On my U.S.A travel - City life

From Washington D.C, we traveled by Chinese operated bus to New York. We reached the city of sky scrappers at 2a.m.

NEW YORK (9th July - 11th July)


The bus dropped us at Madison square garden. At that hour of night, there were very few people on the road. Walking few foot steps ahead, we reached the metro station. The station was huge and the network seems to connect all nooks & corners of the city. Initially, it took us a while to understand the right route to reach our hostel (Lafayette) in Brooklyn.

After a very good sleep on the clean sheets, we woke up all refreshed & set to roam in the city. We first went to New York tourism center to find out the interesting places to visit in New York. I was overwhelmed with the number of possible options and felt that I have too less time to spend in the city. We decided to go for some of the commonly visited places, instead of doing anything off-beat.

We started from Lower Mahanttan & visited Wall Street first. The buildings on the streets were sky tall & posed a challenge for Jomy to take a good photo of them. The streets were very busy, people walking up & down the street, no one acknowledging the presence of others. There were no false smiles, greetings between the passers by, which I found to be very normal (unlike other parts of U.S). There were street vendors, mostly Pakistanis selling Halal food, pretzels and sandwiches. I don't know of any other place in U.S where food is sold on streets. I was quite happy to see this and ordered halal food for myself & Jomy. We fed ourselves sitting in a park along the side of Wall Street. I felt absolutely relaxed, sitting there without any worry & watching people passing by.

From there, we moved on to other places like Statue of Liberty, China town, Cathedrals, Empire State building, Central park etc. Central park was huge (~800 acres) - We didn't bother to walk a lot there. We found a nice landscape & made ourselves comfortable there.

Late in the night, we went to top of the Rockefeller building to catch the view of the lighted city - The view of Mahanttan skyline from there was astounding. I have never seen a city to be so beautiful before. We spent our time here till midnight and then planned to check out the night life at Times Square. Oh my god, even at 2A.M in the morning, there were so many people on the streets. The square was very well lit with huge colourful ad boards and the place was lively.

On the next day, we went to Times Square again. The place was really crowded and we tried to walk on the other nearby streets. Around this area, we found lots & lots of arts & entertainment theatres. There were so many shows going on every day in the city and found it to be opulent in arts & entertainment. Later in the day, we had our dinner in Hard Rock Cafe at Times square which I always wanted to go. The place was wonderful, with very good ambiance & music. After treating our belly well, we decided to call off for the day & took the metro to the hostel.

I found this city to be very interesting and to have many aspects which was missing in most of the U.S cities. I tried to relate it to my experience in Mumbai and could find similarities in many ways. I loved this city and I wish that I had few more days to spend here, in New York. But, the time had come for me to say Ciao to U.S and be back in Bangalore.

Ciao U.S.A...

On my U.S.A travel - Niagara & Washington D.C

After taking an overnight flight from Salt Lake City, we reached Buffalo International Airport to see the world famous Niagara falls.

NIAGARA FALLS (7th Jun)

We reached Buffalo airport around 11:30 a.m, hour & a half later than the scheduled time. Our rental car booking got canceled due to late arrival! After enquiry at the information center, we came to know about NFTA - NFTA provides good bus transportation in Niagara county and it charges only $3 for 25 miles drive to the falls.

The bus stopped at a very short walking distance from HI hostel located in a really olden part of downtown. This area seemed to be once a wealthy place, now occupied by not the well to-do families. May be the houses were passed to them second or third hand without any thought of renovating them.

We reached the hostel earlier than the actual check-in time (4 p.m to 6 p.m). So, we had to leave our luggage in the common area. We refreshed ourselves in the common rest area and started walking towards the falls. As we approached near the falls, there was a drastic change in the surroundings. There were quite some Punjabi dhabas with plenty of Indians around. In the near by parks, we could see Indian families relishing their home packed foods. It felt like without any warning, we were flung out of U.S and suddenly ended up in India! Anyway, we walked further towards the falls.

When my first sight fell on the falls, I was not greatly excited looking at the world's second largest waterfall. Yeah, it was king-sized. But, it didn't immediately arouse any great interest. I was wondering if anything was wrong with me! Still wondering about that, we purchased tickets for the historical "Maid of the Mist" boat ride. As the boat took off, I felt that this trip would be a great experience (don't know why!). Once the boat moved for some short distance, we could vividly see the voluminous falls from its base. As we approached closer, the roar of the falls became louder and strong winds were gushing. The wind brought lots of water and it felt like I was touching the falls.



The Niagara falls has three sections - American Falls, Bridal Veil and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The Canadian falls was probably 3 times bigger than the American falls and was much more beautiful. The boat ride was a wonderful experience and I was soaked with water. Feeling the monstrous falls from below it felt like really awesome. That was the moment, I realized the beauty & greatness of this place and found what was wrong with me then! I can embrace nature by being part of it, feeling it and not by merely observing it from far :)

Late in the evening, we once again went to the falls to enjoy the night view. The route to the falls from our hostel is through the olden town area. We were quite unsure of the safety as there were many strange looking people in the streets. But, some families were spending their evening time in their balconies (so unusual of U.S) and that gave us a slight sense of relief. They looked amicable and kind of greeted us into their streets with a smile.

At the night, the falls is lit with different colors of light. Red, blue, green, white, yellow etc. and that makes the night view very special here.

In the morning, we started towards the airport to catch our flight to Baltimore near Washington D.C.

WASHINGTON D.C (8th Jun)

A whole day of visiting U.S monuments was right in front of us. We visited White house museum, Washington Monument, State Capitol and various Congress buildings. Also, we could see White house from the fence(!) Washington D.C was full of administrative buildings and our legs were damn tried walking from one place to other.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

In the afternoon, we chose to visit Holocaust Museum. This is a living memorial of the past and it includes details about Nazi assault, Rise of Hitler to power, fate of Jews when Hitler was in power, final end to all of these misery. It had lots of articles like clothes, shoes and other quintessential which were used by people during that miserable time. There was also an actual rail car which was used for transporting Jews all over from Europe to Ghettos, concentration camps and killing centers. I sensed helplessness and deprivation of hope when I entered into it.

Along the hall way, there were photos of hundreds & hundreds of Jews who had been killed by Nazi tyranny. At several places, there were videos on genocide & antisemitism committed by Nazis. One of the videos on genocide deeply bothered me and still bothers when I think of it. It was the fact about German doctors using Jews for their research - It was like using Guinea Pigs for research in laboratory. Most of the Jews used in those research became mentally retarded, died miserably. The sight of it was dreadful.

I must say that very high quality of research must have gone through in bringing up this museum and also a very great care is taken in arranging the facts & evidences. Unbelievably all the evidences there stood with full of life (death?) when I was amongst it. I am not a first timer to all these Holocaust facts. But, the way the whole museum is set up took me to the miserable 1930/40's.

At the end of the exhibition, tears were rolling down from some people's eyes. At that moment, I felt strong and bold, weak & vulnerable at the same time...

On my U.S.A travel - Nature & Wildlife at Yellowstone

After a long drive of 350 miles from Salt Lake City, we reached West Yellow Stone around 2 a.m. Drive with Murano was very comfortable through out the trip and we were not tired at all.

YELLOW STONE (3rd Jun to 5th Jun)

We planned our visit to this park a month back and booked Madison Hotel - This is a historic hotel built with wood. On the night of reaching yellow stone, we reached the hotel around 2 a.m since we had earlier missed our flight from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. They had kept the back door open just for us and informed us of the secret place where they had placed our room keys. The hotel folks were very helpful and friendly and I loved our stay here. The hotel is very close to West YellowStone entrance and is in a beautiful small village. We throughly enjoyed our stay here as much as we enjoyed our visit to Yellow Stone.

The next morning, we visited Yellow stone national park. It is one of the most beautiful national park I have ever visited. It is rich in diverse beauty - It had extraordinary Geysers, Hot Springs, Scenic mountains, lakes and good extent of wild life with Grizzly bears, Wolves, Elks, Bison. It also has a Grand Canyon, which we couldn't see since the roads were closed for reconstruction.

NATURE & WILDLIFE

At the first sight of Yellow Stone, I was thrilled at the beauty I saw. A beautiful flowing river in the middle of a lush green forest next to snow capped mountains. I have always imagined this scene & it was right in front of me. I thought it was a great beginning for my 3 day visit to this park. Immediately, I got lucky! At far sight, I spotted couple of wolves running into the forest.

This place has hugeee valleys - Lamar & Hayden. We visited Lamar valley which is the northern most part of this national park. Lamar valley is very rich in wildlife and in the hope of spotting them, we went there close to sunset. It was a long drive to the valley and along the way, we spotted lots of Bison & Elk. All the way, I was hoping for a Bear or a Wolf to cross the road! :) We also saw many wildlife enthusiasts, waiting for hours to spot Bears & Wolves. Most of them carried best in world class binoculars for wildlife spotting. We just believed our naked eyes. I know this is not the best practice. But, I don't own any of those. Anyway, coming back to what exactly I want to say, we were struck by luck. Next to the road, we saw an Elk & a Wolf fighting. A lone wolf tried to attack an Elk. The Elk knowing that only a pack of wolf can be of threat to it, started to charge the wolf. It was an enthralling experience to me. Check out the short video on this (Quality is not good!)



By now, the night had fallen and we started our way back to our hotel. We crossed a high altitude pass which was covered with snow only a week back. The road had been cleared and both the sides were covered with decently high snow walls. Suddenly, the weather got worse and it started snowing. Driving through the snow became difficult and were not sure if our Murano could handle it well. Jomy drove very cautiously at 10 Mph and managed to get out of the pass safely. If only the snowfall had been heavier, we would have got stuck in the pass with no help!



From that night, for the next 2 days, the weather was cloudy. Now & then, sun rays peeked between the clouds and it brought some smile on our face. But, the place was gorgeous and never missed to allure me with its charm. There were several beautiful lakes inside the park and unarguably, Yellowstone Lake was the best. It measures about 135 Sq miles! As the end of winter season brought out sun, we also saw a lake which finally gave up its frozen state.


GEYSERS & HOTSPRINGS

An irresistible attraction of this place is its Stunningly coloured Geysers, Bubbling Mudpots, Hissing Fumaroles & Hot Springs. I have never seen this kind of beauty and it was glorious. This place comprises of more than 10,000 thermal features and in fact, it is about two-third of what is found in the world. The Geyser basins were spread through out the park and offered a great exploration of geothermal features.

The thermal features are at such high temperature that only thermophilic bacterial & algae growth are possible. There were large hot pools which radiated brilliant colors of deep blue & emerald green. The fine particles of silica settled in the water and the intensity of sun rays produced baby blue to deep blue colors. Some of them have orange or yellow colored outline formed by sulphur settlement. I could see other colors like black, dark green which were primarily formed by the algae & bacteria growth.


Many of the geysers here were small, just sputtering & splashing hot water to a height of 10 to 15 feet. It was said that their erupting times are unpredictable. Some of the geysers even have stopped erupting or dead due to human vandalism. Earlier, visitors used to throw coins onto geysers like wishing wells and this had blocked vents of the geysers. Some of the geysers, still managed to find new vents and they are still alive!

There are few Grand geysers which are huge and erupts really high. One of them erupts at regular intervals of 45 to 90mins and is accordingly named as "Old faithful". This can erupt upto a height of 100 feet or so. I watched this erupting continuously for more than 4 minutes. I have edited 4 mins video to 40 sec video. Check it out.



Geothermal features here were splendid, eye-catching and radiant. I was mesmerized by this overwhelming beauty. You can see some of their pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/YellowStoneGrandTeton

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK (6th Jun)

After spending 3 full days at Yellow Stone, we visited Grand Teton national park for a day. In winter, the mountains of Grand Teton is very popular for Skiing. We were here at the end of winter, but the mountains were still full of snow. Large population of Moose is found here and we were informed that it is relatively easy to spot them in this park. I think we had ran out of all our luck - We did not find any. We spent most of the day driving the entire stretch of this amazingly beautiful park.

The same evening, from Grand Teton we drove back to Salt Lake City, to catch our flight to Buffalo, to see the famous Niagara Falls. Check my next posting for rest of my trip update...

On my U.S.A travel - Nature & People

After a month long planning on our travel, the day (30th May) came for us to pack our bags and experience it. I started the day with great excitement of traveling to some of my favorite places in U.S.A. We bid Au revoir to Dallas and boarded our flight to Phoenix in our trademark style. Inspite of our careful(?) planning, we ended up in a mad rush to the airport and managed to board the flight just on time. Once I got seated, I felt a great relief and immediately went to sleep (We were awake packing till 4a.m earlier in the morning). When I woke up, I saw miles & miles of desert below me. It was El Paso, New Mexico. In an hour's time, we reached Phoenix, Arizona.

In Phoenix, we picked up the rental car from Enterprise and headed towards Flagstaff (140 miles), our base station for visiting Grand Canyon. In the first few miles, there were lots of hugeee cacti on the road side. They were more than 30 feet tall & reasonably thick. Cacti slowly started to show up less and the road side was full of green shrubs. In sometime, the shrubs became trees and we were surrounded by pine trees. The outside temperature dropped too soon and it became cold. The landscape changed drastically in just 2 hrs - From a desert to a beautiful hill station.

We reached De Beau International Hostel where we had booked our lodging. We had a private room - The hostel had a very clean common kitchen & dining. We love to meet travelers going around the world and international hostels are the hub. As we approached our room, I met a Spaniard lady. While talking, she mentioned that she really admires black hair and adores wheatish complexion of Indians. She thinks Aishwarya Rai is the most beautiful women in the world and not Angelina Jolie as the Americans believe!

After relaxing for a while in our room, we decided to take a stroll along the streets. We enquired about the best cafe at the reception and we were guided to the near-by Macy's coffee house. We ordered a double shot cafe mocha. Jomy thoroughly enjoyed the coffee and I enjoyed the place.

GRAND CANYON

The next morning, we drove to Grand Canyon from Flagstaff. The moment I set my eye on the grand canyon, I was thrilled to see the mammoth canyon with huge cliffs and rocks. Minutes later, I found mile-high cliffs, gorgeous gorges and the vastness of the canyon. Later, I understood that the canyon is spread over 277 miles and the deepest point is about 6000 feet deep!

No photo, no painting, no imagination (is it only mine?) or all of these together can ever capture the picturesque nature that I saw here. You got to be here to feel the amazing work of the nature. To really enjoy the surpassing beauty this place has, I think it is just not sufficient to be here - Only tough hike and wild river rafting can guide to base of some of the most beautiful gorges. As I couldn't do any of these this time, I decided to watch the short documentary film "Grand Canyon : The Hidden Secrets" which took me through the nature's awesome beauty. This film gave a unique chance to explore the immense beauty at the canyon depths. It took me through a thrilling flight over the entire canyon stretch. The most interesting part was the river rafting - Exact replica of the wooden boat used by John Powell during his expedition in 1869 was used. John Powell was a one armed civil war veteran who delved into the canyon through the Colorado river.

After wandering for the whole day in the jumbo canyon, my legs were tired and needed rest. I rested at the brink of the canyon admiring the geological wonder of this stupendous place. I was looking at the rocks which could have been formed 1800 million years to 270 million years ago. I was overwhelmed by the ancientness of this place and sat there till the sun set.

Apart from seeing the canyon from the easily accessible view points, we also hiked to few places. It was a very quick and easy descend. While descending, we could see very beautiful plateaus, gorges and some wild flowers & cacti. We also saw the ice age fossils at Cedar Ridge.

On our way back to FlagStaff, we somehow ended up taking a different route. We weren't sure if the route was correct. The fuel in the car was less than quarter tank (we didn't know the fuel capacity of the newly rented car ;)). We did some rough calculations and were falling short by few miles to the nearest town. We were in the middle of Coconino national forest and there were no signs of any help. No 911 either since the phone battery had drained completely earlier. We were fully prepared for sleeping in the car in the middle of the forest :) I felt it was really interesting and was also worried at the same time. Knowing that nothing much can be done, left the worries behind and enjoyed the moment. Jomy started driving at an optimal speed to save petrol. But, the fuel tank warning alarm started to ring. Just at the nick of the time, we came across Shell gas station. Oh my god, it felt like a movie where all the sequences were rightly planned. Things fell in place at the right moments!

SHORT TIME AT SEDONA

After 2 days in Grand Canyon, we drove to Sedona, on our way back to Phoenix. We just had half a day in Sedona and went to information centre to find out the best places we could see within that time. The lady at the information centre mentioned about a promotional offer given by a resort - The offer was a free helicopter tour of Sedona. We were so excited hearing that. Wait! There was a catch! We needed to take the resort tour of 90mins. Again, we did a rough calculation and found that we didn't have sufficient time. Unwillingly, but with no choice, we said no to the tempting offer and moved on to see a chapel in Sedona.

The chapel was built in between two huge red rocks at a very good height. The place was just beautiful and the chapel was very peaceful. After relaxing for a while here, we drove towards Phoenix. On our way, I wanted to take pictures of the huge cactus. I was obsessed with them and we spent some considerable time there. When we reached Phoenix, we got delayed and missed our flight to Salt Lake City :) But, anyway, we got tickets in the next flight.

We reached Salt Lake City around 7:30p.m and hired a 2009 Nissan Murano for our 350 miles drive to Yellow Stone. It is a crossover with 3.6 litre (6 cylinder) engine with 265 bhp. Hurray!! I was so excited about driving this huge & powerful vehicle!

I am stopping here for now...Rest of the trip update in my next posting...

You can see photos of this trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/GrandCanyonSedona

Exploring Heritage Karnataka

My first ever posting on my travelogue. Having made quite a few traveling in the last few years, the time had just come to post my first one. Got the draft written at the end of 2007 and I am posting it after some minor refinements only now! I was quite determined to post this, not having to worry about the way I have written it.

20th Dec – 24th Dec 2007

An enticing long weekend was approaching and I couldn’t just let it pass by. I marked in my mind that I want to travel somewhere, but where? Only one thing was clear – No beach. Only two weeks back, I was enjoying sea at Baindur (one of konkan beaches) with banana ride, rappelling, floating in the sea, watching dolphins jump and gazing at stars in the night lying on the beach. I want to cherish these memories for some more time. So, I decided it is time for some other kind of trip.

After a very long stare at India map, I looked at places to visit in MP, Orissa and other eastern states for two days. Finally, on 20^th morning, we (myself & Jomy) decided to backpack to Hampi! A big question remained – Will we get bus/train tickets? We were lucky to get KRSTC Rajahamsa tickets for the night and we were all set.

At Kempe Gowda Bus Terminus

Me & Jomy reached Kempe Gowda bus terminus, and as usual rushed towards the platform. We managed to reach there just on time, but the bus hadn’t arrived. We needed to check with at the least 3 conductors to come to this state of understanding. All the bus had the writings in Kannada, which we don’t have any clue of. So, every time a bus entered some where close to the platform, we ended up checking with some conductor near-by. Carefully ensured that we were not bothering the same conductor again & again! After sometime, we found a guy (Bijoy, whose name we found out later) who can read Kannada & was also boarding the same bus. Called ourselves lucky, we just followed him when the bus came.

After 45mins of waiting, the bus arrived. We boarded the bus around 12:30a.m – Our seats were at the last but one row & we jumped up & down gazillion times before we reached Hampi. I think the driver hated pressing the brake – He didn’t even consider pressing the brake even when the wheels hit the speed breaker. With very little sleep over the night, we reached Hampi around 9a.m.

Stepping into Hampi

As soon as we stepped down the bus, we were swarmed by guides who were ready to take us to the guest house nearby. We first wanted a good cup of coffee. So, we slipped through them & settled on a wooden bench of a small chai shop. Sipping our coffee, we went through Lonely Planet’s recommended guest houses. We found ‘Sudha Guest house’ which was tagged as a ‘Gem’ by our guide and decided to check out the place. After reaching there, we found out that Sudha Guest house might have been a Gem 2 years back (Lonely Planet Edition ‘10th Edition - Aug 2003’). We didn’t like the place & moved on to a different guest house. The place we finally chose was very cute, had a small garden in the front.

Historic temples in Hampi

After relaxing for a while, we began our exploration in Hampi. We planned to visit all temples, rather ruins of temple on the first day. We first went to Virupaksha temple, which was just 5 mins walk from our guest house. This temple has 2 towers, each build by 2 different kings. As we entered the first tower, a temple elephant welcomed us. We spend about 2 hours in this temple taking photographs.

Later in the day, we visited temple ruins in Hampi – Badavi Linga, Ugra Narasimha, Krishna temple. Hampi was once the capital of Vijayanagara dynasty and now it has the empire ruins spread over 26Sq Kms. Towers of Krishna temple is completely ruined. They have used bricks as the basic building block & used limestone based material to do the intricate work. The Krishna temple had a very beautiful pond (on the other side of the road). When we went there, there was only one man who was painting the scenery. The place was very peaceful & very beautiful as well. We relaxed for a while and enjoyed the tranquility of this place.

After sometime, we went to another historic temple “Vittala”. We had to walk quite a long distance to reach this place. We could have taken an auto/taxi, but it is typical of us doing things this way. This temple has a huge stone chariot carved out of monolithic rock. I think it is unique to this place and was very beautiful. We enjoyed this place till sunset & called off the exploration for the day.

Matanga Hill

Next morning, we hiked to the top of Matanga hill to get the overview of the nature that this small town inherits. This town has vibrant history hidden in the ruins. I could see thousands of pillars! We hiked down the hill before it started to become sunny. After a very good breakfast in the town, we hired a kinetic Honda for the sight seeing to the ruined palace.

Vijayanagara palace

There were too many spots to be visited in the palace. Maharaja’s palace, his temple, his swimming pool, his queen’s palace, his people bath house, his auditorium, his public gathering etc. Each & every stone in that place belonged to him. I really liked the architecture of “Pushpakarni”. The heat was taking its toll on me and I was getting tired. The wonderful stone carved temples gave me a very good shelter from heat.

Late evening story in Badami

Later in the evening, we planned to go to Badami. We had to take multiple buses to reach this place. We had to once again go through the business of checking with multiple people to ensure that we have boarded the right bus. After all the hassle, we ended up at Badami very late in the night. It was around 11p.m. This was a very small town and we expected to get lodging easily. To our surprise, all the lodgings were completely full due to some temple festival the next day morning. The auto driver took us to almost all hotels and we couldn’t find any. He mentioned that he can take us to one of his friends’ place & we can stay over there. We weren’t sure at all. It looked very unreal & we weren’t sure at all. He was too nice to us and he was offering his friend’s place. My manipulative mind was always trying to tell me that don’t go by his words. I was asking too many questions to him – Why are you not taking us to your place? Wouldn’t your friend have any problem? What about his family? And many more. He had a perfect answer to all these questions which didn’t convince us really. He finally said, I will take you there & if you like it you can stay there. My heart believed in the goodness this world has and trusted that this man might have some. So, we went to his friend’s house at 12’0 clock in the night. His friend is also an auto driver. All his family was awake and watching T.V. We were extremely uncomfortable to step our foot into some stranger’s house at midnight! But, the family made us feel really comfortable - His father, mother, wife and his son. All of them greeted us happily and they showed no signs of animosity to receive strangers at that time in the night. They gave us coffee and gave the key of their other house in the neighboring all for us. We were terrificly surprised – We had a great night sleep. It was a unique experience and I was immensely moved by the love & care shown by them. I would never ever forget this in my life & I would always remember that there is still lot of goodness in the world.

Pattadakal, Aihole, Badami

For our day sight seeing, we hired his auto and he was our guide. His son also joined us in the site-seeing! We explored the rich vibrant architectural history of Pattadakal, the once capital of Chalukya dynasty. Then, it was an experimental place for different styles of temple architecture. It has both Dravidian and Aryan styles and Papanatha temple which is mix of both. It also had group of Jain temples. The place is very rich in sculptures.

We then visited Aihole, a small village full of temples. This was another experimental place during Chalukyas period. Here, I saw more temples than houses!

In the evening, we visited the cave temples in Badami. There were four caves - one decidated to Shiva, two decidated to Vishnu and one to Jainism belief. The sculptures here were huge and was very beautiful. But, the place was over crowded and we couldn’t really explore as much we would have wanted to.

Later in the evening, we took bus to the next big town Gadag and halted for the night there. The next day, we did nothing but taking rest in Gadag. In the evening, we reached Hampi to take our bus back to Bangalore.

Mango Tree

Earlier in the day, a friend of mine (Roop) had mentioned about a restaurant called “Mango Tree” and said it is in the middle of banana plantation. We were immediately interested and decided to be there for our dinner. The place was just awesome. The restaurant was set under a huge Mango tree, at the side of Tungabadra river bank. The seating is the lay-back kind. With the moon light being perfect that night, we could see the flowing river water sitting under the mango tree. We thoroughly enjoyed this place and this is a must visit in Hampi. I really didn’t want to leave this place that night!

The End

After this beautiful dinner, we reached the bus stand to only find that the bus wouldn’t come to Hampi for some reason (No information nothing, we found out from the locals). Then, we took an auto at 11p.m in the night & rushed to Hospet to catch the last bus to Bangalore. After enquiring in the Hospet bus station, we found that KSTRC cancelled the service from Hampi for that night. We were extremely shocked to know they didn’t bother to notify their passengers. Atleast, a poster or something of that sort in the Hampi bus stand would have helped! Anyway, we found bus from Hospet to Bangalore and reached without any trouble from there.