[shreehari]

My office had sutdown for annual maintaince & I had good 10 days at my disposal, however the case was differnet with my wife's office her office was working all through the days. We were completely confused and in two minds about planning any trip during these 10 days. Finally we decided to visit Badami & Hampi. We started to look out for accomodations in these places and thats when we realized that it was too late for a plan. We were not able to get any rooms in these places in the last week of DEC.

Finally after trying in vain to get hotels in Badami & Hampi we started searching for accomodation in near by places which worked in our favour and finally the trip was planned.

The plan was to do the following route.



Day1: 25th DEC
Kengiri-Hubli

We started from Kengari at around 8:00 AM. It seemed like entire Bangalore city was out on the highways on that day. It was good 60 minutes before we got to the Tumkur expressway toll gate which was again facing heavy vacation rush. Finally we made it out of bangalore city by 9:30 AM and was on the Bangalore-Pune highway. We reached Hubli at around 2:00 PM and checked into our stay @ Akshaya Park. The hotel is nothing to write home about. Given a chance we would not have stayed there. Two things that really matters to me during any outside stay is decent parking place & decent bathrooms, both of which were missing in this place. The parking place reminded me of some old bollywood movie go-down setup. However the food was surpirisingly good & was cheap as well.

We had some time in the evening and wanted to explore Hubli but could not venture out since our little one was not in a very good mood and we just didn't want to strain him since we had another 4 more days to go. We retired by 8:30 PM on that day since our plan was to hit the road by 6:00 AM the next day.

Day2:-
Hubli-Badami-Aihole-Pattadakallu

The original plan for today was to visit Badami-Aihole & Pattadakallu and return back to Hubli since we weren't able to get accomodation in Badami . However some last minute desperate phone calls to a friend and a liitle bit of luck we managed to get a room in one of the lodges in Badami. The place is called Royal Deluxe Lodge and is right next to Badami Bus Stand. This place is a small time lodge and doesn't have any bells & whistles of the modern hotels. However it was minimal but functional.However we were just thankful that we got some place to stay in Badami .

We started from Hubli @ 6:00 AM and took the Gubarga-Bijapur-Hubli highway.



The roads are just two lanes all the way however it was very good roads with very minimal traffic till the right turn to Badami at somewere near Khanapur. After this roads became bad to worse. We reached Badami by 8:45 and checked into the lodge. After a quick breakfast we started off to Badami Cave Temples. Badami Cave Temples were build by the Chalukya kings.There are mainly three temples here. Shiva , Vishnu & Jain temple.

I will not be able to do justice to this place in writing. Its only next to Ajantha & Ellora caves that I had been to in awesomeness. Let the pics do the talking.










The scruptures here were so awesome that i was spell bound.



We hired a guide to explain us about these scruptures and it was worthwhile.






This one particular sculpture of Vishnu God was outstandig out of all



It seemed like I was in a royal court rooom standing here



Another intersting sculpture was of the Prassana Narasimha. The half Human half Lion god. It was intersting because I guess this is the only sculpture that I have seen of this god in a smiling pose.



However the insides of the temple gave a haunted experince. It just made me wonder what would have been like in those days when these temples were workshipped with people folking in from every were.



It was thrilling to see Vishnu ,Shiva & Jain temple in the same complex as it gave examples of relegious tolerances that prevailed in that era.



All of these temples were having excellent works on there roofs as well. One of them was a infinity swastik.



The views outside from these cave temples were as exotic as the interior views.



After spending almost 3 hours at Badami we moved to our next destination for the day Aihole. Since we were advised that there won't be any good place to take lunch enroute we took our food in Badami itself before starting to Aihole.
We took the route that goes through Banshankiri Temple & Pattadakal



Pattadakallu was was enroute however we decided to cover it while coming back from Aihole.

Enroute Aihole we saw some sign boards directing to Nagnath temple again an protected monument however it was devoid of any tourists & I guess we were the only ones to turn up there in a long while.



We proceeded to Aihole and reached there at around 12:30 PM. Aihole Durga Temple is a splendid example of Chalukyan architecture.







We left towards Pattadakallu after spending around an hour in Aihole. While driving back we saw few more Protected Monuments in Aihole.

Jyothirlinga Complex



Malikarjuna Temple Complex



We reached Pattadakallu by around 2:15 PM

The group monuments of Pattadakallu temple again treated us with its amazing architecture





After Pattadakallu we visited Mahakutta again another protected temple complex but unlike others in this region this is an active temple.



We reached back Badami at around 5:30 PM and we proceded towards Badami Museum. The route this was through narrow lanes and busy market place. By the time we reached the spot the Museum was closed however Agastya lake & its surrrounding gave us some splendid photographic oppurtunities.



After a hectic day we retired around 8:00 in the night.
The next day destination was Hampi.

To be Contd..

[shreehari]

Day 3:
We had decided to stay at Gangavathy which is around 45 kms away from Hampi since all the hotels in Hampi & Hospet which is nearer to Hampi were sold out. We booked our room in hotel SSLR in Gangavathy with a fear that this too may turn out to be a average hotel which to our surprise turned out to be a very good one. The rooms were very good & modern the hotel had a vast parking area & very good restrooms. This hotel checked all the right boxes on our list. The only problem with this one was the distance from Hampi.

We started our day early and headed towards Gangavathi. The route we took was



Before going to hotel we decided to check out the TB dam ( Tunga bhadra dam).



After spending some time at the dam site we reached the hotel in Gangavathi by the time of lunch.

In the evening we proceeded to Sanapura reservoir 19 kms away from Gangavathy & watched over the sunset at the serene lake.

The route taken was





We reached back hotel at around 8:00 PM and had our dinner & retired for the day.

Day 4:

We started early morning towards Hampi. We hired a guide form the hotel itself & asked him to take us to the main attractions.

The first place we visited was Vittala Temple the epitome of Hampi & its architectural glory.











Afterwards we proceeded to Virupaksha Temple



This is again a live temple in Hampi & it had heavy rush of pilgrims due to the vacation time. We wanted to get inside the temple for darshan but decided otherways by seeing the rush.



We just walked around and clicked few pics





After Virupaksha Temple we proceeded to a near by hotel called Mayura to take food. This hotel was close to Hampi, however the service was pathetic to say the least. We just ate enough to curtail our hunger & proceded back to Hampi.

We first visited the Lakshmi Narasimha Temple. Our guide mentioned to us that there was a Lakshmi Idol close to the exsisting Narasimha idol which got destroyed.



There was this huge Shiva temple close to the Lakshmi Narasimha Temple.



After visiting the above temples we proceded towards the two huge Ganesha scruptures

Sasivekalu Ganesha


& Kadalekalu Ganesha



We started back to Hotel by 4:00 in the evening since we weren't able to handle the heat & the kid was getting really irritated. Hampi deserves a week or more of time each stone here has a story to tell, we surely were not able to do justice to this place with such short visit.

While returning back we visited the Stepped Pond in teh Durbar area that were used by the royals in Hampi.



Day 5:

This day was our return journey.
We took NH13 to Chitradurga & then NH4 back to bangalore



The return journey was eventless and we made it to bangalore by 3:30 PM.

This is one trip that we will definitely repeat but next time with more days our disposal.

[S2!!!]

Crisp travelogue there. It seems that not too many visitors were there at the temples and you'll did not face too much crowd, right? At least the pictures indicate that. Many of the places you visited seem really calm and seem to have a very positive vibe.

Another intersting sculpture was of the Prassana Narasimha. The half Human half Lion god. It was intersting because I guess this is the only sculpture that I have seen of this god in a smiling pose.

Did the guide tell you the story behind this?

[shreehari]

Thanks S2 for your comments.

Most of the pics of Badami Caves were shot at 6:45 AM on Day3 just because when we visited it in on Day 2 it was so over crowded that I could not get one single shot without people coming in the frame.

In Hampi I had to wait endlessly at each location to get some decent pics.People were walking in and out of the frame so many time that I had literally wait with camera aimed at the frame and watch out for the perfect split second window when the frame was clean.

Actually these pics are misleading about the rush at these places. It was very very crowded. Actually we have decided that we will never come to these locations during these kind of vacation time instead I believe these are best visited during off season time. These places require your dedicated time.

Regarding the Prasanna Narasimha the guide did tell us its significance but not much of story behind it.

[Bakash4u]

Hi
How is the "deviation" road - away from the highway- onwards to Hampi - Aihole?
are the directions clear?

[shreehari]

Originally Posted by Bakash4u

Hi
How is the "deviation" road - away from the highway- onwards to Hampi - Aihole?
are the directions clear?

Badami to Aihole directions are pretty clear and also your best bet would be Google Maps. Same is the case with Badami-Hampi as well.