Busy busy day!! (monkeys not included)

see all photos »

Woke up early (well early for us lazy bums) to be ready to meet up with Mark and Paul at 10 for a busy day ahead.  Mark used to be a guide, for a few years in Indonesia and then last year in Rajastan so was good at asking people what we sould be doing, and actually gettingthe right answers (where we'd just end up gettin in someones rickshaw if we tried!!) So we walked down to the river, less than 5 minutes from our hotel, and managed by some luck to see the Virupaksha Temple's elephant getting her daily wash! This normally happened at about 7am, so we were very fortunate and managed to get some good photos of her having a ly down in the water, keeping her trunk out while her handlers rubbed her with flat stones to get her clean for the temple.

see all photos »

We walked over to the boat crossing to get to the other side of the river, only to find that the 5 rupee charge was going to be 10 rupees because we were foreigners - not that it mentioned any of this on the price list.  Am starting to get so annoyed with the double charging for locals and tourists, especially when you know that they have just made up the difference on the spot and itsnot the official price.  Many govt run monuments are dramatically different for locals than tourists, the standard being 250 for us, 5 for locals.  Now this doesnt bother me as much, if we paid their price there would be no money for upkeep, and if locals paid 250 no one would ever visit the countrys heritage except foreigners! But people just trying to rip you off is really starting to get to me.

Tummies full and all chaied out

Waiting for the boat
see all photos »

Anyway.............got to the other side (where there is more accomodation, mostly full of Israelies as you can drink on this side of the river) and managed to dodge the many rickshaw drivers to walk to the main road where we had been told their was a local bus which went to all of the places we wanted to go.  So we were stood waiting in this small group of houses and shops (not even enough to be calld a village) when the man sat at the hut opposite us, drinking local tequila, asked us if we were waiting for the bus and did we want to come and sit in the shade with him.  We ended up stayin there for about 20 minutes, with the man giving us lots of info on the area, us all having hyserics as one of the men tried to mend Mark's torn in half 10 Rs note with plant sap and some old selotape, (which he ended up keeping for his efforts and buying more drink) and them trying to get us a lift with their friends on their tractors (but unfortunately they were going the wrong way) Eventually we got a bus, so left our new friends behind and made our way to the Monkey Temple.

Well you cant get much fresher than that...........
see all photos »

Officially know as Hanuman Temple, the monkey temple is a whit building on top of a huge rocky hill, which you have to walk up via some strange steps, often crisscrossed with metal water pipes, about 10cm off the ground, just the right height to trip you up. So you are walking up this hill, the sun beatin down and your eyes on the floor to stop you tripping, its very easy not to look up - big mistake on two counts.  One, the view is amazing.  The landscape of Hampi is, in my opinion, more impressive than the ruins, and thats saying something.  The huge rock formations scatter the landscape making hills, mountains and (often in the midle of an otherwise completely flat flood plain) one or two huge rocks, just dumped haphazardly. To put it simply it looks like a location for the Flintstones Movie, its so bizare looking.

Monkey Temple (its small and white and right at the top, see if you can spot it)
see all photos »

The second reason to look up is the monkeys.  They are everywhere and have no fear, if you have food they want it.  We only made it up in one piece as a local chased them off with a stick, away from their ambush spot perched on either side of a tunnel which we had to walk through.  But the view from the top was amazing. If it wasnt for the heat and the monkeys i could have stayed up there all day. But more places to go and see so we walked back down, with very wobbly legs, and after a sit in the shade with some coconut milk we set off to the lakshmi temple and the Durga temple, neither of which were actually that impressive, but the walk there through banana plantations and rice paddies was well worth it!

The view from monkey temple
see all photos »

We then got the bus back to our starting point as we had seen a sign for a restaurant there and by now we were all starving.  So we walked in and ordered 4 thalis before we really took in our surroundings.  We were in a house, with one end as the kitchen, one as living and we were sat on benches in the middle.  There was little electricity evident (one light bulb) and as we satthere the women started making chapatis from scratch and the man started up a fire.  They brought us chai, some of the best we've had, and when the food arrived it was amazing.

One of the monkeys
see all photos »

Firstly, for those who dont know what a thali is, its an eat all you can dish, served in metal tray/plates usually consisting of rice, bread (roti or chapati), curd (yoghurt), a thick curry, a thin curry, some pickle (normally the spiciest thing you have ever tasted) and then whatever else they can think of.  This thali was the best we've had on our trip, with the little wizened man topping up our plates as soon as we paused or looked in his direction - Mark managed 7 chapatis and Joe got the rest of the bowl of the potato curry when he asked for more.  The hospitality we were shown by the locals here was amazing, and the food just as good.

Me, Mark and Paul hiding under a rock from the monkeys
see all photos »

Our tummies full and all chaied out we got the bus in the opposite direction to 'the lake'.  This wasnt in any of the guide books but all the Israelies we had spoken too raved about thisplace so we decided to go.  About a 2km walk from the village the bus dropped us off in it is a huge reservoir and was totally beautiful.  However we were so late getting thereit was nearing sunset and as we didnt want to miss the last boat at 6.30(if the man didnt decide to go home early - this is India remember) we reluctantly left and made our way back to Hampi Bazaar.

The lady preparing our thali.....mmmmmm tasty good food
see all photos »

After a shower we all decided that we were so tired from all the walking and so full from the thali that we decided not to go out for tea and have an early night because the next day would be just as tireing.