The Land of Yesteryear

The village of Hampi is situated near the ruins of 15th century city Vijayanagar which was one of the largest Hindu Empires in Indian history. The region covered 650sq kilometeres and was populated with five hundred thousand people. The bazaars back then were busy with international merchants plying the lucrative Gem Stone trade. In short, it had it going on! That was of course until 1565 when the Deccan sultanates raided the place and it then went into terminal decline. What is now left of all this, plus its reputation for being chilled out, is why Hampi is a must for many visitors here. It was declared a World Heritage site in 86.
We arrived in the afternoon and checked into a fairly grotty little place in the Hampi main bazaar. We were pretty tired out from our early start and train journey so we just walked down to a place called the Mango Tree which had been recommended to us by someone in Goa. It’s a nice little spot to have a bite and a drink.

The view from here was damn fine in itself, but it wasn’t until we got out and about that we realised just how unique the landscape is. More on that in a bit.

The following day (after our arrival) we decided to take a look around for some other places to stay. This is the usual tactic; stay one day somewhere and then suss out the surroundings and see if there is anywhere else that is preferable. We had read that the better places to stay were across the river from Hampi itself in a place called Virupapur Gaddi. We paid the extortionate 10 rupees each to get across in a small boat (trust us, 10 rupees is a complete rip off!!), and headed along the main track dipping in and out of various guest houses. Both the value and location far excelled that of the main bazaar, and we found a place in particular that tickled our fancy right at the end of the track. The Shanti Guest House afforded us great views across rice fields, rivers and of course boulders.

As time was getting on we decided to stay one more night in the place we were in and then move across to the other side of the river the next morning.

After a fairly poor breakfast at a German Bakery, (most of the bakeries here are German and crap. Vor sprung don’t do bakeries), we took the robbery boat across the river and got checked in at Shanti. It was then, as we trundled to our bungalow, that we saw a familiar face poking round a door way. It was a Japanese guy called Ken, who we had met on a remote island in Sulawesi last year! Ken, who used to edit a rock magazine and is a bit of a dark horse to say the least, is the same guy that we shared a cabin with during the roughest boat journey ever way back in August! This was quite a coincidence. We were all very surprised but also very pleased to see each other. We have not met anyone at one point, and then bumped into them again after such time and in places so far apart geographically. All this and he was in the bungalow right next door to ours!

So, we had a welcome friend for a couple of days and we decided to spend some time together and do some sightseeing.
Ken had suggested that we should rent some push bikes and go exploring. We didn’t actually make much head way on the exploring front, but what we did see knocked our socks off. After choosing our chariots (I ended up with the pink girls bike of course!)......

...we set off towards the Hanuman Temple (monkey temple) which is situated 500 steps up on top of a hill. To look at, the hills and landscape here are like no other we have seen. The hills are basically huge piles of boulders ranging from fist size to that of the size of an elephant or four. Put all this alongside lush green banana plantations, rice paddies and ancient stone ruins in the form of bridges, temples and old bazaars and you have something quite magical......

We screeched to a halt at the base of the hill and chilled with a cup of tea before our ascent.

When all snaps were taken (i.e. when Dipi was ready).........

..... we headed up the steps towards the temple. Now shamefully we can’t tell you anything about the temple itself as it was simply ignored once we were smacked in the face by the breathtaking views! We took a few snaps and tried to take it all in.....

We were considering our descent when we spotted some other travellers perched up on some rocks beyond some NO ENTRY signs, so we decided to ignore the signs and head round towards them. The view was actually better here so we sat for a while and tried to imagine what it was like in the 15th Century and during the monsoon (we were speculating on how high the river could get by looking at the old bridge ruins).

After some time we again considered our descent. We then heard some cries for help and realised that a couple of girls were being harassed by some of the monkeys just out of view over some other boulders. We got up to have a sneak look and thought that we should probably vacate as there were quite a few monkeys around. We had a closer look and realised that the boulders carried on further round and along for some distance. There were many more people perched on these rocks looking out towards the setting sun!


We thought we were being quite naughty by sitting where we had been! Anyway, we ditched the descent idea again and headed off across the rocks. Is it possible that the view was even more spectacular?? Damn right it was. As we walked out over the brow of the boulders the view opened up in front of us and it was quite an emotional moment.
Uncannily, someone asked me in an e mail today ‘how could you describe Hampi?’ which got me thinking. I guess the best I could say is that Hampi looks like the gods themselves have emptied out their pockets of stones and pebbles, and scattered them around rice and banana plantations in huge piles. Snaking through the pocket pickings and greenery are shimmering river and irrigation systems that breathe life into every low lying nook and cranny. Scattered around you have the brilliantly carved stone ruins of a long gone culture which catapults your mind to yesteryear as you try to picture life way back when. In all it is a majestic and breathtaking sight.
The photos don’t really do it justice, so you will just have to take our word for it.

After a while of sitting in silence, and before it got too dark (no lights on the bikes here!), we finally decided to make our descent.

We were all completely stunned by the experience and what a knock out surprise to us it was. With the thoughts and images of the day in our minds we cycled back to the ranch and spent the evening chatting, eating good Thalis and enjoying the good life.

The next day Ken was due to leave. We said our goodbyes and waved him off as he headed off up the track to continue his Indian adventure. It was really good to see him again and to get to know him properly this time round. As it turns out we discovered that we had all been at the same party on yet another island in Indonesia, so no doubt we will bump into each other again at some point or another!!


We were only supposed to stay in Hampi for a couple of days. I think we actually spent around 5 days there. It would seem it’s another one of those places that is quite difficult to leave. During the rest of our time we spent quite a while relaxing and taking it easy, which was great.


In amongst the chilling out, we had a day out walking through the old ruins and temples that Hampi is famed for. It was interesting to see it from the ground and look up at the monkey temple instead of the other way round.

For us it was the most enjoyable non-working temple/ ruins experience so far in India. The ruins have such an amazing atmosphere and if you squint a little and use your imagination you can really picture and feel the hustle and bustle of the old bazaars and temples.

We got a little lost on the way back, which gave us the chance to sit around in a few spots and take in the views.


We then hit the Royal Centre, which is a collection of old buildings and what have you. The ones in particular we wanted to see where the Lotus Temple, The Elephant Stables, the Queens Bath and the Step Well. After negotiating with a rickshaw driver we set off. The deal we had with the driver was that he would wait for us whilst we were walking around the sights and cart us around to the various places in between. So he dropped us at our first stop which was to see the Lotus Temple

and Elephant Stables.

After exiting this area we jumped into the Auto and said to the guy to take us to our next stop. Without argument the moustachioed driver sped off in the direction of the other area. We hopped out and started to walk towards a temple when we heard this beeping and shouting coming up the road. Tearing along the track at a rate of knots was our original rickshaw driver!! We had jumped into the wrong Auto and, without questioning the two weird tourists, the second guy just got on with it and drove us to where we wanted to go to. Seriously, sometimes it is hard to tell the Indians apart. All dark, all with moustaches, all driving rickshaws........ But shamefully for us the rickshaw we got into first was twice the size of the second one!! Plus our first guy had a bright pink tank top on with ‘England’ written across it. Pretty distinct really!! This provided all and one with a right laugh. We paid the second guy 10 rupees as we all fell about laughing.
With our thoughts collected and our embarrassment fading, we could now concentrate on what was left of the sightseeing.

When done at the Step Well we managed to get in the right rickshaw and ended up safely back in Hampi without any more confusing moments.


Dipi had intended on doing some rock climbing whilst in Hampi. On enquiring she found out that it wasn’t rock climbing at all, but something called bouldering. This entails clambering up huge boulders without any safety ropes and just a crash mat at the rock base to break any fall. Given that I don’t enjoy climbing WITH safety ropes, she was on her own on this one!! Plus she had booked it for first thing in the morning, so that sealed any involvement on my part.

Of course she came back buzzing and said that she had a great time. I think we have a budding rock climber in our midst.
That day we were just about spent (but not entirely ready to go) when we took the robbery boat across the river for the last time. We ate in a local place that did demon Thalis before heading off on a local bus to the bus station. We had an overnight bus journey to look forward to (great!!) in order to make it to Bangalore.......