Holiday Hellos From Hampi

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Well, we made it through Mumbai, having only to sell most of our stuff to get out and into a cheaper city. The train ride to Hampi required that we switch trains in Hubli. We had a few hour layover, drank some beer and relaxed and as we headed down the street to get back to the train station, we literally ran into our good friend and former student Lodoe from Mcleod. Completely random. He was traveling south to visit his cousin who is a monk living in Karnataka and who just achieved his geshe degree from his monastery. We laughed and laughed and laughed. You can tell you've been in India long enough when you meet someone you already knew, tourist or local, in EVERY CITY you travel through, no matter in which direction or for what purpose.

We chose Hubli because a Danish man and his son who we got to know pretty well in Varanasi highly recommended it as a place to relax where you could spend a good amount of time for a very little amount of money. He was right. It is so beautiful here. I will do my best to describe it to you, but you should really wait for the pictures or else Google it or something.

First of, we're not in the north anymore, that's for damn sure. There are banana plantations and coconut and palm trees everywhere you look. They make a phenomenal frame for the huge expansive sunsets and sunrises, which happen in both directions over the river that cuts through the village and the ruins. The ruins are what most people come here to see. They are the leftovers from a huge 14th century empire, and they are everywhere. There are concentrations of temples and pillars and carvings in several areas which are bigger than you can fathom, but the ruins stretch into the hills and surrounding area so that you can explore on foot what you would assume to be just piles of rocks and come across the hidden remains of a shrine to Hanuman (he's really popular here) or a tiny temple or a rock turned on its side with ornate carvings nearly hidden by cacti and dust.

The whole landscape is studded with huge boulders, all red stone. It is, to me, a geological anomaly, but I am sure there is a good explanation for the way things are. You would be surprised at how easy it is to sit and look at rocks all day, but that has been the bulk of our time here. It's free and pretty awesome. Some boulders perched at improbable angles and others stacked so perfectly atop one another that it seems impossible to have been a natural occurrence.

So, boulder watching, pretending to be archaeologists and analyzing the ruins and their layout, a little scooter driving (which I am really, really bad at, it turns out), a lot of chess playing and chai drinking, and that has been our time here in a nutshell. Christmas and New Years were both really laid back, mostly the same tea drinking, and a little beer smuggling with a Kasmiri friend we met here.

All in all, a pretty good time. We are thinking of going to Goa for a few days, even though all of our friends have already left. A little beach time never hurt anyone, and since most tourists from Goa are headed to Hampi now, it seems as though we are moving in the right direction.

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Photos

Lodoe!
We randomly encounter the lovely Lodoe in Hubli on the way to the train.

Joyride
Jason hangs out (literally) on the train to Hospet.

Caves
Pretty neat...

Cacti
Pretty neat...

Some ruins
and Jason, happy, as always =)

On the road
More beautiful former empire bits and pieces.