January 2011 Goa to Kodai

New years eve as far as parties go was a disaster. All I can say is that it involved lots of drunk Indians grabbing the girls and being rather pathetic really so we left and went to Sunset.

The next few days were spent at the Sunset. We were all looking forward to leaving for Hampi. We had a good connection between us.

Around this time I was given the name Badel which means the cloud and it has stuck. This came about during a long evening spent with some cool Indians from Mumbai. I like this name.

The fifth arrived and we having said our good bye’s set off forty five minutes late as the taxi man took his time getting to us. Of course not before Nadia tried to pick up Dan asking him if his room was still available. He gracefully declined. We arrived in Mapsa too late for me to recharge my internet stick and waited for the bus which was about an hour late. Pascha sat with us until it was time to board. When the sleeper bus arrived we were literally herded aboard and screamed at not to put our shoes on the beds.

We settled in with our nutella sandwiches and tried to sleep. It became very cold in the night and Jan and I were freezing. At about three Jan remembered he had a load of spare Ali Baba trousers and threw me a pair which I put on in a hurry. We were still freezing and hung on till dawn. Both thinking we needed to get closer for warmth but keeping our distance and freezing.We were all awake by the time we got to Hospet and waited about forty five minutes until the familiar sight of Hampi’s rocks and temples appeared.

I got off the bus first and was met by the usual barrage of rickshaw drivers. When I said I knew the way they scowled and slinked off. With all of us ready I walked the group to the river to get the little boat that would take us across. We were in luck as they were washing Lakshmi the temple elephant. We sat and watched and took pictures. When we crossed the river I took them to Goa corner where I stayed two years ago. Everyone loved it and we decided to stay after checking out a couple of other places.

Hampi is one of the best climbing spots in the world apparently so serious climbers go there from all over the world and get up early and climb in the morning. I heard this annoying Kiwi voice and instantly remembered two years ago being woken by her rallying her fellow climbers at six thirty in the morning. As I saw her I asked if she remembered me which she did. Not satisfied I told her how I remembered her and suffice it to say she was not impressed. Hehe. She avoided me for the whole time I was there thank god.

After a couple of days we were all going to Hospet to do some stuff. I met someone the night before who was making a documentary and asked me to do an interview in the afternoon at three. I agreed and left in the morning. While waiting for the ferry I began to feel dizzy and I decided to go back to Goan corner. Just as well as I had caught a virus and spent the next twelve hours with diarrhea and puking half a dozen times. No starring in movies for me then. Plus the fact I still had only half my voice and a stinking cold. For someone who hardly ever gets sick it really annoyed me.

At about ten that evening I recovered and although I had no energy I knew I would be OK by tomorrow. Yael who I was sharing a room with left me in peace for the night and I had a good sleep. Let him puke in peace I heard Yael say as she and Dan went away.

The next day we explored and went onto the plateau and stopped at a place called the Babba cafe where we were spoken at not to by a so called Baba who I later nicknamed Jabba Babba. This was after he placed some drawings of U.F.O’s in front of us. We decided to watch the sunset at the Hannaman monkey temple which had three hundred stairs leading to it. A really stunning view was at the top over the whole valley dotted with many temples. As it was getting dark we wanted to go down but had a look in the temple first. There were people worshiping Hannaman and having a whale of a time singing. We were offered some tea and drank it and made our way down the narrow stairs. It was now pitch black so we caught a rickshaw home.

The next evening we went for a jam session at the Tepee and some great musicians rocked up and the vibe and the energy were good.

I did go to see some temples and one I really liked was the underground one. The complex of temples goes back at least five hundred years and probably earlier in some cases.

I also went for a blessing from the temple elephant in the main temple. Lakshmi the elephant is the one washed every day in the river. I put ten rupees in the elephants trunk and she rested her trunk on my head. It was a lovely experience.

One evening we went to watch the sunset from the plateau. Jan took his guitar and a Jambi and there were a few other instruments and soon we had a fire on the rocks where we watched the sunset over the hills and scattered temples and rice paddies.

After eleven days Jan, Dan, Yael, Ogi and I left for Tamil Nadu and the hills where I knew of a magic place. I had convinced them to come there. Jan had heard of the place from a couple of people and I was so happy to be going back.

We were on a semi sleeper but the ride was easy enough and took us straight to the main town. We immediately took a taxi to the place about fifteen minutes away and I recognized that nothing had changed since I was there two years ago. I let the guys go to find accommodation and I watched the bags. About half an hour later they came back grinning from ear to ear and announced that we had a place. Just above the chai shop and the first house on the left. A fantastic position as it is hard to describe but there about twenty or so houses on the hillside scattered about. Some are incredibly hard to get to and one is exhausted upon arrival. Our house was lovely and had one room with a double bed in it. This was taken by the new couple Ogi and Yael. Ogi was pretty sick and went straight to bed. He did not appear for two days and after going to the doctor it was discovered he had a lung infection. The rest of us had two double beds joined together and this was in the sitting room. We had running water in the house for about an hour a day but a big water tank just outside. I was delighted to be able to boil a pot of water and have a hot shower every morning. A great start to every day.

As I said our house was in a great position and we were soon swamped with visitors passing by. People just drop in and come to jam or just hang out. I was so lucky as everyone seemed to play an instrument and there were some incredibly talented people there.

We all took turns in the kitchen but it soon became apparent that Dan was chief cook wallah as his food was continually delicious. I became the fire wallah and ensured every night we had a warm fire to sit by.

To describe the atmosphere is impossible with my limited writing skills but was my Katmandu and will live in my memory as one of the best experiences of my life. We were in unspoiled nature which seemed to welcome you with open arms and you could feel a powerful energy coursing through your body and soul where even the trees and wildlife seemed in perfect harmony and everything was beautiful. Sometimes the cloud would come up the mountain and slowly filter through the houses wrapping you inside the cloud.

Soon, too soon people began to make separate plans and Yael and Ogi went to Orville. Jan a few days later went off to Varanassi and Dan, Roni and I were left until it was our turn to leave and this is where I will end this and the next blog will bring you up to date.