It has been a long and stressful 1 ½ years since the start of covid pandemic. Losing a dear friend and colleague to the pandemic in the early days made it even more difficult. It took 6 months to build up the courage to go out, for anything other than essentials, to meet friends, to go for outdoor breakfast picnics and to visit outdoor cafes & restaurants.
I recently went to Hampi for a 3-day trip with friends, my first trip in 1 ½ years. One friend was moving to a new job and wanted to wind down and relax before joining the new company, another friend wanted to see if it was possible to do some landscape and historic sights photography, another wanted to get away from the brutal work schedule and I was just happy to take a break from the daily work and home routine after a very long time.
I usually do very high-level planning - how many days to stay, what are those 1-2 things that I really want to do there. For the rest, I am happy to go with what my fellow travelers would like to do. This trip was a bit different – we chose a luxury resort so we would be assured that they would follow covid protocol. My cabin bag size suitcase was filled to the brim with hygiene essentials in the form of masks, sanitizers and disposable gloves in addition to clothes and bath essentials. We weren’t sure of the hygiene levels in the restaurants on the highway and hence decided to pack ready to eat/mix food for our onward and return journey. We also weren’t sure how crowded the popular sites were going to be and whether we were going to be able to visit them and decided to play it by ear.
Finally, the day of our trip was here and the four of us set out from Bangalore in a friend’s car. It felt so good to be with friends, forget covid woes for a bit and to enjoy the simple pleasures that I had earlier taken for granted – the feel of fresh breeze on the face, light wind ruffling the hair, blue and white of the sky, sitting outdoors & sipping morning coffee and I soaked it all in thirstily, both figuratively and literally. While the outdoors sated our parched soul, there was also some homemade food to feed our rumbling stomachs. After the mandatory selfie at the Tungabhadra dam and a short delay due to a roadblock, we finally arrived at our resort and got a warm welcome with a cool drink. The resort is inspired by Vijayanagar architecture but has all the modern luxuries. We relaxed in our room over refreshing coffee and enjoyed the evening in the private jacuzzi to wash away all the aches and pains from the travel.
On our first full day in Hampi, we woke up late and after a leisurely breakfast and shower, we set out driving to take in the scenes of the neighboring small towns. We had a delicious Italian lunch at Whispering Rocks restaurant and returned in the evening for some self indulgence with a pedicure, foot, and head massage while one friend had to take a few work calls. We then dressed up for dinner and ate at one of the restaurants attached to the hotel. It was a good, relaxing and unhurried day.
On the second day, we woke up early to go for a leisurely morning walk by the canal outside the resort and worked up a good appetite for a delicious breakfast of parathas, dosas, pongal and many more awesome treats. We then drove to Hampi to see some of the sights – Sasivekalu Ganesha, Kadalekalu Ganesha and Lakshmi Narasimha temple with the beautiful monolith Narasimha idol, my second favorite attraction in Hampi. After a short lunch break at the hotel, two of us accompanied a friend who met a photographer who took her to some nice sites for sunset photographs. We managed to get a decent photograph or two on our phones. After sunset, we went to visit the Virupaksha temple, the most popular of Hampi temples where the God’s idol is intact and hence is worshiped even today. We got off the car, saw the monolithic bull opposite the temple and as we headed towards the temple, it started raining heavily. We took refuge under a tree near the temple while a couple of friends went back to the car to fetch umbrellas and rain coats. Protected by umbrellas, we made it to the temple before it closed, had darshan, returned to the hotel and called it a day.
On our last day, we woke up early and went to the Vijaya Vittala temple where our friend met her photographer acquaintance again for sunrise photography that turned into early morning photography as the sun had already risen by the time we reached the temple. The stone chariot there is my favorite from Hampi. The temple opposite the chariot housing the musical pillars was unfortunately closed for restoration. We went around the temple where there was evidence of restoration work in the form of numbered stones. We then went for a long walk to see a few more spots including Sugriva’s cave after which we headed back to our hotel. After breakfast and shower, we packed up, checked out and bid goodbye to Hampi. We timed our lunch stop so that a friend could take a work call and stopped briefly for an evening coffee. A few minutes after we left the coffee shop, we heard a strange sound coming from the left rear side of the car and stopped to be greeted by a flat tire. Two friends quickly replaced the flat tire and we were on our way again. After an hour of cautious driving, we finally reached home. Our idyllic holiday was over too soon, but I hope to visit Hampi again soon to see the many temples and architectural wonders that we could not see this time.
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