Hampi: walking tour of the ruins

Strap on your shoes and get ready to see more temples than you ever thought possible in one day.

There are 2 areas of sights on the Hampi side of the river. One in Hampi heading northeast along the river and the other northwest of Kamalapura. It costs Rs. 500 for foreigners to get into the Elephant stables/Lotus Mahal and Vittala complex and I think the ticket is good for only one day.

We were out of cash as we didn't realize "pop" costs Rs. 220 and spent our last rupees on a few coldish ones to accompany a tasty pizza at the lovely Hema guest house while watching Darjeeling limited. This meant going first to Kamalapura to visit the State Bank of India ATM followed by breakfast next door. Beware, the scrambled eggs have sugar in them. From there we walked 1 km up the road to start out sighteeing tour.

1. Saraswvarti temple to Queen's bath
You can make a bit of a loop through a number of spots.

2. Rickshaw to Vittala complex
Negotiate on this. First guy asked Rs. 400 and said it was 10km, but only took 10-15mins.
Next guy stated at Rs. 200 and we talked him down to Rs. 100, which was still a bit much I'm guessing as it was just 5km. There is a cool gate on the way, so pop out for a photo.

3. Vittala complex

4. Walk back to Hampi along the river
Weekends seem to be laundry days, so a bunch of people are scrubbing away at the riverside. I asked one if I could take a photo and got a shake vs. bob of the head, so took that as a no.

5. Sunset on the island
In the center of the island is the sunset spot. If you like watching the sunset with throngs of people doing various activities from meditation to yoga to drinking beers to smoking joints to drinking chai or lemon juice trucked up the hill by children or gals strumming guitars singing hits such as "I loooovvvvee Indiaaaa" and "Do you have wi-fi?" then you are in the right spot.

Comments

Vizag: clean city by the sea

Visakhapatnam (or Vizag) wasn't on the radar. It is one of the cleanest places we'd been India. I had no idea it was a city in South East India or how to pronounce it. Only learned it existed because when we tried to get our boarding passes in the airport in Sri Lanka to come to India we needed to show an outbound flight. Walking across the boarder to Myanmar wasn't accepted. Next time will remember to book on a site that allows cancellation after 24 hours, but in the early morning panic that didn't happen. Then it turned out to be overly complicated and expensive to cross overland from India to Myanmar, so we decided to use the flights to Kuala Lumpur and come in from the South. Vizag was now in the itinerary. Get there We took a train from Puri to Khurda junction. And then transfered to a sleeper to Vizag. There is a waiting room in Khurda upstairs to charge phones and sit. Eat, drink, sleep - Sree residency was a great spot to sleep. It was cheaper online. G...

Konark and Puri: see the Sun temple

A site noted that the sun temple at Konark is in the top 10 architecturally. It was on the way to Vizag, so seemed like a good place to stop and boy was the temple impressive. Get in It's a 8 hour train ride from Kolkata to Puri. Arriving at 12am wasn't ideal as tuk tuk drivers were limited and many guest houses full or closed. Eat, drink, sleep - The Pink House is a relic from the 70s. I'm guessing the cockroach in the bathroom has been there that long as well based on its size. Rooms are very basic, somewhat clean, and ours along the walkway was loud. However for Rs. 600-800, you can't complain too much. We also had decent food there. What we did - Puri beach is sadly a mess. Children playing on the beach and using it as a toilet (you had to watch your step). There is trash all over, the only upside of which is the boys use the styrofoam to make boats. Dude asking for photo on the Puri beach. Children playing with self-made styrofoam boats ...

Bodhgaya: follow the Buddha's path to enlightenment

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that Bodhgaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment was just a 5 hour train ride from Varanasi. How pleasant to go walk in the footsteps of this seemingly kind and thoughtful man. Having not done much research, I wasn't sure what to expect. What we found was a religious center for Buddhists and Hindus around the world and a struggling town, working to make ends meet. Get in We took a train from Varanasi which was 2.5 hours late and got us in at 1 am. After spending 2.5 hours at the train station in Varanasi with a sore throat and stomach bug, we decided to use the various train tracking websites. Then you can get auto (Rs. 120-150 is what we bargained) to Bodhgaya. It seems possible to jump in a shared auto for maybe Rs. 10. Eat, drink, and sleep Buttshinji temple is associated with the Japanese temple and has rooms for a Rs. 800 donation for two. Supposedly they charge for wi-fi, but we weren't charged. The wi-fi is ridi...

Travel in India

Search This Blog