The night bus from Panji to Hampi
Monday, December 31st, 2007The Night Bus From Panji (Goa) to Hampi
It took quite a mental effort to leave Goa behind. I have heard of people spending months on end in that place, time just slips by so easily. By the end of the week I was already in a routine of getting up at 12 to go for a swim, back to the house for a shower etc before heading back down to the beach for food, sit around, read a book before going for a few beers at the shack closest to where I was staying. To be honest Its hard to tell some of the days apart and to be honest I didn’t like that too much. That and the fact that Goa is full it seems of package tourists who are just into themselves so doesn’t really nurture the back packing fraternity the way someone travelling on their own needs, so the decision to leave was made.
Friday morning I grabbed a taxi from Arambol to the state capitol Panji – I even managed to negotiate a fare of 600 rupees down to 400 – very proud of that effort altogether. The trip over was nice, the taxi driver was cricket mad and pointed out a few places of interest. It was a good way to get to see what Goa really is like, its not just beaches and shacks. There is a very strong christian influence in goa that comes from when the portugese settled here and it is still very prevalent in the buildings and the imagery that surrounds the place and as a result (I am told) doesn’t represent true india.
I got the driver to drop me at the bus depot in panji – its was a fairly chaotic scene at first, that coupled with the heat made it a little disorientating but a quick consultation with the lonely planet got me to Pablos Travel agency. Here I booked the sleeper ticket to hampi via bus, they allowed me to store my backpack while I had about 6 hours or so to go off and explore panji and pretty much find out why it is such a hidden gem.
Hidden Gem is definitely not what I would call this town, while it was okay to walk around and the people didn’t hassle you on the scale of mumbai, 6 hours was definitely about 3 too long. I took time out to check up on the internet, grab a coffee and loosely plan the next month of my trip and grab a few extra medication things to keep me going till I got to another major town. I also managed to watch in on a game of cricket. At around 5 o’clock I reckoned it was about time to head back to the bus station but a funny thing happened, the city exploded with people, they seemed to come from nowhere like wasps getting smoked out of a hole – I figured it was the end of the working day and it was some sight. It was also very disoriented, I got lost with a sore pair of feet traipsing around the place
After about 40 minutes I managed to get my bearings once again, oh and I got to nimble on some tasty street food while I was at it. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but I have decided to go vegetarian for this trip in India, I started off on the meat in everything but had a bit of a toilet episode after some dodgy chicken so touch wood on the veggies it has been fine. Eating lots of paneer food so that will do as a meat substitute until I can constitute the stuff a little better.
I sat outside the bus station for the guts of an hour, started a conversation with a few English chaps who seemed quite sound. Swapped stories about Goa, they were further south than me and had a ‘wicked time’ down there. Sounded like too much like hard work, staying up till 6 or 7 in the morning was not something I had planned to do on my relaxing week at the start of my trip. Next thing we know the bus turned up. Man you should have seen this bus, some effort. It looked like a bigger version of the bus out of scooby doo. Got my bag in first so it was less likely to be nicked and boarded the bus.
After being pointed to my bed/seat I noticed that it was shared with someone else. Can you imagine, a 13 hour trip across some bad excuse for tarmacadam sound corners and up mountains with some strange dude you never met before in the space that was barely bigger than a single bed back at home and about 1/10 as comfortable.
So I lay back on the bunk with my head on my smaller bag, the bigger one stowed safely away (or so I hoped) in the back of the bus waiting anxiously to see who or what I was to share this trip with. I didn’t have to wait very long. Adonai is the kind of person who you hear before you see, with a full beard and and a faux-hippy sense of style he came bounding on the bus and made a beeline for the berth beside me. We made our introductions, christ he was loud and energetic – a south american taz!! It took quite a while to get a word in edgeways. This might seem like a total nightmare but to tell the truth I was kinda happy. I hadn’t really spoken to anyone in the previous week so it was good to have someone to chat to, we hit it off straight away.
I definitely felt out of my depth to begin with, adonai had been all over the world, could speak 5 languages perfectly and had an armoury of stories that had me green with envy. We stopped for some food after a few hours, the stop was I’m guessing in the middle of nowhere. We ordered some biryani and sat with this english dude who was as dull as dishwater, the waiter came over and started to regale us with stories of conquests past – showing us pictures of girls that had come through the previous weeks, whether what he said was true or not doesn’t really matter – the stories he told and how he told them were funny and eye opening for me, we are all the same no matter where you go. Fellas talk about girls and girls talk about clothes or shopping or whatever girls talk about :)!! It was getting on and we were getting anxious about the bus. The waiter assured us that he would tell us when the bus driver was finished so we could go then, I think he was enjoying the audience too much because all of a sudden we hear a horn blast and a roar of some hindi from outside, he gave us a look and said, ‘sorry sirs, your bus is pulling out’, SHIT!!! We jump up, adonai scarpers right out the door to catch it, I went to pay for the bill… At this point I made a big mistake. I bought 4 bottles of kingfisher strong and brought them out and on into the waiting bus. The last person on I appologised sheepishly and climbed back into the bunk. Adonai with his big manic smile (already he is calling me guinness) laughs at the sight of the beer and welcomes me back up into our abode.
The beers were broken out and we began to injest. Kingfisher is a nasty beer, due to the lack of refrigeration in this country they use a preservative called glycerol in the beer which keeps the beer fresh in warm storage but it also gives you a feeling in your head like someone just scalped you with a cheese grater. With an alcohol content on the side of the bottle detailing between 5 and 8% you don’t really have a clue what you are getting in the dirty old bottle.
We yapped away – we talked about music, books, art (I’m bluffing at this stage) etc etc the hunger pangs kicked in again and I took out my half eaten tube of pringles. It was my only food source so I had to make it last. Still being the generous giving person that I am I offered some to my peruvian self proclaimed metaphysical poet chum. He took the tube ad launched into it cookie monster style, crumbs permeated his beard, It was an amusing sight. The bladder though was beginning to feel full, very full. We were both in pain and it was obvious. We were not alone either, a couple of russian girls on the bus had asked the bus driver to stop but he was having none of it. Time goes so slow when you have to pee, there is nothing worse. I lie, there is something worse. Adonai in a moment of pure genius excuses himself, Sorry Mate!! He grabs my pringles tube with 1/4 of them left, my breakfast… turns himself around, pops the lid and urinates into the box, opens the window and chucks it out when he is done. The picture of relief I was shocked that someone would be so audacious to do that, the cheek I thought!! The bastard he was! The fool I was not to think of it myself… My suffering continued for what seemed like hours before the driver finally submitted to the growing pleas of the bladder busting masses. I scarpered out and in the middle of some ditch in India relieved myself. At last I could sleep.
We had another food stop before making it to hampi, dawn had just broken and we arrived at another truckers stop not too dissimilar to the place we had been the previous evening. I grabbed some chai and some chapati for breakfast, reckoned it would be enough to keep me going til we reached our ultimate destination.
We made it to Hampi at about 10 in the morning. Everyone was wrecked from the bumpy ride. A welcoming party of rickshaws and guesthouse wallahs were waiting for us, several miles out the road they rode in their rickshaws passing leaflets in through the window advertising their place, calling you friend, pleading with you to remember them once you got off the bus. These guys are tenacious, I guess when it is your livelihood you really do have to be this way. Sure enough on departing the bus a big cloud of dust was kicked up by the hawkers trying their best to drag you along to their place. Luckily enough a dutch girl sitting below us that we got talking to had a tip for a nice place to stay on the other side of town. She asked myself and adonai along with an italian girl called isabella and an israeli couple called adonai and dana if we wanted to join her. We got two rickshaws for the group and our bags and made our way the short distance down to the rivers edge, from here we took a boat which traverses the holy river that passes through hampi. A short walk up some steps and along a dusty, bumpy road takes you to a grand selection of guesthouses. I took a chance to rest some while looking after the bags so the rest could scope out a place to stay. I grabbed a coke and sat in the shade of a very warm hampi morning, I was happy, content, heck I was enjoying this alot…
The photos of hampi and Goa are all up on the photos site, again Hampi is amazing!!!
Phil Gill