On the Road Again - Around the ruins
On the last Friday of 2007,the new year weekend, I wanted to head out of the city to a quiet place away from the madding crowd, away from the media hype, away from the usual Bollywood music blasting all around that led me to ask around and found two of my team mates wanting to head out.We thought of going for a trek but the couple of options we thought of didn't seem feasible with the last minute decision and with no tents/bookings in hand. We took to the road in my good old car and headed to Hampi since I knew we could find some place to stay for sure with all the options available having spent my last year end there.
On the way, we took a break for lunch at a Dhaba at Chitradurga. The drive on the NH from Chitadurga had stretches of windmills on top of the hills around and sunflower fields to give us company.We reached the river side just before Hospet in time for a beautiful sunset.
Hampi :
It was dark by the time we reached Hampi, after maneuvering through the dark and narrow roads from Hospet to Hampi, and that meant not being able to get to the other side of the river for a much quieter part of Hampi but we walked around and found a nice guest house around the Hampi Bazaar area and after dinner at a place nearby, we just crashed out.The next morning after a great breakfast at the Germany Bakery(near Hampi Bazaar Area) we headed to discover the Northern part of the ruins handed with the Map of Hampi. Hampi, founded in 1336,was the capital city of the Vijayanagar Empire and fell to the Muslim rulers from North in 1565. The ruins however, have stood the test of time and one can only imagine the grandeur of a bygone era.Hampi is too vast an area to explore in a day. Some of these ruins are approachable by road but would take a lot longer to cover, hence we decided to get across climbing the rocks and a few pathways.
After a whole day of walking around the ruins and a late lunch at the nice river side restaurant -Mango Tree (about a km from the main bazaar ) we decided to hike up Matanga Hill to witness the sunset. One could also go over to the other side of the river as well and have another great view from Hanuman Temple. You get an amazing view of the huge town of Hampi from Matanga hill and also get to witness a quiet and lovely sunset. After the sunset and a bit of walking around the ruins in the dark we headed back to Mango tree again for a lantern (not candlelit) dinner.Both the German Bakery and Mango tree requires multiple visits for the foodie.
Getting to Hampi:Approx 350kms from Bangalore.Good roads most of the journey driving down the National Highway, with a few bad patches and road work happening on a few streches. It took us about 9hrs to reach there with 2 breaks.
Driving directions from Bangalore
Accomodation at Hampi:There are tons of cheap backpacker guest houses available around the main bazaar on the way to the river near the Virupaksha temple and quieter ones across the river at Virupapur Gadde( take a boat from the riverside to go across, the last boat leaves before dark). You need to negotiate the rates at these guest houses!! If you are looking for hotel kind of accommodation then its best to stay at Hospet, the drawback is the crowded town and the distance to Hampi (12kms).
Links for places to stay :KarnatakaTourism Site and a few more here.
Pattadakal:
We had an early morning breakfast again at the Germany Bakery and decided to head towards Badami, about 150kms from Hospet.We took a diversion about a 30kms before Badami and reached Pattadakal around noon.
We found bright yellow karnataka tourism boards with the distances and directions, most of the driving way but none on the way back, we had to turn around to read the sign boards :) .
Pattadakal was built in the 8th century by the Chalukya kings and has a cluster of 10 major temples. The temples have been well maintained and situated next to Malaprabha river. A quiet little place. We didn't see any guest houses around and I guess most people head to Badami from there for stay.
Badami:
Badami is surrounded by rust red sandstone cliffs and is a rock climbers paradise.We reached Badami on new years eve, and went to the cave temples area,which has four ancient temples inside those red standsone rock cut caves. You get a nice view of the old and new town and the Agastya Theertha tank, next to it from up there.
After spending a few hours at the caves we went back to town and found a board for a KSTDC hotel and took up a room there for the night stay.
We then walked around the town and had a great hot piping thali at "Shri Laxmi Vilas Hotel" for just Rs 20 a plate.
The KSTDC hotel where we sacked out, is located in a quiet part of town, with a huge tree lined compound.I spent awhile that night , the last day of 2007 under the bright starry skies with good music on my ipod, I couldn't have asked for more.
Accomodation at Badami: More Info here
We woke up at 5Am the next morning , the first day of 2008 and headed back to Bangalore a distance of approx 500km me being the lone driver in the car, with for breakfast stop at Kamat just before Hospet and for lunch at a Dhaba near Tumkur.
Overall the unplanned trip turned out to be a great one with more than 1000kms of driving done by yours truly, visiting some of the ancient ruins for the first time, getting to know how advanced we were out then during artistic bygone era and of course lots of good food .
Pics from the trip:
Karnataka Tourism Site with lots of useful info.
Comments
BTW the food there is vegetarian :)
You don't even have to take leave,you could do the trip on a weekend, just get yourself a train/bus ticket for HOSPET on friday night,it reaches HOSPET early saturday morning and you could roam around for 2days and head back to bangalore by the sunday night bus/train.
Greetings from the Netherlands.
Thanks for the comments. i guess you intended to put in the Assam post instead of Hampi but anyways :)
Yeah some of pics are nice.
Uttam mentioned about you if my memory holds good, in one of our conversations.
Cheers!
Badami also has a neighboring town called Banashankari which is famous for its temple and pond, also the old ladies who sell rotis, variety of chuthney powders and curds. Totally unmissable, I had witnessed too many Bangaloreans fanning their mouths after eating that stuff. Its insanely delicious and spicy at the same time. I think they still have those horse driven chariots between Badami and Banashankari.
Also around those towns is another place called Aihole, if one is an architecture junkie then this is the place.
Aihole was a building ground for learning temple sculpting (cant believe a school like that existed in those days), you can find so many temples, each its own style, some with so many different styles in one. Many are unfinished and left that way.
As for Pattadakal, the main temple there inspired the modern day architects to design Indian Parliament building.
I guess you are a traveller tooo..
I still do travel, mostly revisiting the places I've been to before. But not as much as I'd love to.
I was fortunate enough to have lived close to several amazing places at different points in time.
As for my traveling, actually, it was a personal tragedy that led me to travel, i quit my job and had no plans of returning back home. It was kinda aimless traveling, not exactly a conscious effort to travel or explore.
It was spontaneous and I guess that's why I could really travel like the way I wanted. In fact it changed my life for better or worse.
Well, nothing can bring that feeling back from those days. It is like you cant write the same song again or paint the same painting again. Because the person, time and feelings would have changed.
That's what the road had taught me, nothing stays the same and that's the way of things. You can never return as a same person after hitting the road.