Trip 1: Hampi

Who: Me, Marina, Brian, Pris, Steven
Where: Hampi
When: Jan 12 - Jan 14
How: Car/driver rental, 8-9 hr drive
[All pics in this post are courtesy of Marina and Pris, cuz I don't have a good camera]

To date, Hampi is the most beautiful place I've seen. Large ancient temples, a gorgeous river, endless rice fields, a lively culture -- words cannot completely depict it, but I'll try.

We rented a car [and driver] to make the journey from Hyderabad to Hampi. While it may not have been the most cost effective way to travel, it was certainly a great experience. I was able to experience the driving that we would consider to be crazy in the States -- honking, driving fast, and playing chicken with oncoming cars just so you can pass the car in front of you. Oh, and people drive on the left side here, so the steering wheels are on the right. It's still not natural for me yet.

While the first hour or so had me on the edge of my seat, I calmed down eventually. Along the way we passed several villages. I think the locals were highly entertained by the van full of foreigners. On the stretches of road between villages, we got excited every time we passed a herd of sheep or ox. We really don't see that back home. The driver had to maneuver his way around/through the herds so as to not hurt anybody. It was fascinating though -- if you honk, then they know to move to the side. Along the drive, we also witnessed a very beautiful sunset right in the middle of nowhere. That's when nature seems to be at its best.


When we arrived on Saturday night, we looked for accomodations and found 2 available rooms at the Shanthi guest house inside the Hampi village. (Keep in mind that a room is really just a double with a mosquito net on it, and the bathrooms have no cold water!) We then ate dinner at the New Shanthi restaurant, which was really enjoyable. The service was great, and there was this lounge area where you could lie down with a bunch of cushions and pillows and be surrounded by a bunch of religious Indian paintings and just relax. Because Hampi is very religious, alcohol is not allowed in the village. However, we found out that the restaurant would serve their juice "special with happiness", meaning with vodka mixed in. That pleased the crowd.

We kicked off Sunday with lunch at the Mango Tree, the recommended restaurant in the Lonely Planet guide. It required a short walk through banana plantations, but it was definitely worth it. At the Mango Tree, you take off your shoes and then sit on bamboo rugs at a table (no chairs), looking out over the river. This place was designed for nature and relaxation. We spent a lazy hour or two, just eating and drinking and enjoying the scenery. From Mango Tree, we could see the village across the river, and we could watch people play/bathe in the water or take boats across.


There was even a swing for me to swing on.



We then took the boat across the river to Virupapur Gaddi, which is mostly a hippie area full of guest houses and restaurants. We booked two rooms at Sri Lakshmi Golden Beach Resorts, which, as glamorous as it sounds, again were just doubles with mosquito nets and cold water. There was supposedly a pool somewhere, but we never saw it.

The river:

After dropping off our stuff and taking the boat back across, we were ready to explore. We first started with the Virupaksha Temple in Hampi, which is basically a huuuuge tall temple that the village is pretty much built around. Unfortunately we only explored it for 15 minutes because we went in at around 12:45pm and didn't realize it would temporarily close at 1pm. (Of course they wouldn't have told us that -- we had to pay to get in.)

Virupaksha Temple:

We then took an autorickshaw (sort of the equivalent of a taxi, but much smaller and slower) to the Krishna Temple and several parts of the Royal Centre (e.g. Queen's Bath and more temples). Honestly, once you've seen 2-3 temples, they all start to look alike, so we stopped going to temples after awhile.

The "marketplace" ruins:

After an hour of the ruins, we then went up a smaller path and took a 20 minute hike to a bunch of boulders over the water. We were actually expecting waterfalls, but it was still nice. The guy who was leading us scared us a bit by telling us that there were tigers and snakes and even black panthers. Maybe he was exaggerating just to scare us.

Waterfall? Maybe not:

Finally we were exhausted, so we went back to the Hampi village and back across the river. The girls and I treated ourselves to one-hour massages -- they weren't as relaxing as I would've liked, but were pretty much worth what I paid for. Then we went out for our meal, played some cards, and called it a night.

The next morning, we had one final adventure -- Anegundi and Hanuman Temple, perched atop the Anjanadri Hill (aka Monkey Hill). Why is it called Monkey Hill? Oh let me tell you why ... monkeys galore!!! To be honest, I was terrified of the monkeys. I'd heard stories of them being quite vicious if they saw that you had food or a banana on you, but of course if you just acted normal then they probably wouldn't hurt you. The monkeys were actually quite cute, but at one point a local wanted to demonstrate interacting with them for us, so naturally I became nervous when there were suddenly 15 monkeys within a 20 foot range.

Monkeys aside, the view from the Hanuman temple was slightly hazy, but still beautiful. We had to climb probably 1000 steps to get up the hill (and my thighs hurt from it -- it was like doing a 30 minute stairmaster workout). Once we got up there, we could see everything. The sun, the mountains, the river, the rice fields, the roads, the ruins. It momentarily made me upset at the U.S. for not having anything ancient to look at. There aren't many places where you can get this kind of view.


A few more temples and a lotus pool later, we were back at the guest house and packing up our stuff. We did one last meal at Mango Tree, took a few more pictures, and we were on our way back home for another 8 hour drive.

I won't miss the bugs and mosquitoes. Despite the hot weather, I actually wore long sleeves the entire time to minimize my chances of getting bit. (I ended up leaving Hampi with only 2 bites.) And I was certainly eager to return to my hot water.

In the end, fantastic first trip, and I recommend that everyone should visit Hampi if they come to India.

And now, I leave you with a picture of something I only saw in cartoons: