Among the Hampi boulders

It was kind of hard to drag ourselves away from Goa, but the boulders of Hampi were calling and we would have plenty of time for the beach upon arrival in Thailand. We hopped onto yet another night bus and spent yet another relatively sleepless night winding our way to through the countryside towards Hampi. As the sun rose in the morning I ducked my head out the bus and was greeted by hundreds of thousands of boulders as far as the eye could see... we must be close. About an our later we arrived in Hampi. Hampi is famous for its massive ruins and boulder strewn landscape, which provides endless things to explore. The area we wanted to stay on was on the other side of the river that ran through town so we took a tiny ferry to the other side and booked ourselves into a nice little hut, similar to the one we had in Goa.

A sampling of temples

We were both pretty lazy on the first day so after a little nap, we rented a motorcycle and roamed the streets to try and get a feel for the place. We stopped by a temple dedicated to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman located up on a hill. At the top we were greeted by amazing panoramic views of the area. There were boulders as far as the eye could see in every direction, a beautiful river running through town, and rice paddies galor. The only mistake we made was climbing the hill in the middle of the day when it was 35 degrees out. It being a Hindu temple they also made you remove your shoes. This meant walking on scorching rock so we didn't stay up there for very long.

I gave the monkey a banana and he was very happy

The path up to the Hanuman temple

Hanuman temple

Hanuman - a fitting god to be praised in Hampi

Crossing the river with the motorbike

The 80 rupee thali at the best restaurant in Hampi: The Mango Tree

Our next two days were spent roaming around the ruins that make Hampi famous. While the town is tiny now, it once had a population of 500 000 people and evidence of this was found everywhere. One of the most memorable experiences was getting blessed by the holy elephant that lived in one of the temples. You hand him 10 rupees, he'll pass the $$ to his handler, then give you a blessing that consisted of a pat you on the head.

Laundry time

Pass the elephant 10 rupees...

... get a blessing

Ruins

Eat your heart out Allan Ramsay

Ganesh the elephant god

Kiersten loves Hanuman

The ferry dock

Rice paddies

Too hard

It was always very warm out

Elephant stables

We didn't go for a swim

Even though we were both really badly out of climbing shape, we couldn't leave Hampi without doing a bit of bouldering. We were able to rent an old bouldering pad and some shoes that didn't fit at a little guesthouse around the corner, and spent the next three days (or mornings to be more exact) climbing. It started to get really hot by 11am so we were out in the boulders arond 7am and made the best of it. Anyways, we only tasted a tiny fraction of the boulders Hampi had to offer and blown away by the variety. You could spend a lifetime in Hampi and not climb the same problem twice. I just wish we had been in better shape.

How did that happen??

The ants go marching...

We also happened to be in Hampi for the Hindu festival of Holi, which essentially involves throwing paint at each other in the streets. We kind of botched our Holi experience though. The day of the celebration we went out climbing in the morning and by the time we were finished, so was the madness. We had filled about 50 ballons full of paint, which were now useless. I took a few and threw them at buildings to vent my frustration.

We found this dog passed out after a Holi adventure in front of our hut

Home sweet home

Afternoon siesta

Post-Holi tourists

Take that wall!

I didn't make it

Our german friend

Elephants need baths too

A typical meal

Aquaducts

Overall we spent about 5 days in Hampi before making the long journey to Kolkata. Anyone interested in checking out the climbing should try and get a hold of the Chris Sharma video "Pilgrimage." The entire thing takes place in Hampi.