How to cross a river in a basket.

Yes, we crossed the Hampi river in darkness in a basket with eleven adults and a five gallon drum of gasoline. How many people can make that statement?
We were staying in a hotel on one side of the river but the temples were on the other side. The fastest way to get to the temples was by boat. During the day you can take a small power boat across up until 5:30 pm. Biri was going to meet us after we did the temple tour at a picturesque spot called the Mango Tree. We were also going to see the sunset so in my mind I knew we would be on this side of the river after 5:30pm. I trusted that Biri had figured things out. Another way of getting back to the other side was to drive 20 kilometres around the river to the highway. That could take hours. Minor details. The sunset was beautiful and the Mango tree had an unbelievable view. It was like you were in a tree house.
As we left the Mango tree, Biri told us we were crossing the river in a basket. We laughed and thought he had used his contacts to get the power boat back. Alas, this was not the case. We made our way to the river and beside the shore was a basket boat and one ore. There were many discussions and the guys were trying to swindle a large amount of money per person. Biri was having none of it. He called his buddy Murthie and we were able to cross for 200 rupees in total. All this would be OK but then we were getting in to the boat and I realised we were sharing it with a few people. The boat was only so big and eleven adults piled in. Oh, and a gas can filled with 5 gallons of liquid. The boat edge was just inches above the water level. Paul said his fingers were in the water. We crossed our fingers and pushed off the rock to hopefully make it to the other side. The stars were beautiful. I didn't want to look down. We made it. Things you never thought you would do, you do in India.



Basket Boat

This is what a basket boat looks like in daylight. I did not have the courage to get a picture when we were experiencing the night voyage. Can you imagine eleven people in this thing? They are amazingly buoyant.

Day voyage

This was a must less stressful ride. Notice how high we are out of the water. The next day we took a ride in a river that was created by the dike the government built to help the farmers have water for their crops. Hampi is a lush, beautiful place.

How to keep a boat afloat.

The tourist industry is very important to this area so they take good care of their boats. This is probably the reason why we didn't end up on the bottom of the Hampi River on our night excursion.