Rickety buses, 30km cycle rides, drunk co passengers and more.
Back from a trip to hampi, badami, pattadkal, aihole and bijapur. 3 schoolmates, some fathers money to burn, and a whole lot of time to spare.Deciding all of a sudden to go to these places, we pack our bags and set off.
Thanks to the wonderful state transport system, the semi delux bus we had booked got canceled and we had to travel in a rickety, dirty and no-leg-space bus. Being in a great rush, i get out of the auto, take 2 bananas and dash for the waiting bus, only to trip on some wire and fall down..!! but thankfully i fall on my hands with bananas in them and don't hurt myself. In turn i get a sort of banana split-wide-open on my hands...!!
Ok, the bus starts and after an hour, a drunk gets in. The best part is he comes and sits in the front of us. And when the conductor asks him where is he headed, he does not know, and he blames the conductor for trying to con a drunk man....!!! Finally he gets down after he is sober and he realizes he is 2 towns away from where he originally intended to get down. The bus stops at a road side dhaba, and I, looking at the state of the dhaba, order only a single roti and my frnds say they are not hungry. After tasting it, we order 5 more and they were the best damn rotis we ever had....!!!! (and i had the least
We finally reach hampi at around 7.30 in the morning, book a room, have something and try to figure out the best modes of transportation. Being the engineers we are, and also being the environmentalists we are, we finally decide the best way is to cycle around the city with a guide book in our hand... little did we know that the city of ruins spanned 30kms and after cycling through it, we felt physically ruined...!!
The next day, we covered pattadkal and the rest very sanely in auto's and buses.On the last day we decided to see as much of bijapur as possible and take the last bus back home. As soon as we landed in bijapur, a tonga (a horse drawn carriage) fellow pounced on us and promised us to show everything thats is there to be seen in the city as soon as possible. (provided we spend only 10mins in each place that is..!! )
The "environmentalist" in the 3 of us came back to life again and we decided to go in the tonga. We spent a whole lot of time in the whispering chamber of the gol gumbuz whispering to each other from one corner to another like "couples" and wasted our time. We finally could cover only 3 places in bijapur and were back on time to catch the bus back home.
Thanks to the cycling, and the bus and tonga rides, we are yet to recover from aches in not-be-mentioned places and i am broke with exactly 90rs in my pocket..!! :(