So far we have been perfectly on time with our scheduled trains and buses, usually having time to kill once we arrive at the station. The overnight train from Bangalore was our first hiccup. We had heard all about the nightmarish traffic in Bangalore, but hadn’t really experienced it ourselves. Of course on the way to catch our train it hit us. I was bribing my taxi driver with a double fare if he could go as fast as possible and he was more than willing to help, running the occasional red light and swerving between the traffic. As I had gone back to our accommodation to grab our bags, Alice caught a scooter taxi and she was able to squeeze through the traffic much easier than I was in a tuk tuk. Safe to say this taxi ride was the most stressful experience we’ve had so far on the road, and we caught some terrifying buses in Sri Lanka 😅
By some miracle we both arrived in one piece at the train station with minutes to spare, and after paying our driver a double fare we literally ran all the way up the stairs and over platforms 1-8. We were both completely out of breath and dripping with sweat. As we boarded the train it started moving, and we collapsed on to a seat to catch our breath in disbelief that we had even made it. Unfortunately we had boarded in completely the wrong cabin, and had to walk between about 10 cabins before we reached our allocated seats.
From now on, we will be giving ourselves a bit more of a buffer to get to train stations as this whole experience truly sucked.
We added Hampi to our itinerary last minute as we had heard it was amazing from a few people, but we hadn’t really researched the place in detail. We knew it was an amazing place famous for ancient monuments carved from stone, particularly a stone chariot seen on the Indian fifty rupee note. We also knew it would be HOT. The temperature while we were here ranged from lows of 25°c to highs of 39°c. To be honest we struggled with the heat here, and it made me a little concerned about Ragistan where the temperature will be more than 40°c. We spent the afternoons hiding from the sun as the heat of the day writing blog posts and reading our books. The heat made us very sleepy so afternoon naps were also a common occurence. It was nicest in the mornings and evenings when the temperature was more bearable, and the sunsets here were magical.
The landscape here is surreal and unlike anywhere I’ve been before. It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, searching for treasure in forgotten ruins from an ancient civilisation. Hampi town where we were staying was nestled between a large sacred river, an ancient hindu temple, and stone cut ruins. The surrounding landscape was with hills covered by huge boulders from which many temples and carvings had been cut. Literally every direction you look you will see ruins and carvings of Hindu god's. During it’s golden era around 1500 AD Hampi is now estimated to be the worlds second largest city at the time after Bejing, and the richest in India. We walked down long lanes of stone buildings which were once bustling marketplaces where pearls, gold, diamond, silver, and other precious metals were sold by the kilogram.
We enjoyed imagining what life would have been like here at the time, imagining the life of a princess of the ruling Vijayanagara Empire, when the ruins of today were not ruins but grand temples and royal palaces. Alice even asked ChatGPT to generate a short story for her about the life of a consort to the princess at the elephant stables, and it was surprisingly accurate with it’s descriptions. What we would give to be able to go back in time for a day and walk through the bustling markets where rich traders from Africa, Arabia, the Red sea, China and Bengal sold their precious goods.
On our last night here we had a night bus to catch. Before this we decided to walk up the nearby Mathanga Hill for sunset. This was an easy 30 minute walk and clamber up giant boulders with steps carved into them. Hampi is supposedly the birthplace of the Hindu god Hanuman, the lord of monkeys. It is easy to see why, as Hampi is home to many thousands of monkeys. For those who know I have an irrational fear of many-legged creatures, and this walk was teeming with giant millipedes. Usually I don’t mind them as much as centipedes but they were big and there were loads of them crawling around on the rocks. Along with the gross millipedes, there were monkeys, lizards, and birds all around us. It felt like everywhere we looked there was a living creature. At the summit was Veerbhadra temple, a tiny temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. From the roof of this temple we watched as the sun slipped down over the horizon of rocky hills and ancient ruins, casting a beautiful red glow over the landscape.
I’m very glad we decided to add Hampi to our itinerary, it’s a place unlike any other. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history and unique scenery. I could ramble on about the history of this place but I would talk forever so I will wrap it up here. From the arid and rocky desert landscapes of Hampi we are heading back to the beaches for maybe the last time in a long while. We had heard mixed reviews of Goa, particularly advising us to avoid central Goa. So our plan is to head to the more relaxed southern part of Goa for a few days and then spend a few days in the northern part of Goa partying with our Indian friend Akshay who we met in Wayanad. We were both very ready to relax on the beach, read our books, and do lots of yoga!!