This weekend, the five of us and four of the Indian students from IISC went to a little town about six hours north of Bangalore called Hampi. A mix of ancient architectural ruins, beautiful natural landscapes, and the most breathtaking boulders, Hampi was once a bustling capital and religious center but has since become a somewhat hidden-away tourist village and UNESCO World Heritage Site. We decided to come somewhat on a whim, buying bus tickets the day before for our two day trip, but it was hands-down one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to and thus far the most fun I have had in India so far.
By the time we decided to go, we weren’t able to get train tickets anymore, so we bought overnight sleeper buses. The bus left on Friday night at 11pm and would arrive the next morning at 7am, giving us two whole days in Hampi before heading back to Bangalore Sunday night on another sleeper bus.
We didn’t know much of what to expect from the sleeper buses, but they’re actually a fantastic idea! The entire bus is arranged as bunks and each passenger gets their own bed, pillow, blanket and curtains to cover your bunk while you sleep.
The sleeper bus:
me and Stella getting ready for bed in our little compartment:
We arrived 7 hours later the next morning after a reasonably bumpy ride and a decently good night’s sleep ready to explore the city, but not before we all brushed our teeth at the bus station!
We explored the city on foot the first day, visiting nearby temples, climbing up the mountains to see the ruins of temples at the top.
The temple ruins set against the landscape of rivers, palm trees, and red-orange bouldered mountains that popped up somewhat randomly really made the place look like Ancient Rome was dropped into a scene of Jurassic Park.
The ruins of a temple on top of a mountain:
The main tower of Virupaksha Temple in the center of the city seen through the ruins of a small temple:
In the evening, we climbed to the top of a mountain to the sunset point to watch the sun set. We found the ruins of this cool two-story temple that looked like it could be from an Escher painting and managed to climb to the second floor from this rock that was next to it.
Watching the sunset from the top of the mountain:
The next day, we rented motor bikes to explore some of the temples that were further away from the main part of the city. It’s amazing, but it seems like they didn’t require licenses or anything for people to rent these! Nevertheless, it was my first time riding a two-wheeled motorized vehicle and I was pretty nervous. And apart from almost running over a rooster and kind of driving into a bush, I’d say I did a fairly good job on them!
These motor bikes were by far the best part of the weekend. We whizzed around from site to site at up to 50 km/hr and explored some pretty exciting off-road places down dirt paths that few people were able to get to.
The architecture and ruins were all amazing! I love all the arched motifs and tuscan-orange colors!
But my favorite part about Hampi was by far the orange boulders that looked like they could’ve been dropped onto Earth from Mars. It was such an incredible weekend. We got back to Bangalore on Monday morning exhausted but having had the most amazing weekend ever. Hampi is definitely going to be on the list of places I’ll recommend to anyone visiting southern India in the future.
