"no hurry, no worry!" the bike rental man shouted as we rode away into the dusty sunset...

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these pictues are from Hampi. it is in the state of Karnataka - and pretty much smack dab in the middle of the south india. there are crazy ruins here, and it is regarded as a "holy city." because of this, alcohol is "illegal" (not stricty inforced, but expensivo = the town was super quiet with no loud bars or parties). on new year's eve at midnight, there were fireworks, which were just loud bangs to us bc we didn't see anything. all the families came into the streets to make (bright !) color sand drawings in front of their houses and shops for good luck in the new year of 2006. it was a beautiful thing to watch - not to mention fun to take photos of! india makes it so easy.

we ate at a cool restaurant. you walk about 500 m through a banana plantation on this narrow 2 ft wide dirt path to get to it. then you go down a few steps bc it is on a semi-steep river bank. they have terraced floors going down to rice patties. guests lean against the wall on floor mats and there is a giant mango tree with a huge swing that shades the entire sitting area. in and across the river there are tan flinestone-esque rocks, ruins, and palm trees scattered all over rolling hills... an amazing contrast with the biggest, bluest skies ever! we endulged and enjoyed flavorful samosas and spicy chi tea (ashley - you would not be able to do anything here other than drink cup after cup of chi tea!).

we took a little boat across a river where 100's of men and women were washing their laundry and drying things on the broken rock ruins, while picnicing and socializing on the grass. wow. on the other side of the river, we walked along a road that passed huge, bright, bright green rice patties that had those same beautiful hills behind them. there were pairs of white buffalos pulling tils, and the land was divided with the use of large coconut trees. we walked until we we were tired and decided to rest by a river where there was a giant, broken, ancient stone (we are talking about boulders) bridge. we rested in the quiet shade and watched an old man do laundry in the river. he would soap, slap, and grind the cloths on stone, and then add water, and repeat. off - and - on for 2 hours we watched him, reminisced through a bunch of photos on our cameras, and had goats get herded by us on a path.

we hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the new year... happy 2006!

xoxo S & J

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