Oh, The Places You'll Go..

Hampi has one of the strangest, most magical landscapes I've ever experienced. Ancient ruins from the Vijayanagar dynasty (1200-1600?) are literally everywhere, from sprawling temples to tiny little structures perched precariously atop giant rock formations, all of them constructed from massive granite blocks. Add in the banana fields and coconut palms and it really looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book!

Yesterday Fred and I rented small motorbikes to go tooling around the area and I'm afraid I've been bitten by the bug...motorbike is one of the best ways to explore India and I've known it for a long time. I was a bit hesitant at first, slowly working my way up to thirty kph, then forty, then fifty...the roads here aren't great so you can't go too fast, though it can get a little hairy in towns and cities where the "wobble and tip" factor goes way up. But it's mostly open roads out here so we cruised along like old pros, weaving our way through herds of cows and water buffalo, goats, and even little muddy baby pigs. In the smaller villages we got swarmed by hoardes of squealing children who ran after our bikes. We must have waved and said hello to a thousand people yesterday, all of whom responded with huge smiles and waved back. I was on a real high, realizing that I've never experienced a more friendly place in India than Karnataka..

At some point we ended up in a town called Kampli where I was excited to find a chemist (pharmacy) to refill my eye drops and infection pills. We roamed a bit and quickly discovered a street procession of drummers followed by a huge truck painted with gods and goddesses. Suddenly we found ourselves wearing orange ties around our necks and leading the procession through the streets, loud snare drums piercing the air behind us. The entire village came out to stare at "the foreigners," lining the streets and rooftops and filling up the shops, many of them smiling. The sun was intense and we got "tikka-ed," my own word for the ritual of smearing red paint up the forehead (a "tikka"). A tiny old lady "adopted" me, walking by my side, holding my hand and periodically slapping and hitting the men who tried to approach me. The experience was overwhelming to say the least, and though the entire thing lasted maybe one hour, it seemed like five. Just as I thought it was time to go, it turned out Fred had been "advised" to leave, so we bowed in thanks and made our escape, taking refuge inside a nearby chai stall where more people gathered to peer in at us.

Twice now we have caused such a stir in tiny villages that we have been "advised" to leave..we've decided that the villagers just can't take it - i.e. fighting each other to have a photo with us - and if we stay too long things can quickly get out of control.

Later on we found a little dirt road and decided a little off-roading might be fun. We bounced our way along in the middle of a huge banana field until finally we happened upon a little old man sitting and munching bananas. I said "road?" to him and he offered me bananas. First one, then two, then fifteen. Fred and I ate as many as we could, took a couple of photos with the kind banana man and headed back to the paved world..

At sunset we sat in the Saraswati Temple (my chosen Goddess) and I thanked God for keeping us safe during our motorbike adventure. What a thrill it was! So much in fact that now I'm considering to buy one (40,000 RS/1,000 USD gets me a really nice one) so I can explore much, much more of this crazy land.

Very Poorly Behaved Monkeys

The other day I sat on the top of a rock mountain and shot a little video of the cute monkeys nearby while Fred wandered off to take pictures. First there was one cute monkey...then five...then suddenly there were thirty, and they wanted my watermelon! I narrowly escaped with my watermelon, swinging my water bottle and shouting, only to notice that one of them had Fred's watch. I screamed for him to come back and get it but he was nowhere to be found, so I decided I just had to scare the shit out of the now-not-so-cute-monkey so he would just drop it. I took a deep breath and headed straight at him, roaring and waving my arms angrily. He responded with bared fangs and hissing sounds (they are SO scary!!!) but I won...he finally dropped the watch and backed away! A big thank you to Morten, the hi-larious Danish boy who taught me how to scare monkeys. I do believe I'm learning something out here!

Can't linger now, internet is slow and expensive...

Big love to everyone,
God bless you all,
LMA