31/1/10 Hampi Sunday

We were up and out to get to the station for the morning train. A taxi driver gave us a tourist price to go a short distance to the station so we went with a more reasonably priced rickshaw instead. We arrived at the station where there was the usual security faff. Liz had to yell "oi" at the security guard to get his attention away from the paper and when she said about the pacemaker he totally ignored her and looked back at his paper....how rude. Phil shouted "oi" again right in his face and he looked very put out that we were disturbing his reading time. He was wearing some ear muffs and couldn't really hear but made no moves to take them off .He didn't or wouldn't understand us but a nearby woman gestured for Liz to go through an open gate instead of the metal detector. At least some people can be helpful. After Liz walked through the gate Mr Personality came to life and yelled "close door" at Liz and she yelled back "no, you do it" India has certainly brought out a confident streak in Liz she never knew she had !! We had to ask some equally charming staff which platform the train was going from as there was no information anywhere and neither platform had a number either. The only signs we could see said both Bengaluru and Mumbai which are in opposite directions so it was very confusing information. They told us platform 2 which we had to assume was the furthest from the entrance so we crossed the bridge to wait there. There were a few other Westerners waiting on the platform so Phil went to see if we were at the right place. Other people were waiting for the same train as us but were equally unconfident but we decided to stay put. We were heading to a place called Hospet then on to Hampi where there are literally hundreds of ancient temples to see.I have borrowed a bit of hampi history for us to remember really but feel free to read on if you are interested too.Hampi, the 14th century capital of one of the greatest empires of the world, lies in the Deccan heartland in the state of Karnataka or Karu'nadu (meaning 'elevated land'). The ruins of Hampi are scattered throughout an area of 26 sq. km area, amidst giant boulders and vegetation. The origin of Hampi dates back to the age of the Hindu epic 'Ramayana' when it was the site of Kishkinda, a monkey kingdom. Between the 9th and 10th century, this area was known as Vijaypur and later in 1150 AD as Vijaynagar under the king Vijayadhawaja. Vijayanagara, the capital of the mighty Vijayanagara, was founded in 1336 AD by two Hindu brothers Hakka and Bukka under guidance of a Brahmin priest Madhva Vidyaranya. The empire that lasted for over twenty years culminating into the golden era of South Indian history. The Empire stretched over 165 sq. miles, the central portion of which is called Hampi . In 1565 AD when the then ruler Rama Raya was defeated and killed by a confederation of Muslim kings and the capital was ransacked and reduced to shambles within 6 months by the victorious Mohamedans who left it desolate, resembling more a ghost city than a former captital. The state of Goa lost its prominence after the fall of this empire as the then rulers, the Portuguese, lost interest in this territory because of the fall in spice and horse trade. Today a world heritage site, archeologist try to reveil the unknown secrets and they are working patiently at this remote (yet beautiful place) and treasure, when they excavate to unearth, beautifully preserved monuments. As more Western tourists arrived they all asked us if we were on the Hampi train and all said how hopeless the information was , no announcements or signs. Amazingly when the train did pull in, the carriage we were reserved on stopped in front of us so we could just jump on. We had regular seats which are where alot of the Indians travel with no frills but quite comfy and cheap. The windows are open so you can see out much better than in the more expensive a/c carriages too. When we got to our seats there were a bunch of Indian children sat there who soon disappeared clambering right over our stuff. Most Indians we have come across on the trains push, shove, push in and generally get to where they are going as fast as possible regardless of who or whats in their way. For people who queue its really annoying, its as if you aren't even there. A few Indians sat down with us but soon moved if they saw other free seats . Many people are unsure of the foreigners. Phil was quite happy to be left alone as we could spread all our stuff around. Two Belgian girls sat with us in the end as a family had nicked their seats. The first few hours of the journey were really scenic, much better than the Goa train ,as we passed through the Western Ghat mountains past waterfalls, rivers and fabulous views. There were banana plantations and rice fields to see and then the second half was a little less exciting but still very scenic. People came and went to the two free seats in our berth of six then two men sat down for the last hour or so. They were chatting and drinking tea then stood up and threw their rubbish out of the window past Phils face...not happy. Phil had been to find a bin earlier in the journey and was told by a passenger to throw it out of the door !! India is a stunning country but it is drowning in litter. The country areas with less people aren't too bad but all along the railway line is piled with litter which is such a shame. We have been really careful not to add to the mess but we realise that the bins in the hotels we use are probably emptied into the streets anyway as there isn't any provision for waste disposal. We can't believe that they manage to dispose of UK waste but can't seem to manage their own. We arrived in Hospet station about half an hour late and while waiting for the train to come to a stop we were approached by a rickshaw driver to offer us a lift to a hotel he knew in Hampi. His name was Raoul and we went with him as we had nothing booked and drove off through Hospet. It was a little like going back in time as there were many ox carts being driven through the streets and life seemed much quieter and simpler than other towns we'd seen. India has been so diverse nowhere is the same as the last place so there certainly isn't a dull moment here, theres always something suprising to see or experience. The scenery on the drive to Hampi was lovely and we arrived in the small town but Raoul pulled into a show ground first to show us where there had been a festival. Hampi had a huge three day festival to celebrate a 500 year anniversary which had finished the day before so we'd missed it which was a real shame as the stage area looked fantastic. There was alot of music, lights and dancing and Raoul showed us photos from the festival which looked really good. We drove through some old city walls into Hampi Bazaar which is a small village near to the ruins of a 15th century city. As we drove through we could see many of the temple ruins in the village itself. The whole area is also strewn with some pretty amazing huge bolders that seem to defy gravity with the way they are perched. The village was lovely and bustling with only low rise buildings and the usual cows wandering through the streets. We arrived at the guesthouse Raoul had suggested and it was fine, clean and had hot water so ok for us. We dropped off our bags then went to the reataurant on the roof to meet Raoul. There was a great view across to the temples which seemed to be everywhere we looked. There are over 2000 of them spread over a 25 km area and the ones we could see were in a really amazing state of preservation. Unesco has named the area a world heritage site so it is protected from overdevelopment which is great as the village is so nice. Raoul started talking to us about taking a tour with him the next day and we both thought "here we go" but as he'd not done anything to con us so far we decided to go for it as he was a nice enough guy. After arranging a time to meet Raoul the next morning we walked to the river and Ghats just next to our hotel to see the local people there. There were loads of locals all bathing in the river and lots of women and girls washing clothes too. The females all get into the water fully dressed in their saris to wash whereas the males all strip down to their pants. Theres alot of phlegm coughing up and spitting into the water going on all the time which is gross but something all the people here do. We sat a little distance away to watch the activity in the river and got approached by quite a few Indian tourists, in Hampi for the festival, who were interested in us. We were asked "what your name" Which country?" and everyone was very friendly and polite. Families came over to get a picture with us but it was much more pleasant than at Ellora as the people were so much nicer. We have become used to the attention we get now and just think we are as interesting to the Indians as they are to us but it has taken alot of getting used to. We walked away from the ghat area to see the biggest temple in the village called Virupaksha temple. On the way we passed Manmatha Tank and the sunset was fantastic with a really red sky. There is a resident temple elephant called Lakshmi there who is washed at the ghat every morning so we planned to get up to see that the next day. The temple was alive with visitors and was really noisy. There were loads of school partiess and all the children spoke to us with the usual questions "which country" and "whats your name". After spending a few minutes there, Phil had taken some photos of the sunsetting through the temples on Hamakute Hill and we went to find some food. It seemed that everywhere in town was serving veggie food but we found a Nepali restaurant and went in there. Liz went in to ask if they served non veg food and was told they served chicken. A man in there said to Liz that it was not allowed there so to keep it quiet. Apparently both meat and alcohol are banned in Hampi as it is such a holy place. We had stumbled on a restaurant that had a secret menu....thankfully as Phil is definately not a vegetarian. He had chicken curry and Liz had veggie lasagne for a change and the food was delicious and the staff were really friendly there too. We went to get the blog stuff from the room and went to use the internet for a while before the shop shut at 10. When we came out the whole place seemed to have closed down, but we found an Italian bakery open. On the way there we befriended two cows who followed us for a bit of fuss right to the bakery. They walked with us like a couple of dogs then hung around the bakery too. The bakery staff gave them some food and after they'd eaten that they wandered inside to scrounge some more. Cows are treated better than some humans here as they are considered sacred, "treated as one would treat their mother" we were told. After a quick drink and of course pudding for Phil we went off to bed.

1/2/10 Hampi temple tour Monday

We got up at about 6am to go to the ghats to see the temple elephant having her daily wash. When we got there it was sunrise and there were about two hundred people along the river edge beside the ghats washing themselves and also their clothes. It was a blaze of colour with all the beautiful saris and we sat a little distance away to watch the people for a while. They were washing their clothes right next to other people bathing but there doesn't seem to be any issue with this like we would have in the west. The ladies were fully dressed and the men all stripped to their pants, then dunked themselves in the water and washed. There were a few holy men there too who were performing rituals using the water. It seems all natural waterways are viewed as holy so we have seen many people washing in rivers here. A few children came along and asked us to take their photos, it is a novelty for them to see themselves in photos so they are very giggly and excited which is very cute. The people don't seem to mind us watching them washing and going about their business but we make sure that we aren't too intrusive, unlike some others we've seen getting far too close with huge lensed cameras. We waited at the river side for about an hour until eight o'clock when we found out from a policeman that the elephant wasn't being bathed after all. We retuned to the guesthouse and sorted some laundry we needed doing but it would probably be washed in the river along with all the phlegm and bath water...nice. We ordered a breakfast but it took ages and after half an hour Phil's cold baked beans on toast arrived along with Lizzies massive breakfast. Liz ate hers and Phil had a bit of his once the beans were heated but they weren't too good . Raoul had arrived to pick us up for the day so we headed out through some little back lanes of Hampi Bazaar to his autorickshaw. Some naughty little monkeys had torn the leather roof so there was a big flap in the pretty new looking roof...oh dear. We drove off through the little lanes of Hampi up Hemakuta Hill to see the first temple we were to see on the tour. There weren't many people around so we were able to get a few photos of it before two huge buses full of noisy Indian tourists arrived. We saw Kadalekalu Ganesha which had a huge Ganesh statue inside it. There were a series of carved columns at the front of it overlooking Hami Bazaar below. Once the coaches arrived though the silence was broken as the people and children came running all over the temple screaming and shouting. We have noticed that the people here seem to have no sense of volume especially in sacred places where we are used to respectful silence they seem to really have alot of fun but also race round as if they aren't there to see the monument or structure. We jumped back into the rickshaw and off to see the next temple called Kadalekalu Ganapathi (mustered ganesh temple) which was a 12 ft high monolithic sculpture of Ganesha the elephant headed god we like. He represents education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth and so is loved by many Hindus. We just like him because he looks like an elephant. The next temple we saw was an underground one called Pataleshwara temple (Petala means bottom). There was water inside so we couldn't go all the way in but we could see a model of Nandi, the bull Shiva rides inside. Shiva is said to destroy the universe in order that it can be recreated better. We then drove towards a viewpoint but stopped on the way to see a rock formation known as the two sisters. They are two huge boulders that legend says were sisters turned to stone for saying bad things about Hampi !!! Raoul took us up to a viewpoint and took a load of photos of us there . We could see dozens of temples all around so it was a great vantage point. There were many granite boulders strewn around the area as if they had been sculpted and placed there. Next we visited the Royal Centre area where there were some lovely buildings including the Lotus temple and the Elephants Enclosure inside a walled area known as Zenana Enclosure.. We had to pay the foreigner price which by now we are realising is a white tax as "non foreigners" don't have to proove their residency in India but what can you do? The granite boulders that are usually strewn everywhere have been used to create some amazingly accurate stone walls. The Lotus Temple sits in some immaculate grounds and there were a few groups eating picnics there. We chatted to a lovely Dutch lady there travelling alone for the first time but on her twentieth visit to India !!!! We are starting to enjoy India much more now we are away from the hassles we got in the North and are even talking of coming back....u-turn or what !!! There were the usual big school parties running around laughing and screaming making a load of noise but not really looking at the place. Lots of them came to us to ask "which country " and "Whats your name?" and a few wanted their photo taking too. While we were there we bumped into the two Belgian girls from the train who were cycling round the sites unlike us lazy bums. The Elephant Stables were a huge long row of grand stables used to house the royal elephants which were used to carry the Maharajas. There was a small museum there showcasing stone carved Hindu Gods and Goddesses which were all really impressive and in a lovely building. We left the Royal Centre and travelled along to see Hajara Rama which is a temple with some amazing carvings depicting some of the battles around the time that Hampi was occupied as well as carvings of Gods and Goddesses. There are 48 layers of carvings and it was certainly impressive to see. The next place we went to see was the Mahanavami Dibba which was a huge high platform with views across the Hampi area. We walked to the top and stayed looking at the views before going down to the bottom to look at Rushkarani Tank, a huge bathing pool with pefectly carved stairways all around. As usual we were both surrounded by big groups of lads all eager for photos with and of us. We are obviously very interesting !!! Just before stopping for a bite to eat we visited the Queens Bathhouse which was rather featureless and just a large pool with some simple walls. Raoul took us to eat at a large hotel full of Russians called the Travellers Rest where we had a pretty nice meal then continued our tour. Our first stop was at the Kings balance which looks like a stone weighing scales. Apparently the kings would weigh themselves against gems and diamonds which were later distributed amongst the poor. Near the balance there were many more temple ruins around and we took a look at some before going to see Vijaya Vittala Temple. It was built in 1513 after an expedition by Krishnadevaraya and it is built on a polyhedron foundation. The carvings were very cleverly done intertwining the bodies of all sorts of animals, angels and birde. The main inner temple has musical columns made from hollow tone which makes a note when banged. There are many of these pllars and it was sad to make a really melodic sound when they were all played. We had a tour guide for this temple and he was able to explain alot of the carving work and showed us the famous carved chariot that sits in front of the inner temple. It is a life sized chariot with originally turning wheels. It has carvings of soldiers, hunters and also Persians, Arabs and Portugueses have been depicted. We then drove through Beemas gate in the old city walls to Malyavantha Raghunatha for sunset. We walked up a slope to the temple and could hear singing and music inside. The musicians sit there playing 24 hours a day for 5 months and it is stupidly loud !! Raoul direted us to the back side of the temple where there were some huge rock boulders for us to sit on and watch the sun go down. It was quite hazy though so i wasn't a brilliant sunset but it was a nice view nontheless. We chatted to a lovely old man from Barnsley who was travelling alone then returned to Hampi Bazaar for some food. We went for chicken curry in the Nepalese place then went to use the internet for a while which was running off 12 car batteries!!! After it closed we went to bed as Hampi shuts down by 10 pm.

2/2/10 Tuesday Hampi

We were up early to see Lakshmi being washed but after waiting an hour there was still no sign of her. There were plenty of people around for us to watch as they did their laundry and washed themselves. Incidently our laundry came back super clean and not smelling too much of river either !!! We were told by the security that the elephant would be along by 8.20 but at 8.30 we decided to give up and visit the big temple in Hampi anyway. On the way to the temple there was Lakshmi and her mahout starting the walk to the ghat for her bath. We followed her down the steep steps to the ghat and into the river where she stood to have a huge poo and wee just where some people were washing theselves. None of the people moved despite the flood of elephant wee into the water. The mahout then rode the elephant to the far bank for her wash so we didn't get a good view after two days of waiting. She is normally washed on the near bank of the River Tungabhadra so we would have had a good view but never mind. We went back to the guesthouse where we checked out and then popped for a drink before going out for the day with Raoul to see some more of Hampis temples. We travelled back up Hematuat Hill past the temples we'd already seen and stopped to see the Krishna Temple which we'd missed the day before. Next we stopped to see the biggest idol in Hampi, a 22 feet tall statue of Ugra Narasimha (Vishnu lionman incarnation) . The idol has a huge serpent behind its head with its hood open and really huge staring eyes. Next to this statue is a huge Shiva Lingum which is a sculpture seen in many Hindu temples that represents the phallus and the female uterus and reproductive system. We drove out of Hampi Bazaar through the festival showground where we stopped to take some pictures of the stage and scenery that had been used for the celebrations the few days before. Liz blamed us missing the festival on Phil as he'd taken so long to choose his man bag that we had arrived in Hampi too late. We had to go to Hospet train station to drop off our luggage for the day and we drove 10km through some lovely scenery and village life. There were many bullock carts around lots of people waving to us as we passed by. We pulled into the station left luggage "office" which stunk of the dried fish being transported by train. Phil wasn't too happy to leave the bags but we didn't have a lot of choice and kept all our paperwork with us so at least that was safe. After the usual loads of paperwork to fill in and leaving our bags relatively safe in the hands of the half soaked rail staff, we got on our way with Raoul for the days visits to three other temples. We started driving through the small town of Hospet and along a canal towpath which the autorickshaw used as a shortcut to avoid the national highway. The canal was lined with rice fields and coconut trees and was really quiet. As the canal wasn't a natural water way there were very few people using it and noone washing their clothes at all. We joined the national highway for a short distance but had to cross bumper to bumper trucks to get onto it. We saw the usual crazy bonkers manouvres on the road but fortunately Raoul was a safe driver. We passed several trucks with no front windows and many with no headlights, not that they are switched on half the time anyway. We were on the highway for about 20 kms and then thankfully left it for the safety of another road towards Anegundi. The road was pretty bad with potholes and was really lumpy as it was unsealed but at least there weren't any huge trucks bearing down on us. The first stop of the day was to see a temple to the God Durga where Raoul suggested we left our shoes in the rickshaw as there had been thefts there before. We then proceeded to walk thruogh the really mucky path and up the mucky steps to the temple where shoes aren't allowed. About half way up the steps we had to wash our feet but then had to climb more stairs to the temple itself. Needless to say all the muck then stuck to our feet and they were filthier than before we'd washed them...only in India would this be logical. Once at the top we saw the tiny temple building which only a couple of people could fit in. Inside it was a sadu tasking offerings from a small number of pilgrims who were there and taking them to the Durga idol inside. It is a famous temple as there are only a small number of Durga temples in India. Durga is a goddess who can help in times of extreme distress and is said to bring success. Phil and Raoul went to take a blessing from the sadu who gave them both a spoon of milk to take. Phil hoped the goddess would protest him from food poisoning. We went back down to the rickshaw and then drove through rice fields, coconut trees, granite rock crags and huge boulders and bright green fields, it was really scenic and beautiful. We arrived at our next stop, Gavi Ranganatha Temple, which is a temple of the Hindu God of wealth so very popular with the pilgrims and really busy. We had to take off our shoes again and walk across old bits of food, rubbish and streams of wee across the path from the wall which was obviously the local urinal...thankfully we have no open cuts !!! The temple was in the middle of nowhere, had taken quite a while to get to and we weren't allowed in. Even the Hindu pilgrims aren't allowed inside the temple as it is so holy. Next to the out of bounds temple was a huge tank filled with lotus flowers which was pretty nice though. We then drove along to the next temple called Hanuman or monkey Temple where we stopped for a drink. There are many Hanuman Langur monkeys and Bonnet Macaques there who were climbing all over the place . We bought a bag of bananas to feed them with on our way to the top 580 steps away and the lady from the shop gave us a bag of food to give to the holy men in the temple. We took a steady walk up the steep steps to the top stopping a few times to feed the monkeys who were all very gentle and not at all agressive. When we got near to the top we heard singing and music from inside the temple so we went to investigate and found a large group of people all singing Hari Khrishna songs. They were having a great time dancing and clapping along while others went inside the temple to pray and leave offerings to the Hanuman idol inside. They carried on for about ten minutes while we watched then packed up and left so we went inside the temple. Just inside the door a Sadu was lying on a bed and a couple more holy men were standing in attendence. We handed over the bag of food from the lady but the holyman didn't understand what we were saying. The sadu spoke from behind us and said thankyou to us and took the bag from the other man. We were invited in to see the Hanuman idol and then go clockwise round the statue in honour of Hanumans mother. We were about to leave when the Sadu asked us if we'd like tea which we accepted and sat on the floor in front of him as he'd gestured. People were coming in and bowing to him and looking thrilled to speak to him. He spoke really good English and it turned out we were having tea with probably the most important Sadu in India who lives at the temple all his life only leaving for festivals and visits to the sick. We spoke to him about the temple and Hanuman who had been born on the top of the temple hill millions of years before. There are 33 million Hindu Gods and Hanuman had been given the strength from the three most powerful ones so is very important. The sadu had been chosen to be the sadu at the temple and seemed very happy to be there. We left after about 20 minutes realising we had just had the equivalent of tea with the pope and felt very privileged to have had the experience. The sadu had told us to climb some rocks to look at the view which we did and were able to see across the lovely landscape below. We chatted to a couple there who were just starting their year off and were covering alot of places we have been so we gave them some advice, wether they wanted it or not. Liz then made the fatal error of getting out the bananas to feed some monkeys that were hanging around. Unfortunately they were pretty aggressive and one even grabbed Lizzies arm to get more so we all made a sharp exit back down the steps. We fed the nicer monkeys the rest of the bananas and met back up with Raoul who'd been napping in the rickshaw. We drove back towards Hospet where we were catching the train and Raoul pulled off the main road to take us to see a reservoir he'd not seen himself before. It was really pretty with hardly anyone there. A man was fishing in the lake in a coracle which was nice to see and Raoul took a few nice photos of the two of us there. We drove onto Hospet and stopped at a hotel for a meal with Raoul before catching the train. We went to the luggage store and picked up our dried fish flavour bags then met up with Raoul to pay him and say goodbye. He gave us both big hugs and left us on the platform to wait for the train. Eventually the train number and carriage positions came up on the platform so we had to relocate to the other end of the platform. The trains are all thirty or so carriages long so it was about quarter a mile walk. A huge freight train about a mile long pulled into the station and made a noise like an earthquake as it came to a stop. We sat waiting for our train and heard an announcement in Hindi which we didn't understand but were told that the train was one and a half hours late. Once the train arrived we boarded to find a family of three spread out all across the seats and filling all the luggage space leaving none for us and our loads of baggage. We climbed onto the upper beds which were ours and the man of the family said he would clear us some space. He then proceeded to get some food and start feeding his daughter and not moving anything leaving us squashed around our bags. Liz asked again for some room and then the couple both started clearing us some space so we could put our bags away for the journey. We got chatting to the family who were travelling Bangalore for the husbands conference and would be on the train for about 22 hours !!! The husband showed us a load of photos from around Jalsaimer where they lived which looked really nice and he had a PhD like Phil. The family then got out a load of homemade Indian foods and invited us to join them. We are having a great time blagging food from the locals and theirs was brilliant but it just kept coming. We were both really full as we'd eaten a meal already so Phil sneaked a few bits into a bag to get rid of later so we didn't offend them. Unfortuantely the bag split and the contents spilled out all over the bed (thankfully it was all dry stuff) but we don't think they saw. After eating we tried to settle for some sleep but the train seemed really bumpy so we didn't hold out much hope for any.

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