Blogs from Hampi, Karnataka, India, Asia - page 9

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Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi March 6th 2010

6/3/10: I got up early again to watch the sun rise but this time from Matanga hill. I made it with 5min to spare and was surprised to see so many monkeys that had also made the climb the afternoon before. It felt as if they all sat and watched the sun rise with me, even if they tried to steal my drink bottle. The next morning we headed over the river by boat that only cost 15rs. It was the biggest money maker I had seen yet as the river at the time was only 50m wide. They managed to cram at least 15 people at a time which only took 5min to load and unload, the boat only had a 15hp motor that would hardly use any fuel so the rest was profit. This ... read more
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Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi March 5th 2010

5/3/10: I wanted to make up for yesterdays sunset so I got up early to watch the sunrise. It was funny to see the monkeys everywhere and they freely walked around you keeping one eye on you at all times. I also did the same as you can never trust a monkey. The cool morning air was a blessing and felt great to breath. I was half an hour early for the sunrise so I walked around for awhile looking at the rest of the monkey’s and temples. Jacinta had a restless sleep because of the heat so she was happy to sleep in for a little while longer. I found myself being asked by countless other Indian travellers asking “where are you from”? This ended up resulting in me being involved in group photos with ... read more
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Distant relative
Perfect shot

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi March 4th 2010

4/3/10: Crap! Another shitty sleep as the mosquito’s chewed us all night, well we hoped it was mosquitoes and not bed bugs. We had the fan on full with repellent on and they still managed to bite us, they found a spot where the air was still enough to get a run up and kamikaze dive into my arm hitting so hard it would wake me up. We packed the last remaining things and discovered that I had to wake up the fat pig Indian to let us out of the gate at 6:00am in the morning. It 5-10 min of knocking on the door early in the morning to get him out of bed, or maybe he was trying to roll out the whole time. We walked the 1.5km to the train station with our ... read more
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Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi February 19th 2010

Our trip to Mumbai was relatively uneventuful.. We had expected the worst and the worst didn't happen - was our luck changing? We were met as arranged at the airport by our taxi who took us to the hotel which was quite pleasant. The next morning we had breakfast and watched the end of the Mumbai Marathon, the streets had been closed off and Mumbai seemed a peaceful and calm place. Monday morning and it couldn't be further from the truth, the noise and bustle we had expected arrived very early (we still had jet lag and were looking for breakfast at 6 am). We set off for the train station which was a magnificent amalgam of Kings Cross and the Houses of Parliament; the British might have ransacked the country but we did leave some ... read more
St Xavier
Wash Day
Cows Week

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi February 19th 2010

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 ... read more
A Rather Interestingly Shaped Hampi Artefact...
Crocs!

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi February 14th 2010

Had a more lesuirely approach to the day today. Got up and sauntered to our guesthouses rooftop cafe for brekkie at around 10. As we'd done the further away temples yesterday it meant today we could just have an explore round those closeby. Still spent a good 3hrs walking, climbing and taking pics. It was more relaxing than yesterday but still roasting hot. Think we've had our fill of temples for now! Took some pics of cows as they're everywhere and although not the prettiest of creatures I thought being in India it was only right I got a few snaps of them! We saw some gorgeous tabby kittens on the way back to our place and spent 5mins awwwing at them. Ate tea and were joined by Dan, Corinne, Matt and Naomi. The men all ... read more
Bulls
Ruins more
Ruins more 2

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi February 13th 2010

Had a great day today, a full day exploring the ruins. We set off about 10am and headed along a rough walk trail to one of the main temples, Vittala Temple, via lots of smaller temples, ruins and boulders. It was very busy and we think that there may be a festival going on as there are tons of Indian tourists here. We met loads of Indian families enroute, the kids all shaking our hands and asking our names and men, women and children wanting us to take their picture and a couple wanting pics of us. They were all so sweet and friendly and even when being mobbed by about 5 families at once it was hard to decline. When reaching Vittala we paid 250Rs to get in (this also covered some of the temples ... read more
Ruins 5
Vitalla 1
Ruins 6

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi February 12th 2010

For the first time since arriving in India I break my policy of only giving away food or water and hand over the "sckoooolpen". Expectant eyes light up and the two kids throw the bikes to the floor and both grab for their reward. As I re-mount my bike, tired, lost and sweating in the afternoon sun after cycling around the ruins of Vijayanagara, the now-ruined capital city of the historic South Indian Empire, I notice at least a dozen other children who had seen the exchange. They are fast approaching, and they too want "sckoooolpen". All of them... And so, as I head for the villages around Hampi, through a giant landscape of giant boulders, lush paddies, banana plantations, weaving through the occasional herd of cows... I do so with the added exhilaration of being ... read more
Vijayanagara empire anyone... No. Me neither
"Sckoooolpeeeeen"
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Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi February 12th 2010

Finally arrived from our latest 10hr bus journey in Hospet where we were to make our way to Hampi. We met an english couple on the bus and got talking to them at the depot in Hospet where we all decided to get yet another bus to Hampi. It was 5.30 in the morning so it was an hours wait for the bus service to start up but it flew past quick enough. At 6.30 everyone piled onto the bus and me and Suse were right at the front almost hanging out of the door. Luckily it wasnt a long bus trip and soon enough arrived at Hampi. Turns out its a really busy time so we had trouble finding a room in a half decent guesthouse but we ended up in Gopi Guesthouse which was ... read more
Temples from town
Sun setting
River at sunset

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi January 29th 2010

We stayed one night in a small, not very friendly town called Chittradurga..or something along those lines. The people stared without smilling, pretty much constantly and it gets pretty depressing after a while as we've got used to smiling happy Indians of the south. We had to stop there though as it was about 2 hours after sunset and it's not safe to drive in the dark, there are no lights on the highways and most roads and lots of pot holes and animals that seem to jump out of thin air! We headed off at about midday for Hampi, it's not so hot in land around Bangalore so driving at midday is barable. We got to Hospet, which is the next town to Hampi and it seemed a bit mental, as we drove closer to ... read more
boys on bikes
wind farms in distance
the beginning of the festival




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