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Published: August 24th 2018
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A comfy bed, thick curtains & double glazing led to an excellent nights sleep. Almost making the rubbish breakfast (compared to the hostels in Hampi) worth it...
We were picked up at 830am by our guide for the morning and a tuktuk complete with driver to see the sights on the other side of the river. Anegundi pre-dates Hampi and is thought to be the kingdom of Kishkindu in Hindu mythology.
The first stop was a climb up to the Hanuman (monkey) temple. We bought our bananas to offer to the monkeys at the top for ‘good karma’ and headed up the 500 steps. The views are spectacular and well worth the walk. Once at the top our guide explained the mythology behind the place and why Hanuman is important. From the viewing platform Stephen & I managed to spot our first mongoose. There turned out to be 2 of them and the monkeys ran away pretty quick when they approached.
Ironically there were no monkeys at monkey temple but we found some on the way down and gave them our bananas.
We then headed to the Laxmi temple, by the lake, and saw some of the
caves there. The lake is more of a very large pond and currently contains more rubbish than lotus flowers. The temple itself is important as it’s where an old woman waited for Rama in the Ramayana (Hindu mythology).
Next we saw Anegundi fort and in it the Durga temple and Ganesha cave temple. The gates into the fort are incredible and you can go on a walk around the area with beautiful views. Scrambling between boulders I was even lucky enough to see a monitor lizard scoot away under another boulder.
Our tour finished in Anegundi village itself. We saw the kings new palace, Gagan palace (which is the queens old palace & is being renovated) and went down to the river a temple there.
Whilst I enjoyed hearing the stories behind the Hindu Gods and learning about the history of the area we both found having a guide somewhat frustrating. One of the best bits for us was walking around the fort area which wasn’t really part of the tour & we had to cut it short as there were other things to see.
We were dropped back in Hampi for lunch. We decided to
pick up bicycles & head over towards the Royal Centre for an explore. On the way out of Hampi we saw the Chandikeshwara and Uddana Virabhadra temples before exploring the noblemens quarters. In the Royal Centre itself we found the Mohammadan watch tower, Band tower & Mosque. The band tower is beautiful, and makes a great place to watch the rain go past from. After wondering around the royal enclosure and seeing a beautiful step well & underground temple we finished our day by looking at the view from the Mahanavami Dibba - the old royal viewing platform.
We cycled back to our hotel & left our bikes in the car park, much to the confusion of the hotel security!
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