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"One and half times hoga saar", said the auto driver. At 9.30 in night in Bangalore i was almost happy to hear that. Agreeing to pay what he wanted i boarded the auto and started my first solo trip. After many days of deliberation on to go solo or to not to go ... encountering a few raised eyebrows ... i was finally off.
After he made a copule of attempts to talk in kanada, tamil and telgu i finally told him that i could understand only hindi. He promptly asked me where i came from and my mother tounge. When i told him i was marathi and came from Pune, he recited a list of marathi surnames, all his friends. At that point i realised that the ride was going to be intersting ... good begineing for the trip. Looking at my bag and since i was going to Majestic bus terminus, he asked me in decent hindi where i was going. On knowing that i was going to Hampi he started to give me a lot tips on what to see what not to see, where to eat and where to 'drink'. I soon learnt that he was a Telgu guy, born brought up in Bangalore. By the time he dropped me off at my destination, he had asked me almost everything right up to where i work and what salary i earn! ! ! Wishing me a happy journey he bid me goodbye.
The bus journey was uneventful as it was spent mostly sleeping. The bus reached Hampi at 7.30 in the morning, almost an hour late than the given time. The second i got off from the bus, i was mobbed by at least 10 -15 guys soliciting their autos, guest houses or restaurents. With great difficulty i made my way out of them, but one persistant guy continued to follow me and finally i had to give in. He was an auto driver and also had some accomodation facility. He asked me to sit in his auto so that he can take me to his guest house. Sensing my hesitation, he immediately said that it was a free ride. The guest house which he showed was in a pretty much diaplated condition which i could see without even when there was no electricity (power cuts were almost after every few hours during the day). i somehow excused my self from that place and decided to look around a bit myself. As i found my way through the maze of streets of Hampi, i realised that it was full of guesthouses. Almost all the streets looked pretty much alike with the guesthouses having names like Gopi, Vishwa, Vicky ,etc and almost all of them having their own 'rooftop' restaurents. after checking a couple of the guesthouses a short portly man approached me and asked if i was looking for a place to stay and requested me to follow him to his place. surprised by his politeness and way of approach as compared to others i followed him and liked his room enough to shell out Rs. 200 for it. He made me write all my details in the register and handed me the key.
After freshning up, i again caught up with the guy and asked him for any suggestions to plan my sightseeing. He asked if i wanted a bicycle or two wheeler for rent which i refused as i had plans to walk around the place as much as possible. Next i reached the tourist information centre of KSTDC, who gave me a brouchre with a map and tried to hook me on to one of their guided tours. As i came out of there another auto driver came upto me with a map of hampi and started explaining about the different places and their importance. trying not to pay any attention to him i kept walking but he kept pursuing. finally i stopped and listened to what he had to say. i told him i would prefer walking around a bit and i would come back to him the next day. He immediately shoved a card in my hand , "Prajwal - King of the road". The card with the rickshaw name, propriter name, phone number and also an email-id ! ! ! It was really amusing to see the card of an auto driver. Accepting the card i went forward to some actual sightseeing.
First i saw the Virupaksha temple situated right in the middle of the Hampi bazar, or its the other way round ... its the hampi bazar surronds the temple :). This the only place where you have to pay to take photographs. Other than the tall, nine storeyed gopuram, i did not find anything of much interst here. I met an old man who was the temple trumpeteer. With the traditional Indian horn shaped trumpet, he was standing in one corner and blowing his trumpet (only literally :)) and people passing by were giving him alams for that. Requesting him for a pose to the photograph i too followed the others. The temple is just by the banks of the river Tungabhadra, and a walkway is built along the bank with a number of spots for the pilgrims to take a holy dip in the river.
After a walk along the river, i started to go up the Hemakuta hill on which while coming i had seen a couple of places marked by the tourism department. On this hill is a temple of the monolithic Kadalekalu Ganesha or Gramseed Ganesha which is about 4.5m high. The idol was partly destroyed by the attacking sultans and hence no one worships here. This is the case with almost all the temples at Hampi, and some of them not even having the idols in the temples. The Hemakuta hill is dotted with remains of numerous shrines. Some of them being just columns and beams now. On the other side of the hill is another Ganesha temple known as Sasivekalu Ganesa. A little further from this is another massive monolith, that of Lakshmi-Narasimha. Though sasdly the lakshmi is now missing ... only her hand at the waist of Narasimha remains. Even the Narsimha idol has all its hands broken off but you still find the towering image very majestic. On the way there is Krishna temple, which is also good, but nothing spectacular.
A little further down the road are the 'Royal Citadel' ruins. This is a vast area which includes Palace quarters, Gaurds quarters, Elephant stables, the Queens palaces, bath houses, the kings audience hall and a large stage like structure for public functions. Of these all the Lotus mahal, the elephant stables and the stepped tank are really worth visiting. The Lotus Mahal is a two storeyed building which was used by the king to spend time with his queens. This building had pipes in the ceiling which used to be filled with water to provide a cooling effect. The elephant stables is a long complex and the with the garden in front of it, it looks really nice. you only wish there would have been some majestic elephants trumpeting in them. The stepped water tank is infact the most wonderful structure in entire of Hampi. It is tank with four steps, each of the step having a number of symetric steps. The visual effect of the steps is something really different. This tank was fed by aqueducts which brought the water from the river to the tanks. The remains of aqueducts used for supplying water have been found in a number of locations near Hampi. There are another couple of temple complexes here out of which The Hazara-Rama temple is the better one. Though architecture wise there is not much difference from the rest, it has elaborate carvings of scenes from Ramayana carved on its walls and pillars which makes it stand out. Many other buildings are in complete ruins with nothing much to see or only the base of these buildings is what remains.
All of these monuments i was able to cover on the first day itself, mainly by walking with a couple of auto rides in between. By evening i was pretty much tired and after an early dinner all i wanted was to sleep. The food at Hampi is not very great. You will find places which advertise as "recommended by Lonely Planet" but serve only mediocre food. Unfortunately the foreign tourists cant tell the difference.
The next day i woke up pretty early and after a quick bath i was out again to see the remaining monuments. This time i chose the safest option for breakfast, plain dosa and it proved to be right choice. The big crispy dosa, with the spicy chutney washed down with a big glass of coffee was sure to keep me going for a long time.
After the breakfast, i first decided to climb up the Matanga Hill, thefabled hill where according to the Ramayana, Monkey king Sugriva was hiding from his brother Wali. The hill is completely rocky but has steps to climb almost all the way. The view on offer after climbing this hill was truly stupendous. The entire of Hampi could be seen from there. The towering gopuras of Virupaksha temple, the Tungabhadra river behind it, the various other temple complexes, the banana plantations and the swaying palm trees. Spent a lot of time here as nice wind was blowing and this was one of the few places where my mobile was catching some signal :)
On the other side of the hill is the Achyut raya temple. This was probably as good as the view from the top of the hill. This temple complex is spread over a large area. I reached there pretty early in the morning and i was the only person there. Not even any gaurd was within sight. THe only sound was that of the flocks of red headed parrots, other types of birds, the fluttering of the wings, the squirrles and the wind. The place was so serene and quiet that i felt like i was disturbing nature. Just outside the temple complex is huge area which could probably have been a market place and nearby is another swiming pool, Pushkarni.
Going further from the Achyut Raya temple is the Vitthala Temple which is almost the hallmark of Hampi. The road to the Vitthala temple is not very clear after one point and i took a wrong way and ended up on the river bank. But from here you can see the remains of a stone brigde that was used during those time. Now what remains is only a some columns in the middle of the river. While looking for the correct way that would take me to Vitthal Temple, i was approached by a girl who was also looking for the same. This girl, Maya, was from Argentina and had been working in a firm in Mumbai for a period just over a year as a human resource executive. On being asked how she landed up with a job in India, she did not reply but just smiled. She had probably seen more of India than i had seen with my entire life being spent here. There i realised if a lone female from a country like Argentina can come to India and travel all over the place alone, even i could do it easily. But my conversation with Maya did not take off much beyond that. May be after one year in India she was a bit tired of some Indian male following her or she just wanted to be alone. Whatever it was, i left her to be with herself once we reached the Vitthala Temple.
Vitthala Temple is also pretty much similar to the rest of the temples in terms of construction (at least to my eyes). The only thing that is striking is the stone chariot facing the main mandapam of the temple. After spending some time taking snaps here and there i was on my way out. just outside the temple is a big stone arch. This was actully used as the beam for a balance, and known as Kings balance now. On some specific occasions, it is said that gold, silver, gems and other precious things equal to the weight of the king was distributed or given away as charity.
With this i realised that i had covered almost all of the importane monments. Only a few were left which i could afford to give a miss. While on my way back i met another intresting person. While crossing a hillock, i casually checked if my mobile was catching any signal. There sitting in the shade, a man promptly told me that this would be the last place i would get the signal. After a long walk in the sun, my bag was also starting to look a bit heavy so i joined the man in the shade to rest for some time. The man soon started enquiring about me. When i told i was from Pune, his face lit up ... he told me that he goes to Pune frequently for work. Asking him further about what his work was, he told me that he had a shop near Osho Ashram, beside the German Bakery selling clothes, jewellery and other trinkets to the foreigners frequenting there. He further told that he was originally from Hampi, where he already had one similar shop. And another shop in Goa on Anjuna Beach. As the swine flu had spread in Pune, he had quickly packced up and left for Hampi. He was very unhappy that his business was badly affected due to this 'flu'. Surprisingly he was even aware about the so called 'attack' (as he said) by the Chinese which also reduced the foreign tourists to India. After chatting up with him for few minutes i bid him goodbye, but not before he invited me to visit his shop in Pune the next time i was there.
So straight away hit the bus stand and caught the next bus to Hospet. After having some better food over there i was on the bus back to Bangalore in the afternoon. The bus ride was going to be a long one as the bus kept stopping at every small/ medium town that came in the way. Most of the bus ride back was also again spent sleeping or trying to sleep.
After my first solo trip, i realised/ learnt a few things (some of which i have already mentioned in my earlier post). The expirince of travelling alone is defintely not bad and i would probably see myself doing it more often now that i have overcome the inital hesitations.
P.S.: I would be adding the links to the album soon
After he made a copule of attempts to talk in kanada, tamil and telgu i finally told him that i could understand only hindi. He promptly asked me where i came from and my mother tounge. When i told him i was marathi and came from Pune, he recited a list of marathi surnames, all his friends. At that point i realised that the ride was going to be intersting ... good begineing for the trip. Looking at my bag and since i was going to Majestic bus terminus, he asked me in decent hindi where i was going. On knowing that i was going to Hampi he started to give me a lot tips on what to see what not to see, where to eat and where to 'drink'. I soon learnt that he was a Telgu guy, born brought up in Bangalore. By the time he dropped me off at my destination, he had asked me almost everything right up to where i work and what salary i earn! ! ! Wishing me a happy journey he bid me goodbye.
The bus journey was uneventful as it was spent mostly sleeping. The bus reached Hampi at 7.30 in the morning, almost an hour late than the given time. The second i got off from the bus, i was mobbed by at least 10 -15 guys soliciting their autos, guest houses or restaurents. With great difficulty i made my way out of them, but one persistant guy continued to follow me and finally i had to give in. He was an auto driver and also had some accomodation facility. He asked me to sit in his auto so that he can take me to his guest house. Sensing my hesitation, he immediately said that it was a free ride. The guest house which he showed was in a pretty much diaplated condition which i could see without even when there was no electricity (power cuts were almost after every few hours during the day). i somehow excused my self from that place and decided to look around a bit myself. As i found my way through the maze of streets of Hampi, i realised that it was full of guesthouses. Almost all the streets looked pretty much alike with the guesthouses having names like Gopi, Vishwa, Vicky ,etc and almost all of them having their own 'rooftop' restaurents. after checking a couple of the guesthouses a short portly man approached me and asked if i was looking for a place to stay and requested me to follow him to his place. surprised by his politeness and way of approach as compared to others i followed him and liked his room enough to shell out Rs. 200 for it. He made me write all my details in the register and handed me the key.
After freshning up, i again caught up with the guy and asked him for any suggestions to plan my sightseeing. He asked if i wanted a bicycle or two wheeler for rent which i refused as i had plans to walk around the place as much as possible. Next i reached the tourist information centre of KSTDC, who gave me a brouchre with a map and tried to hook me on to one of their guided tours. As i came out of there another auto driver came upto me with a map of hampi and started explaining about the different places and their importance. trying not to pay any attention to him i kept walking but he kept pursuing. finally i stopped and listened to what he had to say. i told him i would prefer walking around a bit and i would come back to him the next day. He immediately shoved a card in my hand , "Prajwal - King of the road". The card with the rickshaw name, propriter name, phone number and also an email-id ! ! ! It was really amusing to see the card of an auto driver. Accepting the card i went forward to some actual sightseeing.
First i saw the Virupaksha temple situated right in the middle of the Hampi bazar, or its the other way round ... its the hampi bazar surronds the temple :). This the only place where you have to pay to take photographs. Other than the tall, nine storeyed gopuram, i did not find anything of much interst here. I met an old man who was the temple trumpeteer. With the traditional Indian horn shaped trumpet, he was standing in one corner and blowing his trumpet (only literally :)) and people passing by were giving him alams for that. Requesting him for a pose to the photograph i too followed the others. The temple is just by the banks of the river Tungabhadra, and a walkway is built along the bank with a number of spots for the pilgrims to take a holy dip in the river.
After a walk along the river, i started to go up the Hemakuta hill on which while coming i had seen a couple of places marked by the tourism department. On this hill is a temple of the monolithic Kadalekalu Ganesha or Gramseed Ganesha which is about 4.5m high. The idol was partly destroyed by the attacking sultans and hence no one worships here. This is the case with almost all the temples at Hampi, and some of them not even having the idols in the temples. The Hemakuta hill is dotted with remains of numerous shrines. Some of them being just columns and beams now. On the other side of the hill is another Ganesha temple known as Sasivekalu Ganesa. A little further from this is another massive monolith, that of Lakshmi-Narasimha. Though sasdly the lakshmi is now missing ... only her hand at the waist of Narasimha remains. Even the Narsimha idol has all its hands broken off but you still find the towering image very majestic. On the way there is Krishna temple, which is also good, but nothing spectacular.
A little further down the road are the 'Royal Citadel' ruins. This is a vast area which includes Palace quarters, Gaurds quarters, Elephant stables, the Queens palaces, bath houses, the kings audience hall and a large stage like structure for public functions. Of these all the Lotus mahal, the elephant stables and the stepped tank are really worth visiting. The Lotus Mahal is a two storeyed building which was used by the king to spend time with his queens. This building had pipes in the ceiling which used to be filled with water to provide a cooling effect. The elephant stables is a long complex and the with the garden in front of it, it looks really nice. you only wish there would have been some majestic elephants trumpeting in them. The stepped water tank is infact the most wonderful structure in entire of Hampi. It is tank with four steps, each of the step having a number of symetric steps. The visual effect of the steps is something really different. This tank was fed by aqueducts which brought the water from the river to the tanks. The remains of aqueducts used for supplying water have been found in a number of locations near Hampi. There are another couple of temple complexes here out of which The Hazara-Rama temple is the better one. Though architecture wise there is not much difference from the rest, it has elaborate carvings of scenes from Ramayana carved on its walls and pillars which makes it stand out. Many other buildings are in complete ruins with nothing much to see or only the base of these buildings is what remains.
All of these monuments i was able to cover on the first day itself, mainly by walking with a couple of auto rides in between. By evening i was pretty much tired and after an early dinner all i wanted was to sleep. The food at Hampi is not very great. You will find places which advertise as "recommended by Lonely Planet" but serve only mediocre food. Unfortunately the foreign tourists cant tell the difference.
The next day i woke up pretty early and after a quick bath i was out again to see the remaining monuments. This time i chose the safest option for breakfast, plain dosa and it proved to be right choice. The big crispy dosa, with the spicy chutney washed down with a big glass of coffee was sure to keep me going for a long time.
After the breakfast, i first decided to climb up the Matanga Hill, thefabled hill where according to the Ramayana, Monkey king Sugriva was hiding from his brother Wali. The hill is completely rocky but has steps to climb almost all the way. The view on offer after climbing this hill was truly stupendous. The entire of Hampi could be seen from there. The towering gopuras of Virupaksha temple, the Tungabhadra river behind it, the various other temple complexes, the banana plantations and the swaying palm trees. Spent a lot of time here as nice wind was blowing and this was one of the few places where my mobile was catching some signal :)
On the other side of the hill is the Achyut raya temple. This was probably as good as the view from the top of the hill. This temple complex is spread over a large area. I reached there pretty early in the morning and i was the only person there. Not even any gaurd was within sight. THe only sound was that of the flocks of red headed parrots, other types of birds, the fluttering of the wings, the squirrles and the wind. The place was so serene and quiet that i felt like i was disturbing nature. Just outside the temple complex is huge area which could probably have been a market place and nearby is another swiming pool, Pushkarni.
Going further from the Achyut Raya temple is the Vitthala Temple which is almost the hallmark of Hampi. The road to the Vitthala temple is not very clear after one point and i took a wrong way and ended up on the river bank. But from here you can see the remains of a stone brigde that was used during those time. Now what remains is only a some columns in the middle of the river. While looking for the correct way that would take me to Vitthal Temple, i was approached by a girl who was also looking for the same. This girl, Maya, was from Argentina and had been working in a firm in Mumbai for a period just over a year as a human resource executive. On being asked how she landed up with a job in India, she did not reply but just smiled. She had probably seen more of India than i had seen with my entire life being spent here. There i realised if a lone female from a country like Argentina can come to India and travel all over the place alone, even i could do it easily. But my conversation with Maya did not take off much beyond that. May be after one year in India she was a bit tired of some Indian male following her or she just wanted to be alone. Whatever it was, i left her to be with herself once we reached the Vitthala Temple.
Vitthala Temple is also pretty much similar to the rest of the temples in terms of construction (at least to my eyes). The only thing that is striking is the stone chariot facing the main mandapam of the temple. After spending some time taking snaps here and there i was on my way out. just outside the temple is a big stone arch. This was actully used as the beam for a balance, and known as Kings balance now. On some specific occasions, it is said that gold, silver, gems and other precious things equal to the weight of the king was distributed or given away as charity.
With this i realised that i had covered almost all of the importane monments. Only a few were left which i could afford to give a miss. While on my way back i met another intresting person. While crossing a hillock, i casually checked if my mobile was catching any signal. There sitting in the shade, a man promptly told me that this would be the last place i would get the signal. After a long walk in the sun, my bag was also starting to look a bit heavy so i joined the man in the shade to rest for some time. The man soon started enquiring about me. When i told i was from Pune, his face lit up ... he told me that he goes to Pune frequently for work. Asking him further about what his work was, he told me that he had a shop near Osho Ashram, beside the German Bakery selling clothes, jewellery and other trinkets to the foreigners frequenting there. He further told that he was originally from Hampi, where he already had one similar shop. And another shop in Goa on Anjuna Beach. As the swine flu had spread in Pune, he had quickly packced up and left for Hampi. He was very unhappy that his business was badly affected due to this 'flu'. Surprisingly he was even aware about the so called 'attack' (as he said) by the Chinese which also reduced the foreign tourists to India. After chatting up with him for few minutes i bid him goodbye, but not before he invited me to visit his shop in Pune the next time i was there.
So straight away hit the bus stand and caught the next bus to Hospet. After having some better food over there i was on the bus back to Bangalore in the afternoon. The bus ride was going to be a long one as the bus kept stopping at every small/ medium town that came in the way. Most of the bus ride back was also again spent sleeping or trying to sleep.
After my first solo trip, i realised/ learnt a few things (some of which i have already mentioned in my earlier post). The expirince of travelling alone is defintely not bad and i would probably see myself doing it more often now that i have overcome the inital hesitations.
P.S.: I would be adding the links to the album soon
