Hampi Proper

07.10.11

We had a lazy morning, getting up for a schnitzel and falafel lunch (Israeli influence!).

We ate our lunch chatting to an Indian family who were holidaying from Bangalore. Then

ventured across the river to Hampi Bazaar. We walked all the way up the main street

know as Hampi Bazaar. This was a fascinating walk as the stree is lined with columned

ruins which our now inhabitated by families, stalls and restaurants. Quite a few

have been painted bright turquoises and blues and are adorned with washing lines. At

either end of the bazaar is a temple. We had our backs to the Virupaksha temple and

ahead of us was the Nandi temple. As we got to this temple we noticed inside the

collonade dating to possibly the 1500's is housed 2 police stations! We clambered up the

rocks to the first temple and scrambled up something resembling a path between hug bolders

until we saw below us the ruins of another large temple complex called the Tiruvengalanath

Temple, made up of a large coutyard and 2 large, grand ornate gateways, with elaborate

brickwork crowning each of them. We walked through the gateway to the west and before us

was a wide street with a sheltered columned structure lining it on either side for perhaps

200 metres. Here you could imagine a bustling market, trading precious stones and metals.

On our left was a square courtyard sunk in to the ground with a grand plinth in the middle.

As we walked down the road we followed the path over huge flat bolders passed numerous ruins

towards the river. Then we followed the path along the river, where we saw people washing

their clothes and themselves. There were also coracles, circular whicker and plastic

vessals about 6 feet across, bobbing across the water. We continued along the path, coming

across huge masses of cobwebs entombing tall weeds. I didn't like to imagine the spider

that had made these. We also came across an ancient looking tree that had a small temple

built in to and hanging from it were eery, alien cacoon looking parcels of rocks and powders

hanging in long clumbs from the branches.

Finally, after braving the herd of strange-eared cows (they looked like there ears had been

cut in half with scissors with perforated blades), we reached the final temple, the Vitthala

temple. However we decided to leave this for tomorrow as you had to pay 250R and this included

another temple that was too far away to see today. So we headed back along the river, taking a

more direct route that stuck to the river side all the way back to the bazaar. About half way

along you reach the Rama Temple which at this time was covered with around 40 monkeys playing

and climbing the pyramid of the temple. There were several baby monkeys clinging to their mothers,

occasionally braving it to race to wrestle with a playmate and then racing back to the safety

of their mothers chest again. There was one poor monkey, who had a very pink face which was

really scarred and he had a huge wound that his teeth were poking through. Very disturbing!

The last ferry across is at 6pm unfortunately, so we headed back with plenty of time. Back at

the guesthouse we showered and changed then met Regina and Thomas for dinner.