Hampi - playing in the boulders and then some....

Nameste virtual travellers.

Hampi was truely a great end of 09 and start to 2010. The scenery looked like something out of Jurassic park endless rolling hills with massive boulders scattered all around. The ruins had amazing stone carvings which were a cross between worshiping the deities and full on tantric sex porn - not sure what was going on during the 1500s but someone had to get these images from somewhere right?

I spent a few days climbing through the boulders and ruins, afternoons by the riverside or lounging at the guesthouse filled with great conversation and atmosphere, and nights chilling over nice dinners and flicks on the big screen at the Tibetan restaurant. Hampi was truly the place to unwind and readjust.

Calling in the new year...
We had a chilled out party at the guesthouse, listening to music, conversation and relaxed vibes, several of the rock climbers invested in 6000rps worth of fireworks - groups of people would climb high into the boulders and set up the fireworks away from the 100 riot police who were located around the village to bust foreigners with illegal substances, at the stoke of midnight a vast show of magic lite up the sky as everyone cheered the new year in. A sense of contentment swept over the village as everyone welcomed the new year and the travel adventures which awaited them.

The first day of 2010
We lazily woke up to the first day of the year, bright blue skies made this the perfect day to cruse the country side on motorcycles. After a yummy breakfast we set off for the reservoir for a swim and some cliff jumping - how refreshing and relaxing - well so we thought, after about 20mins of tranquility the locals started surround the area - it was bizarre - these men just came to stare at the foreigners swimming, i would have totally understood it if we were all in Bikinis but i was the only girl and i was fully clothed and the guys were all in shorts. These men just had nothing better to do but watch, after 15mins of feeling like circus freaks we decided to leave, my friend and I were climbing down from a boulder when one of the guys approached us really quickly, my mate was about to punch this guy and he was standing in a threatening way over some of our bags - he had a look in his eye which made us all feel weirded out. After we started walking they came in really close and were practically walking right on our feet. My friend forgot his sunglasses so he went back, then local guy who approached my friend and i when we jumped off the boulder was holding my friends sunglasses and said if u want to get them back give me a kiss, my friend went to grab his glasses when the fat guy swang them behind his back and grabbed my friends crotch. My friend grabbed his glasses and came back and told us what happened when we turned to look at them the fat guy was grabbing his crotch - groosssssss.....we could work out WTF so we jumped on our bikes as we looked around and there were about 50 other local men standing around being all macho. We went to Hanging rock for lunch and the fat guy followed us - while we ate he let down the tire of my friends bike and they left. It was really strange we were not sure if the guys were doing it because they were gay or if they just wanted to see if they could freak the foreigners out. It wasn't until we were riding more that we noticed that there were just groups of men out hassling foreigners all over the countryside, in the afternoon my friend bumped into the same group of men and he said how about a kiss - my friend clicked it and said $%$# do you want me to call the police - the guy freaked out and said "please no i can go to jail for this" - I've heard numerous stories about men shoving fingers down women's pants as they are walking, or riding past on scooters and grabbing boobs... lesson for today: some Indian men behave like 16 year old pubescent boys, the rule is to shame them infront of their friends...

Apart from that incident we had a fantastic day cruising through the country side and seeing the sites, totally magical - the air flowing through your hair, the sun on your skin, and nothing to worry about, well apart from the motorbike potentially breaking down....that nite i bid hampi and my new friends a fond farewell as i hit the road bound for mysore...