Travels: Hampi

After Agonda beach (Goa) I headed to Hampi, stopping overnight at Hubli on the way. (Hubli is my cheapest night yet and so it wasn't very nice, but the first 5 places we went to have no vacancies, and it was late).
As I left Goa I met a French girl (22yrs) and we teamed up for Hubli and Hampi.

Hampi is a really touristy spot ... the most touristy spot I have been to in India, aside from Goa. Tourists were dressed inappropriate for India, and with a splash of cleanliness and western food it too isn't like the real India.

Most people I spoke to seemed to have arrived into Mumbai, spent some weeks in Goa and were now spending weeks in Hampi. These people were really seeing a different side of India to what I was. They were also taking plenty of drugs.

Most people, myself included, choose to stay across the river in Hampi. Yesterday as I caught the boat across for the last time a young woman (with her man) was dressed in a boob tube and capri's with a shoulder wrap. The young Indian man who drove the boat gets to see a lot of inappropriate dress, but this was too much and he told her that she shouldn't dress this way in India. Good for him, but likewise I think that we should tell the same to those wearing burkas in Australia (because bank robbers only show their eyes).

Hampi deserves being on the must visit list for India. The landscape is captivating, and in it are impressive ruins from previous times of prosperity... Although I fail to see how the terrain could ever have supported the half million people the books tell of.

Accom: Manju's palace. Rates from Rs70 for space on the roof to Rs700 for a pleasant room for 2. I liked Manju's, but the crowd wasn't for me.. All smoking, and sitting around instead of travelling.