Ever wondered what magic would look like if it was a place..that’s HAMPI for you.the ruins of vijayanagara dynasty will take you on a ride through history and manage to awe you.i seriously needed a longdrive therapy and that’s when my friends came to my rescue.
We had our lunch and started our drive from Hyderabad (I strongly suggest you to start early in the morning)..there are two ways to reach hampi and we choose the first one. ROUTE 1:hyd-Raichur-gangavati-hampi.this route is around 380 kms and took us about 7 hrs to get there. As it was a sudden trip,we didn’t get to book our stay and were lil tensed(u must be damn lucky to get your stay at hampi in December and January).but we surfed through google and managed to get some numbers.finally,we were lucky enough to get a hut at mowgli resort.
The huts were damn cool though:p
Got up early in the morning and took a drive to hampi.anegundi(resort location) is about 10 kms from hampi by road but it takes only 5 mins when you cross thungabadra river.the first place on our minds was VIRUPAKSHA TEMPLE.one of the ancient temples in history.
Lakshmi..the temples elephant,was there spreading smiles and blessings around.
This is the only place in india where you get to see a three headed nandi.
Then we went around visiting other temples as directed by our guide mr.swamy.The first one was a huge ganesh idol with parvathi amma on back.
Then,the famous ugra narsimha statue and biggest shiv linga of hampi which is submerged in water upto base
There was this underground shiva temple submerged in water at almost all the times of year.this was the best and caution:there were bats all over in the main sanctum.just by the side of main sanctum there was a magical mandap precisely constructed and we couldn’t help but to take pictures!!
By this time we were all in need to replenish our glucose levels and our go to option for brunch was MANGO TREE restaurant.by this time,it was already noon and we had to rush as the visiting places would be closed by 5pm.
Lotus mahal,queen’bath,mahanavami dibba,watch tower,kings balance,elephant stables and some other places dipicting the royal life must not be missed.
The most irritating thing was that atleast 20 schools were on a picnic to hampi and kids were all around shouting,waving ,teasing.The last place to visit was vittala temple where the famous chariot of hampi was attracting tonnes of photographers.this is my second visit to hampi and one tree in this temple always manages to amaze me.there is something magical about this place and you get to check out the market place as well as musical pillars here.
By evening, we got back to our resort and went out for shopping.i must say this place is a shopper’s paradise.you get to try jewellery from different cultures and countries and indians have lot of scope to bargain here:p.this was like definition of the term hippie .the two sides of hampi are soo different .one shows you the spiritual side while the other makes you go crazy.
Forgot to mention,the best thing here is you get to rent a bicycle,moped or a bullet for 100-250 bucks /day.
This was our last day and we had a plan to go an a trek to matanga hill before sunrise but never managed to wake up that early.we had our breakfast at mowgli,bid goodbye to TOMMY(one of the cutest dogs)and started to checkout places around.there was this waterfall and sanapur lake.lake was beautiful and not to be missed ,you get to try round boat trip here and there were fake crocodile warning boards all around.
Then we went on to visit daroji bear sanctuary and note :the timings are from 2pm to 5pm.we were way too early as we didn’t know this.
We started our return journey in other way around. ROUTE 2: hampi-gadaganur-torangal-kuditini-bellary-guntakal-gooty-karnool-Jadcherla-hyd. This route is around 460 kms but is much better compared to the first one and takes almost the same time to reach hyd.you can even cover mantralayam,alampur and gadwal on the way. NOTE:best time to visit hampi is AUGUST (if you hate people),best time to experience hampi is in December and jan(but,learn to bear with the crowd).
It takes atleast 30 days to visit every place in hampi but yeah,we had no choice but to get back to reality.some places keep calling you back and this is one such place!!
NOTE:you can checkout my blog on best options to stay at hampi !!