The drive from Hospet to Hampi was just what I wanted to see. Through rural village India where families live in small communities with their livestock and the children are smartly dressed heading off to school on bicycles or auto rickshaws. Hampi is a remarkable place and It is like nowhere I have ever visited before. Various dynasties ruled the Vijayanagara empire from 1336 to 1565 when the area was overrun by the Muslims of South India. It is a landscape of millions of boulders together with palm trees, leafy banana groves and paddy fields and it is very silent where you feel completely cut off from the modern world. Travellers visit here for a few days and often stay for weeks or even months. Late afternoon, we walked up the hill where Hanuman (the monkey God) was reputedly born and where his temple has great importance. I stayed to watch the sunset - India eternal, timeless, mystical and wonderful.