Randomness- Hampi: Backpacker's Paradise!!

Hampi to me is one of the most under-rated backpacking destination, located in southern part of India. Major attraction of the place lies in the ruins of the Vijayanagar empire, but its also a place which has more than its fair share of natural beauty. Hampi as a place would work for everyone, right from people interested in history, religion, mythology, etc to people who are interested in nature-gazing, hiking, chilling-out, etc. The town can be divided into two parts the area of ruins & temple is for the first category & the area post crossing the river would be perfect fit for the second category. Needless to say we spent majority of time in the area which starts post crossing the river :) 

Me & jojo, crossing the river!!

• Life in the middle of rice fields- We decided to stay at a modest but beautiful place called "Goan Corner", on the other side of the river. It was surrounded on all sides by rice fields & small hills. Setting was so awesome that we could have spent 3-4 days in the near vicinity without feeling bored. Early morning walks comprised of us climbing one hill after another, breakfast was basic but it was good. This part of Hampi was beautiful & devoid of much development & was ideal for people who want a break from their mundane life or who wants to stay close to nature.The place didn't have a television, electricity wasn't there throughout the day, food was limited in terms of options, they were also short on man-power, but still I would go back when I will visit Hampi again. Simple things like hammock in front of every room, trees of seasonal fruits, helpful staff (they went out of their way to accommodate all of our requests), beautiful pets, etc did the trick for me :)

• Best places to relax, while eating & drinking-There is a reason as to why Hampi is considered backpacker's paradise in India. Once you cross the river & come to the area preferred by the backpackers, there are plenty of options to choose from in both hotels & restaurants. We had a few meals to experiment with & we did just that. Our best dining experience would have to be Nargila, its a nice place with awesome ambiance, filled with people drinking & smoking. The smell of grass was there in the air & the music was amazing, while the sit down approach enhances the entire effect. We settled down in no time & started with a beer drinking competition. I could not resist after a while & went to check the playlist, much to my surprise there wasn't a single known name both in terms of artist & song while we were hooked on throughout. We spent 3-4 hours there itself, exploration plans were cancelled without verbalizing the same. We thought we would have all the meals there, but given the choice that we had we could not come back again. Atmosphere wise it was the best place & should not be missed by anyone. Food was also pretty good, though it wasn't the best food that we had during the trip. Next we tried Laughing Buddha, same day for dinner & food wise we were in for a disappointment. Even the basic stuff that we ordered tasted weird.What saved the day was the friendliness of the staff & the availability of a television (significance would be explained later). Food wise our best experience was to happen on the last day, when we had a late lunch @ Mango Tree. We were impressed with the décor of the place, though it would not come close to Nargila, but what blew us away was the quality of the food served. First thing which came to our table, was the simple combination of Dal & Rice which would be amongst the best that I have ever had. We had all ordered separate combos, another good part of the place is the plethora of combo's that they have, and everything was damn tasty.
  

• Its a tiger, its a lion, ohh damn its just a frog!!- The most funny incident on the trip took place while we were ordering dinner at Laughing Buddha. While everyone were engrossed in the menu card, after a long day of travelling, soumya starting running & shouting as if she has seen the face of devil himself. Rest of us were really worried, but at the same time we also were scared for our lives as it seemed like a real threat. After running for some 20 minutes she stopped while still jumping & screaming, giving us a possible window to ask questions & understand the issue. Multiple questions were framed & asked & the answer to all of them was a small frog which by mistake stepped on her feet post which they had a jumping competition in which soumya defeated the other participant hands down, a few bumps to her head notwithstanding. Even the bad food could not spoil our moods post this, as we had a nice ending to an eventful day :)

After one of our boulder expedition :)

• Nature at its best- I had no inclination of visiting the ruins & understand the rich history of the place, as compared to admire the natural beauty surrounding it. But I realized later that even in midst of the ruins there were spots which were unexplored & uninhabited, but extremely beautiful. You just need to decide to move in a particular direction & keep on going till there is a place like that in front of you. While randomly walking across we also discovered such places & one of them was extremely scenic. It was a small artificial pond which had a resting place in the centre, surrounded by open space & boulders from all side. It was one of those places where you can sit for hours, contemplate about life, look in one direction without getting bored with the sight, where you would want to see the sunset/sunrise, etc. And because we didn't have high expectations from the place, hence our ROE was extremely high.
  

• Coracle- We were travelling to Anjaneya temple, where on the way there was a Dam. And people were taking coracle rides there. Now I saw the thing for the first time in my life & it looked like a small raft kind of thing semicircular in shape & it was shaking vigorously while the 'captain' paddles to take it in a certain direction. A few things were pretty interesting, firstly the number of people it could accommodate in its deceptively small structure & secondly, the spinning trick which the 'captain' was making everyone experience in the middle of the huge water reservoir. He would keep the coracle spinning using the paddle till the occupants asks for mercy, it looked like a fun thing to experience & the coracle-man "Buddappa" was also looking like a fun man. He took 7 of us together on his small coracle, most were worried about it sinking due to the combined weight but not Buddappa. He wanted us to be taken to the other extreme end, while giving us two spinning experience in the middle. After the first round of spinning most of the people just wanted to have a sound journey back to the ground, but Buddappa had other plans. He decided, all by himself, that one round of spin wasn't quite enough for us & hence we were given a second round of spin.

  

  
  

• Novak Djokovic Vs Stanislas Wawrinka- US open semi-final, a match where me & jojo were backing different players. I was sure that it would be a straight sets victory for Djoker, he was looking in prime touch throughout the tournament & he is my favourite, after Fedex. Jojo, on the other hand, was sure that Wawrinka was onto something, he was sure of a 5 setter match without being too committal on the end result. We thought that the match would start at 8 pm, so we figured out a restaurant with Television, i.e. Laughing Buddha & decided to spend some time there & take it as it comes. But little did we know that the match was to start only post 10 pm. Now the part of the town we were staying in had no electricity during evening, our resort was still couple of KMs from the restaurant, roads were pretty thin, it was raining, rice paddy both sides with standing water, were a few things we thought might affect our travel-back-to-resort plans. But they just vanished into the thin air as soon as the match started, as Wawrinka was in the zone. Jojo had said that Wawrinka was onto something, but I was getting certain that he was on something. He was aggressive, not holding back, played some of the most exquisite SHB (single handed backhand) stroke and above all made Djoker shift his game from aggressive to defensive. Wawrinka won the first set quiet easily & Jojo was all smiles, even I was happy with the show of tennis excellence but seriously wanted Djoker to improve his game. Before we knew it was past 1 am, Djoker managing to capture the second set after stretching a lot. That's when we realized that it was just the two of us at the restaurant, everyone else was either dead or asleep, only one guy was there waiting for us to leave. Mind you we had paid our bill hours ago, but still the guy who we had conveniently kept awake wasn't complaining. He wasn't even watching the match. After this realization we decided to leave the place & give this guy a well deserved break. As soon as we got out, we thought there is no way we could walk to our resort in the pitch dark thin streets & we should borrow a torch from the guy. Before we could turn around the guy was walking in our direction with a torch in his hand. Even when we said we will get him the torch back in the morning, all he said was "its ok".

long jump competition :)

Buddappa, Coracle & Us!!

• Ticket troubles- Brao was responsible for booking bus tickets for our journey from & back to Hyderabad, where there is Brao there is trouble. For some reason he decided to book tickets for onwards journey to Hampi for 8th September & post this he booked the return journey for 5th September. When I got to know about this I was extremely happy at the thought of someone finally inventing time-travel. But my happiness was short-lived, as I saw him writing mails to cancel his tickets booked for 6th September to be cancelled on 9th September. I was waiting for the reply thinking can these guys travel back in time & cancel the tickets, but I was to be disappointed again. Jokes aside, the incident did give us the start that we needed & the story that is to be shared by many in the times to come :)