We arrived on Thursday mid morning desperately short of sleep after the bus, we found a nice, very friendly, family run guest house and had a very late breakfast and set out to look at some of the nearby ruins hopefully before the day got to its hottest, but with my lack of sleep and midday tramps around Goa the previous two days I felt the worse for wear, with the sun really punishing even in the late morning. So I retired back to the "Vishnu" guest house for some sleep, while Tom went on a bit before deciding to sleep under a boulder (not the wisest move in my opinion). We had 3 days to see everything so a bit of rest was good! The heat was still intense at 5pm, whereas in Goa the breeze from the sea meant it became very pleasant as early as 4, so the next day we decided to get up early to avoid the Sun.
We hired bikes and set of to the temples to the South. Cycling was surprisingly cool and we saw a lot that morning, the photos will show it far better than I could describe. To complete the loop we were following we had to carry our bikes through some rocks and steps at the end, so we were quite dishevelled when we reached the town again for Lunch and then general hanging around doing as little as possible while the sun was at its fiercest.
When it was cooling down in the evening we climbed the nearby hill with a temple on the top, while this took only half an hour once we found the correct path, it would have been madness at midday! At the top we were rewarded with spectacular views and a troop friendly and photogenic monkeys. The view from up here was really a highlight. Similarly another of the temples, given little billing and with no entrance charge was far superior to the UNESCO listed, entry charging lotus temple and crappy old elephant stables! However, part of the charm of Hampi is the sheer scale of the site and number of minor temples and ruins that are just sitting there. Often you find yourself completely alone in a ruin, which was quite unusual as well.
On the final day in Hampi we planned to set of even earlier and see the remaining ruins over the river. Rather than take the long loop around we would carry our bikes over the steps round by the river again. Well no sooner had we struggled round through the temples and cow-shit than I realised I had a flat tire and we had to carry our bikes back through again. After this the temples and walls over the river, similar to what we'd already seen, lost their appeal and we visited the remaining site nearby the village, chatting with some friendly monkeys. We had lunch , lazed a bit and headed to nearby Hospet, where our train and bus left in the early evening.
During our stay in Goa and Hampi we were amused and infuriated by the idiosyncrasies of Indian menus designed for westerners. It took me a moment to work out what the mysterious breakfast dish "mousse-le" was (under the subheading "Farmers Breakfast's")... the infuriating thing (to me anyway) was the proliferation of Greengrocer's Apostrophe's. Everywhere! Mum, you wouldn't have coped! What was most intriguing was the dessert that appeared on the menu called "Hello to the Queen". We decided that this had to be tried, and tried it was. It was delicious. Had pretty much everything you'd want in a dessert! Ice-cream, hot chocolate sauce, coconut, banana, biscuit crumbs... I recommend it. I still don't know the etymology however; is it a translation of an Indian name or was it perhaps invented for a British royal occasion. Perhaps we'll never know.
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