June 20-22, 2012

Hampi

After Mysore, flying solo and ready for a change of scene, Mike and I hopped on our first night bus to Hampi.

A word about night buses: we first thought that night buses were the answer to any travelers desires. You don't have to pay for a night's accommodation, they are outrageously cheap ($4 US for 11 hours of travel? Sign us up!), and while you sleep you are magically transported to another place that you wanted to go to anyway! Sounds awesome, right? Well, in our unending experimentation with different methods (and price levels) of transportation, we had experiences both pleasant and harrowing on India's night buses. Turns out it's worth it to pay a few more dollars for seats that go back and a driver who you don't have to wake up because they are sleeping at the wheel.

   

 

Hampi is in north central Karnataka, about 300 km north of Bangalore.It's known for its boulder strewn landscape and (relatively) well perserved historical palaces and temples.Therefore, Hampi is a very popular detination for rock climbers, and also spiritual pilgrims to its many temples.

 

  A goatherd moving his goats down the gauntlet of roadside boulders. 

The landscape and temples did not dissappoint! In all directions, hills and mountains of igneous rubble are piled up like the heaps of pulses and legumes in the markets. It's absolutely mindnumbing to think of the time and processes that occured in order to shape this landscape to what it looks like today. Boulders the size of school buses sitting on top of a pebble! If natural processes were personifiable, I'd say that geology has a good sense of showmanship.

Our first day, we hiked up yet even more stairs to the hilltop Hanuman Temple devoted to Hanuman, the monkey god who was Rama's sidekick. In fact, Hampi and it's surrounding area is mentioned as Kishkinda, or the realm of the monkey gods, in the Hindu epic Ramayana (one of their major spiritual texts). In this tiny temple, there are two men playing a drum and singing devotional hymns 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They sit in a tiny carpet and cloth lined room with insense and pillows around them and sing/play into a microphone that then projects out of speakers located outside of the temple, which can be heard in the valley down below. Every few hours, the two men are relieved by another set of stair climbing, drum beating, hymnal singing devotees to Hanuman.

 

At the top, we were greeted by monkeys and a pilgrimaging family from Uttar Pradesh on vacation. They were sitting in the temple, and invited us to sit with them while the father told us the mythology behind the temple and some of the interesting facts. He was of the Brahman caste, and gave us the tilak (powder on the forehead to symbolize purity that people put on their foreheads after they've been to temple), some sugar, and coconut to eat as part of the symbolism.

A view of the valley below from behind the spiritually adorned tree atop Hinuman temple hill. 

We rented a motorbike to explore around Hampi and, tilak's still intact, we went for a joyride in the surrounding countryside after visiting the temple. No crashes this time. Mike is improving his record for motorbike crashes. I think he's at .500 now.

Besides being mentioned in the ancient Ramayana, Hampi was the site of the capital of one of the largest empires in Indian history, the Vijayanagar empire from 1336-1565. The remains of palaces, temples, and town life (when the city was a bustling 500,000 people and the center of trade) dot the city and hill tops. Mike is front of the main gopuram (decorative gate) to the Virupaksha Temple, one of the oldest remaining structures in Hampi, built in 1442. There was a wedding in the temple that day, so we saw some very colorful and bedazzled saris! We also met a sadhu, or a Hindu monk. Sadhus are Hindus who give up all material, sexual, and other Earthly ambitions to focus on spiritual meditation and devotion. 

A view along the way to more temple ruins. It's hard to see because the photo is small, but if you enlarge it you can see temple ruins all along the right side of the river.

Cool design carved into the granite walkway in front of one of the temples.

Vittala Temple, built in 1509, is the most well preserved of the lot. The intricate detail of the stone work was pretty incredible, and a lot of designs reminded us of Angkor Wat, which makes sense since Angkor Wat had a Hindu influence at one time. 

One of the most impressive pieces of art and ingenuity was this enourmous stone chariot that was actually capable of rolling at one point. Rolling where, I couldn't tell you, but the roads were pretty hilly so I'd like to know myself.

More cool stone detail work.

A group of Indian men were on a tour and asked to take "just one picture" with us after draping us in their scarves. Which turned into a 15 minute photo shoot with all of their phones and cameras. This is a phenomenon I could do without while traveling, but it's been pretty common that complete strangers have asked to take pictures with us. I think it's because Mike is so stunningly handsome, but it might be because he can't grow a full beard, or he's just...so...fat (as one little girl said, jokingly...we think).

These columns are carved out of a single piece of granite, so pretty incredible. They make a hollow musical tone when you hit them. The whole Hampi complex has over 89 temple and palace remains, so you can imagine that we had hit our ancient palace/temple quota at this point. After riding around on our rented bicycles, we hit a nice restaurant overlooking the river. 

Women doing laundry down by the river.

 Lakshmi is the elephant in the Virupaksha Temple. If you hold out a rupee coin, she will take it from your hand, give it to her handler, and then bless you by grazing your head with her trunk. Mike was beat upon by Lakshmi, but we weren't allowed to take pictures, so we had to wait until the next morning. Every morning at 8:30 a.m. Lakshmi gets a bath in the river. She walks down the ghats (steps), lays down, and gets rubbed and scrubbed for 30 minutes on each side.

Lakshmi smiling while geting her trunk washed. 

We were clearly enamoured by this elephant. She finally stood up and gave herself a final rinse, and the direction of her handler, before she nimbly lifted her left foot for him to climb on board her back. While completely different, this experience helped make up for not getting to see elephants in the wild.

This was the view outside of our relaxing little hostel bungalo. We climbed up about halfway to the top the last day we were in Hampi...

...and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city and surrounding countryside from the boulders.

Goats everywhere!

On our way out of town, Mike helped these men push start a bus in the rain. I thought it was amusing, and indicative of the state of some of the government buses.

Next stop: the famed beaches of Goa!