Anyone can receive a blessing from the temple elephant, Lakshmi. (After you give her a 100-rupee note, she whacks you gratefully on the head.) But train passengers have a special advantage: You go back at night to Hampi's central Vittala Temple complex, a compound of intricately sculpted halls with rows of pillars and the central stone chariot that gives the train its name.

FORBES: Photograph: Andre Fanthome (RAAS)