The ruins of Hampi and Badami
Inanition.... i had to get rid of it, i had'nt been anywhere for quite a while, so i decided to parry the monotony of doing absolutely nothing, and what a better place to start other than South India !
I always envy Mumbaikars, i mean these guys can get a train to almost any damn place without hopping trains ! the reason i say this is because, when i fanned like a hundred web-pages online trying to figure out how to get to Hampi-Badami in a train , the result yielded fruitless, coz people there aint no direct train .
The initial idea was to get to Hampi first and then Badami..... because of the lack of a direct train, I had to turn the plan upside down.... now it was Badami first and then Hampi !
Eventually i got on my next train and alighted at Gadag. And after a 10 minute ride on a donkey carriage, i was at the Gadag bus station to get to Badami which was around 2 hours bus ride. (yep, you heard me right donkey carriage)
And viva la KSRTC ! i have to say this, throughout Karnataka wherever Ive traveled the bus services are absolutely bloody amazing, i mean they are frequent, in abundance, quick, cheap and fairly well kept, absolutely suits a backpacker like me. So after waiting for like 10 minutes i was in my bus to Badami. The bus driver though gave me a scare, an hour or half into the journey as I was talking to him, I casually asked him "how much more time will we take to reach Badami ?" He looked at me questioningly and with a very straight face said "This bus does not go to Badami !" I was completely thrown off the track ! I looked around me, blistering sun, with not much traffic in sight, and remote landscape, whats more i didn't even know where the fuck I was ! When i frantically started asking him questions, he started roaring with laughter and asked me to relax, "the bus does go to Badami, i was just kidding" What a Fucking relief ! Enroute i saw loads of fields full of sunflowers huge open farmlands, well irrigated lands i should say. Both Hampi and Badami have a pretty weird look to anyone who's seeing it for the first time, because almost everywhere you can see is a boulder strewn landscape, with beautiful, serene patches of green, the size and shapes of some of the boulders is just mind boggling.
Badami also known as 'Vatapi' once was the capital of the Chalukyan empire between 6th to 8th century AD. Badami is beautiful in it's own sense with red sandstone ridges and beautifully carved temples, and I had 2 days to gallivant, as soon as i reached, within half an hour i had found myself a place to stay for 200 bucks a night, dumped my luggage, and a quick shower later i was off.....Badami is known for its rock cut caves, there are 4 of them, and each one is carved for Shiva, Vishnu, Varha, and the last one is dedicated to Jainism. And the best part is that the sculptures are huge and due to the red sandstone it gives a very distinct shade to these sculptures.
One thing that i had to beware of the monkeys ! because i got robbed of my water bottle, and in the hot sun with almost 2 hours of no water what so ever, i had quite a tough time.... but hey, what the heck !
The thing about Badami is so many people visit all the time, but hardly a handful of them would take a detour to places like Pattadakal and Aihole.
Aihole, is small kinda nondescript village around an hours bus ride from Badami, enroute lies Pattadalkal.
Aihole is actually the embryo of Hindu temple architecture ! the village is full of temples small and big scattered all around, people have even been staying in a few of them, but thankfully now every temple is protected by ASI. Aihole was like a practise ground for building temples of various styles. After building prototypes here the first official temples were built at Pattadakal (now a world heritage site), the Virupaksha temple especially is a massive architectural marvel.
I had started my day 7 in the morning, and did'nt even realise that i had spent 6 hours in Aihole alone !
After another half an hours ride on a tractor it was time to spend another 4 hour's in Pattadakal ! So engrossed i was in these beautiful structures that lunch was long forgotten.
When the sun sets on Badami the red sandstones almost seem to radiate in the dying sun. Badami is the base to travel to Pattadakal and Aihole, and buses are also avaliable to get to Bijapur, Hospet etc.
I completed Aihole and Pattadakal in one day itself, and of course my SD cards were full already !, 6GB of memory cards were exausted, Had to write a few CD's to empty the memory cards as Hampi was calling !
Badami village aint known for its culinary delights, its a small dusty little town, ah but yes, beer is avaliable readily ! After ending my 2nd and last day in Badami, i was only wondering if Hampi would be exactly the same ? would it get kinda monotonous ?
But it proved exactly the opposite !
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Hampi Feb '08
Do you remember this picture ? the Garuda ratha ? well i did my education from Maharashtra, if you remember our history books from standard 6th to 10th, this is the picture on the front page ! i always had wanted to know what this rath is all about , and does it really exist !
The first thing that comes to mind when i think about Hampi is the lush green paddy, banana plantations, and ofcourse the alien like boulder strewn landscape !
Hampi is the 15th century remnants of the Vijayanagara city....
As the time as passed by the rock formations have taken beautiful forms through millions of years of corrosion and erosion.
If you havent been to Hampi then you have never been on a major pit stop on the travellers circuit. If you are in Hampi a day or two is certainly not enough to take it all in, Hampi is laid back, relaxed and in no hurry to go anywhere, ideal place to linger on.
I've always believed in the theory that wherever the hippies go, the crowd follows, it's no different in Hampi, you wont find tourists here, only backpackers and travellers, soaking up everything that this place has to offer, right from the massive boulders to the lush green relaxed grain of this place and the calm gentle waters of the Tungabhadra.
Interestingly Hampi is also a mythological place, as per the Hindu legend of Ramayana it was known as Kishkinda, or land of the Monkey gods.
Hampi was also well known as a center for economic commerce, you could buy anything here, right from precious stones to animals, everything was avaliable, however this all came to a halt in 1565, when the muslim armies of the north invaded Vijayanagara.
As soon as i reached Hampi, i realised that i had 3 days to spend here and i better not waste time what-so-ever !
Hampi is truly a backpackers circuit, the only people i found here were europeans, mostly Germans, and French, and a few cheery big-bellied English gentlemen !
Again here i had a major setback, as soon as stepped off the bus and set foot in Hampi i realised my ziplock pouch containing my credit/debit cards and 5K in cash are non-existent, in short folks my pockets were 'picked'
So here i was wondering what the fuck to do with only around 800 bucks to spend for 3 whole days ! i decided not to call home or ask anyone for help, managed to find a room for 100 bucks a day, and eat wada-pavs (now-a-days you get them in Hampi) and Coconut water and i managed to survive !
One of the major reasons that i managed to pull it off was the lack of beer ! you cant get any alcohol in Hampi ! good for me, many people said... he he
So i found myself a neat clean small and cheap place to stay, and after dumping my backpack, i headed out to the Virupaksha temple (top left) it's an amazing structure, beautifully carved with a huge mandapa, and mythical creatures carved all around it, spent around 2 hours wandering around it and i made the most of my 50 bucks spent for carrying my beloved Nikon D40 X with me.
And you know what, no matter how hard i tried, i could never even catch a glimpse of Laxmi the temple elephant ! i looked for her all around, but never could catch her !
The Vitthala temple is of course the undisputed highlight of hampi
One thing that i had to beware of the monkeys ! because i got robbed of my water bottle, and in the hot sun with almost 2 hours of no water what so ever, i had quite a tough time.... but hey, what the heck !
The thing about Badami is so many people visit all the time, but hardly a handful of them would take a detour to places like Pattadakal and Aihole.
Aihole, is small kinda nondescript village around an hours bus ride from Badami, enroute lies Pattadalkal.
Aihole is actually the embryo of Hindu temple architecture ! the village is full of temples small and big scattered all around, people have even been staying in a few of them, but thankfully now every temple is protected by ASI. Aihole was like a practise ground for building temples of various styles. After building prototypes here the first official temples were built at Pattadakal (now a world heritage site), the Virupaksha temple especially is a massive architectural marvel.
After another half an hours ride on a tractor it was time to spend another 4 hour's in Pattadakal ! So engrossed i was in these beautiful structures that lunch was long forgotten.
When the sun sets on Badami the red sandstones almost seem to radiate in the dying sun. Badami is the base to travel to Pattadakal and Aihole, and buses are also avaliable to get to Bijapur, Hospet etc.
I completed Aihole and Pattadakal in one day itself, and of course my SD cards were full already !, 6GB of memory cards were exausted, Had to write a few CD's to empty the memory cards as Hampi was calling !
Badami village aint known for its culinary delights, its a small dusty little town, ah but yes, beer is avaliable readily ! After ending my 2nd and last day in Badami, i was only wondering if Hampi would be exactly the same ? would it get kinda monotonous ?
But it proved exactly the opposite !
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hampi Feb '08
Do you remember this picture ? the Garuda ratha ? well i did my education from Maharashtra, if you remember our history books from standard 6th to 10th, this is the picture on the front page ! i always had wanted to know what this rath is all about , and does it really exist !The first thing that comes to mind when i think about Hampi is the lush green paddy, banana plantations, and ofcourse the alien like boulder strewn landscape !
Hampi is the 15th century remnants of the Vijayanagara city....
As the time as passed by the rock formations have taken beautiful forms through millions of years of corrosion and erosion.
If you havent been to Hampi then you have never been on a major pit stop on the travellers circuit. If you are in Hampi a day or two is certainly not enough to take it all in, Hampi is laid back, relaxed and in no hurry to go anywhere, ideal place to linger on.
I've always believed in the theory that wherever the hippies go, the crowd follows, it's no different in Hampi, you wont find tourists here, only backpackers and travellers, soaking up everything that this place has to offer, right from the massive boulders to the lush green relaxed grain of this place and the calm gentle waters of the Tungabhadra.
Interestingly Hampi is also a mythological place, as per the Hindu legend of Ramayana it was known as Kishkinda, or land of the Monkey gods.
Hampi was also well known as a center for economic commerce, you could buy anything here, right from precious stones to animals, everything was avaliable, however this all came to a halt in 1565, when the muslim armies of the north invaded Vijayanagara.
As soon as i reached Hampi, i realised that i had 3 days to spend here and i better not waste time what-so-ever !
Hampi is truly a backpackers circuit, the only people i found here were europeans, mostly Germans, and French, and a few cheery big-bellied English gentlemen !
Again here i had a major setback, as soon as stepped off the bus and set foot in Hampi i realised my ziplock pouch containing my credit/debit cards and 5K in cash are non-existent, in short folks my pockets were 'picked'
So here i was wondering what the fuck to do with only around 800 bucks to spend for 3 whole days ! i decided not to call home or ask anyone for help, managed to find a room for 100 bucks a day, and eat wada-pavs (now-a-days you get them in Hampi) and Coconut water and i managed to survive !
One of the major reasons that i managed to pull it off was the lack of beer ! you cant get any alcohol in Hampi ! good for me, many people said... he he
So i found myself a neat clean small and cheap place to stay, and after dumping my backpack, i headed out to the Virupaksha temple (top left) it's an amazing structure, beautifully carved with a huge mandapa, and mythical creatures carved all around it, spent around 2 hours wandering around it and i made the most of my 50 bucks spent for carrying my beloved Nikon D40 X with me.
And you know what, no matter how hard i tried, i could never even catch a glimpse of Laxmi the temple elephant ! i looked for her all around, but never could catch her !
The Vitthala temple is of course the undisputed highlight of hampi
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