Lifes Little Pleasures- Hampi

Camera timer Zindabad!!

Two friends who are as different as night and day , who have stuck by each other through thick and thin for over a decade now, who share a great love for Bollywood and a bond that proves the statement 'opposites attract'. Take these two friends and send them on a super spontaneous trip to Hampi and what you get is an experience of a lifetime.

• Sticking our noses on the window glass and peering out at 5am to see if Hospet had arrived. Getting completely distracted in the process and starting to talk instead about how cool it would be to own a coal mine.
• Arriving in Hospet and inaugurating the trip with a picture of a three legged doggie and two vadas.
• Trying to get information from our auto driver about Hampi in between all his marketing strategies.
• Finding the most peaceful place to stay in.Mowgli Guest House. When we crashed at our breakfast table, saw the view of the paddy fields and the river and felt the cool breeze on our faces, our trip was already made.

View from our room!

• Our super cute waiter Roshan, who forgot our orders a lot, but flashed his smile at us and we were OK.
• Realising that a TVS 50 is the most popular means of transport in Hampi.
• Marvelling at the ruins, imagining how life would have been when people had a bath tub bigger than my entire house.
• The cute little battery powered vehicles which took us around, all driven by women.
• Having the freedom and the time to not care about what time it was.
• The pleasant hike up to the monkey temple, and the little monkey tugging at my pretty pink water bottle.
• The family that sang Hanuman songs all the way down from the top of the hill. Making us wonder if the children would still do it after they were older.

•  Being shocked by the blind faith of our people as i watched them drink water from a dirty mossy pond with plastic rubbish floating in it, just because it was in front of a temple. Sigh!
• The Mango tree cafe, best watermelon juice ever, killer view, delicious momos and endless conversation.
• Not having train tickets to return and having to take a bus( my worst nightmare).
• Watching Cocktail in Hospet to kill time (Bollywood love, remember?). It was like being in a time machine, where tickets are sold from inside a tiny box, the refreshments counter(they had onion rings) opens only in the interval and you can sit anywhere in the theater.
•  Listening to the crowd whistle non stop through the trailer of Ek tha Tiger. Amazing the appeal Salman Khan still has.
• Coming out after the movie and finding Shikhas worst nightmare come true. Rain. Torrential rain.
• Barely making it to our bus on time but squeezing in the time to buy Peda that is being made in a particular store since 1933. ( We are Bollywood loving foodies actually)

It was such a lovely trip, as the monsoon infused new life into everything around us, Hampi renewed our friendship and made us realise how much the friendship means to us.