World Heritage Site Hampi

After days of urging and persuading, we finally leave Goa! After we failed to do it ourselves, we book the overnight bus to Hampi at the travel agency. A place in the middle of a beautiful landscape and dozens of temples. (Once this royal city was as big as Rome!)
The travel agents are not like ours and answer all questions with little enthusiasm or not at all. They probably know that we are dependent on them. So we have to check out after 11 nights in Palolem. Fortunately, our hotel is so great that we can stay until late in the evening. Just before we leave, Kay gives me a heart attack. He says it takes 1 hour to get to the bus stop. Panicked, we call the bus company and ask, but they have no idea what we're talking about. So we ask at the hotel, phew, only 10 minutes away. Now stressed, we set off with the tuk-tuk... we don't want to be late. So we are 2 hours early at the bus station, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Tuk-tuk back to Palolem and 1 hour later back to the bus stop... What a mess. While we're waiting, another tourist is nudged by a cow. Yes, the sacred cows here are used to the fact that people move out of their way. Finally, our bus arrives an hour late. For the first hour, I struggle not to throw up. It honks, accelerates, and brakes abruptly to avoid speeding over the speed bumps. Don't even think about a highway in India, the roads are narrow, poorly built, and full of curves. After a short toilet break, I manage to fall asleep. I would have to lie if I said for how long, because I wake up again from the noise and rumbling. At another stop, we are welcomed by a group of Indians who want to snatch their hostel with tuk-tuk service. After an uncomfortable short night, definitely no pleasure for the nerves. Another 30 minutes by bus and we are in Hampi. We check out some accommodations and see that they are all similar... 10 francs a night, okay. We are right in front of a large temple complex. There are cows everywhere and you have to be incredibly careful where you step! Hampi turns out to be a small shabby village. I had imagined the whole thing a bit more picturesque.
Breakfast! Finally! We are happy that everything is cheaper here than in Palolem. After breakfast, I fall asleep on our hotel bed and only wake up around 1:30 pm. We decide to go to a restaurant right on the river (it's too hot for us to explore temples in the blazing midday sun).
I have a delicious mango lassi and we have a lively conversation with two Germans about India. Later it finally gets a little cooler outside, so we let ourselves be taken across the not particularly clean river by a small motorboat, where the residents of Hampi bathe and wash their laundry. We also want to check out the accommodations there. Alcohol and meat are allowed again on this side of the river. (Hampi is a sacred site and a World Heritage Site) There are small huts here and it's quieter (and fewer cows), but unfortunately most of them are fully booked, what a shame. Back on the sacred side, we book a bike tour with a guide for the next morning... I'm curious! By the way, it will be decided in the next few days whether the residential buildings in Hampi will be demolished, as they were illegally built on the World Heritage Site. Terrible for the residents! And maybe tomorrow we will already be without accommodation and further transportation... India always surprises us anew.