A Cluster of History: Hampi

First time we stopped after coming out of the Bengaluru city was for breakfast at around 9. There was not many standard restaurants on this route but the most crowded one had the best food and a really good filter coffee. The Dosa here had the best stuffing and the Upma was prepared amazing.

After that we hardly stopped, before Chitradurga came along with its the beautiful windmills and widespread sunflower fields. We were compelled to take a stop for some photo-shoots and give some rest to the friend who was on the driver's seat.

We were a gang of 6 people(3 couples) and booked a Tata Hexa from Drivezy. Being a diesel car, the fuel efficiency and fuel cost was really good. We started our road trip at around 6:30 in the morning.

When we were near Hosapete, the nearest town to Hampi there was a huge, I mean really a gigantic reservoir of water. We were sanguine that the Tungabhadra would for sure be flooding to destroy our trip but then came a tunnel and on the other side this water body disappeared. We zoomed in the Google map to realize that it was the Tungabhadra Reservoir. We had no clue that we would drive to the other side to see how this crazy water was harnessed for electricity in the Tungabhadra dam.

By the time we reached Hosapete, we were dead hungry and chose to have our lunch in the first proper restaurant we saw. The staff were dead lazy and badly managed so getting our food really took quite a lot of our time. Good that the food was really good.

We did not check-in as it was already 3:30 pm and rather decided to go to the Tungabhadra dam, a glimpse of which from the road had already wowed us. Because of monsoon the water was monstrous all controlled by the mighty dam.

For a calm evening before the daylight goes off, we headed to the banks of the Tungabhadra river in Hampi with Kishkinda on the other side of the river, near the famous mythological Sugriva Cave. Later when we heard stories of a loitering leopard near the river bank in the evening, cold blood flowed through our veins with a breath of relief; did we just survive a leopard attack.

Where did we stay

Due to high rush and planning just a week before the travel, most of the hotels were sold out or were highly expensive. We did not want to stay too far from the main attractions. Our first choice was Clark's Inn as per our budget and reviews from TripAdvisor but it had no rooms for the first night and all 3 rooms for the next. So for the first night we choose the KSTDC property, Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari. Luckily, the hotels were just 800 meters apart.

The KSTDC Mayura Bhuvaneshwari Hotel charged us a little more than the Clark's Inn but reminded me quite a lot of the government lodges I used to be when I accompanied my father on his official trips. Another good part was that for the guests they had evening cultural programs. It was my first such experience in Karnataka with artists including a couple of kids dressed up in traditional attire performing traditional dance forms from the region. After their program they insisted all the guests to join them and believe me it was fun joining them playing dhols and dancing to the beats of the dhol. The hotel also had good food in it's restaurant and served beer too(broke our misconception that Hampi is a dry region). The morning breakfast was freshly prepared and was good enough.

The next day we moved to The Clark's Inn. It was more of a modern hotel with swimming pool and typical good hotel rooms. The price at which we got it for was amazing; just ₹2300 for the night including a buffet breakfast.

How to move around

We had a big Tata Hexa and Google maps to take us around. But if you are staying in Clark's inn or Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari you get shared and reserved auto to roam around at a very reasonable price. But few things are there which Google, Wikipedia or any other search engine would not be able narrate you with visual details. We opted for a guide and were lucky to get a friend in a certified guide. The usual tariff is goes 1600 to 3000 depending on the size of the group for a day. But this guy was amazing; he took us around with detailed explanation of the stories related to pieces of the ruins he could take us to in a day time, with an amazing art of story-telling. He was so friendly that I chose to sit with him on his bike than in our car and know more about him and what are his views from the place being a local. I would surely share his name and phone number for my readers in the caption of his photograph, to reach out to him when you are there at Hampi.

Last bit of tip if you are travelling to Hampi

Our trip was for 2 nights 2 days and we opted for a guided trip for almost 1 day and a morning. 4 nights 4 days with 2 full days with a guide would have been enough for an extensive trip. We spent just 16k including everything per couple. Enjoy the photographs below.