Hampi

I got here in the end! And I'm really, really glad I did, this place is amazing and I've met some really good people.

I was expecting a nightmareish bus journey from Bangalore but it turned out to be absolutely fine. I slept most of the way and it only took 6 hours instead of the advertised 8. The quick journey time meant I arrived at Hospet (where the bus station is located) at 5 am. Ouch! I struck up a conversation with Katie an American and Riz an Indian, friends who met at college in the US. We squeezed ourselves into one rickshaw and headed for Hampi together.

I picked a guesthouse from the Lonely Planet and it turned out to be a good choice. We arrived before dawn and ate breakfast on the rooftop, watching the sunrise over our jawdroppingly beautiful surroundings. The landscape is almost indescribable. Ancient ruins and temples are interspersed with giant boulders naturally piled into eerily artistic formations. I wondered for a moment if I'd managed to miss the interstellar warp drive fitted to the Bangalore bus.

I was brought back down to Earth as the sun started to rise over the rockpile mountains and the village around us woke up. Seeing the sunrise as we ate scrambled eggs and drank chai filled me with a small sense of achievement at starting the day so early. Katie and Riz were only in town for the day so, with 49 sq km of ruins to cover, we set off to explore straight away.

The logical first stop was the main temple in the centre of Hampi Bazaar. It towers over everything around and it's image that appears on a million postcards. At over 500 years old it is not ancient compared to much European architecture, but in many ways it's equally impressive. And unlike historically important European buildings it is not treated as a relic. Instead it is still the centre of town-life, even housing the local police station! We wandered aimlessly, received a blessing from a priest and fed the temple monkeys, who looked ominously angry when the cashew's went back in my pocket.

On leaving the temple it was tough to decide what to do next as Hampi is literally filled with tourist 'must-see's'. We wandered up a hill of smooth granite, which I think is perhaps where much of the rock has been cut from. The hill was dotted with smaller and older places of worship that looked like mini-parthenons. The view from the top of the hill was spectacular. The whole of Hampi Bazaar was visible, as was a series of large and important monoliths spread out among the forest of banana trees.

We clambered through rocks down dusty slopes and over artefacts before reaching the road to the next group of ruins - the Royal Centre. Since it was still before 10 am the decision to walk the 2 - 3 km seemed a good one. In hindsight paying 50p each for a rikshaw tour might have been a better one. The 3 km seemed like a conservative estimate, especially as the day heated up, our feet started to drag and our brisk walk became a lumbering march. Around lunchtime after a good five hours of sightseeing we decided we were 'templed-out' or 'ruined'. It was then a flaw in our plan revealed itself - we were in the middle of nowhere with no rickshaw's and had yet to walk back.

Fortunately a kind Danish girl took pity on us and let us in her rickshaw. She turned out to be a wealth of knowledge and recommended a nice cafe in which to spend the heat of the afternoon. We headed over for veg thali and fruit juices in the picturesque surroundings of 'The Mango Tree'. The stepped cafe terrace overlooks the river valley, which combined with the piles of boulders in the distance made it reminiscent of a scene from Jurassic Park. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent in a state of exhausted relaxation before it was time to say goodbye all too quickly.

The next day continued in much the same vein as the previous afternoon. I rented a bike around 11.30 intending to see some more ruins but its just getting too hot now to do anything in the middle of the day. Instead I used it to cycle to The Mango Tree where I bumped into Jeni the good samaritan Dane and Peter, a Swede I'd met the previous night. After I said "I'll just stay for another half hour" for the 5th time I resigned myself to the fact that I was unlikely to be seeing any more ruins! I'd seen plenty the previous day though, including all the important stuff and its impossible to see everything unless you stay for a week or more.

After dinner and an earlyish night I was speeding in a rickshaw towards the train station once again. I was headed for the place that spawned my love affair with India, I was headed back to Goa...