of Hampi ruins civilization, for about 8 hours from one place to another. Our expedition was not only by walking but also involved lots of climbing (to the high and or top of the place) and walking up the steepest route to the sacred place.
First, we walked up to this place. It is like up the Penang Dam but of course higher and more beautiful than the Penang Dam. The journey to the top was surrounded by the greatest views of all, the beautiful nature namely the river, the rocks and best of all, an overview (from the top) of the ruined ancient city of civilization.
About 45 minutes after that, we all reached to the top. We snap lots of beautiful photos from the above. It was very windy at the top of the ruined temple, the monuments are simply excellent and wonderful.
Until that point, I still couldn’t believe what I was doing. But anyway I tried to believe it. The feeling of being at the top, overlooking the many cities of ancient civilizations was amazing. We were so high that for a moment we thought we almost touch the morning sun.
There was this temple, on top of the top, so Omar and I didn’t feel high enough so we decided to climb up and higher. While Omar already reach to the top, leaving me under him, still struggling to be atop. I almost fall to the ground, almost got killed like falling from heaven when one of the edges I hold unto, cracked. You can see the stone fall down and the sound of it hitting the ground was never heard again. I was hooked with one hand on the still edge, just like Stallone in the movie, "Cliffhanger"
God saved me and I am still alive and typing this diary. I had a shock of my life for a brief moment. After the incident, I was calmed and cooled by Gytneth Patrow.
Photo: View of Hampi farmfield from the top 
Photo: Gokce & me against the backdrop of Hampi ruins civilization
From the top temple, we walked down to the ground and keep walking through the villages for about another 5km and reached the Monkey temple. The Monkey temple was located at the top of the mountain and we had to climb up the staircase (to heaven). The staircase look likes that staircase of Great Wall of China. We reached the arch (bottom) and came across a resting-place where we met a group of Swiss travelers. After a hot "Chai" (tea) and few bananas, we continue our journey all the way to the top. It was extremely tired but bearable. All tiredness paid off when we finally reached the top of Monkey temple.
We visited the inside of the temple where we saw a priest, giving blessing to those holier than thou wannabe while smoking hash at the same time, with a bamboo pipe. In other word, he was stone, dead stone and nobody give a damn anyway. I didn’t stay longer so I decided to go on the other side of the top, together with Gytneth Patrow, Michael the drug dealer and Omar the Rambo. We were lying on the rock, the edgeless rocks. So you can imagine, if any of us misstep a little, sure we going to fall to the ground, crash boom bang!
From the edges, we also overseeing and overlooking the huge farm fields, the villages and the ever serendipity views of the ancient cities while the wind blowing onto our flesh weakly.
So who was missing? Of course Gokce the Turkish girl. Where can she be? Actually at the time when we were amazed by our surrounding, she was with the priest I mentioned earlier, smoking hash and getting stone. The rest of the journey down from Monkey temple and all the long walks through the green fields, rocky mountain, river etc was kind of taken care by me because she was kind of stone- you know the after effect or the slow reaction after smoking up. I cherished every moment spent with her and I am going to miss her when she’s gone. She’s one coolest girl I ever met after such a long time but she’s going off soon making my heartbreak into million pieces. [smile…ha ha]. This kind of remind me of Elton John’s "I want love, but it’s impossible…" Sigh…
So we were lost and failed our way out. But eventually we did. While we were searching for the way out, we bump into this guy, an old man who spoke only three understandable English words namely Hello?, Grass? And Rs 400. I didn’t say much. I just handed him Rs 200 for about 10 grams and trust me, it was good and it was a great deal.
When we reached to the other side of the river, with coracle, which stopped at a slippery rock, about 5-meter from the shore, I slipped and fall flat to the river. The same unlucky even happened to Bernard as well. We were wet and soaked.
On the way back to the guesthouse, we were starving so we decided to stop at this café called Mango Tree café (fake one, because the real one, which recommended by the LP is located at the other side of the river). It wasn’t bad at all. It was like an open space, equipped with long tables, mattresses and pillows. You can lay down and eat. The best part about this café is the songs they played. Mainly the greatest hits of The Beatles like "Yesterday", "Love me do", "Help", "I feel fine" and a lot more.
Back to the guesthouse, while everybody was busy showering, removing the dirt and the sweat of the day, I met this punk, from the Netherlands. With piercing, tattoos, Trojan hair and joint, he looks like he is one of those hippie who just got back from Sex Pistol’s gig or from Woodstock. He was reading one of Dan Brown’s novels, which I couldn’t care to remember what was the title.
FYI, Dan Brown is one of the novelist that is currently famous with his work, "The Da Vinci code". The Hollywood, particularly the director of "Beautiful mind" and "Apollo 13" is currently persuading Tom Hanks to play the main role in the adapted movie. So, people, better make sure you read the book before it hit your local screen.
This punk guy had been travelling to some of the places including Malaysia. He told me that one of the best things about Malaysia was his Penang trip, the food paradise. Being Penangite, I am, needless to say, proud.
That evening was great. We had some trainees and local friends from Bombay visited us in Hampi. Among them are Sunir, who when drunk in Bombay’s pub during my previous visit to Bombay, shouted at me "a fucking Japanese", his Polish girlfriend, Gabrielle the Mexican girl and some others. Sunir and I having fun sharing about our passion for Rock Music while listening to the likes of Poison, Firehouse, Joan Osborne, KISS etc.
Together we went to real Mango Tree café. It was only a 5 minutes walk to the inside of rural area and from the outside, it looks ordinary and nothing special. But most of us were amazed and appalled by its charm and our feeling was completely different from 5 minutes ago. To exaggerate, I would say it look like the hanging garden of Babylon. The seating area is actually on the floor, on the cold cemented floor, leaning against the steep wall, facing the big and calm river, accompanied by strong yet lazy wind and on top of us was a million smiling stars.
In the café, just by the side of our long table, there is big trees, tied with a swing. So I went up the swing, I felt like swinging in the air with nothing below me, nothing but the river. I feel like I was gonna fall at anytime.
The dinner was great. After that we rolled a couple of joints and start to smoke them. The regular smoker was Gokce, Omar, one Indian mix Dutch girl and I.
I tell you, Hampi is a great paradise and it is one of the recommended areas to travel to in India. This is a weed paradise. For a moment, you wouldn’t tell a different between Hampi and Amsterdam.
Hampi trip has also brought me closer to Patrow. We were so close it somewhat spark a strange chemistry. There is a kind of happy feeling whenever being with her.
I guess maybe it was just Hampi or matter of fact India that it makes it all light and easy for travelling like that. There is no border no discrimination and suspicious of sort that made us all closer like lover freind and family. So occasionally we were holding hand and hanging out together while enjoying the serendipity landscapes (from the top) and the sound of the nature but I guess deep inside, through unspoken words, we both know it means nothing but friendship and companionship. I love to be with her. That’s my sensitivity talking [smile…]
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To be continue…
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