Thalibites: Hampi, Karnataka

On the bustrip from Gokarna via Ankola to Hampi we met a friendly Indian man called Mani. He talked out loud about his work as a cook in two restaurants, one in Kudlee Beach and one in Hampi where his family lives. He invited us to come to his Dhanlaxmi Restaurant so he could cook for us and show his family. After 5 hours waiting for the bus in a chabby roadhotel in Ankola we finally could get in the already full (with tourists and luggage in the walkingpath) loaded bus. We had some trouble finding an empty bed, which just seemed to not be there anymore. So the chaotic busdriver send a single man to sleep together on a bunk with another man so that we at least got what we payed for. The ride was cold as the window didn't close completely and the whole road was shakey so we both felt sick afterwards.

Virupaksha temple

Main Bazaar road

We stayed the fist nights at the Hampi Bazaar in Vicky's Guesthouse. It had a nice view on the beautiful Virupaksha Temple from their rooftop restaurant. Despite the magnificent surroundings I felt more and more sick for a few days and nights so we couldn't do much more then short walks and then fastly, feeling suddenly very dizzy or sick, back to the guesthouse for bed or toilet. Luckily we could find enough western food in Hampi so the few toasts and mint-teas I could keep inside made me slowly get better.

Gate to Vittala temple, once covered with marble statues

We took a longer walk through ruins to the Vittala Temple where on the way we got blessed by a local baba giving us the red bindi-dot between the eyes. Many Indian people there asked us to make pictures of them or us with their children, which I found very nice moments of happy smiles.

This place is really the most beautiful place and has a very relaxed atmosphere. We have been climbing over rocks and ruins with monkeys at Hemakuta Hill, feeding bananas to Lakshmi the holy elephant, and chilling in the many rooftop loungy cafes and restaurants full of matresses and pillows on the floor. So take off your shoes at the door, lay down, order herbal tea (alcohol is prohibited and not easily available in Hampi), eat a veggieburger, smell the insence and stare at the glow-in-the-dark artworks and other spiritual images of gods and godesses being put everywhere where they possibly can be.

Hemakuta Hill

After looking around through the cosy small streets of the bazaar we found at the deadend of a street a little cheaper and nicer place to stay; Kiran Guesthouse, a familyrun place with a colorfull comfortable room. The next days we visited some more temples (Krishna, Jain and more) and monolitic sculptures (Ganesh and Nandi), we sat down at the Ghats and watched women manually do laundry at the river that runs around the bazaar, we walked through the banana plantage and we enjoyed spotting or being walked over by more monkeys/goats/dogs/cows/sheep/cats/cockroaches.

Bananas

The last days in this almost surreal beautiful town surrounded by rocks we ordered bustickets for Bangalore, traintickets for Mysore-Chennai and flighttickets from Chennai to Colombo - Sri Lanka. On the 11th of december we went to Hospet and waited there for the nightbus to Bangalore.