Hampi and Bangalore

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Braving Goa's system of non-existent buses (getting anywhere in Goa requires jumping on several short buses, easy enough but far more like hard work than Tamil Nadu and Kerala and their long-distance buses). we made our way to Vasco-de-Gama to find an early morning train to Hospet- the nearest railhead to Hampi. Anyone travelling Goa-Hampi, I would definately reccommend the day train, rather than night train or bus, as the scenery - forest-clad hills of Goa giving way to savannah-like flats of Karnataka - is stunning.

We were instantly glad we'd decided to go inland to Hampi - the entire place is absolutely stunning. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire, and most of the ruins date from the mid-14th century. Experts reckon that Hampi was once even as rich as Rome, and it was certainly one of the biggest and richest (Hindu) empires India has seen. It covers around about 26sq kms, of absolutely stunning landscape - flat, with big hills rising up from the river valley, the entire place strewn with massive boulders.

The first day we just wandered and explored - including climbing a rather large hill, but chickening out before we reached the top, as the steps turned into very shallow cuts in a very steep rock, with a very long drop on the other side....going up looked fine, but don't think any of us could have gone down happily...

The second day we decided to hire bikes to explore the area - 12kms in 30 degree heat on bikes with no gears (I'd never realised just how much difference gears make - my legs could feel when the road started to rise before I could even see it!) - great fun but pretty exhausting - especially as as the last 2 kms were not suitable for bikes, and we had to carry them up and down stairs....

From Hampi Sam and Jen started their adventures up north, whereas I went South to Bangalore. Bangalore is the home of most British banks' call centres, and India's IT business centre, so its very much full of urbanites - very different side of India. I didn't get up to an awful lot - though the museum - which had many labels with question marks, and something which was clearly a model of a pig was lableed "Ram" - until catching a flight to India on the 1st of Feb!

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