Boarding School Beers

Hampi is great. It's seriously great. The atmosphere and surroundings are so different from the rest of India. I'm finding it very hard to put into words just what the place is like. It's very earthy, with the landscape mostly made up of a mixture of grey and brown rocks and boulders perched atop each other. They have been there for hundreds of years, and will remain there for hundreds more, yet if you pushed one with your pinky they look as if they'd tumble over! The traditional Indian colour remains - with clothing, bags and jewellery spilling out of shops at every street corner. If you walk down to the main bazaar it's like a smaller more spread out version of Mysore - spices, toys, restaurants and cafes everywhere leading up to the Virupaksha Temple. Beautiful.

We've befriended a lovely local boy whose mum does mehendi - might get some done before we leave!

We've discovered a new sensation - cinnamon milk tea! Probably one of the nicest things I've ever drunk. Apart from beer. Oh, did I mention Hampi is dry? We were having severe withdrawal symptons and ended up getting a rickshaw to the next town so we could have a beer! There is one place in town called Mowgli which does sell beer, but it's on the other side of the river and there were no boats running when we arrived. Gutted as our fellow blogger recommended it. Oh well. We'll go next year.

The bar we went to was really strange. It was supposed to be a posh hotel, but think cheap plastic tables and chairs and dodgy toilets. The room was a sort of pinkish-white with the kind of artifical lighting you'd find in a boarding school. Quite surreal. But the people were lovely and hey, there was beer! Our rickshaw driver didn't turn up, so the hotel nicely summoned one for us. I spent the duration of the journey back to Hampi trying to fend off the amorous advances of the rickshaw drivers friend. At one point he had his hand on my leg and I thought Lydia was going to punch him! Nasty little creep.

Did a tour of Hampi today by auto-rickshaw. Saw the Sister Stones, an underground Siva Temple, a viewpoint overlooking the old city ruins and mint, Lotus Mahal, Elephant Stables, the Watchtower (it was blocked off - but we managed to find a hole to climb through so we could go up to the top!!), Hazarama Temple, the Palace, the Queens Bath, Vitthala Temple, Kings Balance and Taliargatti Gate. Photos a-coming at some point in the next ten years.

Our auto-rickshaw broke down! Now if your mode of transport breaks down the logical thing to do would be to try and see if you can fix it yourself, then if that fails phone the AA (the Indian version anyway), or perhaps have it towed to the nearest garage. Not here. In India when a rickshaw breaks down usually about 2,000 men commute around it and discuss for an hour what the problem could be. Once they have drunk their chai and had a gossip, they then try to fix it. And then when this fails they basically drive a functioning rickshaw behind the broken one, with the driver pushing it along with his foot. Utter brilliance.

It's funny, over the past few weeks we have attracted considerable attention being deaf white females. However today, we had more attention than normal. I have no idea why,... it's not as if we do cartwheels through the forts or light up spliffs in the middle of Jain temples. Every step we took, we had another Indian family asking for a photo. At one point I was trying to take a photo of the Stone Chariot at the Vitthala Temple and turned around only to see Lydia SURROUNDED by people all staring at her. It was actually really funny. We're used to it, so it doesn't bother us anymore.

We've finally tried thaly, or thali, as they say in the north. Tomato, tomahto *shrugs* still absolutely delicious however you pronounce/spell it. We went to a place called the Mango Tree Restaurant, overlooking the river. It's quite tricky to find if you don't know where you're going - you have to walk through a banana plantain to find it! You also have to take your shoes off when you go in, and you sit on little mats on the floor. There is a wooden swing tied to a tree so you can swing out over the river! Thaly or thali is a big dish including rice, dal (dhal), vegetables, chapati, curd (yoghurt) and papad. Some places also serve it with a type of chutney or pickle. It is enormous, and for only 40 rupees (which is just under 50 pence) - a real bargain! I can barely finish it - very much a case of our eyes being bigger than our stomach. Lydia and I are going native - we now wolf down our food with our right hands! I think we're going back again tonight...

Our travel plans have changed again - as usual! We're now leaving Hampi tomorrow for Margao, then catching a bus/train/whatever is available down to Palolem. We're hoping to stay at Cosy Nook if they have any vacancies - it sounds fantastic there! In addition, Lydia and I are a bit fed up of only spending a couple of days in each place. So we have decided to stay on for at least a week - and then see where the path takes us before we head up to Mumbai for our flight to Delhi on the 3rd September.

Enough from me, time for dinner - Lydia's tummy is rumbling and the room is shaking.

Caroline xx