Hello all! Before I start off rambling, in case you were wondering where I plagiarized the word "Hampi-ness" from, check out my good friend's blog: http://bit.ly/molkFP (and you're welcome N, at least you'll get more hits and you never know, maybe some other company will fall in love with your pictures, and that's more $$$ for you to visit me)
Also, I apologize for my keen "fans" (if there are any left), but I started having to type a lot and work, and didn't feel like sitting in front of a computer after work.
Ok, to get to the point of this post, my trip to Hampi! This was an awesome trip, and one of the highlights of my entire internship. The ideal trip I would recommend someone is Hampi, Athirapally Falls and then hiking in the Coorg forests (in the next post). :)
So the trip to Hampi ended up with almost all the interns at that time (I would guesstimate 80% of all the interns) going with us. We took an overnight train to Hospet, which is about 12 km away from Hampi, and then haggled with an auto to take us to Hampi. The guest house we were staying at had quoted almost double the price of the auto, so I was honestly satisfied. Due to the large number of people who went, we all split up the housing to different places. So there was a group of mostly MBAs who stayed at some fancy hotel in Hospet...and from the descriptions I've been given, I mean FANCY. Nice pool, restaurants, etc. then there were us...living in a nice, cozy guesthouse. Bed? check. Roof? check. Bathroom? check. Plumbing works? check. good enough! oh wait....AC? check! (we find out later though...AC didn't really work, I was sweating like a pig at night)
so we reached the guest house, freshened up, and then were supposed to meet our group and a guide at some other guest house. Initially, we thought this was far...but as it turned out, it was right opposite our guesthouse....and I could basically jump from one guest house to another! While waiting for people, we saw monkeys on top of the roof, so went to the roof to take pictures with monkeys, and hypothesize different scenarios.
following the formalities and settling how much to pay , etc. a group of us went to get mopeds. Why? Because we're awesome. We created a biker gang, and acted like goons. ok no, not really. but we did basically form a gang, and went on the tour of the different temples. the thing that was different about Hampi is that there were a lot of rocks around. Most of the temples and statues, etc. were also made of rocks. So even though I do not like trips that consists of sight-seeing....this was quite fun. Plus, the mo-ped rides between places made it more fun.
I'll skip all the rock structure stories (no offence to anyone)...except...oo, gotta elaborate on the bike gang. Well, we stuck together. and eventually, we had more interest to ride bikes than to follow the guide. I mean, it was nice to see (very beautiful), but do we really want to hear the history behind it? not really. although there was this one very explicit carving in a rock, which we would never have known without the guide, so yes, it was nice. But the guide just kept waiting for everyone to come before starting, so a lot of people starting getting annoyed waiting for the bikers (even though we told them to go on ahead without us)
Lunch was awesome. It was at this place called "Mango Tree", and to get there, we need to park our bikes/autos (for the non-adventurous people haha) and walk about 5 minutes through a mango farm. And then we reach the restaurant, which overlooks a very beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, I am not writing this on my own computer, so don't have access to pictures at the moment, but visit the link I gave above for awesome pictures. oh yeah, she also has good pictures from Hyderabad! But anyhow, the way it works is, at each table, we only sit in one row....the one leaning against the wall, and then while eating, just look at the scenery. Excellent concept. Food was good too :)
After the tour and everything, we returned our bikes, and then a couple of us decided to go chill by the river. The river also has rocks and in the middle, there was some sort of structure kind of thing. One of my friends has the bright idea to get there, so four of us set off on a mission. An awesome mission :)
So we start jumping between rocks, until we reach a certain point, where the jump is a bit far. Oh wait...let me back up a few seconds. Before embarking on this journey, we talked to two female french tourists, you know..just friendly chit-chat. Ok, so while jumping around rocks, we begin to gather a crowd. and then , when we reached the long jump, two of us (me included ofcourse!) get through comfortably. The other two have difficulty (more like scared to get wet, but that's besides the point), and then we finally convinced them to come. But then, we reached a deadend (meaning, no more plausible rocks to jump to...haha an oversight on my part lol). There was a rock right at the surface which I had hoped to walk through, but then it was too slippery (duh!). So we decided to double back. This would require us to jump back again, through that long jump.
Now, what I had forgot to mention was...the fact that we were able to jump across earlier was because we were aided by the fact that the other rock on the opposite side was lower than where we were standing. So, that "virtually" gave us more "air", since it took us longer to hit the rock, since it was lower (if you still can't visualize this....I give up). Well, now we're going the OPPOSITE way, hence jumping to a higher elevation. And whereas earlier the rock was big, so we could run and get a good start, this time, it was a small rock. Only two steps of a start...that too, not in a straight line. Got to step perpendicular to the jump direction and then push off against the rock. Oh yeah, and our feet were wet! Tricky.
The first dude (from Peru) did it easily. I went went second, and had to scramble as I slipped a bit, but made it across fine. Now comes the American girl. Lots of drama (LOL!). Even more people watching now, and the two french tourists we were talking to earlier, they have their iphone out, recording a video. After some time of gathering some guts and some convincing, she backs up, jumps and.......
....straight into the river. LOL! we pull her up and the other dude (Canadian...kinda...) decides it's not worth the embarrassment, and wades through the water instead. So that's two wet, and two dry. We go through a different route instead. Again, have to go on a slippery rock, but this time, we manage it. Initially we formed a human chain until the first person got to a safe place (not too far, so there were too anchors on dry land)...but we eventually found out we could balance ourselves and go slowly. After all four makes it across, we were just starting to have fun, and well, continuing to plan our route ahead, when we hear a loud whistle. A cop (more like cop-wannabe), blowing at us to go back. We pretend not to hear (there are people who have tried to follow us), and the dude slowly walks over to talk to them. Finally, we couldn't ignore the dude any longer. So we head back...mission failed.
We did go to the french tourists, and saw the video recorded by them. Shows the American girl falling right into the water, and there was an awesome narration in French (which I didn't understand but seemed funny nonetheless). She gave them her email address to email the video, but I don't think they ever did (or so she claims)
anyway, we chilled out in the evening after dinner, just hanging out with our mates, and then went to bed. Woke up in the morning and today I didn't quite feel like getting a bike. Then a friend of mine suggested getting a bicycle instead and I was interested. It seemed like everyone were going to a place called "Hanuman Temple", and for that, we have to cross the river to the other side (same river we were playing around in). We figured we can get the bicycle once we crossed it (with a boat, not swim), but miscalculated, and well....there were no bicycles on the other side. A few of us didn't want to get on the autos, and well, there were three bikes and six people. So two on one bike. That began a very interesting day...
Initially I didn't want to ride the bike, and my friend wanted to ride it, so that was easy. But she couldn't balance it with me on the bike...so I had no choice but to ride it. And as it turns out, we probably got the worst bike in the entire town...
First off, it is BLOODY hard to turn on. You had to kick the bike and rev the accelerator, while holding a button, all with perfect timing. Only then it turns on. Secondly, every time you slow down, the machine GOES OFF. So yeah, refer back to the original point in this paragraph.....an endless loop lol.
Anyway, we eventually reached the Hanuman temple. For those of you who don't know, Hanuman is the monkey God, so yeah, there were a lot of monkeys around. The temple was at a top of a hill...so we had a LONG climb up a lot of stairs. And there were some funny scenes....for example on the way down, there was an uncle, who was scared of one of the monkeys. and so he tried attacking it with his slippers, which pissed the monkey off more...lol a wonderful scene indeed.
anyway, the temple was just an ordinary mandir, but, close to it...there were a lot of rocks. So we decided to explore, and hence, walked on and on and on....amazingly beautiful! Check this out (from the blog above)
http://bit.ly/qrlmwA
And this too
http://bit.ly/oJjLO9
Amazing right? Told ya!
Ok, after Hanuman temple, we went on to some place....where we had a flat tyre!!!! Ahhh...so we went to look for a tyre repair shop, at which place we met two british tourists having trouble with their cycle as well. We made new friends, and had lunch together nearby. And then we parted ways....but that's when we had trouble starting our bike again! lol....a bunch of local kids come to help us out...but to no avail. Even the local bike expert, one of the kid's elder brother was summoned....and still couldn't do anything. checked if we had gas....yes we had it. Finally, we got it working, and we decided,....no more breaking until we reach!
But then, on the way, we realized...oh no! part of the way back requires a very steep curve followed by a downhill ride.....no way we can't slow down (or else we'll end up in the rocks). luckily, the dude from the bike shop got worried and came looking for us, and he seemed to know exactly what the problem with the bike was, as after he sped along when he saw us....he and his young young son waited at the bottom of that hill. He then gave us his bike, kick started our old bike in less than a second, and was gone again. We just stood there wondering...WTF?!!?
After returning the bike, we then were walking back to the boats, when we saw some locals playing cricket. We joined in...and hahaha, so they were playing it at a hill...so and there was a building on the leg side (left side), and right over the building....is downhill. Obviously the rule is, if you hit it over the building, you're out. The awesome skills in me managed to hit it over that building twice. Beautiful shots...but also out T_T
I must say though, I have to thank my friend for her patience and good humor throughout the day and also for being such a good sport, because without that, the day would have been horrible. But as it turns out, it was an awesome day, and we all had a lot of fun. Well, I had a lot of fun :) So thanks!
After we head back to the guest house, I asked the owner if there was a place i can shower, and the dude allowed me to shower in an empty room, which was nice of him. Then off we went to the train station, had dinner at a small dhaba..well smaller than a dhaba, just a shack kind of thing, but still really tasty food. I had two servings (which meant that my TP came into good use haha, since it was after all an overnight train...and input = output....law of conservation of matter)
That's about it folks....thanks for the patience in reading all this (assuming you ever get to this part). As for the next blog post....Coorg!!! Another awesome adventure where we got very close to the nature :)
EDIT: corrected mistakes in the links
Also, I apologize for my keen "fans" (if there are any left), but I started having to type a lot and work, and didn't feel like sitting in front of a computer after work.
Ok, to get to the point of this post, my trip to Hampi! This was an awesome trip, and one of the highlights of my entire internship. The ideal trip I would recommend someone is Hampi, Athirapally Falls and then hiking in the Coorg forests (in the next post). :)
So the trip to Hampi ended up with almost all the interns at that time (I would guesstimate 80% of all the interns) going with us. We took an overnight train to Hospet, which is about 12 km away from Hampi, and then haggled with an auto to take us to Hampi. The guest house we were staying at had quoted almost double the price of the auto, so I was honestly satisfied. Due to the large number of people who went, we all split up the housing to different places. So there was a group of mostly MBAs who stayed at some fancy hotel in Hospet...and from the descriptions I've been given, I mean FANCY. Nice pool, restaurants, etc. then there were us...living in a nice, cozy guesthouse. Bed? check. Roof? check. Bathroom? check. Plumbing works? check. good enough! oh wait....AC? check! (we find out later though...AC didn't really work, I was sweating like a pig at night)
so we reached the guest house, freshened up, and then were supposed to meet our group and a guide at some other guest house. Initially, we thought this was far...but as it turned out, it was right opposite our guesthouse....and I could basically jump from one guest house to another! While waiting for people, we saw monkeys on top of the roof, so went to the roof to take pictures with monkeys, and hypothesize different scenarios.
following the formalities and settling how much to pay , etc. a group of us went to get mopeds. Why? Because we're awesome. We created a biker gang, and acted like goons. ok no, not really. but we did basically form a gang, and went on the tour of the different temples. the thing that was different about Hampi is that there were a lot of rocks around. Most of the temples and statues, etc. were also made of rocks. So even though I do not like trips that consists of sight-seeing....this was quite fun. Plus, the mo-ped rides between places made it more fun.
I'll skip all the rock structure stories (no offence to anyone)...except...oo, gotta elaborate on the bike gang. Well, we stuck together. and eventually, we had more interest to ride bikes than to follow the guide. I mean, it was nice to see (very beautiful), but do we really want to hear the history behind it? not really. although there was this one very explicit carving in a rock, which we would never have known without the guide, so yes, it was nice. But the guide just kept waiting for everyone to come before starting, so a lot of people starting getting annoyed waiting for the bikers (even though we told them to go on ahead without us)
Lunch was awesome. It was at this place called "Mango Tree", and to get there, we need to park our bikes/autos (for the non-adventurous people haha) and walk about 5 minutes through a mango farm. And then we reach the restaurant, which overlooks a very beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, I am not writing this on my own computer, so don't have access to pictures at the moment, but visit the link I gave above for awesome pictures. oh yeah, she also has good pictures from Hyderabad! But anyhow, the way it works is, at each table, we only sit in one row....the one leaning against the wall, and then while eating, just look at the scenery. Excellent concept. Food was good too :)
After the tour and everything, we returned our bikes, and then a couple of us decided to go chill by the river. The river also has rocks and in the middle, there was some sort of structure kind of thing. One of my friends has the bright idea to get there, so four of us set off on a mission. An awesome mission :)
So we start jumping between rocks, until we reach a certain point, where the jump is a bit far. Oh wait...let me back up a few seconds. Before embarking on this journey, we talked to two female french tourists, you know..just friendly chit-chat. Ok, so while jumping around rocks, we begin to gather a crowd. and then , when we reached the long jump, two of us (me included ofcourse!) get through comfortably. The other two have difficulty (more like scared to get wet, but that's besides the point), and then we finally convinced them to come. But then, we reached a deadend (meaning, no more plausible rocks to jump to...haha an oversight on my part lol). There was a rock right at the surface which I had hoped to walk through, but then it was too slippery (duh!). So we decided to double back. This would require us to jump back again, through that long jump.
Now, what I had forgot to mention was...the fact that we were able to jump across earlier was because we were aided by the fact that the other rock on the opposite side was lower than where we were standing. So, that "virtually" gave us more "air", since it took us longer to hit the rock, since it was lower (if you still can't visualize this....I give up). Well, now we're going the OPPOSITE way, hence jumping to a higher elevation. And whereas earlier the rock was big, so we could run and get a good start, this time, it was a small rock. Only two steps of a start...that too, not in a straight line. Got to step perpendicular to the jump direction and then push off against the rock. Oh yeah, and our feet were wet! Tricky.
The first dude (from Peru) did it easily. I went went second, and had to scramble as I slipped a bit, but made it across fine. Now comes the American girl. Lots of drama (LOL!). Even more people watching now, and the two french tourists we were talking to earlier, they have their iphone out, recording a video. After some time of gathering some guts and some convincing, she backs up, jumps and.......
....straight into the river. LOL! we pull her up and the other dude (Canadian...kinda...) decides it's not worth the embarrassment, and wades through the water instead. So that's two wet, and two dry. We go through a different route instead. Again, have to go on a slippery rock, but this time, we manage it. Initially we formed a human chain until the first person got to a safe place (not too far, so there were too anchors on dry land)...but we eventually found out we could balance ourselves and go slowly. After all four makes it across, we were just starting to have fun, and well, continuing to plan our route ahead, when we hear a loud whistle. A cop (more like cop-wannabe), blowing at us to go back. We pretend not to hear (there are people who have tried to follow us), and the dude slowly walks over to talk to them. Finally, we couldn't ignore the dude any longer. So we head back...mission failed.
We did go to the french tourists, and saw the video recorded by them. Shows the American girl falling right into the water, and there was an awesome narration in French (which I didn't understand but seemed funny nonetheless). She gave them her email address to email the video, but I don't think they ever did (or so she claims)
anyway, we chilled out in the evening after dinner, just hanging out with our mates, and then went to bed. Woke up in the morning and today I didn't quite feel like getting a bike. Then a friend of mine suggested getting a bicycle instead and I was interested. It seemed like everyone were going to a place called "Hanuman Temple", and for that, we have to cross the river to the other side (same river we were playing around in). We figured we can get the bicycle once we crossed it (with a boat, not swim), but miscalculated, and well....there were no bicycles on the other side. A few of us didn't want to get on the autos, and well, there were three bikes and six people. So two on one bike. That began a very interesting day...
Initially I didn't want to ride the bike, and my friend wanted to ride it, so that was easy. But she couldn't balance it with me on the bike...so I had no choice but to ride it. And as it turns out, we probably got the worst bike in the entire town...
First off, it is BLOODY hard to turn on. You had to kick the bike and rev the accelerator, while holding a button, all with perfect timing. Only then it turns on. Secondly, every time you slow down, the machine GOES OFF. So yeah, refer back to the original point in this paragraph.....an endless loop lol.
Anyway, we eventually reached the Hanuman temple. For those of you who don't know, Hanuman is the monkey God, so yeah, there were a lot of monkeys around. The temple was at a top of a hill...so we had a LONG climb up a lot of stairs. And there were some funny scenes....for example on the way down, there was an uncle, who was scared of one of the monkeys. and so he tried attacking it with his slippers, which pissed the monkey off more...lol a wonderful scene indeed.
anyway, the temple was just an ordinary mandir, but, close to it...there were a lot of rocks. So we decided to explore, and hence, walked on and on and on....amazingly beautiful! Check this out (from the blog above)
http://bit.ly/qrlmwA
And this too
http://bit.ly/oJjLO9
Amazing right? Told ya!
Ok, after Hanuman temple, we went on to some place....where we had a flat tyre!!!! Ahhh...so we went to look for a tyre repair shop, at which place we met two british tourists having trouble with their cycle as well. We made new friends, and had lunch together nearby. And then we parted ways....but that's when we had trouble starting our bike again! lol....a bunch of local kids come to help us out...but to no avail. Even the local bike expert, one of the kid's elder brother was summoned....and still couldn't do anything. checked if we had gas....yes we had it. Finally, we got it working, and we decided,....no more breaking until we reach!
But then, on the way, we realized...oh no! part of the way back requires a very steep curve followed by a downhill ride.....no way we can't slow down (or else we'll end up in the rocks). luckily, the dude from the bike shop got worried and came looking for us, and he seemed to know exactly what the problem with the bike was, as after he sped along when he saw us....he and his young young son waited at the bottom of that hill. He then gave us his bike, kick started our old bike in less than a second, and was gone again. We just stood there wondering...WTF?!!?
After returning the bike, we then were walking back to the boats, when we saw some locals playing cricket. We joined in...and hahaha, so they were playing it at a hill...so and there was a building on the leg side (left side), and right over the building....is downhill. Obviously the rule is, if you hit it over the building, you're out. The awesome skills in me managed to hit it over that building twice. Beautiful shots...but also out T_T
I must say though, I have to thank my friend for her patience and good humor throughout the day and also for being such a good sport, because without that, the day would have been horrible. But as it turns out, it was an awesome day, and we all had a lot of fun. Well, I had a lot of fun :) So thanks!
After we head back to the guest house, I asked the owner if there was a place i can shower, and the dude allowed me to shower in an empty room, which was nice of him. Then off we went to the train station, had dinner at a small dhaba..well smaller than a dhaba, just a shack kind of thing, but still really tasty food. I had two servings (which meant that my TP came into good use haha, since it was after all an overnight train...and input = output....law of conservation of matter)
That's about it folks....thanks for the patience in reading all this (assuming you ever get to this part). As for the next blog post....Coorg!!! Another awesome adventure where we got very close to the nature :)
EDIT: corrected mistakes in the links
Ghai, thanks for the link back to my blogness :P Plagiarism... tsk tsk! haha, oh well - I guess imitation is the best form of flattery so I'm honoured. hee hee... miss you ghai! I'll come for my iPad2 soon :)
ReplyDeleteOH and I"m putting your link my my blogroll too :) (you're welcome)
ReplyDelete