Hampi: Hippie world

It has been a while since I have blogged, and this is for a simple reason: time has slowed down considerably over the last couple of weeks.

After spending a while in the hills of southern India, my friend Sandra and I decided that it was time to head towards places that are a bit touristier. This is why we decided to travel to Hampi, in Karnataka.  The road by bus was going to take about 20 hours, and we had to change buses in Mysore, which allowed us to go and see a sound and light show at the magnificent palace of this city. The show was alright, although it was all in Hindi and with a lot of spoken words. But seeing this palace being lit at night was a sight worth seeing.

Our journey to Hampi was in an overnight bus and we arrived there ore breakfast. Hampi is a town located next to a river, with acres of antique temples around it. More interestingly, the area is covered with massive piles of boulders, brought there by thousands of years of volcanic activity and erosion. This makes the landscape looking like you are in another world…

We first stayed on the Hampi town side of the river, until we noticed in the evening that dozens of people were crossing the river by boat to go and sleep on the other side. Therefore, we decided to do the same on the next day and arrived in a place that is not India anymore. Hundreds of young people, mainly French and Israelis, were staying there. Lots of them were hippies (or trying to be…), not doing much except playing guitar and smoking marijuana. It is funny to think that these people think themselves as free spirits when they pack themselves in places where everything is made for tourism, even though it is not high-end resorts and all that. I was first staying in a guesthouse, sleeping in massive tipi for a few nights as it was the dorm room there, which was funny, but not really quiet… Then, I moved to a proper room to try to get some sleep, and also because I could not stand hearing the three same tunes being played every hour by those hippies.

We met a group of cool guys from France: two brothers traveling by motorbike (Royal Enfield of course), Max and Julien, and another one called Jimmy. We spent a good time altogether, riding mopeds on the local roads, going to a nearby lake to bathe, or to a temple on top a hill to see sunset. A week passed that way and then, we decided to move on to Goa with Max and Julien, in order to get a feel of the party scene and to get a bit further from what is “real India”.

Take care,

Matt

A few pictures for your keen eyes:

The Palace of Mysore

 The Palace, again...

View of the landscape in Hampi 

Sunset in Hampi 

The rocks of Hampi during the day 

 A small lake surrounded by rocks

Kerala - Boating and trekking

After my deeply spiritual experience in Tamil Nadu (*sigh*), I decided that I needed more fun and headed towards Kerala, on the West coast of southern India. The place is reputed for its backwaters: a massive network of canals in the middle of rice fields, fish farms and forest, linking most of the state's coastal towns. This is where I headed first as lots of people had recommended that area to me, starting with Kollam. This is also where I came across Sandra a French girl that I had already met back in Darjeeling and we decided to travel together for a bit. Now, OK, I know, I said I'd put a ban on French people in this trip, but I also said I made exceptions for girls... and only idiots do not change their minds... and I don't care about what you guys think...

We went on several cruises in the backwaters, one on a canoe in Kollam, in the middle of small villages, one on a motor boat in Alleppey, to get a better feel of the bigger backwater environment, and finally, a travel between Alleppey and Kotayam, to get to the hills, as it seemed much better than taking the bus (even though it probably took us twice the amount of time...). In Alleppey, we also saw lots of houseboats where people can spend the night and be catered for by a crew including driver, cook and waiter. This seemed very nice as apparently, they fish for you in the canals and cook the fish for you and the houseboats look extremely comfortable. However, we did not do that stuff as it was very expensive and also because it was very expensive.  

After Alleppey, we headed to the hills in Central Kerala, to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We went on a trek in the natural park, hoping to be able to spot some wildlife. The trek was very good with an overnight stay in the park, in tents and hikes during the day with guides and an armed forest guard. This also included some bamboo rafting on an artificial lake, and my first encounter with leeches, which are simply a pain in the ass and will  try to stick on your shoes to climb your leg and suck some of your blood anytime you walk in a wet area (which happened quite bit during the trek...). We also where lucky enough to spot some wildlife including wild elephants (they came very close to our camp during the night but could not get access to it due to a deep moat separating us form them), bysons, turtles, monkeys and wild boars. Obviously, the tigers were nowhere to be seem, but it seems they only appear once in a while (usually, guides tell you "three months ago" to keep your expectations low). This was nevertheless very good and I had a lot of fun with the guides and the other members of the group. Being in Kerala was also the occasion to see some Kathakali, a local and traditional form of theater, where actors have their faces fully painted and only communicated by moving their eyeballs (this part was actually quite gruesome), dancing and making signs with their hands. This was a cool thing to see, even though I did not fully understand the story that was depicted (some sort of mythological story with demons and gods). Finally, I had an Ayurveda massage one of the evenings I spent there. This is a full body massage where they use all sorts of essential oils that are meant to clean your body and make you feel better. Now, I did not realize that full body massage actually meant full body and I almost fell from the table when my masseur (an Indian dude...) offered me a happy ending! 

After Periyar, we decided to go the Munnar, a quiet town in the middle of the hills, surrounded by tea fields. You can get some very scenic views just by walking a few minutes out of town. We also went on a bus tour of the region, and whilst it was nice to be able to see the local sights within a day, it was bit rushed up and finally not what we expected. After a short stop in Ooty, another hill station, which allowed us to take a toy train up hill for a 4 hours ride that allowed us to see fantastic landscapes, we decided to head for better climates (the evenings in the hills get really cold and there is nothing much to do outside). New destination: Hampi, in Karnataka, but this is for a future post.

Take care,

Matt

And now, some pics:

View of the backwaters 

On a canoe, in the small canals, near Kollam 

Yeah, I had to survive  for a while in the canals and drink  and eat some coconut... 

The houseboats in Alleppey 

I know, this is just another sunset 

The canals in Alleppey 

The lake in Periyar 

It tried to escape, but we finally caught it after running for a few hours 

Bysons: you do not want to get to close, in case they decide to run towards you...  

These  guys are pretty awesome as well

Tamil Nadu - Temples, temples and temples again...

After my trip through Rajasthan, I thought I was templed out and decided that I would probably not spend any more time visiting temples during this trip... It was before I went to Tamil Nadu and visited three of the most amazing Hindu places in India.

It was difficult to leave Pondicherry because of the horrific weather conditions, but I finally managed to get a bit of sun to get to the bus stand and jump on a bus to Trichy. After about 10 hours of a trip including the bus breaking down (definitely not easy to travel in India!) and changing buses on the side of the highway with cars driving on the wrong side of the road (they do it on normal roads, so why not on the highway!), I got to the town. Trichy has the second biggest temple site in the world after Angkor in Cambodia and I have to say it is rather amazing with a 136 acres site mixing temple gates and usual Indian city bazaar, passing seven massive gates carved with hundreds of colorful god statues and finally getting to the main temple. I did not take pictures of it as the layout and the site of the site made it extremely difficult to get a good idea of how it looked like...

After less than 24 hours in Trichy, I headed to Tanjore, to see another huge temple: the Breehadishwara temple, which is a Unesco world heritage site and included a 63 meters high tower. Again, the carvings were among the most impressive I have seen and the ochre color of the stone made it amazing.

The next day, I finally traveled to Madurai, which also has a Unesco world heritage site: the Meenakshi temple. This one is probably the most amazing building I have seen in India after the Taj Mahal: a marvelous colorful temple with 50-meter high gates, all covered with thousands of statues representing the Hindu gods. This is also one of the only sites that the Indian seem to be taking care of as they repaint the temple every twelve years. Last time they did it was in 2009, which means that everything looked brand new. I hired a guide for a 2-hour tour of the site and I learnt a lot regarding Hindu religion and the various gods, as well as the way people worship them.

This done, I decided to try to go under clearer skies and headed to Kerala to get a bit of backwaters and natural parks. But I will talk about this later on.

Take care,

Matt

Now, the pictures:

The gate to the Brihadishwara Temple in Tanjore 

Brihadishwara Temple in Tanjore 

The main tower of the temple 

These types of carvings are covering the whole temple 

The gate to the Sri Minakshi Temple in Madurai 

There are literally thousands of statues carved and painted on the temple 

The ceilings are also amazing 

A famous type of Hindu painting, with an optical illusion 

View on most of the massive temple complex in Madurai 

I did not know where to look as there was something interesting everywhere 

I knew I was the Anaconda, but this guy is my hero: 6 elephants to hold his penis!!  

The tatues are also very detailed: see the veins on this musician's hand