The next day we checked out like a speeding bullet, and checked into the Shanti Guest House. The Shanti is a beautifully built, tranquil guesthouse, with all the rooms looking onto a plant filled courtyard. The atmosphere reflects the hotel’s name, Shanti in Hindi means chill out, or relax. Our room was basic, but clean, and I enjoyed the security and normality of being here. I spent the day gathering my thoughts and moseying around. We only stayed at the Shanti one night, beautiful as it was Kim decided it was too expensive and after some persuasion from her we checked into a place called The Rahul Hotel - another mattress on the floor job that got incredibly cold at night.
On the East Side of Hampi, where the sun would give the first rays of light, the sky was covered with a thick layer of mist. The sun rose from behind the mist and gradually lit up the sky. My idea of watching the sunrise had been no less than a disaster, so after sitting around for more than an hour, we returned to our room desperate for sleep. After breakfast we hurried off for the days mission, code name; ‘let’s go to the holy white temple situated on the top of the mountain, on the other side of the Tungabhadra river, through the plantation and village, up loads of steps, and absolutely miles away’.
Eighty rupees for a boat ride in a clapped out wicker basket that was sinking before we got in it was a bad enough, but having to transfer from one rickety basket to another in the middle of the river definitely made me feel like I wasn’t getting my money’s worth. Transferring between vessels was a wobbly affair and I was glad the small wicker boats were more sturdy than they looked. The short boat ride led us to see some riverbank cave temples situated behind Sugriva’s cave. It was extremely tranquil floating down the river and my imagination took me to scenes of myself waking up every morning in a temple on the riverbank. We were soon safely at our destination on the other side of the river and from here we would journey on foot.
The path we were following took us past a single restaurant, a single place to stay, and masses of plantations. The path wound through the plantations for quite some time eventually emerging to look upon a small village. The temple stood high and proud on the top of the mountain so navigation towards it wasn’t a problem. It was a quiet village and the people didn’t seem at all fussed that we were passing through, which made a welcome change. Although we were trying to journey as quickly as possible the fierce heat of the day slowed us down considerably and we ambled through the village’s main road.
As stated in the mission's code name, the temple was situated on top of a very big mountainous looking hill. The hill rose up behind the village, towering well above any other landmark in sight and it glistened in the midday sun, which by now was heavily beating down on us. We got to the bottom of the stairs and started our ascent, but by the time we were approximately a quarter of the way up Kim needed a toilet pit stop. She found a spot, climbed over the wall, and landed in a sticky mess. The plant she had managed to land on top of was exceedingly sticky and a real pain to remove from her clothes, it clung for dear life to her sarong. Unfortunately for Kim, and hysterically for me, she found the plant and her bonded so well she would have to relieve herself with the plant wrapped around her legs. I busied myself at that particular point to stop the gurgling laughter spilling out, and to save myself getting hit once Kim had finished. The battle to remove the determined plant took a good twenty minutes. The plant consisted of hundreds of little seeds, each seed containing hundreds of hooks. Every time we thought we had got them all and tried to carry on up the steps Kim discovered more hooks clinging on somewhere indecent, and somewhere that made it painful for her to walk.
There are over five hundred steps to the top of this temple, and I was exhausted when we finally arrived. The stairs wound through the mountainous hill, and the water pipe used for their water supply was precariously installed cutting across the stair well at every opportune moment. We either needed to duck under, or climb over it to continue on up the stairs, which made the climb that much harder. Legend has it that many moons ago a blind monk lived in the temple. It was a time before the stairs were built, or a water supply added, so the blind monk had to scale down the side of the mountain every time he needed food and water.
The temple itself is a religious house with some holy men praying or meditating inside. I wanted to go and explore the insides of the building and talk to the holy men, but it seemed somewhat disrespectful. There were monkeys sitting to the right of the temple, the place the best photo could be taken, and even disturbing them felt wrong – and a little scary! The temple had been built to the right of the stairs, to the left were rocks that went further up and out of my line of sight. Kim discovered several rickety stone bridges connecting the rocks that were prone to move as we stepped on them. They were the only passage connecting the rocky pathway and a sheer drop into darkness below. After a 10 minute heart thumping climb was a view to die for. The massive boulders that made up this vast landscape looked like pebbles scattered by a giant hand. The sandy coloured mountain we stood on top of had green shrubs growing on top that gave comforting shade, and as we sat playing our out of tune flutes and talking it felt like we were floating in the clouds.
TRAVELLERS JOURNAL - BORACAY - Music to travel to...
www.cdbaby.com/cd/travellersjournal
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