[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Kalesh

Hey PJBiju,

Excellent images, all beautiful..nothing to single out. I am getting to appreciate the travellouges here at tbhp, noting less then awesome experiences to read.

Thanks for the effort. A very happy new year to every on your side!

Cheers!!
Kalesh

Originally Posted by KRRaj

The Nandi Statue inside Water has come out fantasitically mate

Thank you Kalesh and KRRaj. Wish you and your dear ones too a Happy New Year.

================================================== =

We left TB Dam and headed to our hotel. We found it without much difficulty. Checked in. And then headed out for Dinner. Iceland was mostly an ice cream parlour 16 years back. It has now moved to a new place. And they have turned to a full fledged veg restaurant now, serving mostly North Indian Dishes. We loved the food and the price. It was quite crowded. It looks like Gobi Manchuri (not Manchurian as we know its spelling) is the most famous dish and costs Rs. 45 per plate. For the kids, it was their main course. We also indulged in their ice-creams.

Next day morning we headed out to Hampi. Again the place was crowded. There were a lot of school children along with their teachers. Some of them were taking notes. I guess they will have to preprare a report at the end of their trip. And most of these kids were walking around barefoot. And a lot of folks from AP and KA. I did not see too many MH registered vehicles. And yes, quite a lot of foreign tourists. Although I was familiar with most of the places, I thought it better to take a guide to cover the most important places. So we took a guide who could speak Hindi and he took us to all the important places on the first day.

For those who want to get some history of the place, you can start with Samurai's thread on Hampi.

Hampi and nearby areas are strewn with huge boulders. Some carelessly lying around, some stacked on top of each other. Some of these stacked boulders look quite dangerous. I have no idea how on earth did these things come to be as they are now. They leave you astounded.

Description of the Mustard Seed Ganesha


Ganesha Himself


Side Profile


The boulders strewn around


My son trying to take on one of them


-Biju

To be contd.

[pjbiju]

The rate of the guide was Rs. 1200 for around 7 hours. The different ruins of Hampi leaves one astounded. The sheer magnitude of the work and craftsmanship is unbelievable. If only such effort is put into maintaining India today by its leaders and people.

The next place we visited was the Krishna Temple.

The description of the temple


The base made of stones and the top made of bricks


The full view of the gate


The three ornamental tops


The top of the entrance


The temple pillars


The pillars again


The carvings of the wife of the king with different hair styles (as told by the guide. I have already forgotten the name of the King and the queen)


The queen with a different hair style


-Biju

To be contd.

[ampere]

One item that I distinctly noted is that in spite of the hectic drives we do, we also carry our families with us and at the end of it, we also have the patience to hold our camera steady and take such wonderful snaps! Awesome!

[hemanth.anand]

Pjbiju, Those are some fabulous pictures.
Were you using tripods for those night shots at the dam?

Below is my post on that trip.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2189115

[sajo]

pjbiju, those are indeed fabulous pics, every single one of them. Thank you for sharing them with us. Eagerly waiting for more.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by ampere

One item that I distinctly noted is that in spite of the hectic drives we do, we also carry our families with us and at the end of it, we also have the patience to hold our camera steady and take such wonderful snaps! Awesome!

Thanks ampere. While I love to drive and love to take photographs, my wife loves to drive too. And both my son and wife love to take photographs as well. I have already started sharing the car with her. And (ashamed to admit this) the digital camera was my gift to my wife in Sep 2010. But she has hardly seen it, let alone use it. I have got to get another camera soon.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Pjbiju, Those are some fabulous pictures.
Were you using tripods for those night shots at the dam?

Below is my post on that trip.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2189115

Thanks Hemanth. I did not use the tripod for any of the shots. Although I had the tripod with me, it was in the car at the parking. Anyway with the crowd, it would have been impossible to use a tripod. I think a monopod might be a good idea. The slowest shutter speed I used was 1/8 of a second for the TB Dam pictures. I had kept the ISO to 100 for most of the shots.

I was wondering about your trip. Good to see that here. I will read through it.

Originally Posted by sajo

pjbiju, those are indeed fabulous pics, every single one of them. Thank you for sharing them with us. Eagerly waiting for more.

Thanks Ojas. More pictures coming. Actually a lot of pictures

========================================

We had missed going to the market area and the water tank area in front of the Krishna temple.

This is what we had missed on day one.

We would come back the next day to this place again.

We went to see the Ugranarasimha and the Badavi Linga

Ugranarasimha


The entrance gate before the Ugranarasimha area (photo by my son, since I was at the wheels)


Ugranarasimha Close-up


Shivling


-Biju

To be contd.

[motomaverick]

Great clicks! a true photologue. What is the cam gear you are using?

[pjbiju]

The next stop was at the landmark Stone Chariot and the temple with musical pillars - the Vittala temple

The stone chariot


The temple


Carved Pillars


Carved Pillars


Pillars


Miniature Model of the temple


More Pillars


Pillars


Carvings on the roof


Another view of the chariot


-Biju

To be contd.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Great clicks! a true photologue. What is the cam gear you are using?

Thank you. These photos are from a Panasonic LX5 (jpegs).

[Lukeskywalker]

Awesome snaps Pjbiju, everyone of them is picture postcard perfect. Looking forward to more.

[MX6]

Go back to Hampi. Find that moron leaning on the chariot wheel. Whack him hard on his head (with one of those boulders).
It is for this reason that they blocked the rotating wheels from rotating as morons went around trying to rotate and incidentally left them damaged.

BTW pjb. Really good photos. It's not the lumix. It's the person holding the camera that deserves the credit. You were at the right time at the right place as well, with the lighting also helping your great framing! It's going to be 5 stars this thread.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

Awesome snaps Pjbiju, everyone of them is picture postcard perfect. Looking forward to more.

Thank you Lukeskywalker. If it were not for your wonderful travelogue on Badami with beautiful photographs, I would not have even considered going there. Also thank you for the KSTDC numbers. That helped me to get the rooms there.

Originally Posted by MX6

Go back to Hampi. Find that moron leaning on the chariot wheel. Whack him hard on his head (with one of those boulders).
It is for this reason that they blocked the rotating wheels from rotating as morons went around trying to rotate and incidentally left them damaged.

BTW pjb. Really good photos. It's not the lumix. It's the person holding the camera that deserves the credit. You were at the right time at the right place as well, with the lighting also helping your great framing! It's going to be 5 stars this thread.

Thank you MS for the rating. The person leaning onto the chariot came into the frame when he saw that I was taking the photograph. It was very difficult to take the photos with so many people milling around. I saw a number of foreigners waiting patiently to take the photographs, waiting for the people to move away. Also the bright sunlight and dark shadows of noon did not help at all. But then that also gives its own charm to the images. So no complaints. One would need to spend at least 2 weeks if one wanted to get some really good photographs with good lighting. I wish I could spend two weeks there.

Also a lot of people were still careless about the ruins. Initially when I saw that I could not go near the mustard seed Ganesha, I was quite surprised. But I realized later that it was a good move. If not, a few years down the line, nothing much would be left. There are guards at most places now. But still they have made some platforms and ramps etc. to help some of our elderly politicians climb up the monuments. The lightings are also reserved for those people.

============================================

We spent some more time around the temple taking pictures and marvelling at things.

The carved designs on the base of the temple


Another structure in the complex


Another shot of the temple


A lonely tree giving company to the old structure


A carving of Hanuman?


Carvings along the steps


Horses and riders on the pillars


The temple complex from a higher vantage point


-Biju

To be contd.

[arindamray]

All the snaps are real good, my personal favourite is "A lonely tree giving company to the old structure".

Brings back memories - couple of years back we did the same places + Bijapur.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by arindamray

All the snaps are real good, my personal favourite is "A lonely tree giving company to the old structure".

Brings back memories - couple of years back we did the same places + Bijapur.

Thank you Arindamray. We could not fit Bijapur into our plans. May be we should have taken a few more days to cover a few more places.

==================================================

The tourism department has arranged for electric vehicles that take you to these places from the parking lot. It is a paid service. All the drivers of these vehicles are ladies. They were also working on creating a bigger parking area for this place.

The place where traders from different parts of the world came to trade. What a bustling market place this would have been.


The boulders behind the market


The Tungabhadra River


An unfinished structure


A door made out of a single piece of rock. There are two such pieces that would have made the complete door


A window to the next place


-Biju

To be contd.

[pjbiju]

The window was from the Queen's bath.

The Mahanavami Dibba. Once Kings stood on it.


The stepped tank


Aquaduct for carrying water to the stepped tank


A newly excavated place?


The lotus mahal


A close-up of the lotus mahal


Elephant Stable


Elephant Stable close-up


Lotus Mahal again


The Virupaksha Temple


Virupaksha Temple


Virupaksha Temple


Virupaksha Temple


Virupaksha Temple


The Hampi Bazar


A man selling slices of some tuber. He said it comes from Andhra Pradesh. Any idea what this is?


A shop on wheels


Panoramic View of the temple and the bazar area


-Biju

To be contd.