Hellooo Squatty Potties: Hampi

Well, we are all back safely from the last of our weekend trips. We spent the weekend in Hampi, a ruined city that was a major Hindu capital during the 14^th-16^th century. Again, we took an overnight bus (non-AC this time, which was okay temperature-wise once we got moving but very noisy and bumpy), arriving in Hampi around 8 AM on Saturday morning. We found our guest house just down the road from the bus stand, and our kind hostess Padma prepared us toast, eggs, and real coffee – much needed by all. After breakfast we rented bicycles and set off to see the sights. We happened to walk by the river just as the temple elephant, Lakshmi, was finishing her bath so we got to stand right by her as she climbed the steps back up to the temple.

We spent the rest of the day seeing the sights by bicycle, which worked quite well with the exception of a loose chain on one (requiring a repair by some locals, a process that attracted a crowd of 14 onlookers/participants, not including the six of us):

With the bicycle carefully repaired and tested, we set off again, and again the bikes served us well until we set off down a path which we didn’t realize involved many steps up and down the stone riverbanks. This was at the end of the day when we were all hot, tired, hungry, and thirsty, so dragging the heavy old bikes up and down the steps was not pleasant. But eventually we made it back to our hostel, where we showered, changed, and felt much better. We had dinner at the wonderful Mango Tree restaurant, with views over the river and delicious food.

The next day we opted to take rickshaws to a few more sites that we had missed the day before, as we had enjoyed enough bicycle fun the day before. We finished earlier and headed back to the Mango Tree for lunch, since we could enjoy the views better in the daytime. We lingered there for a while enjoying the shade, views, and lassis, then headed back to our hostel to get ready for the return trip.

We arrived around 6 AM this morning, and got back to the Annexe with enough time to lie down for a few minutes, shower, and change for the day ahead – much more leisurely than with Goa last weekend! Abby and I were still tired at community medicine today, but at least we were a bit cleaner than last time! We spent the morning walking from house to house in Mugalur with a psychology student who is conducting a survey on autism in the villages. She hopes to cover around 1500 children in 6 weeks! She is trying to determine prevalence of autism in the area, since the disorder is not well-known in rural areas and many children are simply considered delayed without getting a more accurate diagnosis.

A few more pictures from Hampi:

Virupaksha temple and wooden chariot