Travellers in India might know Hampi as a hotspot for solo travelling, hippi culture and just relaxing in the backdrop of the ruins of Vijayanagara Empire.
Took the train "Hampi Express" from Bengaluru Cantonment, friday evening to Hospet. Its nearly 402km in distance. My two flatmates accompanied me. It was a budget travel (I always try to do that!!). Reached the station at about 7am, then we had an option either to stay in Hospet or stay in Hampi. Ofcourse we had to stay in main Hampi and we didn't have any prior guest house booking. As much common in India, autodrivers will literally surround you at the train station/ bus stand to jostle to commute you.We asked our auto-driver to take us to a cheap hotel, and he took us to a simple, nice guest house.
The guest house was really cheap, and the owners had the option to serve coffee/ breakfast if we desired.
After a nice shower and breakfast, we started our day of sight-seeing. We booked the auto-driver for the day who dropped us from the train station, to show us the places around.
We started with the Virupaksha temple complex. It was very near to where we stayed, just5/6 minutes' walk. It is the oldest shrine of the Vijayanagar empire and is still a very active Hindu worship place.
Going around the palace complex you will come across a stepped structure like this. Excavation works were being going on along with some restorations.
One can also see the ruins of Krishna temple, just about 1km from Virupaksha temple. There is also a monolithic Shivalinga and a Yoga-Narasimha avatar. During my second visit to Hampi
(Yess I have visited twice :) ), I clicked some good pictures of it.
That will be in the second blog of Hampi.
Then comes the Vitthala temple and market complex. The temple was dedicated to Vitthala, a form of Krishna; and there is a stone chariot "Garuda Shrine" who is featured in the Indian rupee in the form of a symbol.
One can see the Hemkunta hill monument's a little north of the Virupaksha temple complex.
Also the Queen's bath, shaped in a square water pavilion.
We had lunch at a nice local "dhaba", with lots of fruit trees and peacocks in the place.
Then there is the legend of Ramayana in Hampi, how Ram-Sita and Lakshman stayed in Hampi for sometime (during their 14 years in exile) with their friend Hanuman (and a group of monkeys). There are some white lines in the hill believed to be from the saree that Sita was wearing.
At the end of the first day we just decided to linger around the many ruins of Hampi. Everything about this place is beautiful and takes you back in time.
Local granite is abundant at the site and most of the structures are built by it, and lime mortar with burnt bricks. Take a walk along the amazing river, reveal in all the charm the place engulfs and just enjoy the moment.
The next day, we decided to hire two bikes and see the surrounding areas on the other part of Hampi crossing the river. First we crossed the river by small boats, which you find on the river bank. Then we hired two bikes (150 rupees for one day) and first we went to see the Hanuman temple on top of a big hill. You need to climb a series of steps to get there.
As we reach the top, the click was taken as we reach the end of the last steps.
You can see me ordering the last lunch of the trip in Hampi, before we returned to Bangalore at night again by Hampi express.
And we witnessed a beautiful sunset at Hampi
Travelling all around Hampi -walking, riding, biking, taking a coral boat ride in the Tungabadra river etc; just basking in the undulated awesome and intriguing terrain of the region you will know why it is aptly a UNESCO world heritage site.
"Ending the trip with some more pictures":
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