Karnataka—Humpi, Pattadakal, Badami, Aihole

On 31st March, I, ashish negi and Deepika (friend of Ashish) set out for Humpi and arrived at Dadar station to catch Chennai Express departing at 20.30. Our ticket was not confirmed. Deepika was carrying the army pass since her father was in army. We boarded in the army compartment and next day at 11.15 a.m. arrived at Guntakal station. Immediately we took the local passenger train to Bellary. Total damage was INR 27.00. The train left at 11.45 a.m. with the next train being at 12.40 p.m. the train was overcrowded with people and there was not a single place to sit. Deepika managed to find a place to sit, whereas I and ashish reached Bellary standing at 1.05 p.m. the station was too small to handle to passengers and was over crowded. Outside the station we bargained for an auto to Humpi .total damage was INR 600.00. Auto took the NH-63 and after travelling for half and hour took right to DAROJI. Roughly 19.00 k.m. from daroji is the bear sanctuary. The journey to humpi was on a lonely road with boulders on both the sides. We stopped on the way to take snaps of the lakes, boulders. We arrived humpi at roughly 2.30 p.m. the first glimpse of the place left all of us speechless. It was an area spread in diameter of around 7 k.m. on the way to the humpi market we could see lot of temples. On reaching the market, we were followed by guest house agents and we took 2 rooms at Deva hotel for INR 200/room. It was a single room with attached toilet, however the biggest advantage being just 2 minutes walking from the main temple. Immediately after taking bath we took an auto who promised to show all the important places in Humpi. Total damage: INR 500. We saw vithala temple. There is one main road surrounded by shops on both the sides. The market had cyber-café, restaurants, garment shops and an ATM.Next day morning we took 02 bikes from the nearby shop. Total damage was INR 200 / bike for whole day and INR 150/ scooty, petrol charges separately. He takes the advance money and an identity proof. We left at 8.00 a.m. and drove all the way towards the vithala temple to catch a dongi to take us to the other side of the river. The last stretch to the dongi is quite narrow and one needs to be careful. The dongi carries 2-3 bikes and 8-10 people. It’s made of bags used for carrying food grains and tied with bamboo sticks. The dongi however turned out to be quite strong to handle such weights. This was the most amazing moment for all of us, since we had never travelled in dongi earlier. The local authorities were building flyover, however the same couldn’t be completed as it caved in. total damage: INR 50.00. We drove our bike towards left and straight towards monkey hill, and pampasarovar.from this place we went straight and reached a market and from there we took right and reached a dam which was awesome. We went straight and reached a village called JUNGLEE. The place was simply magnificent with fields spread across. We lied down over there in the cool breeze. From this place we headed to monkey hill. The hill has some 750-1000 steps to be climbed and on the top is a temple and big boulders where Jackie Chan had shooted for MIRAGE. One can view entire humpi from there and is worth a climb. Finding a food can be an issue as the stalls at the base sell only tea and coconut water. We reached our guest house in the evening after visiting the other temples which we had left on the first day. By 6.30 p.m. we left for HOSPET in auto and total damage was INR 100.00.we arrived at near the bus stand since the major hotels were nearby. We took a room in the nearby lodge and total damage was INR 550.00 for 2 rooms. The rooms were big; however the toilet was not clean.
We decided to visit Pattadakal, Aihole and Badami. We negotiated with the local taxi and we all settled for INR 1900.00 and to start next day morning at 5.30 A.M. we all left at 6.10 a.m. and after travelling through the highway the taxi driver took left for the road to Belgaum and we arrived at Aihole in one an half hour. Aihole had temples which were built in 10-11the century A.D. and has fine work and is worth a visit. We left for Pattadakal (UNESCO site) and reached in next half and hour. The place was magnificent as compared to Aihole and there was a main temple which contained small pictures of various episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Here we found local woman selling bhakri, vegetable and butter milk homemade. The best food I have ever eaten in my travelling carrier and the total damage was INR 75.00. Finally we arrived at Badami, which is in the middle of the city. The place has a big lake at the centre and was surrounded by hill on the left side and 4 caves on the other side. The climb to the top is worth as one can see the entire city. The caves are marvelous with huge idols of Krishna and Siva. Cave 4 is of Mahaveer Jain and is worth a visit. On the way to the cave there are monkeys. We all set for Badami railway station to catch a local passenger train to Sholapur. The train was supposed to depart at 12.25 p.m. and one can take the general ticket and enter the sleeper class with paying the difference in the train. We arrived at Sholapur at 8.45 p.m. and immediately managed to find a train for Mumbai and reached the next day morning at 5.00 a.m.

Key Take away: take bike; spend at least 2 days, not to be missed place.

For more pictures follow the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30002962@N05/