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Published: February 13th 2006
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I arrived in Hampi early in the morning of the 8th of Feb intending to do the same as I did in Hydrabad - i.e. leg it round the place to see everything quickly and then take an overnight bus to my next destination (Goa). 4 days later now I am of course still here. This is the beauty of travelling though - you can change plans at the last minute and there is nothing holding you back!
Anyway as I jumped off the bus in Hampi with my pack and started marching down the main street I was planning to get my travelling plans sorted for the evening first so asked the girl next to me who had also just arrived off the bus if she knew anything about catching transport to Goa. She looked extremely shocked when I said I was planning to leave that evening. Anyway we got chatting and I decided to stay at least one night as everybody seemed to be telling me you need to spend more than a day here. It turned out to be a bloody good choice and I love this place which is why I'm still here.
I ended
Inside the temples
The pillars you can see are all designed to ring with a different musical note when struck and there are loads of them up staying with Jantine (the girl off the bus - Dutch, 23) and we've become good friends now so will be heading to Goa together tonight.
Just to set the scene for those who don't know: Hampi was the sight of the capital of the Vijayanagar empire. The landscape is covered with massive boulders and inbetween are literally countless ruins and banana plantations etc. It's right next to a river and has an extremely laid back and quiet atmosphere - so very unlike the rest of india! This has all led to Hampi becoming a very popular destination for backpackers and the whole place is geared towards catering for us vermin.
The empire must have been truly colossal as the ruins both small and large are scattered over a huge area stretching several kilometres. There is loads to explore and the weather is hot and sunny.
The first two days here I managed to rope Jantine into walking around with me and we did two pretty long days trekking around the place exploring everything we could.
The first day while we were climbing up one of the hills we went tunnelling through one of the caves.
The meditation cave we found
After tunneling down one of the many caves around we found this place. I don't know how many people find it but no one came while we were there and it's an extremely peaceful place It led along small passageways and eventually came to a small opening where there was a Siva Lingam (stone carving representing fertility used to worship Siva) and a small place where people obviously used to come to meditate. The place must have been ancient and there were cave paintings and carvings on the wall and roof. It just goes to show it's always worth exploring. Most of this area is still being excavated and they are finding new stuff all the time.
Photo requests from locals has dropped a lot now but you still get the odd one - A couple of times while we were walking around some of the main ruins here we got mobbed by children on school trips. They all run up at once shouting 'hello' 'hello' 'hi' hi' 'whats your name?' and all of them trying to shake your hand at once. One of the teachers asked us to pose for a photo with the school!
At one point while trying to find our way back to Hampi we tried to take a short cut through one of the beautiful banana plantations here. I unfortunately (wearing shorts and a T-shirt) discovered that the
Looking back towards hampi
I could keep going all day with these photos swampy environment inside these places is also the perfect place to breed mosquitoes! Jantine came out with not one bite and I came out with splatted mosquitoes and blood all over my legs! We also came across a pretty big Banyan Tree at one point - trees with roots that grow down from the branches, are worshipped a lot and grow HUGE in some places. I took the opportunity to act like a 10year old and climb it, covering myself in scratches and nearly breaking my neck. Good way to impress the lady huh?..
On the second day we spent the whole day walking down the river trying to find a place to cross. There is a place with small boats that can take you across but they charge a relatively extortionate price even just to cross the river so in protest we went off to find our own place to cross. At one point we came across an Aussie/Brit couple who had charted one for a couple of hours. They happily offered to take us down river a bit and then across. Shortly after we were in the boat and just about to hit some rapids which looked
The banana plantation/mosquito breeding centre
The key to survival is to move quickly but even then you won't escape the blood thirsty vampires fun the bloke who own the boat called us back to the side and wouldn't let them take us across saying that if we want to go then we must pay him. Again in protest we got out and continued down the river. Looking back it seems stupid to not have just paid him but I was in one of those moods and besides it was fun just wondering down the river.
In the afternoon we made it across to a small island of boulders in the river where there was a temple and some shade so we took a rest there. There were three boys below watching over their small collection of cows and goats and it wasn't long before they had joined us and we were making the usual sign language and mix of Hind and English (they spoke little of either as their first language is Telegu). It was amazing to see how much fun they have with the very little ( perhaps more accurately described as nothing) that they have. It was yet another reminder in life that possesions and money do not bring happiness.
Incidently (don't know if that's the right word to use) i'm keeping a record of my accomodation this time so I can look back at the best and worst of it. We've done pretty well here and have our own cottage/bungalow with coconut trees outside and the restaurant of the guest house over looks ruins, temples and banana plantations. All this for just 2pounds each per night!
Tonight we're going to catch the bus for the 10hour ride to Palolem in Goa which is supposed to be one of the less spoilt places with beach shacks etc.
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