Hampi - Every Stone Has A Story To Tell

I always dreamt of going to Hampi when i read about that place as a kid in history books. I could visit that place at last now. Courtesty - Recession. :) Like all other companies that are doing cost-cutting in these times of recession, my company made it mandatory to take 5 earned leaves before this financial year. Everytime i have to chase manager for leaves (if they are for more than 2 days), but this time he kept chasing us. So there i have my 5 days of leave and i went to Hampi with my parents. And then i realized i havent gone anywhere with my parents after joining in my job. Thats damn 3.5 years. All this made my Hampi trip more special and memorable.

Before posting this entry i thought for a while what's the use of posting one more travelogue when there is already Giga bytes of information on the web. I thought it serves 2 purposes:
1. Good way for me to recollect about the trip at a later date.
2. I can consolidate and provide the necessary details so that any of my friends can refer directly and save time.

Hampi is one of the 2 UNESCO declared heritage sites in Karnataka. The other one in Karnataka is 'Pattadakal'. (I will be posting that travelogue too) Total there are 27 UNESCO heritage sites in India. Below are wonderful links that give good information if you are planning to go to Hampi:

Mind-blowing 360 degree view of the Hampi monuments:
http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/hampi/map.html
Beautiful Travelogue:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/39200-hampi-visiting-forgotten-empire-vijayanagara.html
Also refer to the information present in both 'wikipedia' and 'wikitravel'. Below i summarise regarding stay, transport and food.

Stay:
1. If you are very much fascinated about these beautiful places and want to take your time and see them at your pace, you should stay in Hampi only. The possibilities are: staying as a back-packer in some of the local guest houses in Hampi (with very minimal facilities) or the only one available Hotel - Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari. This hotel is run by Karnataka Tourism. The website doesnt allow online booking. You can call them and send DD to book this hotel. In peak season going without a booking is not suggested.
2. You can stay in Hospet and use it as a hub to go to Hampi, Pattadakal, Badami and other places. Hampi is around 17Kms from Hospet and you should take care of your transport.

Local Transport:
Autos (3-wheelers/Indian Tuk-tuks) are the best option. Hospet Railway station to Hampi may cost around Rs.120/- Hospet station to any of the hotels in Hospet costs around Rs.20 to 30. Hampi day tour from Hospet (to and fro and within Hampi ) costs around Rs.800/-. The hotel guys can also arrange a car for 1-day hampi tour and they charge around Rs.1200/-
I observed that the auto guys here are very reasonable and they dont cheat normally.

Eat:
1. In Hospet there are many local restaurants to find easily. But its mostly South-Indian food.
2. Some restaurants can serve so-called North-Indian food or American breakfast etc. But dont expect anything close to their original taste.
3. In Hampi, dont miss the lunch buffet in 'Mayura Bhuvaneshwari' hotel. They serve an excellent South-Indian buffer for 60 bucks.

And now coming to the beautiful places in Hampi. No amount of words or pictures are sufficient to describe the places in Hampi. You have to see them in real and feel it. But make sure that you dont miss the below places:
1. Virupaksha temple.
2. Two Huge ganesh statues.
3. Beautiful mono-lithic 'Narasimha' statue.
4. Krishna temple.
5. Lotus Mahal & Elephant Stables.
6. Vittala temple ( the famous musical pillars and the chariot).

Its 2 years since the government has taken measures to stop people from bashing these musical pillars. I heard that these are tapped only during VIP visits. Its really sad that government has neglected all this while and now this wonder cannot be experienced by people. They should have taken care of it from the beginning and should have a prescribed time (once in a day) where only the authorized persons tap. Hope atleast they take care of the things from now and even common people realize the importance of these national treasures. Hope Aamir Khan's 'Incredible India' campaign helps regarding this. And as they say, really in Hampi every stone has a story to tell and you will fall in love with stones definitely. Below are some pics: