Home from home

The last time we left off we were going to spend our 2nd day in Hampi exploring the town. Well it didn’t quite happen like that! We loved it so much that we decided to stay a 3rd night and postpone the sightseeing another day. We lounged, ate, read and generally had a wonderful time relaxing in the beautiful surroundings.



Despite deciding to stay for a 4th night as well, we went out to see the temple complexes the next day. They were very impressive and our auto rickshaw driver took us to all the right places. After an hour and a half we were starting to feel the heat though and headed back to the town. We had decided to have a nice cold drink at The Mango Tree, more or less directly opposite our hut on the other side of the river. After our refreshing drinks we inquired as to how easy it was to traverse the river on our own. Of course the question was met with a quick head wobble and directions for the best route.



There are more pictures to add to this album when we are able to.

We left the safety of the road and wandered down, through the rice paddies, to the banks of the river. It looked deep! There wasn’t really anywhere to go either. We clambered over some rocks (another trouser crotch gone) and through the mud (nearly lost a flip-flop) to no avail. We ended up enlisting the local kids to help, Ryan 1st, Jen 2nd and me, with a bag full of cameras, last. This was interesting! It was very slippery and murky, not an easy crossing, and by the end I had 3 kids trying to take me 3 different routes! We did make it though, a little damp, 30 rupees and a pen down, feeling that our sense of adventure had been satiated – time to get back to the safety of our porch!

Our last full day in Hampi was spent as the others before it, doing nothing and loving it. We lounged and contemplated our early morning and day of travel the next day. We had heard about a temple only 10 mins by tuktuk from Mowgli that was kept by a guy who looked after the local monkeys. The plan was to get there for sunrise and see the monkeys being fed. We agreed a price with a tuktuk driver the night before and met him at 530am yesterday. When we reached the entrance to the temple we realised the extent of the climb ahead. The steps up to the top zig-zagged up the side of the rocky mountain and brought back memories of the Inca Trail, fortunately only for 15 mins rather than 4 days!

We sat at the top of the hill, watching the sunrise and seeing the monkeys roaming around the temple, trying to avoid too much confrontation with the local dogs! The steps were just as tiring on the way down and we were in no position to rest when we got back to the guesthouse. We finished packing and headed out the door for the long day ahead of us.

Three buses, 3 tuktuks and 12 hours later we arrived here in Panji tired, hungry and filthy! We checked into a budget hotel, my turn to sleep on the floor, and went in search of food and cold beer! We found them at a great restaurant that has both Indian and Portuguese roots in keeping with the town itself. After a lovely meal and deliciously cold beers, we got our heads down for the night. Today we had planned to leave for Mumbai but the train is full so we leave tomorrow at 940am and arrive a full 12 hours later. At least we went for the AC class this time.

We have spent the last few days planning the tail end of India and from there onwards. We fly to the Andaman Islands on the 21st from Kolkata for some island life and SCUBA diving, we will be getting our Advanced Open Water certification ready for some wreck and deep diving on the rest of the trip. We return to Chennai on the 27th before flying to Singapore on the 28th, where we head straight to Jakarta, Indonesia, for 3 weeks exploring Java, Bali and Lombok. On the 19th we return to Singapore for the night before flying to Borneo, the Malaysian part, for a week where we will hopefully get to see Brunei as well. After this we should have enough time to explore Kuala Lumpur and a little more of Singapore before we head to CA for SNWMF and family visits.

More updates soon!