~midnight masala chips~

Tuesday, 13th January 2004

it's Hampi today ~

after a long ride in a nightbus in the wrong seat that turned out to be so much more right than the one i should have had but due to some unknown reasons never got

so this is where i've been and what i've seen in the last couple of hours:

the ride to Hampi started with a last evening at Benaulim Beach, the red Goa sun sinking into a slow blue ocean and dinner in the sand with Pieter and Lisa and red snapper and butter nan.

after that, a silver Ganesh for a goodbye, a rickshaw to Margao, a magic arrival of the night bus in front of Metropolitan just when i sat down and started to write this sentence:

"sitting on the side of the street
the backpacks piled up
waiting for the bus
that should have been here
but it will come..."

and there it came. i will try this trick again sometime soon, to see if it works in other places, too. or maybe i should rather safe it for times of need.

the ride in the night bus was slightly surreal, there was this unannounced midnight stop in the middle of nowhere, just after i fell asleep. to pass time, i bought a bag of masala chips and some young black dogs insisted to share them with me, i am still not sure if this really happened.

what i definitely remember though is seeing the Karnataka sun rising over shining sunflower fields, and the shop sign in Kopka, the town after the sunrise: "Time and Space Traders"

and now: Hampi. ruins and temples and ruins and temples. and nutshells to cross a river, a last empty Shanti hut and hammocks and ricefields.

guess here is where i will stay
the one or other day
greetings from the way
Do

-----------------------
..................................................................................................August 2005

taking that bus to Hampi, that was in January 2004. and it was back then already that i had the feeling, there is a longer story connected to this journey through India. and there is. it took a while to get it on paper, though. now it is written. and it is a whole book.

and maybe the name of the book is even somehow related to this midnight snack. smile. it is: "Masala Moments"

click the cover to get a taste of it - and in case you ride that midnight bus once, take a picture of this "Time and Space Traders" shop for me.

enjoy the journey~~

next: Hampi
main page: just another day in India