Hampi & Bangalore

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Hampi & Bangalore
Hi guys, last time I wrote it was from Palolem in my beach hut. A lot have happen since then, first we decided to go to Hampi, again one of the highlights in our Lonely Planet. We booked a sleeper bus from Chaudi to Hampi for 700 Rupees per head (it's an ok price), surprisingly the ride was not bad, we even manage to sleep most of the trip. When we got to our destination at about 7:00 am, an army of rickshaw was waiting for all the new tourist, of course they all knew the best guest house and could offer us tours trough all the ruins and temple worth to see in the area.
Daphne and I had already booked at Sri Lakshmi Golden Beach Resort, according to our guide it was one of the best option in Hampi, on the way there we realized that the fact that it was across the river was unfortunately a disadvantage for us since we had only a short 24 hours in that town and all the ruins and temples where not on the same side. We than decided to go at our second choice the Padma guest house which was way more cheap and more central for the sight seeing. We took a room with AC for 1200 Rupees, the only problem is, and we learned that at our own expense, that there is very frequent and long electricity cuts in Hampi, which mean we could have stayed in the cheaper room without AC for 800 Rupees it would have been the same.
So after we refreshed our self we grabbed a rickshaw to the Mango Tree, the best restaurant in Hampi in our guide book, it was awesome, we had to cross a small banana field to get to the place and once we've got there, the view was very nice. We took the opportunity to renew with the Indian meals since in Goa we went more for western type of food and it was very good, one of the best Chana Masala so far. After our lunch we hired a rickshaw for our entire time in that town to show us everything there was see, it cost 800 Rupees for about 7 hours. Every spot is worth to go, my favorite was the old elephant stables, very impressive, enormous.
On our second day, it was march 1st, in India it means Holi festival, also known as color festival by most foreigners. This festival is celebrated to welcome spring. The night before, bonfires are set in the street to symbolize the death of the demon Holika. The concept is to throw color powder on everybody you see. Daphne and I tough that event was only in north India, but where really happy to see that it wasn't the case, since we always wanted to celebrate that event. Hampi is the perfect place to do it, the crowds is not too big and there is a huge amount of tourist that are playing as well so we felt more safe and allowed our self to fully get in to that amazing event. In an hour we where covered of different colors. We found out that the powder was easily washed, just by simple water, the problem was the liquid, it tooked about a week with 2 showers a day to get off my skin.... And the clothes where finished... fortunately we had some Indian clothes that we had purchase for 300 rupees back in Goa.
On that night we left Hampi in another sleeper bus to Bangalore, this time he ride was totally horrible, I had about 2 hours of sleep on a 9 hours trip. Since again we only had 24 hours in that big city and where too tired by that terrible night bus, we decided to rent a room in big hotel and just relax for the day. From the couples hours we spent outside, we saw a usual big Indian city with a lot of pollution, rickshaw are really trying to get the maximum out of your pocket and they're really insistent to show you some shop be aware. One good thing is that we saw a lot of green areas, a really good thing that is missing in big Indian towns.
Next stop is Cochin, in Kerala and the beautiful backwater, one the hundred things to do before we died... Interesting. Of course they will be some beach stop hopefully as nice as Goa.

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Comments

[DerekM]

About Holi!
Fantastic - pix

[Travelmax]

Thks
For the Holi pics, I had to be fast, the crowd was moving at an incredible pace... I would do this event again and again. Thks again