Tonight we go to Hampi. The night bus was meant to be leaving at 8pm and arriving at 6am. We actually left on time! Our 'cabin' was at the very back of the bus and consisted of two chairs that laid right back and made beds and a curtain around us. We only took one small rucksack so that stayed with us. Pooja had made us a packed lunch, well she had ordered it from the kitchen any way. It consisted of Pooja pakoras, onion bagees and spring rolls. It was all packed in the kind of metal trays you get Indian take aways in back home so it was reasonably warm even when we were munching on it late at night. The bus pulled away and we thought we'd settle in for a nice lying down ride but being right at the back was a problem, the first set of rumble strips had us catapulted right out of our seats! We crashed back down on them and couldn't stop laughing for ages, but it wasn't so much fun after 10 hours and still no Hampi. We stopped at several services on the way for loo breaks and so peole could buy snacks, one of which had a power cut just as we arrived. Luckily a nice French girl leant me her torch-on-a-head-band thingy - glad she did as hole in the ground loos in pitch black are not fun. We tried to talk for a few hours so we would sleep but ended up being so highly bounced that we only grabbed a few hours here and there. At least we could chat and plan what to do when we arrived. Finally at nearly 10am we pulled into Hampi bus station where we were accosted by large numbers of tuk tuk drivers all saying they knew the best temples/guest houses/ restaurants etc. Vincent not being in a very good mood after all the bouncing and not sleeping cut a path through them with a glare that deterred all but one. Thank goodness we had been looking out the window and had spotted our guest house was only 200m from the bus so we didn't get into a cab unnecessarily. The guest house was recommended in Lonely Planet and had been booked the previous day by Manisha. It was called Padma guest house and Padma herself was there to greet us saying she had been waiting for us. The room was 'temple view' but as you will see from the photos it was more 'tree obscuring temple view'. There was a mosquito net which proved very useful and quite romantic looking. We decided to shower and get on with the tours and we only has Wednesday and Thursday to look around and it was already getting to be half way through Wednesday. Padma asked if we wanted hot water so we said yes, and she arrived a few moments after at the room with a bucket of boiling water! The shower was only cold so we tried to learn how to wash Indian style with a large bucket and measuring jug. This also caused much laughter and not much cleaning as there was no soap! The room was clean and had a bed, chair, broken sofa with 3 legs and ceiling fan so it wasn't bad. We were given a free breakfast and I was pleased to find the orange juice was lovely and the French toast was actually French toast!The first temple we went to was the one we could see from our room. It was the largest and reputedly had elephants inside. It was built in honour of Shiva (You like it? You don't like it, I'll put it in the garage!) We went inside after many photos and found it to be a huge stone structure with many other smaller stone structures inside. After leaving our shoes (a con in fact as when we came out they charged us 2rs to get our shoes back!!) We rushed off to meet Lackshmee the elephant first as she was off to a procession in the village, I had enough time to snap a couple of pics but it as clear she was off and stopping for no one so I wasn't going to get in the way. The next thing we noticed aside from the magnificent stone building was a couple of monkeys. Desperate to get pictures we legged it over and snapped some distance views of monkeys, but we found out a few moments later there was no rush, the place was filled with monkeys and they came right up to you, especially if they thought you had a banana! There was a mummy monkey with her baby holding on to her stomach, a monkey who had stolen someone's t shirt and various monkey battles raging all right inside the temple. We ended up with a guide even though we weren't really bothered and he told us all sorts of facts about how old the buildings were and which gods they were dedicated to. The problem was that there are 100s of Hindu gods and each one has several incarnations. It as all a bit too confusing although I was able to get a blessing from Parvati the god (goddess?) of truth, which involved passing my hand over a flame then having red dye painted on my forehead and of course the obligatory rupee or two in the collection pot. We went further into the temple and found some rather cute puppies so we stopped to play, our guide was slightly put out we wanted to play with puppies rather than gaze at the scum filled 'holy pond'. A comedy moment happened on the way back through when our guide nearly lost his wrap around skirt to a cheeky monkey who was cross he had no bananas.After that temple we decided to go on to the other large temple called Vitthala temple. We got a rickshaw after a quick wander through the bazaar and after being bumped up and down for about 20 minutes we arrived at the top of a hill. The stones around Hampi are amazing. There are huge rocks scattered all over the place like they've been rolled there playing marbles - but they are about 100m in diameter. Two of them had come to rest in a very precarious looking way at the side of the road just leaning on each other looking like the slightest touch would send them rolling off. The legend was that they were two sisters who had come to Hampi a very long time ago and decided to see the temples but because there were no methods of transport except walking after seeing a few temples they sat down and started to moan. Shiva the overall god of the area heard them and got annoyed so he turned them to stone! The rocks are apparently very secure and wont roll away, in fact the gypsy community of Hampi actually lives under some really unstable looking rock structures and apparently have done for an very long time with none falling on their heads.

We were left pretty much to our own devices at the second temple. There were only a few other people there and our rickshaw driver said he'd hang round for half an hour. The sun was blazing and we were right on top of a hill so we pottered around taking photos and spotting bright green parrots flying around (no pics yet though) it was nice not to have any pressure from touts or guides and we took lots of photos for the blog. After half an hour we decided that due to the heat, the lack of sleep on the tour bus and the general craziness we would take a nap….