Ready to get stoned errrrr stunned ??

I haven’t written about my travels in a long time. Yes, call it laziness or call it procrastination! Finally I fought it all to bring into the world my experiences.

Here’s a peak into my trip to Hampi

Fact Files:

Bangalore to Hampi
Total distance: 350 Kms
Driving time (approx): 8 hours

How to get there:
You can reach HOSPET by train from Bangalore Take the Hampi Express. Departs Bangalore at 22:00 hrs and reaches Hospet around 07:30 hrs (IST) You can hire a taxi or auto to reach Hampi (13km away)

Time to visit:
The ideal time to visit the towns of Hampi is between November and March. The Hampi festival happens in the month of November and probably the right time to be there!

Days to be spent:
It’s possible to see all the sights in Hampi in a day. But the ideal way is to spend minimum two days .Take a guided tour on the first day and explore the ruins on the second day on you own.

Stay:
To make the most of Hampi, stay at any of the budget guest houses at Hampi which allows you to explore the ruined city till late evening and then spend the rest of the time shopping and relaxing which is what we did.
The other option is to stay on Virrupura Gaddi across the river. But, be warned that the lodging and boarding, there though cheap, is very basic.

Get Stoned at Hampi !!!!

We went to Hampi in the first week of December. What was initially planned as all women trip landed up being an all woman plus one man trip!! The man of course volunteered his services and was officially designated as our driver cum bodyguard.hehe.

The chosen car was a Hyundai Accent. So it was yours truly, the man, his wife, my mom and an American chic : D

We set out sharp 6:30 in the morning. From the outer ring road leading to NH 4, we continued driving on till we hit Chitradurga. A right turn just after Chitradurga got us onto NH13 which took us to Hospet.

It took us a good hour before we saw ourselves outside city limits. Once we hit the highway, it was rock and roll!! As expected, fights began on the choice of Music etc etc. It was one against the rest of us...which made life easy!! Women are simple – they either agree with each other or they completely get rid of each other! Ha-ha!! No scope for any compromises and it looked like it was our way or the highway .. well we were on the highway already so it had to be our way :P

The first thing that caught our attention as we were getting close to Chitradurga were heavy trucks carrying gigantic wings! The guess game started – It actually looked like the airplane wings .
Well, no one questioned what airplane wings would do in open trucks in the middle of nowhere ..and as we drove further we were totally taken aback by the squat hills with thousands and thousands of Windmills... AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!





Chitradurga is surrounded with bold rocky hills and picturesque valleys with huge gigantic boulders in incredible shapes. There were sunflower fields on one side of the road, while the other was lined with hills that were dotted with numerous white wind mills.... Absolutely breathtaking!




Fact File: Chitradurga, on the highway linking Bangalore with Hospet, is renowned for its massive Kallina Kote (Palace of Stone) fort, a marvel of military architecture which was made impenetrable by the Nayak Palegars.

We were running short of time so we decided to skip the fort and headed straight to Hospet!

We made a couple of halts in between. The first one being at 48 kms from Bangalore at Kamath Upchar. Idlis followed by coffee ....we were all set to burn some more rubber. I was told that the upma at Kamath is to die for ! Next time !

We reached Hospet at 2 in the afternoon .We had lunch at a local restaurant without wasting anytime we headed straight to Hampi.
Hampi is just 13km away from Hospet, which offers better hotels and staying options. But if you have your own transport it makes better sense to stay in Hospet.

The first look at the boulders and the historical sites added to the drama and we were truly mesmerized by the charm! We were mobbed by the local guides at the entrance and seemed like we didn’t have much of a choice as Lonely Planet didn’t seem to have too much dope on local activities to do .So the chosen guide was Nagraj! And he was truly god sent .




He took us to Hampi Bazaar as I requested him to take us to places that I had short listed on LP. Saw a few guesthouses and decided on Padma Guesthouse. I guess I had set my mind before landing there that Padma Guesthouse would be it. Well, the place wasn’t bad for what we paid – 500 Rupees for a room! There were signs all over Hampi saying they were recommended by Lonely Planet. Seemed like Lonely planet‘s little discovery! It did prove one point that Hampi was more known to foreign tourists when compared to us Indians.

The schedule for the next two days was set!

Day 1:

After settling down at Padma guesthouse, we were ready to explore!

We first went to check out the Ugra Narasimha Statue, which we were told had undergone a lot of damage and had been partially restored by Archaeological Survey of India.

Next on our agenda was the Hazara Rama temple.

After which we saw the two sister rocks. The story is that the two sisters went and saw Hampi and didn’t like it. They started talking ill about it and as they were leaving they were turned into giant stones.

Then we went to see the Pushkarini Tank : A must see , it’s a gigantic tank that was used during those times . What is remarkable is the ingenious engineering used during that time for the water system.

We then decided to head straight to the Hemakunta Hills to witness the sunset before it got too dark.




After watching skies turn crimson as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, we walked down to see a Ganesha statue.
I had to be pulled out of there as I was totally charmed by the beauty of the place. The sunset was absolutely breathtaking.


We headed back to our guesthouse and went to a restaurant called chill out for dinner.Since Hampi is a temple town , you don’t get alcohol but they had their own ways to smuggling local arrack.

The place looks quite cool with low seating, dim lightings and the works but the food was truly horrendous.Most of the café’s at Hampi sell a lot of Mediterranean grub such as hummus and falafels with some local flavor which wasn’t quite exciting.


Day 2:

On one hand Hampi is known for its ruins and historical monuments, it is also known for its colorful sunrise and sunsets. It’s truly a photographer’s delight. And we really wanted to capitalize on that. so we were up early in the morning next day and we walked to Hampi Bazaar to witness the much talked about view of the sunrise from the top of Mathanga hill. It was an exciting climb and we were one of the first to be up and were soon joined by a group of foreign tourists and some ravenous monkeys .We walked down and witnessed the prostitute’s bazaar which was gigantic .After spending some time there we were off to the guesthouse to freshen up and get ready for the rest of the day. We had enough places to visit for the entire day. Wasting no time after the breakfast, we quickly got ready and headed towards then monuments of Mustard Ganesh and then to Peanut Ganesh , they obviously got the names due to their sizes. Quite amazing
Next stop was the Pattabhirama temple. Pattabhirama Temple is a majestic shrine; the presiding deity being Lord Ram built during the Vijayanagar period in the 16th century. Pattabhirama Temple is noted for its splendid architecture. There is also a Kalyana mandapa attached to the temple. Also we saw the Lotus Mahal: shaped like a lotus flower , this structure looks very geometrical and was apparently used as a summer palace of the queen. Then we went to the Elephant Stables: This huge stable, a beautiful example of Hindu-Muslim style of architecture, housed about 11 elephants in separate compartments. When we reached there , there were a scrum of thousand students who were running from one part of the corridor to another.. It was quite a ruckus .!


Finally we made it to Vithala temple complex. The complex is a plane area by the riverside doted with old structures and ruins. The signature temple of Hampi
We parked near the temple and took the walkway that leads us to the king’s balance and the Vishnu temple. General saying is that “in Hampi every stone has its own story”, whereas in this temple every pillar has its own musical sound. We stood there absolutely speechless watching the guide who was patting the pillars and took us through a whole orchestra of musical instruments from Tabla to Mridangam .The Vittala Temple also houses the famous Chariot.



Fact File: There are three such chariots in India; one is the famous Konark temple Orrisa, Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu and last but not the least at Vittala Temple Hampi. Never know, it could be your next KBC million Rupee question ;-)
Well, by then I was losing track of the temples I had been to .I guess that happens to everyone that goes to Hampi.
It was almost lunch time and we were famished. We went to this lovely restaurant by the Tungabhadra River called “Mango Tree”. They had seating on the ground and on different levels overlooking the river.. I highly recommend this place to all and sundry! Not only it has a lovely ambience, the choice of menu is also quite exhaustive. Very rejuvenating
After relaxing for some time, we decided to take a boat and cross the Tungabhadra River to Viruppura Gaddi. This was the last sunset that we were to witness. After much contemplation on the mode of transport, we decided to take 2 autos to the foot of the hills from where the incline to the hanuman temple would start. There were neat steps going up but there were too many. The Hanuman temple was on top of the hillock. There isn’t much about the temple but the sunset was truly spectacular .It was dark by the time we started climbing down. We were famished by the time we made it down. We befriended the villagers selling bananas and we requested them to make tea for us. We had an awesome time talking to the locals as we relished the oh-so-sweet tea





Day3:
We took it easy on the final day and woke up late . Finally we decided to go to the Virupaksha temple which apparently is one of the only temples in Hampi , where they still conducted prayers and poojas.

The temple has a 120 feet tall tower on its eastern entrance. The temple contains the shrines of Shiva, Pampa and Bhuvaneswari.Parts of this temple are older than the Vijayanagar kingdom itself.

We had a quick lunch and we were on our way back to Bangalore .

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside the door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye…………………….. But I had to leave ! Well the town was certainly awake and buzzing and I took with me lots of memories of this marvel and yes lots of pictures !