Hampi

All kids love being in photos.


I had a few days before flying back to Delhi and decided to take a side trip to Hampi. Hampi is a town in Karnataka comprised of the ruins of the Vijayanagar empire, once the capital of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history. The area was founded in the early 1300’s, peaked around the 16th century and finally crumbled in the late 16th century. As you can kind of see from the pictures, the area is a strange and sublime boulder strewn landscape. The boulders are massive and spread out over 26 sq kilometers. The area is large so some people rent bicycles so that they can cover more area. I walked around with some locals the first day. We took a side excursion to the sugar cane fields and cut some down to chew on. It was well needed to help us battle the 100+ degree heat.

There was some festival going on when I arrived. It seems as though I always arrive in the midst of some festival or celebration. For a short time I considered myself lucky or thought it was some sort of good sign, but with 33 plus million gods in the Hindu religion chances are pretty good that there will be a celebration of some God’s birth, death, marriage or reincarnation.