On the train I'd met two English people, John (Ray Mears, to all intends and purposes) and Esther. Also with them was the unnamed Hungarian man with whom I caught the exciting bus to Hampi. I met the English couple later at my guesthouse (the spartan but pleasant Shanti, Rs 80 a night, mozzie net included). Before then, I had to get through all the touts and hawkers (before reading the Rough Guide, neither of these words were really in my vocabulary), trying to offer me room. My rickshaw driver was keen to get away from them, nearly running over my foot in the process. One tout jumped in, followed by a more bedraggled older man; the driver and the first tout, with some difficulty, managed to push him off. They seemed keen to take me to a certain hotel, for which they would get comission, added to my bill, but realising Hampi was smaller than a very small place, I got off and walked away from them, with the tout crying "rickshaw free!" behind me. Word of advice to anyone coming to India: if someone offers you something for free, invariably it'll be (in the long run) very, very expensive. So I walked into the Shanti guesthouse, which is rather more downmarket than I'm used to, but also cheaper.

Today I joined up with a party of English people (the couple from the train, two gap year students and Steve, who works or worked for the RAF and talks with John about betalights and rivets), and went on the guided tour of part of the monuments. Impressive, and also amusing. The guide resembled Steve Buscemi to quite a startling degree; highlights of his speeches included his description of the two Ganesh statues ("peanut ganesh" and "mustard gansesh") and the incarnations of Shiva ("first is fish, then is turtle, then is lion") and also that the accomdation near the elephant stables was once used for the living quarters of "gay people" ("half man, half woman, you know"). Somehow I think he meant hermaphrodites, unless he has some very confused ideas.

While I'm a little disappointed by the apparent lack of monkeys, nonwithstanding that one stole from me outside the Taj Mahal (from then on whenever he saw a monkey, my guide pointed out by saying "look - a terrorist!"). While the heat here is pretty impressive, I do plan to wander about the main temple a little and register myself with the police. Steve, John and Esther told me about the recent killing of an Israeli tourist by a murderer posing as a tour guide, who had her fingers and teeth removed (this just a couple of weeks ago), so I'm feeling less keen about wander around on my own. However, given the number of beggars and hawkers lurking in the shade of trees, every hundred yards, I think during the morning I'll be safe to sit and paint a watercolour or two. We did see a huge cobra darking into its tree-root hole today, but I think any snakes there are around here will stay out of sight, what with the local people offering to catch them for photographs, for 100 rupees.

Time is a wasting and this keyboard is clunky. Next update will probably be after I've braved the coracle crossing to the other side of the river (no doubt sacred, this is a major pilgrimage site).