Hampi and Hospet, India
View from Anjani Parvath of the ancient Vijayanagar Empire
The trip to Hampi was quite a spontaneous one, and limited amount of information was available on how to get there and the problem involved in going to a place so remote and small. Simply put, we thought it made for a sensible weekend holiday where we could see and learn about this ancient kingdom. It is equidistant from Hyderabad and Bangalore, about 325km to Hospet Bus Station, from where one can catch an auto to Hampi, about 14km that will take about an hour since there is so much to see along the way.
Hospet itself is just the commercial town close to this now World Heritage Site and is where all the inter-state buses and trains will take you. I don’t know about buses from other places, but there was only one bus service from Hyderabad to Hospet, Diwakar travels, which leaves at about 9pm and gets to Hospet around 7:30 a.m. The time taken is due to the fact that it neither leaves on time nor gets there on time, since they stop at any and every place, and feel free to take half an hour breaks for coffee and to talk.
They (Diwakar Travels who go by the name Ganesh Travels from Hospet back to Hyderabad) will not sell you a round trip ticket between Hyderabad and hospet . They tell you to go buy your ticket there. Find out more about that before you go there. What we should do is buy a ticket as soon as you get down in Hospet in front of that bus office, otherwise you leave for Hampi and have to use a broker who will give you a panic attack on availability and prices! As it turns out for us, going there cost us rs.350.00 in an air conditioned non-sleeper bus where the air was on only half the time, and Rs.600.00 coming back because we had to go through a broker in Hampi as there is no cell service there and it would cost both time and money to go to Hospet and figure it out. Whatever the ticket agent tells you about the kind of return you will have, have him write it down. Be informed, as basically, the locals are interconnected and so are their schemes, and you will end up paying with both time and money otherwise, and get frustrated.
The entrance into the little village of Hampi is in itself a stunning realization that you are actually going to walk into the gates of the town to be in the town. There are a few guest houses outside the gates, but wait until you walk through the whole village, to the banks of the Tungabhadra river, and see a few guesthouses and get prices before you decide what suites you. We got an A/C room with a TV and western toilet for 3 people for Rs.700 a night. We checked in at 10a.m, and since our check out was going to be at 6pm the next day, they gave us that half a day at Rs.400. So, overall, cheaper than we imagined, but it is normal to bargain; the prices are quoted to allow for that.
Hampi is now a protected World Heritage Site and hike along the Tungabhadra river over the mountain made me feel like I was actually following in the footsteps of an old, grand, happy empire. If you have a good guide who is not trying to spice things up for you and buy a guide book that a hundred kids are trying to sell to you, you can paint a picture of the lost and gone empire in its peak and glory. I could actually see a sprawling city situated on the banks of this life giving river and the beauty of the mountains around it to add to the mystique and background.
From the start of the hill to the main temple
We started at the head temple which is the main temple to this day, and prayers are conducted as they always were, morning and evening. Because this is a religious site to the Hindus, alcohol and meat are forbidden inside the gates of Hampi, not that anyone is checking bags at the gate, but if you decide to take it in, don’t attract attention; you will not only hurt the locals’ sentiment but can get in trouble with the police, which won’t make for a pleasant trip!
The courtyard of the temple is large and a lot of sitting areas are provided for the people to congregate and spend some time there. It is large and kept up well. In the evenings, there is an elephant there, the temple’s mascot, and Hindus consider elephants royal animals; they usually lead a procession during religious festivals. The elephant will bless you and take your offerings, be it money or bananas. The gentle weight of the trunk on my head was truly thrilling and I had to repeat it a few times to feel it without excitement flooding my mind.
From the temple, you walk down the main road of Hampi and to a small hill where the ruins start. It is not much of a hike, but the whole walk through the ancient kingdom took about three hours when done leisurely and at a pace that let one absorb and enjoy the ruins. Except for the main temple, the others are not really temples today as the deities were removed over the years and so no prayer takes place inside.
After a break for lunch and an hour’s rest, we took off in an auto with the driver acting as a guide also and went to cover the 12km radius of Hampi’s ruins. There are maps available to let you know what all these are so you don’t have to wonder if you missed anything along the way. Included in that ride was the queen’s bath house, the elephant stables and several smaller temple ruins.
It was a tiring day at the end of May, and at 44degrees, we had ourselves a good tan already and were hungry as can be. At that point, any food is good food, and eggs were allowed so that was as good as it got for us. As an afterthought, it would have paid off for us to take some munchies that we liked along with us as the choices were limited there. We kept to ourselves in the room as we ate and reminisced about the day. But all in all, the heat and the exercise made us sleep unconsciously.
The next day was the day to go to the other side of the Tungabhadra, a ferry ride there starts at 9am, and the last one back is at 6pm. There are a few things to see there, and you will either have to rent a bike or take an auto. If you decide to rent a bike, get something in writing from the guy about the condition of the bike and look like you know what you are doing here, as they might say something is wrong with it when you return it and try to get some money out of you for that. If you really do fall or have an accident, it is going to be a costly affair to rent a bike. As there were 3 of us, auto was the cheaper option anyways at Rs.350.00 for the whole trip that would take us 3 hours atleast.
There are some interesting things to do on this side, hiking up to the Anjaneya Parvatham was not easy; they say it is 600 steps, and although I didn’t count, there are definitely more like 1000 steps up to the mountain top and the heat was brutal. They don’t sell water up there so you have to carry what you need from below. But the view of the other side of Hampi across the Tungabhadra, the ruins and the whole city of the past can be seen and that was the moment the power of the kingdom and the enormity of the city came into focus for me. Pictures don’t quite do it all the justice, although they are much better than words, but to stand there and experience it is something I will have to repeat to believe.
There are other religious and historic sites, and are definitely worth seeing and listening to the tales and stories connected with them, part of the aura of India and its glory days of kings and kingdoms.
This is the side where the resorts and cottage like accommodations are, they are definitely more expensive and probably better for it, especially the food, although I would not have liked to stay on that side due to its remoteness to the town and lack of mobility or anything to do after 6pm. The hustle and bustle of the village of Hampi is exciting and may not last for ever as the whole area has been declared a protected site and the people there now say they will be moved as they do not own the land they built their houses on, and even if they did, the conservation society may force them to move anyways. It is part of why one should go there, I think, just being able to sit and see the evening activity and the way of life is interesting when you realize the place is so small you can walk it end to end in 15 minutes. Tourism is the industry, and there are a lot of foreigners that stay there for a while and enjoy the calm and quiet life. There was also a group of young archeologists from France and London that came to do some research and were going to stay there for almost a month.
The trip turned out to be near perfect except that we got caught in the scam of no tickets available and were forced not only to stay another day (the third day), but also pay almost twice as much for a return ticket through a broker. We would have had to pay half that amount to go to Hospet to catch our train if it wasn’t for a local boy I had bought a couple of meals for who came running to tell me there is a bus that is the last one to Hospet at around 7pm for Rs.12, instead of Rs.200 by auto!! So find out the bus timings a day before from a couple of different people and how long it takes to get via one of them to Hospet.
The third day was not a waste after all, as we walked out of the gates of Hampi and walked up this little hill we realized there were more ruins that not many people were seeing all over that hill. You could also see the main temple from an elevated level and the town of Hampi also. It was unexpected and interesting, so we enjoyed the walk for a couple of hours and ended up taking some of the best pictures of the temple and the town from there. It wasn’t a hectic day and it was nice to end on that note of seeing something just because we happened upon it and not because it was in a guide book or someone told us to go there.
As I said, the people survive on tourism, so they would like to keep you there as long as possible. So understand the people’s need to survive and not let go of their next good meal ticket, and be prepared so this lovely experience does not turn into a frustrating one at the end.
Little things like the medical shop is never open so carry your own first aid kit, the ATM never has enough money in it so carry all the money you think you will need or you will end you paying Rs.200 at least to go to Hospet and draw cash from an ATM that works 90% of the time! These are part of the allure of the land that has not caught up to all the development, which is why the prices are so affordable. So as I plan to go back there another time, I will just have to be better prepared with these things that I learnt the hard way! In retrospect, those in themselves are stories to tell and truly add to the mystery of rural India.
