After 16 hours in the bus we arrived in Hospet which is 45 minutes outside of Hampi. In recent years, they have limited the amount of visitors allowed to stay in Hampi due to the growing popularity of the town.
We checked into our hotel where we would stay for the night and freshened up. The hotel was twin room accommodation and was very minimal. I forget they don't give towels or soap here but thankfully I had brought a travel towel and luckily my roommate had carried hand soap and body wash. I was rooming with Shivani and super excited about it!
We grabbed breakfast from a small joint down the road and we were quite literally eating on the road. I was a bit nervous about the food but decided on this trip to avoid anything with dairy. It was a South Indian place which I was very excited about since I love South Indian food. I was very intent on trying new foods so I ordered a set dosa. The set dosa was so good I polished it within a few minutes. I also loved the sambar it came with which had a good kick. All in all, I loved breakfast and hoped every meal would be like that.
We were still in Hospet so we took 3 rickshaws to make our way to Hampi which was about 30 minutes away. The rickshaw ride there was beautiful! We passed green paddy rice fields, coconut fields, sugarcane fields, and of course so many cows! I will never get over my cow obsession and there are barely any in Mumbai so I was in full fangirl mode. The greenery reminded me so much of Goa. I just loved the wind whipping past my face and blowing my hair.
We arrived at the main old town in Hampi which was crowded with tourists and locals since it was a long weekend. There was a large yellow temple that immediately caught my eye but that was tomorrow's adventure. Today we started off with a guided bike tour of Hampi.
Hampi is now a city of ruins and is one of the largest UNESCO world heritage sites. It was once the capital of South India with more than 3,000 temples. It is now considered the Rome of India and there is so much that still lies hidden and has not been excavated. The city was only discovered in 1799 by a Chennai officer and declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1986. The one thing I could not stop admiring were the massive boulders and how precariously they were balanced. Our guide informed us that the rocks were 2.7 million years old and the oldest rocks on the planet.
We started in an area that has 7 different temples. These were the 7 different markets traders would come to; one for each day of the week. The guide was very informative and really added to the experience as without him we would have no clue about the history.
The next temple we admired was built for the King and royals and sat high on a hill. The temple was made up of many intricately carved pillars each depicting a different deity. The amount of detail people were able to carve into stone was impressive! Inside, was the largest monolithic Ganesha carved from a huge rock.
Our bike ride continued to the statue of Lakshmi Narasimha, wife of Vishnu. This huge statue had a half man half lion and was seated on a snake as Vishnu is usually depicted. The statue was carved from a singular boulder in 1598 by a man who dedicated his life to carving it.
It was a hot day in Hampi so we stopped on the road for lemon soda and sugarcane juice. I had never tried either so I enjoyed it. The lemon soda wasn't sweet enough for me but I enjoyed the sugarcane juice that had been infused with ginger. It was cool that he pressed the sugarcane juice right in front of us too.
The next part of our bike ride was my favorite! We cycled through open roads lined with coconut trees. It felt so freeing to be out exploring nature on a bike. All I could sing was "living young and wild and free". We passed by so many temples on our way in various states but most were still standing regardless of the state. It's impressive how they built the architecture to last for so many years. Modern architecture could never! Niraj had told us there was a man who spent 40 days in Hampi and said he had only felt like he saw half and I believe him. The city is so rich in history.
Our bike ride led us to a site known as Queen's bath. The Queen's bath was designed in the Indo-Islamic style with 8 balconies overlooking the chamber. While the queen was bathing her servants would sing to her from these balconies. I thought the baths to be very ornate and pretty.
Further down the roads was the Mahanvani Dibba or Great Platform that served a royal function. The platform was tiered with steps resembling Chicheniza. The structure itself was very detailed and had carvings depicting Arab and Chinese traders traveling on camels and elephants. The amount of detail was impressive! From the top you could see for miles and miles and the King would stand there to watch the festivities. Our guide told us at one point 30,000 elephants stood where we were. I cannot even imagine how much the ground would shake with 30,000 elephants stomping around.
There was a very interesting Step Well that looked like a pyramid but inverted. Back in the day this ancient water tank used to store water for religious and ceremonial purposes such as immersing the Ganpati.
We were all hangry by the time lunch rolled around at 4pm and piled into a small restaurant in the upstairs of a building. This restaurant was a thali place and was slightly chaotic. It was crowded and I was confused about how it worked but someone told me to grab a plate, wipe it off and get in line. I love trying all of the different foods served in thalis but this thali was very underwhelming. The food definitely tasted home cooked which was good but also too watery and there was not much too it. I ate a lot of papard since the actual food wasn't that great.
Full of papard, we headed to our evening water activities. The rickshaws took us through the paddy fields and past many villages. It was such a scenic journey and also the longest rickshaw ride I have ever been on! It was definitely strange to be in a rickshaw outside of the city but the little rickshaw chugged along. I convinced myself it's called a rickshaw due to how rickety-rocky it is.
When we arrived at the lake it was golden hour and absolutely perfect. I went and stood on the rocks just to take in how breathtaking the scenery was. I loved how the rocks framed the whole lake and managed to balance on top of one another too. As we waited to ride the Corackle I lay down the rocks and lay down taking in how beautiful this place was. I could easily have spent hours at the lake just relaxing. Since we were a group of 10 we split up for the coracle ride and the guide started paddling and we were off. I saw other groups on the coracle boat far off in and I thought that is where we were headed. It was so peaceful to be on the lake! I sat back and relaxed and before I knew it the guide was spinning us before the ride was up. How I wish we could spend more time on the coracle boat!
The next adventure was cliff jumping! Like the coracle boat, there were safety procedures in place such as the orange life vests. If we successfully managed to jump with the life vests we could go again without. Everyone was very nervous as we stood gathered around the cliff. I had never cliff jumped before since I am also terrified my contacts will fall out. But here I decided I didn't care anymore. Akash went first and I was up next. I thought of all the videos I had seen with people running and throwing their hands in the air so that is exactly what I did. I let out a scream at the end as I landed. I forgot I was wearing a lifejacket because when I hit the water I didn't go deep at all. I even opened my eyes underwater to see if I could still see. The lake was warm and so refreshing. I really wanted to stay longer and just chill in the lake but the people in charge kept telling us to get out. I wanted to go again but already had a migraine so the pressure for me was too much but I enjoyed seeing people jump back in again and have so much fun!
It was dark by the time we finished up cliff jumping and everyone had changed so we headed to the restaurant. I was so gone at the restaurant all I remember is bright blue lights and eating paneer tikka masala. I crashed as soon as we returned to the hotel.
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