5/2 - Up and at it, went to the Verupaksha temple, the big one at the end of the bazaar. Rs 2 to get into the inner temple and Rs50 if you want to take photos. Being tight I didn't bother with the camera. Good decision, it is worth visiting, but the big picture is what sits in the memory. I did get my red spot and a carnation and a red spot and a rose. A flower for each ear. I don't know what the blokes were priests or monks, but the first old lad was a smashing bloke. He directed me to the inverted tower. Somehow the shadow comes through a small opening and is inverted. Our Mick will probably tell you how it works. I donated my flowers to a couple of the statues outside, it seems to be the done thing. I didn't fancy walking around with them behind my ears all day.

Decided to get a bike to go exploring on, or mostly off, as there are no gears and the hills ground me to a halt quickly, but it was the best Rs35 I've spent so far. The brakes worked well, as I found out when I got cut up by a cow. A real cow, not some woman on a motor scooter. It decided to cross the road when I was full pelt downhill.

You may be surprised to hear that I came across temples on my tour. The Queens bath was pretty cool. She must have been a big bugger going by the size of the baths. It was a good building though in nice grounds. The inside is in one of the pictures above.

I think the Krishna temple/bazaar and the Elephant stables are the picks of the day. Another 2 pictures above and the one with the colourful kids.

I think Hampi must have been the 16th century temple supermarket where all the big bosses came to choose the temple of their liking. They are all over the place.

There were a lot of school trips around today and they were good fun. At the Queen's bath they were enthralled with the map of India in the Lonely Planet when I asked them to show me where they were from. They come from far afield to Hampi. They were all smiles trying to talk to an Englishman and probably taking the mickey in Hindi. There were a few class photos along the way. They love to pose for the camera and see the results.

The young kids in the saris look great. The different class stands out a bit. One set of kids had plain blue uniforms and no shoes and another had the saris, bangles etc. They were all good fun though, I enjoyed interacting with them and them me.

At the Elephant Stables the teachers fired the kids off to reak/reek/cause havoc, as there are no elephants there and then they got in on the act and came over for a chat and photos all around. I don't know how unusual it is to talk to a Westener, but it seems to be sought after by a lot of Indians.

I asked to take a photo of a toddler and then Mam and Nana were over. We were all drinking coconut milk straight from the freshly opened coconut, Rs5 a good deal. When they had finished they dumped them on the floor. I gestured to the bin, but they went off smiling. The coconut man came and bowled them all into the bush. He was good at it, he'd obviously had plenty of practice. See if you can guess which of the photos was the teachers.

I've had a great day with the kids and ruins. I am not a ruins person, or even ruined, but some of these ruins are great places to just sit and chill. The school parties come through in a flash and there are not many Indian tourists around, it is really peaceful. I am supposed to have missed the best ruin, but I saw the steps through my binoculars and got the bike out instead.

Just in case I am not chilled enough I took a walk to the Mango Tree for a bit of snap and back to pack. I wish I could have gotten the picture of the internet cafe to the end of the text, but I have not worked it out yet. The picture sums up India in a lot of ways, modern yet still in the past. Off to pack for the next leg.

Photo link http://picasaweb.google.com/brooks.gilbert/HampiKarnataka