Hampi

If you're wiling to take a nine hour bus ride in the middle of the night you can wake up the next day in Hampi.  

I dropped off my bag in a little hotel (silk blankets, turquoise walls, drapey mosquito nets, elephant sheets, $7 per night) and walked down the steps to the river.  

Apparently he "doesn't really like his job, its just what his father did."  Dad, if only you were an elephant washer!  Her name is Lakshmi and she gets a bath every day.  Her handler uses a rock to scrub her all over, but he has a special brush he uses on her trunk.  She lives in the temple.  I want to live there, too.  

Best. Moment. Of. My. Life. 

The old Hampi Bazaar.  

Meet Hussein Basha.  He drives a rickshaw and showed me all around Hampi.  He drove me around to temples, bargained down prices for me, and took me swimming in a river surrounded by giant rock formations.  Best of all, he let me drive his rickshaw.  Unfortunately there are no pictures because he was a little preoccupied with making sure I didn't destroy anything.  I plugged in my iPod and drove him and his friend through the jungle listening to "Sweet Home Alabama."  

I visited a temple where the god Rama waited out the monsoon season before continuing his quest to rescue his wife, Sita (wikipedia "Ramayana" for more details).  This particular place was built as a venue for weddings, and it features built in "musical columns."  Each individual post has a unique pitch.  It's been quite a while since my musical theory days, but I'm pretty sure they were relatively in tune.  The flower in my hand fell from a tree where, apparently, Rama gave puja during his stay.  

Abass is charming, cheerful, and charismatic.  He runs a little jewelry shop where he sells jewelry he makes himself.  He also had a lot to say about Hindu-Muslim tensions which, it seems, run very deep in Hampi.  

These two boys are from Rajasthan, where fabulous, fabulous shoes are made.  The one on the left is 18, and his brother to the right is 15.  They live in their shoe shop and make the best masala chai.  

Elephants and temples and waterfalls aside, do you really need any other reason to come to Hampi?