2014 has been a great year for BoP's Bangalore chapter and for me as a rider. We completed 6 rides (a total of 5410+ kms) and added 2 new members to the 'team'. Apart from this, I'd done some more rides on my own or with friends. I did 2 of my longest rides ever within a span of a few months (Munnar Macarenas at 1113 kms, followed by West Coast ride at 1693 kms). Numbers don't matter, but it is immensely fulfilling to look back the ride stats, blogs and pics and I feel happy that I am covering so much of our beautiful country. At the same time, it is overwhelming to see how minuscule these distances are when compared to the vastness of India and how much MORE is left for me to explore!
To round off this year's riding, I chose Hampi, a destination I'd heard and read a lot about but never visited. Winter is the best time to visit, in my opinion, given the location. It gets beastly hot in summers and you can't really do justice to the place. The ride dates kept changing due to various reasons, but we finally fixed the weekend before Christmas.
Dates: 20-22 December, 2014
Place(s) covered: Lepakshi, Hampi, Tungabhadra Dam
Route taken:
Bangalore-Chikkballapur-Lepakshi-Kalyandurga-Bellary-Hampi (while going)
Hampi-Tungabhadra-Chitradurga-Tumakuru-Bangalore (on the way back)
Riders:
1. Satish Palleti: Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350
2. Krishnatreya Brindavanam: Royal Enfield Electra Twinspark
3. Mystery BoPian who didn't ride
Total distance traversed: 793 kms
DAY 1
The ride started at around 6.30 in the morning and we headed towards the airport road. It was quite chilly and I was really enjoying the weather. As we crossed Nandi Hills, we were surprised by a thick fog that enveloped us. It reminded me of my Delhi days. Oh, how I miss riding in the Delhi winters! We stopped for breakfast at a Kamat restaurant that actually was structured like and resembled an A2B. The food is no match for A2B, though.
Our plan was to stop for a while at the Veerabhadra Temple in Lepakshi. The signs were a tad confusing and the road had patches with a whole lot of craters, but we rode on and reached the temple. It was like a trailer for what was in store for us in Hampi. The stone sculptures and pillars inspired awe. Two statues- one of Shesha Nag and other of the Nandi bull- are the centres of attraction. They were both carved out of single blocks of stone. Satish had a good time photographing the temple while I preferred walking around and admiring them with the naked eye.
We had some delicious cucumber slices outside the temple before hitting the road. Now the sun was up and the bleak, brown landscape seemed to add to the heat. We were riding through the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, a region of rocky, dry hills and occasional fields. It is a wonder that people manage to till the land here. The road was bad just after Lepakshi but eventually smoothed out. However, it is a deserted highway. We road kilometer after kilometer with scarcely a car passing by. Indeed, the citizens and denizens of the surrounding areas seemed to be used to walking in the middle of the road and moved slowly out of the way when they heard us approaching. Obviously, there was no place to stop either.
It was lunch time when Satish and I took a break on the roadside. A couple of guys loading a bullock cart started talking to us. They informed us that there was a 'great' place to eat 2-3 kms down the road and helpfully informed us that we could get drinks also! Without further ado, we headed towards the place. It was basically a bunch of huts (with brick walls though), each hut serving as a 'private cabin'. Satish doesn't drink, so I just ordered a beer for myself and some snacks. The food wasn't all that great but the beer was much needed and we spent a leisurely 2 hours there before starting off again.
Thanks to this long break plus the stop at Lepakshi and some bad roads, we entered Hampi only after sunset. We actually took a wrong turn, but we'd stopped to call up some hotels and eventually discovered that we were heading in the wrong direction. This had happened during the Redstone Rockets ride also, when a timely break saved us all from taking a wrong route.
We entered the Hampi Bazaar area and started inquiring for places to stay. The first few places turned us down flat. Touts trying to show places to stay outnumber the tourists. We found a little place in the bazaar itself. At 500 a night, it was cheap and perfect for us. Furthermore, it was at walking distance from Virupaksha temple. After freshening up, we stepped out for dinner. We went to a place called Funky Monkey. The ambiance is amazing, with a very 70's hippie'ish feel. The food was bland but decent (probably because it caters to a largely non-Indian crowd). We took the help of the manager/waiter there to chart out the plan for the next day. After dinner, we walked towards Virupaksha temple. We were approached by a nice auto-guy who offered to take us to all places in Hampi in the morning at a fair price. His itinerary sounded good to us, so after some thought, we decided to go ahead with it. He promised to meet us at the temple in the morning.
DAY 2
The next morning, Satish got up before me and walked around clicking photos. I joined him for breakfast at a small stall behind the temple. The region of Rayalseema is known for its fiery cuisine and while Hampi is in Karnataka, the cultures are quite similar. Accordingly, we burnt our tongues with some super-hot chutney and idli. We even witnessed a great sunrise. We then met our auto driver-cum-tour guide there and commenced our tour. We covered a lot of places that day, so I will try to give a brief description of each:
1. Hemakunta Hill: The first stop where the main attraction is a giant statue of Ganesha. The sanctum sanctorum is quite dark and frankly, the Ganesh statue looks a little eerie. We found a whole group of school-children here. We would eventually find ourselves a few minutes ahead of these kids at every spot we stopped at throughout the day.
2. Lakshmi Narasimha and Badavi Linga: The former is an enormous statue of the half man, half-lion avatar of Lord Vishnu, Narasimha. Sculptors of that era were virtual magicians, in my opinion. To bring out such terrifying expressions in stone is admirable, to say the least. The Badavi Linga is a large Shiva lingam which remains partially submerged in water all the time due to the presence of a canal nearby.
3. Sisters Rocks: Two rocks lean against each other precariously. Supposedly, they were two sisters who made fun of Hampi and were cursed and turned into these rocks. I decided to keep any negative opinions on the place to myself, lest I be turned into a stone.
4. Prasanna Virupaksha/Underground Temple: So called because it is built 'underground'. The roof is at ground level, but back in the day, tall grass covered the surrounding areas and the place was virtually invisible. It was also flooded (and still is in some parts). We came upon a bunch of guys here, who complained about the lack of maintenance. Personally, I thought all places in Hampi were maintained superbly. But then, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one!
5. Hazara Rama temple: We passed by some buildings of that era that our driver informed us were mosques. The next stop was the beautiful Hazara Rama Temple. It is quite huge and scenes from the Ramayana were carved into the stone walls inside and outside. Among all the temples we saw, this was the grandest and best-maintained temple. The main hall has some amazing sculptures carved out of black stone.
6. Lotus Mahal and Elephant Stables: Till now, we were mainly exploring temples. Now we reached the area of royal buildings. The Vijayanagara Empire had its capital in Hampi and as a result, a number of palaces, baths, living quarters and ruins of forts are spread all around the place. We came upon a watch tower first and joked about how it overlooked a bathing area and how the guards would have had fun 'watching' stuff from the tower. The Lotus Mahal was a place for relaxing after a long day (too grand for such a simple activity, but then, I ain't a king!). Elephant Stables are seen in most photos of Hampi; it is a grand building that held 11 elephants. My little guide booklet said there was a secret entrance to the top, but it was gated to prevent any mischief. Nearby was a 'pushkarini' or step well, supplied by an aqueduct from the river. A guard didn't trust us and followed around till we went away.
7. Mahanavmi Dibba: This was one intriguing structure. Basically, it is a huge platform with multiple tiers and steps connecting each tier. There is no pavilion on the top, it is open air. It was apparently used for festivals and various rituals. Each tier has some nice carvings too. We climbed up to the top of the platform, from where you get a nice view of the remains of the fort. Two European tourists were getting so much attention from a bunch of schoolchildren that it would put a celebrity to shame. Their accompanying teacher was not only indulging this behaviour but trying to score his own brownie points with a short speech on how Indians are destroying their own culture. Nearby was a secret enclosure which was used to discuss state secrets. One guide was spinning off grand stories to another group of tourists on how prisoners were brought here into this underground maze.
8. Queen's Bath: It was a grand structure for the Queen's bathing. The only thing worthy of note here was the aqueduct system that brought in water from the Tungabhadra river.
9. Vitthala Temple: Once again, this is a very famous temple and something that a lot of people associate with Hampi. Like the Hazara Rama (and other places too), astoundingly beautiful carvings adorn the temple, so intricately detailed that you sometimes forget that they were once stones. The first center of attraction here is a large stone chariot in front of the temple, inspired from the Sun Temple in Konark. It used to have a couple of stone horses, but they had been vandalized and had been replaced with a pair of elephants from another part of the temple by the ASI. As I walked around the chariot, I spotted a familiar face admiring the chariot. Who else, but our very own Varun Doegar, present with his wife and a tourist guide! He had opted out of the ride but here he was! He invited us to join him but we had our auto-driver-cum-guide waiting for us, so we decided to meet in the evening for dinner. The next stop in this temple is the main hall, locally known as "saptaswara". Tapping each pillar in this hall produces a different 'swara' or musical note. They are NOT hollow and are built of solid stone. Unfortunately, instead of admiring such great examples of craftsmanship, visitors used to be more interested in damaging the pillars by throwing stones and other stuff at them. As a consequence, tapping the pillars is no longer allowed, in order to preserve them.
10. Anegundi: From the Vitthala temple, the auto driver took us to the edge of the Tungabhadra river and dropped us off there. We were to take a boat to the other side and find a bus/share auto over there. Surprisingly, we found that bikes were being taken in the boats too, contrary to all the information we had received till then. On the boat, we bumped into a Japanese lady who was cycling around. We waved away all the drivers looking to get a package deal and walked into Anegundi. It was afternoon now, the sun was on top of our heads and we were hungry. We bought biscuits and water and finished them off in no time. A signboard said there was a 'Gagan Mahal' nearby. It sounded grand, but it actually was in a dilapidated state, surrounded by shops and other buildings.
11. Hanuman Temple: One of the last places on our itinerary, the Hanuman Temple is located on top of a hill known as Kishkinda. In the Ramayana, this is the abode of Sugriva, king of monkeys. Thanks to our Gagan Mahal trip, we watched a bus going towards the temple rush away. After waiting for almost half hour, we found a share auto willing to drop us at the temple without a package deal. On the way, we passed the Japanese lady cycling away towards the same destination. The temple attracts a lot of tourists from Rajasthan and Gujarat, so you can hear a lot of Hindi all around. You need to climb 500+ steps to the top. Neither of us is particularly fit and the heat didn't make it easier either. But there was no question of turning back. We huffed and puffed our way up to the top. Somewhere in the middle, our dear old Japanese lady cheerfully crossed me at a brisk pace while I was bent double gasping for air. Some fitness that woman had! The views were superb from the top. We stepped inside the temple for a while before making our way downhill. Too tired to wait for a bus now, we hired a share auto to drop us off at the river crossing. We went via Viruppura Guda, the famed hippie village of Hampi. We couldn't explore it properly, but it surely looked appealing.
We took a boat back to Hampi, sharing it with a whole bunch of foreigners, a lot of them pretty girls. Lunch was at Mango Tree. We ordered full meals and it was fantastic. Our tiredness and hunger must have added to the great taste. A not-to-be missed place for all foodies out there! We went back to our room and I crashed into the bed for a short nap while Satish went around looking for a laptop to empty his camera's memory card.
After I woke up, we went to Virupaksha Temple. There was an elephant there that would 'bless' people. If you pay Rs 2, it would be a short touch with its trunk. If you pay more, it would keep the trunk on your head for longer. Smart elephant, I must say! The temple was connected to living quarters and the river in the back. Thanks to my tourist guide booklet, we didn't miss out a little marvel here. In a dark corner, there is a little hole in the wall that projects an inverted shadow-image of the the temple's main tower at the entrance. It acts like a giant pin-hole camera. I tried to explain the science behind it to Satish (since I had constructed one for a school project once) but failed to answer his questions. Guess I should have paid more attention in class.
All the sightseeing for the day done, the next order of business was beer! Hampi being a temple town doesn't have any bars, so we rode to Kamalapuram, the next nearest town. We passed through the entire town without spotting a bar and reached a mirror-like reservoir that reflected the majestic sky with a setting sun. We even spotted a large fire in the distance. The view was amazing but I was a little disappointed that there was no beer. On the way back though, Satish spotted a bar, spread over 3 floors. The basement and first floor had seating areas, but the waiter told us to go the basement area only. As I drank the beer and munched through the snacks, I noticed people around kept eyeing Satish's phone. I was getting a little uncomfortable with the stares and was expecting some trouble. The waiter was very perceptive and must have noticed the same thing, so he said we could shift to the first floor because of the 'public' around here. This was a much neater place and empty too, save a couple of foreigners. The drinking was great and I was a little buzzed.
Back in Hampi, we decided to have dinner at Mango Tree again. Doegar and his wife accompanied us, even though they had finished their dinner (at the same place). Doegar narrated his experience with the guide, who was more intent on showing individual carvings from various angles than moving faster. Satish and I bid farewell to the couple after dinner and went back to our rooms. I inquired about the first boat to Viruppura Guda because I really wanted to walk around in the hippie area before leaving for Bangalore. Sadly, I was informed that they only started at around 7 which would be too late for us.
DAY 3
In the morning, we got some line up pics clicked at the Virupaksha temple. A bunch of devotees from the temple thronged around us and one of them described our ride as a "bike yatra". We also witnessed stand-off between a wailing puppy and a bull.
As we made our way out of Hampi, the chill in the air added to the enjoyment. The plan was to take the route through Chitradurga. We decided to ride in a more disciplined manner this time to avoid the dreaded weekday traffic of Bangalore. We did however stop at Tungabhadra Dam on the way. There is not much to see here, though I did enjoy seeing the swans skimming on the water.
After Tungabhadra, the roads were bad for a while but we hit the 4-lane expressway soon and it was smooth riding from there on. We stopped for breakfast at a small place on the way, where the staff moved at the pace of a tortoise that had smoked weed. Their chai was superb though!
It was a smooth ride back into Bangalore. We skipped a lunch break, took the NICE Road to bypass a major chunk of city traffic and reached home at around 3.30.
The ride was quite different because of the sheer number of places we had visited on Day 2. The auto-driver (whose name I forgot, sadly) deserves kudos for helping us plan the itinerary that day so as to not miss any key places. I wish I could have spent more time in the hippie area, but there is always a next time! Here's to having more amazing rides in 2015!
Until next time! Cheers and Jai BoP!
To round off this year's riding, I chose Hampi, a destination I'd heard and read a lot about but never visited. Winter is the best time to visit, in my opinion, given the location. It gets beastly hot in summers and you can't really do justice to the place. The ride dates kept changing due to various reasons, but we finally fixed the weekend before Christmas.
Dates: 20-22 December, 2014
Place(s) covered: Lepakshi, Hampi, Tungabhadra Dam
Route taken:
Bangalore-Chikkballapur-Lepakshi-Kalyandurga-Bellary-Hampi (while going)
Hampi-Tungabhadra-Chitradurga-Tumakuru-Bangalore (on the way back)
Riders:
1. Satish Palleti: Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350
2. Krishnatreya Brindavanam: Royal Enfield Electra Twinspark
3. Mystery BoPian who didn't ride
Total distance traversed: 793 kms
DAY 1
The ride started at around 6.30 in the morning and we headed towards the airport road. It was quite chilly and I was really enjoying the weather. As we crossed Nandi Hills, we were surprised by a thick fog that enveloped us. It reminded me of my Delhi days. Oh, how I miss riding in the Delhi winters! We stopped for breakfast at a Kamat restaurant that actually was structured like and resembled an A2B. The food is no match for A2B, though.
It was lunch time when Satish and I took a break on the roadside. A couple of guys loading a bullock cart started talking to us. They informed us that there was a 'great' place to eat 2-3 kms down the road and helpfully informed us that we could get drinks also! Without further ado, we headed towards the place. It was basically a bunch of huts (with brick walls though), each hut serving as a 'private cabin'. Satish doesn't drink, so I just ordered a beer for myself and some snacks. The food wasn't all that great but the beer was much needed and we spent a leisurely 2 hours there before starting off again.
Thanks to this long break plus the stop at Lepakshi and some bad roads, we entered Hampi only after sunset. We actually took a wrong turn, but we'd stopped to call up some hotels and eventually discovered that we were heading in the wrong direction. This had happened during the Redstone Rockets ride also, when a timely break saved us all from taking a wrong route.
DAY 2
1. Hemakunta Hill: The first stop where the main attraction is a giant statue of Ganesha. The sanctum sanctorum is quite dark and frankly, the Ganesh statue looks a little eerie. We found a whole group of school-children here. We would eventually find ourselves a few minutes ahead of these kids at every spot we stopped at throughout the day.
2. Lakshmi Narasimha and Badavi Linga: The former is an enormous statue of the half man, half-lion avatar of Lord Vishnu, Narasimha. Sculptors of that era were virtual magicians, in my opinion. To bring out such terrifying expressions in stone is admirable, to say the least. The Badavi Linga is a large Shiva lingam which remains partially submerged in water all the time due to the presence of a canal nearby.
3. Sisters Rocks: Two rocks lean against each other precariously. Supposedly, they were two sisters who made fun of Hampi and were cursed and turned into these rocks. I decided to keep any negative opinions on the place to myself, lest I be turned into a stone.
4. Prasanna Virupaksha/Underground Temple: So called because it is built 'underground'. The roof is at ground level, but back in the day, tall grass covered the surrounding areas and the place was virtually invisible. It was also flooded (and still is in some parts). We came upon a bunch of guys here, who complained about the lack of maintenance. Personally, I thought all places in Hampi were maintained superbly. But then, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one!
5. Hazara Rama temple: We passed by some buildings of that era that our driver informed us were mosques. The next stop was the beautiful Hazara Rama Temple. It is quite huge and scenes from the Ramayana were carved into the stone walls inside and outside. Among all the temples we saw, this was the grandest and best-maintained temple. The main hall has some amazing sculptures carved out of black stone.
6. Lotus Mahal and Elephant Stables: Till now, we were mainly exploring temples. Now we reached the area of royal buildings. The Vijayanagara Empire had its capital in Hampi and as a result, a number of palaces, baths, living quarters and ruins of forts are spread all around the place. We came upon a watch tower first and joked about how it overlooked a bathing area and how the guards would have had fun 'watching' stuff from the tower. The Lotus Mahal was a place for relaxing after a long day (too grand for such a simple activity, but then, I ain't a king!). Elephant Stables are seen in most photos of Hampi; it is a grand building that held 11 elephants. My little guide booklet said there was a secret entrance to the top, but it was gated to prevent any mischief. Nearby was a 'pushkarini' or step well, supplied by an aqueduct from the river. A guard didn't trust us and followed around till we went away.7. Mahanavmi Dibba: This was one intriguing structure. Basically, it is a huge platform with multiple tiers and steps connecting each tier. There is no pavilion on the top, it is open air. It was apparently used for festivals and various rituals. Each tier has some nice carvings too. We climbed up to the top of the platform, from where you get a nice view of the remains of the fort. Two European tourists were getting so much attention from a bunch of schoolchildren that it would put a celebrity to shame. Their accompanying teacher was not only indulging this behaviour but trying to score his own brownie points with a short speech on how Indians are destroying their own culture. Nearby was a secret enclosure which was used to discuss state secrets. One guide was spinning off grand stories to another group of tourists on how prisoners were brought here into this underground maze.
8. Queen's Bath: It was a grand structure for the Queen's bathing. The only thing worthy of note here was the aqueduct system that brought in water from the Tungabhadra river.
10. Anegundi: From the Vitthala temple, the auto driver took us to the edge of the Tungabhadra river and dropped us off there. We were to take a boat to the other side and find a bus/share auto over there. Surprisingly, we found that bikes were being taken in the boats too, contrary to all the information we had received till then. On the boat, we bumped into a Japanese lady who was cycling around. We waved away all the drivers looking to get a package deal and walked into Anegundi. It was afternoon now, the sun was on top of our heads and we were hungry. We bought biscuits and water and finished them off in no time. A signboard said there was a 'Gagan Mahal' nearby. It sounded grand, but it actually was in a dilapidated state, surrounded by shops and other buildings.
We took a boat back to Hampi, sharing it with a whole bunch of foreigners, a lot of them pretty girls. Lunch was at Mango Tree. We ordered full meals and it was fantastic. Our tiredness and hunger must have added to the great taste. A not-to-be missed place for all foodies out there! We went back to our room and I crashed into the bed for a short nap while Satish went around looking for a laptop to empty his camera's memory card.
Back in Hampi, we decided to have dinner at Mango Tree again. Doegar and his wife accompanied us, even though they had finished their dinner (at the same place). Doegar narrated his experience with the guide, who was more intent on showing individual carvings from various angles than moving faster. Satish and I bid farewell to the couple after dinner and went back to our rooms. I inquired about the first boat to Viruppura Guda because I really wanted to walk around in the hippie area before leaving for Bangalore. Sadly, I was informed that they only started at around 7 which would be too late for us.
DAY 3
In the morning, we got some line up pics clicked at the Virupaksha temple. A bunch of devotees from the temple thronged around us and one of them described our ride as a "bike yatra". We also witnessed stand-off between a wailing puppy and a bull.
As we made our way out of Hampi, the chill in the air added to the enjoyment. The plan was to take the route through Chitradurga. We decided to ride in a more disciplined manner this time to avoid the dreaded weekday traffic of Bangalore. We did however stop at Tungabhadra Dam on the way. There is not much to see here, though I did enjoy seeing the swans skimming on the water.
After Tungabhadra, the roads were bad for a while but we hit the 4-lane expressway soon and it was smooth riding from there on. We stopped for breakfast at a small place on the way, where the staff moved at the pace of a tortoise that had smoked weed. Their chai was superb though!
It was a smooth ride back into Bangalore. We skipped a lunch break, took the NICE Road to bypass a major chunk of city traffic and reached home at around 3.30.
The ride was quite different because of the sheer number of places we had visited on Day 2. The auto-driver (whose name I forgot, sadly) deserves kudos for helping us plan the itinerary that day so as to not miss any key places. I wish I could have spent more time in the hippie area, but there is always a next time! Here's to having more amazing rides in 2015!
Until next time! Cheers and Jai BoP!
All photographs by Satish Palleti, last painting made by an unknown painter in the Hampi Bazaar
