I'm currently laid up in bed in Bangalore with yet another wonderful tropical illness to add to the books for this year - so let's talk about something a little bit more fun why don't we? How about Hampi.
Only a day's train ride from Goa's beachy chill-out zone, Hampi feels like a completely different world. A sprawling ancient capital filled with towering ruins and giant granite boulders, it's a wild mix of Angkor Wat and Bagan, with a little bit of Arizona landscape thrown in for good measure. It's definitely one of the most mysterious and awe-inspiring places I've ever visited, and in three days we really feel like we only scratched the surface of everything the once opulent ancient city of Vijayangara has to offer.
We stayed in a small guesthouse across the river from Hampi Bazaar and spent the majority of our time cruising around on motorbikes, exploring ashrams, hiking up into crumbling old temples perched on hillsides, and taking picture after picture after picture. I enjoyed stalking temple monkeys, Nick spent an afternoon discussing work with local herders, and Jesse befriended an ashram leader who took him on a tour through some hidden ruins and treated him to a good authentic ashram lunch, complete with chanting and plentiful veg finger food. That's him in the white gowns.
Our second day in town we awoke to news that the town of Hampi (across the river) was being torn to the ground. Restaurants and shops were closed, the streets were filled with rubble and residents gathered bags and carts of belongings as the demolition went on behind them. After asking around a bit, we discovered that the district administration had finally followed through on threats to bulldoze any parts of the village that were encroaching on the heritage ruins. This turns out to be virutally all of the town, as residents for generations have gradually built their homes and businesses up around the various temple walls.
It looked like a scene from a natural disaster, and while I can certainly understand trying to preserve what has to be one of India's most important religious and cultural monuments, it's hard to imagine how that level of destruction could possibly be justified. Certainly not what we expected, and a strange scene to continuously look back on from the beauty and history of the town's famous ruins only a few steps away.
We're now in Bangalore, where we've been so lucky to stay at the wonderful home of some great family friends from Seattle, and pondering next steps. Considering my brush with the nasty dengue, we're working on a rather massive (and exciting!!) change of plans in terms of upcoming travel. Stay tuned...
