Karnataka

Karnataka - home to the Wodeyar Maharajah's royal city of Mysore and the ancient ruins of the Vijayanagar Empire at Hampi

The change of state equaled a change of pace for us, now halfway through our circumnavigation of the subcontinent.

Picking up the pace from our lazy sojourn through Kerala, we roared into Karnataka and the royal city of Mysore on an air-conditioned overnight bus - we actually got cold!

Kick starting our first days of conventional sightseeing since Kolkata, we visited the magnificent onion-domed Mysore Palace shining in gold. Completed in 1912 and designed by an English architect in the Indo-Saracenic style - a blend of Hindu, Islamic, and European styles.

Whatever it was it was a building like nothing we had seen before. The interior (in which photography is not allowed) was equally as impressive as the exterior.

It was clear from the clutch of classical buildings around the palace that Mysore was an incredibly affluent city during the British Raj. However, it seems time has returned Mysore back to a bustling Indian city with little evidence of tourism - the emporiums and souvenir shops were nowhere to be seen, with paint and hardware shops in their place.

The Devaraja fruit and vegetable market in Mysore was easily the most impressive we have seen, filled with lots of beautiful and interesting looking fruits and veges (including NZ apples!) and also the dyes used in traditional body painting.

From the faded glory of the Wodeyar Maharajah's and the relics of the British Raj in Mysore - we headed to Hampi to see relics of an altogether different kind. We emerged from our decrepit overnight bus (with no leg room, no reclining seats, and definitely no sleep) to Hampi to find a truly unique landscape.

To us it seemed to partly resemble the badlands of the American midwest, combined with the cartoon landscape of Bedrock from the Flintstones, with the odd green oasis of palm trees and banana plantations thrown into the mix.

The small village of Hampi Bazaar sits wedged between a large area of massive boulders (some looking a little precarious) and a series of ancient temples - some of the shops are actually re-inhabiting (ie. squatting) the ruins of the ancient bazaar which was used by shopkeepers hundreds of years ago.

There were some very impressive temples and other structures from the ancient city, including the very photogenic Elephant Stables. The landscape itself, with the Tungabhadra River winding through the boulders, was at least as impressive - particularly in the late afternoon light.

The heat clearly affected the functioning of our brains as we decided to hire bikes to enable us to see all of the sites. Alas Simon's run of poor luck with bikes (last time we hired one his pedal fell off) continued, with a flat tire bringing a premature end to the explorations - he blamed the kids who tried to sell us water...

Our guest house at Hampi was located on the far side of the river, which initially felt like a bad move as there was no one (like actually no one - the joys of traveling in the low season) around when we arrived.

However, aside from Amy's near miss with a (very) large scorpion in the restaurant, it turned out to be a great spot with excellent food and some interesting people too - which was especially welcome as we've been somewhat starved of social contact in southern India.

Departing Hampi on a sleeper bus (with actual beds!) bound for Goa, thanking the Indian public for delivering a stable election result, we turned our thoughts north towards Mumbai, Rajahstan, and Delhi - now if only it would get cooler as you head north...


****SPECIAL FEATURE****

After 5 weeks on the road, we felt it was time for a few ruminations on the joys of traveling in India and how it alters one's perception of things.

We have started noticing that many aspects of day-to-day Indian life which initially we stared at in amazement or commented on in surprise, have become the accepted norm.

For example, it's now perfectly natural to automatically hold ones breath before walking into a public toilet (and hoping not to pass out from either lack of breath or the actual sight). We even prefer the squat toilet to the western toilet, as there is less surface touching required.

A cow or goat freely walking down a main street in a big city or on a beach is completely normal, as is the constant tooting of every vehicle that drives past. We no longer notice when things are dirty (as everything is) and have found ourselves commenting when

Amy with some cheeky kids at the Devaraja Market, Mysore

something is actually clean!

We have also become accustomed to being tourist attractions ourselves (it's Indian holidays right now) and requests from Indians to have their photo taken with us on a daily basis.

All good though. All good.

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Part of trip: The Asian Adventure

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