11-14/mar hampi 03

Breakfast with the french guy, and back to the acropolis. It's good to think about what to do, it's good for writing, since it's very relaxed... and I decided to go back to hospet, to keep my blog updated. Hampi it's extremely hot today, and I'm still tired from yesterday, so the idea to remember past days, on a air/con environment, sounded very good. On my way back to hampi, I found rebecca. She moved to my guest house. We decided to go to see the sunset at a mountain. More than a mountain that was a huge monolitic stone, flat enough to be comfortable while admiring that amazing sunset. The place was near vittala temple, and was empty. And I can say that that sunset was one of the nicest I had ever seen!! The place was just too special, I had never seen nothing like that before. Like a fairytale; rivers, stone temples, greenery, palm trees, huge stones, mountains...The company was very good, fun and interesting, and the light... breathtaking; the colors were very orangish, the sky very clear. It was as my sight could see everything!! After a while, we went down and spent a few hours chatting by the river, till a police came to tell us that we were not allowed to stay there. Dinner after that, thali, of course. The day after, the 3 korean girls left, and Sun left me a very sweet note. It's amazing the details that the korean people can have. They always surprise me positively, like the 2 girls from korea I met in kolkata.After having breakfast and renting bikes, we started pedalling south, stoping every now and then, enjoying the landscape (that includes architecture), its history... that part was a little bit dryer, and it was hot. So when we found a kind of hose (esperssors), we started playing with them. I was absolutely wet, and since I was wearing new trousers, indian made, green, I looked like hulk after that. The discolour was important! I also swam in a river, and went from one side to the other. It wasn't that big, but after a couple of days someone told us that there were crocodiles, something that I don't really believe. Even if I like the idea!!! Another nice sunset, but this time from the top of a mountain, where there was a temple. This one was not as nice as the other, but was ok. And that day the dinner was at the mango tree, a very nice place west of hampi, where you had to walk betwee fields, without light, and where was possible to see insects with light. And the place in itself was very quiet and well done. Big steps, with low tables. Carpets and pillows, very little light... just a potential perfect place!! I woke the day after tired again. We had done 20 km at least the day before. I went to hospet, since my blog was not updated yet... I still write very slow, but I see this writing as a kind of job, as the possibily to have some of the memories of this trip forever. On my way back to hampi, I was told that the town was almost empty, but because of tourism people started moving here. They are 2000 now, plus tourists. So even if the town has grown up, they manage somehow to keep this old-town atmosphere. Houses are 1 or max 2 stories. I think there was only one 4 storey building, a little bit far from the 'center', very ugly. I wonder how all this will be in the future. They are using the stone of the area to build fences and any possible thing that can be build with that stone.The closest old buildings, temple-kind, have been reused. One of them is a school, and it really looked nice. There are quite many children. And the town is clean, something strange in india, even if small town are always much cleaner than cities. Even of that, there were no trash bins around, but people sweeping. This time, we saw the sunset from the hanuman temple, from the top of a mountain. One must climb more than 400 steps to get there... but it was nice. The only problem is that one of the monkeys (hanuman temple is the temple of the monkey god) bite rebecca's arm, and that means 3 rabies vaccinations... a part from that, and after chosing the perfect rock to sit on, we saw a group of 'killer bees' that passed very close to the us, and indians told us that those bees could be very dangerous, since they travel in huge groups... fortunately, nothing bad happened!! a part from the monkey business!! A bad thing, that turned into nothing, but that sometimes worried me, is that I hurted my knee by just sitting on an incomfortable position... let's see. Brekfast with the french guy, and back to the acropolis. It's good to think about what to do, it's good for writing, since it's very relaxed... and I decided to go back to hospet, to keep my blog updated. Hampi it's extremely hot today, and I'm still tired from yesterday, so the idea to remember past days, on a air/con environment, sounded very good. On my way back to hampi, I found rebecca. She moved to my guest house. We decided to go to see the sunset at a mountain. More than a mountain that was a huge monolitic stone, flat enough to be comfortable while admiring that amazing sunset. The place was near vittala temple, and was empty. And I can say that that sunset was one of the nicest I had ever seen!! The place was just too special, I had never seen nothing like that before. Like a fairytale; rivers, stone temples, greenery, palm trees, huge stones, mountains...The company was very good, fun and interesting, and the light... breathtaking; the colors were very orangish, the sky very clear. It was as my sight could see everything!! After a while, we went down and spent a few hours chatting by the river, till a police came to tell us that we were not allowed to stay there. Dinner after that, thali, of course. The day after, the 3 korean girls left, and Sun left me a very sweet note. It's amazing the details that the korean people can have. They always surprise me positively, like the 2 girls from korea I met in kolkata.After having breakfast and renting bikes, we started pedalling south, stoping every now and then, enjoying the landscape (that includes architecture), its history... that part was a little bit dryer, and it was hot. So when we found a kind of hose (esperssors), we started playing with them. I was absolutely wet, and since I was wearing new trousers, indian made, green, I looked like hulk after that. The discolour was important! I also swam in a river, and went from one side to the other. It wasn't that big, but after a couple of days someone told us that there were crocodiles, something that I don't really believe. Even if I like the idea!!! Another nice sunset, but this time from the top of a mountain, where there was a temple. This one was not as nice as the other, but was ok. And that day the dinner was at the mango tree, a very nice place west of hampi, where you had to walk betwee fields, without light, and where was possible to see insects with light. And the place in itself was very quiet and well done. Big steps, with low tables. Carpets and pillows, very little light... just a potential perfect place!! I woke the day after tired again. We had done 20 km at least the day before. I went to hospet, since my blog was not updated yet... I still write very slow, but I see this writing as a kind of job, as the possibily to have some of the memories of this trip forever. On my way back to hampi, I was told that the town was almost empty, but because of tourism people started moving here. They are 2000 now, plus tourists. So even if the town has grown up, they manage somehow to keep this old-town atmosphere. Houses are 1 or max 2 stories. I think there was only one 4 storey building, a little bit far from the 'center', very ugly. I wonder how all this will be in the future. They are using the stone of the area to build fences and any possible thing that can be build with that stone.The closest old buildings, temple-kind, have been reused. One of them is a school, and it really looked nice. There are quite many children. And the town is clean, something strange in india, even if small town are always much cleaner than cities. Even of that, there were no trash bins around, but people sweeping. This time, we saw the sunset from the hanuman temple, from the top of a mountain. One must climb more than 400 steps to get there... but it was nice. The only problem is that one of the monkeys (hanuman temple is the temple of the monkey god) bite rebecca's arm, and that means 3 rabies vaccinations... a part from that, and after chosing the perfect rock to sit on, we saw a group of 'killer bees' that passed very close to the us, and indians told us that those bees could be very dangerous, since they travel in huge groups... fortunately, nothing bad happened!! a part from the monkey business!! A bad thing, that turned into nothing, but that sometimes worried me, is that I hurted my knee by just sitting on an incomfortable position... let's see. After a couple of month being perfect (I mean my health!), I spent a bad night, stomach problems... I think I woke up 15 or 20 times!!! Fortunately I was allright during the day. I decided that I had seen enough of hampi, and that was time to go on, so I bought my train ticket (this time was possible) to margao. And as I was just a little bit weak, I took rebecca's mp3 player, and spent the day reading and listening music on a very nice and relaxed bar by the river. There I met a couple of british girls, studing aryuvedic massage in kerala. Made some writing, and eating just plain rice... very boring food, since everytihng here is so tasty, and the plain rice... well, let's forget about that! I shaved myself on the terrace, with the amazing views of the surroundings of hampi, a small mirror leaning on a broken chair, and a big bucket full of water between my legs. That afternoon we went to see a unexistent waterfall. Fortunately the place was worth going, and was good enough for chatting. After that dinner at the mango tree restaurant again, and time for 'goodbye', before going to sleep. It was great meeting her here, let's see if we stay in touch! The bad thing of traveling, is that you meet lots of people, that became close to you very fast, and that you think that you'll stay in touch forever, but then, you leave, meet new people, have the same feeling again... and then you start losing the contact, and sometimes is very sad. Anyway, the chance to meet this huge amount of people has no price!!!

1/4/05