Hampi III

The gist of this travel.

I speak to my friends a lot about Hampi. So they asked me to accompany them as a guide to Hampi.

This time, I got company when I travelled to Hampi. We were able to reach Hampi by early morning. I pushed my friends to climb the Matunga Hills to view the sun rise. So at last got a chance to witness sun rise from Matunga Hills.

Hampi has a lot to offer. Each time it brings up some new spot. This time the underground shiv linga gates were open. The water level in underground shiva temple was down. I was able to get a closer look of the linga inside.

I didn't carry my camera this time as it was an unplanned trip. So this photo is taken using my mobile. You can see the linga if you look carefully.

And one other thing I noted was the new structures being renovated. There were few new structures which just showed up / were renovated since my last visit.

Tiruvannamalai

A small temple town in Tamilnadu, India. The temple here is around 200 years old. This target was in my mind for a few months now. Girivalam is a tradition in which pilgrimages go around the hillock in this village. The whole path covers around 14 kms. This Girivalam happens every full moon day of the month. Keeping away the spiritual things, I decided to participate in the Girivalam.

All along the path there are 9 lingams. It's believed that each lingam has its own special powers. For example the Kubera Lingam is believed to have the power to offer you a lot of wealth. Obviously this was the most crowded lingam.

We had started to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore at about 10.00 PM. It took us a whole six hours to reach Tiruvannamalai because of the bad roads. We started walking as soon as we reached. We finished the whole round around 8.00 AM in the morning. During the trip, we encountered shops trying to sell authentic Ayurvedic medicine which cures all kinds of pain in 10 minutes, people selling medicinal soup, water, and all other eatables. There are a lot of book shops also for the book lovers. And like all other temple towns in India, there are a lot of beggars.

Infront of a lingam along the path

Yema Lingam

Stores attract customers with different strategies

A snake charmer

Surya Lingam 

Sunlight slowly comes in

The crowd in front of us

The hillock

One more snake charmer with a monkey

The RajaGopuram

Hampi II

I had visited Hampi again, I love this place for some unknown reason. I travelled alone this time too.

Here are few interesting incidents which took place in both the trips.

Lost in a Island
I was wandering along the Tungabhadra river in Hampi. I was following the sign boards leading to a temple. The place was completely deserted. The last people I saw was a group of youngsters posing for a photo with a solo foreign traveller. I had crossed them a long back and walked into the green lush near the river. I felt lost. I noticed a local guy following me. I was not sure if he was following me or he is in his way to do his work.

Anyway I acted as if I was taking photos and made him go ahead of me. So brilliant of me right :-p. After moving some ten feet ahead of me. He stopped and asked if I wanted a trip in the boat to the island he pointed. Sounds interesting right. I agreed and he rowed me there in his parisal.

After reaching there, I felt something about the place was fishy. This boat guy dropped me and sailed away. There was not even a single person in sight. After roaming for sometime I found a tamil lady and a tourist.I learned that she was settled in Australia and she was from Coimbatore.

The guide informed me that there is no bridge / boat to get out of this island. :-( I had to wait till there tour of the island was over and they gave me a lift to the other side of the river.

Free Tender Coconut
As usual, I was wondering and was so thirsty. I saw a bunch of people with tender coconuts in the road side. I stopped my bike and asked them for a coconut. They mentioned its not for sale. I started my bike again but the boss in the crowd stopped me and offered me a coconut. When I paid him money, he didn't take it. Free coconut.

I am Inspector
I was having a look around a deserted building. There was a old lady in the premises. I started speaking to her and started enquiring about the kind of work people do their for renovating the building. She asked me 'Are you here to inspect the work?'. Guess what. I answered yes, and inspected the building and left.

Hyderabad

This trip again was unplanned for. We wanted to go to Hyderabad on a long road trip. Its around 560 km from Bangalore. Friday night we started playing carom board and when the clock hit somewhere around 2 we started from Bangalore. The highway from Bangalore to Hyderabad is so awesome. There was no major incidents we noticed here on our whole 1200 km drive.

There was a bad experience with the Hyderabad traffic police, which I have blogged here.

First we had gone to Charminar. It didn't wow anyone. The interesting thing to note was there was a Hindu temple next to it. I had read about that the controversies about that temple a long back. When seeing incidents like this. I personally feel Tamilnadu is much peaceful than many other parts of India.

Then we went to a briyani place nearby called Shadaab. The briyani there wasn't so great. Then we visited the Makkah Masjid. And next in our itinerary was the Buddha Statue.

The statue looked so beautiful. But the lake smelled like shit. It was a very disgusting drive to the statue.

Next we booked a room and went to the Paradise Restaurant. There briyani was completely impressive. Next day we went to Golconda Fort. Then started to Bangalore to reach by the evening.

Somnathpur

This weekend, I had planned a trip to Somnathpur, which is some 35 kilometers from Mysore. Its a Hoysala architecture temple in a small village.

Hatched a stupid plan to travel by night train to Mysore and catch a bus from there to Somnathpur. Was in Bangalore Majestic bus stop from 10, waiting for the 2'o clock to Mysore. After noon went to the train ticket counter to book the tickets. Waited in Bangalore railway station until 2.

Bangalore Railway station @ noon

The general compartment shows how the poor India exists still. Living in Bangalore and spending time by watching movies and trying new restaurants every week, just keeps you away from reality. The real India still suffers in poverty. Watching people of very poor background around you. To be frank, I felt completely out of the crowd and was scared a bit. I tried to sleep a bit but couldn't get any sleep because of the weather. I hadn't taken any precautions for the weather. The night was so cold.

Was expecting the train to reach Mysore by  5 in the morning. But to our shock it reached Mysore by 4. Now we have to face the problem. I will have to kill time till might be till 7 before the buses starts functioning to the remote village. So started to take a walk around the palace. The town was just getting ready for the day.

Mysore Palace @ 5 in the morning

The roads around the palace

Finally the sun is up

We had to take two connecting buses before reaching Somnathpur. The first bus took us completely outside Mysore to a small town called Bannur. I had a chance to see a lot of metdaor vans after a long time. They had just vanished from my memory. I never knew they still existed. We were waiting there not completely aware if we are in the right direction towards Somnathpur. Just then we encountered a Chinese who was backpacking around South India for a month now. A sign of a foreigner in a remote part of India just means that you are in the right direction towards your destination. Now all we have to do is follow him.

We had reached the temple well before the gates were open. The gates open by 8.30 AM. We took a small walk around the village, and then was back to the temple complex.

The temple complex looked so small at first. Small compared to a lot of other temples, I have visited. But it was later when I found out that why this temple out of no where in some remote village attracted so many visitors. During the few hours I spent in the temple, I had seen a lot of foreigners than Indians.

The thing, I like about old monuments is that, I time travel to the time when this monument was in it's glorious days. The imagination I make in my head, that is so beautiful. That is why I visit these historical places and that is why I love reading fiction especially historical fiction.

Just overheard it from the tourist guide, that this temple stopped operating, I mean people stopped worshipping in this temple after Mallik Kafur raided this temple and destroyed the structure. And he also pointed at the main shrine and mentioned that it was a replica of the original shrine which is in London Museum.

The best thing about this temple was its minute details. The minute details in each carving was simply awesome.

After just going around the temple. I had just entered the temple. The inside of the temple is just awesome. It is un explainable. I just believe few things are better experienced in person than reading or seeing it a photograph. My camera's flash had stopped working. So I was not able to take any photos inside the temple. The ceilings were the highlight of the whole architecture. You should sure visit it and experience the awesomeness in person.

Then came back to Mysore well before lunch and had a quick look at the palace again and started to Bangalore. Roaming around the streets of Mysore brought back some nice memories of my time in Infosys.