Hampi

Early morning washing and bathing by the river...

Here's a sign showing the local police department's attempt to encourage western women to cover their skin. Meanwhile, Julie shows off her shoulders. Her travel blog details a journey much more extensive than mine.

Hampi is famous for its dreamy boulder-spotted landscape and is a destination for climbers. However, it is better known for its 14th-century ruins. The town of Hampi is set amongst tons of ancient ruins of the monkey kingdom. Over 500 years ago, it was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire before it was captured by Muslim invaders.

Adam (from Denmark) and I climbed some boulders to take in the sunset.

As I was inquiring about renting some climbing shoes, I hear someone call out "Fire Belly" in a Spanish accent. It was Pedro, seen above in lotus position, a Spanish climber that I befriended last fall in Yosemite on my PCT hike. I had camped with him and his friends in the Yosemite Valley for a few days. Pedro spends most of the year scaling rocks in climbing meccas around the planet...Small World!

Hampi is where I first really started to feel India's HEAT. When Adam and I left to go bouldering at 9 in the morning, some people asked us if we were crazy to try and go climbing so late in the day, because by 9 am it was already too hot. (This was in March.) By midday, it was so hot that it was too exhausting to be in the sun and one had to lie down and take a nap until the evening.

Hampi is the abode of Hanuman, the monkey god...

Hanuman

Hampi's main temple

One evening Adam and I rented a scooter. It broke down several times and we tried to get some money back as we had to pay a mechanic to fix it in another town...but that's another story.

Ruins...