Shoulda never eaten those ice creams..

Hi-de-ho! We're back among the living! In beautiful Hampi to be exact..

First of all: thanks to all who sent an encouraging line over the last week. Much appreciated! After saying goodbye to Bombay and my company there, i sorta hit a bit of a rough spot. Weighed down by homesickness and a bit of general metaphysical ennui across the board (what to do when i come back, what with life, the universe, my tiny meaningless existence, desires, loneliness and the mountains of writing i still need to do..) in no time i found myself down in a hole. The hole first being my hotel room in Bijapur, then my room in Hospet (near Hampi).

In Bijapur i actually stayed longer than i first planned just because the only affordable room i could find also had a television set, with HBO (non-stop movies! = very bad company for someone lacking a) proper impulse control and b) a general sense of purpose). The night i wrote my last mail they were gonna show The Departed followed by Children of Men. Just what i needed to cheer up! All day i had been looking forward to my lil' treat.. But then the cable got cut off, hence no telly for the next twelve hours. What a bummer, man.

Gathering what little sense of self-preservation i still had left, i got my self-pitying ass on a bus to Hospet. Only to arrive too late to catch a connecting bus to Hampi. And again the only moderately priced room available.. Had a tv. History repeating..
Well, not exactly.
After dinner, which was so spicy - the further South i travel the more people seem to use green chilies and cayenne powder as we do onion and salt - that i quite feared burning a hole in my stomach, i got myself an ice cream off a local street vendor. Well, it was more of a mixture of half-frozen Badam (almond and slightly saffron flavoured) milk and a scoop of ice cream. Digging in i knew i was seriously risking some sorta food poisoning, but there weren't any other options available and my stomach was killing me, so down the hatch it went.. And since i'd already gone that far, i didn't pass up on another ice cream 15 minutes later - all to put out the fire in the belly, y'know.. Consequently, ever since i've been blessed with a major case of the runnies, which i'm still battling relying on the combined blessings of coke, plain bread/rice and bananas. I think i'm winning though. Time is (supposed to be) on my side.. And at least in Hampi the bakeries are a bit more tourist oriented, which means they don't sell bread or vegetable puffs littered with green chili shrapnel. :)

Ok, gotta go. Hopefully i'll be able to upload some pictures next time, when i'll also try and continue where stopped last time back in Varanasi..

Loadsa 'runnier than thou' luv,
-hx.