Conrad Piper-Ruth: Badami round one

Well folks I am back in the states trying to get over a post India sickness. I will continue to post stories, pictures and hopefully a few videos of my India trip in the next few weeks. Enjoy.

I first heard of Badami while climbing in Hampi. I was told it was home to amazing sandstone cliffs and boulders, so when my friend Chris Welden, a Canadian squamite, told me he was planning a trip there I was very keen to join. Badami, the erstwhile capital of the Chalukya empire, located in northern part of the India state of Karnataka lies between 100 and 200 kilometers from hampi. One of our faithful taxi drivers named "Funky" told us it was a 3 to 4 hour drive. This 3 hour drive slowly turned into a 6 hour drive, which was expected because driving anywhere in India is an extremely time consuming task. The tiny pot hole ridden roads make travel slow, massive traffic jams common and reckless driving apparently necessary. We were a two taxi van convoy each pack to the brim with three Indian drivers and eight climbers. I was seated in one of the vans, back up against the drivers seat looking out the back window. I would judge the level of danger I was in by the looks on Oyvind, Eirik and Jakobs faces, who were unlucky enough to see the oncoming traffic. There faces would go from nervous to anxious to scared to terrified, they would than close there eyes and flinch just as the taxi would swerve out of the passing lane narrowly missing one of the many oncoming giant buses or trucks, with there unbelievable loud horns. Each town we would go through the drivers would yell something and as our taxis would inevitably stop at a traffic jam curious Indian onlookers would swarm the van yelling "Your country!?" "Your name!?" "Schoolpen!?" "Rupee!?" "Biscuit!?". As the taxi would finally start driving again the children would chase after it yelling and screaming.

As dusk encroached we were welcomed to the site of sandstone cliffs and the dirty, noisy city of Badami. Just as the idea of dinner, beer and bed started to creep into my mind our chief negotiator Chico, a fluent Hindi speaker, Chris and Kevin or Beefcake came back from their hotel search and told us there were no rooms due to a Holiday. Since bed was no longer viable we opted for the dinner and beer. Over a cold kingfisher our luck changed. Chris had gone back to one hotel with a single empty room to see if it would be possible to fit all 16 of us into it for a night. While at the hotel the manager offered up their vacant group hall, used for weddings and parties, and the one empty room. We took it.

After a morning of chai and Masala Dosa, a potato and curry filled crape, we headed for the rocks. The rock in Badami is not as extensive as hampi, nothing is, but it is sandstone and it produces amazing, steep, thuggy climbs. The beautiful red swirled, marble rye breadsque rock, was a welcomed change from hampi and we spent the first day wondering the sandstone corridors and cliffs searching for boulders and the climbing gems of the area.

I quickly began to realize what an oasis Hampi and Goan's Corner was. Badami was much more like the real India I had heard of. Every day we would walk through slums and pass wild pig infested open sewers, trash piles and the occasional drunk passed out Indian man face down in the dirt on the side of the road. The biggest challenge was the kids. One morning on the way to the rocks we past through a Muslim slum. We were swarmed upon by 20 to 30 kids at first asking us our name and country. Then they started tugging at my hands asking for school pens, rupees, chocolate and biscuits; this was quite the experience. As we reached the edge of the town and started to walk up into the hills a few of the kids, obviously angry that they did not get anything from us, began throwing rocks. Before we could do much a parent appeared and the kids scattered. This was not the last of our experiences with the badami kids. Every day at least a few of them would find us hiding in the rocks and spend a few hours with us watching our every move. They started off begging, which worked at first. Hoping they would stop someone in our group would eventually give them a biscuit or empty water bottle or a bit of climbing tape. It quickly became apparent that this made the begging worse. Although this was frustrating I couldn't help but be sympathetic to them, for if I was in there situation I would do the same thing. After the kids realized they had gotten all they could out of us they began to act like kids. It was fun to watch them roughhouse with each other on our crashpads or try their hand at climbing with our over sized climbing shoes and chalk. We spent three nights in badami and then took the taxis back to Hampi where we spent new years, but I would return right before I left India. Badami round two soon to come.