Last Day at Hampi

 

On our last morning we got up to go to Anegondi but when got to the river (about 9:00am) the coracles hadn't started running yet. Disappointed but we ended up going for an excellent walk from the Vittala Temple to the Virupaksa Temple.

 

 

It is an easy 45 minute walk through temple ruins and boulders and then along the river.

 

 

From the river the path leads up to Hampi Bazaar near the Nandi Statue. So we had an excellent breakfast of banana, chocolate, coconut pancakes in the town and then back to our hotel to ready ourselves (mentally) for the drive home.

 

 

We went a different route home, near the town of Bellary, and the road was more of a country road but very little traffic. So it was an uneventful drive and took about 7 hrs to get home. Lesson learned (from the 11hr drive to Hampi) - don't travel at night and we probably won't be driving anywhere further than Mysore (3 hrs).

All in all Hampi was a really good trip, lots of ruins, lots of boulders to climb and a nice laid back feel to the town of Hampi Bazaar. A couple notable and casual restaurants:

• Mango Tree has terraced seating overlooking the river - good thali's.
• New Shanti

Hampi (Day 3)

On the third day we spent quite a bit of time at the Vittala Temple, a sprawling set of carved pavillions, gateways and towers. The 'piece de resistance' is the stone chariot made from granite blocks.

Outside the temple gates is a rectangular pond surrounded by ancient pillars where we had a little time to relax and find some shade.

And the boulders in this area begged climbing and were the perfect place for Craig to try out his new slingshot. We climbed up here for sunset.

We spent the day visiting many smaller temples, so many stories to tell in the carvings.

We planned to get a coracle (circular boat) over to Anegondi and followed some sadhus (wandering Indian holy men) down to the river. Here we watched two men put their motorbikes in the coracle, then they got on and sat on the bikes. Next the four sadhus got in, a bunch of other passengers and the two rowers.

I know, I know, we could have fit in too but of course I wanted to get a shot of them sailing away. We were hot and tired and decided to leave Anegondi for the next day.
           

Hampi (Day 2)

First I have to say that despite the extremely long drive to Hampi on the Thursday night (into Fri. morning), the kids were excellent. Craig tried to sleep through it and Alanna suffered in silence. Once in a while in the last couple hours she would say, "my nerves are getting as thin as cheese wire." Our driver, Balakrishna, didn't complain at all either. Michael and I - well, we may have had a moment or two - but we actually tried to laugh through it at the end. Maybe we were just delirious.

Friday morning we had a late start and got under way just before noon. The ancient ruins of Hampi are on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. The ruins are spread over 25 square km. The topography is straight out of The Flinstones and Bedrock City - huge boulders one on top of another are strewn all over the countryside.

We drove to the little hippie town of Hampi bazaar and started by going to Virupaksha Temple which is still used as a religious temple to this day. In fact the kids and I were blessed by the temple elephant, Lakshmi.

We took a walk up the rocky and somewhat slippery hill above the temple for some nice views.

Everywhere you go there are temples. Here we came across a family at an underground temple having a picnic. They insisted on giving us some food and taking photos.

Lotus Mahal is one of the most beautiful buildings and the grounds are clean with lots of trees. It is a great example of Hindu and Islamic architecture.

Hampi (Day 1)

Most people take the overnight train to Hampi. Get on the train at 10:45pm, sleep and arrive in Hampi in the early morning. Simple. I don't know anyone who has driven. For some reason, regrettably, we chose to drive.

We left our house at 3:00pm and planned to be in Hampi six hours later at 9:00pm.
It took two hours just to get out of Bangalore. Highway construction. Traffic jam.
Picture a one way road with stone meridians on either side. Huge trucks and buses like these ones were all around us:

Traffic just stopped all of a sudden. No where to go.
What are they thinking - trucks try to turn around - they maneuvere back and forth, inch by inch and everyone moves out of their way. They actually succeed and then proceed to try to drive headon against the traffic up the one way street. Chaos.

Finally a break in the meridian and we were on our way. Once we got past the construction the #4 Hwy was good. We seemed to be making up time and thought we would still get to Hampi by ten.

Then we turned onto Hwy #13 - a narrow two lane road full of potholes, with tons of oncoming traffic, buses and trucks. Where were they all coming from? Where were they all going?

We made it to a large round-about, just outside of Hampi at 10:30pm and phoned the hotel for directions. Off we went, taking the first exit. We came onto a small, but very long bridge, and stopped in our tracks again. Right behind a huge truck with non stop oncoming traffic. This truck looked like it was just parked there - no lights, no movement and we couldn't see around it.

Finally a break in the oncoming traffic and cars and auto rickshaws darted into the other lane to pass. I shouted, "follow them, go quick." And we did. But then we saw what was in front of the truck - more trucks and buses lined up for miles. We were shocked at them all but we were passing them, we were moving!

It was short lived of course when the cars and rickshaws ahead of us stopped head on against a bus with a line up behind it. We all pulled over and opposite traffic could move, but we were stuck again.

This continued for some time. At 12:00am we made it off the bridge but still jammed in. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Our driver pulled over and asked directions again. He gets back in and says, "We have be misguided - we must go back to the roundabout and take another exit."

"We are not going back,"  I said.
Michael looked at the GPS on his phone and said, "No, there is a road ahead that we can take. Keep going."

To make a long story short...we came upon a policeman who was telling everyone to turn around and go back. No explanation and we never found out why. So now everyone is making u-turns on this narrow road and going back - more chaos. We got back to the roundabout at 1:00am and made it to the hotel at 1:30am.

The guy at the front desk of the KSTDC Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari was a gem. No emotion, no facial expression. He had no idea who we were even though we had prepaid. There was no reservation book.

Finally got the rooms sorted out but had to go back and ask the guy for towels, soap and toilet paper. It was sad and to quote Lonely Planet's description of the hotel "soulless."

A Day at Soukya Holistic Health Centre

Click for the most recent version A Day at Soukya Holistic Health Centre

I spent the day at Soukya Holistic Health Centre with the OWC group. The centre is only twenty minutes from where I live, a place where people come from around the world for "high quality holistic health and integrative medical services." The recommended stay is a minimum of two weeks and I take it people stay much longer and they have repeat customers every year.

Whether you are there for medical or wellness reasons you would be given a Doctor's consultation and then an individualized programme would be designed you for the length of your stay. Many systems of medicine are used: Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Allopathy, etc. As well, therapies such as yoga, reflexology, counselling, nutrition etc. contribute to the programme.

The centre is situated on 30 acres of land, the rooms and gardens are beautiful and relaxing. There is a restaurant, a pool, and a yoga centre. The food is vegetarian and they grow their own organic food on site. There is a wonderful organic medicinal garden which are used in treatments and to prepare medicated oils.

Staff seems extremely knowledgeable and committed. It's a bit pricey but seems to be an excellent centre where one could truly benefit in many ways: medically and in learning to prevent diseases and just change ones lifestyle for the better longterm. One that I sure wouldn't mind trying out - hmm, now I wonder if anyone would miss me for a couple weeks?