February 1996
Gulli and I left Bangalore early morning, on my Hero Honda Splendor, stopped just before Tumkur at Kyatsandra for breakfast at Ravi Idli Hotel. We rode pretty slow, wanted to have a safe journey. NH4 traffic is known for notoriety. At Chitradurga we left NH4 and took NH13, heading towards Hospet. This road was even worse, both edges were eaten away, foot deep ditches. We cannot expect truckers to go off the road for a bike. At times we used to get stuck behind loaded trucks moving at ox-carts pace. At times the terrain was desert like... barren and parched stretches of open land. We stopped for lunch at a road side dhaba. We were about 10km from Hospet, to our left we saw a temple tower. We decided to explore the place, took the narrow dirt track leading to the temple ruins. The architecture was Vijayanagara style. There was a village close by we met few locals; some sleeping, some studying, some chatting and some gambling too... multipurpose utility. We spent about an hour and then moved on...
We checked into KSTDC Lodge close to TB Dam, the bathroom did not have light! We dumped our bags, freshened up and went to TB dam. We saw the sun go down into the reservoir and then we came down to the dam gardens. The music fountain was playing, just like the one I'd seen in Bangalore.
The next morning, we left to Hampi. We went to Virupaksa temple first, bought coconuts from this little shop and paid our respect to the Gods inside.
We went exploring more ruins next to river Tungabhadra, it was warm now and in this rocky terrain it gets hot pretty fast. We met this little fellow playing on the rocks and ran to his mom as soon as he saw us...
We had breakfast in one of the small eateries on the temple street. I think we had churmari, bajji and tea. We went sightseeing... we saw many art students paint the ruins, they seemed to do a pretty good job.
That's Ugra Narasimha, look how his eye-balls are popping out
We kept moving fast from one spot to another trying to find shaded places. We aere amazed at this well but did not have the sense to click few more snaps.
The last stop for the day was the music hall and the stone chariot. We got a chance to touch the chariot. That's our guide showing us how we could hear music in these stones. We did hear different tunes. I remember the guide telling us that back then when kings ruled the land, music and dance concerts used to b held here and the music played here could be heard a kilometer away. Our guide explained us in detail with great patience.
We had seen just a fraction of Hampi. I cam back here in 2003 and then again some time 2005 and I'm yet to see the place fully.
If you ever plan to visit Hampi, see to that you go in a small group and start early in the day. That way may be you can see the place in 3 days.
.........
Gulli and I left Bangalore early morning, on my Hero Honda Splendor, stopped just before Tumkur at Kyatsandra for breakfast at Ravi Idli Hotel. We rode pretty slow, wanted to have a safe journey. NH4 traffic is known for notoriety. At Chitradurga we left NH4 and took NH13, heading towards Hospet. This road was even worse, both edges were eaten away, foot deep ditches. We cannot expect truckers to go off the road for a bike. At times we used to get stuck behind loaded trucks moving at ox-carts pace. At times the terrain was desert like... barren and parched stretches of open land. We stopped for lunch at a road side dhaba. We were about 10km from Hospet, to our left we saw a temple tower. We decided to explore the place, took the narrow dirt track leading to the temple ruins. The architecture was Vijayanagara style. There was a village close by we met few locals; some sleeping, some studying, some chatting and some gambling too... multipurpose utility. We spent about an hour and then moved on...
We checked into KSTDC Lodge close to TB Dam, the bathroom did not have light! We dumped our bags, freshened up and went to TB dam. We saw the sun go down into the reservoir and then we came down to the dam gardens. The music fountain was playing, just like the one I'd seen in Bangalore.
The next morning, we left to Hampi. We went to Virupaksa temple first, bought coconuts from this little shop and paid our respect to the Gods inside.
We went exploring more ruins next to river Tungabhadra, it was warm now and in this rocky terrain it gets hot pretty fast. We met this little fellow playing on the rocks and ran to his mom as soon as he saw us...
We had breakfast in one of the small eateries on the temple street. I think we had churmari, bajji and tea. We went sightseeing... we saw many art students paint the ruins, they seemed to do a pretty good job.
That's Ugra Narasimha, look how his eye-balls are popping out
We kept moving fast from one spot to another trying to find shaded places. We aere amazed at this well but did not have the sense to click few more snaps.
The last stop for the day was the music hall and the stone chariot. We got a chance to touch the chariot. That's our guide showing us how we could hear music in these stones. We did hear different tunes. I remember the guide telling us that back then when kings ruled the land, music and dance concerts used to b held here and the music played here could be heard a kilometer away. Our guide explained us in detail with great patience.
We had seen just a fraction of Hampi. I cam back here in 2003 and then again some time 2005 and I'm yet to see the place fully.
If you ever plan to visit Hampi, see to that you go in a small group and start early in the day. That way may be you can see the place in 3 days.
.........
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