I started my trip from Mumbai . There are multiple ways to reach Hampi , I chose to take the bus from Pune. The bus leaves from Mumbai itself but the journey duration sums up to more than 15 hours from Mumbai . So I drove to Pune From Mumbai on a wednesday evening at took the Volvo AC sleeper coach from Wakad Pune at around 10:30 pm . The travel time from Pune is just about 8-9 hours . It was very confusing for me to book a stay, the reason being, I asked people who had already visited Hampi and I got answers like stay at hippie island , stay at Virupapur gaddi , stay on the other side of the river and so on . All this information on the web is scattered and is hard to make sense of it . So I am just going to simplify this. There are 2 parts to Hampi one side is the side where you arrive at from train , bus , road , plane that is near the hospete main city. From Hospete the drive to Hampi is around 15 mins and this is the area where most of the attractions like Hampi bazaar street ( along the Tungabhadra river), Virupaksha temple, Vitthala temple, Ganesha temple , Elephant stables etc.are. From this side you can cross the river with a boat and go to the other side , this is the hippie island or Virupapur Gaddi. The Hippie Island has resorts located along the river alongside beautiful paddy fields. there are also homestays a little ahead of the river towards the main road.
On the side of the Hampi bazaar street are many accommodation options too, but these would majorly be homestays.
Okay, so on reaching Hospete on the thursday morning we had our rickshaw guy waiting for us at the bus drop off point . The contact for this rickshaw guy , Raghu , was given to us by a friend who travelled to Hampi before . Raghu being very professional with his services promptly picked up our bags and headed towards the rickshaw. Once at the rick he explained us what are the attractions around Hampi that he will be showing us in 2 days . We negotiated a very descent price with him . ( drop me a message for Raghu's contact number and the fare ). So day 1 was about getting to the room, (Shanthi resort) on the other side of the river ( Hippie island) resting and then hiring a bike to explore the 3 to 4 temples. Raghu dropped us to the boat and we decided to meet him at 10 am the next morning . Unfortunately we could just visit the hanuman temple and the lake on our bike ride as my wife had a severe headache and we had to return to the room . But there are about 2 or 3 more temples to be explored.
The evening I enjoyed sipping on the whiskey that i had carried along and watching a couple practicing poi .
Friday early morning I woke up for a run to the nearby boulders. It was fun climbing them to get to the top for an amazing view of the area while the sun rose shining bright. There were people leaning bouldering and a small kid selling chai up in the boulders. Later we met Raghu after crossing the river and he took us around couple of temples such as the famous Vitthala temple, Sugriv Cave and the couple others. Lunch was at an authentic southIndian veg restaurant. As it was a weekday we got very little to no crowd at each of the temples and could enjoy the amazing architecture and craftsmanship peacefully . Tired roaming in the sun for all morning and most of the afternoon we returned early to our room and chilled at the cafe at Shanthi resort . Took a walk among the paddy fields and to the river. Later in the evening stepped out into one of the cafes for a drink and dinner .
Saturday was our return day and we had a bus to board from Hospete at 6:30 pm . We started the day late by lazing around and having a looong breakfast at one of the Cafes, some shopping and then headed to the river crossing along with our bags. As before Raghu was there waiting for us , carried our bags into the rick and off we were. Until afternoon we saw temples such as the Virupaksha temple ,Underground Shiva temple , Ganesha Temple , Narsimha Temple, the palace ruins , queens bath and some others . Stopped for some non veg lunch and headed off to see the Tungabhadra dam. After spending time at the dam Raghu dropped us back to the bus pick point, and it was time to leave an amazing place.
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