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Hampi to Hyderabad
Some and Giulia got the train to Hospet and made a new friend on the way, Clare. We all squahed into a rickshaw and headed for Hampi and on arrival it's fair to say we were all stunned at the beauty of the landscape. Hampi was once an enormous lake many many centuries ago and the water has carved huge rocks into the most stunning shapes and left them perched precariously on top of one another, alot of which you can see as you come down the hill into the main bazaar. We got ourselves a place to stay late in the afternoon, across the river, and had a quiet evening as we'd been up travelling since 5.
Next morning we went exploring, starting with the huge beautifully carved temple in the main bazaar. Their was a wedding ceremony inside which was interesting to see for a bit but for alot of tourists, I think the main attraction was the infamous Hampi elephant inside who, if you passed a coin too would use it's trunk to bless you with a gentle pat on the head. Then (foolishly) we headed out of the bazaar and into the rest of Hampi. It was now approaching middle of the day when the sun is at it's strongest, we reckoned it must of been around the mid 40's but due to the nature of the landscape their were only so many trees you could catch a bit of shade under and by the end of the afternoon we were 'feeling the heat'. Around the outskirts of the main town though it's incredible, dozens and dozens of small and large temples, some ruined some not, all seemingly placed intricately into the gaps and crevouses of the rocks. It was one of my highlights of India so far. The people of Hampi were refreshingly nice also, women and children would come up and say hello and introduce themselves with a handshake in the street and ask where you were from purely out of intrigue and with no other motive, like money, always smiling or giggling, like we were some strange and good novelty. One lad I met introduced himself as Sachin Tendulkar, they're nuts about cricket over here you can't avoid it at all, although it may be because of the IPL at the moment.
So after three days I'd seen enough temples and decided that the easiest way to get too my next destination, Aurangabad, would be to go via Hyderabad. What a mistake that turned out to be, in hindsight I should of taken the difficult and long journey straight to Aurangabad, as Hyderabad I found to be a quite horrible place. Their really isn't that much too see their and it's massively spread out which makes everything difficult or expensive to get too. It was also very very polluted probably the most polluted place I've ever been too, towards the end of a day my eyes would be burning and throat raw just from breathing the air. When I spoke to people in shops and the like the conversation generally went the same way, they'd ask me if i was here on business and I'd say no I'm a tourist at which point they'd look at me confused and ask why have you come to Hyderabad, I'd reply with christ knows! To make matters worst the train up too Aurangabad were very booked up so I ended up stuck their for six days just waiting pretty much for my train out. Nevermind, I have too say it's probably more like the India alot of people would probably expect, but for anyone thinking of coming here I wouldn't reccommend it.
Till next time........
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