Day 60 & 61: Hampi, Karnataka.

Hampi: Was once the capital of one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history, Vijayanagar was founded by Telegu prices in 1336 and hit the peak of it's power in 16th century.


Day 60: Today we headed to Hampi to see the ancient ruins of the Vijayanagar empire . We had a fun group on the bus tour of Hampi for the weekend. I met a nice couple Silky and her husband, recently wed they were quite the couple in love. Silky was one of the few woman I met that worked. I had come to realized soon after that many more of the woman in South India work than North India. Met two Physics Professors who came from Hungary and were in Bangalore for two weeks, they were slowly easing into trying the local cuisines. Then there was the Mumbai family and the Indian family from D.C, the husband and wife were brought up in India. We had a great time on the bus chatting and playing local Indian games that Silky spearheaded.

Day 61: Today we went to go see Hampi, it was pretty amazing. I should first say that the whole area around that is surrounded by boulders of little and big rocks everywhere, this was caused due to an earthquake many 1,000 of years ago. It reminded me alot of Death Valley and the Arizona area in the U.S. The ruins were amazing, they reminded me alot of ruins of the roman empire. They had such elaborate carvings from the stone and they have depictions of the Mahabarta and the Ramayan, the two famous Hindu epics on the stones.

I have come to better understand the Hindu religion via my tour guide that day who was so passoinate and excited about sharing his knowledge of the ruins and the Hindu religion with me. There are three main gods: Brahma (God of Creator), Vishnu (God of Preserver), Shiva (God of Destroyer), thus the full circle of life. Each of these gods of course has a goddness, how could a great god not have a great goddness by his side, right ladies. The goddess that correspond to the gods are the following: Brahma (Goddess Sarawasti-Goddess of Wisdom), Vishnu (Goddess Laskmi-Goddess of Wealth), Shiva (Goddess Parvati-Goddess of Goddess Sakthi). Many of the other gods that you hear about are forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Laskmi, and Parvati. Brahma is not really worshipped and I am told there is only one temple in India in honor of this god).Then change into different forms to help fight out demons and evil in the world. I guess you could say it's something similar to greek mythology. Each of these gods has a corresp0ding vechile that they move around in. Brahma - the bird Hamsa, Vishnu- Garuda (giant bird), which is visibily displayed quite frequently in SouthEast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, etc..), Shiva-the bull Nandi. The elephant god is Gnaesh, which is the son of Shiva and Parvati, story has it that Shiva had cut off the head of his son and then replaced it with the first animal he saw. His vechile is a mouse.

That day I met a guy from San Fran. who litterally lives 1km from my old apartment, what a small world it is......