December 25

All 8 of us piled into our 6-passenger van and drove the 4 km from the
hotel to Hampi (this is nothing - we had seen close to 30 people pile
into a pickup or 10 people in a tuk-tuk). The first temple we saw was
nice but we had seen so many we were not too impressed (and the guide
was very mediocre). Then we went to admire the elephant who was washing
himself in the river and was very picturesque - big rocks in the water,
people bathing and washing their clothes and beautiful views. Next we
walked over to some ruined temples and started becoming amazed and it
only got better from then on. The valley opened up to reveal amazing
views and some wonderful boulders (we saw no climbers although Eyal says
this is a well known climbing site). We went down to a site which is
very reminiscent of King Loui's temple in the Jungle Book. There used to
be a bazaar there in olden times and it was easy to imagine the whole
area bustling and full of life. We walked back to the gat by the river
and hired a "boat" - a round basket made out of reeds with a tarred
bottom - basically a large saucer. We were rowed slowly down the river -
more ruined temples and beautiful boulders. Then some more archeology
and a walk back along the river to our starting point.

Jaikumar knew of a nice restaurant called the Mango Tree. It was a bit
of a walk and we were wondering if it's worth it as it was hot and there were so many
other restaurants closer by, but we were wrong. It's a most beautiful
setting - terraces on the side of a hill with built-in stone tables, all
facing the river, and shaded by large trees - mango and others. The food
was delicious (a special Christmas tali!). We called Einat from there
and she said she had also eaten there and has a photo of herself on a
huge swing. The swing must have shrunk since then - it is small
and very high up with a few dolls sitting on it - clearly not intended
for humans any more.

We got back to the hotel around 5 and decided to skip the other ruins
and have another leisurely evening.