Bijapur - the Agra of the south?

Hi everyone, we are back online after a few daily power outages that always seem to start just when we want to write. Today we have decided to eat first, and hope to have avoided the daily black out of town - but more importantly of this little one-stop Internet cafe cum photo studio cum social club. Actually it's just a dusty room with one computer in it and a lot of Indian guys hanging around.

But back to Bijapur. According to the Lonely Planet, this little town has some "air quality issues", which surprised us, as most Indian cities seem to have this "issue", and it is not worth a special mention. However, with this city "issue" might be a bit of an understatement, as chunks of pollution fly into your eyes every time you take the auto rickshaw up and down the main street. It is even worse when you are trying to walk down the aforementioned main street (no sidewalk), and avoid: a) open sewers, b) oncoming traffic, c) little kids asking for a "school pen" or d) the hoards of "stray" pigs that fill the function of a garbage removal team. We couldn't figure out how there came to be so many of them until we thought that in a city that is partially Hindu and partially Muslim, they obviously have no natural predators....we thought that if we could introduce a few Spaniards into the city they could make it famous for it's free range "jamon bijapuro".

But seriously, we weren't there for the famous "air quality" but for the city's gorgeous Muslim monuments, all dating back to a particularly rich period in the city's history: the rule of a dynasty called the Adil Shahs. For a brief 200 years they ruled the city and the surrounding area, and have managed to leave quite an impact on the city, in the form of a series of amazingly large-scale monuments, such as the "Golgumbaz" (right) and the inevitable "Jami Masjid" (below). We LOVE Muslim architecture, but hey, we live in Jaffa so we are not really what you can call objective, yet there is something beautiful about the simple lines, the lovely arches, and the geometric patterns that make those buildings a little piece of paradise on earth.

Other highlights on our visit to the city were the super fast, ultra modern Internet cafe (complete with keyboards still in their original plastic wrapping), a very nice local market, and a visit to some tailors - one for men, one for women's Salwar Kameez (see left), and one for women's Choli (a little tiny blouse that you wear with you sari). Yes, as you can probably tell, we are working on Kim's Saris, but we have decided to dedicate a whole post to that in the very near future. Boaz got a bit sick (the usual stomach stuff, much better now, thank you) which was a BIG mistake, however, as Kim was let loose into town and came back with two new cotton saris... one of them, she claims is for Brenda, but I think I will try to stay with her from now on.

An other exciting thing about this town, is that on Sunday the market was full of Gypsy women, all dressed in blindingly colorful attires, covered with mirrors. We later learned that they come from a Lambani tribe/caste and if anyone has wikipedia and a little faster internet then what we have here, we would love to hear more about who they are.

We are now in Badami (we are lagging behind on our reports...) for a few days now, and will be leaving to Hampi on a day or two.

We have to wrap up, but before we do we would like to thank you all for all the great comments. It was really nice to hear from you, so don't be shy and keep on commenting!