Vicky's Blog: January 2019

Destination: “Hampi (Karnataka)” Situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the eastern part of central Karnataka near the state border with Andhra Pradesh and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It became the center of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire capital in the 14th century. Chronicles left by Persian and European travelers, particularly the Portuguese, state Hampi was a prosperous, wealthy and grand city near the Tungabhadra River, with numerous temples, farms and trading markets. By 1500 CE, Hampi - Vijayanagara was the world's second-largest medieval-era city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at that time, attracting traders from Persia and Portugal. Go back and use your internet data to Wikify it for more information about Hampi 😉.

Travel Date: 18^th Jan 2019

Stay: River View Guest House

Group Details:

1.    Vikram Rao (Myself)
2.    Madhu Kashyap
3.    Anish Shetty
4.    Mithun Gowda
5.    Karthik Dhayalan
6.    Precious (Name changed of our lovely lady friend to keep her safe from stalkers on Social Media 😊)
7.    Happiness (Name changed of our lovely lady friend to keep her safe from stalkers on Social Media 😊)

Travel Distance: Approximately 378 KMS from Bangalore

Well, as we are all still tripping after our short trip, let me try to explain why Hampi and how it started. I had been reading several other blogs and watching videos and was always planning to visit Hampi once. The ancient history of the place always fascinated me to go and check out the beauty of this place. But, there was also something else that was drawing my attention and I had discussed about it with few of my friends during our office break. Many of you would have guessed by now as to what I am gonna talk about. Yes! I am referring to the “Hippy Island” which is situated just across the Tungabhadra river. It’s a different world out there and attracts many tourists from around the world. There are 2 types of people who visit Hampi. While the first type of people visit Hampi to explore and enjoy the ancient surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom, the second type of group visit there to get Hippyfied and trippy at the “Hippy Island”. I don’t think I should be more specific about the purpose of our trip now 😉.

As one of our dearest friends “Precious” had decided to leave Bangalore and move to {Wait! are you curious to know where she is going? Let’s just focus on reading the blog :D} a different place for career opportunity, we wanted to go on a road trip before she leaves, so that we could make some beautiful memory that she can take back with her and we all could cherish throughout our life. As places like Chikmagalore, Coorg, Waynad and other hill stations are the common locations which Bangaloreans visit, we wanted to keep those places out of our list. Hence, we all decided to get “Hippyfied @ Hampi” and stay away from all the chaos of city life.

As most of us believe in instant road trips and with having just couple of days to plan, myself and Karthik started browsing the list of resorts and guest houses at Hampi and reading the reviews posted on the internet. Our plan was to book our stay at the “Hippy Island”. After shortlisting few places and calling up the numbers available on internet, “The River View Guest House” contact person sounded genuine and easy to converse with. Without any delay, we transferred the advance amount and booked the stay. Somewhere back in our mind, we were a bit confused about the place, as we had only seen the pictures posted on the internet and had no idea how it actually looked like. And to add on to our confusion, the guest house contact told us that his place was 2 kms away from Hippy Island and not in the actual Hippy Island area. Without thinking much, we decided to stick on to our booking than making any changes.

Now that the planning phase was over, it was time to execute it. Like every other punctual boys and girls, we decided and agreed that we will start our drive from Bangalore not later than 11:00 PM so that we can reach the destination early and get good amount of time to spend. But, as we aren’t school going kids anymore and knowing the traffic, “Punctuality” is just a Noun which doesn’t even exist 😊. So, like all other good boys and girls working in a corporate industry, we started our drive only after 2 AM. And as we know that the road trips are no fun without plenty of chai, sutta and bio breaks, it was time for our first pit stop after we crossed Tumkur. After all the basic necessities of our pit stop were fulfilled, we continued our journey playing some good music, singing and chit chats. By then it was time for a second pit stop and it was time for some bread omlets and tea. By now the temperature was slowly dropping and everyone were surrounding the small fire pits (thanks to the tea shop guy) to keep themselves warm while we wait for our food and tea.

After satisfying our growling tummies, we continued our journey further. By now we were away from the city and had started inhaling some fresh air for our lungs which the city people crave for. We knew that we had to take a detour from Chitradurga. Hence, it was time for our third pit stop 😉. You may be thinking if this this an actual road trip or some crazy people doing the episodes of “Highway On My Plate – With Rocky & Mayur” series. Relax!! Like I mentioned earlier, road trips aren’t fun without plenty of breaks. After some fresh air, chit chats and fun, we continued our drive. As we were nearing Chitradurga, it was time to seek help from the most knowledgeable lady “Googleathi” to show us the way towards our destination. While Googleathi is usually a very loving and helpful lady, at times she will be tripping on cheap dope and likes to make people go round & around. Maybe she was already high when we asked for help, so she kept the legacy alive and made us take a longer route than usual. We did get to see some beautiful landscapes on the country side. On the other hand, we also got to see some Michael Schumachers who were driving their lorries (piece of tin which they call as truck) like maniacs without giving importance to their own lives nor others.

With few more pit stops and experiencing the awesome roads and landscapes we finally reached Hampi at 9 AM. But our destination was on the other side of the river as this was not a temple trip. There were many touts trying to get us into their guest houses while they didn’t know that we are in digital world and our booking was already confirmed. While Googleathi was enjoying fooling with us, our mood changed drastically. We passed bullock cart after bullock cart. Some were transporting goods, others transporting group of people to work the fields. Farmland morphed into a landscape that looked as though it had rained boulders, all perched on top of each other as far as the eye could see and glowing bright orange in the morning sun. We were being welcomed with open arms by the beautiful spread of paddy fields and we started feeling like we were in Gokarna or Goa. Wouldn’t be wrong to say that Hampi is just Goa and Gokarna without the beaches.

The drive around the serene paddy fields and the land of boulders finally took us to the guest house which we had booked. I and Karthik stepped inside first to inspect and ensure that we don’t get beaten up by our friends for booking a creepy place which on the internet they called a guest house. What a relief it was when we saw that we had chosen the right location. The place was a private property just beside the Tungabhadra river with small huts and a dorm. It had a beautiful sunset view point within the property and access to the river to play in water. It was one quiet and peaceful place. Exactly what we were looking for. After checking in and getting freshened up, it was time for some brunch post which all of us were just lying around in the café and chit chatting and having fun. Café’s are slightly different here. They do not have the concept of chair and table. Instead, they put beds so that you can sit freely and even stretch your legs by lying down while you enjoy the view, tea-coffee or beer.

After resting for a while, we went to the actual Hippy Island. Beautiful paddy fields on one side, several cafes and shops on the other. While you walk along the Hippy Island, you don’t feel that you are in a small village and rather feel that you are in Goa. I had read about some good cafes in Hippy Island where you can sit back and enjoy the beautiful view with beers and food. Laughing Buddha was one among them, so we wanted to try it out. Although the view from the café was beautiful, the service wasn’t that great. Food was tasty except the French Fries. Wouldn’t recommend anyone to try French Fries at Laughing Buddha café. After spending some good time there, we returned to our guest house and all of us felt that we made the right choice of booking the guest house which was little away from Hippy Island than booking the ones which are located on the Hippy Island. The guest house where we stayed was more peaceful while Hippy Island was a bit commercial. It was a full moon and the night stated getting cooler while the temperature started dipping. We sat around the bonfire listening to good music and had wonderful talks. As we did not have proper sleep the previous night due to the journey, few started feeling sleepy after 1 AM while three of us were completely engrossed in narrating and listening to ghost stories 😊. Time just flew but our stories were never ending and by the time we hit the bed it was around 4:45 AM.

The purpose of the trip was to enjoy the great company and spend good time. We did not have plans to explore the village although there were plenty of beautiful places around. So, we decided to laze around the café having food, playing UNO (Thanks to the pretty ladies and Anish for teaching UNO card game to me and Madhu 😉). We had decided to leave from the guest house around 6 PM so that we can reach Bangalore early as we had to resume office and start slogging again with the same routine the next day. After playing cards, we went to the river to play in water. I chose to be the lifeguard and keep a watch around to ensure if there were any crocodiles nearing us while others were enjoying playing in the river. As it was time for the “Sun” to go home we headed to the sunset view point within the property and bid farewell to him and thanked him for a beautiful day. Now that our time was nearing to leave the guest house and head back to Bangalore, we got freshened up and sat in the café with long faces and wondering how soon the day went by. As we all know that time never stops for anyone, and with a realization that its gonna be the same busy life from the next day onward, we finally left the guest house with a heavy heart at 9:30 PM. We had dinner at a dhaba late night and continued the journey. While we were nearing Bangalore, we once again started experiencing the traffic and pollution along with the worst thought that it was a Monday again. With all the memories we made during the road trip and with a wish of having an option to rewind the time we spent together, we finally reached Bangalore at 7 AM ☹.

With that being said, I would say that we will miss you and wish all the best to our dearest friend who will be departing from us shortly to start a new chapter of her career and conclude this blog until we reunite and create another memory.

Go out and create some good memories. It’s the only good thing which you can see whenever you turn around and look back at your life😊

Enjoy few pictures below while I sign off until the next blog.