Hampi, here we come...

January 16 – Reached Hampi

We had the first two seats at the entrance of the bus, which had a bit of cool air blowing into it. We began watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the Creative Zen, but we were soon drifting off due to the strenuous day we had. We woke up the next morning for breakfast at Priyadarshini Complex in Hospet, we were close to our destination.
In the next 15 minutes we were passing by some amazing terrain, with massive boulders and Bhavika excitedly said that we were about to reach Hampi. The bus stopped and we got out, a quick walk through Hampi market and straight to the boat to cross the river. We had planned to stay at Shanti Guest House, where a friend of ours Ankush had stayed before and suggested we stay there as its an amazing place.

Shanti guest house was on the other side of the Tungabhadra river, which flows through the temple town. We took the boat, paid for Rs. 10, while foreign tourists had to pay 3 times the amount to use the boat service. We wanted to make sure we would get a room so we got into a rick and asked him to take us to Shanti. The rick guy took Rs. 20, for both of us to cover a very small distance, less than half a km.

We had to wait for someone to check out at 10 am for us to get a room. So we ordered for two hot chocolates and a nutella pancake. Before breakfast arrived the owner asked us if we wanted to see the room. We were awestruck, a white circular hut with a roof made up of straw and wood and a swing in front of the main door that overlooked the paddy fields, a river, mountains and rocks. It was the most beautiful place that we had ever stayed in and it was evident on our faces. We did not even look into the room we asked him how much it was, he said it was for Rs. 400, Bhavika asked him if he would come down. He said there were some other rooms for Rs. 250. I said that I would like to stay here for Rs. 400. Our first day was just Shanti (Hindi for Peace), we spent the whole day just chilling on the swing outside the room. It was lovely we saw at least six different kinds of birds over there. The view was awesome and the sunset took place right in front of us. Our room was just like the one that is behind Bhavika in the picture below. We went for a walk through the paddy fields where we saw a bunch of egrets by water. As we got closer we found a whole colony of birds in their natural habitat, all of them making a hoarse sound, it was like an out of tune orchestra creating havoc. Apart from the Egrets there were birds just like them except completely black, I could not identify them.Before leaving that area I made a loud sound and they all began flying in the air allowing me to take few nice pictures. The purple reflection of the sky on the water body, which had lot of fish jumping in and out.
Expenses on day 1
Boat ride from Hampi Bazaar to other side of the river – Rs 10
Rickshaw to Shanti Guest Lodge – Rs 20
Stay at Shanti Lodge – Rs 400
Breakfast – Rs 140
Lunch – Rs 230

January 17 - Hampi

After a day’s rest in the beautiful setting of Shanti Guest House, we decided to hire a bike and do the regular tourist activity, which is sight-seeing, visit all the historical monuments. It was a bright sunny day and we hired a bike from Shanti for Rs 150 and filled two litres petrol worth Rs 140, expensive deal for a two-wheeler Moped. But it was a better option than hiring a cycle, because the roads are bumpy.

We went to cross the river close to Shanti with the bike, but unfortunately due to high tide the boat didn't allow us to carry the bike across .That left us with the only option of going all the way to Anegundi village where another boat service was available, but the village was quite far, around 25-30 minutes away, but we didn’t mind the ride, because we would get to see more of Hampi.

We passed the Hanuman temple (also known as Monkey temple), but decided not to visit that place because it was on top a hill, and I had gone there last time and I didn’t find it interesting except the view of course from the top. After some help from the locals with the directions to Anegundi village, we finally reached a point to cross the river on a circular boat known as teppas, and surprisingly it carried three two-wheelers. Quite a capacity that, and we also received some help from the boatman to get the Moped in and out of the boat. Huge sigh of relief!!! But we just had till 7 pm to finish with our exploration as the boat service stops then, and if we miss that we either ride 50 km to get to Shanti, which is on the other side of the river, or stay back in Hampi Bazaar. What actually happened as the day unfolded, read on… First destination was Vithala Temple, I think it was the most splendid and mind-blowing monument in Hampi, and it is mainly known for its musical pillars. We paid Rs 10 per person for entry and for foreigners it was much more, Rs 250, no wonder the tourism industry in India is booming. The ticket provided can be used to see two more temples.
Most of the websites mention the temple has 56 odd musical pillars, but in reality there are only nine musical pillars which are functional and produce melodious, feet-tapping tunes.
We went to this underground route, called the ‘Padakshina’ where during ancient times the royal family would move around the main temple few times as a sign of respect and it was underground to avoid the royal family from being attacked. The image below is what they believed to be the miniature of Gate of Heaven. According to ancient beliefs only a good person could walk through that gate, if an evil person walked through it, the fire pots that can be seen on either side of the entrance would incinerate the person entering the gate.We hired a local guide to take us through the significant parts of the temple and he played varied tunes on the pillars, some classical, some pillars modulate pitches one a high-pitch sound and another a low-pitch sound, a very interesting one was the one pillar that has eight sub pillars that sounds like glasses filled with different levels of water, just like musical notes, etc. Mind you we could not stop shaking a leg when he got going on some of those pillars.

How do these Pillars work?

Surprisingly, these pillars are rock solid, not hollow as I thought they would be. A huge rock was used to make the main pillar and the sub pillars were around the main pillar. So basically the sub pillars are carved out in different length and width to make the differences in sound.

Take for example a musical instrument like a guitar, for a string on a guitar to play the right note it needs to be tense, so we wind it. What the temple builders did was they put heavy weight on the top of the pillar so the heavy weight caused the tension on the sub pillars to create sound.

How they managed to get 56 different sounds? It seems that 56 musicians would be seated in that temple and play on the pillars. Creating sounds that would fill up the evening air for over one kilo meter.

Below we have uploaded a video below if you want to hear him play, this pillar was a bell pillar. It made sounds of a bell, a school bell the first one, the second a temple bell and when you hit each one of them you get a calling bell (a house bell). Enjoy!
The guide also mentioned that in olden times the entire area where the pillars were use to be covered with cloth giving it a pandal like feeling and women would dance there. The sculpture is just amazing at this place, there is also a miniature of the Vithala temple on the side, then there are these carvings which forms various images.

In the sculpture seen below, when certain parts are covered it can be seen as a monkey pulling up a baby monkey, when you cover another part it looks like a person meditating under the hood of a giant cobra, two horses standing on their hind legs, altogether you can see five different things in a single sculpture, it was mind-blowing! Each and every part of the temple was carved with so much variety I did not know which pictures to choose to put on the blog and in no way did we manage to capture all the interesting carving's.Like modern times, even in the early days they used to make model's of structures before building them, the model of Vithala temple can be seen below.Every carving, is a recording of history, take into example the picture below, it speaks about corruption. Those days the Portuguese traders used to trade horses for spices. The King used to allow only 100 horses in his stable at a time, so there was only a limited amount of spices below.

Below you can see the Portuguese trader with a horse offering a bribe to the kings gate man to accept his horses even after the 100 were done.Like the carving above that can be viewed in five different forms, the one below is much easier to decipher. You can see two animals in it, first you should be able to see an elephant, if you cover the body of the elephant you will be able to see a bull.To the east of the hall is the famous Stone Chariot, constructed for Lord Vishnu with stone wheels that actually use to revolve at one point, but to avoid further destruction the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) cemented the base so it doesn’t move anymore.The people used to move the wheels of the Chariot to make believe that Lord Vishnu was ascending to heaven on his Chariot. The chariot was designed in seperate parts that fit together like lego, interlocking parts.The front of the chariot shows two elephants, but a closer look will reveal that the front part, which was destroyed by the invaders, actually had horses and not elephants. You can spot their tails on closer look and for photographic purpose ASI officials plastered two elephants in the front.Well, after our journey through Vithala temple we faced quite an ordeal. Our front tyre got punctured. The moped did not fit in the Rickshaw, so we had to remove the front tyre take it with us we had to shell out Rs 260 bucks to get it fixed, 200 to the rick driver, 60 to the puncture guy who patched two holes and also put a new front break wire.

We had to take a rickshaw ride to Kamalapur village, which is around 3 km away, and got the tyre fixed. I must say the locals were really helpful, the whole process took around an hour to get done.

After that we hit the road again, we visited the deserted Octagonal bath, the landscape here was till the eye can see, wide open space with ruins it felt lovely and free, especially when you come from a city to a place like this you can run up an down like a child with the excitment.A funny looking rock, that was quite a bit of a walk from the Octagonal bath but in easy view of our camera. From there we moved on to the Royal centre which comprises Mahanavmi Dibba, which is like a plateau of a lion story wooden structure from which the royalty viewed Hampi with pomp, colour and revelry during the Mahanadu festival.Not too far away is the Stepped Tank. This large and geometrically thrilling tank, lined in green diorite, has never required restoration. Insane, look at the picture below!!!

It has no drain, and is fed by an aquaduct. Markings on the blocks (not shown) indicate that they were cut elsewhere, before being moved to the site and assembled here.We headed to Elephant Stables, which is a huge stable, a beautiful example of Hindu-Muslim style of architecture, housed about 11 elephants in separate compartments. The same ticket of Vithala temple works here as well.Next stop Queen's Bath, it is a 15th century bathing pavillion for members of the royal household. Its balconies and domed corridors surround this massive 50 ft.long and 6 ft.deep swimming pool. The building, which has been heavily restored, shows numerous Islamic influences, including the projecting balconies with lotus-shaped fountains that once sprouted perfumed water. We did not take a picture of the place, the interiors need restoration, the carvings on the celing are nearly wiped off, though we noticed that every section of the queens bath had a different carving on the ceiling.

Close to this is the Zanana Enclosure, which means ladies enclosure and the major attraction here is the Lotus Mahal: shaped like a lotus flower from top, this two-story structure has beautiful arc ways set in geometric regularity. It use to be an air-cooled summer palace of the queen. Opposite that was the watch tower, which not many people go (guess they think it is not accessible).We went there and caught a glimpse of few parrots flying through the ruins. This place is a paradise for photographers, one can capture such vibrant pictures here. The Underground Shiva’s Temple was really captivating. This extensive temple stands in an excavation in the ground, and is surrounded by earth embankments. At times the base of the temple is flooded with algae-filled water making it inaccessible for tourists. Most of the sites in Hampi are scattered, so if you look closely you might discover many more places. After the Shiva temple we moved little further ahead on a small muddy road leading to the Mosque, the Mohammedan Watch tower etc located at one side of the road and the ‘Noblemen’s quarters’ is on the opposite side. Clyde was fairly tired with the day’s activities, and you can see I was already sitting down, so we decided to go to the watch tower and see the sunset. We also had to catch a boat back from Anegundi village to Shanti, so we headed back.On the way we passing Kamalapur, we saw the Malayavanta Raghunatha temple. It is built in Dravidian style and is located on a cliff. We had a tough time moving the Moped up the steep slope, on entering the place we spotted strange-looking fishes and marine monsters carved along its outer walls. One of the local told us that this place was built on a single huge boulder. Well, we don’t know how true that is, but towards the end of the temple as you walk straight up we came across this another small temple in a cave on a small boulder. We have taken a picture of the crippled Sadhu inside.

Actually he was quite insistent that we take his picture, which is quite evident in his pose. It was quite freaky, pretty dark inside and the Sadhu’s tone freaked us out. After clicking the picture and we started to move out of the cave, he said in a nasty tone, ‘You need to make contribution’. Well, quite uncertain as to how much to give, we kindly kept Rs 30 on the floor and ran out. Just as we stepped out we saw the different colours in the sky post sunset. And we were dumbstruck, speechless and oh so fascinated with what we were seeing. A good picture as you can see, there were strokes of orange, red, yellow, maroon, what a sight!!! It was the best sunset ever. Quite romantic too…Really happy ad delighted with the colours in the sky we decided to head back to Anegundi to catch our boat, and to our utter disappointment our back tyre got punctured. Second puncture of the day, and we were on an isolated road, and we had no torch. So Clyde lit a match to confirm that the tyre was actually punctured. We were in a state of shock, didn’t know what to do, on a unknown path, surrounded with darkness. Common sense prevailed and I could recollect that there was a village few kms away, so we rode back towards the Raghunatha temple.

And we were really lucky to find a mechanic in a village called Venkatapura. We heaved a huge sigh of relief!!! Never been so happy seeing a mechanic, considering I don’t drive or ride a vehicle. First there were only two-three guys at the small service station, and within no time few more gathered. It was like our first encounter with the villagers who get really excited to see tourists. They asked us where we from and they all were glad to know that Mumbai was our home town.

Luckily few of them knew bit of Hindi, so we could communicate to them our problem. The mechanic slowly dismantled the back tyre and found out that it was severely punctured and required a new tube.

I was really tensed at that moment, because more and more men started to gather around us and amongst them was this drunk old South Indian man charging towards me and calling me ‘Amma, Ammma’. I was petrified and started to weep as well. Clyde was trying to calm me down and to my surprise the villagers sensed that I was getting scared of the old man, and they all tried to convince me that this place was safe and there was nothing to worry about, while they stopped the old man from coming towards me. Coming back to the puncture, two villagers really generous volunteered to get us a new tube for the back tyre from Kamalapur which was around 20 minutes away. In fact they also offered us to keep their bike for the night and asked us to collect our Moped the next morning. But the Moped didn’t belong to us, so we decided to get it fixed immediately.

The two guys left as me and Clyde sat on a platform near the shop. We were lamenting our terrible luck. It was 6.45 pm and I told Clyde that we would have made it for the boat on time if not for this disaster. Anyway, no complains, because we came across some really nice and kind people. We began to converse with the villagers, speaking about Mumbai being the home town of the famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and the number of Hindi movies they watch.

Some of them also get influenced by them, like the drunk old man, who was calling himself ‘Kalicharan’. Soon there were 12 people around us, each trying to know what the actual problem was. In some time we got our new tube and paid the villager Rs 130 (Rs 20 for his petrol). And subsequently our bike was fixed and we decided to click few pics with them, they actually became our friends. One of them took Clyde’s number and Mumbai address down and said he would call. I have taken a picture of all the people of Venkatapura village who helped us during our ordeal. The drunk old man is third from right, next to Clyde.We had missed the boat and decided not to go back to Shanti, because we would have to take a longer route of 50 km, pass the highway NH17 filled with trucks, and then reach our guest house, which wasn’t advisable seeing our bad luck. We didn’t want to stretch any further.

A villager asked us to stay in a lodge at Kamalapur, but I thought it made more sense to go to Hampi Bazaar and feel more secured there and would leave early morning back to our hotel. We got a decent room with an attached bathroom for as low as Rs 175 at Shiva guest house, since it was just for a Night.

Really exhausted, we went to get some dinner at Venkateshwar Restaurant (recommended by Lonely Planet), really delicious food. But when you are starving everything tastes delicious. We also picked up a postcard from a local boy selling them and a medieval coin which has an elephant engraved on it.After the meal we rushed back to our temporary guest house to get some much-needed rest. Nevertheless, we loved the adventure we had during the day. That was the end of a truly action-packed, adrenaline pumping day.
Expenses on day 2
Stay at Shanti Lodge – Rs 400
Breakfast – Rs 100
Hired a bike from Shanti for a day plus two litres of petrol – Rs 290
Boat ride from Anegundi village to go to Hampi Bazaar – Rs 50
2 bottles of water – Rs 30
Guide at Vitthala temple – Rs 100
Snacks – Rs 30
Rickshaw to Kamlapur to fix puncture of the front tyre – Rs 200
Mechanic cost to fix the puncture cost – Rs 50
New wire for the break – Rs 10
Contribution to a Sadhu at Raghunath Temple – Rs 30
Second puncture to the back tyre – Rs 130 for the tube
Mechanic cost – Rs 50
Room in Hampi Bazaar – Rs 175
Dinner at Venketeshwara Restaurant – Rs 175

January 18 - Hampi

We checked out early morning, and went to the same river, which had refused to take the Moped on it, to try our luck. I guess the lady luck was shining on us, because the boatman allowed and we reached Shanti.

We spent the whole day just chilling again, this time mother nature had a special sunset treat for us. It was a magnificent sunset, with a bit of mind expansion it just looked too good to be true.
Expenses on day 3
Boat ride to go back to Shanti – Rs 20
Stay at Shanti – Rs 400
Breakfast – Rs 90
Lunch – Rs 330
Dinner – Rs 100

January 19 - Hampi

The next day we decided to see a few places close to the bazaar that we had left for later after we purchased our tickets back to Bombay. We went to Neha Travels in the Bazaar and got our tickets for Rs 610 each, thats Rs 40 less than the travel agent associated with Shanti quoted us.

We got a rickshaw to take us to a few places close by for Rs 120 There are two Ganesha's close to the bazaar. One of them is bigger than the other, that is massive called Mustard Ganesh. It is a 9 feet tall single stone statue which is also known as Sasivikalu Ganesha. The image below shows the smaller one. After seeing the smaller Ganesha, this statue was jaw dropping, it was massive and looked very different. The image of Lakshmi Narasimha, better known as Ugra Narasimha, is hewn out of a single monolith and is about 6.7 metres in height. Although the sculpture has been very badly mutilated, it shows Narasimha seated with Lakshmi on his left lap. At present, except the right hand that embraces his back, the whole figure of Lakshmi the thighs and legs of Narasimha are mutilated. The sculpture was damaged during the attack of the capital by the victorious Bahamani sultans in 1565 A.D. The Narasimha statue with an articulately chiselled crown and large eyes still retains his awesome charm. Above him rises the stately Adisesha, the seven headed snake serving him as a canopy. On top of the head is a carved lion's mask. It was carved out in 1528 during the rule of Krishnadevaraya. Though the image is enclosed by walls and a passage, the roof if at all contemplated, was obviously never completed.Only a few metres to the left of the Narasimha statue is the Shiva linga, cut out of a huge boulder and is popularly known as Badavi-linga. It is completely intact and measures about 3 metres in height. It is enclosed by walls and a roof and the base of the linga is perenially under water.We then asked him to take us to sister stones where you can see these two massive identical triangular stones touching each other to form a rectangular structure.
We came back and the Rickshaw guy was pestering us to go back it was hardly twenty minutes since we started. So we asked him to take us to the big Ganesha, from there after a short walk we reached a spot where we got a view of the entire Hampi Bazaar.The Virupaksha temple, is situated at the start of the main road in Hampi that is the bazaar road. It is the main center of pilgrimage at Hampi and has been considered the most sacred over the centuries. It is fully intact among the surrounding ruins and is still used in worship. The temple is dedicated to Shiva, known here as Virupaksha.We then took the boat ride across and had lunch at Rasta Cafe which is just before Shanti Guest house, we reached there just before sunset and by the time the food arrived it was already time. Rasta Cafe offered us decent food, Bhavika ordered for a South Indian Thali, but actually got a Punjabi Thali. I enjoyed the Chicken Biryani that was priced at Rs 50. Our bill totaled Rs 130 with a lime juice and Ginger Honey Tea.

We then got to Shanti for our last Sunset from there.Although the sunset wasn't as magical and mesmerising as the previous days.
Expenses on day 4
Room at Shanti - Rs.400
Boat to Hampi Bazaar- Rs.10
Tickets to Bombay - Rs.1220
Rickshaw to Visit Few Places - Rs.120
Lunch at Rasta Cafe - Rs.130
Dinner at Shanti - Rs.150

January 20 – Hampi to Mumbai

We watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the previous night, depression was creeping in. I as a person am usually happy anywhere I am, but of course I was sad that I would be leaving such an awesome place.So we left Shanti at 10.15 am, we then took the boat across and then started walking to Mango tree restaurant. Mango tree is situated in the middle of a Banana plantation and the walk to it, is completly banana's!The view from Mango Tree is lovely, the river that you cross the boat passes by in front of it and like every place in Hampi, a lot of landscape is visible. We think we also managed to see Shanti Guest house on the other side.Mango tree restaurant has a huge swing thats located in the center top, you get a lovely view from the swing again. The Mango Tree that provides shelter for the entire eating area and where the swing is on, bears a lot of fruits as well. This place provides a very refreshing change from a conventional restaurant.Mango tree offers vegetarian food and eggs, but do not let that stop you from going there. Myself being a hardcore meat eater, I thought that I would not enjoy my meal, but the food was the clearly the best vegetarian food available in Hampi. I enjoyed it!And for dessert,After our meal we took a walk down the path that we came down beyond Mango Tree, it ends quite fast and a good view from there as well. Again this place is surrounded by Banana plantations.We then took a rickshaw for Rs 80 to Hospet, Priyadarshini complex. The rickshaw was loaded with LPG Gas Cylinders, hence it was a slower ride and took us a good half an hour to reach.

We then got Bhavika some cough medicine as she was not keeping too well and then we proceeded to enter the bus at around 6.20 pm.
Expenses on day 5
Boat ride – Rs 10
Lunch at Mango Tree – Rs 360
Rickshaw back to Hospet – Rs 80
Dinner on the way to Mumbai – Rs 50

January 21- Back in Mumbai

We listened to some Coldplay on the Zen, we reached Sion around 7.40 AM. We then took a cab till Bandra, the cab's meter read the price at Rs 261, more than the amount that took us to get from Mumbai to Goa. Back to Mumbai I said to my self, everyone here is looking to make a fast buck not a single smiling face.

I assumed it would be a maximum of Rs 150, since this was the day the Mumbai Marathon took place and some of the roads were blocked. We checked with a cab driver close by and he said maximum Rs 150, thats what the cab driver got.

We had our last meal together for this trip at Mc Donalds, Bandra. I personally hate Mc Donalds, we had two veg burgers with cheese and drinks. I usually consume the Fille O Fish and chocolate milk shake there, cause that's the only thing I like there.Bid each other farewell and here we are narrating our journey to you. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. This was Bhavika's second visit to Hampi as well, you can read about her first experience at Hampi here.
Expenses on day 6
Cab Ride - Rs.150
Breakfast at McDonalds – Rs.152
How to get to Hampi:

By Air:
The nearest airstrip at Tornagallu in Sandur Taluk which is 32 kms. from Hospet. The second nearest airport is Bellary(74 kms)
Other convenient airports are at Belgaum (190 kms) and Bangalore(353 kms).

By Rail:
Hospet is the nearest rail head (13 kms). Hospet is linked by rail to Bangalore, Bijapur,Hubli and Guntakal.

By Road:
Hampi is 350 kms from Bangalore. KSRTC Buses ply regularly from Hospet.

Best time to visit:
October to March

Resources:

The Map of Hampi Ruins

Hampi Tourist Information

Threats in Hampi

UNESCO Hampi Archive

The Vijaynagar Empire