Day 26: February 13

I wasn’t really prepared for such a turn of events, and it wasn’t very clear what to do here, on this shore, so we used the points on the map and the very brief information in the guidebook. First, we went to the first temple along the way — Anjanadri, located on a hill. There are 570 steps leading up to the temple. The climb was rather difficult, as we arrived in the blazing midday sun. But we were rewarded with wonderful scenery.

In fact, everyone comes up here for this very reason — to admire the views that open up from the mountain. But as it turned out later, once we had already climbed up, most people come here to watch the sunset. Yes, at sunset it’s probably even more beautiful here, when the scorching sun doesn’t bleach all the colors to white.

After the temple, we went to the village of Anegundi. The little village is not particularly interesting. In the center, almost incidentally, stands a magnificent wooden chariot, whose wheels are bigger than me!

We saw the crossing over the river and the round fishing boats woven from some kind of vine and then coated with tar (that’s what Volchyi said :)

By this point we were pretty hungry, but in Anegudni no one was about to feed us. The only café in the whole village (where all the tables were occupied by tourists drinking soft drinks) said they weren’t preparing food because sometimes there are lots of tourists, sometimes very few, and for now, basically, food was in short supply.

So we kept going. Volchiy came up with the idea that we needed to go to some temple, and we turned onto a narrow road. And there I saw a sign for a hotel and a restaurant. We decided to go and check out what kind of place it was. A dirt road led there, winding between fields and palm trees, and hopes for anything good faded with every meter. But we didn’t give up. We got there and hooray — we found cottages and a restaurant with soft mattresses on the floor, pillows, and low tables — total relaxation :).

For lunch we ordered mushroom soup and a pancake with Nutella and bananas. The soup turned out to be incredibly delicious, no, honestly, it’s not because I was very hungry. It really was very tasty, with mushrooms and a bit of garlic and some spices, with such a pleasant creamy consistency. They can make pancakes here too — first of all, the pancake was huge, and second, it wasn’t as thin as we’re used to, but thicker. They didn’t skimp on the Nutella and bananas — in short, well done, guys, to organize such a cool place in the middle of nowhere. We asked how much their accommodation costs — it turned out that all their rooms were booked for the next few days… The place really is very beautiful — quiet, overlooking the river and palm trees. (sorry, I didn’t take any photos again)

Then we decided to go to the lake. But not by the main road, rather by a side road, to make a loop — and then come back along the main road. Somehow we managed to turn the wrong way and drove through villages where wild children threw themselves at our little scooter and shouted “helllo” — I thought they must be used to tourists here, apparently we had ended up in some remote place where tourists are not a common sight.

We rode along a dirt road beside a canal. Fields were on the left and there were landscapes like this — it’s very beautiful everywhere here, so a couple of times we even bothered to take out the camera to capture it.

Cobblestones are scattered everywhere, some of them lying on top of one another in a completely mysterious way.

We returned home in the evening. We had dinner in a rooftop restaurant overlooking the main temple in Hampi. It’s so lovely here in the evening — such pleasant warmth and a breeze, and you can even see the stars. The stars here are completely different, not like in Kyiv. For several days now I’ve been looking for the Big Dipper and can’t find it.