After we returned to our cottages, we got to know the cliff jumping point was around 6 kms from the cottage. Now for personal travel, the locals here offer you Luna bikes, the ones which have almost disappeared from most parts of the world. They have that much capacity that if you have a pillon rider, you'll have to request him to get off the bike if you encounter a steep uphill. We stopped at gautami to have breakfast before heading to the cliff point.
The route to the point was beautiful. You have to take the road towards Sanapur and then there is a right turn on the reservour road. There is a huge reservoir that suddenly appears on the left side of the road and when you see it, you can't possibly continue driving. You have to stop and appreciate.
When we saw the cliff from a distance, it looked like a small one, around 25 feet. We were sure it won't be much challenging to jump from here and even asked the locals to show us some higher cliff. When we reached the cliff, I asked the locals to jump with us as I was not sure about the depth of the water at that time. But they said they loved their life very much. After 10 minutes, we thought of giving it a try. One of my friends (who has spent a considerable amount of his life in water) jumped first. After standing at the end point for around 3-4 minutes and looking at the resorvoir ahead, I finally jumped. The height is that much that you are in air for about 2 seconds. But, second is a pretty large unit to talk about in this case. You can feel every moment passing when you are going down. And once you are in water, the first thought that comes to mind is let's do this again, Now. There's a sense of achievement of doing it, mixed with excitement of going again. It appeard very easy to do it again, but as soon I was on the top, it took almost equal amount of courage to jump second time. The picture below shows the point from where we jumped.
After some time, some locals had gathered there who were very friendly and encouraging. One man even offered us biryani that he had brought with him. Even more, there was a chaiwala there who had a live counter ready to serve us tea. Now where in this world you'd get this!
2-3 hours passed. We all jumped multiple times. It was sunset time. Whenever you are witnessing a beauty, there are different stages to it. The first stage is that you just appreciate it. Next is when you want to capture it. And then, there are some moments when you don't care about capturing. This was one of them. And that's the reason, I can't possibly describe it in words here. Everything that I'll write will not do justice to those moments.
We all were there for the next two hours, just looking at the sky. In India, the number of places where you can see a good number of stars on a clear night is reducing, due to obvious reasons. Hampi is a place where you won't be dissapointed if you go for star gazing.
It was dinner time. The journey back to the town was quite interesting as some of the mopets didn't have headlight and others didn't have horn. We stopped at shanthi guest house for dinner. There is one strange thing about the restaurants here. It seems that every other cafe here serves the same menu. And even more, the taste is also very similar (and pretty average). Other not so good thing is that the service is not good. By service here, I mean to say the time taken to deliver the order. It's good that they try to cook everything fresh after you order. Maybe this is what causes the delay but IMHO, lack of human resources is also a major reason.
I guess the kind of audience that these cafes target are not expected to care much about this delay part. We all were famished by this time, so were very frustated at this.
Talking of food reminds me, there's no shop/cafe in Hampi that sells alcohol. In fact, being a religious center, alcohol is not permitted here. The neighbouring towns (kamalapur and kishkinda) do have some shops. It's best if you can go and get it yourself, otherwise you'll have to ask locals there to arrange it for you, which would cost you much more. It's risky to bring alcohol with you initially because there are chances that you might encounter a police checkup just at the entry point of Hampi. If the money doesn't bother you, there is always an option of asking the locals there. As I said earlier, the locals here are very helpful.
Coming back to our trip, we all were worn out by this time. They say that a delicous dinner pushes you into a state of trance. Unfortunately the food here was not upto that level, so we had to resort to other methods to reach that state.
We returned by 9 pm and everybody retired to their cottage. It was decided that let's rest for some time and then everybody will meet outside. But the next time I opened my eyes, it was 7 in the morning. We had to start back to Hyderabad in the afternoon.
We had heard from the locals on the first day that there is a famous Hanuman Mandir in Hampi on this side of the river itself. The mandir's name is actually Anjana Matha temple, but is commonly referred by the former name. It's located on a hill and you have to climb around 600 steps to reach the top. The thought that attracted me to this place was the view that we'd get to see. The view from the sunrise point a day back was magnificant and it's height was around only 250-300 steps.
Next 1-2 hours, everyone was lying lazily around the place. It's strange how quickly the time flies on a vacation. And we realise this only when it's the last day.
When we were ready to leave for mandir, it struck me that my mopet had punctured yesterday. Feeling not-so-happy about it, I went to the owner to get it replaced. When I was about to leave after taking the new keys, I noticed that a guest house guy had arrived there on a bullet. As soon as I saw this, I looked towards the owner and he understood. After 5 mins, I was riding a bullet on the roads of Hampi. This was like a dream come true for me.
The route to Hanuman mandir is beautiful. Lush green fields on both sides and the large self-balancing rocks behind them (I think I should give a name to these rocks). Once you reach the sanapur road, take a right turn and then follow the road for about 2.5-3 kms. The temple is on the main road and that area is named Hanumanahalli.
We reached there around 9 am. The crowd was not much at that time, the usual that you'd find in any temple. It took me 10 mintues to reach the top. And once I reached the top, I was lost.
This was the best point in the trip. From the top, you can see the ruins of Hampi meeting the sky somewhere near the horizon. Looking far, you can visualise how these places must have looked in the 15th century. There must be king's living palace on that largest hill in the middle, so that he could observe the entire kingdom. That small lush green area near the river, that must have been queen's bath. Somewhere near the middle of the river, the common people would perform their daily chores. And the large field in the middle, that would have been used to discuss matters of the society, something like diwan-i-aam. And then, this whole area was surrounded by large hills, so that no outsider can attack.
We don't know how many civilizations have existed here. But suddenly one day, everything vanished. What remained was only ruins, what we call today as 'Ruins of hampi'.
Large hills of stones, trickling stream of Tungabhadra, not-so-far clouds and the positive energy that you feel at temples only, this could not have been better.
Sometimes I think this is the sole reason temples have been built around the world. To act as a source of positive energy, so that people can come and meditate. One of the major reasons the religions were set up was to keep people positive and motivated. When you are devoted to something, you have that extra strength and stability. Even if one is atheist, he/she will feel equally tranquil in a temple. That's the reason a lot of people visit the ganga ghats in Banaras, to experience the air of devotion, to connect with their mind. You should definitely experience it at least once in your life.
After having numerous discussions like this, we decided to return back to the cottage. It was 12 pm. As I had a bullet with me, I didn't want to let it go so easily, so I went ahead to explore. The road was as usual great and surrounded by large fields. The important information here is that there is a petrol pump on this road, 2 kms from the temple.
We took the return bus from Hospet in the evening and reached Hyderbad early morning. The images of Hampi were still in our minds and will always be. It's a place which calls you again and again, and I am sure I'd going pretty soon. If you haven't visited Hampi yet, there can be no better destination for your next trip.
"Hampi is calling. You must go".
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