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.