Hooray for Hampi!

Last weekend I took a trip to Hampi.

After seven hours on a questionably clean overnight sleeper bus we arrived at this World Heritage site, once the center of the largest Hindu empire in South India. Wars with neighboring powers left the city plundered, deserted, and in ruins. I loved Hampi as soon as I saw it. Everywhere we turned there were huge boulders and hills and historical ruins. It felt like you could walk forever and explore and lose yourself in history.

After making our way around the main temple and Bazaar area we moved toward the hills and started climbing. We saw a distant temple atop a huge hill and decided to go for it. The climb was tough, the steps and rocks were steep and we had to take many breaks on the way up. Some parts of the trail were narrow and tree branches slapped my arms as I pushed myself through the brush while I shooed away buzzing insects. I strained my legs over the last few rocks and was relieved to see what remained of a doorway - the doorway to the temple. Inside was dark, empty, and deserted, but the cool interior was a welcome respite from the heat. We walked toward a circle of sunlight that rested on the other side of the room and I ran up the last few steps of the temple and came out onto the hilltop.

The wind was so strong it felt like it could blow us straight over the side, and it thundered in our ears as if in applause of our accomplishment. I just stood there, inhaling deep breaths of air, hands on my head, and looked out at the city below. I stood there, and I felt. I felt strong, and in awe of the world around me. We sat down and enjoyed the view as half a dozen monkeys watched us with curious eyes. We nicknamed our spot the "monkey temple."

After a day of trekking and hiking, we were exhausted and headed back to the guesthouse. One of the MIT guys had the idea of going up to that same "monkey temple" early the next morning to watch the sunrise. Not many of the others were up for the idea, but I was down. Hell, you're only in India once.

The next morning I set off with two other interns at 5am. We walked down the main road to the base of the hill, and along the way I saw whole families sleeping on mats on the side of the road. This was hard, I couldn't believe how many people there were. I counted my blessings and continued on.

As we began our initial trek, one intern lagged behind on some steps and we soon realized he had been stung by something and was not feeling well. He ended up abandoning the trek and going back to the guesthouse to rest, and I started feeling nervous and regretted my decision to be adventurous. It was still dark out, and we could barely see around us, but the last intern and I just doused ourselves in more bug spray before continuing on.

I had a tiny key chain light that was useful (thank you MIT career fair), and it allowed us to make sure we weren't stepping in any type of cow crap as well as helped us avoid the HUGE millipedes crawling about (longer than my hand, thicker than a finger). Since we had lost some time, we worried about not making it to the top of the hill in time, so we sped up the pace. The path had been okay in the daylight, but it was much worse in the dark. The steps were narrow and steep, and sometimes we had to make our way across large rocks (and you just had to hope you wouldn't fall and tumble over the edge). I was exhausted and out of breath, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, but I somehow kept on. I should mention that my climbing buddy regularly runs 10 miles a day, so I think pride helped that morning. Its amazing what you are capable of when you are expected to do better than your best. And then at last we arrived.

The reception this time was not forceful and aggressive, but calm, as if we had just awoken the city from a deep slumber and it sleepily welcomed us. The air was clean, and I took large gulps of it as the wind gently cooled the sweat and calmed my breath. The sky was a light gray, quiet. The clouds hid most of the sun but just enough rays shyly peeked out to give the sky a subtle glow. My new friend and I exchanged few words as we sat overlooking the city.

"So India huh?"

"Yep...India."

Some insects quietly buzzed about but for the first time they did not bother me - maybe I finally understood their song.