Playing Indiana Jones in Hampi

It took some pulling and prying to remove Lianna from the sands of Palolem in Goa but afterwards we boarded our sleepless sleeper bus for the 12 hour trip to Hampi. Immediately upon arriving we knew this was a place quite unlike anything we had seen.

Gigantic rust coloured boulders in the millions are scattered throughout the landscape making for a prehistoric and almost ‘Flintstone’ like scene. Hiding amongst them are some of the oldest ruins and temples as this was the site of one of the greatest Hindu Empires to rule in India. Best part of all, the place has a truly chilled – out feel with backpackers coming to simply swing the days away in hammocks, get lost amongst the alien landscape or settle in for the many movie nights guest houses put on.

With the recommendation from a fellow traveler in Goa we opted to stay on the far side of the river away from bustle of Hampi bazaar, the towns main commercial center. This was a great choice as the area known as ‘Hampi Island’ had everything we needed and it was just a short hop by boat to the other side where most of the sites are located.

Our first day involved us catching up on some well needed sleep before we went for a leisurely walk through boulders and rice paddies before settling in to watch a perfect sunset over the hills with a cup of chai in hand.

The following day we got slightly more ambitious and walked our way to the Vitalla temple which is the best preserved site of all the Hampi ruins. An easy 2km walk from the ferry, brings you close to the river where locals are selling boat trips in strange circular wood boats. Continuing forth we came across many smaller ruins and gravity defying boulders before coming to the Vitalla Temple. Consisting of beautiful examples of stone carving and Hindu architecture, it was the local residents inside which Lianna found to be the most interesting. A family of three sibling puppies, including one which she had rescued, from being scared stiff underneath a boulder. After a short explanation to her on why we cant bring every dog home with us, we decided to leave to make it back for dinner and a movie showing at a nearby guest house. After, for the most part, being lucky with weather in India when it came time to leave the guesthouse the skies were opening up and we had a soaking wet walk back to our hotel in the pitch black (power outage) and muddy trails. How we continually forget to bring a flash light is beyond me.

The rainstorm continued the following day which we spent lazing around our guest house and reading in our hammock. New years eve came, but unfortunately as we have already booked our flight onward to Sri Lanka, we were forced to spend the night on a sleeper bus to Bangalore. We still had the entire day to kill and after lazing around after breakfast we rented bikes for the 5km ride to the Hanuman Temple in Anugundi. Lianna took one look at the climb (over 500 steps up) and volunteered to watch the bikes. A very sweaty climb up was rewarded with endless views of the rolling hills clustered with boulders and palm trees. The most interesting site by far was the monkey’s who had robbed some local tourists on their way up and continued to rip apart the inside of their bag until they found what they were looking for, bananas nonetheless.

When choosing routes and destinations often times if there is not something that jumps out as a must do it can be easy to believe a particular place is not worth the time and effort. Hampi was like this for us, but after hearing so many travelers rave about how relaxed an atmosphere it had, we decided to go and are certainly happy we did. Days seemed to pass by effortlessly with a good book and the slow pace of life seemed to bring a sharp contrast to our preconceptions of India. When legs needed to be stretched, it was hard to beat the weird scenery for a leisurely stroll and the surplus of cheap accommodation and food make it  perfect for a  rest stop on long trips through India.

At 1030pm that night we boarded another sleeper bus another sleepless journey this time ending in Bangalore the following morning.