Hampiiiiiiii

Ok so I'm in Hampi now.

So. I have so much to tell you. Nothing particularly dramatic or concerning. Just a lot. And frankly the excruciatingly bad and over-priced internet connection and warm climate are making it harder and harder for me to be motivated to spend hours on here writing stuff out out of my diary.

But I'll try something off the top of my head.

I spent about 10 days in Paradise Beach. And because I don't have the narrative power today (due to a long day's trekking over boulders) I will give you a brief run down of events.

Paradise Beach was grand. It was truly beautiful and contained some very interesting characters.

On the night of the full moon there was a big acid party at the place I was staying. I knew about this, and I arrived late clutching a small whisky to try to get involved. I didn't fancy acid. It's a door I just don't want to open. So when I arrived a few people were looking a bit weird and freaked out. Fair enough, I thought, they've just opened a new door in their mind - I'll cut them some slack. But, something was up. Eventually I managed to decipher from a few people that for some reason the police had just arrived. They turned up just after everyone had just dropped. Everyone was tipped off five minutes before they arrived so they had a chance to hide all their gear. But one Israeli guy who was too slow on the move was caught by the police in possession of a small amount of charas (hash). Thankfully he hadn't just taken acid. I dread to think what that would do to your head.

Anyway, they took him away and then I turned up. Wahey! Party! By this point everyone was a bit weird. Acid parties are a little dull it seems. Everyone's kind of in their own little (slightly paranoid when the police have just shown up) world.

So after that night things were not quite paradise at Paradise Beach. Everyone was just a bit worried about this guy. I still don't know if he got away with just a fine.

Anyway, what else? The same night I spent some, er, intimate time with an Israeli girl on the beach as the party was winding down. Israeli number four. Shit man. It's too much.

Then I cello to Hampi with a different Israeli girl (I think I might rename this blog 'Dan meets Israeli Girls and doesn't sleep with all of them'). No romantic connection here but she's a really interesting one. She plays guitar so it's fun to jam, but she has a very dark energy about her. She is totally brutal when bargaining and can be frankly chilling. Things are often very awkward with her, and yet sometimes we have very deep conversations and she will open up. But why I like to spend time with her is because she invites adventure. Interesting things happen to her. She is confrontational and uncompromising which is often embarrassing for me and unneccesary, but she refuses to take the easy option. She will always take the longer, cheaper way round. And this is valuable travel wisdom. One should always take the long way round when travelling. Because why not? This I think she has taught me.

The night we left Paradise Beach we had to stay one night in Gokarna to get the bus at 7am. She suggested we sleep on the beach. This beach is not a quiet paradise, it is a large busy beach connected to a town. But we set up camp and at about midnight two police officers came down. They told us to move. She shouted at them and refused. They left. Then they came back at about 3am. We were both interrupted during our precious sleep and they dragged us up and made us start to move to a guesthouse. Remember we wanted to get a bus in about 3 hours. We made it to the street before they left us. So we slept on the street. The fuckers. They were trying to point out how dangerous the beach was and how bad it would be if someone nicked our stuff. We tried to point out that they were now forcing us to actually walk through the town with all our stuff at 3am. They were the only ones dangerous to us.

So we woke up on the street. I was mauled by mosquitos in the night, and as we got to the bus stand, we missed the bus by 30 seconds.

So it's fun to travel with her. She has interesting Karma. It always seems like bad things happen to her and yet it always works out in the end. But this is India - it always works out.

Honestly though, dragged onto the street with all my stuff and made to sleep under a streetlight with an aggressive Jewish girl - even then I had a smile on my face. I don't feel in danger here. There is no problem in sleeping on the street. I was just enjoying the moment. It was weird. Maybe I'll tell this story better when I have the power.

Anyway, we finally made it to Hampi after a delayed and tiring and bumpy local bus ride for ten hours. And in Hampi, what do I find here? I find I know everybody. My friend, because of her guarded and frenquently rude self, knows only a couple of people from Paradise Beach. I however, on walking down the main street on my first arrival I found I knew everyone from my trip. It is tiring. I suppose I like the smiles, but there is something less exciting about finding a new (amazing) place but finding that you already know loads of people. I guess it is just the frame of mind I am in. I am restless. I want new things.

Maybe it's just because the people I am meeting here aren't really the friends I have made while travelling. I know who my friends are. The people here, in the main, are fans. I'm serious. It's the people who shout across the street, "Dylan! How are you?" and I'm looking at this person, squinting, wondering what their name is and where the fuck I met them. These aren't friends. My friends call me Danny for a start.

I am famous here. I suppose it's nice, it's sweet. But I like to walk around a place and have time to myself, to explore. I like to say hi to new people. These are people where I know I mean more to them than they mean to me. I'm that guy who they saw play guitar for two hours, and it was probably a special night of music that they'll remember for a long time. For me, it was business as usual. They were just some person who came and said nice things to me for a bit afterwards.

So Hampi is full of these people. I don't have the energy to get to know them all properly. Who has?

Still I am debating what to do following my Visa ending. It runs out on the 22nd February. Where do I go from here? Nepal, get a new visa and return to India? Thailand? Cambodia? Spain? England? I dunno. How do I make these decisions? Toss a coin?

Read Milan Kundera's Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Lovely stuff. He thinks he's Rod Stewart.

Anyway, I guess I may stay here a while. Apologies for lack of blogging, but I can feel I am losing the power! I still keep a diary though. When I find some peace and a good connection maybe I will write it all down.

Love to all, and thanks to all commenters. You help to fuel the gibberish.