No Vibe, No Life

Did you know, UNESCO has curated a World Heritage List which consists of cultural and natural sites around the globe? In this massive catalog are up to 31 cultural sites from India, of which the group of monuments at Hampi is one. No Vibe, No Life is a story of Hampi's charming remains, headless statues and the raw architecture.

The commute - If you're travelling from any of the cities in Karnataka, an all night bus trip is the best way to reach Hampi. Not Hampi, the Hospet district to be precise.

Most buses drop you off at Hospet Taluk, which isn't more than a 20-25 minute drive to Hampi. Our bus reached Hospet much earlier than planned, at 5am. We'd initially decided that we'd walked to the hotel we had booked, but it was pitch dark and unless us two women wanted to take the leap of faith through this walk of fate, we'd have to pay up the auto wallas to drop us safely to our momentary destination. That being Hotel Malagi. I think it's a good idea to always book your hotels in advance, even if it's at the cost of paying a little advance. Because when you're on vacation, looking for a vacant room to crash is the last thing you want to worry about. Also, decide on a hotel strategically. You shouldn't be picking a place that's an impossible distance from the sites you want to visit. Walkable distance is always preferable, else figure out modes of transport. Thankfully for us, the room we had booked had been checked out of and instead of an 11am check-in, we received a 5am check-in out of goodwill, and on a condition that we'd check out the next day at 6am. It worked in our advantage because we had an early morning trek planned the following day so we'd anyway be leaving early. We rested for a bit, ate at the hotel's breakfast buffet and head over to Veerapur Gaddi also known as Hampi Island or Hippie Island. I have to break it to you, the so-called island area is only one street long and beside a river. But it's a really cool space with graffiti on the walls and where I misheard one of the best life quotes

No Vibe, No Life, homie!

Correction, the man actually said No Wife, No Life, but I like my misheard version better. From here, we went over to Sanapur Lake to indulge in cliff jumping, but sadly for us, in spite of having visited during the monsoon, the water level of the lake was too low to dive into. We then chose the less adventurous Coracle Riding. It is easy to begin with if you only choose to quietly sit and enjoy the calm view around you, with the sounds of goats bleating in the background. But my over enthusiastic self had to give rowing a hand. It lasted well until our coracle began rotating directionless and my arm strength gave way.

We'd hired a car for the first day to take us around, and this truly worked in our favor because there's only so much you can explore by Googling locations, looking up places to see or asking for recommendations. The most authentic way of experiencing a region is through travelling with a local. Our driver took us to an exquisite structure called Malayavanta Raghunatha temple atop the Malayavanta Hill. The place is disconnected, so we barely saw any travellers there. It is believed that Lord Ram and Laxman spent time here during the monsoon season in their quest to find Sita. The temple had a beautiful courtyard with numerous engraved pillars. Climb to the peak of the Maliyavanta hill for a windswept time and it's also a great viewpoint to view the boulders of Hampi.

After a long day, we head back to our hotel and went straight to Maligee's Karaoke Bar where I sang Punjabi songs with and for some foreigners. On the second day, we began our morning by taking a rick to the foot of the Mathanga Hill. We took some time to look at the monolithic bull here. Monolith meaning the bull was carved out from a single rock. The Mathanga Hill trek is not a very difficult climb. We took only about 15 minutes each to reach atop and back. I would highly recommend this because you get an eagle's eye view of Hampi and its structures from up here. Once we descended from the hills, it was only a series of exploring the whole area. There were beautiful structures in every direction, so we walked towards whatever caught our eye. Most of these structures are from the Vijayanagara period dating back to the 15th century. We came across another monolithic structure that was a 4-meter-high sculpture called Kadle Kalu Ganesha. This area is called Nimbapura and make sure to go to the Padmanabha carvings. It's an endless series of old stone pavilions on a sloped surface.

For day 2, we picked a different hotel to stay at for two reasons. One, this place was closer to the cluster of structures we wanted to visit on the third day, and the second being, we spot this resort online while researching which hotel to stay at and this had our heart. It's slightly pricey, but what's a vacation without a little chill and some overspending? It's called the Heritage Resort and what a gorgeous property. We spent the rest of our second day experiencing the different amenities the resort had to offer. I took a walk along the resort's organic farm, where they harvest everything from fruits, vegetables and even breed their own fish. They have a unique manner of capturing insects without the use of pesticides. Yellow coloured bottles are suspended over the plants and the colour attracts these insects who get stuck on to it because of the semi-dry paint. I could smell cookies when we reached the in-house bakery and the farmer told me that those are the complimentary cookies all guests are served every evening. My cousins and I spent the rest of the evening playing snooker in the clubhouse and I picked myself a book from the library.

On day 3, we walked and how! I can attest to that because I chose to wear the most uncomfortable pair of footwear and the foot pain was real. On the third day, we went over to the other cluster of structures I was earlier talking about. You begin the trail from Queen's Bath, go over to Mahaanavmi Dibba, walk a little distance to reach the ethereal step tank and I'm gonna pause here for a bit because then we got lost. We were headed to the Hazara Rama Temple and when technology gave up on us kids, we had to resort to aimlessly strolling until we finally spot the temple. Now one thing you should know about most of these temples at Hampi is that they contain headless statues of the gods and goddesses and in almost all of these places, there are no pandits or aartis performed. These structures and statues were destroyed by the armies of Alauddin Khilji and Muhammad Bin Tughlaq back in the 14th century and remain so till date.

From here, we went over to the Lotus Mahal and the Elephant Stables. These are so beautiful; it's no wonder that students of architecture visit Hampi for their educational trips.

On our way to the Vijaya Vitthala Temple, we spot the exquisite Gejala Mandapa. We also came across a wishing space where seven little rocks were made to stand one over the other, a lot similar to how we arrange pebbles in Lagori, except here, if the rock stood balanced by itself for long, your wish comes true. I love how every region has its own beliefs and ways of getting people to do these silly little things by baiting them with the desired future.

There are many mandapas on the way to the temple. Another one was the Kudre Gumbhe Mandapa, which was small in space, yet very serene and well-crafted. The Vijaya Vitthala Temple complex also houses the very famous stone chariot of Hampi. We reached at the time of sunset, and what an incredible sight it was.

And with that, we came to an end to exploring Hampi's archaeological ruins, which only signifies that broken things can be embraced too.