Monday, December 10

Shopping and the country side

Spent the whole morning talking to the locals and looking for things to buy. I've found many interesting people in Hampi. It seems that people from all over India come here. Different cities of India specialize in different things. You can usually tell where someone is from just by the crafts they're selling. I'm not sure that I'll be buying much here. The best crafts Hampi has to offer are made of stone and I don't really feel like carrying rocks around in my backpack. Does anyone really like stone carvings?

In the afternoon I rented a motorcycle and rode around the countryside on my own. It was a nice experience in that I was able to pull over everywhere, take photos, talk to people and see how they live. I also visited one of the nearby monuments known as the "monkey temple". It didn't have much to offer in terms of architecture, but it had a great view of the surrounding area and friendly monkeys.

I went back to the lake to see if I could get some good sunset photos. The photos didn't really do the place justice.

Sunrise in Hampi:








View from the monkey temple:








A woman watches over buffalo:








A boy from a nearby village:











Sunset over the lake: