Wiji tucked into his bona-fide Bombay mix and was thoroughly observed by the man sat at the window seat behind, lol.
The sleeper class had its own migratory procession of people selling chai, snacks, books, tiffin and all manner of things. You could even pre-order lunch.
It was cool and breezy sat in the carriage, as we trundled out of the town and into the countryside proper. We saw less and less plastic rubbish dumps and more rice paddy fields, lone men ploughing fields with oxen, giant fields of blooming sunflowers and small deserted stations that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. At some points the landscape was mountainous and we seemed to be travelling on a knife edge precipice. It was all incredibly dry and the soil seemed to have turned to powder.
It was much later in the journey that our carriage filled up with other passengers. The ticket inspectors made regular checks against a clipboard of lists. We struggled to stay awake and sat upright as the journey was nearing the end. The heat and the motion of the train had made us feel very lethargic.
When we reached Hospet junction it was an instant mad scramble to get ourselves and our luggage out of the train. As we were doing so, rickshaw drivers were shouting at us through the windows trying to get a fare. We were then immediately accosted and stalked by various rickshaw drivers, all with their own running commentaries and non-stop reasons for why we should travel with them, and the possible traumas that might befall us if we didn't. Lol. Naturally it didn't matter to them that we had already booked transport to get us to Hampi. We were relieved when a guy stepped in front of us and opened a piece of paper with 'William' written on it. The other drivers immediately vanished.
Hospet itself was total chaos after chilled Panaji and tourist savvy Goa. It was a filthy, raging, roaring mass of people, vehicles and animals, all squashed into over crowded streets trimmed with open sewers. There were a fare few sights to recoil from along the way, as we veered away from one pot hole to the next in a mad race of traffic with everyone on the horn. Our rickshaw stalkers from the station even caught us up, to overtake us whilst shouting abuse at our driver. This was definitely more like the India that I had imagined.
When we arrived in Hampi we paid over the odds for a shitty mosquito ridden room that we instantly couldn't wait to leave... So set off for the Mango Tree cafe for a thali.
Walking back along a path through a banana plantation as the sun was setting.
We stopped to look out across the river at the mind blowing landscape. The huge jumble of granite boulders had been eroded over millions of years. It felt as though we had been transported back in time.
The glow of the setting sun enhanced the colours in the landscape.
We watched Lakshmi, the elephant, gracefully descend the steps for her evening bath, before calling it a night ourselves.
The next day we were up early and looking for another room. This wasn't too difficult as there were plenty of guest houses in a small area. After looking at a dozen or so rooms we were able to get a cleaner and newly decorated room for less money. But nothing is ever as it seems, so when we returned with our bags we found that the room we thought that we had booked was now occupied by a German woman. This worked in our favour as we found out that she was paying even less than us, and she even offered to assist Wiji in haggling for a better price. Bonus! This was amicably resolved.
Hampi is the site of the 15th century Hindu city of Vijayanagar. In the Hindu legends of Ramayana, the area was Kishkinda, the realm of the monkey gods. In 1336 the Telugu princes Harihara and Bukka founded the city, which over the next couple of centuries grew into one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history. Today, many of the ruins in Hampi's main bazaar have been taken over and are lived in by locals.
The Virupaksha Temple, the focal point of Hampi Bazaar was built in 1442. The Gopuram itself (pictured, that functions like a gateway) is over 50m high. Either side of it are masses of tourist shops and eateries lining the road.
For a small entrance fee we removed our shoes and went inside to the courtyard behind. The main shrine is dedicated to Virupaksha, a form of Shiva. The smaller temple in the background was apparently added in 1510.
Both temples were the playground to a troop of macaques.
We were astounded by the elaborate stone masonry.
Inside offerings of coconuts decorated with water lilly flowers and marigolds were being given. Women in particular had to run the gauntlet across the courtyard with the offerings, while macaques fearlessly tried to rob them.
Monkey magic. Loving the legs swung over the side by the little one on the end, Jim Henson stylee.
Lakshmi, the temple elephant also received a lot of bananas and coconuts from visitors. Here I am receiving my blessing from her, after I put 1 rupee in her wet, bristlely trunk, she passed the coin over her shoulder to her mahout, and then gently touched me on the head with her trunk. I hope that blessing will stave off food poisoning for a bit longer. lol.
Macaques, like the security guards of the animal world, where taking a close interest in what visitors were bringing in and taking out of the temple...
Looking back to the main Gopuram, that we originally entered and later left through. We resigned ourselves to buying a good book about the ruins at Hampi to really learn something about them. Guides seemed to be dishing out all sorts of random nonsense for quite a fee. It was amusing to eavesdrop on someone else's tour, but we weren't convinced that we would really be any the wiser from one.
One of the many ruins that had been inhabited and painted, along the drag of the main Bazaar. Only 58 of the 550 monuments have received heritage protection status since Hampi was declared a World Heritage site in 1996. Apparently building work is under way to re-home the stallholders from the ruins to a more suitable site...but no time soon!
Looking towards the other end of Hampi Bazaar, where the stalls were few and the ruins were inhabited by families.
Lots of signs in guest houses told us to report to the Police station...but no one was ever in.
Nearing the end of Hampi Bazaar the ruins were uninhabited.
At the end of Hampi Bazaar is a temple with a statue of Nandi...
We continued left off the Bazaar on foot, passing paddy fields, to the Shivmoon cafe and took in this stunning view while eating our 50p thali's.
In the distance, our first glimpse of a man in a coracle on the river. It was midday and the landscape disolved into a heat shimmer.
We were totally blown away by the landscape, and I could not stop going on about it, lol.
A collection of coracles at the waters edge, waiting to take people to the temples on the river.
Women were washing clothes by smashing them against the rocks. The force of this reverberated like a gun shot.
We resisted the coracle men and opted to go on foot to see more of the landscape. Steps were carved into the granite leading to the Kodandarama Temple. It was here, in this deserted area, that we were pursued by two men who were either on something or missing something. Fortunately they ended up disappearing into one of many gaps in the giant boulders that seemed to be a house.
Further along we came across a banyan tree with lots of hanging offerings. This, unfortunately reminded me of the house in Plymouth with the dog shit hung in carrier bags from the washing line...
In the distance on the mountain is the Hanuman Temple. I was fascinated by the pilgrim in orange trying to cross the river...
Lol, this was just after he fell in. Oooh, so close! No help whatsoever from the coracle men.
He then washed his clothes in the river, laying some on the scorching boulders and drying others in this striking pose.
Further along we were really pleased to enter an anonymous low temple overlooking the river, for some much needed shade. The sun was very strong.
A gorgeous naive art warning sign... a bit too far away from the coracle crossing points to be of any use. Nice though.
Looking across the river to the ruins of the original ancient bridge.
We decided to head further on up a gravel road, passing the Vittala Temple (saving that for another day) and resisting the rickshaw curb crawlers in favour of seeing the ruins on foot. The road was lined with columns on an elevated platform for half a mile or so. It seemed a good idea at first to see this on foot, until we got repeatedly run off the road by huge 4x4's of Indian tourists, leaving us repeatedly running for the ruins and away from the clouds of dust in their wake.
By the 16th century the city of Vijayanaga had an estimated population of 500,000 and was the centre of international commerce. This came to a sudden end in 1565 when the city was ransacked by a confederacy of Deccan Sultanates and the city faded into decline.
It was hard to imagine the collapse of great civilisations like this (and others that we have visited on this trip), when faced with the remains of their colossal achievements.
In the sprawling city of Vijayanagar we noticed several 'tanks', deep stone walled and stepped bathing areas. This one had two men fishing with nets on either side of the tank steps.
Wiji at the entrance to the tank, would have liked to gone for a swim in there or the river, had it not been so polluted.
At the end of another track we came to the river at the point that we wanted to cross. There was a family living in tarpaulin makeshift tents with a herd of goats on the riverbank.
Below is the bridge that was washed away in the monsoon of 2008. The waters reached the stalls as far as Hampi Bazaar, but not as far as the temple. This bridge had been built to replace a bridge that had been swept away two years previously in a monsoon...Mmm an ecological pattern of doom?
We were aiming to cross the river in a coracle and walk to the village of Anegundi. But no one was about to row us and a local man told us that it was too dangerous to cross here. We were sceptical of him because he wanted us to get in his rickshaw, lol. We decided that we both needed to get out of the sun and bargained hard with him for a good price and a ride back to Hampi.
Rickshaw-deluxe! He nearly drove us down the steep, crumbling riverbank, when he insisted on squeezing past a truck being loaded with bananas.
Back at the room...are my knickers, hung from a nail, classed as a home improvement?
1 comment:
Extraordinary landscape but it looks very hot indeed - we had snow again today 4 March 09! I didn't know there were crocodiles in India! C&B xx
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