It was March, hot summer reminding me of school summer vacation. I had just got down from the bus and was on my way to work when I got a text from HP. It read “are you free this weekend?”. I never have plans for weekends or maybe I have (laying down on my bed all day :P). So I texted “yes”. Then he asked me if should we go on a trip. I always get excited about going on trips and I said yes, let us go.
We had planned to board a bus from Bangalore (since we both work in Bangalore) on Friday, the bus would take us till Hospet from where we would need to go to Hampi using an auto or other means of transport. HP booked the tickets immediately, also the cheapest option available. I was all excited when I received a mail from work on Thursday (just one day before the trip) saying I need to visit a vendor’s office for an in-person meeting the next day (yes, on the same day I was supposed to board the bus). The meeting was supposed to commence at 4:30 p.m. and it would get over by 8:00 p.m… Not to mention, my bus was at 11:00 p.m. and I was living 14 km away from the bus boarding point, that too in Bangalore. So if everything went well and the meeting got over by 8:00 p.m., I would have 3 hours to make it to the bus stop.
The pre-adventure
It was Friday, and I was able to make it back to my room by 8:30 p.m. from where I left for the bus stop. I had exactly 2.5 hours to make it in time. There was a political rally happening on the same day, and parts of the road which I was supposed to travel through to reach the bus stop were blocked (How good is my luck?). The difficulty level had just increased from difficult to hardcore. I decided to take an auto instead of a bus (which turned out to be a great decision), fortunately, Ola did not make me wait for long (however the price had already surged exponentially, but I didn’t have a choice). I got the auto and as I was traveling down the road, I could see chunks of people stuck on bus stops waiting for a means of transport to reach their homes. The road was blocked at so many places, the expert auto driver made sure he reached the bus stop in a record time of 1.5 hours. He took all the possible available shortcuts and internal roads. I got down at the Anand Rao circle which is usually the boarding point for many private buses and also, and it was mentioned in the ticket.
I tried contacting the bus conductor, and he informed me that the boarding point mentioned on the ticket was wrong and that I would have to walk 1.5 km more to reach the correct boarding point. So I walked to the boarding point and reached there around 10:30 p.m… The place was so crowded as if it were some orchestra and I could see no buses. (The difficulty level has just been updated from hardcore to nightmare). Another reason why you should not book the cheapest available option from the list. I contacted the conductor again, he seemed to be quite busy and he told me to wait near a store which I couldn’t locate. I tried searching for it on maps and asked several people around, but nobody was telling me anything. There was a hell lot of chaos there. After searching for a lot of time, I found the guy who was associated with the bus company and he said you can just wait, the bus will come right here. After a lot of difficulties, I was able to board the bus and was finally relieved. HP boarded the bus at a later stop.
Day 1
We reached Hospet at 06:00 a.m. on Saturday. It is a relaxed place with far less population density compared to Bangalore. We were approached by local auto guys but we took our time. We checked out Ola, and Uber but none of these options are available there. Hampi is 14 km from Hospet, so, we had no choice but to take an auto from there. The auto uncle was nice and shared his number with us in case we wanted to look around Hampi in his auto. We had already booked a place to stay but check-in time was 10:00 a.m., however, we reached there way before the check-in time. The owner was humble enough to let us in before the check-in time.
As you enter Hampi, you can see a lot of stone around, monuments, and temples all carved out of stone. Even the mountains have huge boulders on them, and one might start to think as though how they stand there without having the effect of gravity on them.
We got freshened up, went to a nearby restaurant to eat breakfast, and then after thinking for some time, decided to call the same auto uncle who had dropped us in the morning. After going on a bargaining streak with him, which HP does quite well, we agreed on a mutual price.
It was the beginning of April, and as the day was passing, it was getting hotter. We started by visiting the Vitthal mandir, ruins of which remain now after facing attacks in the past. It’s located on top of a hill, which is accessible only by electric golf carts, any other form of vehicle is prohibited there. It took us around 5 mins to reach the ruins of the temple. It contains the iconic stone chariot which is featured on INR 50 note. After spending some time there we went to visit the next monument which is called Queens bath. It is a big pool-like structure that is again carved out of stone, however, it was dry and did not contain water. Next, we visited Mahanavami dibba which is an enormous stage-like structure also carved out of stone which I guess was used in the olden days during the festival of Dusshera.
Just near to this, is a step well which is called Pushkarni, which was used to store water. It was almost afternoon and we could see the effects of the sun in summer in Hampi. It was getting extremely hot.
Next, we visited Hazara Rama temple. The walls of this temple contain stone carvings that depict the story of the city of Hampi. Almost all temples have similar architecture, all carved out of stone. After this, we visited the lotus mahal which is a small monument, entry inside which is restricted. Near to this are the elephant stables, which are empty now. They are huge structures that were used in the olden days to house the elephants.
Next, we visited the underground Shiva temple. It is not that deep under the ground, only a part of it is beneath the surface, it was quite dark inside. Then we were on the way to visit Lakshmi Narasimha temple, where we saw two huge boulders beside the road, which are called the sister stones. Lakshmi Narasimha temple has an enormous idol of Lord narasimha which is also carved out of stone. There was quite a competition among people there to get a photo clicked with the idol.
Then we visited the Saasivekalu ganesha temple, which has a huge 15 feet idol of lord Ganesha. We then visited the Kadalekalu ganesha, which is also an idol of Lord Ganesha. After visiting all these places it was time for lunch, and the auto uncle had shown us all the places which he had promised to show us.
We were both exhausted and full of sweat after looking at so many places. So, we decided to go for lunch in the mango tree restaurant. Most of the restaurants in Hampi are vegetarian including the mango tree. It has a really good ambiance, with friendly staff and a sit-on-floor kind of arrangement, it was quite relaxing for both of us. After having our lunch there, we decided to go back to our room and rest for some time. The only place left to be visited during the day was Virupaksha temple which was within a walking distance from our room.
After having a good afternoon nap, we left to visit the Virupaksha temple. There was an enormous chariot outside the temple, I could see a lot of monkeys around. Inside the temple was an elephant who was giving the blessing to people, but only if you offer him something. Apart from this, there are musical pillars inside the temple. It was almost about to be sunset, so we decided to climb the sunset point. It wasn’t very difficult to climb the hill which seemed to be a huge boulder, we reached atop and found a good spot to chill, listen to music and enjoy the sunset. From here, we could see the city of Hampi. The sun was setting and it was a pretty view.
The sun was setting and it was dark, we decided to have a look around at the market and found nothing of our interest. Mostly there were a lot of stone cravings, and art pieces and stuff like that. It was almost dinner time and we couldn’t find any other better restaurant than the mango tree to have our dinner as well. The ambiance during the night was even better.
The first day of the trip came to an end here. Let us continue in the next post.