Hampi’s not quite direct to reach. I had to take a grueling overnight mosquito-ridden 11 hour bus to Hospet from Hyderabad (450 rupees), a 10 minute auto-rickshaw to the bus stand (5 rupees if you get in the early morning), and then a 45 minute public bus ride to Hampi (13 rupees).
Overall, despite my separation anxiety from Hyderabad, it’s been worth the experience.
I also met Lakshmi the elephant:
For the uninitiated, Hampi is the historical setting for the Ramanyana Balletaka the Hindu epic which we saw performed live when I was at Prambanan about a month ago: Buddha vs. Shiva.
So let me wrap my head around this: A ballet which I randomly attended 4 weeks ago — in another country no less — was a story about a sacred place. And that same sacred place is where I’m blogging from right now.
It’s quite nice to put two and two together on the same trip, especially when you didn’t plan on any of it.
The scenery is as gorgeous as you can believe it to be:
I then happened upon a band of wild monkeys looking to cause mischief…
Not all of them were out to steal my coke bottles:
This is the actual site of the Ramayana Epic, which again was a play we saw only a few weeks ago in Prambanan, Indonesia:
Off to dinner at Mango Tree! Wish you were here.
- At time of posting in Hampi, India, it was 30 °C - Humidity: 82% | Wind Speed: n/a | Cloud Cover: chance of T-storms