Hampi is a town that sits upon the remains of the ancient city Vijayanagara, once the 2nd biggest city in the world, home to around a million people and capital of a great empire of the same name. The oldest structure is Virupaksha Temple, pictured above, and was built in 7th Century AD. In the 16th Century, the city was conquered and sacked by some other group who were clearly ignorant of the cultural relevance of the city they were so wantonly destroying. The ruins are what remains of the Empire’s former glory.

Luckily for us, the city was so massive that there’s still loads to see. It’s almost ridiculous, scooting around the area to constantly come upon ruins wherever you look; we’d drive under ancient arches and monkey gangs had made large swathes of ruins their playgrounds.

Alongside the abundance of relics, carvings and structures, Hampi is located in a unique valley full of enormous, natural, red boulders and the serene Tungabhadra River runs through it; the original site of the city was chosen for it’s beauty, so this is no coincidence.

But before we delve deep into this picture heavy blog, we must cast our minds back to the end of our Goa stay, because getting to Hampi was an adventure in itself.

Day 26 – The Night Bus

Goa to Hampi is no stone’s throw. We decided a night bus was the optimal way to cover this particular long journey – cheap, comfy looking and we wouldn’t lose a day to travel, nor pay for accommodation for the night. Getting to the pickup point late at night was honestly quite horrible. The location on the bus app was wrong and a difficult 20 minute walk along pavementless roads in the glare of oncoming headlights, following various strangers’ confusing directions finally found us standing literally on the side of a motorway where it met an exit ramp. There were other tourists here awaiting the bus too, so we’d found the right spot.

The bus simply pulled up in the slow lane of the motorway, confident everyone else would go around. We boarded and were very pleasantly surprised by our almost futuristic double booth with air con. We were thrown around the bed a lot and I didn’t manage much sleep – Billie did much better than me. It wasn’t exactly peaceful but one of the more comfortable ways to take a long journey – certainly more so than any economy flight of the same length.

As we pulled into Hampi, at about 5am, young Krishna located us, as organised by the homestay, and gestured us to his rickshaw. As we drove in something of a daze, desperate for a bed, Krishna asked if we liked sunrise? We dubiously responded that we did but now might not be the time. He looked unimpressed by our lack of adventure and after a quick conflab we changed our minds and figured what better way to first experience Hampi than to see the city unfurl under the beautiful morning light of sunrise. He hit the accelerator (sunset was imminent) and then by foot led us up a fairly long climb up huge boulders to the top of Metanga Hill. Sweating in the morning darkness after an 8 hour night bus is not the nicest feeling.

The sun rose not long after we reached the top and all regrets flew out the window. It was absolutely stunning – amazing boulders, a glistening river running through, banana plantations and then, looking the other way, Hampi, with the big gopuram of Virupaksha Temple and ruins all around. What a way to arrive.

The monkeys up here were tenacious little beasts, and many a water bottle was stolen. I’d left my camera sitting in front of me filming a video and the chai guy was kind enough to warn me I’d never see it again if I didn’t hang on to it… One tried to grab Billie’s tote bag off her but she defended it honourably and fought it off.

Don’t be fooled by their cute demeanor, they will rob you for all you have

Day 27 – Hampi

Technically the day ticked over somewhere on the bus ride, but this feels more natural. We sourced a scooter and hit the road. No sleep, no problem! We wanted to see a portion of the ruins that were grouped together in the south so we could tick it off our extensive list of must see attractions before the sun got too hot.

We couldn’t resist, however, just stopping at the very first ruin we drove past and, while not being the most celebrated or even on any maps, we loved wondering around it, watching new birds and taking photos.

Then it was onto the proper stuff, and first up was the Queen’s Baths, a big empty swimming pool with a building around it. The arches were great and the light filtered through photogenically.

Onwards to the Royal Enclosure, where the premiere attraction was a huge platform with steps leading up to it. It has various levels and was almost a Mayan Pyramid with the top lopped off. The stone carvings etched into the sides of it were anything but Mayan, though, with elephants, camels, monkeys and soldiers depicted in various stories or representations.

All around were more ruins of the Royal Enclosure, and in the foundations you could see shapes of many buildings that served some sort of royal purpose. Perhaps the most impressive other sight here was the stepwell which had a sturdy aqueduct-like structure leading to it. Very cool.

The sun was burning heavily down upon us, so we decided to go back to our stay and wait it out before an afternoon session, but we couldn’t help but stop at a couple more sights on the way out. A viewpoint over the lords houses:

And the amazing ‘underwater temple’ built downwards so it’s flooded with water. There was a very atmospheric room at the end with a beautiful nandi (bull) sculpture in the water.

We did afternoon nap in one of those overtired dazes where you wake up multiple times but are too tired to even open your eyes. Eventually we surfaced properly, a bit more alive, and it was time to head out for our afternoon excursion.

We were out for a walk by the river when we were distracted by the bloody massive Achyutaraaya Temple (only in Hampi). A huge temple enclosure with large gopura entrances (lots of opportunities to shoot pics through multiple archways here is always good) and an empty stepwell which was huge. Palm squirrels had overrun this particular ruin and they were dancing around on the walls at high speed.

We found our way back to the river path and followed it back to our scooty. We were amazed at how much culture we’d seen and not been totally bored by it. It was incredible and it does (cheesy remark incoming) allow you step back in time and imagine what life might have been like for the inhabitants of this ancient kingdom. Anything but bored, we were blown away!

Day 28 – Hampi

Well, more temples and ruins for us. This was our big ticket day – literally. There’s a ticket you can buy that gains you entry to 3 sites across the Hampi area (quite spread out) that lasts a day, and we had a mind to hit that economical challenge.

We were up early specifically to see the main temple ‘Virupaksha Temple’ first, with it’s iconic, towering gopuram (entrance gate) before the crowds amassed. We had to drop our shoes off and then walked under the large gateway into the temple proper.

There were some particularly aggressive monkeys mugging people – I even saw one jump on the back of a woman’s head to grab a bit of traditional floral decoration off it before leaping away. Distressing stuff to be sure.

You just don’t mess with these guys

We carefully navigated the temple, avoiding them, and found it to be much more in use by visiting Hindus, in contrast to the other temples we’d seen which were treated more like ruins to admire. There was some great morning light to take photos by.

Our next stop was the ‘wheeled chariot’, an iconic Hampi site not least because it’s the back of the 50 rupee note! To get there, we had to walk a good 30 minutes over this almost lunar landscape of exposed rock. It was slightly surreal, with ruin after ruin by the pathside.

We unwittingly passed the King’s Balance, an archway which once held a scales. The king would be weighed which would determine the taxes due by the people, or some such situation. Can’t say I understand the relevance of the King’s weight in all of this, but it’s a good story.

Eventually we reached the enclosure which holds the chariot as well as various other rooms (if that’s the right word?) held up by columns with absolutely brilliant stone sculptures adorning them. You really could admire them for a long time.

Let’s not forget the wildlife… we saw this lovely Hoopoe bird, also known as a ‘groundpecker’.

It was back to our homestay for a rest and read in the coolth of our room and the shady gardens before heading out once more in late afternoon. We returned to the southern area to see the ticketed entry bits there: the Lotus Palace and the Elephant Stables.

Mesmerising arches at the Lotus Palace

Both have a lot to write home about but the elephant stables were the winner for me – an epic structure!

Day 29 – Hampi

We’d seen the famous spots as well as many of the less written about areas so we were fairly pleased with ourselves and decided to take a break from the ruins. Our homestay was out in the countryside (only a 10 min scoot from Hampi) and was surrounded by beautiful paddi fields. We spent the day exploring these, taking pictures of birds.

We also crossed on a ferry to the northern side of Hampi (supposedly hippie island, but it is neither and island nor were there any signs of hippies) and visited Sanapura Lake.

On the way back, we dropped in to see a couple of really cool big monolithic statues that I realised we’d missed. This statue of Narasimha, the lion-man incarnation of Vishnu was incredible at 6.7 meters tall – all carved out of one piece of rock.

And lastly, as a fitting bookend for our stay, we decided to end our time in Hampi where we began it, on that fateful hill of rocks and boulders where we watched sunset on the first morning. It was so spectacular, I didn’t even take any pictures.

Next, we travel to Mumbai, giant city of over 20 million people. We will travel there by 16 hour night train. Tune in next time to see how THAT went.