Trails of my Mind...: HAMPI- Exploring the Unexplored!!!

I know, after more than a year, while I decide to write, why would I write on such an off-road topic- Travel, while its probably not even my style to write travel stories. I know it’s not, I realised it, while I was writing it. But this was a memorable trip, memorable one because, I did go there with an agenda and also with the aim in mind to get the maximum out of the money spent on the trip. How busy do we usually get in making the expense of our trip worth-while that we forget that the aim of going on a trip is probably not to check off certain tourist spots off the list but the sole purpose is to gather an experience you wouldn’t on a routine basis. It could be while discovering the place or checking the sight-seeing things off your list or could be just an interesting conversation over a cup of coffee, or even just sharing stories with a stranger during the journey. A new destination is usually just a catalyst for a new experience. Similarly, this trip was set with an agenda- to witness the historical stories via the ruins, but it changed completely with a decision to let spontaneity take the front seat, and what followed after that was beyond my imagination.

History alone never fascinated me, when I was a student. I used to call it 'Unwanted Stories of the Dead', however as I grew, history mixed with geography of a place and joining the dots of past and present became my favourite activity. Having heard about the historical stories and the grandeur of the Vijayanagara empire hidden in those old boulders and ruins made me really fascinated to visit the place and I kept coaxing my friends and cousins to accompany me to the trip to Hampi. However it not being a tourist destination, I couldn’t succeed in grabbing anyone’s attention. I kept searching online looking for the travel stories and blogs about the place. The more that I read about it, the more I lusted to visit the place, not just for historical relevance anymore.

Finally, one of my cousins managed to agree to my request of visiting this mesmerising place brimming with stories and thus we ended up taking a road trip to Hampi.

Road map to Hampi from Bangalore

We travelled from Bangalore via the road. It was a 364 kms span which we covered within 7 and half hours taking a leisurely breakfast and lunch break. The route was simple with a posh 6 lane national highway upto Chitradurga via Tumkur Road, then taking the Hiriyur Highway towards Chitradurga, which was a dreamy run with winding roads along with hills on one side of the road interspersed with windmill farms. The bypass that we took after passing Chitradurga led us to a narrower lane- a two lane state highway with road construction work going on, slowing down the speed of the drive a bit but not our spirits. While on the road, having the dabba-wala idlis on the side of the road is totally worth a stop and highly recommended. As soon as we crossed Hospet, we were welcomed by old gate like ruins screaming- 'You have finally arrived in Hampi', as if giving a glimpse of what’s in store as you drive ahead. The road following there was surrounded by huge boulders on both sides. The city of Hampi is divided into two parts by a river- Tungabhadra and people know the place by this side- the Hampi village or the other side of the river- Virapapur Gadde or famously known as the Hippie Island.

WindMill farms en-route

We reached the hotel. It was a nice, cozy warm room. After freshening up after the long drive as we sat in the hotel cafe to have some tea, we started making plans for that evening of going to the Hippie Island on the other side of the river. While talking, we saw two French girls, relaxing and enjoying by the pool-side. They looked chilled out and fun-loving and seemed to have been around the city a bit, so I went upto them to get a first hand review of the places that were only in words up until now. Unfortunately, they didn’t know much but they offered us to join them for climbing the other morning, and wanting to be spontaneous, we agreed to join them. That evening was still reserved for the hippie island. There were two ways of crossing the river- 10 minute coracle ride through the waters (really exciting and adventurous) or a 35 minute drive. Since we thought of returning late- it was safer to take the car. We drove to the Hanuman temple first- which is known to be the birth place of lord Hanuman. As the sunset progressed the sky metamorphosed its bright yellow sunny shine into a deeper orange and then into pomegranate pink, painting the ruins and the boulders into beautiful sunset hues.

Sunset Hues

Once the sunset was enveloped by the greyish brown dusk, turning darker and darker into night, we drove to explore the ‘Hippie’ part of the island. We saw a muddy-mucky street with paddy fields on one side and with unattended shacks. It promised to be a bustling street on a good day, but that day seemed to be an off-day of some sorts. We went into a cafe- Nargilas- (highly recommended by internet reviews) to have our dinner. For a germaphobe like me it was as scary as a haunted castle. Low seating with dirty mattresses and cushions with musty odour, surrounding swamp with huge mosquitoes and barely there dim red lights and huge wall murals was the ambience of the place. It was empty-ish when we entered, but as the place kept filling up with people, it became more interesting. Being a couple of girls travelling by ourselves- I follow a safety rule of being back by 9- so we returned.

The Nargils's Cafe

The next day- was going to be one of the most fun days of the trip. We went to the Hampi Bazaar where we met our guide -Sunny - who was going to take us bouldering. He was a jolly young boy with exotic looks and blondish brown hair and a made up exotic accent. This morning we crossed to the other side of the river, in a boat, and then wading our way to the big boulders which was our bouldering site. The boulders were such huge that it made me feel how insignificant and tiny is our existence in this big big world. We climbed up the boulders- some easily, some with difficulty, graduating to a bigger size every time. And at the end of each climb we were rewarded by the cool breeze and the breathtaking views of the city and the river.

Bouldering- Breath-taking view after climbing the boulders

After the activity was over, we headed to grab a bite at a cafe, serving Iranian and variety of so-called continental food (you would find any place in Hampi offer these food choices), and our guide offered to take us for a cooling dip in the natural lake. Still going on with the spontaneity stint, we decided to go ahead with the plan and ditch the temples and the ruins for the next day. We had to walk through varied landscapes, like banana orchards, woods, shiny, slippery areas of the dried water body, and crossed a few caves to reach upto a water basin surrounded by big boulders with pristine cold water collected in it. We changed into our swim-wear in one of the caves and each one took a dip in the cold clear water from the boulder. It gave us a thrill of cliff-jumping. The guide was later joined by his friends who were competing for attention with their acrobatics and jumping off the highest boulder, into the water. We later dried ourselves on the rocks, exchanging each others stories and telling about our lives and wondering how, inspite of being from different parts of the world, the kind of similarity our thoughts had. We returned back and decided to wrap up the day by seeing the sunset at the Matang hill.

Way to the lake

Natural lake surrounded by boulders

After the previous evening experience I had decided that I’m definitely not missing any of those magical sunsets. The guide who was quite friendly by now, too offered to join us for the sunset too and we were happy to have him on-board. The climb to the hill was simple and fuss-free. Just as we were reaching the top, it started drizzling and in a matter of minutes the drizzle turned into a down-pour. As a part of the reflex reaction- we ran helter-skelter to avoid the water, but then realised, we have been drenched more than half of the day already-so what the hell. We soaked our selves in the freshest of the water droplets pelting from the sky. As the clouds emptied themselves on the earth, the sky broke like an egg and gave birth to a full beautiful sunset and the water caught fire- quite literally. The prismatic effect of the rays of sunset piercing through the rain droplets gave birth to the most magnificent rainbow that started from the earth, touched the sky and embraced the earth back. It was a sight to behold. I can say that was the most beautiful sunset of my lifetime. Did I mention, that sunset is my favourite colour and the second is Rainbow, and having both at the same time makes the moment Oh so Magical. After the magical moments got over we danced a bit out of pure joy and fun of having spent an entire day without an itinerary and yet a super fun and adventure filled day.

The Magical Sunset- with Sun, Rainbow and pouring clouds- the combination of the three creating pure magic

Other breath-taking views of Hampi

The last day was finally the day for what I had set my foot in Hampi for, discovering the ruins. There were a few temples- Virupaksha Temple, Vitthala temple, Elephants stable, Queens bath, Lotus temple, Lakshmi Narasimha temple, Achyutraya temple, Hazara Rama temple. On my way I met a couple who were covering Hampi as a travel destination for a leading magazine and enjoyed sharing the stories that I knew about the place and hearing many more from them of people taking refuge here, finding solace in hampi and various means of finding solace and also talking and discussing about all the things possible. Once I was satisfied discovering the ruins was our time to say good bye to Hampi, however with so much excitement packed in a couple of days I was sure, I wasn’t saying Good bye at all, probably just wanted to say, “until the next time” and drove back to the hustle-bustle of our city life.