They may take away our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
Our month in Mandrem is finally up, moving onwards and upwards, literally, first we are heading east then north. It's nice to be moving on, it gives you a sense of freedom that you rarely get at home.
The bus journey from Mapusa (near Mandrem) to Hampi was manageable this time round. I think mainly because the bus could only reach a top speed of roughly 40 mph. Going up hill was a real issue for it and any slower I think we would of had to get off and push the old thing. I could breathe easy and get a bit of sleep, however Allison was constantly awoken by the lights that would be illuminated when stopping for passengers and toilet stops. I use the term toilet lightly, basically to piss by the roadside. Fine for me but more of a challenge for the women, namely Allison.
We've come to the conclusion that the semi sleeper buses are better than their sleeper bus cousins as you are more stable and rolling from side to side is non existent.
We arrived at Mowgli guest house and got settled in. "Do you have a safe where we can leave our passports" I enquired, the receptionist started gesticulating with his fingers , motioning like he was on a keyboard, "you can do it online" he responded. Erm, I think something may have been lost in translation. "Thank you" I said, Looks like I'll be carrying our important stuff then, I thought.
After settling in we headed out as we only had a couple of full days here to see as much as possible. We got the little motorboat across the river to the south side, its costs 10 rupees each and they stack as many people in it as possible.
To save some time we hired a tuk tuk to take us on a whistle stop tour of Hampi's famous architecture. Like the bus the tuk tuk was pretty old and had seen much better days. At least on the bus I didn't have to get off and push. "Get out" said Ravi as the rickshaw came to a standstill going up a hill. I got out and assisted the machine up the hill. "Get in", I got in and we were away.
The architecture of the buildings and temples here is magnificent, even so you can get templed out by the end of the tour, temple after temple, building after building. I think it was probably more to do with the beating midday sun and dehydration that made us want to just relax and chill out with a cold drink.
The only thing is, relaxing with a drink is almost impossible here, firstly the only alcohol available is kingfisher beer, which I'm not to keen on because of the added ingredient glycerin. The other difficulty with relaxing with food or drink, is simply the flies! Loads of the little buggers, you have to be constantly on your guard as they keep landing on you, your plate, your glass, everything.
The landscape of Hampi is like nothing I've ever seen, the sheer number of the granite rocks is immense. The majority are broken into huge boulders piled up on top of each other. In mythology they say that the boulders were thrown at each other by two princely monkey brothers at war, and they just kept on throwing, and the rocks kept on stacking. Who am I to argue with that. Geologists have a different theory but who in their right mind would believe them?
On our second day we hired a scooter and headed out on the north side of the river. We took in more of the amazing rock formations, many that look like they are defying gravity by teetering on the edge of other boulders.
From our daytime geological activities we were knackered. After sharing lunch with the flies we debated whether to watch the sunset from Anjanadri hill or just chill with a bottle of the only alcohol that was available. Luckily we chose the former, taking off on the scooter we headed for the 600 steps that make there way up the hill (which is more of a cliff really). On ascending we kept meeting different Indian families either going up or coming down, "hi, hi" the children would say very excitedly.
One boy who was also making his way up decided to leave his family for dust and challenge me to a race to the summit, Obviously he was only young so I let him take off and reach the top first. Of course I didn't let the young pretender do that, giving him just enough lead to instill confidence in him, I reeled him in like a fish.
Our month in Mandrem is finally up, moving onwards and upwards, literally, first we are heading east then north. It's nice to be moving on, it gives you a sense of freedom that you rarely get at home.
The bus journey from Mapusa (near Mandrem) to Hampi was manageable this time round. I think mainly because the bus could only reach a top speed of roughly 40 mph. Going up hill was a real issue for it and any slower I think we would of had to get off and push the old thing. I could breathe easy and get a bit of sleep, however Allison was constantly awoken by the lights that would be illuminated when stopping for passengers and toilet stops. I use the term toilet lightly, basically to piss by the roadside. Fine for me but more of a challenge for the women, namely Allison.
We've come to the conclusion that the semi sleeper buses are better than their sleeper bus cousins as you are more stable and rolling from side to side is non existent.
We arrived at Mowgli guest house and got settled in. "Do you have a safe where we can leave our passports" I enquired, the receptionist started gesticulating with his fingers , motioning like he was on a keyboard, "you can do it online" he responded. Erm, I think something may have been lost in translation. "Thank you" I said, Looks like I'll be carrying our important stuff then, I thought.
After settling in we headed out as we only had a couple of full days here to see as much as possible. We got the little motorboat across the river to the south side, its costs 10 rupees each and they stack as many people in it as possible.
As many people and a motorbike too
An elephant bathing in the river as we cross
The old Elephant stables
One of the old statues looked remarkably like Allison
The only thing is, relaxing with a drink is almost impossible here, firstly the only alcohol available is kingfisher beer, which I'm not to keen on because of the added ingredient glycerin. The other difficulty with relaxing with food or drink, is simply the flies! Loads of the little buggers, you have to be constantly on your guard as they keep landing on you, your plate, your glass, everything.
I lift my cup of chai for one second and the buggers start landing
The landscape of Hampi is like nothing I've ever seen, the sheer number of the granite rocks is immense. The majority are broken into huge boulders piled up on top of each other. In mythology they say that the boulders were thrown at each other by two princely monkey brothers at war, and they just kept on throwing, and the rocks kept on stacking. Who am I to argue with that. Geologists have a different theory but who in their right mind would believe them?
On our second day we hired a scooter and headed out on the north side of the river. We took in more of the amazing rock formations, many that look like they are defying gravity by teetering on the edge of other boulders.
On our journey we bumped into these two kung fu fighting individuals
The young pretender, he had to wait for his family to catch up, lucky for me.
At the top we were met by monkeys, some braver than others.
Our last few hours in Hampi were over on the south side of the river. We were ready for some more temples and as we had missed one out on our tuk tuk trip we decided to see it before we left.
The highlight was getting blessed by an elephant.
Elephant showing me some love
Look who we bumped into
They said they didn't want any money, but then guess what, like everyone including us, they did.
If Goa is Russian, Hampi is decidedly Israeli, let's see what Varanasi has in store for us.
Omg this looks amazing! Im so jealous - those elephants looked so pretty all spruced up lol xxx
ReplyDeleteHampi is beautiful & amazing, getting blessed by the Elephant was great!
ReplyDelete