Trip to Karnataka (3)

The third day. We started off after breakfast for Hospet, where we planned to stay that night. The roads were grimy and dusty. Barren land for as long as the eye could see. A traffic jam at a ‘dam’ slowed us down. The reason dam was in quotes in the previous sentence is because I couldn’t really see any water in it! It was quite funny how in Hubli flights had been cancelled because of fog and rains when just 2 hours away from it there was a drought.

Lunch at a massive bus depot, with lockless bathrooms of course! A box of chocolate cookies tempted me. Temptation won. I got back into the car 60 rupees poorer.

After lunch, we heckled with a pair of women selling oranges. ‘2 for 50 rupees is quite a deal’ they promised us. Seeing our raised eyebrows, they hastily turned away to serve another customer.

We made our way to The State Bank of India headquarters in Hospet. Thanks to Mom’s contacts, we had a guide to take us to the preferred SBI hotel. It was quite comical as we met the lady. As I got down to give her the front seat, she opened the back door and pushed herself in. Attempts at smothering giggles were made.

To our delight, we found that even this hotel had a pool. Designed to look like the Queen’s Bath in Hampi, this pool was the best one I have seen to date. We frolicked around in the water, racing each other, scaring away a few guys who were learning to swim. Going to a restaurant for dinner was dangerous business. As it was just a day from Diwali, the people had already started celebrating, and the narrow streets were full of crackers. A yummy dinner complimented with Cola, made up for the walk.