The best of Hampi – the ruins from many worlds

Love at first sight

Ever since I made the first visit to Hampi, I decided it will be a place for an annual pilgrimage. I fell in love with it so quickly that I wanted to come back here every year and spend at least a week. I surely came in the very year after my first visit. It helped that Hampi is just an overnight journey from Bangalore and making a decision to go was easy.

But in the subsequent years when I started travelling a lot, finding a slot for Hampi was becoming increasingly difficult. Yet, I managed to make four visits in the last seven years – not a bad figure I guess. The last visit in January was part of a photography tour to Hampi that I now organize.

Though Hampi is more known for its archaeological ruins, there is a lot more to the place. It has some stunning landscapes of a river meandering through boulder-strewn hills. The hills offer great vantage points to see the panoramic views and witness beautiful sunsets and sunrises. There is some great wildlife as well, which includes a good population of birds and a sloth bear sanctuary. Here are some pictures from Hampi, one of the most beautiful places in my part of the world.

The Virupaksha Temple that towers over every other structure in Hampi

One of the many manatapas that we see wherever we go in Hampi

A section of Lotus Mahal in glorious evening light

‘Boulderscapes’ of Hampi during the hour of sunrise

Tungabhadra River in the boulder-strewn landscape

Glorious colours of the sunset

A plain prinia that was hopping from bush to bush in the vast and green compound of our resort at Hampi

Yellow Throated Bulbul is a rare bird, but can often be spotted in Hampi.

The photography tours were perhaps a brilliant excuse I came up for going back to Hampi again and again. Just a month after my first visit, I am back in Hampi again next week to capture more of Hampi’s diversity. Our next photography tour of Hampi is scheduled on 19th Feb. See more details here if you are interested.