On the morning we were due to set off for Hampi, we met a Italian lad, Chis, who looked distinctly german, and as it turned out, spoke german. Sudtirol is a little region that in the alps that has changed hands a couple of times apparently. Anyway, Chris gave us a bit of European culture to add to our experience too. In typical Harrison holiday style, there was a bit of a drama which came good in the end...Halfway to the train station, Stacey realised she had left her travel pillow in Arambol. After a lot of rushing and a sweating, we made it back and to the station on time with the pillow only to find that the train was delayed by over an hour. Frisbee time.

We spent a night in the capital of Goa, Madgaon, which is a civilised but pretty non-descript town. More Anglo-German/Sudtiroli negotiations were held and we were all much more enlightened about the experiences of youth in our respective countries.

The following morning we grabbed the day train to Hospet (the nearest station town to Hampi). On the way making a few new friends. Analise and Victor from Belgium who are living in Delhi and on a short break, and also an Indian yoga teacher Krishna, who was more like a caricature of laughing yoga in a hippy waistcoat than your sterotypical Zen spititual teacher.

We decided to stay on the other side of the river from Hampi (in Viru) as the accommodation is cheaper and more importantly there was beer. After getting settled in to the hotel we took a wander down to see about crossing the river. We were at this point oblivous to the fact that the river crossings stop at 6pm and it was then nearly 7pm, but also that there was a burst pipe sprinkling water everywhere turning the whole "docking' area" into a boggy marsh. 10 minutes and 4 muddy feet later, we retreated up to the nearest bar on our side of the river. We were not finished with water yet that day though as, when taking a trip to the loo to rinse off our feet, Stace managed to break the tap off leaving a gushing pipe on the wall and Brett to get sprayed while performing his manly duties of repairing his wife's damage, which of cause he did and left it in an equally bodged condition as we found it.

Pictures tell a thousand words, so rather than describing in lengthy detail all of our activities in Hampi, have flick through the album to get an idea of the scale of the 7 boulder hills that surround Hampi.

Within one of the several hundred temples in Hampi, one houses the only elephant left - Lakshmi - who, for 10 rupees (pence) will flop her trunk on your head in a blessing gesture.

We took a cycle tour with a mix of people from all over the world, including a really nice Canadian couple - Nicola and Jeff - who we spent some time with after dinner that night. Unfortunately for Stacey, while on the bike tour, perhaps 30 minutes in, she had a flat tyre and ended up having to complete the rest of the trip on back of the tour guide's bike.

The following day we met up with Stace's friend from her Africa days, Jen (& her friend Beth) and after a dinner watching the sunset on Hampi, traveled together to Hospet to catch the overnight train to Bangalore.