Hampi

As our last post advised we have decided to traverse from the east coast to the west coast of India. After Bangalore we set sail (not literally) for Hampi. Set in the surreal landscape of golden-brown granite boulders, leafy banana fields and rice paddies Hampi is ridiculously small but it is a must see on the Indian travelers itinerary for two reasons; ruins and rock climbing.

At the moment summer is fast approaching and it gets incredibly hot in Hampi (37°C to 27°C, note that its not a moist heat, its dry and fierce). Risking sunburn, heat stroke, dehydration and worse we hired bicycles and set off to explore the ruins.

The ruins are of Vijayanagara. For the ignorant this was of course the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire. The name translates as 'City of Victory' and in its day it was the prosperous capital of the largest and most powerful kingdom of its time in all of India. Nowadays its a neat little circuit covering a few km's which you can mission around in a few hours on a bike.


As alluded to earlier Hampi is famous for its rock climbing or more specifically its bouldering. Littered everywhere are massive granite boulders just asking to be climbed and judging by the chalk marks a lot of them have been. Scrounging some free shoes and crash pads from our accommodation (Goan Corner) we found some experienced climbers to show us the ropes or holds as the case may be. The photo below is of Dan using a strong right hand mantle to glide up the face.


Technically the climbing was very difficult with mostly tiny holds so our initial idea of powerhousing our way to the top didn't pay dividends. Instead we had to shred our fingers on the sharp granite in order to get to the top.


Deciding to cool off we hired a rickshaw and headed to a nearby reservoir for a dip.


Hampi is a great little town and when you're not too busy staring at the rocks and trying to find a way to climb them you can take in sights like the one below.


Random Fact: Mahatma Gandhi appears on all the rupee bills 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000.

Highlights:
- Hanging out with other travelers who aren't hippy weirdo's
- Bouldering. Physical, challenging and rewarding.
- Having a routine. Get up early and climb stuff. Hide from the heat. Climb stuff. Sleep. Repeat.
- Climbing lingo.

Lessons Learned:
- Indian men can be perverts. Whilst at the watering hole we observed plenty of non-swimming Indian men hanging around the western girls and not so secretly taking photo's with their mobiles.
- Shredded fingers are called Hampi hands. At the time you know its not worth it but pride does funny things to people.
- Train before coming to Hampi so you can hit the rocks climbing. Lots of people come every other year for 2-3 weeks.
- Some countries need to tighten up their passport qualifications. Whilst climbing we ran into a young Israeli guy wearing only underpants, socks, climbing shoes and a cap. Being terrible at the climbing he reverted to cracking yoga poses on small boulders. We thought that his "guru" would be particularly proud of the photo below.