Humps of rock in Hampi
Hospet is the nearest station to Hampi. Like platform 9 3/4, Hospet is the entrance to parallel universe.
First is the crossing of the river, a slowly meandering boulder strewn river. The temple elephant was having his daily bath and scrub in the river so the "ferry" had to wait. Choice of ferries was a small launch with outboard or a corracle. These are woven from coconut palms covered in canvas and tarred. Perfectly circular they are about 4 foot diameter and a foot deep. Either way took the same length of time but the spinning motion of the corracle looked sickening.
The landscape is absolutely extraordinary. Huge boulder clumps not apparently made of a single piece of rock but of random jumbles of giant house sized and bigger rocks. These huge rock piles, hundreds of feet high are scattered like by a furious child amid the intense green of rice paddies.
Overnight train to Hospet, this time the AC in the section we were in was less than adequate, very less...The beds are arranged three tier each side across the train and two tier across the aisle along the length. They supply reliably clean sheets in brown paper bags, clean pillow cases and blankets. Usually the blankets are not required which is ok as they may not be so reliably clean. Certainly they weren't this time, it was a hot and sweaty night. So we arrived as usual sticky and dishevelled especially compared to our fellow Indian passengers looking cool and gorgeous as always in their fabulous sarees, and the men in their well pressed shirts and tidy hair.
Hospet is the nearest station to Hampi. Like platform 9 3/4, Hospet is the entrance to parallel universe.First is the crossing of the river, a slowly meandering boulder strewn river. The temple elephant was having his daily bath and scrub in the river so the "ferry" had to wait. Choice of ferries was a small launch with outboard or a corracle. These are woven from coconut palms covered in canvas and tarred. Perfectly circular they are about 4 foot diameter and a foot deep. Either way took the same length of time but the spinning motion of the corracle looked sickening.
Hampi-across-the-river is almost an island and really at this stage just a hippie hangout. Lots of dreadlocks and people sitting around in lotus pose looking medatitive, or perhaps medicated. It was a very relaxing place for all that and though it was entirely populated by tourists it was lovely to be out in the country for two days. Our bedroom was a circular adobe hut with palm roof and swinging bed on the porch.
We all took off on bicycles for a circumnavigation of one of these hills. Thankfully it was largely flat in the lowlands as we are spoilt with gears on our bikes at home. On top of the highest of these humps is, predictably, a temple. So having refreshed ourselves with coconut juice we climbed the hundreds of steps to watch the sunset.
In Mysore we had climbed the 1000 steps to the temple there at sunrise and been horrified at how out of shape we were after 6 weeks of virtually no exertion at all. It felt like this was another 1000 steps at least and our fitness level was still pathetic , but all the puffing and panting was well rewarded by the amazing panoramic views from the top and the glorious sunset. The temple monkeys were abundant as usual and these ones were a bit aggressive too, they stole one of our sunglasses to add to their stash.....
Hampi was once a thriving city state of 500,000 people until it was razed in 1565. What remain now are the most extraordinary ruins spread out over a very large area now a UNESCO world heritage site. There was a huge aquaduct the remains of which appear at various places for miles around and which finally emptied into a stepped well/cistern. But the oddest part was that many of the ruins, built directly without foundation onto (sloping) bedrock looked like they had been transported straight from Athens.
Like a series of Acropolis. Despite the fact that elsewhere on the site the buildings were obviously of modern design built in the 14th century mainly, these "Acropolis" are architecturally ancient and lacking any of the magnificent ornamentation found all over the site. The contrast is bizarre.
To see the various parts of the site we travelled between them in tuktuks. Our driver was the skinniest man I have ever seen. Lots of Indians are thin but, unusually, this guy seemed weak too. The people are beautiful, they are flexible and fit and have amazing posture. Admittedly it is very difficult to guess their ages and many of them, women especially are tiny, reaching barely as high as a 10yr old Canadian. Yet they move so gracefully, carry huge loads on their heads (women often do all the moving labour, rocks, cement, water etc in baskets on their heads), sweep the floor with brooms that have no handles ( would kill our backs), and sit crossed legged for most of the time, and they all have good, if often crooked, teeth. The colours of the clothing were always glorious and made us feel so drab.
In Mysore we had climbed the 1000 steps to the temple there at sunrise and been horrified at how out of shape we were after 6 weeks of virtually no exertion at all. It felt like this was another 1000 steps at least and our fitness level was still pathetic , but all the puffing and panting was well rewarded by the amazing panoramic views from the top and the glorious sunset. The temple monkeys were abundant as usual and these ones were a bit aggressive too, they stole one of our sunglasses to add to their stash.....
The glory of the sunset was worth the fact that we now had to negotiate the descent in semi-darkness and find our way back to the hotel without falling off the bikes on the rough and pot-holey road. A good supply of Kingfisher Beer and good food soon calmed us. As did the new moon. Unlike the new moon at our more northern latitudes which looks like this ) the new moon closer to the equator looks like the bottom of a circle or a bowl. At first we thought we were seeing things....
Hampi was once a thriving city state of 500,000 people until it was razed in 1565. What remain now are the most extraordinary ruins spread out over a very large area now a UNESCO world heritage site. There was a huge aquaduct the remains of which appear at various places for miles around and which finally emptied into a stepped well/cistern. But the oddest part was that many of the ruins, built directly without foundation onto (sloping) bedrock looked like they had been transported straight from Athens.
Like a series of Acropolis. Despite the fact that elsewhere on the site the buildings were obviously of modern design built in the 14th century mainly, these "Acropolis" are architecturally ancient and lacking any of the magnificent ornamentation found all over the site. The contrast is bizarre.
To see the various parts of the site we travelled between them in tuktuks. Our driver was the skinniest man I have ever seen. Lots of Indians are thin but, unusually, this guy seemed weak too. The people are beautiful, they are flexible and fit and have amazing posture. Admittedly it is very difficult to guess their ages and many of them, women especially are tiny, reaching barely as high as a 10yr old Canadian. Yet they move so gracefully, carry huge loads on their heads (women often do all the moving labour, rocks, cement, water etc in baskets on their heads), sweep the floor with brooms that have no handles ( would kill our backs), and sit crossed legged for most of the time, and they all have good, if often crooked, teeth. The colours of the clothing were always glorious and made us feel so drab.
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| Such colourful beverages |
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| our bedroom hut |
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| Acropolis |
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