Hampi

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  Hampi, India
Friday, February 10, 2006

We were on the first bus to Hospet via Hampi in which was suppose to be an Express bus service but was to last 13 hours . We arrived to find a very sorry looking bus waiting to depart to Hospet it looked like it had been running since the 1930's and didn't have any look of express to it . We weren't the only backpackers so we got on and waited . The bus conductor was a really nice guy contradicted what we had been told the other day that the journey would only be 8 hours saying if we arrived by 8pm we would be doing well. This was not good as according to the bible ( Lonely planet) the last bus to Hampi left at 8.30pm so it would be tight and we really wanted to get all the travelling over and done in one sitting .This was to be the started of the most incredible journeys of our lives we were to bumped and thrown around like a bag of nuts for the next 12.5 hours we were also to learn the art of Indian driving on a non-existent road , dodging cars , lorries , animals , people and oh yeah TREES !!! It was a nightmare our hands were so sore from holding on for dear life as we were propelled into space when the driver decided not to slow down going over the bumps and the bus would launch into space . I really think the driver thought he had four wheel drive . The most annoying thing was because of the state of the "road" it was nearly taking us close to two hours just to cover 15km. We also were to see a very different India one of rural slums so bad that I couldn't believe people actually lived like this .

By the time we reached Hospet we were covered in dust from head to toe ( oh yeah I forgot to mention some parts of the road were so dusty that the plants and trees had turned from a healthy green to a dusty red colour). The bus driver was killing himself laughing asking did we enjoy the trip but he was decent enough to show us where to catch our connecting bus to Hampi and we were in luck we made the connection . We were in Hampi for 9.30pm and we found a place to stay - Hotel Shabhnu . We grabbed some food and then it was to bed to relax our poor bodies .

We were up next morning and headed out to see what Hampi was all about as everyone we had been speaking to in Kerala raved on about it . They were right Hampi is a fab place to go if you are into ruins and taking it extremely slow .. The bible called it Boulder watching . We started off by visiting Virupakasla temple and then onto Hemlauta hill to wander around the ruins of this once mighty hindu city . You could walk for hours just looking around the ruins amongst the boulder strewn hills how they built these temples out of the stone is a mystery. That afternoon we walked up to the other side of Hampi Bazaar to Bull mount and across into Achyutaraga temple this must have been magnificent back in the day but has fallen into ruin . However the positive side was that the archeologists were there doing some excavating.We finished the day off chilling in the Tibetan resturant just off the main street and having desert for the first time since we arrived was called Hello to the queen and it was bloody good .

The next morning we were up and away again this time we walked the 2km to see the Vittala temple although it was well preserved it was as catching as some of the other places but it was amazing to see it for one reason in the middle of the court stood an ornate stone chariot containing an image of one of the gods seemingly it's wheels were once capable of turning . After the hottest part of the day had gone we did the 3km walk out towards the royal gardens which contained Indo- Islamic ruins which includes the Lotus temple , Elephant stables and the underground Virusphuna temple . You know you are defintely in India 100% when you are visiting elephant stables !!! Hampi is truly a fab place to visit and we enjoyed our short stay there but after all our travelling for the last 4 weeks it was time to go to Palolem in Goa and spend some time chilling

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