Hampi

I seem to start half the posts in this blog with comments about the length of time since the last post... and this one is no different. I have been in Hampi, in the southern state of Karnataka, for three weeks. Hampi is a place where the outside world gets forgotten quite easily, and things like writing blog posts don't seem so important. So I hope that people reading this will appreciate the monumental effort that I had to go to to write the post!

Heading South

The trip from Varanasi to Hampi was a long ride. The first leg was a thirty-hour train ride to Hyderabad, which started with the usual confusion over exactly when and from which platform the train would leave. Once on the train I had to argue with the family from the next compartment who had stashed all of their luggage under the seat where my luggage belonged. Then I had to politely refuse the requests from a man who wanted me to swap seats with me; I had the top bunk, which is easily the best spot in a sleeper carriage.

After that I could relax and enjoy the ride. Well, as well as you can relax when every Indian bloke within earshot is using the loudspeaker in his phone to play the latest Bollywood hits. Indian pop music is fun for the first half an hour of your trip, but it tires very quickly when it is coming out of all manner of bad speakers.

I arrived in Hyderabad at 10pm, and had to walk around some very dodgy streets before I found a half-decent hotel room. I had a train leaving at 9 the next evening, so I decided to see a bit of Hyderabad during the day. The guidebook promised impressive Muslim sights, but the reality was poorly maintained sites covered in graffiti. By far more Indian tourists than foreigners visit the historic sites in India , and it would seem that half of them want to carve their name in the walls. The other half try to get involved with photo opportunities with any Western tourists in the area. There are a few photos out there of me with my arm around smiling Indian blokes at Charminar in Hyderabad.

The sites might have been over-hyped, but at least the famous spicy Andaran food lived up to its reputation. I had a perfect chicken Biryani (spicy rice dish) from a eatery that sold only that dish for less than a dollar.

Hampi

Another ten-hour ride on the train, a short rickshaw ride, half an hour on a bus, a short boat trip over a river and a walk through the rice paddies bought got me to the Goan Corner in Hampi. I stayed here for three weeks three years ago. Then I was going to stay for a week, but I met a lot of people who were here for the rock climbing and started to climb. The area was made famous amongst climbers by a climbing movie called Pilgrimage that came out about six years ago. Each year more climbers visit, and it now has a very vibrant scene.

The rock is very similar to the granite boulder fields in Girraween, so it all feels very familiar. Nearly all of the climbing is a style called bouldering, which involves climbing relatively low routes without any ropes. Protection from falls is provided by crash pads (easily carried mattresses designed for the purpose) and people below (called spotters) who make sure that you land on the pads when you fall. Most of the problems are only 3 or 4 meters high and the spotters are not needed much, but some of the routes can be up to 8-10 metres high which requires a good spotter to (a) save your neck if you fall (b) yell encouragement and threats to motivate you to not fall.

By far the biggest cause of injuries is not falls, it is the rock itself. The granite is very rough and sharp, and it wears my skin down very quickly. lots of care has to be taken to file any rough patches of skin down so that they don't catch and open up on the rock, and one becomes an expert at the use of tape to protect very sore finger tips and remove strain from stressed-out tendons. It doesn't help that most of the climbs here involve a lot of crimping (very thin holds that have to be held with finger tips locked into them) and overhanging starts. Most people get a bit freaked out by the difficulty and roughness of the rock when they first arrive.

But, after you have adjusted the climbing here is a lot of fun. There are boulder fields in every direction, far more than could be explored in a lifetime. I am starting to climb fairly well, and am starting to finish some of the problems that were impossible when I first arrived. The feeling of finishing a very high and hard problem a bunch of friends cheering at the bottom is great. And it has a distinctly Indian feel, given by ganja man and cake man, who walk around the rocks selling their wares to climbers.

Hampi also attracts some of the best climbers from all around the world, who are great to climb with and just watch climb. Generally speaking the climbing crowd are very good company, as they are outdoor types who are here for a purpose. The people staying at the Goan Corner are nearly exclusively climbers who are staying here for an extended period of time. So it is possible to make good friends, and have a fun activity to do every day. We generally climb twice a day, with early morning and late afternoon sessions when it is cooler. When the rock heats up you start to sweat and no amount of chalk will stop the holds from becoming greasy.

And on the days when the skin is too thin and climbing is not possible there is a lake to go swimming in. The lake also has vendors who walk around selling snacks and drinks to swimmers. When we went there a few days ago we purchased some chips off one vendor in exchange for getting to watch him jump off an 18 metre high rock into the water. We also learnt not to visit the lake on Sunday, when the area is crawling with Indian men trying to take photos of Western women swimming. They will shamelessly stand in a group of 20, a couple of metres from their victim and snap away, ignoring any pleas to respect the modesty of the girl (they get quite angry when reminded that they would not want to see their sister treated that way). But, though there are some of the usual annoyances such as lecherous men and corrupt cops (the police here are a particularly detestable lot), but here they are not overbearing and only a minor inconvenience.

Badami Run

There is an important historic city called Badami about five hours from Hampi. It is famous for its temples that were caved out of solid stone in cliff faces. It is also starting to become famous amongst climbers for its large sandstone cliffs and boulder fields. A large group of us, sixteen in total, made a short three day trip there between Christmas and the New Year. We had been told that accommodation was plentiful there, but we didn't factor in the Indian School holidays over the festive season. So, we were unable to find a single room in the whole city when we arrived at seven in the evening. Things were looking desperate until we found a hotel manager who was happy for us to sleep on the floor of the conference room for an exorbitant fee.

Badami is particluarly dirty and unpleasant place, with countless pigs on the streets are very persistent children. The children were a bit of a menace, with the low point when a bunch of them throwing stones at us after we had refused their requests for (1) school pens, (2) chocolate, (3) 10 rupees, (4) "one coin our country". Of course, some of the kids were very friendly, and they followed us around from climb to climb. A couple were keen to borrow our gear and try some easy climbs, which was both fun and stressful.

Given that Badami is a hole, it is fortunate that the climbing is so good there. All types of climbing are possible there, with many trad (where climbers place their own protection in cracks), sport climbing (where bolts in the rock are available to clip the rope into), as well as a big selection of boulders. Badami was meant to be a rest for the fingers from the hard rock in Hampi, however we climbed so much that our fingers came back as bad as ever.

New Year With A Bang

I came up with the idea of putting on a fireworks display in a boulder field with Pete, and English climber. Then when Conrad from Idaho hear of our plans his face lit up with childish glee, so he was included along with an Australian guy named Chico who grew up in Bombay as our technical consultant (growing up in India teaches you a lot about fireworks).

We passed the hat around the Goan Corner, and got 8000 rupees ($200) for a fireworks fund. We set off to Hospet, the nearest big town. There we were directed to one of many fireworks shops in town. Fireworks are a big deal in India, and they are nearly completely unregulated (and any regulations can be bypassed with some baksheesh), and are a very Indian way to celebrate an special occasion.

Our fund went a long way. A very long way. We filled up an enormous box full of pyrotechnic goodness that would cost thousands of dollars to put on in Australia, if you were allowed. We had over twenty mortars (the big ones that go really high) as well as rockets, whistlers, fountains, and the very scary bombs that have very short fuses and make a deafening roar when the explode. Conrad is a firefighter from Idaho, and is a big guy. But for the 24 hours leading up to New Year's eve he was a grinning kid.

On the 30th we went up to the rocks to let off a small mortar, just for testing purposes! It went off with a roar, and sent a trail of sparks high into the sky that exploded into a brilliant firework. That made us more excited, because we wanted to know how the big ones would go. On New Years all four of us stayed sober for the show. We were very nervous about the amount of explosives that we were dealing with, as well as with the safety of our drunk audience.

We had carefully choreographed the show, so we spent more time running around and climbing to launching stations than looking up at the show, but I know had the most fun. I now realise that I missed out by not playing with fireworks when I was a child. After it was over, we sat on the rock, drinking beer and watching an eclipse of the full moon (and a blue moon too, all on New Years).

I hope that everyone had a good festive season, and are looking at a good new year!