The sleeper bus , our chosen mode of transportation to get to Hampi, resembles a greyhound bus except that inside, instead of seats there are bunk beds. There are double beds as well as single beds available and you can choose between an A/C bus or a non-A/C bus. Since the nights are relatively cool, we opted for a non- A/C bus and decided to wear light clothing. Once we found our bunk, we settled in for our first night on a sleeper bus. The beginning of the ride was a bit bumpy but that was expected. What we didn't expect was how cold it would get during the night. It so happened that some of the windows where our bunk was did not close properly and the ones we did manage to close would open on their own because of the bumps in the road and the rattling of the bus. We froze all night and were never able to keep the windows closed for very long. Also preventing us from sleeping were the massive holes in the road the bus hit throughout the night making us bounce around in our bunk!
We woke up in Hampi at around 6 30 am to "rickshaw" drivers yelling and sticking maps and business cards through the windows. We had been hassled by the rickshaw drivers before but these guys were on a different level of aggressive! As we stepped off the bus, still only half awake, we were swarmed by them and had to literally push our way through to collect our luggage at the back of the bus. Since we had no reservations, we were unsure of where to go right away to look for a guesthouse. We snuck away to some nearby ruins to escape the rickshaw drivers and figure out what we wanted to do. We eventually agreed on taking a rickshaw to find a guesthouse.
Hampi is an old city built on the ruins of a once thriving capital of the Vijayamagara Empire, an empire that stretched from the Arabian sea to the Indian ocean. All that remains of those glorious days are ruins and a few standing temples. The city is divided in two by the Tungabhadra river, which can be crossed with a small motor boat ferry that charges a large amount for a 45 second crossing. The alternative to the pricey ferry is a bridge located 50 kms away. Needless to say, we used the ferry boat and paid their price.
The city is surrounded by massive boulder mountains. It is also where many Bollywood movies are filmed. The 2005 movie "The Myth", starring Jackie Chan, includes a few scenes filmed in Hampi.
Our first night, we took a room at a guesthouse on the east side of the river. There, we met two girls from France who had also arrived that day and had taken a room at the same guesthouse. We spent a few hours chatting with them on the roof before deciding to explore the city. We walked all afternoon exploring the ruins wandering in the markets near our hotel. We visited the city's main temple and we were lucky enough to be blessed by the temple's elephant. The elephant blesses you with a tap of her trunk on your head. I thought this was absolutely AMAZING!
The next day, since we had explored most of what we wanted to see on the East side, we chose to change hotels and spend our second night on the other side of the river. While waiting for the ferry, we got to see the temple's elephant get her bath in the river. Here, we rented a scooter to go explore some temples a little farther away, in the neighboring town if Anagonda.

Though Hampi was beautiful to look at, we felt that the people were less friendly. After three days and two nights, we took another sleeper heading towards Bangalore.

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