What a truly wonderful and magical place this small town in the middle of nowhere is. Hampi is the birthplace and spiritual home of several Hindu Gods and is surrounded by the planest largest 'world heritage site'. It is situated within the ruins of the capital of the Vijayanagara empire and contains hundreds of structures and temples that are an absolute pleasure to behold.

The first morning however was marred by the fact that I had allowed Tom to take charge of booking the hostel. He had taken the time to select a place with wonderful reviews and a fairly reasonable price. He had, nevertheless, forgotten to check the location of said hostel. It turned out it was at the other side of the river, which due to monsoon season could not be crossed by water. With the nearest bridge 30km away it became quickly apparent that this was not one of his better moves. Tired and frustrated we decided to cut our losses and instead of making the two hour round trip to Hampi bazaar every day we got a guest house above a local cafe.

After a couple of masala chais (local tea flavoured with cardamon, cinnoman and ginger) and some breakfast we were feeling more optomistic and headed out to see some of the temples. We spent all day hopping from place to place and seeing a whole manner of wonderful structures amongst the boulder-ridden landscape. From some of the highest points in the area the view was nothing short of spectacular. The rocky terrain was splashed with the green of coconut and banana plantations, a swaying sea within the fields of rice paddy's and all the while was specled with the glow of temples and towers both little and large that layered the landscape carved out by the Tungabhadra river.

After a lot of walking and sightseeing we headed to a restaurant for some feeds. We had a wonderful meal and chatted to some of the locals who offered to show us around the other side of the river the next day. We duley accepted and the next morning we hired a couple of bikes and chugged our way to the 'monkey temple' around 60km away. We arrived and climbed the 600 steps to the summit of the mountain whilst being pestered by a host of monkeys after a cheap feed. We saw the temple, watched the daily prayers and saw the ritual singing that has gone on 24/7 for over 200 years. The holy men of the temple take 2 hour 'shifts' to sing, chant and pray to the Gods, particularly Hanuman who was believed to have being born at this site. The real spectacle however was the view at the other side of the temple. We climbed over huge boulders to reach a rocky outcrop that had a terrain that far eclipsed even what we had seen the day before. Simply undescribable.

We then got back on the bikes and headed to a freshwater lake to jump off some rocks and have a swim before heading back into Hampi for some eat and a few games of cards with the guys at the restaurant. Exhausted after the couple of days we headed for an early night. This seemed like a good idea until we got to the room and realised we were bored. Out came the cards, the iPod and innevitably a bottle of£2 whiskey. The early night at 10pm suddenly became 4am and after several drinking games, backwards conversations and a drunken misunderstanding between our anti-malarials and a sleeping tablet, we crashed out.

This aforementioned misunderstanding did have some consequences. For starters the 9.30 checkout time was inevitably missed by some distance which meant we had to pay for an additional half days board, this actually worked in our favour because it meant we could leave our bags safely locked away for the day. After sunbathing on the rooftop terrace, a massage and a quick workout in the room (yes, I have been that sad and forced out a few pressups and the like every few days or so) it was pretty much time to set off again. Really gunna miss Hampi, a wonderfully friendly, relaxed and beautiful place that I fear I will never see again. The town in being entirely deconstructed and moved to a new settlement 3km away at the request of UNESCO and the Karnaka government to help preserve the ruins of the old city. Although the new settlement is likely to retain some of the charm of the old one, I fear that not having the immediate backdrop of the ruins of Vijayanagara may make it somewhat less of an attraction.

If you get chance, go while you still can. So we're currently in Margoa after an 11hour bus, then another 1 hour bus and now waiting around until 10pm tonight when we get a 22 hour, non-air-conditioned train to Thiruvananthapuram (try saying that fast three times).

Funsies!!