The ancient temple city lost in banana forests: travels in Hampi, Karnataka, India

travel.psych

Jan 31

I had heard many travel stories from Indian and non-Indian friends visiting India. What all their stories had in common was the strong impressions of the cities they visited, the people they met, the colours they saw, the flavours they tasted. I was curious to see a bit of the country from which people leave with such intense memories. In December 2022 our AMKA Counselling team had the opportunity to attend the UNLEASH Innovation Lab in Mysore, India, as AMKA was one of the finalists of their UNLEASH Plus accelerator programme. It was my first time in this part of the world, and I started the journey with excitement. With my business partner Moni we got to see a bit of the hustle and bustle of Mysore in between training sessions and expert meetings of UNLEASH. And once the programme ended, we decided to travel to the ancient temple city of Karnataka, called Hampi. Below is a summary of this adventure and some tips if you wish to follow suit.

Getting to Hampi

We travelled to Hampi from the Indiranagar district of Bangalore. We spoke with Indian friends who also attended UNLEASH and they told us that that getting to Hampi was going to be a 5-6 hours drive without traffic. Hampi itself is not connected to main national public transportation lines, so we had to travel to Hosapete, located about 11 km from Hampi. Overall, we had three options:

Travel by taxi. The InterCity option of the Uber app showed the cost to be about 10 000 Indian Rupees. We were told that drivers were unlikely to accept the 6-hour-long trip as they are unlikely to find a passanger to return with. We consulted a private car agency and they told us it was going to cost $110 one way - so we dropped the option.
Travel by the overnight train from Mysore or Bangalore. Choose this option if you travel from Mysore directly.
Travel by overnight bus. This is the option we chose as it was the most cost-effective. We took a Greenline bus on the way to Hampi, and on the way back we took RajTravel. All buses travel overnight, and you can check the timetable on RedBus. The cost for any of the travel agencies ranges between 750 to 900 Indian Rupees one way. In our experience both buses were comfortable, we were given a bottle of water, a blanket, and a pillow.

This is what the bus looked like from the inside - just like the Knight Bus from Harry Potter!

Some travel tips:

Tip 1: In Bangalore our hostel was about 7 km away from Anand Rao circle, where the main bus station is located. We bought our ticket to Hampi from a stop that we thought was much closer to our hostel. Only on the way did we figure that there was a pickup bus that went around the city to collect all passangers and took them to Anand Rao - and this took almost 3 hours. On the way back we just took an auto (or tuktuk) from Anand Rao to our hostel - it's a much quicker option. One more thought: if you go to Anand Rao by yourself, go well ahead of time. The station is full of buses, drivers shouting out loudly the vehicle number and destination of their buses, and it can be quite overwhelming. Allow yourself time to accommodate to the setting and find the right bus.
Tip 2: We did not manage to buy the tickets online, not even with Google Pay, and we were told that the travel agencies did not accept cash. We asked the receptionist in our hostel to kindly book the ticket for us online and we paid her in cash.
Tip 3: While on the bus, make sure you activate your GPS. We were supposed to arrive at 6am to Hosapete station and instead we arrived at 4.30am! However, on the way back the bus came 30 minutes late. The good thing is that all bus companies make a tracker available to you so you can check where your bus is in a given moment. Also, the driver called us ahead of time to check that we were on our way to take the bus.

Accommodation in Hampi

The ancient city of Hampi lies along the Tungabhadra river. There's many activities you can do on both sides of the water, but crossing the river is something to take into account when selecting your place to stay. As we were going to arrive very early in the morning, we decided to book a homestay in Kadirampura. This village is located just about 4 km from all the main locations. It was easy to reach from Hosapete, and it was a short ride away from all the sites we wanted to see.

Other options:

Kamalapura. It is a small town near all the historical sites. We didn't choose it because it's more of a town than a village, so Kadirampura seemed like a quieter choice.

Hippie Island. Many travels blogs I read mention this island on the river as a cool, hipster area one can visit. However, one has to cross the river to get there. The first boat leaves at 9am, and last one at 5pm. Moreover, with COVID-19 the whole island died off - when we visited, literally all of the previous guesthouses or coffee shops were closed.

Anegundi. It is a village on the 'other' side of the river, so we decided not to stay there because of the difficulty to reach it by boat. We did visit Angundi for a short walk and a lunch in Coconut Tree Restaurant. Anegundi has some beautiful hostels and guesthouses though, so if you have a car it's a great option.

What to do

We spent four days in the Hampi area, and we had something new to do every day. We felt we could have stayed one more day just to relax. That said, here are the things to see, eat, and do in and around Hampi.

Visit the ancient city and the temple site. The Virupaksha temple is the oldest shrine in the complex (with pictures below.)

As we wandered around the hilly area of this ancient capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, we found numerous other temples, ancient markets, and monuments like that of a monolithic bull. I felt like as if we were in an Indiana Jones movie, finding ancient ruins and monkeys in spots where no one else dared to hike or climb.

Climb the Matanga Hill to watch the sunset. This one speaks for itself, just watch the video below.

Hike and explore the Hippie Island. This island is located just in front of the main temple site in Hampi. You can take the ferry from in front of the Virupaksha Temple and it costs 50 Indian Rupees per person and per journey. We read that there used to be a whole hippie colony with hipster cafes and hostels on the island - but none of it survived the pandemic. However, the island deserves a trip for the views and its natural beauty. I recommend downloading MapsMe for this hike as it indicates all the pathways you can take. You do still have to get creative as the paths sometimes mean climbing rocks. We hiked all the viewspoints on the island, and then climbed down to Hanumanahalli - there is a small crossing on the river towards the village. We walked till Anjanadri Hill, and then on to Anegundi.

Lunch and chill in Anegundi. The scenery in and around Anegundi is beautiful, it's worth a walk. We had a nice lunch in the Coconut Tree Restaurant.

Climb the Anjanadri Hill to visit Hanuman's birthplace. We did this just before sunset, on the way back from Anegundi. Hanuman's birthplace is a point of pilgrimage and worship, it was full of local visitors praying and sacrificing a coconut. The views are beautiful and it is a worthy cultural experience. Now there are innumerable monkeys living on top of this hill - so just be mindful of them.

Visit Lotus Mahal and the temple site around it. A continuation of the Hampi temple site lies between Kamalapura and Hampi. We read that historians disagree about the functionality of these buildings. Some argue that the Lotus Mahal was a city council building, while others say that the area was the queen's residence and a harem.

Tip: On MapsMe you will see that there is a walking path towards the main road from Kamalapura to the famous Sri Vijaya Vitthala Gudi. The map shows that the pathway doesn't reach the main road, but we were adventurous and crossed through the banana forest - it's worth it, you will walk through beautiful farmlands. The only area where there is no dedicated pathway is for about 300-400 meters. You then reach the main road 300 meters to the north of Tamarind Tree Restaurant - where it's worth stopping for lunch.

What to eat

In general I love curries, spices, and any dishes with an intense flavour - so I loved the food in Karnataka. Nevertheless, I took two packages of plain biscuits with me. If you are not used to an intense food experience, I would advise you do the same. In the mornings it was helpful to eat something really very simple (and for once not spicy). And then during the day go for:

Banana flower curry - a local speciality.

Local thali - thali as I learnt means that one eats a range of curries and sauces with some bread, for someone who likes tasting different flavours it's a great option.

And where to eat:

ChillOut in Hampi. Some of the restaurants we read about before our arrival closed over the pandemic, but Chillout is open. We had delicious food there and the vibes are great too. I recommend trying the spinach kofta.

Tamarind Tree Restaurant. This is a local restaurant on the way to the main temple site from Kamalapura. We tried their cauliflower curry and it was spicy, but delicious.

Coconut Tree Restaurant. We had lunch here in Anegundi, and to try something different, we had their Tibetan soups.

In your homestay. We ate dinner in our homestay on various occasions - our host cooked the most delicious curries and local specialities.

Returning to Bangalore from Hampi was as if we returned to a whole different world. In Hampi we walked all day, went to sleep by 10pm, woke up to the chirp of birds, to then go explore yet another ancient temple site and beautiful nature. If you are in Karnataka, I suggest you don't miss this trip. And if you do go, let me know if you found other activites or specialities to try!

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