Blogs from Hampi, Karnataka, India, Asia - page 15

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Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi June 16th 2008

Weekend 30/05 - 02/06 350km North-West of Bangalore is an amazingly friendly, hot and culturally different town called Hampi. I would recommend for any traveller in India to visit this wonderful small historic town. Filled with some of the friendliest Indians I have meet in my time in India so far. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name is derived from Pampa, which is the old name of the Tungabhadra River on whose banks the city is built. Hampi is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire. Catching the sleeper class train on Friday night out of Bangalore was a mission in itself...making sure you are on the right platform in the right carriage (there are at least 30 to choose from!) and in the right seats. I ... read more
Scooter Crossing
Shanthi Guesthouse
Our Rooms

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi May 15th 2008

We took a long day train up from Goa to Hampi, where were only going to be able to spend a few days. After a few minutes walking around, I realized this was too short and I plan on returning someday (hopefully when I know how to climb better). Hampi was one of the most remarkable places I’ve ever seen. The scenery reminded me of the Needles District at Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah, except that it had enormous ruins from a previous civilization scattered throughout. There are enormous boulders and rock formations of an amazing red stone surrounding you constantly. The sky is a brilliant azul and you occasionally see remarkable red, yellow or green trees dotting the landscape. Of course the cows run rampant and monkeys are not uncommon near the center of ... read more
Ruins on Hemakuta Hill 2
Ruins on Hemakuta Hill 3
Monkeys enjoying the sunset too

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 28th 2008

Hampi hobnob It was a spur of the moment decision to spend a leisurely weekend, backpacking ishtyle among the ruins to of Hampi…’Worlds only Living heritage city’…or so the promotional advertisements say… We set out on Friday night taking one of the Luxury buses (booked on www.redbus.in) a great site for travelling across South India specially on a short notice and on our way back booked the Tatkal train tickets (www.irctc.co.in) on Hampi express (dep 19:55 Hospet) Whoa! So we were all set..with palmloads of printouts taken from the site (www.hampi.in) which we felt was highly accurate and had most of the information one may need to cruise across Hampi. It was undoubtedly a lot of fun, to venture out without any of the mandatory preplanning and hoopla. We set foot in the Hospet bus station ... read more
The great Chariot...
On our way to Vittala Temple
The mango tree restauarant

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 20th 2008

Goa fut un savoureux préliminaire à la découverte de l'Inde du sud. Un cocktail de courage, de soif d'aventure, de curiosité fut nécessaire pour nous remettre sur la route après 14 jours d'arrêt dans ce petit paradis. L'Inde du sud contraste nettement avec celle du nord. En plus de l'abondance de végétation, de rivières et de la faible densité de population en comparaison avec le nord, les "merveilleuses" odeurs de poissons viennent s'ajouter à l'amalgame déjà très chargée d'odeurs indiennes. La vaste variété de fruits saisonniers, mangues, bananes, ananas, papayes, pommes grenade, oranges, raisins et melon d'eau garnissent gaiement la facade de nombreux commerces. Ici, le paysage et les gens empruntent les allures, si caractéristique, de tous les pays tropicaux: l'atmosphère se détend, les pêcheurs font la siesta en attendant la pêche miraculeuse de fin de ... read more
Hampi, Karnataka, Inde
Hampi, Karnataka, Inde
Hampi, Karnataka, Inde

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 19th 2008

Helped chaperone a school trip to Hampi, and other temple sites in Karnataka.... read more
Palace detail
Palace well
Palace swimming pool

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 15th 2008

The ancient capital of the Vijayanagar Empire has a lot to offer to a lost soul as servidor, but never in my wildest dreams I was expecting to enter to Lara Croft's world in India. It is off season and there are no other tourists whatsoever. it is hot, as I have mentioned before, but hey! you can't have the cake and eat it too. ( can you?) I arrived on a dodgy bus to a dusty small , but very atmospheric village and got a really good deal on a hotel room overlooking the gopuram of the Virupaksha Temple. After I had my 67th thali, I set off to check out my surroundings. While peeking trough the glassless bus window I could tell that there are a lot of ruins just scattered around the place. ... read more
Hampi
Hampi
Lotus Mahal

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 5th 2008

Hello! How is everyone?? Been a while again. Not sure where the time goes over here. It just flies by from one wk to the next. All good though. Having a fantastic time. Last time I wrote, I was in Pondicherry. I only spent a few days there in the end. One of the days I cycled up to Auroville. That's an amazing place. It's got such a lovely peaceful feel about the place. I can see why people leave their everyday lives in the western world to go and live there. I think I mentioned volunteering there. It turned out, there were loads of opportunities doing various things, including forestry and replantation. I'd loved to have stayed and done that for a while, but they wanted people to stay a minimum of two weeks and ... read more

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 3rd 2008

I can't help but laugh at the insanity of Indian transport. Following our lengthy train journey from Agra to Goa (36.5 hours) we decided to try the bus. Thinking a sleeper bus with air con sounded rather comfortable we booked through a reputable travel agent for a trip from Goa to Hampi (about 9 hours) with the thought of National Express in our minds. Our thoughts couldn’t have been further from reality - we should have known better! The clapped out bus arrived a couple of hour’s late (India time) and boarding the bus was complete chaos. Only in India could seat numbers cause so much confusion. In the end we just sat where they put us, and as you can imagine there was no air con or toilet. Actually there were no seats. We were ... read more
A Bed On The Bus?
A Little Dangerous?

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi April 1st 2008

After a few days of relaxing in Goa, it was time for us to make our way inland to check out some ruins in the ancient city of Hampi. Trains out of Goa to Hampi filled up quick, so, we booked a spot on the next best thing…the sleeper bus. Our bus was scheduled to depart at 9:00, so, naturally it didn’t arrive until 11:45. After our decrepit chunk of transport arrived and we hopped onboard, it was clear rather quickly that we were facing a sleepless night. The bus barreled down potholed roads sending us airborne every so often and slamming us back down on the bed in various positions. Rozy and Nicole were sharing a double compartment, and, combinations of intermittent laughter and grunts of pain could be heard emanating from behind their burgundy ... read more
Busting Yoga moves
Rozy and Nicole
Badasses on bikes

Asia » India » Karnataka » Hampi March 27th 2008

We headed over to the ruins of Hampi - 14th century capital of one of the greatest empires of the world - are some of the most magnificent in all India; a world-heritage site strewn across a 26 mi. radius hidden amongst gigantic free-standing boulders. The main Hampi Bazaar or market has been re-inhabited by locals in the last few decades in pace with the growing tourism. We decided to stay away from the bustling market-side and across the Tungabhadra river, reachable only by a motorboat crossing which closes at 6pm everyday. Our first hotel was airy and lush, with manicured grounds overlooking large green rice plantations beneath the rock cliffs. We rented a motorbike for the stellar price of $2.50 a day and made our way back across the river to explore the ruins. We ... read more
Monkey exit
living icons
Lex, monkey, temple




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