Trip to Hampi

Note:
1. Hampi which is basically Vijyanagar Dynasty is now can be seen as ruins. It is one of the most beautiful place just with the ruins.
2. It is a rocky hilly terrain on all 3 sides and soothing river on other side. So visiting this place in winter season is better. I tell you when Bangalore is 22 C, here it is 35 C.
3. If there are 100 visitors, then just 5 are Indians and rest 95 are from various part of the world.
4. This village will consists of max 200 houses and out of that 150 are also guest houses. I really don't know where the family members are going to stay and here they are going to accommodate their guest. I just found 3 hotels though named as guest house.
5. There are no or very few eating place. Out of those 200 houses, there may be max 20 places to eat. Most of them will cater to foreign food, like bread, pizza, burger and similar stuff. I found one
road side stall selling dhosa and one proper shop selling south Indian dishes. It was really funny to see cattle staying in one side of the house and in another side people are selling pizza and burger and on your way you will be greeted by cows.
6. There are no metal road inside the village, it is just mud road as we see in any other villages. I think this helped the place to retain its beauty.
7. There are n numbers of bicycle and bike renting shops. Bike is basically TVS 50. It is Rs. 200 per day + petrol is Rs. 95 per litre from them. It will look new, but will not be able to pull you in up hill.
8. There is no doctor and no medicine shop. No ATM, no petrol bunk and no cell phone tower. I guess that's why this place is so well maintained and away from commercialization.
9. There are no hi-fi places if you are planning to just come and relax. It is a place where you get min essentials in best way in competitive price.

I WOULD LIKE TO TELL THAT KING SRI KRISHNA DEVARAYA WAS REALLY A GOOD KING. REASON BEING IN HIS TIME HIS DYNASTY FLOURISHED AND AFTER HIS DEATH i.e. 500 YEARS DOWN THE LINE, VILLAGERS ARE STILL EARNING FROM FOREIGNERS FOR RUINED STRUCTURE DEVELOPED IN HIS TIME.

It's 18-Jan-2013. We are in Bangalore KBS waiting for our bus to Hampi. At 10:45 pm we board our bus and at Il:10 pm we left Bangalore. We felt asleep once our bus started moving.

Next day 19-Jan-2013, I woke up at 6:30 am and we are in Hospet. It was another 11km from here to reach Hampi. We reached Hampi at 7:45am and it was middle of nowhere. There was absolutely nothing except ruin architecture / structure / premises. There were no bus stop or anything. Straight ahead of us were Virupaksha Temple.

Hampi Bazar Road

We saw that few of the guys in our bus started walking straight. In the meantime Runai baught 2 guide books for Rs. 110. Then we 2 started following others and started going straight. Just as we walked few meters there were a mud road to our right. And there we saw lots and lots of guest houses. And as we started exploring all these mud lanes and we came across multiple guest houses. Basically these guesthouses are part of local peoples house which will be rented to tourist. Here tourists are mainly foreigners. we are very few Indians staying here. And also in our bus, if there were 15 passenger who got down in Hamp, it was 3 Indians and rest were foreigners. I had a feeling that these foreigner stay here for days after days. We inquired few such guesthouses and everybody told us that there are no rooms available. Later we found Vickey's guesthouse and they told that rent is Rs. 800 and check in time in 9:30 am. As it was 8:00 am, we were asked to sit in roof top restaurant and have breakfast and in the meantime room will be cleaned and given to us. We had egg sandwich and coffee. We noticed that we were the only Indians siting there. It was nice to hear people talking in different language. Anyway it was 9:00 am, so we told the reception that we will go to Virupaksha Temple and come back here.

Virupaksha Temple

Virupaksha Temple

Virupaksha Temple

Virupaksha Temple

Virupaksha Temple

The temple is the nearest and oldest in Hampi. It is very tall building and can be seen from any part of Hampi. We went inside. To our left there is a hall supported by 1000 rock pillars and in the middle there is a canal through which water of the River Tungabhadra flows.

Tungabhadra River

Later we had to keep our shoes outside and get ticket for Rs. 2 per adult and Rs. 50 for camera. The temple in front of the gate is that of Lord Virupaksha. To your right there is a way which goes directly to the river. It is a very beautiful temple and one must see it. Mind you there are too many monkeys inside the temple premises. We have seen infrnt of us that group of monkeys snatched a purse from a lady infrnt of us and took out everything from there. They threw each one wherever they felt like and one of them took her mobile and dissected everything part by part and threw it in every direction from roof top. At 10:00 am, we came back and checked in our hotel. We were ready by 11:00 am and ready for our trip to Hampi. Geared with camera, Samsung 800 for direction, tour guide book, sun glass and hat, we rented a bike. We went straight to police station and asked one of them where can we park. He was very humble and acted like human and not like some big city police man and showed us some place behind a sitting place made with huge rock by the king in his time. From there we climbed up and meet with Monolithic Bull.

Monolithic Bull

It is a rock carved huge bull placed in between a elevated platform and on top roof supported by 4 rock pillars. Next we went further up and found a small temple.

Rocky Bolder

Next we had to get down the hill to find a magnificent temple. It is Achyutaraya Temple.

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Achyutaraya Temple

Its huge and beautiful. One must visit this temple. We came back whrre we parked our bike and there was a road to our right which goes to Mathanga Hills. I asked Runai that we will go to hills later and we will explore other places. She was ok with the plan, so we started our bike. There was another mud road toward our right while going back and we went there. We had to park our bike under a tree and it was bank of the river. We walked for sometime in those rocks or under the bolder to reach many temples like Inscribed Vishnu Temple,

Inscribed Vishnu Temple

King's Balance, Purandara Mantapa and many others. Some were on top hills or bolders or some were in river banks.

Temple In River

Old Bridge

We finally reached Vittthala Temple.

Vittthala Temple

Vittthala Temple

Vittthala Temple

Vittthala Temple

Vittthala Temple

Vittthala Temple

It is an awesome magnificiant temple and is a must visit for everybody. You will also get to see chariot made with rocks. We next went to river bank and saw Chandramauleshwara Temple right in the water supported by rock pillars. Beside that was the old bridge which is only left with rock pillars. It was very hot by now, so baught a bottle of water and came back to where we parked our bike. We
went straight to where buses are parked. We were hungry by now and went to a stall for lunch. Next was Krishna Temple

Krishna Temple

Opposite To Krishna Temple

again wonderful and a must visit by everybody. Opposite the temple was open ground and further inside there was a pond surrounded by rock pillars. Next drove down to Kamalapura which is approx 4 km. We found a ATM and got our cash. Next we went further down to Pattaabhirama Temple. It was closed, so could get few pictures from outside. Next we headed backward and in midway there is this Archaeological Department's Museum. Entry ticket is Rs. 10 per adult. This ticket is also valid in Lotus Mahal. No camera allowed inside. There are 4 gallery each has its specific category and in the center is a model of Vijaynagara Dynasty and location point of various structures. We went back to the same road we came from and headed toward royal enclosure. Its a huge area consist of various structures. First we went to
Chandrasekhara Temple.

Chandrasekhara Temple

This temple is well maintained and quite big. Then we went to Octagonal Bath.

Octagonal Bath

Next was Sarasvathi Temple. Then we went further up in bike and then walking to get a magnificent view of Hampi. We also took a panoramic picture of the place tagged with GPS location. Later we came down and joined the main road. Next was Queen's Bath. Its a enclosed place and in between is the pond and everything is made out of rocks. To me it looked like Mugal architecture. Next we went to Royal Enclosure which is the heart of the dynasty. Next was Mahanavami Dibba which is a very high rise platform.

Mahanavami Dibba

Mahanavami Dibba

It is so high that you get a very good panoramic view of all direction. Next was Kings Audience Hall. Beside that was Underground Shrine Chamber. Opposite to the road was Hazararama Temple.

Hazararama Temple

Hazararama Temple

Hazararama Temple

It was very beautiful and well maintained. Temple was carved with full version of Ramayana. Opposite to this was Pan-Supari Bazar which was supposed to be flourishing bazar at the time Vijaynagara dynasty. From there we returned back to main street because it was 4:30 pm and we were supposed to return the bike at 6:00 pm. We went to few small temples or ruins. Many we did not stop and few we did stop. One was Sri Uddana Veerabhadra Swamy Temple and Chandikeshwara Temple.We came back to Virupaksha Temple. It was 5:15 pm, so went to Hemakuta Hill which consist of 3 temples. The first big one was Kadlekalu Ganesh.

Kadlekalu Ganesh

There are other 2 which are on top of the hill and looked very resent ones. After this our trip for the day was over and we handed over the bike. The we walked back to the river bank and sat there for half an hour. Next we walked further to the small jetty which has 2 small boats. Then we walked further down and when it was dark, we came back and searched for some south Indian place for dinner. We didn't get one, so went to a small shop to get fried rice and gobi. It was nice and hot. With that our day was done.
Next day 20-Jan-2013 was relaxing and didn't do much other than eating and sleeping and writing this blog. At 7:15 PM checked out from hotel and boarded our bus which left sharply at 8:00 PM and dropped us to Bangalore on 21-Jan-2013 4:45 AM.

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