The Closing of Hampi

As of last Sunday, Feburary 16th, 2020, Hampi Island is closed.  All hostels, restaurants, and businesses are shut down and ready to be bulldozed within the month.  I was among the last tourists to check out of the last hostel.  This blog is an ode to one of my favorite places in the world. 

I first visited Hampi in September of 2016 and was so enthralled that I would come back eight times over the next three years.  The ancient history, breathtaking landscape, and world class climbing all set in rural India, with village women harvesting  golden rice and shepherds taking buffalo to bathe in the river, created a magic unlike any other place on earth.  Its relative inaccessibility and lack of western comforts ensured that the travelers who made it their destination were a special breed that created a whole subculture of their own; hippies under no obligations or time constraints, open to learning from the local villagers and uniting under the commonality of humanity alone. 

If it weren't for all the ruins, nobody would believe that the humble little village of Hampi, with a population of just 200, used to be the capitol and namesake of one of the largest empires in the world.  Back then (13th to 16th century) it was called Vijayanagar and it controlled southern India from coast to coast.  The infantry alone numbered over one million men and the opulence of the ruling family rivaled any monarchy at any point in history.  It was the Vijayanagara Empire's insatiable need for horses that sustained the entire Portuguese colonization of Goa and it was their terrifying armies of elephants and brass canons that kept Akbar the Great in check.  When the city was finally conquered in the late 1500s, it took five united kingdoms to bring it down and the burning ember memories of its fearsome power drove them to destroy it so utterly that nobody would ever live in it again.  The only remnants that survived did so because they were hewn out of solid granite.  Those ruins now cover an area of thirty square miles.  Most of it has been reclaimed by wild jungle or rice paddies. 

Hampi is home to many species of monkeys, parrots, cobras, crocodiles, and even leopards.  You can still find a lone elephant bathing in the river most mornings.  Much of the terrain is too wild to permanently inhabit, but is a true dreamland for rock climbers.  When Chris Sharma discovered Hampi in the late 90s (the most notable climber in the world at that time), he went on to create a full length film about it (Pilgrimage).  Since then it has become legendary in the climbing world for its unending maze of unclimbed boulders. 

So why is it being shut down?  It depends on who you ask, but all the local business owners fought it so hard that it ended up going to the Supreme Court of India.  The day after the ruling, a procession down the lone street led by a man with a hand drum followed by a crowd of police announced that all businesses must close immediately and would be bulldozed within 20 days.  People were still arriving from other countries with giant backpacks, only to discover that there was no hostel to check into.  Some said that the government wanted the tourist business to go to the more expensive hotels in the nearby town of Hospet.  Some said that there were rumors of illegal drug use and building code violations; or that the government just doesn't like foreigners in general.   Whatever the reason, it's a personal loss to me. 

My favorite - The Goan Corner Hostel

Hampi was a place I could feel my freest.  No cell service, no wi-fi, no cultural expectations from western or Indian society ensured that it was a true refuge of rest where obligations and responsibilities ceased to exist.  The ideal getaway.  For three or four days I could get lost in a world from a different millennium, where the only objective was to pit my mind and body against hunks of solid rock and compete against gravity for the best vantage of the sunset.  Each night I could come back to a comfortable hostel, order a giant serving of delicious curry, and dine under the stars, discussing life with people from different cultures and countries; people who ask more questions than give answers, people who aren't afraid to admit they don't know who they are, people attempting to just be people. 

So goodbye Hippie Island.  Thanks for all the lacerated shins and forearm cramps.  Thanks for the punishing crimps and impossible routes.  Thanks for that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I started a bouldering problem too scary or too difficult.  Thanks for the silence that let me process.  Thanks for the conversations that made me feel alive.  Thanks for the moments of grandiose beauty that brought me close to God.  I hope we meet again. 

Me on my first trip to Hampi in 2016 (thanks Jenna Martin for the shot!)

NOTE: There is still some confusion as to what all is closing.  Definitely everything on the Hippie Island is permanently closed now, but I heard different things when it comes to the other side of the river in Hampi village.  From what I could gather, they wanted to shut all the shops and hostels and even bulldoze the local's homes but as of February 17th they hadn't started that yet.