Hampi , Gokarna and Goa

Hampi - 12.09.2014

In the evening of the 11th of september i took a night bus from bangalore to Hampi. Bangalore, by the way i had reached 3 days before by airplane. Well Bangalore is relatively far in the south of india, so going there by bus would have just been a torture and it would have taken me ages.

Although i had a great time in Bangalore, spending some time with friends i assume if i wrote about it might bore you. So I'll skip that chapter.

So from Bangalore on the 12th of September i reached Hampi. Hampi is a lovely little village which is probably not bigger than 200 meters in diameter. The village is surrounded by hundreds of antique temples. 

So on my first day in Hampi i didn't do a lot because i was feeling a bit sick from some salad i had eaten the evening before. Small advice: Never order a salad in India! Even if you are in a better or more expensive restaurant. ( Except of course you were born in India ;)  then you might be fine). In the evening i went for some indian cooking class were we cooked some Indian meals, which was fun. The next day, i went on a guided tour until afternoon to explore the most important  temples around the village.  

Temples in Hampi

temples in Hampi

temples in Hampi

more temples in Hampi ;)

In the evening i went to some special location called "the sunset point" to watch the sunset :) . This point was at some temple on top of a hill. At this sunset point i met a guy from ireland and an indian girl, who had the same idea like me. So we watched the sunset together and later went to have dinner together.

me at the sunset point in hampi

watching the sunset at sunset point in Hampi

male cows fighting each other
with sunset in background

more sunset fights

nice colors of the sunset

nice colors AND reflections of the sunset

On my 3rd and last day in Hampi i met again with the Irish guy and the Indian girl to do something together. First we went for a walk along the river.

walk along the river in Hampi

Then we went for a short boat ride on the river.

some temple in hampi-
seen from the boat on the river

And then to see one of the main temples, which i had not yet seen.

Very impressive i found the ruins of the old "stores". As the guide had told me one day before: in the past india was a very rich country and in all these stores people were trading gold and diamonds. Many countries came to this kingdom to trade horses against gold. Obviously the king of this city needed lots of horses for the war.
Nevertheless i wonder were all that gold is gone...
It must have been taken by enemy invaders.

the old stores of the gold traders
 of the past kingdom

an antique swimming pool

gold trader stores

In the afternoon me and my 2 new fellow travellers went to a mountain to some temple which some of the locals called "monkey temple". From there we had an incredible view on all the surrounding landlandscapes
.

Landscape around Hampi
seen from monkey temple

monkey temple

me on the monkey temple mountain

Gokarna and Goa

For my last 2 weeks in India i decided to go to some more peaceful place at the sea. 

So the first place i went to is called Gokarna. Gokarna is not far south from the state Goa. It belongs to the same state like Bangalore, which is called Karnataka. In Gokarna i stayed in a hotel at some lonely beach. Lonely i mean in a sense that it was not as touristy and a bit offshore, because in order to get there you have to walk through some small jungle. The name of the beach was "Hudlebeach". This is a picture of the beach:

Hudle beach in Gokarna

From that beach with an about 20 minute walk you could trek to the "main beach" of Gokarna. There you find cheaper restaurants etc, and this is also were the buses depart to Goa.

walk to the main beach in Gokarna

the main beach in Gokarna

the main beach in Gokarna