Pics :)

Here are a few pictures , i thought were wonderful.... :) 

The entire Ramayana is etched out on the temple walls .. "Hazari Rama Temple " 

The famous Musical Pillars :) 

Carvings on the base of the Vittala Temple 

The Vittala Temple 
Hampi's Poster Pic ... the stone chariot 
The typical pillar ... a roaring lion
THe Vittala Temple Enterance
Pillars
The promised Sunset
The carvings on the walls 
Actutanarayana temple 

Kadelekalu Ganesha
Virupaksha Temple .. .the main temple in the heart of the city ... dedicated to lord shiva

Shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Trinkets 

 
Some random ruins on the river bank 

Hampi !!

The first thing that hits you when you get to Hampi after a long bus ride through Hospet is the heat. It is so hot that the air shimmers with it. :) I love the heat .. so i love it... 

Hampi is surrounded by beautiful banana plantations and a beautiful winding river of Tunga Badra. 

When you enter this small village there are a lot of things that hit you at a time - the heat , the color of the sunlight (its different trust me ) , the smells , the sounds , the ruins , the stones , the beauty , the ravaged raw beauty ...... it takes sometime to sort all of them out ... 

I went there with a friend and we first went in search of a place to dump all our stuff and take a bath , there are no hotels in that place , all of them are home stays ,given the fancy name of guest houses :) ... people rent out a couple of rooms in their houses -- that my dear people is your accommodation.Don't worry it is'nt bad , its all clean. But you need to bargain as hell , you would not believe the prices :O

Once you head out for food. always always go to this place called  "Mango Tree" ... awesome . its on the banks of the river.... under a  mango tree (really!! ) and awesome food .. yumm!!! :) We dint eat anywhere else , it is the only place decent enough to eat there. 

Once you start exploring hampi , at first you are fascinated , the structure and the architecture just leaves you spell bound ... but then you start feeling slow burning anger ... how could someone malign and destroy something that beautiful... how can you even bring yourself to disfigure a sculpture so perfect that you can really see it come alive .. how how how .. 

The whole place is full of temples , palaces pushkars each and each one more beautiful than the other , each one has a story associated with it . that makes the whole place unique ..... 

It is the whole fairy story come alive -- A powerful empire , art flourishes under the powerful kings .. they like beauty , respect it , create it ... but then the powerful kings die , the ugly enemy raises its head , destroys the kingdom , destroys everything that was once beautiful and pure .. sad. 

Hampi is known for its sunrise and sunsets .. we could not bring ourselves to wake up early for the sunrise :)  but we definitely saw the sunset ... it was all that was promised --- magical ... its a different sunset , amid the ruins .. slowly the light fades , its like the ruins are falling into a  deep slumber one by one ... awesome..

The more you roam around the more you feel like an ant there ... each structure is so huge that you feel insignificant and totally awed. Each structure is an engineering and a logistical marvel ... without cranes or huge machinery people then managed to build structures that huge and with such precision .. marvellous ..... 

We met a German there ... something she said to me just stayed with me .. She was travelling alone , she said --- "I don't miss not going to Goa with my friends and  travelling here alone with my camera. It would be a crime to have skipped this place.It is good that i came here alone than not coming here at all " .. True ... at least once in your life time you SHOULD visit Hampi ... 

When you are there you get the feel that the whole place is like this old dino , its heart s beating slowly and it takes a huge sigh and its sleepy ... :)  

Shopping ....... it is the place to shop for quirky stuff ... cheap stuff(bargain bargain bargain) ... all of them different .. jewellery - stone , shells , colorful beads ... funnnnn :)

P.S. There is not network there , Airtel , Vodofone no nothing ... the best part ... you can just be in the moment without people bugging you :)

Bannerghatta National Park

OK this is for folks like me who get very restless cooped up in the city and want to get away ... 

The best option is the Zooooo ... Head to the zoooo folks it is fun ... trust me !

Once in a while you can get very near nature in a safari bus :P to watch "wild life" :P 

You can go on a nice Safari for a minimal prize ... watch all the animals in very large enclosed places :P 

It is nice for a change .. you can see your favorite animal and see the similarities between them and the person you hate the most ... make nice critical judgements about them and then tell yourself that that poor animal cannot be as bad as the person you hate .... 

Bannerghatta is a National Park close to Bangalore ... it is basically on the outskirts of the city maybe a little more than 11 kms from IIMB .. 

Plenty of buses folks thats the best part .. Volvo .. Smooth red ones :) 

You are allowed photography there so click away .. morph them to show them off .... (African Safari  you can say) ... 

Its definitely worth a half a days trip ... instead of sitting and wondering what to do over a weekend and waste an entire day just head out folks ... its real fun trust me ... 

P.S. Don't feed the Animals :P 

Travel ........

"You lose sight of things... and when you travel, everything balances out.”

This is one of the best Travel quotes I have ever come across :) 

I am a person who loves to travel ... you learn a lot ... experience a lot ... you get a chance to reflect ... think ... have fun ... let your hair down ... meet new people ... see new things ... discover something new in the process discover yourself.

It may be on a mountain where you are awed by how high you are that you can almost touch the sky ... makes you feel like you small , insignificant... 

Or you are on a sea shore surrounded by water where it almost hypnotises you . the constant swirling makes you think about your life your achievements , mistakes , dreams ...

 

When you are confronted by these mighty elements you realise how much there is to see , how much to discover in yourself and around you .. you almost feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things..