At the end of March, I went to Hyderabad for work and decided to make another attempt at going to Hampi (the last time, it was flooded). Gina agreed to go with me, so on Friday night, we hopped an overnight train and headed south. We had second-class AC sleeper tickets, so the berths were pretty nice and there was a very nice older Muslim couple who traveled with us and were very sweet. They thankfully helped us tell the porter to wake us up in Hospet, so that we didn't keep going onward with the train. This boiled down to us getting woken up and hustled out onto the platform at about 5:15am, but still, better than the alternative. We caught a rickshaw and headed into the town of Hampi, still at dark o'clock. Although he asked us which side of the river we were staying on, the rickshaw driver elected not to drop us there. Apparently, it was easier to put us on the more populated side, but that was a pretty big bummer for us as we arrived a little before 6am and the ferry to our hotel didn't start running until 7. Even though it was early for the restaurants too, we decided to go and wait at The Mango Tree until they opened. We woke up the whole place once we got there; about ten people who work at the restaurant were sleeping on cots and mats in the courtyard. They were very generous in welcoming us in and making us chai while they got the restaurant up and running. I consequently loved the place. Chai and hot breakfast before you're even supposed to be open - that is the way to my heart.
After breakfast, it was late enough to go back to the ferry and catch a ride across the river. The river itself doesn't look big enough to require a boat, but it just barely is - especially with luggage. We wound our way up the bank and through the sugarcane fields to our hotel, only to find out that they didn't have the AC room that we booked. Since only one or two hotels in all of Hampi have AC, I was willing to compromise on a room with a fan and a non-working AC unit, and the hope that the manager would lower the rate to non-AC for us. We got cleaned up, dumped our stuff and headed back across the river to see the temples in town.
Have I mentioned yet that Hampi was hot? Like really, very, very, hot. Like watering-all-the-time hot. Consequently, our tour of the ruins was a bit laborious. We spent most of the afternoon going to two of the three main temple groups in town. We had a very nice vegetarian buffet lunch at one of the state tourist hotels and wrapped up our sightseeing about 3pm. At this point, we started to get a glimmer of an idea. First, it was hotter than schmuck. Second, we had seen all of the most-famous monuments and weren't sure if there was much more worth seeing. Third, if we took a night bus or train on Saturday night, we'd be back in Hyderabad in time for Sunday brunch with Jen on her last day, and a massage at Tangerine. Hmmmm.....
I'm sure it's no surprise that we elected to go for an overnight AC bus to get home faster. We were able to get the last two AC reserved seats, and so thought we were all set to head home. I really should have known better, I mean really. Traveling in India pretty much defines Murphy's Law on a regular basis, but I still make the mistake sometimes of expecting something different. When we got back to our hotel we checked out and offered to pay the AC rate for the room. Not only did they refuse to lower the rate, they also refused to acknowledge that there ever were posted AC rates, even though there was a defunct air conditioner in our room. In the end, I didn't have time to argue. I reversed the charges, after way too long on hold with both Make My Trip and Capital One, and we went on our merry way. We hit Mango Tree up for one last meal, and then headed into town to catch our bus.
And this is where the fun really begins.... In hindsight, we decided what happened was that they overbooked the AC section of the bus and basically picked on the two foreigners as the most likely to be easy to screw over. In any case, we go to get on the bus and the guy trys to walk us into the non-AC section of the bus. We protest. He insists we have non-AC tickets. By comparing prices with a few other folks, we become sure that we paid for AC reserved. Gina sits down in the AC section and refuses to move (go Gina!). I contemplate getting off the bus to call the travel agent, as the man insists I should. Gina says no dice - they might leave without us. So, we sit down and refuse to move, Rosa Parks-style. The two bus dudes yell at us a bunch and then try to 'refund' the difference in the ticket price so that we'll move. We say 'no way' offer that to one of the other passengers and see if they take it. Sure enough, they don't even bother because nobody would. Then they try to get us to move to a full sleeper bus, supposedly Hyderabad bound as well. Gina says, bad idea, who knows where it's really going. So we refuse to budge again. Bottom line - it worked. At least to get us as far as Hyderabad. We didn't sleep all that well - I kept thinking we'd get thrown off the bus at some point and the "AC" was intermittent. But, we got to Hyderabad. We ended up being the last ones on the bus, so rather than doing the last stop in Hi-Tech City like they were supposed to, they pulled off at a random intersection and told us to get off the bus and take an auto rickshaw. In the melee that ensued, I left my Blackberry on the bus, so between all of the irritation and the lost equipment, I think the lying, thieving bus wallahs got the better of us. After a half dozen aborted auto rickshaw negotiations, we finally got one to drop us across the street from the company apartments at Jayabheri. Whew.
Brunch at Novotel and a massage at Tangerine did a lot to soothe my jangled nerves. I had another saga trying to get my flight changed because for some odd reason, Kingfisher decided not to take any international credit cards, save Amex, that day. I actually had to call my daddy and borrow his credit card for a fifteen dollar charge, if you can believe it. However, in the end it all worked out and we got home safe and sound and were mildly soothed by our relaxing Sunday afternoon.
The sum-up on Hampi: Don't go in anything that approximates a Spring or Summer month - Winter is where it's at. Take the train both ways. No lying, cheating, bus wallahs. The ruins are beautiful, but they're fairly weathered. Unless you really, really love hippi backpacker towns, you might want to spend your India travel time elsewhere. I'm glad I went; I would have wondered otherwise. And, Gina is a great travel buddy - I never would have channeled Rosa Parks on my own without her.
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