Travel to Hampi

A mail with the same subject line popped up on 31^st July 2010 from Sneha with plan for our next holiday trip. Hampi was the capital of Vijaynagar Kingdom (from medieval period). Now it’s one of the World Heritage Centres in India.  The ruins of the empire are spread over an area of 26 sq km. If history is what interests you then Hampi is one of the best places to Visit in India.

Date: 14^th Jan’11 to 17^th Jan’11

Place: Hampi, Karnataka

With: Sneha

Tickets were booked as planed and we started on 14^th Jan’11 for Bangalore. We reached Bangalore around 11 AM. After spending half a day in IISc Bangalore and Indira Nagar Club, we board the overnight train for Hospet (Train # 6592). Hampi is 13 KM from Hospet and we took a local bus (it’s frequently available). On the way you can find many ruins of the capital city of Hampi. Like most of our trips we didn’t do any Hotel booking but was carrying many hotels and guest house phone numbers. If you are particular about luxury hotel then stay at Hospet because Hampi doesn’t have any proper hotel. We looked into some of the accommodations available, called few of them and finally liked a room available with attached bathroom at Padma Hotel (1000 bucks per day, 24 Hours check-in). After taking some rest we went out with our plan to visit some of the 'ancient temples but unfortunately it’s was Pongal (Tamil New Year). The roads were crowded with people from neighbouring places who have come to take holy bath in Tungabhadra River.

Sneha’s friend who has visited Hampi before suggested us to visit Mango Tree Restaurant.  I will also suggest the same as it is a real peaceful restaurant with an amazing view of the Tungabhadra River and the rocks around. They serve reasonably good food and soft drinks. We went there for lunch and sat for 2 hours. Laziness was setting in as the day progresses, the crowd outside was another reason which stopped us from visiting different places. We decided to take some more rest and go out in the evening. Many foreign tourist visit Hampi every year. Old Hampi has a good market for Indian dresses and jewellery. Shopkeepers are comfortable in English (one of the boys even said “Ma’am please speak in English, I don’t understand Hindi). We did some shopping, had dinner and decided that next day we will get up early in the morning to see the sunrise.

We were ready at 4:30 AM and started for Matanga Hills. As we reached the foothill we realized there is no light and the way up is full of rocks (which looked unachievable in dark). We waited for some time and saw a guy (a French tourist who was in Hampi for 3-4 days and knows the route to top) coming towards the foothill. We starting climbing the rocks with his help and in a minute the chai wala also joined us with his bucket and a small touch (it’s important to carry touch during travel). It took us 20 minutes to reach the top and ahhhh it was worth every minute of effort, the complete view of Achyutaraya Temple is breathtaking. We waited for 10-15 minutes for the sunrise which was again mesmerizing. Then we had tea and climbed down.

As decided we didn’t waste any more time and after a quick breakfast we went to market to hire a Moped, our companion for the day (monuments in hampi are 3-4 Kms away from each other, so it’s best to hire a 2 Wheeler). Our first stop was Virupaksha Temple, it is a Siva Temple founded before the time of Vijaynagar Empire.

Next we went to Monolithic Bull (bull curved out of one rock). We had to walk from Monolithic Bull to Achyutaraya Temple. Each of these monuments is beautiful and without any doubt the place is a photographer’s paradise.

Post that we had to talk more than 1 KM because we thought Vitthala Temple (our next visit) won’t be that far and didn’t take moped. But luckily after some time got a battery operated car run by local women (they charge 10 bucks per head). Vutthala Temple has a huge rock chariot with temples around it. You can see beautiful stone carving though these are centuries old. There were also many artiest trying to capture these monuments in their art.

Our two wheeler was far away, so we again started walking and reached the banks of Tungabhadra River.  Boating is different a different experience in Hampi as you find coracles here. They charge around 600 or so for half an hour. We tagged along with a family and shared the amount.

Next and last destination was Tungabhadra Dam, 17 KM away from Hampi. We had our hired moped; I was riding a moped for the first time. It’s so light that it gave me the feeling of riding a cycle on highway. On the way to Tungabhadra Dam you can find many small monuments on either side of the road. The ruins of Hampi are spread across 26 KM. Tungabhadra River looked as huge as an ocean (without waves). We spent half an hour there (it wasn’t that great, just another dam).

Thus was the end of our Hampi trip, we came back to Hotel, picked our bags and reached Hospet to catch train for Bangalore. We reached Chennai on Monday afternoon. 

Check more photos (By Sneha and Me)