Journey to Hampi
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2008
1
15
68
Trip End
Ongoing
Hampi,
Karnataka,
India
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Numbers 1&2 were Stewart Naverar and Catherine M V, which we felt confident was us. So we climbed on board. There was a corridor down the side of the train, small compartments with sliding doors opening from the corridor, the same as old trains in the UK. We were impressed. It was pretty nice - not lovely, but more than good enough
Hot & Cold Showers
. We were expecting it to be more like a dorm. There were four beds in the compartment, so it was down to who we were sharing with what our trip would be like.Time to spare, so went to get some food. On coming back, the guard insisted on showing us to our berths. He went through the carriage, past our beds to the other end, where there were two berths clearly marked 1 and 2. In a Oh. At least we hadn't settled ourselves in to the compartment, got in the beds, etc. That would have been embarrassing. The berths we were actually in a a carriage a bit like a dorm. Oh. Two beds lying one above the other on one side of the corridor, four beds lying side on to the corridor on the other side, two up, two down; the same the whole way up the cabin. Not too bad to be honest, comfy beds, bedding provided for us. It would be up to the noise made by the chubby middle aged Indian gents who were the majority of our fellow passengers what our sleep would be like.
Catherine took the top bed, Stew in the bottom one, rucksacks chained and padlocked underneath. It didn't take long to see what the journey was going to be like. Everyone on the train was snoring. The way it worked out, it seemed like they'd co-ordinated their efforts; when one was reaching the end of a snore another would just be beginning. The effect was one massive, constant snore.
When the train was moving it wasn't too bad to be honest, the noise of the train drowned out most of the snoring and it was surprisingly easy to get some sleep. But for some reason it seemed that the train was at a standstill for at least half the journey time. We'd assumed we would arrive late as there had clearly been some hold up but we arrived bang on time. Very odd.
Bussed into Hampi and found a guest house. Bit of a kip really but en-suite, hot and cold showers and cheap, so it'll do. Funny thing, the showers. "Hot and cold showers" means just that; there are two showers right next to each other; one hot, one cold. Needless to say, it doesn't work as it should and trying to stand between them and have a warm shower doesn't happen. You come back from the shower clean, suffering with a weird combo of frostbite on one side and second-degree burns on the other. I suppose you could try spinning constantly so you'd be cooling the burnt parts and warming the cold, but after a minute or two that's likely to result in another injury altogether. And you wouldn't want to fall over here; the bog's filthy.
