I was India early this year, from 14th Jan to 14th Feb. I had a fabulous time over there and enjoyed my stay. One of the highlights of my stay there was my trip to Hampi during 4th-7th Feb. Here I reproduce the diary (in a Rs.5 notebook) that I maintained during the trip. I have reproduced it as it is with some editing only when it was totally not understandable. Pardon me if you find it repetitive or cliched. Check out the pictures at Hampi Pictures -- FEB 2008. Here goes nothing, hope you enjoy it. :)
Day 1 - 4th Feb 2008
It is very funny for me to be writing in a notebook rather than typing. I haven't done much of writing in a while and part of the reason I hate writing is my dreadful handwriting. Well I do have a valid excuse this time around. I am tired (half-dead actually) and I don't even have a table to keep the book on. Anyways lets get down to business now.
I did it finally. I am in Hampi right now, my long term dreams finally achieved. Lets start from the beginning. I got up at 4 in the morning after sleeping at 1 AM. Not much of sleep but I was reading about Hampi and I just wanted to collect as much information as possible. I so wanted to do this and the excitement certainly helped me get up that early. Waking up dad was a different ball game altogether. He LOVES his sleep and if there is one thing he has to do everyday, it is to get his full 8 ( most of the times 9 :P) hours of sleep. In the process of waking up, I also got to play a game of NFS-II hot pursuit, not a good practice for the long drive ahead but the noise did wake appa up.
Surprise!! surprise!!! Our trip started off on the right note, we actually left 5 mins ahead of schedule at 5:55AM. Now for people who don't know appa, this is quite an achievement. We set off in full gusto but "ahem!! ahem!!" we hit our first road block, quite literally. The road leading up to west of chord road was blocked but my confident appa told me that he knew an alternate route and he conveniently got us lost, little did I know this would be the order of the day. Thanks to appa being a great navigator we lost about an hour over all, losing our way and then find it again.
But anyways that apart, the drive was simply awesome. The NH-4, Bangalore - Pune highway is probably one of the best highways I have been on, including the ones in USA (no jokes). It was smooth and silky, just like butter as my dad put it. I reached a high speed of 135 kph, my personal speed record and when you consider the fact that I did it in a very modest Maruthi 800, it is quite an achievement. There are a few negatives though (a) exits are clumsily designed sometimes cutting across the opposite lane. (b) Significant portions are not complete yet. (c) No highway patrol at all, safety issues. (d) Good food is not easily available all along.
But it was great fun anyways.
We reached Chithradurga at 10:30AM. The fort is truely majestic and I was totally surprised by its size and beauty. I wanted to see the main attraction, Onake Obavana kindi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onake_Obavva). We walked for quite sometime in dry heat to reach the place. It was quite dissappointing actually. It almost seemed insignificant compared to the other beauties that the chitradurga fort had to offer. But it was good to see and experience ( yeah, I tried to climb out of the hole and stuff) this piece of history and folklore.
Having made Hampi my focus, I wanted to wind up soon at Chitradurga. But I do want to go back there and see it thoroughly. After a visit to a surprisingly clean rest room we set off to Hampi and we reached Hampi at 3pm after getting lost twice. NH-13 leading up to Hospet/Hampi was just about ok. It was quite a challenge to drive on NH-13 because of all the trucks. (Oh!!! There were so many). It felt very good to be in Hampi and it felt as if there was a whiff of history in the air at Hampi, truly magnified by the abundance of ruins visible to you as soon as you enter Hampi.
After having some torturous food we fixed up the guide for tomorrow and then we went to Hema Kuta parvatha, one of the 3 hills around hampi, to watch the sunset. Wow!!!! What a sunset it was? On the slope of the hills I got a glimpse of Hampi. There were dilapidated ruins everywhere in such beauty that I was awestruck. The beautiful sunset and ruins excited the photographer in me. It was picture perfect and it was probably one of the best sunsets of my life. After this amazing experience we headed down the hill. This is when I hit jackpot.
One of the things that I always wanted to do is go out for a drink with dad. After much persuasion I convinced dad to have beer with me. Again for people who don't know dad, this was a big achievement. We drove all the way to Hospet which is about 30 mins away to have beer. After asking around for a while we finally ended up at a lousy place called Shanbog bar and restaurant (one of the most dreadful toilets). It was a very nice experience and it was nice bonding with appa. We discussed our drinking habits, our first drinking experiences etc. We headed back shortly and yeah I drank and drove, not a good thing to do but was well worth it when you consider the fact that this was the first time appa accepted me as an adult and had a drink with me.
Oh!! By the way we are staying at this place called Padma Guest House. Appa haggled with the land lady, Padma, for half a day. Not a bad place if you ignore the bed bugs and mosquitoes. Final note: Looking forward to a exciting tomorrow and missing the two women in my life. Love them both.
PS: Excuse the handwriting, little drunk and very sleepy.
Day 1 - 4th Feb 2008
It is very funny for me to be writing in a notebook rather than typing. I haven't done much of writing in a while and part of the reason I hate writing is my dreadful handwriting. Well I do have a valid excuse this time around. I am tired (half-dead actually) and I don't even have a table to keep the book on. Anyways lets get down to business now.
I did it finally. I am in Hampi right now, my long term dreams finally achieved. Lets start from the beginning. I got up at 4 in the morning after sleeping at 1 AM. Not much of sleep but I was reading about Hampi and I just wanted to collect as much information as possible. I so wanted to do this and the excitement certainly helped me get up that early. Waking up dad was a different ball game altogether. He LOVES his sleep and if there is one thing he has to do everyday, it is to get his full 8 ( most of the times 9 :P) hours of sleep. In the process of waking up, I also got to play a game of NFS-II hot pursuit, not a good practice for the long drive ahead but the noise did wake appa up.
Surprise!! surprise!!! Our trip started off on the right note, we actually left 5 mins ahead of schedule at 5:55AM. Now for people who don't know appa, this is quite an achievement. We set off in full gusto but "ahem!! ahem!!" we hit our first road block, quite literally. The road leading up to west of chord road was blocked but my confident appa told me that he knew an alternate route and he conveniently got us lost, little did I know this would be the order of the day. Thanks to appa being a great navigator we lost about an hour over all, losing our way and then find it again.
But anyways that apart, the drive was simply awesome. The NH-4, Bangalore - Pune highway is probably one of the best highways I have been on, including the ones in USA (no jokes). It was smooth and silky, just like butter as my dad put it. I reached a high speed of 135 kph, my personal speed record and when you consider the fact that I did it in a very modest Maruthi 800, it is quite an achievement. There are a few negatives though (a) exits are clumsily designed sometimes cutting across the opposite lane. (b) Significant portions are not complete yet. (c) No highway patrol at all, safety issues. (d) Good food is not easily available all along.
But it was great fun anyways.
We reached Chithradurga at 10:30AM. The fort is truely majestic and I was totally surprised by its size and beauty. I wanted to see the main attraction, Onake Obavana kindi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onake_Obavva). We walked for quite sometime in dry heat to reach the place. It was quite dissappointing actually. It almost seemed insignificant compared to the other beauties that the chitradurga fort had to offer. But it was good to see and experience ( yeah, I tried to climb out of the hole and stuff) this piece of history and folklore.
Having made Hampi my focus, I wanted to wind up soon at Chitradurga. But I do want to go back there and see it thoroughly. After a visit to a surprisingly clean rest room we set off to Hampi and we reached Hampi at 3pm after getting lost twice. NH-13 leading up to Hospet/Hampi was just about ok. It was quite a challenge to drive on NH-13 because of all the trucks. (Oh!!! There were so many). It felt very good to be in Hampi and it felt as if there was a whiff of history in the air at Hampi, truly magnified by the abundance of ruins visible to you as soon as you enter Hampi.
After having some torturous food we fixed up the guide for tomorrow and then we went to Hema Kuta parvatha, one of the 3 hills around hampi, to watch the sunset. Wow!!!! What a sunset it was? On the slope of the hills I got a glimpse of Hampi. There were dilapidated ruins everywhere in such beauty that I was awestruck. The beautiful sunset and ruins excited the photographer in me. It was picture perfect and it was probably one of the best sunsets of my life. After this amazing experience we headed down the hill. This is when I hit jackpot.
One of the things that I always wanted to do is go out for a drink with dad. After much persuasion I convinced dad to have beer with me. Again for people who don't know dad, this was a big achievement. We drove all the way to Hospet which is about 30 mins away to have beer. After asking around for a while we finally ended up at a lousy place called Shanbog bar and restaurant (one of the most dreadful toilets). It was a very nice experience and it was nice bonding with appa. We discussed our drinking habits, our first drinking experiences etc. We headed back shortly and yeah I drank and drove, not a good thing to do but was well worth it when you consider the fact that this was the first time appa accepted me as an adult and had a drink with me.
Oh!! By the way we are staying at this place called Padma Guest House. Appa haggled with the land lady, Padma, for half a day. Not a bad place if you ignore the bed bugs and mosquitoes. Final note: Looking forward to a exciting tomorrow and missing the two women in my life. Love them both.
PS: Excuse the handwriting, little drunk and very sleepy.
5 comments:
acknowledge the grammar corrections that i pointed out :P
way to go dude!! looks like u had some fun.. awesome
PS: next time get lost in time and tesne warp :P :D
Cool maga! NH-4 is Awesome! I agree. For the record i touched 160 kmph on that road in my Santro!!! ;)
Esh.
nice place, well written
Thanks Singh for your comments. Goof N Reddy made the correction. N Damn you Eshwar :P.
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