Hi everyone from Hampi and happy Divali/Eid! The transition from CMC Vellore haematology to full time tourist was achieved without too much difficulty. Hampi is justy so cool...This is my second day here and I already wish I had more time to spend here. Hampi is the site where the Vijayanagar Empire set its capital. At one time 500 years ago, they were a mighty power and ruled the whole of south india. Until that is the Islamic rulers from the north , using a distraction tactic, managed to conquer and destroy most of it, with an army of 10,000. The site remained in a state of relative abandon, except for the continued religious activities- one of the main temples here was built in the 7th century. Tourism has since taken over life in the village, after religion of course.
The countryside in which Hampi is set is what makes this place really awesome, unless of course you are a temple ruins fan-after a couple, they start getting a little monotonous, the worn figures of Ganesh, Vishnu in his various forms, Saraswati, Hanuman from centuries back become a little tiresome. The whole area is dotted with boulder-strewn hills- some boulders the size of a house...This is a climber's heaven! And through the middle suns a river. For the Vijayanagars, these hills all around and the river consisted a mighty obstacle for invaders.
The sunrises and sunsets are also fantastic, with the silhouettes of the old temples providing an exotic feel- I have so far missed none and woke up to climb the Matanga hill at 5.30am. The views were awesome. Later, I cycled aaround and crossed over to the other side of the river-only about 50m across. For those of you wondering how this was done, imagine a very very large and shallow jute fruit basket (called coracle) set afloat on a slow moving river with a single man an oar as implement to power forward- quite a thrilling experience, though surprisingly safe. The country across is lush and green with rice paddies, banana and coconut groves with the reddish boulders on the hills providing amazing contrast. I cycled up to the base of a hill on top of which was a temple devoted to Hanuman. This was monkey territory for sure- hoards of them! The top provided a 360 degree view like none other. Inside the temple, an old sage inside read the Ramayan in Hindi. They even offered to accommodate me. I almost felt like agreeing- the views were just too good and the cool breeze refreshing after the sweaty climb. I returned as the sun was setting, the coconut trees and rice paddies glowed with the setting sun as backdrop. The coracle guy was there- I was going to be his last customer and he had already set up fire for his evening dinner. I got back to the sounds of firecrackers and other firework displays. The main bazaar (there is only one main road and the whole village is about 500m long) was bustling with locals and tourists. The temple was the main focus of activities at this time- the evening dharshan was ongoing. All in all, an amazing day in an amazing place! Tomorrow, I have another whole day here and then set off to Hyderabad, where Eid celbrations should be in full swing.