Hampi

I thought that Hampi was going to be a bit of a struggle when I found out that there was no booze in the whole town and that is was strictly vegetarian.... But it turned out to be a fascinating place. It's been a fair while now on my trip since I visited a historical area, my time in India for the last month was primarily cities and coastal resorts, so Hampi made a welcome change.

The amount of ancient temples and monuments in one small area in staggering with temples ranging from neolithic to the 17th century.

So what have I been up to...

The overnight bus journey from Panaji was a bit of an ordeal but with that out of the way we found a really nice place to stay. Hampi itself was primarily full of travelers with a few Indian tourists.

After getting my bearings on the first day I hired a scooter for a couple of days to explore the ruins. I'd love to post some pictures to give an idea of the beauty of the area but with no wifi I can't attach them. I'll try and add them later.

Being out and about on the scooter gave me the freedom to explore all of the temple sights some of which we're pretty remote and I had entirely to myself. The only downside to travcelling this far was a slight miss-calculation in the amount of petrol I had... It all worked out for the best though as a kindly passer-by gave me a lift to the nearest petrol station and I hailed a passing tuk tuk taking some tourists to a temple to give me a lift back.

Other highlights we're being blessed by the sacred elephant (bizarre) and a trip to see the underground waterfalls (okay a pretty stupid thing to do with a broken foot...I had visions of 127 hours!)

The evenings passed pretty quietly as you can imagine but it was nice to have a bit of a healthy break. I've now been in a town with plenty of bars for two hours and still haven't had a beer!!!

I catch the trian to Mumbai in a couple of hours so back to city life...