Days 42 & 43:
(6/30/12 & 7/1/12)

This past weekend was the last free weekend before all our programs end and we head out of Bangalore. Most of the students had to stay back and work, but Sam and I decided to head out of town while we still had the chance. We left on an overnight bus from Bangalore at 11pm, and arrived at Hampi the next morning at around 7am. Basically all we knew when we got there was that Hampi is known for its ruins, but boy were we in for a surprise because it was so awesome!

Before going exploring, we headed off to find the B&B, called Gallery Guest House, where we were staying to drop off our stuff… it was basically this little family-owned place, and I’m pretty sure we were the first foreigners to stay there! But it was actually really nice, had great food, and affordable. What we also didn’t realize was that first you have to cross this river and then go at least a couple kilometers on the other side before reaching the place. But it turned out to be really nice because we were out of the way of the other foreigners and got to see some local villages.

After dropping our stuff off, we walked back into town, stopping to take tons of pictures along the way, and basically spent the afternoon walking around all the ruins (and there were SO many). It was so nice to be out of the city and surrounded by palm trees, rice paddies, rock formations, water buffalo, monkeys, and green! We stupidly forgot to put on sunscreen and got some pretty bad sunburns, so later that evening we went back to the B&B and slept and read in hammocks in the nice breeze for a couple hours.

On Sunday, we slept in late, ate breakfast, lazed around on the hammocks for a couple more hours, and then walked into town. We thought about going on a rickshaw guide of some of the farther-out temples but decided against it. Instead we spent the day walking around, sitting by the river, talking….basically we just had a really nice relaxing weekend which is what I think we both needed!

We took another overnight bus back to Bangalore- it left at 8pm, we rolled into the bus station at around 6:30, got back to Mathyoo around 7, and both left for a full day of work around 9! Needless to say we’re both going to bed early tonight!

Also a final note about Hampi: we both felt like we stood out much more as foreigners. For example, we were buying water (after a long day in the sun) at a roadside place and this guy comes up and says “your faces look horrible.” But his eye was swollen shut, so it’s not like he could even talk! But we definitely weren’t sad to get away from the whistling, obnoxious staring, and heckling (although the kids who tried to talk to us in English were cute).

Just your average cow walking up the stairs

Lakshmi, the temple elephant

Our home away from home

Life doesn't get much better than this!

View of Hampi from across the river

Eating the remains of our mango

Rice paddies

Sunset over the river

Some of the many temples