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The long road to Hampi

We almost did not make it. Literally. From the US to this village in central India was
 our family undertaking this winter. Part history fans and part admirers of bygone culture of a culture rich land which is India we had planned our visit months in advance.

Hampi has a 700 year old temple complex established by King Vijay and classified as a UNESCO world heritage site of significant importance.

The structures are truly remarkable alongside the tubgabhadra river.  Another remarkable engineering marvel of recent times is the hydro power dam on said river a couple miles west of the main railhead of Hospet.

The incidents that tripped our trip were namely - our taxi got crushed on route from Mumbai airport to Pune, our first port of call.

Then our next leg was a private car supposedly from Pune to Hampi which as a result of a outright scam ditched us 100 miles after the trip began at a rest stop.

We scrambled to arrange new transport and through the help of a close friend managed to arrange alternative taxi.

All in all an India much different than what the current leader of india is hopeful for, remains a land, as my eloquent friend puts it - a GOP.  Not the grand old party but one that is defined by a 'Gondhal Operating Plan' aka chaos theory.





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