Hampi

Next on our trip was a place called Hampi. I’m not sure why we decided to visit, as neither of us had heard of it before, but it was possibly on a blog post or trip advisor forum (my go-tos) for planning. It looked really cool, and after a lot of relaxing we decided it was time for some sightseeing. 

Accommodation

The nearest bus and train station to Hampi is a place called Hospet, where most people take a public bus or rickshaw to Hampi to stay. From Hampi itself a small boat will take you to “Hippie Island” where there are lots of hostels etc.

 However; we found a 3* hotel in Hospet for 1200 rupees per night including a pool, gym and buffet breakfast. The hotel was called Maligi Hotel, and was a 5 minute walk from the main Hospet Bus station making it very convenient. We had the cheapest room other than a 500 rupee a night budget one which in retrospect would have been fine, but it was strange staying in a hotel! 

A private room complete with room service and newspapers felt very fancy, and later in our stay the customer relations manager chatted to us for ages and insisted on us having a fanta on him. VIP treatment eh. 

The pool was really nice, a far cry from our rather green one in Goa, though the gym was rather questionable. It made the very basic one we found in Kathmandu last year look like a Fitness First. 

Things to do

Hospet itself- The city offers few attractions. We spent an afternoon at the cinema next to the hotel watching Aladdin (in English and for only 100 rupees), but other than that it’s not much of a tourist 

destination. There is something really interesting about seeing cities like that though, I find. Places like Goa and even Mumbai have moulded to suit Western tourists whereas Hospet and other Indian cities are unapologetically designed for their inhabitants and no one else, and it’s cool to just observe people going about their lives.

Hampi- From the bus station we quickly found a tuk tuk offering us a 4 hour tour of Hampi for 600 rupees. We accepted, and set off around the various temples and ruins, some dating back from the 1500s. There was a bit of backstory to each in English and our tuk tuk driver also gave us some information. It was really interesting though a pretty hot day, and 

we were glad that we opted for a 4 hour tour instead of the full day he had suggested.

Hippie island- After taking the public bus it’s a short walk to catch the boat over to Hippie Island, with the last running at 5.30. We hired bikes and rode to some waterfalls and a large lake (which apparently was not “The” lake. We didn’t have much petrol so didn’t go very far, but it was the perfect place to ride with near empty roads. The waterfall was pretty and the local children were jumping from high rocks into the water and asking us to film which was very cute

Food

MANGO ROOFTOP- On our tour of Hampi our driver took us to a rooftop restaurant called Mango (I think) It had low down tables meaning we lay on cushions and the vegetable thali was 150 rupees and delicious. It was a really cool, chilled out place and looked very western but we were the only tourists there.

Hotel food- Sadly I got some kind of food poisoning from the hotel buffet breakfast and spent our second night vomiting xx cute xx. Luckily the hotel had another restaurant called Blue Mist which was SO GOOD. Being in the hotel we anticipated it being pricey- we were so wrong. They did delicious veggie kebab wraps on Indian bread, big portions of fries very cheaply and lovely fresh fruit juice. Yum

Hippie Island- On Hippie island we went to a rooftop restaurant right by where the boat dropped us off. I had a fresh juice and Meg had a crepe which looked really nice. There were some other tourists here- the first we’d seen for a while, and it was nice to chat to them. A girl even invited us to a sunset swim with a group of them but we had to get the boat back before then.

Transport

From Hospet bus station the local bus to Hampi takes around 40 minutes and costs 15 rupees. It’s not the most comfortable journey, especially if you’re unlucky enough not to get a seat, but there’s a nice breeze once the bus departs. The journey is pretty and you see the large rock formations Hampi is known for as you pull into their bus station.

There were lots of rickshaws around too asking us if we needed a ride and we used one to get to the train station. He claimed he had to charge a high fee because of a road closure which I’m pretty sure was a lie but there was some kind of festival going on which meant we were given a free sweet by some strangers en route which was funny so we accepted the higher fee.

From Hospet train station we took a night train to Mysore. The train was delayed but other than that very comfortable despite being in the sleeper class- make sure you get the upper berth though.

General notes

This was a super cool place to visit and definitely fulfilled our desire to sightsee. If staying in Hospet you probably only need about 3 days as Hampi itself can be covered in two, but if staying on Hippie island and biking round you might want an extra day or so. We also forced the hirers of the bikes to include a helmet which hey don’t do as standard- there was very little traffic around but still better to be careful right!