Jenny:

ello ello ello! hope you are all smashing!

well, Colshy has let me write this one because it involves lots of animals and animals are my forte (or the only thing that I can be bothered writing about!)

Right, Hampi is lovely. Now onto the animals..... hehe only kidding, Hampi actually does deserve a bit of time! Its seriously gorgeous. Describing it doesnt really do it justice, but i'll try. Colin thinks it looks a bit like 'a dusty Harris'. The landscape is remarkable, its made up of hundreds and hundreds of massive boulders planked on top of eachother. Kind of like when you try to make a sandcastle with wet sand and it falls apart. Anyway, apparently it was this enormous important place about 800 years ago (thats probably wrong so Colin will have to come in and edit that! My brain switches off when it comes to the history of places!) anyway, the Royals lived here and they had massive public baths and it really is astonishing. The temples are massive and some of them are still in good condition.

For example, one we went to see had a dance hall, and surrounding it were small columns what were attached to the bigger columns that kept the roof up-these are actually musical columns and when each one was hit it made a different noise, so staff would stand around and make music by hitting the columns in order to make a song, and then the Royals could have a boogie! (I prefer fiddy cent, but each to their own).

Hampi is still actually an archeological site because it so massive so you could sit and watch them actually doing a dig, it was really interesting but I agree with Eddie Izzard, it gets a bit boring after a while, what we want to see is more 'speed archeology'.. God, I havent quoted him in a while. Anyay, the temples and that were all really good and stuff but lets get onto the most important bits. The food and the animals!

Its a really important Hindu site and they are all devout, so NO MEAT and NO BOOZE! Gutted! While Colshy was getting into it and ranting about 'an important detox for the body' I was slowly dying in a corner.. no beer is really difficult when its this hot. Anyway, this seriously amazing (possibly the best ever) restaurant is built into the side of a cliff surrounding this giant mango tree, overlooking a river and paddy fields and wee puppies and cows and all the things.. Its amazing because its so shaded (because of the tree) and you get a breeze off the river, so we spent more time in there than we did sight-seeing! And the FOOD! We had some of the best food ever in there..thalis, tomato masalas, special mango tree masala, cashew nut curry...wawza. Seriously good stuff. One night we were there a guy was bitten by a frog! The dangers of eating outside..

And now to the best bit.... the main temple that is actually in the village has a temple elepant called Lakshmi and let me tell you, this elephant was the sweetest wee thing we have ever seen. I thought Colin was going to try and marry her! If you give her a 1 rupee coin, she takes it in the wee trunk, gives it to her owner guy, and then 'blesses' you by putting her trunk over your head! It was like a big squishy, hairy marshmallow. heheh aww she was so gentle! And all the Hindus go mad for her and get her to bless their babies and shes so so gentle with the kids. Aww she was lovely. Obviously its awful that they keep her there and i'd much prefer that she was out in the wild with other wee Lakshmi's but she actually seemed happy and seemed to love the attention. We were randomely there for a special celebration. This SCARY statue from Tamil Nadu was doing the rounds of certain important temples and on our last night they had this massive party-wee Lakshmi was all dressed up in a special gown (?) and metal trunk-plate and there was fireworks and music and all the kids were out on the street singing. What an amazing experience, we were loving it.

Every morning Lakshmi gets a bath in the river at 7.30am, so we got up early on our last morning and went down to see her. Amazing !

Anyway, that was then and this is now and we have to go and book a bus to somewhere. Woohee!

Anyway, lots of love,

Jenny xxxxxxxxxxx