Some Freshwater Swimming, a Few Temples and a Hell of a Lot of Boulders...

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Greetings Everyone,

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the onset of spring back in the western world!

Hampi...

What can I say about Hampi other than it is probably one of the best places I have EVER been to. Before I go into what I did there I will give you an insight into hat it is all about.

So It used to be the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire up until 1565 when it was obliterated by the Muslim invaders (you see not only do you get light humor with my bog you also learn something). What is left now is a cohort of different builidings including temples, royal residency's and bazaars that wouldn't look out of place in ancient Greece. All of this in a landscape of boulders that looks like the moon... so imagine Greek philosophers walking around on the moon and you're getting there.

OK class dismissed...

At this point I was still traveling with my American friend Damien and we arrived in Hampi on the overnight train from Bangalore for which we had spent the previous day. Hampi bazaar lies on the south side of a river and everyone who had been to Hampi before me said I should stay on the north side of the river in what my guidebook describes as 'unspoilt Viru'. There is no bridge across the river; so with each crossing you have to pay the surly boat mafia around 15 rupees which might not seem like a lot but is extortion in India.

Our first day was spent on bicycles (myself, Damien and the lovely Olivia (English)) exploring the bizarre landscape around our guesthouse of rice paddies and boulders. One eventful activity to note was the chain on my bike snapping about 7m away from the rental shop. But fear not an Indian banana farmer (rhyme!) armed with only a rock and 30 minutes of is time managed to fix it and surprisingly wouldn't accept my money.

The following day we decided to upgrade and rent motorbikes unfortunately a in Mamallapuram these were just basically bicycles with engines again. Now one of the backpacker secrets of Hampi is 'the lake'. A lot of the chatter that arises in the guesthouses in guided towards 'the lake'; we thought we would check it out! The lake is actually a reservoir near hampi where everyone goes swimming to escape the stifling heat of the day. Upon arrival at the lake swimmer are greeted by a sign informing them that swimming is forbidden and that crocodiles inhabit the reservoir... but hey what's a sign. The lake is beyond words (but I will give it a shot); a tranquil flat lake, surrounded by boulder (good enough to jump off) and a perfect coo water temperature. After messing around in lake for a while an Irishman by he name of Mike we had met the previous day informed us of a river ravine we could jump into off a bridge and ride down rapids until e reached the safety of some steps... being the adventurous type this was right up my street! The river was actually a let off from the reservoir and is extremely fast flowing with strong eddy currents and rapids. So with myself and Mike stood on the bridge and Damien filming we leapt into the torrent. It was an exhilarating experience; we floated through the strong currents in a steep sided man made ravine. All was going well until I needed to exit the river. Mike had told me that once exiting the ravine you needed yo keep right and then gradually swim towards the steps. I took his advice a little too seriously and went right too early. This subsequently meant I was caught in a large swirling backflow... I consider myself a strong swimmer but when you are swimming you hardest and that bank isn't getting any closer you start to worry. Luckily Mike was out of the water and was able to instruct me out of the backflow and into the calmer part of the river where I was able to get to the bank a little bit 'out of breath'. (I apologise to my father this goes against his health and safety profession... but it does coin well with his reckless adventurous spirit!)

Our evenings in Hampi were spent frequenting one of the cafe's showing a film which was a real treat a films and televisions ave been light on the ground.

As well as all the swimming and boulder watching we also managed to check out all of the temples on the Bazzar side of the river but if I write about that I feel some of you may switch off i'm sure yo have had enough of my temple talk.

Anywho after leaving Hampi I ha to spend a night in Hyderabad which as the name suggests is BAD. It is a typical large sprawling dirty mass of car horns and traffic with a handful of sights. So I won't go into it.

Presently I'm in Puri; i'm going to hit up a big saltwater lake in the next few days, then its Kolkata then flying to Thailand in just over a week!

So there will probably only be one more entry from India.

Catch you later folks!

Jack x

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Photos

Hampi Scenery...
The view from the top of the Monkey Temple... and some idiot.

Crocs!
Warning sign of the crocs that apparently frequent the lake... it stops no one.