Thursday, May 14, 2015

Temples and Chillaxation

Hampi is probably known as one of the chillest places in India. It’s also known for its beautiful landscapes and just serene atmosphere. Again, I was coming here at the beginning of low season, so things were even more quiet than usual, but I still really wanted to check it out. It’s a lot of people’s favorite destination in India, and for good reason.

Hampi's impressive Virupaksha temple
It’s a pretty small town situated on a small river with guesthouses and things to do on each side. The main side of the river consists of most of the guesthouses and an impressively large temple complex. It’s really nice there but there’s usually too much going on, so people had suggested that I stay on the other side which has a more relaxed atmosphere and better vibes. So I took a small boat to cross the river (the only way to get across without taking a long and expensive 40km detour) and went to a place that my friends stayed at and had recommended. I had my own little hut and I was paying about $2.36 a night to stay there.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Hampi was the landscape. Just amazing. It’s a hilly landscape, but instead of these hills being covered in vegetation they were shielded by large boulders. These boulders provided an aesthetic quality to the landscape that uniquely reminded me of a national park you might encounter back home. It was beautiful, and I was excited to do some exploring here.

The popular thing to do on this quieter side of the river was to actually rent a scooter and explore some of the temples and small villages nearby. There were temples everywhere. Hampi is full of them and they complement the landscape. On the precipice of a boulder-strewn hill you might see a small temple capping off the top of it like a cherry on a perfectly constructed sundae. There was one popular temple in particular that provided an above average view of the surrounding area, the ‘monkey temple,’ which of course came with monkeys. I rented a scooter on this day and rode over to the base of the hill that the temple sat on top of and began hiking to the top before 11am. By the time I reached the top I was completely drenched in sweat. Hampi was even hotter than Goa, which made it even more difficult for daytime activities (this is a big reason why it was considered ‘low season,’ as temperatures began to steadily rise this time of year).


But the view was worth it. I got a great panorama of the surrounding boulder-infested valley, and it was quite a sight to see. After the monkey temple I picked up a couple little kids that were hitchhiking to the next village, dropped them off, and continued on to another village called Anegundi. It was a really nice little place with a beautiful temple complex situated on the upper banks of the river. It was such a cool feeling to be cruising around in a somewhat remote village in which I was probably the only Caucasian person at the time. Everyone waves at you, saying hello and just enjoying your presence of being there and exploring.

I spent another day on the busier side of the river seeing the main temple and doing some exploring on my own when I discovered some (ancient?) rock paintings nearby, followed by another temple complex that I never knew existed, in which I was the only person there at the time. It was a lot of fun just walking around on my own and exploring the surrounding area.

I had a lot of time to myself during my near one week stint in Hampi, and it was much needed after traveling with a group of people for the previous couple weeks. But after that week in Hampi I was ready to move on to a busier city setting. I wanted to be back in the craziness and instability that is an Indian city, and I felt the craving to immerse myself in that atmosphere once again. So I was determined to get to Varanasi, and it would be no short journey..

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