Blog 102

Happy anniversary Jo! Happy anniversary 246 Indian men on a train! Waking up groggily on a restless night on the sleeper train we were bombarded with a stream of men asking "coming from?" "How long in India?" "Going too?" With no variation you can imagine it got pretty tiresome, especially when each of them wanted a photo with us.

We eventually got a chance to wish each other a happy anniversary and started eating our pomegranate breakfast with an ultra sweet shot of masala chai tea from a train seller.

So off the train and the mission to find accommodation in the hampi heat was eventually successful and we settled into our hammock looking over the Tungabhadra river.

Train to rickshaw, rickshaw to boat, boat to feet, feet to hammock...

The Hampi terrain is like nothing either of us had seen before. A flat deserty expanse of red sand peppered with soaring boulders stacked atop of one another. With many oldy worldy crumbling temples to explore we found our usual mode of temple-exploring transport and set off for a rather squeaky, clunky and pretty uncomfortable bike ride to find the first one. The heat that day was ferocious, and temples being temples, dress code was long trousers, covered shoulders and a sarong for the more prudish temples. The down hills between the temples were bliss as even OUR rickety bikes whizzed down the breeze cooled us for a moment.

Favourite temples included a stable for the maharaja's elephants and a pitch black underground temple filled knee deep in water with bats flying at you! Exciting!!! Other than temple watching in this slept little town, we did an Ashtanga yoga courses amongst the ruins (pesky flies), ate lots of lovely food at Mango Tree, got back on top of our laundry situation (not paid to have it done for us since Malacca in early August), Bryn enjoyed his first good, non sugar lased coffee since New Zealand, and enjoyed an anniversary facial and massage (prompted by Bryn (what a winner!))

Sadly the Hampi heat stopped us from getting rock climbing boots and a bouldering mat out for a day or two, but just chilling and soaking up the village atmosphere and history was enough entertainment to make it more than worthwhile. 2 nights soon turned into 4.

Possible cheapest day travelling here too! £17.75 between us. Thats £8.87 each for a full day including accommodation, food and drink, sights and even a £5 deposit for a largish bag! Generally our budget is £30, so major brownie points for that day!

Sleeper bus this time on towards goa.

Love Jo x