Hampi - on a motorbike through the surreal landscape

Feeling a bit like easy rider I took of to explore the monuments and ruins a bit further from Hampi, cruising over sand-roads, passing through rice fields and reaching places where the locals looked at me like they had never seen a westerner before. A beautiful thing in India is the natural and direct way people get in touch with each other and welcome strangers with open arms and a bright smile.
In the evening I went to a famous sunset spot on top of a mountain of big round rocks piled on each other. As I was a bit lazy to search for the way and already had practiced the day before I just climbed and jumped from rock to rock to reach the top. Up there a pack of monkeys was waiting for the tourists hoping to get some food or what ever they could grab to play with. I shook a finger with a young monkey and was stunned by their fearless behavior. When I had an adult monkey hanging at the strap of my rucksack I realized that these little bastards were ready to steal about everything they could lay their hands on ;)
This day I did not want to risk having to walk down in the dark so right after sunset I got on the way down, having to climb over an already locked gate of an Ashram near by in order to get out the motorbike…

People in Hampi celebrate Full moon with a huge bond-fire. Now I understand the concept of a "full moon party". In earlier days these were the occasions where people could take advantage of the bright moon light in order to stay up late and celebrate. As I am not a big fan of masses and and the crowd in ecstasy I went to sleep soon in order to gain some strength for the national "Holi-festival" the next day. I guess the pictures speak for themselves, it was great fun to throw color pigments at each other and dance to the percussion music with a child riding on my shoulders… Now I am sitting here, wondering if the stains on my skin will wash off in a few days ;) Big hug to all of you!!!