My trip to Hospete and Hampi, friend's wedding ,and visit to a world heritage site in Karnataka, India wherein rest the ruins of Vijayanagara Empire.

My trip to Hampi earlier this month was a much needed break from the monotonous schedule of working at a hospital. It was my friend's wedding that I went to attend at Hospete. My friends and I boarded a train from Bangalore to Hospete. It was a night journey in train with my closest friend and her boyfriend. I had packed in under 15 minutes, made a mess of my house, and almost missed my train if I had not got it at the next station Yeshwantpura. I was famished, Bindiya offered me a king size burger from Burgerking which she had managed to get extra. After the niceties and introductions I sat down and devoured the burger in silence, until I found myself satiated. I wondered how funny it would look if I read "The girl on the train"(By Paula Hawkins) on the train. It was a birthday present I got, but I hadn't carried the book. We were all tired, and glad that we had finally got the AC 3tier berths when our reservation status was still in waiting list till the last moment when the chart was prepared.
7:30am, I turn and toss in my upper berth, see my friends are awake already, I talk to Bindiya to tell me where exactly we were, I meant the train. She doesn't hear me, I get down unwillingly to go brush my teeth. In another 10 minutes we reached Hospete. We go to the hotel lodge which was prebooked through Makemytrip.com . We were in for a surprise, apparently there were no bookings in our name on that date. Then Bindiya showed the receptionist the booking details she had done, only to be pointed out that she had done booking for 8th march, instead of 8th february. Another friend Jyoti, who came from Dharwad had joined us now. However pitiful our situation seemed Jyoti and I couldn't stop laughing, it was absolutely hilarious to see that look on Bindiya. I was glad Jyoti was there, I was no more the third wheel. We managed to get a hotel room. Showered, dressed up in Silk Saree we arrived at Archana's wedding reception. Doesn't feel like it's 11years since we girls know each other! Major selfie session was undertaken after meeting the bride. Wished her a happy married life and took our leave after having the wedding lunch buffet.
Back to our room, changed into casuals, rested for a while and out we go. Took a bus to Hampi, which is approximately 25km from Hospete. Reached under 30mins. As soon as we got down the bus we were surrounded by auto-rickshaw walas selling us on their package plan for Hampi tour. We ignored them and went to the Virupaksha temple. It was fun touching the temple elephant, and feeding it grass . The temple premises was littered with monkeys, two types them. Ones with red face and another with black face. They represented quite accurately the tourist population there ;-P It was a mix of colourful hippy westerners and local polpulation. There was a dark room where you could see the inverted image of the Temple dodda Gopura on a wall, it demonstrated that our ancestors were knowledgeable about the behaviour of light and optics. After Darshan at the temple we hiked on a hill beside the temple on our way to Sasuvekalu Ganesh and Kadalekalu Ganesh. From there we headed to Vijaya vittala temple and the adjoining sites, namely Lotus Mahal, Aane Sal, Kudre Sal.
The famed Vijaya vittala temple of the 1300s AD now stands as ruins of Vijayanagara. It boasts of pillars which upon tapping produce the musical sounds "Sa, re, ga, ma..." . There used to be live Carnatic music and bharatnatyam performances in this temple during that era. It is said that the music produced from the pillars was heard for miles. All that doesn't exist now, we are not even allowed to touch the monument. In front of it stands the famous stone chariot.
Lotus Mahal was said to be the leisure and air-condition room for the queen. After that we saw the Mahanavami dibba. A hillock where we saw the grand stage over 20ft high, an open stage which was used for special occasions by the royal family. A staired well, which looked so beautiful. A secret passage inside the king's palace, which is said to take one outside of Hampi if one is lost in it. Stone plates for pailwans and soldiers to eat in during the Mahanavami festivities.
By the time we saw everything I made a resolve that I would visit this place again, come here solo, get a tour guide, and stay for 2 days to absorb the vibe.