Hampi

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This is probably one of the coolest places in India, an abandoned city covering 26 sqkm that you have all to yourself. The city was once the capital of a vast Hindu empire that covered the south of India and was devastated by a six-month Muslim siege at the end of the 16th century. Everywhere you look there are old bazaars, temples and roads with not a soul to be seen, it's as if you have discovered a lost city. It's a real challenge to put into words the magical feeling you get here. It is so serene and the monuments appear much older than their four or five hundred years, there is a real sense of having stepped back in time and you can't help but wonder what the hustle and bustle of life here would've been like. There are two main parts to the ruins - an area around Hampi Bazaar with countless temples and a second area known as the Royal Enclosure which holds the remains of palaces, elephant stables and guardhouses. In Hampi, the Vitthala temple contains an ornate stone chariot which in reality is a lot smaller than it appears in photos we'd seen. Whilst in Hampi we took a jaunt down the river in a coracle - a little round boat made from bamboo covered in jute bags and bitumen. It was very peaceful traveling along in the late afternoon sun. Of course, Vinny was determined after his successful navigation of the Ganges to have a go at rowing here, but the round boat proved a wee bit more tricky to manoever and he was soon relieved of duty! Whilst in Hampi we had a number of amusing experiences - a local shopkeeper took pity on me on account of jobless Vinny and gave me a free sweet, a goat wandered through a restaurant we had stopped in for a cold drink and neither of us batted an eyelid, Vinny got great mileage out of me jumping a mile high at what I thought was a green snake in one of the caves. (It turned out to be more of a “tree” snake!) We both loved our time in Hampi and could have spent much more time exploring the ruins here but the icing on the cake for Vinny was having to hang on to the outside of an extremely crowded bus. As we've travelled through India and saw countless locals hanging on to the sides of buses Vinny thought this was deady (as did I, but in an entirely different way), he was very keen to have a go and here, to my horror, his wish was finally granted!

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