Hampi is an open-air museum

As if it’s not bad enough that the roads are uneven, now they’re painting them. Why?

“What’s that you’re painting on the street,” we asked a woman who was painting a brown liquid over the dirt.

Bum-sore from riding around Hampi and its open-air museum

“It’s cow shit,” said an onlooker.

But after celebrating the New Year, we returned to our accommodation to find brightly coloured patterns and greetings.

Hampi’s a strange place, an open-air museum surrounded by boulders. It’s an open air museum, a vast area littered with the remains of ancient temples, towers and cities.

Within a few years after the arrival of Alla-Udin-Khiliji, in the kingdom of Yadavagiri, in the year 1296, the entire southern India was ravaged by invaders.

Indian culture and religion were endangered by the foreign invasion. At this juncture, people united to protect themselves, their religion and culture.

It was against this backdrop that Vijayanagar was founded, and it flourished for more than two hundred years.

To get to Hampi we made our way to the one-horse town of Hostet, a four-and-a-half-hour journey from Badami.

When we arrived we found that there was a strike and there were no buses. Sugarcane farmers were protesting against the failure of the Indian Sugar Refineries to pay their dues for cane supplied during 2006/07.

The day before we arrived, movement of buses was minimal, in support of the farmer’s action. Shops and businesses were closed, as well as theatres, hotels, restaurants, banks, educational institutions and offices.

We exhaustively negotiated a fare for the 12km journey to Hampi, only to be caught in a traffic jam of vehicles waiting to cross a railway line.

A persuasive rickshaw driver took over from the previous one and we were once again on our way.

Breaking every driving rule in the book, he manoeuvred between every conceivable mode of transport. But this is India where we saw no traffic officers and very few accidents or breakdowns, and certainly no road rage.

On the way to Hampi we passed a small ancient dam called Kamalapuram Tank.

There’s lots of water in the area with irrigation channels and Hampi Village lying on the banks of the Thungabadra River.

If it wasn’t for tourism Hampi Bazaar wouldn’t exist. Thankfully the area is closed off to large vehicles and only rickshaws, bicycles and cows are allowed in the narrow lanes.

The small town is filled with backpacker’s accommodation, restaurants, internet shops, clothing stalls and small convenience stores.

And above all of this towers the 50m high, 11-storey, Virupaksha Temple.

After viewing a number of accommodation options, we settled on a dreadful place - mosquito haven. With a bucket shower and my being woken to what I thought was the dog scratching at the door, it was probably a rat inside my bed.

After the past few hectic days we relaxed and wandered through narrow lanes, watching Indian life. People cleaned their teeth in the drains and made guttural throat-clearing sounds, something that Indian people find quite normal, men and women.

As we walked we were constantly hassled: “do you want a room?” “Come into my shop.”

Eventually, we made our way to the shore of the Thungabadra River. Sadly, it’s littered with garbage, made worse by someone throwing a fresh batch on the mound.

A small motor-boat continuously ferries people from one side of the river to the other.

We’d heard that the accommodation on the opposite bank is popular with Israeli travellers and is commonly known as the “West Bank”. Israelis apparently prefer to stay there because liquor is available.

Across the river are slopes covered with round boulders, orange from the glow of the setting sun and varying in size, but mostly huge.

We were devastated to learn that because Hampi Bazaar is a holy site, liquor is not allowed to be sold here. And we planned to be here for New Year’s Eve.

By coincidence we found a restaurant that not only served delicious food but also illegal beers. Our waitress served the beers under the table, all the time watching the lane for “beer police”.

Later we talked to our hostel owner who told us that he could arrange beer for us for the next evening.

Next day, as the sun set, we waited impatiently for him to arrive with our beers. He must have gone to Hospet for them but eventually arrived and opened them, under the table.

All the time his wife looked out for the police. Despite this we enjoyed every drop of our elicit beers.

On our first evening we climbed Hemakaku Hill, above Hampi Bazaar and covered with ruins, to watch the sunset over the boulder-strewn terrain and to get our bearings.

Many others had the same idea but it didn’t matter because the area is so vast.

Sunday December 30. Despite the heat we decided to have another chill-out day, although we decided to explore the area and see if we could cross the river.

We had read in the guidebook about ‘the cute Lakshmi’ at Virupaksha Temple, the goddess of wealth. She bestows a blessing on visitors.

Little did I know that I would become very fond of Lakshmi.

Entering Virupaksha Temple along with a crowd, we entered the main courtyard. Here we were confronted by a cute elephant, Lakshmi, the happiest elephant I’ve ever come across.

After watching her for a while I realised that it was she who was bestowing blessings on the visitor’s.

In for a penny, although in this case, in for a Rupee. I was soon offering her a coin, which she accepted with her wet trunk which she then rested on my head.

“A blessing for good life,” said her mahout (guardian).

People offered her coconut, which she cleverly smashed on the ground to separate the flesh from the shell. The crowd also offered whole bananas, which she devoured, stalk and all.

Moving on we entered the temple, a confusion of different gods with people offering coconut, flowers, incense and money from baskets purchased at the entrance.

In the evening we met Liz and Richard, a British couple from Croydon who had been travelling through the southern Kerala area, a place that I would love to explore.

Monday 31 December. We woke early to watch Lakshmi being washed in the Thungabadra River.

The place was alive with activity. White cattle came to the waters’ edge on the opposite bank. Men washed themselves and their children. Along the jetty women splashed and squealed as they washed themselves. An oracle, fishing vessel, manoeuvred the rapids as searching for fish.

Meanwhile, Lakshmi really looked as if she was enjoying being washed and scrubbed by her mahout. Afterwards she sprayed him with water and blessed a bather and then sprayed herself.

We hired bicycles for the day and followed the riverbank in search of sites, but this was not a good idea as the path was rough with uneven blocks of rock.

As we pushed our bicycles we watched monkeys play on huge boulders.

Vittala Temple was disappointing, with the exception of a stone chariot, cut from rough quartz.

Carved on the chariot are soldiers, hunters and figures of Portuguese and Arabs. Apparently the wheels of this chariot once turned.

From here the cycling was easier, on a tarred road, lined with coconut and banana trees.

Along the road we passed through the ancient Talarigatta or Talari Gate. We stopped to watch a tourist bus slowly squeeze through the narrow entranceway.

A short distance further we were thankful to rest our aching bums as we visited Ganagatti, a Jain Temple.

After taking a wrong turn we returned to follow the road to multiple historic sites, the first of which was the Queen’s Bath.

The building is plain and uninteresting from the outside but inside its decorated with arches and has a deep (empty) pool.

From here we turned onto a rough road, even more sore on our bums, heading for the huge expanse of the Royal Enclosure.

This is an impressive area, seen from atop a temple, and enough for us because our tummies were rumbling.

Hajari Rama Temple or Hazararama Temple is exquisitely carved with sculpted friezes on the outside walls.

But it was the Elephant Stable and Lotus Mahal that stole the day. Surrounded by an enormous wall with a watchtower, it encompasses the two-storey Lotus Mahal and Elephant Stables.,

Lotus Mahal is an exquisite building, possibly a rest house for queens and a combination of Hindu and Islam. It has multiple arches and is surrounded by immaculate grounds and protected by trees.

The Elephant Stable, used for the royal elephants, was far more impressive than I expected, probably because of its situation inside the walled grounds.

We wondered if each of the 11 domed stables, which are mostly interconnected, were used for one or two elephants. Either way, they would have had sufficient space.

The nearby building, now used to display carvings, was said to have been the quarters of the elephant guards.