Hampi

Hampi was the capital of Vijayanagar - a 14th century empire. The ruins of the empire is spread over the area of 26 sq kms and at first site Hampi is well worth the visit.

The area is simply stunning and you are in awe of the millions of boulders, huge rocks and dry landscape that surrounds the area. However, within this arid landscape lies a little oasis with lush palm, banana and mango trees nestled near the river. Hampi is a great places to spend a few days wandering around and discovering the rich, vibrant history. Somehow, unlike other places we have visited, it still maintains its old world charm.

It is very hot! Dry dry heat. And the walk between some sites can be long but the surrounding area is quite breathtaking. The ruins of Hampi are located within a large area and most of the famous places have motorable roads leading upto them, the real pleasure in exploring Hampi comes from walking around. Virtually every rock in Hampi has a story to say and is a visual delight, especially due to its stark contrast from most other places. Rocks are all you see whichever direction you look at. It is very hot! Dry dry heat - we mentioned this earlier... but a reminder won't go amiss... .

So suitably refreshed from a mid morning sleep, we wake to explore all the ruins. We start off in the main bazaar, its a long road leading up to a huge temple, almost 50m high, with all the trimmings...beautiful stone, carvings, flowers and even monkeys. We spend the day hanging around and find out that evening, Hampi will host a festival - it marks the wedding of 2 important Hindu gods. The town is beginning to become alive and we are excited to experience our first Indian festival.

Time rolls by and late afternoon arrives... and so do about what seems like a million Indians, village people (not the ones in silly builder/cop/cowboy uniforms!) and religious folk. The festival entails moving a huge cart up and down the main street a few times. Its hauled by at least a 100 men and the crowd throw all sorts at it as it passes.. bananas, flowers, water etc.

We never saw the end as we only lasted 20 minutes. The carnival like atmosphere was quickly over-ridden by fear as we were pushed along in large waves by the crowds. Pushing and shoving we had to fight off attempts from a few party spoilers who liked the look of my camera (they didnt succeed!) and villagers who I assume had never seen a foreigner before, feeling up Sim. It wasn't a pleasant experience and we made a hasty retreat to watch from a (very safe) distance. Needless to say, no festivals equals less people. Considering India has a billion people, we are now keeping well clear of festivals!


The next day we decided to get out of town and go see the sights and generally to avoid the crowds from yesterday. We woke at 6am to avoid the sweltering heat (someone said this was meant to be a holiday!) and took to the outer limits of the town, exploring ruins as we went along. Some of them were absolutely mind boggling, amazing feats of architecture, design and sculpting. You can see by some of the pics (and these are a only a few examples) that the sites are truly breathtaking.

Founded by our new love for Hampi (all was lost the previous evening!) we landed up quite far out of town and decided to cross the river to a nearby village called Anegondi - also a UNESCO site. Crossing the river ..? um.. lets just say we crossed in a what Indians call a coracle... I would refer to it as a cattle skinned saucer! Imagine our surprise when some guy pitches up on a motor bike and comes along too. Anycase, we made it across, exploring some more sites and the like. It was now 11am (it felt like 3 days!) and at least 40 degrees so we headed for some deserved rest at a local restaurant under a huge mango tree by the river.... bliss! The afternoon was much the same - sightseeing and chilling!

The next day was pretty much the same but most of the emphasis was on chilling. It is very hot! Dry dry heat - we mentioned this (twice) earlier... but a hey!, we will remind you again (Feel our pain!!).

After two days of boulder gazing we were ready to leave the oven/Hampi, afterall we were heading to the beaches of Goa. Up at 5am (this is not funny - 3 days in a row before sunrise!) and off the train station for the one train a day to Goa leaving at 6am. However, lucky for us it was delayed by 4 hours of station boredom - we read the newspaper (3 times - in case we missed one or two of the classifieds), slept, ignored beggars, avoided rabied dogs, ate biscuits or chatted to the station master - after all he wasnt that busy.. one of his 2 trains for the day was late! 10 hours later we arrived in Goa. We could smell the sea again!