Hampi
From Mysore we took a train to Bangalore (4 hours) then changed to a night train to Hospet (10pm -7am). We travelled 2AC which means two levels of bunk beds in the carriage. We shared our bit with a well-to-do Indian couple. Luckily we had the top bunks so could go to bed while they sat up blethering with their pal til the small hours. They provide sheets and blankets and pillows and it's quite comfy really. We'd been told it would be cold in AC but it wasn't working properly so it was noisy but quite hot. Still, managed to get some sleep and better than siting on a hard bench all night. It was strange to wake up in a completely different landscape; no more lush palm and forest, Hospet is in a flat, dry dusty landscape.
We took a rickshaw to Hampi, half an hour away and immediately started to see what all the fuss is about. It used to be the capital of an ancient kingdom that was destroyed 16th century. Over 43 square kilometres of the most amazing landscape of hills, giant boulders, smooth rock escarpments are littered the remains of dozens of temples, palaces and other grand structures. Our accommodation in Hampi bazaar seemed really basic after the swanky hotels in Mysore (our first squat toilet, hard bed) but we soon got used to it and came to really enjoy Vicky's; they have a great rooftop restaurant with an amazing view of the river and the temple Gopuram (tower). They also had a very good cook and brown bread which we'd really been missing. Hampi Bazaar is a great wee place - locals have re-occupied and rebuilt the old ruins that had been abandoned for centuries and now there are loads of shops selling lovely Indian clothes, jewellery etc.and the village is dominated by the huge tower of the main temple. Sitting on the roof having dinner we sat gazing at it.
We went to visit the temple and were shown round by a nice wee guy who gave us very special blessings at all the shrines but the very best bit by a mile was meeting Lakshmi the temple elephant. Finally got to do the thing where you give her a coin, she takes it in her trunk and gives it to her mahout and then bonks you gently on the head with her trunk as a blessing. Wow. I did it twice on the first day and Archie once and w kept going back for more whenever we were passing with coins in our pockets. She is the most beautiful elephant ever (that we've seen anyway) . One morning, early, we met her outside the temple, fed her bananas, the followed her down to the river ghats and sat and watched entranced for an hour while her mahout scrubbed her every last nook and cranny. She obviously loved wallowing around in the river and at one point ducked fully under water with the mahout just standing tiptoe on her back.
We climbed Matunga Hill in the late afternoon and marvelled at the view -miles of this astonshing landscape . There was a man at the top with a wee gas stove making chai -and very welcome it was too. Most of the travellers drifted up one of the hills to sit quietly and watch the sunset each day and we really enjoyed this.
Another highlight was the day we walked what seemed a very long way up a path through banana plantations looking for a waterfall. We had to get a wee boy to leave his goats in the cre of his brother and show us the way once the path ran out; we went over rivers on stepping stones, skirted round fields and eventually came to what is in the monsoon season the bed of a mighty river. In January however, the river is low and goes boiling and rushing between boulders leaving a mosaic of sink-holes and sculpted rock exposed. You could really understand why rivers have such currents, eddies and whirlpools having seen the topography that underlies this one. I was not looking forward to the walk back, especially as there was a herd of buffalo I didn't like the look of in the care of 2 cheeky wee boys to circumvent so it was very fortuitous that the chap who makes chai at this remote place ( !) also happens to be a coracle ferryman. He led us off over a seemingly endless boulder walk until we got to a beach on the river and sure enough, his coracle. It was a brilliant trip downstream to where we'd started from but he had to paddle quite hard against the tricky currents some of the way.
We could probably have stayed much longer than 5 days in Hampi but we'd already booked our train to Goa so Friday 13th was our time to move on, sorry to leave Hampi.
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