Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

The plan was to take a sleeper bus from Bangalore to Hospet, our jumping off point for the ruins around Hampi. That worked until 10 km from our destination when we ran into a formidable traffic jam. A small cargo truck had overturned on the "highway" (a term used somewhat loosely in India to refer to any road with a lane line - in this case a two lane road with no curb or shoulder) and stopped traffic completely. After three hours and no progress we set out on our own. Well not completely on our own: we hopped on the back of a tuk-truck (motorcycle engine powering a front seat and small flatbed) along with ten locals and headed off the main road. We dropped off most of our passengers in a small village and then went off-roading, parallel to the highway through a dried lake bed. This was my view:
Incidentally, that's Aaron's mosquito zapper on the right side of this shot. The best three dollars we've spent.

At one point when the tuk-truck could no longer make it over some particularly tough terrain was, our driver hopped off his seat (which he had been sharing with Aaron) and collected some rocks to patch together a short stretch of road. Seriously. Eventually we cut back to the main road ahead of the accident and made it into town. It was well worth the trouble.



The temples and palaces stretch out over more than a 10 km radius. At the remains of Virapakshu Temple an elephant blessed Aaron with a snuffle on the head.


At the Nandi monolith we had our first serious Indian monkey sighting.

And in the old Bazaar we saw families, livestock, and souvenir shops all housed in the ruins themselves (despite conservationists' best efforts to remove them, apparently).



Most of the other visitors to Hampi were Hindu pilgrims. They all wanted pictures with me. Pants, pale skin, (relatively) blond hair - I'm a huge hit, albeit an awkward one. Children think I'm hilarious and get super excited if their hellos elicit a response. Women openly stare (mostly with curiosity I think, but sometimes it's a form of begging as well). And men shuffle around until they work up the nerve to ask to take a picture. Often we pose for a group shot and then individual portraits. Aaron's started threatening to charge a fee.

This is as good a time as any to point out how much taller I am than the other women here. I first noticed this in Mumbai at a crowded temple where visitors were divided my gender and I towered above everyone else in my queue. Aaron is also a giant among the men:)

Because the temples are still holy sights for many visiting Hindus, we saw many people bathing in the ghats there. Others made offerings of flowers, money, and food at the temples. The custodians wasted little time collecting these items:


At the Royal Center we saw the Lotus Mahal (dancing platform of the queen) and Elephant Stables:

Vitalla Temple is the best-preserved of the whole collection. The carved stone columns are hollow and act as chimes when tapped. The site includes this scale model of an elephant chariot:


All in all we really loved Hampi. Our time there was full of remarkable scenery, interesting sights, and decidedly foreign culture.

However, on our last afternoon we witnessed two sobering episodes. First, we saw local police allow a crowd to beat an Indian tourist who had either (we heard differing accounts) worn shoes or consumed alcohol on holy ground. Shortly thereafter, we saw a partially-completed suspension bridge which had collapsed four days early with some 80 laborers lost in the rubble. There was no rescue effort to speak of, just some police presence and some rubber-necking. So ... yea.

xoxo Jessie