Tag Archives: Hampi

Hampi – Pushkar

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≈2500km

I leave Hampi at saturday morning having no ideas about the day of the week. The train ride is joyful as the train is nearly empty. Unfortunately my phone does not get any connection even after leaving hampi so I believe the sim was switched of – would not be the first time. The train is late in Belgaum and before I arrive there I recognize its Saturday so I will have to stay one day before I get the bike. What to do. Sunday I move to another hotel closer at the enfield showroom and get a mobile device so I will have internet everywhere. I find out there will be a train to Delhi at Monday evening. As I am in a hurry to get my spare parts for the car from the custom in jaipur I take the train up to Gwalior.

Before getting on the train I have the occasional fight about the price with the chai wallah at the station – “One chai fifteen rupees!” – “ You know that’s why I like Pakistan so much – In Pakistan people are welcome and in india only money”. People are suddenly silent around me and looking at me – I pay five rupee and leave. I have a general ticket and the train is overcrowded. The first night I manage to get a bed but then I spend 20 hours without even really a place to sit… At this day a guy who has been at the chaishop in Belgaum invites me for chai to prove not all Indians are greedy. A few hours before arriving I meet some Russian girls I had already seen in Hampi. I join them and the last hours on the train go by fast while chatting with them. I arrive in Gwalior which is about 300km from Jaipur at 1 in the morning and its freezing cold 1800 km further in the north. There is no way to get on the bike before sunrise. I do 10km and then I spend hours at a chaishop with the biggest rats I have ever seen in india. I got internet so no problem.
Sunrise I spend at the next chaishop already – I have a lot of fun with the very nice chai guy there. Then I take a short cut and the landscape becomes amazingly beautiful again. Somewhere out in the dessert suddenly I recognize a loss of power. My diagnosis is ignition which probably needs to be adjusted which needs a mechanic who knows enfields. I stop in the next village and soon a mechanic is found. Within minutes I am surrounded by people who ask me to play my guitar and make music. I order chai but before the chai is finished the bike is. My diagnosis in general was right but lucky enough only the spark plug needed to be changed. I sing a song for the people and in exchange I get chai and spark plug for free.

Well there are places with nice open hearted people in india still. But you will need to visit the countryside – like places where people have hardly ever seen foreigners before. I didn’t sleep last night so I stop a little later at a chaishop to take a nap. Waking up very late I don’t manage to reach Jaipur and sleep again in the same filthy guesthouse where I was a few weeks before on my way to Agra. Next day morning I go to my guesthouse in Jaipur and to the post office then. They need the receipt which was sent to Pushkar so I can prove to be the owner of the parcel. Takes another two days but Sunday evening a bus driver takes the paper for me from Pushkar. So I wait a few days in Jaipur and get the parts Monday afternoon. Nighttime I arrive in Pushkar. I sleep inside suryananda. The repairing takes a few days but after it is finished I am still kind of stuck in Pushkar. “Leaving day after tomorrow” I tell everyone until people are only laughing about it. When the car is repaired I take a room to clean her completely and after I take a place at sunset ghat – which is probably the most beautiful place to park in Pushkar.

Belgaum – Hampi

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N15°20’09.1”, E076°27’39.9”

≈300km

After writing the Blog the enfield garage calls me pretty soon. 10.000.- rupees! What to do I think but tell to call back to think about it to make a position for negotiations. When I call them back 10 minutes later they say 10.000 – 15.000 rupees. I get the next rickshaw to go to their place to make the negotiations face to face. 10 – 12 we agree at the end and it will take them at least two days. What to do I think again – when I see the bike at the operation table I feel the tears in my eyes. I know the time comes closer every kilometer when we have to say good bye finally. It is planned to sell her in Pushkar… It can’t end like this, I am responsible for her health! I pay 3000 in advance and take their promises to give all their love to my baby.

On the way back to the hotel I decide to spend the waiting time with a trip to Hampi. The hotel is right next to the railway station so no problems. I make the usual concerts out of dinner and breakfast and take the train next day at 12 to Hampi. The 300km cost me 160 rups (2,2 euro) for sleeper class and little more than 7 hours. On the way I work a lot on my second song and sleep a little. I arrive in Hospet at 7.30. Some friendly guys at the train arrange a rickshaw to Hampi for a good price so I arrive in Hampi half an hour later.

But what was that? There was no more Hampi! Most of the buildings had been removed! Like whole buildings! There was bare ground with some leftover rocks where there had been buildings before! The music shop! My favorite restaurant! My barber! Bare ground! The people who had lived there where promised to get new homes a few kilometers away. But these have not even been started to be built yet. So most of the people live on the street and in the jungle now! What the fuck? Fortunately the area around the Megha guest house, where I always stay, still exists. Having some difficulties to find it in the leftover little maze of Hampi I use (like always) the gps to find my guesthouse.

And like always the owners see me first laughing about me staring at my handheld gps nearly passing them. I drink a chai with the owner talking about the things happening in Hampi. Of course I can sleep for free at his shop, no question. After I go out to eat and make some music. Soon I find a place and 5 minutes later I share a table with Dean who is playing guitar too. A few lovely girls clap their hands after our first song so we keep playing for a while. When I come back to the guest house they are already closing so just right in time. I prepare my bed and start writing when five minutes later my friend Mogli enters the room. We are both happy to see each other and have a long talk. Maybe he knows people who are ready to pay 50-60000 for my bike. He will call them tomorrow! Awesome I think, finish writing and go to bed. Being curios and afraid to see the leftovers of Hampi tomorrow at daytime.

I wake up pretty early when the first customers arrive at the chai shop. Loan , a beautiful girl from france with Vietnamese roots and her friend, Marizza from Switzerland who just arrived in Hampi… What can there be more beautiful in life than being woken up by two wonderful girls? We enjoy several chai together and then I go to the barber.

Garlis music shop is on the other side of the river now and I promised to the girls to show them around a little so I go and pick them up to take the boat together. While waiting for the boat I manage to slip in the shallow water of the river carrying all my stuff like guitar, camera, money, passport. I manage to hold up the camera but all the other stuff dips in the water for a part of a second. I am lucky enough nothing happens. The passport and my songbook are just a little wet – that’s all. We pass to the other side of the river and go direction music shop. On the way, when passing a thali shop we recognize we are hungry so we sit down. The food is tourist quality but Indian price – so at least a lot cheaper than the places around. The owner of the thali shop knows Garli and calls him on the phone when I ask for his shop. 5 minutes later Garli stops his bike in front of the shop with a big smile on his face. Of course he remembers me. We make a quick five minute jam session together and then I ask him for what I am here for.

He has. (!)When Marizza hears what we are talking about she tells me she might have some kind of connection to the builders of the original hang. She offers to help me to get one and I am happy like a little child. I came to Hampi for a fake hang which I will get and now there might be even a small chance to get a real one. I quickly eat and then nearly run to the music shop thinking about which scale I would prefer…. G major – that would be amazing.

When I enter the shop he is making music with two Russian girls. The first thing I see then is the Hapi drum. I take it out of the back and try it – its awesome! The sound is not to be described – you not only hear it but feel it in every cell of your body. I stay at the shop for more than an hour before we make a short negotiation about the price. Garli and I are brothers so he gives me a more than fair price and leaves me happy! The scale – well of course the only one (out of three) that was openly in the shop was a G major… Sometimes in india things just happen.

I go back home and show my new love to Loan who is waiting at the chai shop. Her friend is at the cyber café so we have chai and a long very deep and interesting conversation. When she says she wants to get a massage later I offer to give it to her. We prepare everything, go to her room and when I ask her about where she has a problem/needs a massage she says she wants headmassage. OK! I have never done this before… I know I can trust in my fingers and what they are doing when I stop thinking but still I am a little worried to try something completely new at a person I know a couple of hours only.

At the beginning its hard. I have to find out how to hold the head so she can relax and I still can give enough pressure to massage her head. A few minutes later it works. I found my position to sit and to hold her head. Its really an amazing experience and even the pain I have in my right shoulder since Verygoods treatment is gone after this massage. Loan looks very relaxed when I finish and when I ask her if it was good for her she tells me it was the best head massage she ever had. Even hours later she tells me that she still feels her crown chakra in a very pleasant way. This makes me very happy too and I thank God for my fingers several times. This evening ends with a nice talk with Dean whom I met yesterday. Unfortunately we have no time to make music as all the restaurants are closing at 10. Never mind I will probably meet him in Pushkar.

Picture update will be coming in the next post