Boring - another World Heritage Site - Nov 25, 2008

Not much to say as I took the train to Hampi, a nine hour journey.

The only thing of note is that the train had quite a few whities all heading to Hampi to see this wonder.

Along the way I chat with French, German and many English speaking Indians. Many Indians wanted to take a picture with me. They’re such friendly folk.

I chat with an India man about my age on one of the train stations along the way and when we get back on the train he starts chatting with a fellow traveler. I thought to myself, “That’s not Hindi”.

There was a lull in their conversation and I asked if they were speaking Hindi. “No”, says he, “We are speaking Bengali”. What an interesting indigenous language, for the moment I thought they were speaking Japanese. Apparently there are over 250 indigenous languages in India.

We arrive about two hours late and there’s a mad scramble to get a tuc-tuc to the bus station. My little tuc-tuc driver tells me he will drive me all the way to Hampi as the train station is Hospet, about 15kms from Hampi.

We negotiate and we are off on the INDY 500, ala the mad dash to Hampi to get a hotel.

I hadn’t book a place so I keep prodding him to go faster, not that he needed any prodding. He does the usual, “I have a hotel sir”. “Take me to this place”. “Mine is so nice – it’s free to look”. “Now buddy, look in my eyes – what part of NO don’t you understand”

We are the first to Hampi and I get the last room in the hotel of my choice, expensive, and explain the law of supply and demand to the owner.

But is OK, not like last night with TV and everything. There’s not even a drop of wine here – and I am here for two days – AHG!

So I will walk or ride a bike around this 15 km site as the temples are scattered all over the place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi