Day 111: Kadalekalu Ganesha Temple, Hampi

Kadelekau Ganesha Temple was right at the top of a hill right outside of Hampi Bazaar. We saved it for our last morning in Hampi. We didn’t think ahead that the temples would be flooded with Indian tourists off of work and out of school over the weekend. We were immediately surrounded by curious children and we chatted and walked together from one Ganesh temple to the next, and then we weren’t at all surprised when they spotted us sitting in the shade inside the Krishna Temple. One of the girls said she was going to show her father the picture of her with us when she got home. (Adorable!) Again, I cannot stress how much I love LOVE India when I’m not trying to get from point A to point B, get a room for the night, buy a blanket… (anything involving money, really…) These girls and these interactions are why people and me included say I LOVE India!

Opposite the Krishna Temple was this wide open space lined with ancient pillars. Unfortunately we had (have) no idea what it was used for. I’m guessing another bazaar of some sort simply because it was reminded me of the bazaar we saw the day before.

I thought this woman looked so calm reading on what is actually a rooftop that was even with the road, but sat above the river below.

Day 110: the ancient ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire

The Vijayanagara Empire. Hampi. By motorbike (even though it might have been the weakest motorbike in all of India). When we visited Siem Reap, the tuktuk mafia banned tourists from renting motorbikes so they could have more business. It was impossible to even find a motorbike to rent and we were told if we did find one, the tuktuk drivers would act all crazy on the road. Luckily, this wasn’t the case in Hampi and we were able to rent a bike fairly cheaply and head out to see the ancient ruins of the Vijayanagara on our our own!

We began close to Hampi bazaar (that’s the name of the area we stayed in) and walked through a few smaller temples next to the Tungabhadra River. Some women were sitting outside of one unnamed temple and offered some of their snack as we walked by. I think it was dried potato flakes. They looked like flat frosted flakes, only covered in grease, not sugar. They didn’t taste bad, but the women insisted on giving us quite a large portion, so I wrapped most of it up for the little chipmunks residing in the temples. We walked through the ruins of a bazaar outside of Achyutaraya Temple (also known as Tiruvengalanatha Temple) first. It was quiet compared to the rest of India. Few tourists walked through, hawkers weren’t present, and monkeys seemed to keep to themselves. (I think they had enough drama going on actually- they were quite territorial with each other, which was fun to watch!)

Before we went into Vitthala temple, a teacher asked to take his picture with us. He handed his camera over to his students and stood in between me and Andrew for a shot. Afterwards, the girls asked for their own photo. Aren’t they beautiful? I am so envious of how colorful their “school” clothes are compared to my Catholic school girl grey uniform.

I mostly sat in the temple and watched groups of students and tourists go by. And I fed a little chipmunk, which was equally entertaining. We could go below the temple (I’m not sure for what purpose) but it was incredibly dark. Some parts of it were pitch black. I scared a student or two because they were all excited and anxious to walk through. Haunted House style, you know? Afterwards, we went back to Hampi Bazaar and had dinner before we tried to sleep through the very loud family we were staying with. They say it’s a guesthouse, but it would be more accurate if it was labeled “home-stay” because the wall in our room didn’t reach the ceiling and it felt like we were in on every conversation, television show, and bouts of crying children in their living-room area!

Day 109: Hampi, Virupaksha Temple

Hampi was not on our list of places to see in India. And then not one, nor two, but three different people (or sets of people) said it was their favorite place in all of India (or at least of all of where they visited). We shaved a day off of Mumbai and a couple off of Goa to squeeze it in. I’m so glad we did. The town is tiny, less than ten roads that go around or form a humble dirt grid of guesthouses and restaurants. The town is somewhat smack in the middle of the ancient capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. So all around these little dirt roads are huge boulders, a beautiful river, and ancient ruins.

The empire was created in 1336 by two brothers whose main goal was to protect the area from Islamic invasions. For nearly 300 years, the kingdom of Vijayanagara prospered and ruled over the majority of the southern peninsula. Andrew bought a book on Hampi from a small business owner (he was 13. maybe. I enjoyed his small business owner sales pitch immensely) and we read up on the empire’s rise and fall and tried to figure out which ruin was which during our visit.

Our first stop was the Virupaksha Temple right outside of Hampi proper. Virupaksha is a temple dedicated to Shiva and is considered the holiest temple in and around Hampi.

We walked through, past monkeys, into underground chambers, and even a tiny dark room that had a built-in pinhole like camera where the temple appeared on the back wall upside down. And then, on our way out, it was time for our latest impromptu photo shoot.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve seen this with others, where an Indian baby is pushed into the arms of a Western tourist and the baby is so confused and scared that he or she starts crying and the tourist is embarrassed… I knew the drill. That baby wasn’t having any of it, so I just laughed and insisted it was ok that I didn’t hold her for a group picture.

I fired off a few frames of this beautiful mother and daughter. After, as usual, when I went to show her the screen, a million little fingers started pushing buttons and I couldn’t figure out what setting was changed when I could only see one of the frames I shot of her. It was stuck on a rather unflattering ‘talking’ kind of shot. You know, where someone’s mouth is open weird and it just looks silly. She was a little embarrassed, laughing it off, but when I finally figured out the changed settings and uploaded the images, I was delighted to have gotten this image! If only I could have tracked her down again to show it to her so she would be delighted as well!

One of the boys kept asking for ‘photo’ which was confusing until I realized he really wanted to take a photo himself. He was delighted when I handed over my DSLR (making sure the strap was around his neck of course) and let him take a few shots.

By this point, there was quite the crowd of amused parents and Indian tourists watching the photo shoot. Many of them laughed at the excitement (Obviously these pictures are only some of the many that were taken inside the temple walls) and warmly smiled back at me when we finally tore ourselves away and walked out. Interacting with India when it clearly does not involve an exchange of money is an entirely different ballgame. A ballgame I want to play everyday. If only…

As you can imagine, I needed a little bit of an Indian pick-me-up and Hampi was already proving to be a necessary spoonful of sugar.