I had seen picture of famous "Stone Chariot" long back in some travel magazine... googled for it and came to know about Hampi. Then, in one of the episode of Roadies I saw this town and since then I always wanted to visit Hampi. Sooo .. one fine day we planned to go Hampi on a four day road trip 🚗, partners in crime were My wife- Anki, my one and half year old daughter - Manu, My bro- Aniket and Anki's Bro- Pallu. I searched for routes and finalized to take solapur road... than to Vijayapura and then to Hampi.
Friday Morning sharp 4:00 Am we started our journey, took first tea break @ sunrise 🌅 (6:00 Am) after driving 100 Kms. Pune - Solapur road is in good shape except some rough patches and one bottleneck railway crossing. Don't rely much on google maps ..I took one shortcut but it was very bad decision as road was in very bad shape and it took 1/2 hr to cover 10 Kms. Soon we reached Maharastra- Karnataka border and had our breakfast (idly-sambhar) @ a hotel just after entering Karnataka. We reached Vijayapura our first destination at around 10:30 Am.
GolGumbaz ... Its dome was visible from 6 Kms before reaching Vijayapura. Parked our vehicle... stretched my legs after long drive.. Aniket bought tickets and we started capturing snaps as we reached one of the wonders in India. That dome was Hugggeeee... our jaws open in awe 😳 after seeing it and I wondered in that period how come such building was made. We explored Golgumbaz and best part was whispering gallery... if three people clap their and it will sound like entire stadium is clapping... Marvelous Engineering. It took around 2 Hrs to explore the big building. There is a museum as well in the premise and its worth a visit. After exploring Golgumbaz we left for Hampi and reached there by evening 5:30 Pm.
We woke up early, my ankles were still hurting after driving so much. But to my relief Hampi had various options and it was not required to take my car for sightseeing. We went to the spot from where we can take ferry ⛵ (we were staying at other side of river), ferry point was around 2 Kms walk from our hotel. Took four tickets 10 bucks per person, once ferry is filled.. it took only 5-6 minutes to cross the river. We all were very hungry.. there were couple of road side food stalls.. we had Idly, Uttapa, Dosa, Bhajji and what not... food stall was run by middle aged couple . Food items were very cheap and we ate like we dind't had food for past 30 days :). From the same shop we took four cycles 🚲 on rent (50 rs per day for each cycle). First spot was "Virupaksha Temple"... a huge temple dedicated to lord shiva... Me and Pallu..took out our cameras and started taking snaps of beautiful carvings on Gopur. Its an impressive stone structure.. inside temple there is an Elephant.. if you give him 10 Rs.. it will give that money to his owner first and than keep his trunk on your head so that you can get a photo clicked in this pose.
Next we explored a hill next to Virupaksha temple.. it has couple of small temple structures and beautiful view of Hampi from the hill. There is temple of Ganesha called Kadalekalu Ganesha.. its a huge monolithic stone statue of Lord Ganesha. After exploring the hills.. we moved further to see old hampi market.. it had lot of stone shops and a big pond at center. After exploring it we reached Krishna temple 🚩.. very beautiful temple.. small stone statues everywhere... very beautifully carved pillars made of black stone in the main structure.
Due to many issues we faced with rented bi-cycles we could not complete the attractions we initially planned to see... Only one day to go now for rest of attractions.
Next day... only target was to cover rest of Hampi.. so dropped idea of cycle. This time we hired an auto 🛺.. auto driver was guide and he settled for 400 Bucks for a day tour. So we started from where we left yesterday.. Place we visited was Narsimha Temple.. the shiva temple... Underground Temple.. Sister Stones... Lotus Mahal.. Hazar Ram Temple.. Queen's Bath... Elephant's Stable and Puskarni. One after other each site was awesome,, each had its own history and stories and our guide explained it well. Last stop for the day the most farthest and the most famous Vithhala Temple. #Bucket list moment❤️. Our driver stopped us at the parking outside.. then we boarded battery operated vehicles which took us to the Temple. All the battery operated were driven by women's. Finally I reached Vithhala temple.. and got to saw Stone Chariot. That whole complex was very huge... me and pallu took countless pics of the place.. Took some rest here and went back to the parking. Auto driver dropped us at tungabhadra bank and we reached our hotel. Ended our day with Chilled Beer 🍻and Awesome food🍟🍕.
Last day .. again a driving day as we planning to be back to Pune by evening. We started very late... checked out of hotel at around 7 am. Soon we reached highway and paid toll tax on one of the toll.. and quickly i realized that I was on wrong road... took the Hubali road instead of Vijayapura. Turned our vehicle and soon we were moving towards Vijayapura.. I had option of either to visit Aihole, Badami or Pattadakkal while going back. We opted for Pattadakal.. 132 kms from Hampi... took exit from Vijayapura highway at Kushtagi. Road is very confusing 🙄 without any signboards and it looks like we were moving in circle .. but finally after getting directions from local people we reached Pattdakkal.
Like Hampi, it is also world heritage site... famous for group of temples. All the temples are dedicated to lord Shiva. Stone color is bit reddish and all the temples looks very beautiful.... Main temple has very huge Nandi outside and Shiva linga is also very big inside the temple. We sat there for some time and soon started for our way back towards Pune... after hell lot of driving we reached Pune around 9Pm.. as we entered Pune it was raining heavily.. I guess Monsoon ⛈️was finally here.. what a Relieffffff!!!
