Blogs from Hampi, Karnataka, India, Asia - page 20

Since I last left you I have traveled over 500 kilometers, hiked maybe 6 miles, biked 8 kilometers...and drowned in exhaustive heat. Welcome to India. For a girl who once was able to read Gone with the Wind in a single sitting through the Carolina mountains when I was 10, 15 minutes into an overnight 12 hour busride...I felt so queezy I didn't think I would make it. Coming up with the mantra "stomach of steel" and repeating it perhaps 15,000 times over the next 12 hours...I moved to the front of the bus where I watch as our bus driver seemed to derive unusual pleasure at hitting every possible pothole (not hard to find)...and revving the engine as we would idle waiting for passengers to embark and disemark. Around 5:30 AM we finally arrived...and were ... read more

Hi everone it's me, Alia. Well, we've been in Hampi for about 4 days now, and we all are enjoying it. The bus ride to get here wasn't so enjoyable, because what was supposed to be luxurious, was bumpy, cramped, not to mention overnight. Yet, out of some miracle we made it all in one piece. But, it was worth it. We arrived at 7:00 am, and had to carry all 9 of our bags to our hotel room. We found a hotel with a wonderful veiw of the rice paddies, rock formations and the river. Hampi is mostly ruins, and temples of all the Hindu gods. It is considered a holy city and also where Hanuman ( the monkey god) was born. Hampi is in it's condition because in the 1500's the musllm rulers ... read more

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 ... read more

So, from Goa we headed up to Hampi. Train was very late but we just managed to get a guest house in Hampi before everything closed. Hampi is actaully really small, just a few tiny streets, which is nice. It's a very chilled out place with lots of roof top cafes and amazing scenery. We went to Hampi for the ruins of ancient Hindu templed and palace. It really is an awsome place. The whole landscape is covered in huge boulders. You kind of have to see it to belive it (photos will apear soon). It looks just like a load of giants have just picked up the boulders and thrwn them around a lot. We did spend a long time speculating as to how some of the boulders got to where they are (e.g. on ... read more

We really liked Hampi. The surrounding boulder-strewn landscape alone makes the visit here well worth it. This medium-sized village, has a peaceful (for India) air about it, helped by a partial road block on autorickshaws and other vehicles. The town has almost the same number of travellers as residents, partially due to its proximity to the crowds in Goa. There are lots of chillout cafes serving water-free fruit juices, decent food alternatives and lots of floor cushions to laze around on. It was chillout time for us too. This is not just a place to laze, Hampi was once the site of one of the largest empires in Indian history - the 16th century Vijayanagar empire. It's thought that half a million people lived in this city at the height of the empire, more than in ... read more