Leaving Hampi

10.10.11

We woke up very relieved this morning because we were both feeling quite a lot better and we knew we would be on a all night train this evening. So we met Thomas and Regina for breakfast. The plan was to hire bicycles and explore this side of the river where we knew there was a lake and a temple about a 25 minute ride away through some villages. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling up to cycling in the heat so we took a rickshaw instead up to the lake.

The lake was much bigger than we anticipated, all the locals told us it was fine to swim but we saw signs telling us there were crocodiles so we weren't convinced! Around the edges of the lake however, there

were buffalo submerged in the water chewing loudly, which was a good sign! There were beautiful views

over the valley towards Hampi, of paddi fields and palm trees.

After an hour or so of relaxing in the shade and Martin paddling with Thomas, we headed back to the guesthouse

for a late lunch. We then had to cross the river at about 5pm to then get a rickshaw to Hospet inorder to get

our prospective trains/buses. So with careful negotiation Thomas, Regina, Angela, Martin and I squeezed in to

2 rickshaws to go to Hospet. It was like something out of the Great Escape but in rickshaws! We started off

behind but quickly swerved to overtake our fellow travellers. Within 30 seconds we had been overtaken again. We spent the rest of the journey driving bumper to bumper with the rickshaw in front watching their indicator mistakenly come on eveyday they pressed the brake pedal!

But we got to a restaurant in Hospet safely, to have a meal together before we left. We ate in a very posh hotel restaurant that was recommended in our guidebook. It had a lovely atmosphere because the tables were arranged around a dramatically lit swimming pool with silver service (not that the prices represented this). The finishing touch was the loud building work that was going on on the far side of the pool!!

About 8 o'clock we exchanged contact details and said our goodbyes and headed to the train station for the overnight train to Bangalore.