Hampi
An 8 hour bus ride and there I was. In any anthropologist's dreamland. Turn to the left: ruins. Turn to the right: more ruins! It was soo cool. I was a little confused on the timeframe though... the tour guide we had was a little contradictory.. but he was quite the character. It's the off season (because of monsoons) so the snall town that is built on tourism was eager for our business and patronage... which means... as soon as we stepped off the bus, we were bombarded with people giving us cards to their respective hotels and guest houses. "clean! cheap! Shanthi Guest House!"
We ended up staying at this place right by the river with a great view of the temple and a rooftop restaurant that had these wonderful crepe pancake things. (you know me and my food).
It was so nice to be out of Bangalore. Hampi had minimal smog and it was quiet. Which is always welcome after a month of not being able to escape the wild dog noises and honking of the Bangalolre night.
The second day we were there, we rented bicycles and rode up to the temple of Haruman (the monkey god).... from the base of this mountain, it's 550 steps to the top.. to the temple... and to a hoard of monkeys that will gladly relieve you of your camera and other belongings if you are not careful. Nothing of mine was taken... but one would not leave the perch of my head/neck/shoulders. I sorta had to thow it off... :/ However... i am not diseased..yet. Maybe i should give the ebola time to set in before i crow too loudly. We ate seated on the floor under a mango tree by the light of little lanterns. That was the most picturesque part I think. And there was an awesome wooden swing on the giant tree. If you faced into the dark, it felt as if you were swinging into the abyss... however once the fireflies appeared it sorta ruined the illusion... i love fireflies.
My sunburn is turning into a sweet farmer's tan. :D
Though this was a wondeful trip... there is always a downside (right?)
One of the girls in our group (Alex... she's french) came home saturday with a mildly swollen foot.. She didn't fall and doesn't remember getting bitten by anything, but it kept getting worse. She didn't want to leave early.. and insisted on still doing everything, even with here bloated appendage. The bus broke on the way home (pretty common)... but we made it back at about 7 am monday morning... we found out school was canceled due to the death of one of the prominent priests at the University, and we took Alex to the hospital.
She was admitted, since they didn't know what it was that was causing the swelling.. and is still there. We don't know how long she'll be in there... not too much longer i hope.
Oh yeah.. another fellow USACer is ill with the mumphs.. crazy.
I will have to start posting some pictures... i got some awesome ones in Hampi...
Oh yeah.. i saw my first Indian elephant. He was a temple elephant.. trained to give blessings... a great big elephant trunk tapping you on the head in a blessing is sorta unnerving... but fun.
YAY!
We ended up staying at this place right by the river with a great view of the temple and a rooftop restaurant that had these wonderful crepe pancake things. (you know me and my food).
It was so nice to be out of Bangalore. Hampi had minimal smog and it was quiet. Which is always welcome after a month of not being able to escape the wild dog noises and honking of the Bangalolre night.
The second day we were there, we rented bicycles and rode up to the temple of Haruman (the monkey god).... from the base of this mountain, it's 550 steps to the top.. to the temple... and to a hoard of monkeys that will gladly relieve you of your camera and other belongings if you are not careful. Nothing of mine was taken... but one would not leave the perch of my head/neck/shoulders. I sorta had to thow it off... :/ However... i am not diseased..yet. Maybe i should give the ebola time to set in before i crow too loudly. We ate seated on the floor under a mango tree by the light of little lanterns. That was the most picturesque part I think. And there was an awesome wooden swing on the giant tree. If you faced into the dark, it felt as if you were swinging into the abyss... however once the fireflies appeared it sorta ruined the illusion... i love fireflies.
My sunburn is turning into a sweet farmer's tan. :D
Though this was a wondeful trip... there is always a downside (right?)
One of the girls in our group (Alex... she's french) came home saturday with a mildly swollen foot.. She didn't fall and doesn't remember getting bitten by anything, but it kept getting worse. She didn't want to leave early.. and insisted on still doing everything, even with here bloated appendage. The bus broke on the way home (pretty common)... but we made it back at about 7 am monday morning... we found out school was canceled due to the death of one of the prominent priests at the University, and we took Alex to the hospital.
She was admitted, since they didn't know what it was that was causing the swelling.. and is still there. We don't know how long she'll be in there... not too much longer i hope.
Oh yeah.. another fellow USACer is ill with the mumphs.. crazy.
I will have to start posting some pictures... i got some awesome ones in Hampi...
Oh yeah.. i saw my first Indian elephant. He was a temple elephant.. trained to give blessings... a great big elephant trunk tapping you on the head in a blessing is sorta unnerving... but fun.
YAY!