Hampi - Badami trip was on my travel wish list for many years, and now that I had got my leaves approved from office there was no turning back. Now for people who do not know much about these two little towns,
Hampi and Badami are ancient villages in the south Indian state of Karnataka. It is like a fantasy to explore these towns due to the naturally carved boulders, and human carved magnificent architectural temples.
Hampi is divided in two parts by the Tungabhadra river, the southern part is where all the monuments and Hampi Bazaar is located and the Hippie Island lies in the northern part. The cheapest and the quickest way connecting the Hippie island is the coracle boat (which was closed due to high water levels in the river at the time I visited Hampi.)
Badami is 140kms, 3 hour drive from Hampi. I did not drive there though; you will find it later in the itinerary. It was the capital of the Chalukya Empire between 540 AD and 757 AD. It is famous for the Rock cut cave temples, the agasthya lake on the foot of the hill, Bhootnath temple on the bank of agashtya lake, Badami fort and the Aihole & Pattadakal Temple complexes.
Here is the itinerary that I followed during my trip, we missed out on places as we were bound to time also our plan did have flaws but we had a lot of fun.
Day 1:
It was the last week of October and still it was raining cats and dogs in Mumbai, so I was a bit nervous about the trip going well. It was me and two other friends who joined me for the trip.
Our Train Sharavathi Express was scheduled at 9:10 pm from Dadar Station.
Our ticket status was RAC which meant one berth to be shared by two of us for the overnight journey. which also meant one of us had to share his berth with a stranger which was going to be pretty uncomfortable for him.
We asked the TC for any vacant seats but he said there weren’t any. So we somehow adjusted and dozed off. In an hour TC returned he woke us up and arranged each of us a berth and then we had a good night’s sleep.
Day 2:
We woke up as the train passed by the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, it was still raining. We were a bit worried that the off season rains might ruin our trip but the mesmerizing views from the train window distracted us. We passed over many rivers and plateaus, for breakfast we had snacks which we had brought along.
The train reached Hubli by 12:30pm and it was still drizzling. We got veg biryanis packed from the railway canteen and boarded Amaravati Express for Hospet, which left at 1.30pm. We had our lunch on the train and reached Hospet around 4:30. As the train approached Hospet station it crossed over tungabhadra river and the view from the bridge was really pleasing. We took an Auto-Rickshaw from Hospet to Hampi, which took another Half an hour and we finally reached Hampi by 5.00pm.
We did not have our rooms pre-booked as it was off season, the auto driver took us to Archana Guesthouse in Hampi Bazaar which was very basic but river facing. We checked in there and we took a stroll at the Hemakuta hill which is just beside Hampi Bazaar. It got dark soon, so we came back to Hampi bazar. Apart from the locals there were hardly any indians all over the place. It was a very different experience. We went for dinner at Mango Tree Restaurant, which had the typical Hampi Cafe Vibe. As we were tired due to the extensive travel we dozed off early that night.
Day 3:
We woke up before sunrise and started climbing Matanga Hill. It was a not long but very steep climb over the boulders. We reached the top and saw the sunrise from the top of the hill, it was magical we could see the beautiful boulders, river, the temples and rising sun amidst the clouds. Its descent was as scary and tiring as the climb, also there were a lot of mischievous monkeys to distract us. As we reached downhill we visited the Monolithic Bull near the foot of Matanga Hill. The Monolithic Bull is as the name suggests a Large Bull sculpted out of a single rock.
We had our breakfast at Ganesh Chill Out Restaurant, in Hampi Bazaar. The place had a really good view of the banana farm from its dining area. The food was good but a bit on the expensive side. As there was no sign of rain and it was a sunny day we rented bicycles. The heat was bad and we rode the bicycles through the ups and downs on our way to the temple complexes. On the bicycle we visited Queens Bath, Pushkarni and Hazara Rama Temple. We came back to Hampi Bazaar late in the afternoon, had our lunch in our hotel itself. Due to the tiring early morning trek and riding bicycles for around 3 hours we were exhausted and we dozed off. We woke up almost by sunset so we could not go anywhere in the evening. So we just had a stroll around the hampi bazaar. Got some hippie kurtas and souvenirs to take back home. There was this little terrace restaurant besides our guest house named Gopi Guest House, we had our dinner there. The place was okay, again we were the only indians at the restaurant.
Almost all the restaurants in Hampi have mood lighting which make you feel cozy. After that we just went to our hotel. Late in the night I was bored and was not sleepy, so I just climbed up to the terrace. The sky was magical, it was a no moon night and the sky had in numerous stars. A city boy like me rarely sees such sight.
Day 4:
In the morning we packed our bags and checked out as we had to leave for badami in the afternoon. The homestay guy allowed us to keep our luggage with him. We had our breakfast at the Mango Tree Restaurant, Aloo paratha there was a real deal. After that we went to Hemakuta hill, just besides the virupaksha temple. It was a small hill with just a little climb. There were many small temples on Hemakuta hill and had many cliffhanger rocks. After that we took an auto to Vitthala Temple, where the famous stone chariot and musical pillars are located. Vehicles are allowed upto a point and from there you can either take an electric van, or 10-15 minutes walk to the temple complex. Behind the temple complex there was the serene riverbank of Tungabhadra River, we spent some time there and then proceeded back to Hampi Bazaar and had our lunch in Archana GuestHouse itself.
We had called for an auto rickshaw to take us to Hospet station but the auto driver could not make it, so he sent another auto which took time. The auto driver was driving very slow and it started raining again which made him drive slower. I anticipated that we were going to miss the train, but luckily even the train was late. We booked tickets and boarded the train at 4:00 from Hospet station to Gadag. The train was full of locals; there were no tourists on the train. The views from the window were mesmerizing, sunflower fields on the plateau, and the sun setting behind it. We reached Gadag station in the evening, and the next train was one hour late, there was nothing outside the station. There was a small canteen on the station so we ordered local masala dosa there. We boarded the solapur express for Badami in some time. We reached Badami late in the night. Taking the train was a bad decision, it took us a long time to just cover 140kms. We would have rather hitchhiked on the road and reached there early. But the views of the sunflower fields didn’t allow us to regret our decision.
As we reached Badami station by 10:30 pm, We spotted a 6 seater auto rickshaw. He agreed to drop us, but he packed around 10-12 people in the van. We somehow reached the Hotel Rajsangam opposite Badami Bus depot and checked in. Ordered our dinner from Golden Caves restaurant next door and ended our day.
Day 5:
Began our day after having our breakfast at a small udupi restaurant named Anand bhavan. Then we booked an auto rickshaw for our sightseeing to Aihole and Pattadakal temple complexes. It took us around an hour to reach there. Both Aihole and Pattadal had architecturally beautiful temples, they were well maintained and had few tourists unlike more crowded places of Hampi. There was also a small Museum in Aihole showcasing a brief history of the place. After that we came back to Badami and had lunch in the Golden caves restaurant as there were hardly any decent restaurants in Badami. We then checked out of Hotel Rajsangam as they did not allow us to extend upto evening. We then checked into the Hotel K.K. Residency, which was much cheaper and had far better rooms than Hotel Rajsangam.
In the evening we went to Agasthya Lake, Bhoothnath Temple which was on the banks of the lake which was a beautiful view. There were also famous Badami Caves and Badami Museum besides the lake, which we had to skip due to scarcity of time. The red rock mountains and the lake on the foot of the hill looked very beautiful. Also the Badami Fort was just a 20-25 min climb from the lake. Only a few ruins of the fort were remaining. But we could see the whole town and the sun setting behind it from the fort. All these places were at a walking distance from the main market where our hotel was located.
We came back to our hotel rested for a while, again had dinner in Golden Caves restaurant then checked out of the hotel and proceeded towards Badami railway station in an auto rickshaw.
The train Barmer Express was scheduled at 10:30 pm and it arrived at Badami Station on time.
Day 6:
We reached Mumbai around 2:00 pm and our beautiful journey came to an end.
Do check my Instagram for all the pictures from the trip: https://www.instagram.com/iam_prasad/
Thank you,
Prasad.
