Hampi

Although it's getting hotter, we finally decided to head away from the water, and venture inland a little. We took an overnight bus to Hampi, which was an adventure all on it's own. We made our way on an extremely overcrowded bus to where our overnight bus was leaving from. After wandering around, we went to get a bite to eat to kill some time. While we were in the restaurant, a parade started between us and where we had to go. We literally had to fight our way through the crazy crowds and push through a parade to get to the bus stand, just to find that they moved the departure point 2km away (with 30 minutes to departure, and no way for rickshaws to get through all the people). I was determined not to miss this bus and we ran, packs and all, to some unknown new location. Big props to Ana for not only keeping up, but for busting through tightly packed crowds of Indian men when necessary. It's so funny how they will push and shove in a queue for no reason, but try to do the same back, and whooooeeeee, do they get mad. Tough! We made it and had a bumpy night to Hampi.
All worthwhile in the end, as Hampi was amazing. It's a huge area with intricately carved ruins scattered all over. In the main area of town, locals have build their home and businesses over them, so there is quite a mix of older beautiful stonework buildings with tin and thatched attachments. Away from the main attractions, you could find yourself alone in massive markets and temples, which are starting to crumble (except the ones designated as world heritage site, which are amazing well maintained), but are still completely awe-inspiring. All in all, Hampi is a definite highlight of this trip.
I had my second Indian hair cutting experience here to, which was almost as fun as the first. Instead of moving around the chair, the barber would torque my head around to where ever he had the razor (for which I had to hold the plug tightly against the socket). He also liked to get a firm grip on my head, and I had to pry his thumb out of my eye on several occasions. On the bright side, I did manage to get my usual short shaved cut, instead of the flat-top-fade-with-front-poof that I ended up with the first time..

Enough blathering. Here are some pics of some of the Hampi ruins...

Elephant stables


Vittala Temple

Royal Chariot sculpture

Krishna Temple Marketplace


On our way out one day, we lucked upon Lakshmi getting her daily bath, so I got to help give her a little scrub down. Awesome! I wanna bring her home, but Ana won't let me :(

So, Ana...what do you think of the Hampi experience?