Wherever you are staying in Goa, Hampi in the neighbouring state of Karnataka is a great excursion option for a number of reasons, (1) the price is excellent value, (2) it is a relatively short trip (3 days / 2 nights), (3) its a completely different ‘India’ experience to touristy Goa, and (4) its a stunning train journey.

There is no getting away from the fact that it does involve an early start – and a very long train journey, but it is well worth the effort. We were collected from Calangute, north Goa and the minibus journey to the train station must have taken at least an hour. From memory it is approximately seven hours on the train from departure in Goa to arrival in the small transport hub town of Hospet. The plus side is the views along the way are pretty impressive as you make your way through a mix of villages before heading up into the mountains and past the Dudhsagar waterfalls.

Eventually the land flattens out again and you witness farming take place using oxen and tools from a bygone era. You won’t go hungry either, vendors board the train at many of the stops offering local snacks and cups of sweet chai, just don’t drink too many as the toilet facilities aren’t luxury….

By mid-afternoon we had checked into our hotel in Hospet and took the opportunity to explore the local area, and it was very different! We had previously visited Indian cities whilst doing the Golden Triangle route and Goa obviously, this was proper rural! As we went over the bridge there were dozens of ladies doing their washing, pigs were wandering around eating at the rubbish. Cows, not the regular Goan variety, but ones with massive horns were being driven through the streets, literally herds of them.

With the light disappearing we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. My only memory of the hotel was how when we ordered a beer the waiter brought it across in the way a sommelier would the finest bottle of wine, he cradled it like a proud father showing off his newborn for us to look at before he opened it!

I will add the factual details of the history of Hampi towards the end of this blog but for now I will stick to our lasting memories (that have been newly refreshed by looking through the photos). These days it is UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as being a Hindu pilgrimage site, our guide told us many things about the different Gods, including what they represent and why. Not all he told us was true, Ganeshas large body represents the whole universe, not too many bottle of Kingfisher as he jokingly told us…. We also learnt that monoliths are a statue made from a single piece of stone, that the toilets at Hampi are no better than the ones on the train and that they will happily extract money from tourists to be blessed by the Temple elephant. Not knowing any better at the time we were blessed by Dumbo laying his trunk across our heads, a great photo but with hindsight the elephant will have been cruelly treated in training to make him do that.

Following a fantastic lunch overlooking the river, rice and curries served up on a banana leaf at the Mango Tree restaurant (apparently its no longer there), we contemplated the next part of the tour. The coracles that we were to make our journey down river on didn’t look the safest floating things that we had ever seen. To be honest they were good fun, the only unsettling part was when they were first loading them up – once everyone was spread out they were very steady even if not very comfy.

The afternoon brought us to all the sights (pictures above) that we were familiar with from the posters advertising Hampi, the famous Chariot, the Kings Swing (a fat King meant more goodies for his subjects, his weight would be matched in gifts). The nightclub, or the equivalent of its time where the pillars were musical when struck and the Kings band would provide entertainment! The elephant stables were particularly impressive due to the size of them, but probably the most awe inspiring was the aqueducts and water storage, so clever but also beautifully made. A lot of water would need to be stored as the bathing pools could be used to train Olympic swimmers! A nice touch was walls had fish symbols on them pointing in the direction of the water. Note the very impressive tap (top right) in the picture below.

The day finished off with a final mini-bus ride up to a viewing point to watch the sunset, and predictably (we often seem to be unlucky) by this point the early evening cloud had come down. With dusk having reached there was nothing else to do but return the hotel and the Kingfisher sommelier…

We we’re fortunate that the train journey in both directions just flew by. On the outbound journey the carriage was full of younger European backpackers who had plenty of (horror?) stories to pass on of their journey through India, nightmare bus journeys, cramped trains, bus crashes – but they were loving every minute of the experience. Returning back to Goa we were surrounded by young Indian agricultural students who were all keen to practise their already very good English on us. They were also very aware about recycling and recognised the problem that India has with that issue, hopefully the next generation might mean a cleaner country?

Now for the bits that we couldn’t remember, or at least not with any accuracy – what would we do without Wikipedia?

In the 14th century what we now know as Hampi was originally referred to as Vijayanagara, and it was the capital of the Empire of the same name, it was a prosperous and wealthy city (India’s richest by far). By the year 1500 it was at its height and was the second largest medieval era city in the world, only Beijing in China was larger at this time. Unfortunately this peak was short lived and in 1565 the Vijayanagara Empire was defeated by a coalition of Muslim sultanates. At the battle of Talikota King Aliya Rama Raya was betrayed by a pair of his army commanders, the Muslim Gilani brothers. What should have been an easy victory due to the size of his army tuned into a crushing and Empire ending defeat. With the city having been conquered, pillaged and destroyed by the sultanate armies the Kings head was separated from the rest of his body. The site then remained largely ignored until the mid-19th century. The current name of Hampi was taken from the name of a sacred inner suburb within the sprawling city.

For this and many other excursions we would definitely recommend Valerie, her website and contact details can be found here https://www.valerietravelsgoa.com/