I won’t bore you with too much detail of
the history of Hampi (you will find that on other blogs and Wikipedia) ,
however I just want to emphasize on why they are called “Ruins of Hampi”.
For around 2 centuries when the emperors of
south India, ruled the Vijayanagara empire, many temples were built. In the
early 14th century the armies of the Delhi Sultanate, particularly
that of Alluddin Khalji (yes, the same,Padmaavat villain 😃) and Muhammad bin Tughlaq plundered the city and made sure that the places of worship, along with all the statues of Gods and Goddesses are destroyed, so that they will not be worshiped any more.
Thus, Hampi became “The town of ruins”.
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| Ruins, ruins everywhere! |
Ever since Hampi was declared a World UNESCO heritage site, tourism has boomed. Yet, the area has remained rooted to the ancient times because of limited resources.
There are 2 sides to Hampi, the traditional, orthodox side, where all the temples and ruins are built and the other side, across the Tungabhadra river, Virupapura Gaddi, popularly known as “The hippie island”.
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| Tungabhadra river, across which is the "Hippie Island"! |
While the hippie island is colourful, lively, modern and happening, the temple town seems to help Hampi as a whole to balance and have a mix of modern and ancient cultures.
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| Vibrant |
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| Some Traditions! |
On the Hippie Island, there are a lot of shacks where you can sit and relax the entire day. Grab a glass of beer and even try some non- veg dishes, both of which are not available on the temple side. I would suggest Laughing buddha, Gouthami resort and Nargila (for the night) to hangout, have beer and try some multi cuisine delicacies.
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| Restaurant at Gouthami Guest house! So colourful 😍 |
You can choose from mopeds, cycles, bikes, any other 2 wheeler or if you are in a big gang of 8 or above I would suggest hiring an auto and sitting in the boot space for a humpy ride (pun intended 😁 ) to tour the hippie side of this heritage site.
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| Auto Rides FTW!! |
Some of the places you can visit is the sanapura lake to take a dip in the lake and experience a coracle ride, visit the waterfalls (which we missed out on since it is summer and there was hardly any water) and do not miss sunset at the Hanuman Temple which is 600 steps high on the Anjana Parvat. This place is also believed to be the birth place of Lord Hanuman. Reaching the temple does take a lot of effort, but it’s a 100% worth the arduous work!
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| Sanapur Lake |
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| Anjana Parvat |
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| The sunset from atop Anjana Parvat |
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| Hanuman Temple (Anjana Parvat) |
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| A floating stone, believed to be from the Ramayan era! |
On the traditional and orthodox side there are a number of palaces and temples to visit. Out of these, the Monolithic Narasimha, Ganesh and Shiv ling, the Vijaya Vittala temple which also houses the musical pillars and the famous stone chariot, and the best of all, the only functioning temple from ancient times which has not been ruined or destroyed – Virupaksha temple, stand out.
Blessed🙏
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| Some more ruins! |
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| Monolithic Narasimha statue! |
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| Virupaksha Temple |
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| The ruined Vijaya Vittala Temple |
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| More ruins 😂 |
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| Monolithic Shiv ling! |
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| The Stone chariot! 😍😍 |
Some of the restaurant staff are a bit rude and give a lot of preference to foreigners, but in general the people of Hampi are extremely warm and courteous. Here are 2 instances when we witnessed the helpful nature of the local people.
- We lost one of our room keys, but an absolute stranger, kept it safe and gave it back to us after almost an hour of misplacing it.
- The auto driver we hired on the Temple side was also a gem of a person who knew we had a shortage of cash and lent us Rs 3k which we paid him back once we found an ATM Hospet, from where we had to catch our trains.
Hampi Travel tips:
- Where to stay? - If you are not going on a long weekend, you will easily find accommodation on the hippie island. Rates are reasonable and rooms are decent. We stayed at Gouthami guest house. We booked 3 rooms for 1 night and 1 room for 3 nights. We were charged, Rs 3800.Ph no: 085332 87010 , 076768 7987
- Carry Odomos or if possible, mosquito nets to keep yourself from dengue/malaria.
- The sun rays in Hampi are very harsh, there are hardly any trees to take shelter under when you go sight seeing on the temple side. So to avoid dehydration, carry lots of water.
- Dot no miss getting blessed by an elephant at the Virupaksha temple.
- Laughing Buddha is probably the only cafe that oversees the the Tungabhadra river. I would suggest to not miss visiting the cafe.
- There are absolutely no ATMs up to 10KM of radius, so carry sufficient cash as the food and alcohol ( if available at that time ) are more expensive than normal.
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| Fungi pasta!! 😋 |
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| Italian Baked Chcken! YUMMMM!!😍😋 |
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| Nargila! |
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| On the way to Sanapura Lake |
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| Ruins, once again! |
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| Inside the Virupaksha temple 🙏 |
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| Another view of the Virupaksha temple! |
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| Kudremukha Mantapa! |
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| And finally, some more ruins 😅 |
With the best company I could ever ask for, decent food and accommodation, Hampi has filled me with memories to last me a lifetime. Looking forward to visiting this historical town soon on a weekend getaway from the hectic and monotonous life in the city!
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| Peace! ✌ |
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Picture credits(for a few of the pictures): Avijit Jain, Kumar Biplav, Tushar Garg, Vaibhav Awasthi.
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