I left Bangalore on the night of the 1st of July, and took an overnight train up to Hospet. I'd made the resevations at the train station a few days before, thinking I was in the super-posh 2-tier A\C sleepers. No wonder those tickets were so cheap. After a near miss with a team of drunk adolescent pickpockets in the corridor of the stopped first class car, I learned that my ticket had me back in "sleeper class". It wasn't that bad really. It was more the moment that was tough. I entered the feverish blue vinyl car. People were stacked three-high, fans wirring, coffee and tea vendors moving down the aisle, announcing themselves in a deep, empty baritone. "Coffee-Chai-Coffee-Chai"..."Coffee-Chai-Coffee-Chai"... Everyone was looking at me. It's sort of the same feeling you get walking into a diner in West Virginia, just looking for a slice of pie or something. Everyone looks. I found berth 51, about 7 feet off the ground, above a friendly family of about 6 beneath me. After some arranging of the space, I was able to make enough room for my pack, shoulders, legs, even my head. Ignoring everything I read my Robert Ludlum spy novel I'd picked up at the station, and dozed off.

I woke up on my own at about 6:30 that morning. We were due in Hospet at 8. The car had emptied out considerably on the intermediate stops through the night. I climbed down, got a coffee almost immediately, and found an open window, watching the early morning countryside go by. That was one of the comfortable, peaceful moments of travel that make it worth the hassle. It lasted for a good hour, just like that.

Hospet is the nearest town to the village of Hampi, which is a World Heritage site and tourist trap. Hampi is the center of a dynasty of Raj's lasting from the 13th century to the 16th. Sort of an Indian version of Maccu Piccu. The whole complex is spread out over about 30 km, and really requires hiring a driver for a day to see any appreciable percentage of the place. It's really an amazing array of ruins; some bare foundations, some whole temples with intricate carvings, and bats circling in their darker reaches. Very Indiana Jones.

This connection just lost my post to the blog, so I'll have to play catch-up later.