We managed to tear ourselves away from Goa but not without train-themed fun and games. We arrived, bright eyed and expectant, ticket in hand, at 7.40am for the 8am train to Hospet. Six hours later we were still on the platform – we never did find out what caused the delay but I suspect the driver slept in because it was only coming from 50km up the road. Anyway, the long wait was brightened up by two Poles drinking rum from a child’s bottle at 11am and a friendly little American man. The train showed up at 2pm and cattle class was better than anticipated, except for a family of cockroaches who took an interest in James’ dinner.

Hampi and Vijayanagar, a ruined 16th century Hindu stronghold which was pillaged by the Muslims and now exists only as a ghost city, are both fabulous.  Hampi Bazaar (the nearest village to Vijayanagar) is made up of a few dusty streets, lots of ramshackle stalls and stores, a sprinkling of paddy fields and a long, meandering river.  It is relatively traffic-free and, best of all, flanked on all sides by a vast landscape of boulders standing in massive hills and crags, dotted with dozens and dozens of ruined stone temples. We got up super-early this morning and followed the river up past many of the ruins with only a few Indians and over-friendly monkeys for company. The photos, for once, do the landscape some justice but its hard to believe how far the it stretches, temple after temple, rock after rock.

A couple of the temples are still used for worship - I am getting to like the way Hindus, and Indians in general, approach religion. They don’t force their belief on anyone but they are incredibly devout and enthusiastic themselves. There’s also no feeling of sanctity or grandeur in the temples and all the praying is done in a very ordinary, matter-of-fact way, I suppose because God is a way of life. They are keen to reassure visitors to the temples that Shiva will bless them, even if the visitors are lardy Americans who wave their Nikons at the sacred elephant. That is proper religious tolerance – I would have them beheaded.

This being a holy city we are on an enforced beer and meat detox for the next 3 nights, then on to Mysore (what a great names for a place).