Blogs from Hampi, Karnataka, India, Asia - page 2
January 3rd 2012
A World Heritage Site, Hampi is a place where you can lose yourself among the wistful ruins, or simply be mesmerized by the vagaries of nature, wondering how millions of years of volcanic activity and erosion could have resulted in a landscape so captivating (lonely planet). Since the minute I arrived to Hampi I fell in love with it. It is like heaven on the Earth. I even forgot a very long journey from Goa and all I wanted was to get a room quickly so I could go for a walk. The bus was supposed to arrive around 6 am to Hampi but it broke down on the way so we had to wait for 5 hours until replacement bus came. There were some English women who kept asking driver (who did not speak a ... read more
December 3rd 2011
Waking in Gokarna town at 6am we checked out and headed to the bus station. Once chris had scrambled onto the bus rooftop to securely fix our backpacks (much to the amusement of the locals), we boarded the bus and embarked upon a 9 hour journey to Hospet en route to Hampi. Departing the bus we took a rickshaw 12km to Hampi Bazaar where the rickshaw driver recommended Archana Guesthouse. Taking a look inside we decided to stay and so bargained hard over room prices, eventually agreeing on 200 rupees/night. With accomodation sorted we then headed out for dinner before heading back to bed ready to explore the next day. The only real way to describe Hampi is Siem Reap (Cambodia - Angkor Wat) meets Rome meets the flinstones - a playground for historical and ancient ... read more
November 15th 2011
Hampi seems like weeks ago, time is really weird out here. We left Goa to get an early morning train to Hampi. We literally had no idea how to catch this train, so we trekked up and down the platforms asking people and looking for other travellers. My first experience of Delhi Belly was about to kick in so with half an hour to wait, no toilets and no clue where to stand I was not in best spirits. And then the train got delayed. Anyways after seriously contemplating the tracks as ways to relieve myself from the agony the train arrived yay!! The journey was uneventful. Trains are great though all day you just get people wandering up and down selling tea and food! We got to Hospet and claimed two rickshaws to get us ... read more
April 17th 2011
Hampi is a backpackers enclave where people go and stay to escape the stresses of travelling in India. It is an extremely relaxing and beautiful place. Getting there was great as well, with the train ride seeing more random food vendors, than I had seen thus far on this trip. With my Delhi Belly well and truly by the wayside, I gorged on food for almost the entire train ride, from when I woke up, until when I got to Hampi. I also became the star attraction for a group of 7 children, who ended up making for the best company I had had whilst travelling by train in India. We played cards, snakes & ladders and Chinese checkers, for four hours or so. They were good kids and were very eager to practice English as ... read more
April 6th 2011
If the roads weren’t so crap the sleeper bus would be the way to travel. It was cheaper and more private than the 2AC class train, the double bed very comfortable, it’s just a shame that every now and then you would be woken as you were temporary suspended in midair as the driver hit a bump, pothole, or possibly a fealess tuk tuk that had no lights working, which there are many. With little sleep, we arrived into Hospet at 7am and were straight onto a tuk-tuk for a 10km journey to Hampi and straight into Venu Guesthouse. It’s the low season at the moment so accommodation was easy picking, as usual . A small rest and we were off to explore Hampi, I picked up a tourist map and commentary of Hampi from one ... read more
March 30th 2011
Our arrival into Hampi (Hospet train station) brought with it the expected result that we’d become accustomed to upon getting to any touristy destination – touts! One spotted us before we had even got off the train and started the chatter soon after we got off. We dumped our bags and thankfully, the refusal to engage the tout whatsoever concluded in him leaving us in relative peace. I went searching for a rickshaw (he was there again) and then went and grabbed Zoe who’d stayed with the bags. The rickshaw drivers all seemed more intent on sitting around and chatting and didn’t seem overly inclined to make a deal. Tout to the rescue – our aforementioned friend came to the rescue and took us up to the bus stand for a half decent fee (despite trying ... read more
March 5th 2011
Geography has always excited me, but this time I decided to take the historical route. The best place to plunge yourself into a historical study is the ruined Vijayanagara empire at Hampi. I took an overnight bus journey to Hospet, the nearest town from Hampi. The climate was quite hot and dry for most part of the day. For long, Hampi has been considered as a hippie's hangout with a huge number of them heading there from Goa ( a hippie's PARADISE). This world heritage centre has a lot of historical importance as it showcases the beautiful ruins of the 16th century Vijayanagara empire, situated on the banks of Tungabhadra river. I hired a qualified guide who explained the historical relevences of each and every sculpture and carving. Without him, I would have ended up staring ... read more
February 15th 2011
Happy valentines day for yesterday all you lovely people who bother to read my blog! So much has been going on its hard to write. We arrived in Hampi about ten or eleven days ago on the night train, and since then it's just been sight after amazing sight. I have been blessed by a sacred elephant, robbed by a gutsy monkey, had my hand henaed and so much more. the landscape here is stunning and bizare: mountains of volcanic rock piled and balanced all over the place as far as the eye can see, in strange contraste with the super flat, bright green rice paddy's that grow all over the place and the river running through it all. We have had some beautifull sunsets from high up creveses and hindu temples perched on top of ... read more
January 17th 2011
Unfortunately we have moved on from Hampi( I am writing from Mahabalipuram), But it really was the most brilliant place you could imagine. Divided in two by a sacred river where people bathed and washed their clothes, On one side was an thriving Bazaar and immense temple and palace complex which had been ransacked by the Arabs four hundred years past and on the other was really a chilled out small settlement where the majority of the travelers stayed. The only way between the two was a tiny little boat with a wee put-put engine, which wouldn't set sail until it was ridiculously overcrowded with both people and goods. However dangerous it looked i never seen any problems and the drivers were exeptionaly skillful in dealing with the rising water levels which hid massive boulders just ... read more
January 8th 2011
Well here it is our superblog of India for all of you, we left from Barca on 30th to go to London catching up with Vari along the way, then it was on to Bombay curtisy of Kingfisher airlines which despite all expectations was fantastic, a brand new airbus with all the trimmings, and the pretiest most helpfull hostesses. We arrived in Mumbai after 11 hours to our first taste of the poverty which is such an unfortunate part of this most amazing and fascinating country, around the airport there is many shanty towns very hard to miss. We sat and waited for our Goa connection where i felt like i was on a ferry, a mixture of lack of sleep and being on a plane for so long. When we got our second Kingfisher flight ... read more
