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Published: February 27th 2007
Stretching our money for 8 months means that certain sacrifices need to be made. In this case the sacrifice was comfort and the saving was $30 AUD (which is a whole days budget!). Our 7am local bus beckoned and took us the long ten bumpy hours across the state of Karnataka to Hampi.
We'd like to say that the scenery was worth it but sadly it was mostly brown, desolate and dry. There were however the bright tinsel and ribbon laden bison-drawn caravans of the gypsies spiced things up, and in a couple of spots fields of lush sunflowers which added a dash of vibrant colour. Apart from some pictures of the gypsy carts taken from our speeding bus all we ended up with was a sore bum and thick film of brown dust that covered us from head to toe.
Hampi is beautiful though. A tiny laid back village, it is set along a river in a landscape strewn with boulders and ruins from the Vijayanagar empire. Founded in 1336 and lasting until the mid 16th Century Vijayanagar was one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history.
Many of the old sights (temples, elephant stables, baths
Henna Hands
Beautiful designs on the hands of the schoolgirls we met at the templeand royal palaces) are in pristine condition having been lovingly restored and maintained by the archaeological society. The ornately carved panels in the temples were fascinating, depicting the religious and socio-economic conditions of the time. Other sights lie broken and ruined and we were free to wander through the old bazaars and scramble up the crumbling staircases of temples.
We spent a couple of days just leisurely wandering about the ruins and getting a bit lost at times (one time without any water in the stifling heat) and venturing into the hidden depths of the temples armed only with a torch trying to avoid the bat poo. Gigantic boulders litter the landscape everywhere, stacked on top of each other in strange formations leaving us to wonder who or what would've had the strength to put them there - but we didn't hear any extraterrestrial theories being spouted by the locals.
At the royal baths we were mobbed by a bus load of Indian tourists who all wanted to be in our photos, and bleated in delight as we showed them the pictures and the camera was excitedly grabbed from one person to the next, grubby fingerprints smearing the
Gypsies
Pic quality is a little dodgy as it was taken from a speeding bus! lense. One cheeky fellow wanted to try his hand at photography (with our camera) and had his friends posing and Suz was swept into the picture madness in a flurry of Indian arms.
At the Vittala temple we were again mobbed by a mass of schoolkids, who basically just wanted to introduce themselves and shake our hands. The boys proffering their hands for a firm handshake, and the girls giggling and waving their henna covered hands about.
We hired a scooter for one day to head to the outlying temple areas and to head to the next town to buy onward train tickets since it appears we need to be a shade more organized and actually plan our itinerary more than two days in advance.
We stayed across the river on the non-strict side of Hampi. Access was via a little boat that was making a killing transporting tourists the 5 metres back and forth across the river. It was a cool place to stay and we met some great people and swapped crazy Indian stories. It seems everyone has two or three horror stories about Indian beauracracy/transport/sleaziness/scams that they're happy to share in detail. We had
a good laugh, learnt a few things, and all were in general agreement that India is a very cool place, and the good far outweighs the bad - you just have to surrender to it.
Speaking of surrender … I've been writing this blog for nearly
three hours, and had planned to write much more and update our last few days too. However I'm in Jodphur in some kind of computer school which seems to be the only local place with internet and have been sharing this computer with the IT students and teacher! I've sort of been doing 10 minutes on the internet, 20 minutes off, 10 minutes on, 30 minutes off … and frankly I'm over it. Dave is relaxing at our guesthouse and I plan to join him for the sunset and a nice cold beer. Updates on Mumbai, the bus crash and Jodphur in the next blog!
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LOu
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Miss you guys!
Hey beautiful people! I have been pouring over your pics whenever I get to an internet cafe. What an incredible adventure you are having. Am very jealous indeed! Thank you for taking the time to share this journey with all your friends. I must say Suz that you prove to be an excellent writer! I really had no idea you had this gift! Keep writing - I could imagine you publishing a book one day... Love you and miss you, LOu (and Mishka!)