Where do I even begin?
It was a Sunday afternoon; bright and boring. That’s how usually Sundays are. We plan so many things to do on Sunday and eventually u either sleep lazily or do your laundry. That’s when I took my phone and just dropped a text asking my 2 idiots if they are up for a trip. After running around so many places in our conversation we settled down to Hampi. Yes! It was Hampi.
How did we reach Hampi?
We took “Hampi express” from Mysore in the evening which is the most preferred way of transport, and which reaches hospet at 7:00 in the morning. We were lazy to book the train tickets and we had a nightmare in the general compartment(now it’s fun when I revive the memory).
Once we reached hospet, we were starving so we straight away went to have breakfast. After that we hired an auto rickshaw as we were in a hurry to reach Hampi. It’s usually 20-30 minutes journey.
Where did we stay?
After a long discussion about guesthouses we opted our stay across the river on the hampi island which is popularly known to be ‘hippie island’. We stayed in hema guesthouse which was rather basic and with a decent restaurant.
Day 1.
We freshened up quickly and started our first day with a groupie( Nischita is fond of selfies). We hired a guide to show us the entire places and it was our first girls trip alone and we didn’t wanted any risk. I purchased a hampi map and book and also some postcards(I so love postcards). The auto rickshaw uncle was very humble and kind. We started with vitthala temple. Oh! What a lovely architecture! The musical pillars, stone chariots, Devi shrine, kalyana mandapa, utsava mandapa, a hundred pillared mandapa are the main attractions. It nearly takes approx 30 minutes to cover the massive enclosure of the temple with its rich history. Then we moved to queen’s bath. Hampi consists of nearly 3000+ temples( just imagine). I personally loved Hazaara Ramachandra Temple. It has numerous depiction of relief sculptures of Rama in the Ramayana narrative panel found on the wall of the temple.
Next we went to visit Lotus Mahal, a fine example of indo-islamic style of architecture. It is believed to be a “natural AC”, is a two storied structure built in rubble masonry and finely plastered. You move further and you see a small guarded entrance on the eastern enclosure wall which leads to elephant stable. Its a homogeneous group of chambers with arched facade with lofty doomed roof. It contains 11 chambers. The structure close to this is the guards house. The western side of the queen’s bath is Royal enclosure which is a huge area known for its elegant decorated plinths, water systems, large halls, pillared shrine and different types of water storage tanks most of which have been found during excavation. One such is “Stepped tank”. I call it symphony of shapes in the royal complex of Hampi. Next we visited “Mahanavami Dibba“. Looking at it deepika and Nischita started discussing about the movie anandam( a Malayalam movie which is shot in Hampi) and I had no clue. Blah! It was on this elevated platform, the king used to sit and watch festivities during Dasara festival.
We next went to visit Krishna temple, Lakshmi Narashimha, Veerabadhra temple, old Shiva temple,sisters boulders, underground Shiva temple, remains of ‘mint’ also known as ranga mahal, place of vira harihara, zanna enclosure.
It was evening when we completed this and we were eagerly waiting to cross the river to witness the beautiful sunset on a hill next to the island. We hurried to the river and crossed through ferry Service. We rushed to climb the hill and we could see people already settled on the top and some were climbing. I still can’t believe we made it to the top in 10 minutes as it was already 5:45. We sat up on a boulder and there it was. Aww! What can I say? Mesmerising. Amidst all the chaos of ‘we are late, u made us late, it was you who was busy taking selfies, oh my god just climb soon and shit I found my peace there. It was so calm so peaceful so beautiful. I am seriously running out of words. We found a small kid selling tea there and looking at his innocent tired face we couldn’t say no to his offer. Sipping tea watching the sunset was one wonderful experience I would never forget. After a very tiring day we came back to the guest house.
Day 2.
We planned for sunrise at anjanadri hills. As we were tired of last day’s venture we couldn’t get up early and missed the sunrise. I still regret it. Next day trip was not to cross the river and we didn’t get into detail about all the sightseeing. We went to few temples in anegundi village and climbed the most famous anjanadri hills to visit hanuman temple. This place is situated on the left bank of tungabhadra river. It is considered to be the first capital of vijayanagara empire. Anjanadevi, mother of hanuman lived in this hill is the saying. The view was just amazing from the hill top. We cursed ourselves for not making it to the sunrise. Our next visit was pampa sarovara, virupapuragadde, sanapura lake.
Oh! I absolutely loved the lake. Amidst nothing with just water and boulders for company. It’s a kind of place where u speak to yourself and try to know yourself. You calm the chaos inside you. Just dont miss it. Next we went to the falls or which is said to be falls. The black rocks and the water was just what we asked for. We went on coracle ride and the best part is when they twirl the boat. Now that’s thrilling! We came back to guesthouse and checked out and our next visit was “Virupaksha temple“. One among few temples where the puja rituals are performed. Sasive kalu ganesha is quite opposite to its name( how much I love gannu). Hemakuta hills and group of temples is where u witness the beautiful sunset. Hampi bazaar is still a blaze. We had to rush to catch the bus to hospet. Now the 30 mins journey seemed the longest to us as we were tired to death. On reaching hospet we had sugarcane juice and had food. We next went to see Tungabhadra dam, one of the main attractions of hospet. We went to the beautiful gardens there. Saw musical fountain, aquarium. Our bus was at 11 to Bangalore and we had to kill time. We planned for a movie and watched some Telugu movie( I mostly slept). We boarded the bus at 11 but we couldn’t sleep though we were tired. We started sharing how beautiful was 2 days of our lives.
Perhaps it’s the ruins of the temples, or magical stories of myths and legends and God and goddesses. Perhaps it’s the combination of all these things that makes Hampi so special.
At Hampi the past comes alive. The whispering winds, magnificent ruins, traces and scents of bygone era all linger fresh here. And they virtually transport you to the land of long forgotten Marvel’s.
That’s what magical Hampi does to u. Go linger for a while and soak up all the history, magic, myths and fall in love. Though Hampi is just the ruins now, it still stands royal and rich. I never knew the ruins of the dynasty, path between paddy fields, life surrounded by monkeys(then kishkinda) and flow of tungabhadra can provide the meaning I hunted. Stories from the ruins🎒.
♥
Divya
mytinyatlas 