You can check out the first part of the post here which gives general info I gathered on our trip to Hampi.

We had planned for a 3-day trip to Hampi. Our idea was for a chilled and relaxed trip, so three days made sense; however in general (if time is a constraint), 2 days might be enough. Though, I would seriously suggest that you plan a 3-day trip; reason being that its one thing to just go down and see all the popular places/monuments and take patel photos and totally another to venture out and explore the lesser known locations on your own.

Day 1

We reached Hospet around 8 am in the morning. The train was only 15 minutes late, pretty much on time by IST standards.

Awaiting arrival at Hospet

We were out of the station and on our way to Hampi in about 10 mins. There was not much bargaining with the auto guys; we quickly settled for 120 (we knew that was a fair price). The roads were not great and it was a pretty much bumpy ride into Hampi, except for the last few kms, which apparently had been laid new only a couple of months back  – so much for a rollicking tourist spot.

Our rooms were thankfully still booked (our booking had been done over phone and given the experience, I was a little skeptical); we quickly checked in and moved out for breakfast. We first went and sat in Sanghameshwar; 10 mins up, the guy did not even come to take an order; pissed we took off and had breakfast in a shady hotel called Amrutha something. Dont even try this place.

We finished breakfast and then hung around the main street for sometime doing timepass. We decided to check out what the KTDC office there had to offer in terms of Hampi sightseeing. They had a package worth 175/- per person, in which they would take you around all the important monuments in Hampi and also take you down to have a look at Tungabhadra dam. So we booked the package and then headed back to the guest house to freshen up.

We came back down to the main street. We were still hungry and hence we set out in search of that famous restaurant called Mango Tree. It is in the direction behind Virupaksha temple. It was a good long walk from our guest house, offering us nice views of the TungaBhadra river along the way.

Nice view across Tungabhadra - on the way to Mango Tree

Lunch at Mango Tree was a delicious affair. We enjoyed the local (mango tree thali) and mediterranean cuisine and topped it with Nutella Banana Pancakes and mint tea. The restaurant also offers excellent views across the river.

After the sumptuous lunch, it was time to decide on what to do for the rest of the day. We thought of hiring bikes and going around the city; that didn’t happen as we got into a fight with the bike guys when they asked us to give them our driving licenses as security; they were acting also very pricey; one thing led to another and we decided to drop the idea. Finally, we decided to hire an auto and go off to Anegundi, a nearby village.

Anegundi is a small village some 15-20 kms from Hampi. After getting to the banks of the river by auto, to get to the Anegundi village, we had to cross a river using a coracle. It was a pretty adventurous ride with 9 people and one hero honda bike in one coracle.

There was not much to do in Anegundi except for a fort which didn’t really seem accessible. There are lots of rocky boulders around here and we had a good time climbing these rocks, peeping into some of the caves we found etc.

On the way back, the coracle ride was even more adventurous with 3 bikes and close to 15 people. And there were nice photo opportunities as the one below.

Returning, we headed for the most important activity of the day – climbing up the Matanga Hill. This is the vantage point to see the sun setting over Hampi, but alas, the sun hid itself behind the clouds that very evening.

Nevertheless, we proceeded to climb the steep hill; the climb was taxing and the view rewarding.

The climb up the hill was taxing, but the path was neatly laid out for us. The climb down was much more more treacherous. There was a path, but not very well defined. We had to do some discovery on our own. Of course, we made it safely down, and  landed up somewhere near the Achutaraya Temple.

By the time was came down, dusk was setting in Hampi.

We walked the long stretch back to the guest house, freshened up and then proceeded for dinner.We went to some KTDC restaurant in search of some good beer – Knock Out greeted us! The food was pretty ordinary here. Done with it quickly, we all returned back to the guest house and retired for the night.

Day 2

Today, we had the KTDC tour of Hampi lined up starting 10:30 am. We finished off breakfast at Sri Venkateshwara and then got to the KTDC bus. The tour started off from Virupaksha Temple

Virupaksha Temple

and ended with the Tungabhdra Dam. We saw various places, the highlights being the Sasvekalu Ganesha, Lakshmi Narashima monolith statue,

Lotus Mahal,

Stone Chariot and Musical Stone Pillars at Vithala Temple and various other amazing pieces of architecture.

Below are the Anjanadri Hills, the birth place of Hanuman. This comes on the way to the Vithala Temple.

The Vijayanagara architecture was fairly advanced – the public water tank having limestone layers to filter / purify the water for drinking,

structures having multiple floors,  the innovative cooling system in Lotus Mahal (which was the summer palace for the queens) – water pumped through cylindrical holes on the walls to create the cooling, the umpteen marketplaces,

and many more simple yet extremely innovative architectural marvels.

We wound up the day after seeing the Tungabhadra Dam, in itself looking majestic. I really did not know that the Tungabhadra River was so expansive.

On the way back, we stopped at Hotel Malligi for dinner and drinks. Hotel Malligi was a really nice place to stop at! Dinner was punctuated with some really good / loud / heated discussions.

We returned to Hampi using the public bus. Back at the guest house, we retired for the night after a few rounds of poker.

Day 3

Today was a total chill out day. We started off with breakfast at Sanghameshwar’s consisting of masala dosas and puri bhajis. The one item which stood out was Coffee Lassi. If you are the adventurous type, try it out! After the breakfast, we decided to check out few others things in Hampi on our own. The first was the monolith bull, a gigantic Nandi.

We spent the next hour and half sitting here itself discussing topics such as karma, destiny and fatalism.

We moved on hoping to explore some new places and hit some nice views across the Tungabhadra river along the way.

And then we proceeded to explore the Achutaraya Temple, in general loitering around Hampi.

Then we explored the Achutaraya temple, a temple with equally amazing architecture and sculptures

We hit the main town back for lunch at Mango Tree. The restaurant really deserved a second visit. With this, our stay in Hampi was pretty much over. We spent the next couple of hours generally loitering around shopping and then proceeded back to the guest house to pack up and leave.

But hey, there was one thing in Hampi which was still unaccomplished and I was determined to finish that – capturing sunset in Hampi. The sun had been nice and strong for the last few hours and was just setting. With half an hour left for departure, I set out to capture my dream pictures in Hampi and am glad that I was not disappointed.

These amazing sights of sunset ended the Hampi trip on a real high.

Never have I seen historical ruins on such a large scale. They really bore testimony to what a flourishing period it must have been. At times, it was really sad to see how much havoc the invaders wreaked upon the empire. On our way to Hampi, we had met a gentleman who said that one really feels sad when returning from Hampi, sad to see such a beautiful empire in ruins. I couldn’t agree more:(

Land of the magical musical stone pillars. Land of the historical Kishkindha empire and the epic fight between Sugriva and Vali. Land of India’s biggest, grandest and most flourishing  empire (not kingdom , mind you) – the Vijayanagara empire. And last but not the least, home to some of the most amazing examples of architectural excellence . . . and more . . .

Welcome to Hampi!

Getting to Hampi

We were initially planning to drive down to Hampi. It is apparently a 7-hr drive. The route to be taken is in the direction of Hubli / Bellary. However, the feedback on the road condition was not great (info from other blogs). We personally also saw that…atleast in Hospet the roads were far from a good condition.  So we ended up choosing train as choice of transport. In hindsight, I think the train option was great. Hampi Express (6592 / 6591) will take you to and bring you back from Hospet,  the biggest town near Hampi. Hampi is around 14 kms from Hospet. From the station, you can get to Hampi by auto.  It should cost you around 120 bucks, no more. If you are the really miserly type, you can try to bargain down to Rs. 100. But that is as low as you would go. You leave 10:30 in the night from Bangalore and you are in Hampi by 9 am next morning. That’s pretty good, eh?

Staying in Hampi

There are two options – either we stay in Hospet which offers a far wider range of acco options or we stay in Hampi closer to the action. Hospet offers even I think 4-star acco. Hotel Malligi is one of them. In Hampi, there are mainly guest houses or maybe guest homes. People let out couple of rooms in their house.

Getting a booking in these guest houses proved quite tough, until just a day before we were to leave. Either some of them were not ready to take a booking (e.g. Shanthi GH) or some were incommunicado (Padma GH). Finally, on the last day we got through to Padma and booked our rooms. Shanthi just plainly refused to book in advance and kept saying that they will only give us rooms after we landed up there. Pretty strange, I thought!

The Padma Guest House cost us 600/- per day. The rooms were nothing great . . . but then they were not bad either. But, ya, do not go with great expectations. We had our problems with there being no curtains in the room, bathroom windows not covered, fans not working, power cuts in the night (this can be a serious problem in hot Hampi). The other problem we faced was regarding the honesty of this GH (Padma Guest House) owner. I got cheated out of Rs 500/- . I dunno how she did the trick, but she claimed that I gave her only 500/-, when I actually gave her 1000/-.  The 1000/- rupee note that I gave her somehow disappeared. I couldn’t prove her wrong and took the 500/- loss, but all I can say is that you have got to be really careful . . .

The other guest house that we heard of was Shanthi Guest House. This is the place where apparently all goras come and stay. We did not manage to get a booking at all at this place! Can you beat it; getting treated like second class citizens in our own country?

For the budget travellers, I think these Guest Houses offer an excellent option.

Eating in Hampi

For all the joints that you see in Hampi, in my opinion, there are only three worth eating at. Mango Tree is the best place by far. The place has a comprehensive menu spanning across local, north indian and mediterannean cuisine. Mango Tree is also very nicely located overlooking the Tungabhadra river and is the neatest of all the places. Service is also very prompt. Do try out the Falafal + Humus item. Very delicious. Hence a must visit.

Chilling out @ Mango Tree

Delicious Nutella Pancakes @ Mango Tree

Two other joints – Sanghameshwar and Sri Venkateswara – are also worth eating at. Nothing great out here, but the food is average and maybe worth visiting for breakfast / snacks. Here, however, be prepared to spend some time waiting for your order. Hurrying up will not work.

Another place worth checking out is Temptations @ Hotel Malligi in Hospet. The only A/C restaurant that we went to during our stay in Hampi. Another advantage here, is that the place has a good range of liquor (alteast you get KF beer!).  If you didn’t know, within the perimeter of Hampi meat and liquor are banned, hence you got to go out to Hospet or atleast outside Hampi.  And Temptations above offers an excellent choice amidst a good ambience.

In Part II of this post, I will write about what we did in Hampi over 3 days . . .