Day 600 - From sun-up to sun-down

While waiting on the side of the road at 6.30am for the local bus, we lucked in when a taxi offered to take us to Magao for the same price as the bus (which we weren't sure was coming any time soon anyway)! Once in Magao we wandered the slowly awakening morning streets and made our way over the train tracks to the station. Come 8am we were sitting on the train and setting in for the 7 hour train trip to Hospet.
Along the way the train climbed a huge mountain and we eventually settled onto a plain that was a combination of dry and barren, and lush and green - if that's even possible!!It was in Hospet that Adam bargained the deal of the day when somehow we managed to get us a rickshaw ride to take us the 14km to Hampi for a mere 40 rupees!! The usual price is 100 rupees, so we were totally amazed at our good luck (and Adam's skills!). Not only did we get to jam to the Vengaboys at full volume while racing all the other rickshaws, we also convinced our driver to avoid the toll gate and thus save us another 10 rupees!!We jumped on the tourist rip-off boat to take us away from the hustle of Hampi Bazaar and found ourselves walking along a dirt path surrounded by rice paddies and an amazing puzzle of stacked boulders. For lunch/dinner we lazed in the hotel garden/restaurant that overlooks the river and up onto the crumbling ancient Hindu remains.
For sunset we went for a small wander along the paddie edges and settled on a warm rock to watch night come as it changed the green rice paddies into red and triggered a chorus of frogs into their nightly songs!

Adlibing it to Hampi.