Hampi

Pulled into Hampi yesterday. I always heard you have to allow like 2 weeks to absorb this place, but after a day I pretty much feel like I've done what Hampi offers. If I was still in climbing shape and had some friends here, I could spend a while bouldering. There's so much climbing here you could never do it all if you climbed every day for 2 years. And I've been in India too long to get excited about temples.

I think I'm getting traveler's burnout. I have a pretty strong desire to get back to the states and do a bit of the trail, then hopefully do a Canada roadtrip with some trail friends. We'll see what happens.

I may only have a couple weeks more left here, since my friend Rachna's parents, in Delhi, have my greencard which I need to get back to the United States, and they are leaving at the beginning of March.

Things that never bothered me before are starting to get to me. Hampi is a real tourist trap. I don't really like the tourists here, and I was talking to an exceptionally (as in being an exception) down to earth guy about that. It's comforting to know it's not just me, that a lot of these people are so annoying, you don't need to interact with them to be annoyed. Take this one guy who was just sitting near me in the common area outside this hotel. Out of nowhere, he puts down his book (Nietzsche, of course), and says, with an aire of impressiveness, "I'm a Leo." Then he just waits and scans the faces of the hotel patrons, apparently expecting an awed and reverent reaction. I looked up, startled by the stupidity of this, and just stared him right in the eyes with extreme interest, as if I was studying an animal I've never encountered before. I just can't take some of these people anymore.

And Hampi, as any good tourist trap, has the extremely persistent and aggressive rickshaw drivers and shop keepers I've come to expect, but I'm starting to get infuriated by this. After a month in India, you just become oblivious to it, like it is just background noise. People stand in your way and you don't divert your course, as if they are a ghost, semi-transparent, soundless, and without solid form that will prevent you from walking straight through them. But now, after 4 months here, I can't stand it any more. It's like Chinese water torture...and little by little I'm breaking down. I feel like if one more person asks me if I want a rickshaw, I will simply collapse on the street, alive but comatose, psychologically broken and unable to do anything except breathe and blink.

So yes...I will try and hit some spots in Kerala and Tamil Nadu before I go, but I think I'm thankful that the India trip is drawing to a close...