[vsathyap]

Three Colleagues, Three days, One wedding and Some Ruins

What happens when your colleague invites you to his wedding that’s happening in a town that’s a good 350km away? A road-trip of course! Our colleague was getting married in Ballari and coincidentally, the wedding dates happened to be during the I-Day long weekend. So, the stage was set – we were going on a road trip! It would be a quick 3-day dash to the mining town of Ballari, accompanied by a flying visit to the ruins of Hampi and the TB Dam. Going by recent Whatsapp and IG posts, we noticed that the dam was filled to the brim and it would be a sight to see!

So, the plan was made, and the schedule was drawn. It would be a 3-day trip with 3 of us from office, doing the run in my Honda City. A customary glance at the Hampi Ballari/Hospet route conditions reassured us that the trip can be made despite the recent rains and that we would be driving on good tarmac. This was a trip we were looking forward to, especially after the pandemic induced “distancing”. It had easily been 2.5 years that we had met each other in the real world, though we used to meet daily over Zoom meetings on official matter. There was a LOT to discuss and talk about, which was not related to the daily office work.

Finally, the day arrived, and I set off bright at early by 620 am from JP Nagar and picked up my colleagues from Uttarahalli and Vijayanagar and we were out of Nelamangala by around 745 am. It was a Friday, and the traffic was sparse. We made good progress and reached our Breakfast halt at Shree Rathnam Veg, just before Dabaspete by 810. After a rather slow service that was annoying, we gobbled up the food hurriedly and finished our nature calls and headed back to the highway by 8:40am.

Ready for the road trip!



Breakfast Stop

[vsathyap]

The drive was relaxing, almost therapeutic and meditative, as I was taking it easy and cruising around the 80-90kmph mark. We had a whole lot of things to talk about and this meant that a relaxing drive was the order of the day. The City barely broke a sweat and munched miles happily on the highway. We were spectators to a lot of bad driving near Tumkur and the condition of the road after Tumkur, almost till Sira was pathetic. There were a lot of potholes on the road, distributed sporadically across all lanes. Some vehicles were trying to weave between these potholes and at one point, some guy in a ford almost ended up on the divider when he landed hard into a pothole he didn’t expect to see. I kept good distance and reduced the speed to ensure I don’t hit one of these surprise potholes.

After Sira, the road improved and progress was brisk. We could barely believe ourselves when we saw the windmills in the distance, which meant we were already near Chitradurga. We decided to take a break and once we moved off NH48 and onto Hospet highway. This junction deserves special mention as the cloverleaf has been done very well with lots of boards at the right place guiding us perfectly off NH48 and onto the Hospet Highway. Once we were on the Hospet highway, traffic thinned down significantly, and the entire highway was a dream come true. It was perfect 4 laned tarmac, and by the looks of it, seemed to have been done up recently. It was around 11:15 now and we decided to halt for some tea. Spotted and stopped at a road side shack just after a toll booth.

Decided to stop for some Tea


Tea Break!


After a strong tea that got the blood flowing, we got back and continued onto Hospet. It was easy driving all the way and by 1215, we noticed the highway and the vegetation around us turning red – which meant that we were almost at Hospet. After driving past the massive backwaters of Tungabhadra, and passing through the entry tunnels, we made it to our lunch stop at Naivedyam hotel in Hospet at 1230.

Massive Backwaters of the Tungabhadra just before the entry tunnel



Welcome to Hospet



Driving through the tunnel



Lunch Stop at Naivedyam Restaurant at Hospet



The Thali - would soon be Khaali

[vsathyap]

The lunch was good and fulfilling. Post lunch, we drove around town lazily to soak in the small-town charm, while my colleague set the destination to Tungabhadra Dam on Google Maps. Within no time, we had parked the car and were walking up the gentle internal roads of the TB dam premises, to reach the view point. It was extremely windy here and we could barely hold on to our phones while clicking pics.

Entering the TB Dam Premises



Walking up the neat ramp/road to reach the gardens and view point



First sights of the gushing water




The power plant - my grandfather was stationed here once upon a time!



A wider view




Massive backwaters - almost like an ocean!



Very strong winds causing massive waves




Soon, we discovered that there is a better, higher viewpoint and to reach that we had to take a bus/ticket from the entrance gate below (which we missed somehow). So, after an agonizing wait of 30 minutes and after watching buses go by without stopping to pick us up, we made it to the top of the view point, after a begrudging uphill trek of 2km.


Views from another side of the hill - while trekking uphill to reach the viewpoint



The dam in its full glory!




One more pic zoomed in




...and we bid adieu!



Thankfully, we were not disappointed as the views from here offered an amazing panoramic sight of the dam along with the backwaters. We spent about 20 mins here clicking pics and recording some videos. We decided it was time to get back as we had to travel back to Ballari for the wedding, and we didn’t know the condition of the roads. Since it would be risky driving on unknown roads in the dark, we headed back to the parking lot and hopped on to the City at around 345pm.


The destination on Google Maps was set to Ballari and we started our second trip of the day, knowing nothing about the dirty little trick Google Maps would play on us. We blindly followed GMaps and after it was too late, we realized the Gmaps, being typical Gmaps, is taking us on an internal road passing through villages and whatnot, and had completely skipped the highway for some reason God only knows! Once we realized the trick that google had played on us, we even checked to ensure that we had not enabled any of those useless flags that said “avoid toll road” or anything like that. But still, Google, with a mind of its own, decided to show us the countryside! During the drive we were easily stopped 3-4 times by local village boys, kids – asking us to pay a little something for their celebrations and festivities. This was rather annoying, but thankfully, the situation was not all that bad as we managed to get past them without much fuss. I was constantly all eyes and ears, checking if any of them had any pins, nails or stones, and if they would vandalize the car by scratching it, while when we refused paying them. I was also very aware of each one’s location around the car, because while I inched on slowly, I wanted to ensure they don’t pull a quick one and say the wheels of the car ran over their toes and then they demand compensation, etc. It was quite an unnerving experience, but thankfully, it was just that and nothing else (more serious) happened. We all cursed google maps plenty of times for bringing us on this route!

GMaps - doing its thing! It skipped the better route (in green) and took us on a countryside drive!


After what seemed eons, we finally approached the highway, only to be stopped at a level crossing where 2 trains had to pass, which meant we wasted a lot of time here. Finally, in true Gmaps style, it took us to our destination hotel and proudly claimed that the “destination was on the left” and that “we had arrived”.

We checked into a different hotel, after noticing that the earlier one wasn’t all that great and more importantly, there was no dedicated parking for the car, and we had to park on open roads. Soon, we freshen-ed up and went down for a good cup of coffee and some finger food. Other office colleagues joined us later in the evening and we ended day 1 after a good dinner.

Coffee and some munchies!



View of the inside of the hotel



Our adda for the night

[vsathyap]

Day 2 and we were up and ready for the wedding. After weaving through Google Map suggested roads, we finally made it to the wedding hall and wished the newly married couple. We stayed at the wedding venue for an hour or so, after which we decided that we should leave now, in order to make it to Hampi on time.

Buffet Breakfast at our Hotel - the standard fare!


Soon, we were back on the highway, and this time, we consciously decided to ditch the directions from Google maps and did the navigating ourselves until we joined the highway that connected Ballari to Hospet. Google maps fought back, suggesting U turns every 30 seconds, asking us to “comply or else”…

Once we joined the main highway, it was a rather smooth drive on the good stretches, only to be interrupted by some work in progress areas and deviations. We were greeted with sun flower fields on either side but soon, the scenery changed to huge thermal power plants and Iron Ore processing factories and other massive factories supplementing the landscape for many km.

Sunflower fields everywhere!



We continued on, but this time, we were interrupted by kids – again .. little boys, pulling a rope across the highway, asking us to pay a little something towards their festive celebrations. Again, we denied, but this time, one of my colleagues handed them 10 Rs and they let us go. This annoyance continued a couple more times, and we finally reached the parking lot for cars near Virupaksha temple by 1230 pm.

Looking at the madness and the crowd there, we decided its best to hire a local auto to take us around rather than negotiate those tiny roads on our car. This turned out to be a very good decision as our auto driver was also a pseudo-guide who gave us a pre-arrival heads-up on each place we were about to visit. He also took us to a decent place for lunch!


Our very own Audi-Auttro


I’ll let pictures do the talking for all the Hampi sites.

Pictures at the Virupaksha Temple



Massive inner quadrangle



Beautiful pillars



Paintings on the Ceiling



A Wide angle shot



Bazaar Area outside the Temple



Lunch Stop at Hampi. Meals Ready!



The Queen's Bath



The Queen's Bath



The Queen's Bath



A 3D Jigsaw puzzle that's hundreds of years old



View from the Mahanavami Dibba



The view of the Mahanavami Dibba - only the base remains



Aquaducts - there was no bottled water those days!



The spectacular Black-Stone Pushkarani



From another angle



The Hazaara Raama Temple - right next to the Mahanavami Dibba



The Hazaara Raama Temple



The Hazaara Raama Temple



The Hazaara Raama Temple



The Hazaara Raama Temple



This tour vehicle is available for folks staying in Govt. Accommodation (thats what we were told)



The Lotus Mahal



The Lotus Mahal



The Elephant Stables!

[vsathyap]

... Pictures Continue ...

We then travelled to the other section of Hampi which is famous for the Vijaya Vitthala Temple and the Stone Chariot. Our Auto dropped us off at the entrance after which we had to take an electric buggy to reach the actual site. Its an easy 1.2km walk on flat level ground which can be done in about 15 minutes. If you choose to walk, you can also take your time to stop over at other ruins which are skipped if you take the buggy. there was a decent crowd at the buggy pickup point and one round trip ticket costs 20 rupees.

Arriving at the Vijaya Vitthala Temple



Musical Pillars of the Vijaya Vitthala Temple



The famous Stone Chariot - Also found on the 50 Rupee Note



More Musical Pillars



Going around to the back of the Temple



From the Side



It started raining very heavily and the crowds simply disappeared. Took this opportunity to click a picture of the stone chariot without any people in the background.

Stone Chariot



Swelling crowds at the Buggy pickup/dropoff point



We then drove back to the main Virupaksha temple area where we had to cover the other main visitor attractions.


A fine evening. The weather was unbelievably good!



The Ugra Narasimha



Ugra Narasimha



JalakanTheshwara



KadLe KaaLu GaNesha (aka the grount nut style Ganesha)



Hemakoota - the multi-storeyed Mantapa!



View from the Hemakoota Mantapa



View from the Hemakoota Mantapa



After a tiring day, we decided to head back to our hotel in Hospet around sunset time. Since it was very overcast, the chances of getting to see the sunset were slim. With this, we headed back to Hospet, only to be stopped by local boys again, just a few meters from our hotel’s gate. After negotiating our way through them again, we finally made it to our hotel, where we checked in and freshened up. Since the hotel had a buffet dinner, we went in for an early dinner as we were famished from all the sight seeing earlier in the afternoon. After a good dinner, we called it a night and ended Day 2.

Dinner at our Hotel - a fine place!

[vsathyap]

Day 3 and it was time to pack our bags and head back to Bangalore, before the long weekend crowds blocked toll plazas near Nelamangala for miles. As it was a Sunday, we had a leisurely breakfast at Naivedyam at Hospet, the same place where we had lunch on Day 1. Breakfast was good and coffee was better.

Standard Breakfast at Naivedyam Hotel, Hospet



Tummies fully charged, we left Hospet and joined the highway to Chitradurga. Again, we took the opportunity to talk about everything under the sun and hence, the driving was relaxed and easy going. For one last time, we got stopped on the highway this time, somewhere before Kudligi – again by local boys – asking for contributions. This was annoying, and highly unsafe to say the least. Imagine cruising at 80kmph on a perfectly fine highway and suddenly seeing a few boys run on to the road with a rope in their hands! Imagine doing this – coming to a sudden stop - with a 14 wheeler tractor trailer behind you. After giving them a piece of our minds, we moved on, and briskly made it past the cloverleaf and massive windmills and joined the main NH 48.

We decided to stop for coffee and spotted this nice little hotel called Upadhya Veg right on the highway. The coffee here was great, and it gave us a quick boost to our energy levels. We continued the drive and in no time, passed the pothole ridden rods past Sira and drove past Tumkur and arrived at Dabaspet where we decided to stop for lunch. Lunch stop was at this nice hotel called Udupi Grand Veg at Dabaspet and the food here was delicious. It was around 145 when we polished off our plates, and continued towards Bangalore.

Our Coffee Stop after joining NH48



Recharge... Battery level 100%



Lunch Stop


A very decent lunch option just before Bangalore



The typical Thali!



Since I had to drop off my colleagues, couldn’t take the customary NICE exit, and went on straight towards Yeshwanthpur and we were in Bangalore City by 2:15pm, and into headed into Vijayanagara. Ironically, we had travel from one Vijayanagar, to another. From there, proceeded to drop off my other colleague at Uttarahalli. Finally, I reached JP Nagar and did a fuel refill at my usual bunk for a full tank.

Full tank and Trip Stats!


The trip came to an end with this, and me reaching home by 4pm. Overall, it was a great trip and what surprised me the most was how easy and effortless the driving (and basically the entire trip) was. I don’t know if it was because of the constant discussion we had during the drive, or the beautiful roads, or whether it being an overcast day, not too hot, or whatever it was, I simply felt that I had no tiredness or any sort of fatigue due to the drive.

If one plans well, they can easily leave Bangalore by 4am and reach Hospet by 9am after a leisurely no-rush drive, finish breakfast and directly head to Hampi by 10. One full day of sightseeing later, they can opt to cover other areas of Hampi on day 2 (sunrise point, etc) and after a good lunch at Hospet, can arrive in Bangalore by 7-9pm depending on the inbound traffic and the toll plaza crowds. It will be a perfect weekend getaway with a good satisfying road trip, a dash of culture and heritage and some good food along the way.

Trip Stats:

Route Taken: Bangalore - Tumkur – Sira- Hiriyur – Chitradurga – Kudligi – Hospet – Ballari – Hampi – Hospet and back the same way.
Route Condition: 8/10 (poor stretch on NH48 between Tumkur and Sira; lots of deep potholes and worn out patches)
Total Distance covered: 879km (door to door)
Total Fuel Consumed: 51.5 Litres
Cost of Fuel: 5250
Toll Expenses: 690
Avg Mileage (tankful to tankful): 17.06 kmpl

Disclaimer:

• All pictures shot on Phones (Galaxy S20+ and S21 Ultra) and Google Photos 'Auto' filter applied by default.
• Some pictures shot by my colleage are shared and merged here on this TL to give a sense of continuity.
• Respective ownership and copyrights apply.
• Restaurants & Hotels featured are as per our own experience and not for advertising and promoting. No vested interests of any sort.

Until the next time ...

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ampere]

Hampi never ceases to amaze people! And the more you go, the more you want to go!

[ajayc123]

Probably this is the first time that I got an opportunity to see pictures of Hampi. Very enticing for a closer relaxed look. Thank you for awakening my desire to visit this place. If, and when, time will tell.

You seem to be having a knack for food pictures. Very nice. One more time, I wished, if I could step into the photo frame to check out those thaalis.

[vsathyap]

Originally Posted by ajayc123

You seem to be having a knack for food pictures. Very nice. One more time, I wished, if I could step into the photo frame to check out those thaalis.

All food photo credits to my colleague. He has a special skill to take some amazing pics of food.

I bet he does this daily at home as well

[gtonsing]

Originally Posted by vsathyap

All food photo credits to my colleague. He has a special skill to take some amazing pics of food.

I bet he does this daily at home as well

Doubtful
On a serious note, nice reading, amazing pictures. Reminds me of the times I used to go to Hampi and get philosophical and emotional, just imaging the people who would have lived there, what would they talk about, would neighbors quarrel? How many would have been poor? The elephant stables, how majestic they would have been in their heydays etc. I used to sit atop the Mahanavami Dibba and imagine life there.
Touch the stone walls and think about what kid of hands would have touched them - what a place Hampi is.

You didnt see the twin sisters?

[RaviDBLR]

Very nice travelogue. Eternal Hampi!

Reminded me of a few days we (self, wife & my son who was 8 years then) spent doing the Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal, Hampi circuit in Jan 2014. Unknown to us, Hampi Utsav had just ended as we entered the town. A helicopter tour was part of that festival, with only the last couple of fully booked sorties were left. We got real lucky - seeing my son's excitement, they managed to squeeze us in. Those 10-15 minutes flying over the ruins were thoroughly mesmerizing. Unexpected ride of a lifetime for him! Hampi transforms into a completely different dimension from up above - a captivating mix of hills, stones, ruins, greenery and water. Amazing.

[ant_vas]

I also was in Hampi on 15 August and the place was crowded! Being a Shravana Monday the temple had long queues for Darshana and Abhisheka!

I also visited Badami and Banashankari Temple the next day and throughout the entire journey didn't encounter anyone stopping the car and asking money for festivals!

I am surprised that you were stopped so many times including on the highway!

Are you sure you don't have any sticker on your car which says "Free Donations"

And yes, even we always stop at Naivedyam for breakfast and Upadhya Ruchi for our Coffee break.