If dreams were made out of stone, it would be Hampi

Disclaimer: The title is not mine, I got it while googling information on Hampi and I liked it :)

Started off with a few phone calls, as usual a randomn plan, of course with one guy taking the pain of going to Majestic to book the ticks...

Fri - 12/30 - 10 pm - Majestic bus stand:
Thanks to Anand;s safe and slow driving, Ash and me were in ksrtc bus stand in time. I cant remember when was the last time I had been there, may be a few years... what a crowd!!! that too friday evening and holidays, looks like everyone wants to go somewhere :) One guy dropped out so I went to cancel a ticket: There was only counter opened and no concept of Q, if you can squeeze in and put your hand in the counter with the ticket, you might get 50% of the money back, wal, almost :) Then one-by-one all of the gang came, totally 7 guys. Bus started at 11 sharp, RajaHamsa bus, verrrry comfortable, i was zzzz in few mins.

Sat - 12/31 - 7 am - Hampi bus stand:
Landed at Hampi bus stand, we had booked Ranjana Guest House, it was just a minute walk from the bus stand, yes, just a minute. Its a old house, all rooms with attached bath, very neatly maintained, also recommended by 52 weekend getaways. Checked-in, had tea, got ready, hired a guide and auto to go around. I took my tripod thinking I would do some amazing photography, but carrying it around is defintely not so amazing :) Hampi was the capital of Vijayanagara empire ruled by Krishandevaraya. Ruins of this 14th Century city lies scattered in about 26 sqkm area

There are lot of MUST SEE, like, the Virupaksha temple, Ugra-Narasimha, Vithala Temple complex, the one where the famous Stone chariot is located. They say the chariot is carved with only a single stone, but, according to the guide and the locals, its single stone except for the wheels. The Vithala temple complex is the most richest one I guess, with the chariot and the musical pillars, its really breathtaking.


From there, we saw Saasvekal Ganesha, KadleKal Ganesha, Queen's bath, Lotus Mahal, Pushkarani etc etc.. around 2 hours of walk. After this was our lunch break, the guide took us to Khanavali at Kamalapura. I was hoping to get some Jolad rotti but it was all over, we could only get some chapatis, palya and rice.. The palyas were soo good.. we could eat them just like that.. one was made using hesrukal and irulli and other with just irulli and hasi menshinkai... wow... mouth watering, we asked for more chapatis, but the guy said, it takes lot of time and there are many more customers sorry saar.. he said sorry so many times, I wonder why.. Anyways after a hefty lunch, we had some sight seeing to complete and back to hotel room for a break. Around 6, we started again to go on top a small rocky mountain to view the sunset, it was sooo beautiful.. Only then we realised that it was the last sunset of 2005 :) Then we went to the Vithala temple to see the temple in the lighting. The lighting is too good, but the problem is some the lights is so arranged that the aesthetic feeling is gone, especially on the carved pillars. But some were so beautiful, like the one posted here. Then we went home and now the much awaited dinner. Since our guest house kitchen was closed we went to Geeta restaurant which was also recommended by 52 weekend getaways. We ordered thali meals and they said, you'll have to wait for sometime as we prepare everything from scratch, we could see them picking onions and potatos and from my cooking experience I could say that it would take another 45 mins atleast to make chapatis, palya for 7 hungry people!! So we went for a walk, had some chilli bajjis.. chilli bajjis are very famous in Hampi, they eat them all the time , for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. It comes by default, you'll have to say no if you dont want it.. We returned to restaurant after some time and the dinner was ready. I just dont have words to explain the food, chapatis were so soft and the palya was a simple one, yet so delicious or may be we were too hungry. After dinner, another small walk along the bazaar street, shopped for kashmiri shawl for Mom and kavades (the one used to play chauka-bhara) and then went to hotel and crashed.

Sun - 1/1 - 5 am
Got up from the bed and we all started to trek a nearby mountain, first time i did a trek so early in the morning without even a cofe, it was some 500 ft high, there were some steps carved in the rocks, but we could hardly see.. just kept following the person in front of us, our previous days auto guy had agreed to lead us. We went on top and waited and waited for THE SUN. Donno why he decided to come late that day, even though it was new year for us, for him its the same routine day in and day out. There were few more phirangis waiting with us for the sunrise. There was one make-shift tea stall too, as soon as we started sipping hot tea, sun came out.. may be that was an indication ;) then I got some snaps and my friends waiting patiently till i completed..

Now, comes the hard part of the trip.. coming back becoz we dont have the reservation for that.. we came back to Hospet in local bus and enquired about buses for Bangalore, it seems the Rajahamsa for Bangalore is only at night and in day time its just regular buses, and we got in one of them.. we could only manage to get the last few seats...thanks to the bumpy road, I got a bump on my forehead banging it against a pole when the bus went over a huge pothole. Then I almost stood till the next halli and grabbed a seat in the first row and came home safely.. On the way back.. got a glimpse of the sunset from the bus on NH4... first sunset of the year :)

Finally, a trip to the World Heritage Centre Hampi made a memorable end of the year 2005 and beautiful start of 2006.