Blogs from Hampi, Karnataka, India, Asia

Today is our last day in Hampi and a check of the itinerary showed there were still several places I wanted to see which we hadn’t visited yet. So after breakfast we headed out, intent on walking to the Queen’s Bath about a kilometre away. But we didn’t get far before a rickshaw driver stopped to talk, looking for a fare. He pulled out his Hampi map and I pointed out the places we had yet to visit. We came to an agreement on price for the morning and piled into his auto rickshaw, the idea of walking now completely forgotten. First stop was the Queen’s Bath. This structure was the private bathing chamber of the king and his wives. It has a very plain boxy exterior but inside there’s a two metre deep bathing pool ... read more

Hampi, described as a fantasy world of rocks and ruins, lies in the south Indian state of Karnataka, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River. Now a laid-back ancient village which sprawls over both sides of the river, Hampi was once the last capital of Vijayanagar, one of the greatest Hindu kingdoms in India’s history. The magnificent ruins of Hampi dot an unearthly landscape that’s captivated travellers for centuries. Heaps of giant boulders dot kilometres of undulating terrain, their rusty hues offset by jade-green palm groves, banana plantations and paddy fields. The nearest airport to Hampi is at Belgaum 270klm away, and the nearest railway station, where we finally arrived this morning, is at Hospet, 13klm away. Auto rickshaws filled the parking area outside the railway station, but we had secured ourselves a driver within two ... read more

Today started with a short cycle down the road to Bhima’s gate. We stopped on the way to look at the Ganagitti Jain temple, a fairly unremarkable place. The gate itself was slightly disappointing in that it was missing its city walls on either side (the maps suggest you can still see them). Being a rather plain structure it was clearly functional and not used as the main gates for guests etc. We next headed over to the Zanana enclosure, an enclosure with complete walls all around containing the treasury, a water tank, the queens palace (ruins) and the lotus mahal, a beautiful 2 storied pavilion. This is another of the sites you have to pay to go into, and is considered one of the main attractions in Hampi. They are doing a lot of work ... read more

Despite the best of intentions with regard to getting up early to see ‘sunrise hill’ after a rubbish nights sleep due to the noise we decided to stay in bed a little later instead... It actually turned out rather well. There was no way we would have been able to navigate the route up in the dark and it would have been rather dangerous. There seem to be a number of ‘sunrise hills’ and ‘sunset points’ in Hampi depending on who you talk to. We took it to be Matanga Hill. We walked up from the Hampi bazaar side. This was a fantastic walk with great views and some interesting, original steps and slightly scary boulders to walk over. On the way up we found a short cave system in between the boulders that eventually led ... read more

We arrived in Hospete pretty much on time (only 1 hour late) - I had found the slightly larger 1st class beds on the train much easier to sleep on. Unfortunately Stephens was wonky so he hadn’t got much sleep. Overall there isn’t much difference between the 1st & 2nd AC classes so its probably not worth the extra money. There wasn’t a food cart on this train either, and we didn’t even get any tea! We did, however, get a steady stream of staff wanting a ‘selfie’ with us. Trying to find a tuktuk to the boat crossing to Anegundi, where we were supposed to be staying, we discovered that the river crossings were shut. They had been shut for over a week, so our accommodation knew that before taking our booking & offering to ... read more