The trip to Hampi just happened out of the blue! Till the last weekend, it was one of those places which, despite being pretty high up there in our "must go" list, we somehow never made it to. It was either "too hot", or "may rain there, ruining the photos" or "peak tourist season, and the place we wanted to stay in, all booked up". And it would probably have still been so, had it not been for another trip that got cancelled at the very last moment - causing some heartburn, and spurring us into recklessness. :)
Bus tickets were booked pronto. The place we wanted to stay in, was still booked up. But this time, we were not to be deterred! Saturday morning started bleary eyed at Hospet, and a short auto ride later, we were going from one guest house to the other checking for rooms, in Hampi. We finally chose a homely looking Ranjana Guest House, very conveniently located, quite in the thick of things. A signboard outside, which we did not notice until the next day, claimed it was "recommended by LONLYPLANET", and we found no reason to doubt the authenticity of LONLYPLANET after all!
As we checked in and the clock showed 6:45 am, I secretly weighed my options - catching up on my rightful Saturday morning sleep vs. a "morning walk" to officially flag the trip off. Difficult choice, made easy by the husband - as always, he had a plan! So "walk" it was, and he promised me that we'd be back in a short while, and I could catch up on the sleep once we were back (which I did, of course :) ).
A few steps from the guest house, and we were at the Hampi Bazaar, with the famous Virupaksha temple at its end. However, it was a left turn just before the temple that piqued our interest at that point - and were we glad it did! The innocuous turn led to Hemakuta Hills, actually a hillock with some very interesting structures and an amazing view of the city. A leisurely amble through the ruins took us to the top of the hill, and we just knew we had to come back here for the sunset.
However, that was before we had met the "family autowalla" of the guest house owners, and before we embarked on a seemingly impossible "sight-seeing" venture - that of "covering" 24 attractions in a day! I found it hard to conceal my scepticism, but the auto driver was supremely confident - and we were soon to learn why! Hampi is that kind of a place where every second building has a story - and as we found out, all the 24 points marked on the map collectively entailed a travel of just about 10-12 kms. With a scorching sun beating down mercilessly, no sooner would I heave a breath of relief at getting into the auto after "finishing" one site, it would be time to get down again - we'd have reached the next one, in probably fewer than 10 full revolutions of the auto's wheels! Nonetheless, each of those places had us awestruck - and we decided to treat that day's outing as a "primer" of sorts, we'd come back to some of those places the next day, with no list to tick off. It's futile, even trying to go into details of all the places we visited that day - I'll let the husband's photography do the talking! :)
Anyways, with happy tummies and a list half done, we set off again - and as it turned out, we did get to complete our quota well in time, even with me wandering through the relics at snail's pace, and the husband trying to invent new dimensions to get a great angle for a pillar or a doorway! We even made it to the "sunset point", much advertised by our by-now-trusted driver - but it certainly wasn't Hampi's best bet.
Tired to the bones, we chose to retire early - the husband being quite kicked about catching the next day's sunrise from atop the Mathunga (/Mathanga) hills - I nodding weakly, evilly willing the alarm to not go off on time! :P
Unfortunately, however, the alarm was rendered redundant by the bunch of (over)enthusiastic people right next door - who apparently started creating quite a ruckus from 5:00 am, waking the husband up to start trying to shake me out of blissful slumber. It must have been quite a frustrating hour for him, for I could only open my stubborn eyes to a watch reading 6:30 am, and a grumpy face over it! The sun, obviously, had not waited for me. :)
However, we decided to climb the hill anyways. As we stepped out, the calm and peacefulness of the Hampi Bazaar waking up to a brand new day washed over us, the soft light of the first rays of the sun made everything look beautiful - and even the prospect of a steep uphill climb did not seem very daunting. At least not until we were halfway up - only to realise that we were completely lost - surrounded by boulders and prickly shrubs with no visible way ahead -and not a soul in sight! It was treacherous terrain, rock faces too smooth to get a grip on, unforgiving thorn bushes which had no intentions of being helpful either. Puzzled, we decided we must have had taken a wrong turn somewhere....our auto driver from the previous day had told us there were steps right up to the top. Anyways, after some hesitation, we decided to press forward, and I located a tiny chink in the armory of the shrubs. Squeezing through it, we were suddenly in a clearing, and I would like to think of it as a reward for our perseverance - there they were, crooked stones stacked up helter skelter - a semblance of a staircase going right up! 10 minutes later, we were finally there - on top of Mathunga hill, and the view from up there can only be described in one simple word - MAGICAL!
There was the Achyutaraya temple laid out in its full glory on one side, the Krishna temple on the other side, and the majestic gopuram of the Virupaksha temple rearing its proud head right ahead. It almost felt like we were in an open air auditorium, an epic drama just about to unfold - as if we were looking down at a perfectly created set, and it was just a matter of time before the protagonists marched in to tell us the long and intriguing story of the great Vijayanagar empire!
I could really have spent the whole day up there.....but for the husband who had had his fill of photos while I was lost in my reverie....and was ready to move on! I didn't mind much, though. Every spot, every nook and cranny of Hampi is so beautiful, that moving on can only be a good thing there!
Thus began our descent, and a major predicament.
In his enthusiasm, the husband had pretty much forgotten about his acrophobia - now that the initial ecstasy had worn off - it was back, with a vengeance! The same steps that had earlier seemed like a godsend, now drew away all color from his face - and it took me a minute to realize that it was time I stopped the "pep talk". :)
We did make it down eventually - and if anything good came out of the whole ordeal - it was the husband sheepishly proclaiming there was no way he could've made it, had we really started the adventure before sunrise.
"Ha! I told you so!" (unspoken, of course!)
The rest of the day was uneventful - though we did find ourselves in a rather funny situation. The husband was staking out the expenditure for the remainder of the trip, when he suddenly realized his wallet was pitifully light. Mine was not much better, while we had all our cards, cash was in dangerously short supply! We checked with our host, and it certainly did not help to know that a lone ATM was set up in Hampi the previous year only to be razed a few months ago - and of course, no one in Hampi would accept cards! We were literally left counting pennies - and rationing our spending on the activities for the day. We had decided the previous day to make a trip to the other side of the river, but that could only be done provided we took a ferry and not a personal coracle, and then, lunch would have to be restricted to Rs. 200/- at the max! Thankfully, Hampi can be kind on the pocket, a nice lunch at a riverside restaurant with a funny name ("Funky Monkey") fit snugly into our "budget", leaving us with another 200/- for dinner, and just enough for an auto ride back to Hospet! (It's another story that we found ourselves frantically searching for a "working" ATM the next morning in Bangalore, Rs 3/- in our combined pockets!!) Satiated, we came back to our guest house for an afternoon nap to recharge our (mine, primarily) batteries for the sunset at Hemakuta Hills.
We were one of the first ones to get up there that evening, and one of the last to leave - an experience that could only be felt, never described in words!
It was time to leave sooner than we'd have liked - and as we settled into the berths of the pretty comfortable sleeper bus back to BLR, I knew I'd be back here - sooner, rather than later!
Bus tickets were booked pronto. The place we wanted to stay in, was still booked up. But this time, we were not to be deterred! Saturday morning started bleary eyed at Hospet, and a short auto ride later, we were going from one guest house to the other checking for rooms, in Hampi. We finally chose a homely looking Ranjana Guest House, very conveniently located, quite in the thick of things. A signboard outside, which we did not notice until the next day, claimed it was "recommended by LONLYPLANET", and we found no reason to doubt the authenticity of LONLYPLANET after all!
As we checked in and the clock showed 6:45 am, I secretly weighed my options - catching up on my rightful Saturday morning sleep vs. a "morning walk" to officially flag the trip off. Difficult choice, made easy by the husband - as always, he had a plan! So "walk" it was, and he promised me that we'd be back in a short while, and I could catch up on the sleep once we were back (which I did, of course :) ).
A few steps from the guest house, and we were at the Hampi Bazaar, with the famous Virupaksha temple at its end. However, it was a left turn just before the temple that piqued our interest at that point - and were we glad it did! The innocuous turn led to Hemakuta Hills, actually a hillock with some very interesting structures and an amazing view of the city. A leisurely amble through the ruins took us to the top of the hill, and we just knew we had to come back here for the sunset.
However, that was before we had met the "family autowalla" of the guest house owners, and before we embarked on a seemingly impossible "sight-seeing" venture - that of "covering" 24 attractions in a day! I found it hard to conceal my scepticism, but the auto driver was supremely confident - and we were soon to learn why! Hampi is that kind of a place where every second building has a story - and as we found out, all the 24 points marked on the map collectively entailed a travel of just about 10-12 kms. With a scorching sun beating down mercilessly, no sooner would I heave a breath of relief at getting into the auto after "finishing" one site, it would be time to get down again - we'd have reached the next one, in probably fewer than 10 full revolutions of the auto's wheels! Nonetheless, each of those places had us awestruck - and we decided to treat that day's outing as a "primer" of sorts, we'd come back to some of those places the next day, with no list to tick off. It's futile, even trying to go into details of all the places we visited that day - I'll let the husband's photography do the talking! :)
However, I must talk about our venue for lunch - the famous "Mango Tree" restaurant by the Tungabhadra river. Expectations were pretty high after having read many great reviews, and while high expectations have more often than not worked against a lot of things for me, this was a happy exception! The setup, the view, the eclectic crowd - all added to a very unique eating experience. And it did help, that the food was quite reasonably good too! How often do you get to praise a dish of spagetti, served on a banana leaf, after all? :)
Anyways, with happy tummies and a list half done, we set off again - and as it turned out, we did get to complete our quota well in time, even with me wandering through the relics at snail's pace, and the husband trying to invent new dimensions to get a great angle for a pillar or a doorway! We even made it to the "sunset point", much advertised by our by-now-trusted driver - but it certainly wasn't Hampi's best bet.
Tired to the bones, we chose to retire early - the husband being quite kicked about catching the next day's sunrise from atop the Mathunga (/Mathanga) hills - I nodding weakly, evilly willing the alarm to not go off on time! :P
Unfortunately, however, the alarm was rendered redundant by the bunch of (over)enthusiastic people right next door - who apparently started creating quite a ruckus from 5:00 am, waking the husband up to start trying to shake me out of blissful slumber. It must have been quite a frustrating hour for him, for I could only open my stubborn eyes to a watch reading 6:30 am, and a grumpy face over it! The sun, obviously, had not waited for me. :)
However, we decided to climb the hill anyways. As we stepped out, the calm and peacefulness of the Hampi Bazaar waking up to a brand new day washed over us, the soft light of the first rays of the sun made everything look beautiful - and even the prospect of a steep uphill climb did not seem very daunting. At least not until we were halfway up - only to realise that we were completely lost - surrounded by boulders and prickly shrubs with no visible way ahead -and not a soul in sight! It was treacherous terrain, rock faces too smooth to get a grip on, unforgiving thorn bushes which had no intentions of being helpful either. Puzzled, we decided we must have had taken a wrong turn somewhere....our auto driver from the previous day had told us there were steps right up to the top. Anyways, after some hesitation, we decided to press forward, and I located a tiny chink in the armory of the shrubs. Squeezing through it, we were suddenly in a clearing, and I would like to think of it as a reward for our perseverance - there they were, crooked stones stacked up helter skelter - a semblance of a staircase going right up! 10 minutes later, we were finally there - on top of Mathunga hill, and the view from up there can only be described in one simple word - MAGICAL!
There was the Achyutaraya temple laid out in its full glory on one side, the Krishna temple on the other side, and the majestic gopuram of the Virupaksha temple rearing its proud head right ahead. It almost felt like we were in an open air auditorium, an epic drama just about to unfold - as if we were looking down at a perfectly created set, and it was just a matter of time before the protagonists marched in to tell us the long and intriguing story of the great Vijayanagar empire!
I could really have spent the whole day up there.....but for the husband who had had his fill of photos while I was lost in my reverie....and was ready to move on! I didn't mind much, though. Every spot, every nook and cranny of Hampi is so beautiful, that moving on can only be a good thing there!
Thus began our descent, and a major predicament.
In his enthusiasm, the husband had pretty much forgotten about his acrophobia - now that the initial ecstasy had worn off - it was back, with a vengeance! The same steps that had earlier seemed like a godsend, now drew away all color from his face - and it took me a minute to realize that it was time I stopped the "pep talk". :)
We did make it down eventually - and if anything good came out of the whole ordeal - it was the husband sheepishly proclaiming there was no way he could've made it, had we really started the adventure before sunrise.
"Ha! I told you so!" (unspoken, of course!)
The rest of the day was uneventful - though we did find ourselves in a rather funny situation. The husband was staking out the expenditure for the remainder of the trip, when he suddenly realized his wallet was pitifully light. Mine was not much better, while we had all our cards, cash was in dangerously short supply! We checked with our host, and it certainly did not help to know that a lone ATM was set up in Hampi the previous year only to be razed a few months ago - and of course, no one in Hampi would accept cards! We were literally left counting pennies - and rationing our spending on the activities for the day. We had decided the previous day to make a trip to the other side of the river, but that could only be done provided we took a ferry and not a personal coracle, and then, lunch would have to be restricted to Rs. 200/- at the max! Thankfully, Hampi can be kind on the pocket, a nice lunch at a riverside restaurant with a funny name ("Funky Monkey") fit snugly into our "budget", leaving us with another 200/- for dinner, and just enough for an auto ride back to Hospet! (It's another story that we found ourselves frantically searching for a "working" ATM the next morning in Bangalore, Rs 3/- in our combined pockets!!) Satiated, we came back to our guest house for an afternoon nap to recharge our (mine, primarily) batteries for the sunset at Hemakuta Hills.
We were one of the first ones to get up there that evening, and one of the last to leave - an experience that could only be felt, never described in words!
It was time to leave sooner than we'd have liked - and as we settled into the berths of the pretty comfortable sleeper bus back to BLR, I knew I'd be back here - sooner, rather than later!
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