Exploring Hampi-Songs Written In Stone

Swings In Veranda

Even though we lost a good 2 hours in the traffic jam due to Coalgate scam our pilot still dropped us only 30 minutes late from the original ETA. Hey, we were happy to have arrived in a single piece, and soon started our journey towards Shanthi Guest house where we were to stay for the night. So this blog post can also be considered a brief review of Shanthi Guest  House Hampi.

Now the moment I hear guest house it starts giving me images of unkempt downtown hotels who prefer to rent their rooms on an hourly basis. Fortunately, the hotel turned out to be a nice camp/resort on the banks of Tungabhadra on the Kishkindha side of Hampi which is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Hanuman.

The Resort In Paddy Fields

 Shanthi Guest House Hampi has a series of nicely made huts right in the middle of Paddy Fields, and to my delight, the paddy was about to ripen and we could see the rice grains getting plump on the plants. Each hut had an attached bath, the double bed surrounded with mosquito nets, but the best was the large swing outside each hut in the veranda where one could sit and enjoy the coffee and view of the Tungabhadra River.

A Temple Beyond The Paddy Fields

As I had missed the dinner I straight went to the restaurant and ordered some paranthas to take care of the rumblings in my tummy. The paranthas were another pleasant surprise as the cook was from Himachal and he was dishing out true Punjab style paranthas. I gulped a few of them and when I was polishing my last plate some of my fellow Desi Travelers joined me. They have first gone to their room to take a shower, but in true backpacking style I first had the food then went to take the shower, and joined them while they were still sipping their mint tea.

Weaver Bird On Nest

A little background about Hampi is not going to hurt anybody at this stage. Hampi is a world heritage site that is almost 600 years old and used to be the capital of Vijayanagram empire one of the last major Hindu Kingdoms in South India. They had trade ties with European as well as oriental countries.  The historical places are spread over many acres and it is not possible to cover them in 2-3 days.   But Hampi is not just about temples, ruins, and the river it is also about mother nature especially birds. The big mistake I did was that I thought I will capture only monuments and temples so brought only my 18-105 lens and left the 300 mm home. Big mistake as everywhere we went we were able to see birds of all kinds and a 105 mm lens is not of much use to photograph birds. Still, I was able to click some beaters, common kingfisher, Crested Kingfisher ( gray in color), Black Winged Kite and a whole colony of Weaver birds near a paddy field on banana trees and numerous water birds like pond heron, cattle heron, etc. Anyways lesson learned next time I am bringing my zoom lens also when visiting rural India.

Black Winged Kite

The first day we decided to cover Kishkindha the birthplace of Hanuman, Lotus pond and Laxmi temple, Durga temple, and Kishkindha resort. The second day was saved for the Dam on Tungabhadra River and the main Virupaksha Temple and ruins of Hampi.

Sunset In Hampi

Other blog posts in ” A Visit To Hamp Series “

1.            Visiting Hampi

2.            Pilgrims in Hampi

3.            Temples of Hampi

4.            Under The Mango Tree

5.            The  Sacred Center Hampi