Hampi

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Hampi, is a very beautiful place which I had been waiting to explore since quite sometime now which finally we (me and my husband) managed to plan it in December 2013 from 21st to 25th.

To start with what hampi is all about, Hampi is the former capital of Vijaynagar Empire where you can see beautiful Virupaksja temple, Vitthala temple, Lakshmi Narasimha and many more. The ruins of Hampi are a UNESCO world heritage site. Along with the beautiful Hampi ruins, you will find boulders all around which makes climbing on them an amazing experience.

We started off from Pune via VRL bus on 20th Dec. around 10:30PM and reached Hospet at 8:30 AM. It takes abt 9 hours to reach Hospet. Hampi is abt 30 minutes from Hospet... You can reach Hampi from Hospet via the state run buses or you can drive in a rickshaw. We being tired, hired a rick which charged us around 180Rs to drop us till Virupaksha temple.

We stayed on the other side of the river and abt 4 KMs after crossing the river. I had booked Gowri resort and was a perfect decision as the rooms were really clean and basic, had a nice swing on the front where I could sit hours together just gazing at the skies and the boulders.. They also had rice fields which added to the beauty... Also very close is Sanapur lake which is unexplored by tourists as its far from the main river but its really too beautiful.. The food was good too so we didnt bother to go out to eat ever.

You will also see a lot of foreigners staying on the other side of the river, mainly as Hampi is a holy place, you will not get non-veg food and Alcohol which is both available on the other side of the river.

We hired a bike for all the 4 days and thoroughly enjoyed our stay... Hiring a bike gave us the flexibility of reaching a place at our pace and not being bothered.. Bike is charged abt 200Rs per day and 100 Rs/liter petrol. We visited it at the right time so the temperature wasn't too high though by the end of the trip, i was all tanned. (which I still am recovering from ) Hampi is pretty hot during the day so ensure that you use sunblock all the time...

The highlight of the trip was Vitthala temple, Virupaksha temple, Ganesh temple, Matanga hills, Krishna temple and Monkey hill.. You shall visit Matanga hills if you stay in Virupaksha side of the temple and visit Monkey hill if on the other side of the river, for sunset.. You get a beautiful view of the entire Hampi from both the hills... we truly enjoyed seeing the view and wish could be on the hills every evening to see the sunset..

We had hired a guide for few hours to show us around Vitthala temple , Virupaksha temple, Matanga hills, Achutraya temple and all the important other ruins. It was nice to know the history behind these places. We went to Lakshmi Narsimha , Krishna temple, Shivlinga all by ourselves as it was all walking distance. Also we ensured that we travelled on bicycles one day (cycles are one of the ways to explore around Hampi) after we had seen all the important ruins and just be all by ourselves... we thoroughly enjoyed our bicycling experience... Coconut water helped us refresh ourselves whenever we were tired with cycling.

This has been one of the best trips till date.. Do try to visit this place when in India and I am sure you will be happy you visited Hampi...

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