One of my favourite and unexpected moments in India was in Hampi.
We took a night bus from Bangalore to Hospet. Our final destination was Hampi, so we had to take another bus or a tuk-tuk to get there. We arrived in Hospet at 5 am. There weren’t any buses, we were too early. One tuk-tuk driver approached us and offered to take us around Hampi on a tour. The tuk-tuk driver was from Hampi and he said he knows the place really well.
We didn’t want to do it, because it was too expensive – $1500 rupees per person. But after some thinking and we didn’t really have many options. So we said yes.
On our way to Hampi from Hospet, he asked us if we smoke weed. Of course, we said YES. He told us that he knows a place on the mountain where they have weed. Then, we were on our way there. We had no idea where we were going, but the sunrise was gorgeous.
The driver told us we have to buy some food to exchange for weed. We were very confused but we did it anyway. We went to a local market and bought some fruits, milk and bread.
We started to drive on a dirt road up the mountain. It was super steep and bumpy. When we saw a little house upon the peak of the mountain, the tuk-tuk started to roll back (it was pretty old and ). We got out of the tuk-tuk and started pushing the tuk-tuk up the mountain. Luckily, the tuk-tuk was light. It was hysterical, we were laughing and pushing.
When we got up to “house”, we realised that it’s not a house. It was a Shaivite temple and that explained why we had to buy food before arriving. They were for the monk that lives in the temple. We rested and enjoyed the incredible view up there.
We, along with the tuk-tuk driver, started to smoke the weed the temple gave us. We smoked it with a chillum, a traditional clay pipe. They taught us how to use it because none of us had seen or used it before. The whole time, we were passing the pipe in silence. We were all enjoying the view and the weed. It was very peaceful. I loved every moment of it.
After a couple of hours of relaxing, we drove down the mountain and continued our journey to Hampi. Within an hour, we finally arrived at Hampi, an ancient village with numerous ruined temple complexes from the Vijayanagara Empire.
What a day!
