This town is a haven for the backpackers who travel India, and for good reason: it’s really cool.  Hampi is nestled in an ancient city that was sacked a very long time ago, yet many of the deserted buildings, palaces, aqueducts, temples, baths, bazaars, elephant stables, and remnants of a much larger, old abandoned, royal city remain.  There are also some amazing giant boulders all around Hampi – a great place to stop and do some climbing: perfect for Heather; perfect for Steve, photographing Heather.  The temples and ruins are built all throughout.  One of the days we were there, we rented motorbikes to further explore the area, and found some really cool “waterfalls.”  The river near the town seems to be lazy and slow, but in one area, the boulders are piled just so the water falls over and around them, and down into the spaces created by them, carving and polishing the rocks in crazy amazing ways.  We were told by the locals that the river is raging during the monsoon, making it impossible to cross.  Sounds like I need to come back someday with my kayak!

We read somewhere that spending a night in a houseboat in the backwaters of Kerala is one of the top 10 things to do before you die.  It doesn’t make our top 10 list, although it was pretty cool.  We worked our way up the western coast to a town called Allepey, which is a good entry point into a huge area of canals and narrow lakes that make up the transport system for a huge rural area known as the backwaters.  Tiny villages plunked on narrow strips of land with single rows of coconut trees, and rice paddies beyond them, are all connected only by boat here.  We spent a day and night on a wicker houseboat, made to look like an old rice barge…just the two of us and the captain and the cook.  It was probably the most touristy thing we’ve done so far, which probably explains why we weren’t quite as into it as the writer who led us here.  We’re not into tours, or being waited on, or the feeling that every step of the way is staged, just for us.  That said, it was very scenic and peaceful, the food was excellent, and Spence thinks it would be a fun way to live for awhile if we had our own boat, exploring the vast networks of water.  He’s a duck.

Well, we went to the very bottom of India.  There is a town right on the tip called Kanyakumari, and we arrived there via a bumpy bus to check it out for half a day before heading west to the coastal state of Kerala.  On our way south to the Cape, we got to witness the most amazing display of green energy production.  Apparently there is plenty of wind in the southernmost part of India, because we drove through an area with thousands and thousands of windmills.  Some people say that windmills ruin the view.  I think that they are absolutely beautiful and seeing them makes me happy.  It was quite surreal, looking out the bus window this morning, with the green green of palm  and banana trees all around, and then white turbines sprinkled throughout and on every hill, all around and as far as the eye could see.
In Kanyakumari, a.k.a Cape Comorin (2 names, like many places in India – thank you Brits) we stashed our backpacks at the train station and then wandered around the markets and monuments by the sea.  There was a statue of a famous Hindu poet, pitched on an island about 100 meters from the shore.  The breeze was really nice and we dipped our toes in the cool water at the very tip of India.  Some Hindus believe that the water there is holy water and can cure any ailment.  We met a guy who was there on vacation, gathering up many gallons worth of it in old soda bottles to take with him back to the north.  We’re not so convinced of its healing abilities with so much garbage floating around in it.  Oh India.

It’s been hot.  When it’s summertime in India, Indians head for one of the many hill stations for milder temperatures; and since it was conveniently on our way to the more southern parts we were headed to next, we decided to do the same, and spend a few days in the jungley, mountain-town of Kodaikanal.  The bus trip up was a crazy, narrow, and windey adventure by itself; through big trees and waterfalls, and big drop-offs.  And when we arrived in the rain, it was hard to believe that there could be such a cool, green escape, only a few hours from the furnaces of the valleys below.  Heather says it was the perfect place to spend her birthday…we did some hiking, ate chocolate, (Lots available, ‘cause it doesn’t melt here.  Of course!) and relaxed in our incredible scenic hostel, plunked right into the side of a mountain.  We even got to spend and extra day, since all the buses in the whole state just happened to be on strike the day we wanted to leave.  Nice.  The whole place was very atmospheric, and easy to love. There is even a big international school in Kodai, so who knows, maybe we’ll be back someday!

During our time in Hyderabad, we were befriended by Sesi, an amazingly generous lady, who invited us to tag along with her for 2 days while she checked up on some of the rural NGO’s, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, that her organization sponsors and fundraises for.  The first projects we visited were an overnight train trip from Hyderabad, on the coast.  The group is working to improve education opportunities in small fishing villages that were affected by the 2004 tsunami.  They train teachers and provide teaching materials to help the kids learn.  The kids were so excited to have visitors, and to show off all the things they’d been learning.  At one school they surrounded Heather on the floor to sing very loudly, the little English songs they’d been learning.  We visited about 8 schools and after-school centers.
The second day, we went 5 hours by train and an hour by bus further south, to visit an NGO that provides training for women, teaching them marketable skills like sewing and computers, and then teaching them how to train each other and form community support groups.  They also provide preschools and teacher training, to give the kids of the villages a headstart on the normal government education.  The 6 villages we visited with this project were much more rural, and most of the kids were much more nervous about the “whiteys,” but quickly warmed up, and loved it when we taught them all how to high-five.  We received incredibly warm, elaborate, ceremonious welcomes at all the villages, by the entire village.  And were kept very well-hydrated on plenty of fresh coconut juice in every one.  It was an amazing experience.