After an overnight bus trip, we arrived in Hampi to be greeted by the usual mob of rickshaw drivers, offering to take us anywhere in town that we wanted to go for only 10 rupees. Since we knew that the town was only one street, we fought our way through the crowd and began the search for a hotel. We found a room and settled in. Our first mission: to find breakfast. On the main street, we found a little restaurant. Not long after our food arrived we were approached by a young local boy with a pet monkey. He was asking for money and food. Most towns ask that you not give money, especially to children because they don’t want to legitimize begging as a lifestyle. We did offer him some fruit for him and his monkey, and he shared it with his younger brother. Hampi is known for having a large number of ruined temples, and we decided to explore the area on motor scooters. We rented two, and set off. About 3 miles outside of town, we realized that there was a problem with Mike’s scooter. It was loosing power quickly. We stopped on the side of the road to investigate. We looked in the tank, and found that the scooter was almost out of gas. The attendant who rented us the bike had forgotten to put in the gas we had purchased. Our only option was to keep going to the next town and hope we made it before the tank completely ran out. We were relieved to hear that there was a gas station close by, but arrived there to find it was out of gas! We asked around town, and were told that there wasn’t another gas station in town, but that we could buy gas from a shop. They fill up water bottles with petrol and charge 25 rupees more than the petrol station. We were stuck, so we bought another litre and continued our ride. The next day we made a visit to Virupaksha Temple. Outside the temple, ladies sell bananas, which you can give in offering to the temple gods, or to the cows or Lakshmi. The cows outside the temple are very friendly, almost like dogs. They want you to pet them and feed them bananas and are very affectionate. Inside the temple, the highlight is a visit with Lakshmi the temple elephant. She accepts offerings for the temple, and in return will bless you by tapping you on the head with her trunk. Despite her size, she was very gentle and sweet. There were also two tribes of monkeys, who lived inside the temple, and visitors with food offerings had to keep a close watch on the thieving beasts.
Chelsea and Mike headed out of town that night, leaving Leon and I alone for the first time since South Africa. We decided to walk down to the river and find a restaurant for a nice dinner. We enjoyed some of the best curry in India at a place called the Mango and on the way home, we were delighted to see that it was bath time for the elephant Lakshmi. She bathed in the river, spraying herself and her handler with water. The next day we walked to the other end of town and explored the ruined temple complex and the ghats along the river. We ended the day with a hike up Matanga Hill for a spectacular view of the town and the surrounding area. We left Hampi and headed further south to the town of Mysore.
