A look back on India

I love India.

So I came to India in the end of June. Almost 4 months ago. Unbelievable. 1/3rd of a year I have spent in this country, where I spent my childhood.
I had a really good time and enjoyed my travels. Though I miss my friends and family and Germany (especially Hamburg) I felt good and was most of the time comfortable here on the road (or the tracks of the indian railway). Today I arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal.

India is an extraordinary country. So many people, so much tradition and good food. Loads of rituals, rickshaws, noise, dirt and animals. Huge fields, temples, beaches, mountains, crowds and plantations.

I loved it, raoming around town, haggling with people about prices, getting food in small stalls and creating a smile on the man selling me a samosa.
I adored the children who loved to wave to me and yell "Hi!" or "Bye!" or the parents making staring babys wave, though they were scared of this pale human.

The huge cities making me feel nauceous of the smell of dead animals or fresh piss, making me deaf of all the honking, making me blind with all the dust and dirt in the air and making my skin red because I forgot to put on sunscreen.
The smaller towns where white tourists were rare and because of that them staring at me, maybe seeing a foreigner for the first time in their life, helping me out of the goodness of their heart, smiling and greeting me like a fellow human and feeing alienated by me because I look very differently (with my blond hair, redish beard and white skin).

Just great. I loved it.

Arriving in Chennai I was immediately ripped off by the taxi to get into town. From there I was overwhlemed by the city. I wasn't even able to cross the street without an heart attack! I would have really enjoyed someone in the first few days, I managed and the food was greaet. Mmmmm.
I had my first Biriyani in India since 17 years... And dosas (crepe made of rice dough), idlis (basically rice cakes), vada (savoury spiced "donuts") and the curries! Masala everywhere, with aloo, ghobi, paneer, palak, tikka and more with names I forgot. Sooo good. I loved the Thalis in south India. Mainly big rice portions with alot of different sauces, chutneys and other dips (often with vegetables). Thali was translated to me as "meal", so you get if for lunch or dinner, it is cheap and in south India I got second, third or even fourth servings of rice (if I wasn't careful) and each time new sauces.
Being vegetarian is no problem in India. Vegan might be I guess (they put butter, cheese or milk into alot of things and that concept of food is unfamiliar to them). But because of the religion and culture many animals are considered holy and therefore many won't eat any animal. Though there are enough that do, so chicken is very common, mutton a little more rare. Beef is pretty hard to get by, mostly it is even outlawed, but you might stumble across someone who knows someone who knows someone who has a guy - if you get what I mean.
So you will find vegetarian options in all restaurants. Even McDonalds, Burger King or KFC. And often it is a 50:50 ratio, not like in other places where McD might have 1 vegetarian burger.

Food aside, I soon got more accustomed to haggling, negotiating (though I am still REALLY bad at it) and knew a few prices which is very valuable. But if you get ripped of the first time and you think the price was right the second time you might still be paying too much. You will know as soon as the vendor sells it to you without at least trying. For example:
"How much?"
"500"
"300?"
"ok"
"..." - At this point you know you still paid enough to guarentee him a good (if not huge) profit, so he doesn't even have to try.

I enjoyed the typical tourist places at the beginning, not to crowded, not too much haggling (set prices) and only rickshaw drivers to fend off. I visited forts, temples, churches and museums. Especially museums were a calm haven for me, mabye an annoying class rushing through, otherwise quiet. Most temples will be quiet and peaceful aswell, though if it is popular you won't have much space or calm, because devotees will be rushing through and trying to recieve darshan or prasada. If I was in bigger cities gardens and parks were great for a retreat.

Later I would venture more into the bazaars, try not to be pulled into any shop, or at least not buy anything unnessacary for way too much money, because I had no idea how much it cost. As an advice: Never buy at your first place. In the second you might hear another price or while walking out the shopkeeper will try and keep you interested by dropping the price significantly.

Amongst all I loves meeting people. Be it other tourists or Indians, whose short chats often resulted in them asking for my number or facebook name, to keep in touch. I still think it is weird just to walk up to a stranger like that, but I guess otherwise you won't meet other people.
I really enjoyed travelling with Christina and William, hanging out with the people in the hostels in Goa and meeting the people in Mysore and Alleppey.
Doing trips, be it in a tuktuk, on a canoe, a local bus, scooter or train.
I probably forgot alot of the people I met, I'm sorry, if I do, just remind me, maybe I wrote about you in my blog ;-)

The south stayed my favorite. It might just be, that I was there longer than in the north and I rushed through the northern states. Or maybe just because I had a more emotional connection towards it (growing up there and so on shouldn't be ignored).

Things definately stuck in my memory are visiting the places of my childhood: Tirupati with the people still feeling gratitude towards my father and projecting this unto me. Kodaikanal, where I saw our old home, walked the well known paths to old friends homes, through the woods of our compound or just over the campus. Thiruvannamalai where I met people from different faiths and later relaxing on the beaches of Kerala. The lush hills of Munnar and the calm hikes through the tea plantations. The busy cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, Varanasi and Delhi with their bazaars, shops and sights. Having drinks with other travelers in Goa and driving with rented scooters. Visiting religious sites of both Buddhism and Hinduism aswell as amazing muslim arcitecture in Agra or Jaipur. And lastly visiting the border of India and Pakistan and feeling the patriotism of this country rise high over all I have felt before and trying to hard to get into a fort in Delhi.

The last mentioned experiences will follow in their own blog posts. I apologize here for being so slow with writing my posts. I have finally made a map of India, which I have uploaded to this post. You can see where I have been and it is even coloured (I am after all planning to become a teacher!) For the next countries I will try to get a map uploaded earlier, so people can "track" me - if desired. I'll try.

Now for my poorly made map: Numbers show in which states I was during the travels
1: Tamil Nadu
2: Andhra Pradesh
3: Kerala
4: Karnataka
5: Goa
6: Maharashtra
7: Uttar Pradesh
8: Rajasthan
9: Haryana/ Delhi
10: Punjab

Here the route I took:
Tamil Nadu: Chennai -> Tirupati -> Sri Kalahasti (back to Chennai) -> Thiruvannamalai -> Pondicherry/ Puducherry (and back) -> Madurai -> Kodaikanal (and back) ->
Kerala: Trivandrum -> Alleppey -> Kochin/ Ernakulam -> Munnar (and back) ->
Karnataka: Bangalore -> Mysore -> Hampi ->
Goa: Palolem -> Anjuna ->
Mumbai -> Jalgaon/ Ajanta
Varanasi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Gurgaon/ Delhi -> Amritsar

Mumbai

After the adventures of Goa I headed to another indian metropolis: Mumbai!
I took a night train from Margaon to Mumbai. I sat down at my seat and was suprised the train was so empty! About an hour later when the train stopped at an station I noticed people staring at me. It was an entire indian family. Apparently they reserved the other berths in the compartment and were flabbergasted at what a white person was doing in their seat. They stood there for a few seconds staring at me. Their faces were priceless! Slowly they arranged and sked me if I was really in the right seat, so I showed them my ticket and they realised the family was split into 3 groups.. They didn't ask me to swap or anything or talked to me after that. I heard them joking using the word "english", I guess they were wondering about if they'd have to use english now that I was in their midst.
Only later, when they were having dinner they asked me, if I could move and let them all eat together. This again was a wonderful picture, though I was too afraid to ask to take one. Probably 12 people had gathered, some sitting on the floor, 4 on each berth and talking, opening their huge bags and pulling out huge amounts of food. They had Biriyani, sambar, other sauces and chicken. They all shared it and had a nice time. Once they were done they split again and I was able to eat (after they had finished I got my ordered food from the train-pantry). A lovely family experience =)

After arriving I headed to a small "hostel" quite far away from anything happening. Getting there was interesting. It was basically a "hostel" inside an appartment. So while I was walking with my big backpack people asked if I was searching for the hostel and sent me down alleyways untill I ended at an dead end and only thanks to 2 other backpackers, who were exiting the building I found out it was actually in there. One floor was remade to a hostel, with bunkbeds and the lot.
I soon met up with Will and Christina again and we did a tour through one of the Slums of Mumbai, the Dhavari Slum (it was featured in the movie slumdog millionaire, though people from the slum dislike the movie, claiming it shows a person from the slum but actually portraying a person from a different place or something like that...). It was really interesting. Someone I met told me that Mumbai was the most dirtiest city he saw in India and people were living in garbage. But in the slum I saw they were more living of it rather than in it.
They were recycling alot of old plastic and many other smaller industries were housed here (like tailors, making trousers, shirts, gloves and suitcases). Another one was a leather shop, who named their business after the slum: Dharavi.
Our tourguide (who grew up in the slum himself) said it's good quality and in the shop in the slums it's much cheaper than at other places. Same with most of the other places here, once they move to stores the prices go way up.
The tour was really nice and was organised by a NGO called "Reality Gives". Alot of the money from the activities and tours go towards their project, to support children from the slums. So here the kids could learn different subjects additionally to school and get help and support.
At the end they sold some of the articles people living in the slums made with the help of the project. It is a fair trade based upcycling system. So old Sarees would be made to scarfs, bags and other things. But they would also use other materials to create more.
Mumbai has a really high population density, it is over doulbe than that of London or Hamburg. There are still alot of slums, though the govournment is trying to get these people better living spaces, but is bound by a law made a few decades ago, where new slums won't be allowed, but the old ones preserved. So unless the people leave the slums voluntarily, the cannot force anyone out of there.

Me infront of the slum, picture taken by Will

The next days Christina, Will and I did some more sight seeing, visited the Gateway of India, through which in 1947 the last british troops left India.

The Gateway of India, directly by the ocean and quite nice!

And a fancy Hotel (I think) close by in a victorian british style (or something like that)

And I was in contact with Peter. Peter was our neighbor and we spent alot of time together playing after school and also in school. He was in the same class as my older brother, so they were almost inseperable. I had met his mother in Kodaikanal and was now eager to meet him once again.
We met one evening for a few drinks, Will joined us. We talked alot about the old days, Kodaikanal, what he was up to and so on. He is currently working for a big company and visited a very good business school, so alot is expected of him but he makes alot of money. Thanks to this he has only little time left for holidays and is only rarely in Kodaikanal, but is travelling around India on business trips.
It was great meeting him again and I enjoyed seeing him in such a good place and being able to talk again as adults. His company was going to send him to Delhi in the middle of october (when I'd also be there), sadly that meeting had been postponed so he couldn't make it. But next time I'm in India we'll definately meet I hope =)

The last day I headed to the Helen Keller Institute in Mumbai. Helen Keller was a blind and deaf woman who had achieved some fame in her day and is often shown as a prodigy, that educating people, who are deaf and blind, works. There are several institutions named after her in the USA (where she lived) but the one in Mumbai only shares the name. Unfortunately I arrived too late at the school and so teaching was over. But I was able to talk with the head of the educational board of the school.
She told me, that their teachers are all trained by the institution and so are more or less specialized in deaf and blind education. The building I visited housed the school for mostly children with multiple disabilities, so deaf and blind or other "combinations". The deaf school was a little further away more in the "new Mumbai" area. When I asked about the Cochlear implant she explained it is too expensive in India. And they would always tell the parents, that the surgery isn't the only step. After this the child needs extensive training to learn how to cope with the implants and maybe be able to hear again. Often this makes the parents think double to pay this huge sum of money. So the main form of communication is sign language. She showed me a book, that people from this Helen Keller Institute made, which contained alot of signs. Here was shown clearly the origins of the sign language. Depending if the schools had british founders they'd use the two-handed alphabeth or if it was more us-american they'd use the one-handed alphabeth. She also explained, that almost every school uses a different set of signs and so the talking between them is difficult. But they manage. In their school they'd use a system more similar to ASL (American Sign Language). While the school in Andhra Pradesh used something derived from BSL (British Sign Language).
It was very interesting to talk with her and hear about the work in their school.

Modern Architecture of Mumbai: A walkover above a very very busy junction of junctions

A Mosque I stumbled across while wandering through town

In the evening I met with Christina and William again, we saw a movie in and old cinema. "The magnificent 7" is a western, of a "typical" us-style. 7 cool good guys fight 1000000 bad guys and win. Though not every good guy survives. And the us-american flag wasn't always visible, which was a nice touch.
But in all an ok action movie and so we headed to the train station to get into a train to Jalgaon, a city from where we could get to the Ajanta caves (oooold monastaries of buddhist monks). We arrived there not too early but not too late and when I didn't see our train written anywhere we asked at the enquiry and they said the train leaves at a different station! Mumbai has approxametely 5 big train stations. Or 10? I don't know. This one was new to me and I still don't know what the abbreviation for the mumbai central station is. Our ticket said mcst (mumbai central station, right?!), nope. So we rushed to a taxi and he sped to the right station, luckily just in time, so we could get into the trian. Damn that was annoying... I just jumped into a coach thinking the coaches are all connected and walkable (from my previous travels), but apparently there were several AC-cars between the one I got in and the one I should be in. the others just ran outside the train and then I had to wait till the first station to be able to ge to my berth...
Annoying. The guy should have told us, when we bought the ticket, we  asked if it would leave here (we bought it at the central station) he said yes... Bah!
But we made it and were finally able to relax a little and eventually sleep and arrive in the early morning in Jalgaon...

Pictures of the Dhoti Ghat (place of the laundry men/ business): 

Drying clothes on a rooftop

View from above

Even more clothes hanging t dry, mostly sorted by colours

Random pic of the day: India! Newest member of the EU?! Britain is out, India comes in... sounds fair

Goa - the north

After arriving in anjuna I searched for a hostel which was recommened to me by 2 german girls, who I met in Palolem: The Funky Monkey.
A very fun place to be, most of the people working there were volunteers from other coutries, backpackers themselves.
I again met alot of people. 3 were Christina, Will and Arthur. We shared one of the dorms together and later did several things, tours and so on etc.

So as I said the hostel was pretty cool. The rooms are divided in severals houses and so there is alot of space in between to do stuff. If the weather were right and so on...
In the evening I met Christina and Will and we went for a few beers to a bar close by at the beach. Thats where we got to know each other and started really hanging our together.
I rented a scooter the next day (they already had a day before) and we drove off to Old Goa, to see some of the old churches and buildings. Unfortnately it took longer than ecpected, so we didn't go further but checked out an old big fort on the way back to Palolem. It had a beautiful view towards the arabian sea and a neat lighthouse closeby. Because it was already late it was closed...

Old Goa - Portugese church

Inside the church: Picture of a bible scene with indian influence!

Church #2 in old Goa

View from the lighthouse (well close to the lighthouse) over the Arabian Sea

The next day we drove towards the north, to see the beaches there and search for another fort (Fort Redy). This was a long ride and on the way I had an accident. While we were driving along a road I overtook a scooter when my helmet came off, so I grabbed it, so it wouldn't hit her, but then I wasn't able to break fast enough and flew over a speedbreaker... Ouch...
But the scooter just had a few scratches (which the guy who rented it actually made me pay for), same as I did. My left side was kinda beaten and scratched up. Now, 2 weeks later its all fine again ;-)
We drove on towards the fort and finally after asking 20 locals (who all showed in different directions) and getting some reception for the phone we found the place! It was an old abandonded fort, no signs close by and hidden in a forest...
But is was kind of cool! Everywhere the forest had regained the place, trees were growing all over the walls and places. A guy had showed us the place, didn't tell us anything but just "guided" us through, he wanted some money at the end of course... he got a small tip from us.
The way back was really rainy and therefore annoying. It was really far, so we skipped the beaches again and just relaxed at the hostel again, chatting with all the people who arrived etc.

Redi Fort: Roots growing down the wall, almost in geometrical shapes

Old building - house maybe - in Redi Fort

More of Redi Fort =)

ME shortly after the accident:

That evening we met Arthur and he took over Wills scooter (who wanted to stay in the hostel) whike Christina and me drove to the north again to actually go to the beaches. And we did. Despite the rain. We didn't swim but had a fancy lunch and were in sort of a resort for a few hours, so the beach was really pretty and clean. We knew the way by then really well so were back home faster and got into a police control at the end... We weren't speeding, but the scooters were actually not meant to be rented (they had wrong licence plates - which we didn't know - and so they threatened to take the bikes away or we pay 400 Rupees, because I forgot my drivers licence and they didn't accept my picture on the phone.
We argued and argued, in the end Christina had to get a bus, so we paid and drove back. Luckily we got a discount from the renters, because it was their bikes and therefore their problem. Annoying!

Another fort we visited:  - it's directly over Anjuna and here nothing except the walls are still standing

And a few of these lookout/ toilets - with a nice view of the ocean

Beach near the resort, lifeguards are driving down along the beach

And thats why the guy made me pay for the scratches (I think), so he had basically gotten the discount back... Cheaky, I was too fed up with everything to care and just went along, because even 2 guys from the hostel joined to tell me I should pay.
That day I left for Mumbai, so not a nice ending again, but it was a great place and I had alot of fun! So it was in all worth it I guess. And I was going to see Christina and Will again, because they were also heading to Mumbai.

Random pic of the day: This half entrance was found on the way to Redi Fort somewhere. Made of plastic, just for show^^

Goa - the south

After a nice train ride (through the mountains and jungle) I arrived in Goa and realised, that the taxis here are REALLY expensive. They have a set rate for most places so they won't really  bargain. So I searched for a bus stop, found one and payed 40 Rupees to the hostel instead of 1500 Rupees.
And yes, I stayed in a hostel! Untill then I didn't really find any and it was great to meet fellow travellers, foreigners as well as indian traveler. I met a few germans, many people from the UK, Ireland and so on. Really nice. The hostel was in Palolem, the south of Goa. Very nice place, beautiful views, nice beaches (you could even swim in there!) and places to hang around in the evening.

I had fun hanging out with all these people, renting scooters and driving around Goa. We visited the beach several times, which was almost deserted, except for a few people - and of course people wanting to sell us stuff. I went on a short boat trip with 3 german girls and one french girl plus a US-couple, which was kind of boring. We just went down a stream for a few hundred meters into a mangrove forest and then back... But in the middle the guy had a chopped up chicken with him and few it to eagles! These were hanging around in the forest, waiting for food. And each boat would give them some.
The days were usually rainy, only the one day we were on our scooters the sun was shining and I got a bad sunburn... Well, shit happens I guess.
But that was a cool day. We drove to several beaches, Cola beach in the north being very secluded and pretty. It was very hard to get there, because there was just one muddy road leading there, which was still wet from the past days...
In total I stayed in Palolem a few nights longer and met an indian guy one day. We visited a small spice farm and drove there with his scooter. At one point he let me drive. When it began to rain I was doing a turn and slipped on some leaves and we landed in the high grass to the side of the road...
No real damage happened and I only had a small bruise so nothing bad. I felt really bad, but he said it was no problem... It could happen to anyone and unfortunately it was me today...
Anyway we arrived back safely after visting a waterfall and stopping at a few places on the way (nice views and more waterfalls)

On the last day I met an irish couple again I met the first day. We shared a taxi to Margao the next day, from where I took a train to the north to get to Anjuna.

Random pic of the day: There were alot of dogs in Palolem. So of course some did Yoga

A buffalo herd, they would often eat around the hostel

What are you lookin at?

Malai Kofta! Interesting dish...

Palolem beach...

Me with Alex' scooter infront of big rice fields

At the spice farm: Little butterfly enjoying the rests of my sweet dish

Waterfall #1 with alot of ppartying indians!

Waterfall #2

Hampi - a city in ruins...

So on my travels I heard alot about Hampi. Mostly people had recommended it, so it sounded pretty great. Additionally I had read about it in the Lonely Planet, so I thought it can't be that bad. Especially the praise from fellow travellers was important. I arrived in the morning at Hospet, the closest Train station and took a bus to Hampi.
The german couple told me about the tourist office being a little weird and that the tour was actually nice and so I decided to try it. The guys from the guest house I was staying in had contact to the tourist office guy who led me into the temple, where the tourist office is situated. There he told me a tour was going to take place and I saw Nicole for the first time. She and I did the tour together with a group of people from Mumbai and Delhi. We had actually signed up for a bicycle tour, but the rest of the group didn't want to, so the guide shoved us into a rickshaw... not too happy we agreed, in the end I thought it was a good thing, because that day was very hot and the sun was burning. She also has a blog you can look up: Weegypsygirl (on facebook for example).

We saw a bunch of interesting buildings, old ruins and the guy explained alot. Meanings of carvings, animals you could see and other cool stuff. Apparently 30 years ago most of the ruins weren''t unearthed, so it was more or less just a small indian village untill people found out it was one a huge ancient city. That's why alot of people had to move away from their homes (they got land and some money as compensation) and so the village on the south side of the river (where most of the ancient city lies) was decimated and as soon as it looked promising tourists came and so almost every building is now accomodation for tourists/ backpackers/ ... Most have a restaurant aswell.
The guide told us he himself lived where they have now discovered old bazaar buildings and so his father had to move away and was compensated a little by the government, so the archeologists could dig.

Just outside of Hampi Bazaar, the temple entrance is the big Gopuram to the left, everywhere ruins!

The three-headed Nandi - only in Hampi! (Nandi is the transport of Shiva)

One of the biggest monolitic Ganesh in India, the Muslims destroyed alot of the Hindu idols 

(you can see the trunk and belly are damaged)

When an idol is destroyed Hindus will no longer worship it and not try to repair/ fix it. As soon as it is damaged it is no longer considered holy...

Even now they are trying to rebuild old structures or just restore how it looked, this is a Gopuram to a Krishna temple.

Many Shiva Lingam (phallic symbol depicting Shiva) were not destroyed - like this one - because the attacking muslims did not consider them idols (no picture of a diety)

Ruins in the palace area, many probably still to be recovered!

The old bathing place of the queen - a quite big pool only for her!

Another view of the palace area

Inside the "underground temple": Many bats! It is called underground, because by now you have to walk down to it. 

Our guide said that is just because so much dust/ dirt/ mud got over it, so the level to walk and drive is simply by now higher than the temple and it was only now rediscovered.

Since then alot has been found, set free, rebuilt and belongs to a huge "open air museum". You would only have to pay to see a few places. But that charge is (at the moment) 500 Rupees for a foreigner, so many decide to just walk up a hill/ around the wall to see the building from a little further away, but save the money. Apparently alot of places have been made much more expensive in the last months, all from the archeological society of India  (if I am not mistaking). Same happened with the temple near Mysore. Someone told me the Taj Mahal costs over 1000 Rupees now. Unbelieveable...
Well anyway, at the end of the tour Nicole told me she was paying less than I was. So I confronted the guy and got 100 Rupees back. Luckily. He told me that when I had booked the tour there were less people I had to pay more (blablabla...).
Pretty shady and it seems they do it more often. A few days later I booked a cooking class from him (or he remimded me I mentioned it to him) and he told me I'm paying 650, the other guy 750 and I shouldn't mention that to the other guy. The other guy told me later he was also paying the tuktuk aswell, so he was paying even more. So it wasn't too bad for him. Anyway I'd recommend asking how much you're paying when doing a tour/ activity in India, especially if you are alone in a group (it usually gets cheaper when more people book something).

In all the tour was fine, we saw alot of buildings and got explained alot, which I thought was cool. Especially as me being a wannabe archeologist and loving old buildings, ruins and such. Just fantastic :D
Another day I went to the northern side of the river to see the places there and rent a scooter to get to the places. I visited a small village called Anegundi nearby, walked up to a temple devoted to Hanuman and drove to a lake, which was really nice.
On the way up to the Hanuman temple I met a few students from a university in Karnataka. They were nice and we chatted for a long time about studying in India and Germany. One of them thaught me a few words and phrases in Kanada (the local language of Karnataka), which I might actually need at some point in life. If I can remember them. The temple itself was rather small, but you could get free food (for a small donation) and it was nice meeting indian people my age.
The village was interesting. It had a really big wall around it, one I wouldn't have expected in such a small place. I drove around, got almost attacked by dogs, kids tried to scam me and I got a cute map from a guy, who works for an activity center there. Unfortunately the places recommended to me where closed (no season I guess) and the activities at the center I got the map from were all too expensive for a single person... but the tours sounded interesting, so if you're in a group it might actually be cool to go there!
From there I headed towards the west to see a lake. It was pretty cool. I stood next to a wall and when I peaked over to see what was behind I saw it was actually water! In theory I would have been to my neck in water if it hadn't been for the wall! Crazy! I drove around, a really nice drive, cool views, alot of warning signs saying a crocodile roams the lake, so you shouldn't swim. Poeple told me it's fake, so it is actually safe to swim there. I hadn't planned that, so I just drove around and returned the scooter in time for the last official ferry back to the south side. There is only one ferry between the places north and south of the river which is actually cheap (10 Rupees) but outside of their working hours it can get expensive (up to 100 Rupees + backpack fees). Oh yeah, sometimes they'd charge extra for your backpack! And the working hours aren't that long. Like 9 am till 5 pm... And of course if you leave in the evening or arrive by night bus that would suck.
In the north there is supposedly more life, party and so on for backpackers and tourists, the south - called Hampi Bazaar - is a little more calm and maybe even conservative (no beer or meat, if you don't know the right places).

This is one of the Ganeshs the Hindu threw into the water in their festival of Ganesh. Slowl the colour is being washed off, same as the statue itself

Now this is a centipede! (found on the way up to the Hanuman temple)

Now that is one big swimming pool! The dam I was talking about, it is pretty big!

Oh no! It's leaking...

I love that it just saya crocodile and not crocodiles - so there is just one?

Old derelict temple near Anegundi

The big gates to this small village Anegundi... Kind of oversized?

The last day I just wandered around the ruins. That is when I met Raji. He is a hindu monk who is currently taking care of a small Hanuman shrine in Hampi. When he saw me approaching he opened his shrine and waved me inside. I just entered and we talked. About religion, life and the world. He has some reservations about the violent muslim terrorists, but who doesn't. On the other hand it almost sounded as if he thought this religion was violent itself. But I think that might have been because he isn't that fluent in english. He often had to think hard about what to say and might have had a few "translation" errors. But it was interesting talking to a religious person of Hinduism once again and I stayed for some time. At one point he started making a necklace and gave it to me as a present, it holds the seed of a Rudraksh tree. This tree only grows where the tears of Shiva drop. He was for a few years in the Himalayas, as he told me, and gathered a few seeds and now gave me this as a present. Very glad a little excited I went on viewing other ruins and taking alot of pictures.

These carvings into the ground were numerous around Hampi. I think it shows people worshiping the gods in the temple, because this is still a common gesture, people throw themselves to the ground, hands towards the sacred idol and pray for a bit. So this might have been normal aswell back in the day (500 years ago)

Many small idol pieces found by archeologists, mabny show snakes, snake forms - all in one way holy I guess (in the temple area)

Another big gate, but this belongs to Hampi itself, supposedly the entrance to the temple area

Big place in the temple area, maybe a old water tank for washing the idols?

India... They leave their laundry in the old temples to let it dry... seriously?!

Oooo lala... Sexy carvings around the front columns of this temple!

Me after visiting Raji - with a brown bindi! (made by sandalwood powder he said)

My last picture of Hampi... the big Gopuram of the temple with its light on top. Around the streets you might be able to see old bazaar buildings

In the evening I sadly missed the sunset (it was very clouded anyway) and was too late to make it up the hill, but met Raji again. We did the Puja at his Hanuman shrine together (well he performed it and I was in there) and after that we went into Hampi Bazaar for a Tschai. We talked a little more untill I was too hungry and left for dinner. He invited me to the morning Puja, but sadly I had a train to catch. If I had known it was delayed I would have visited him again, but I cannot see into the future so I missed out.
Next time!

Ramdon picture of today: Ben Hur would be proud! Found on many front wheels of rickshaws!