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Hi Guys,
Below is the Trip report to Hampi which me & my friend did it in his car on 30th & 31st Dec 2011. Read away & post your comments & criticisms
Prologue:
This was a trip that was not planned until the last moment, me & my friend first thought of doing a rail fanning trip on 3 trains, however due to the yearend rush the availability was running into Wait lists & we had only 1 confirmed ticket, we thought booking tatkal but after lot of discussion about it we dropped the idea. Since he had 3 leaves which are kind of hard to come by I decided there is no point in wasting the leaves for nothing. I called up my 2 other common friends if they would join us on the trip however they dilly dallied till the last minute & then told us we can't make it.
Preparation & The Journey 30-Dec-2011
My friend gave his car for servicing on 29th Dec & they took the whole day to do it, well my friend thought he got the car in one piece but it was not to be will reveal later what it is (nothing serious). On 30th morning I got up & got call from my friend saying let’s leave today since they our other 2 friends won't come, I got ready by about 11 & called him, he said he is out & will be late, he somehow managed to get to my home by about 1:30. I just then had lunch & we started off, since both of us needed to draw money we made a stopover at an ATM & from here on a parody of goof ups happened for us that day but luckily it didn't last long, for starters my friend lost his ATM card the ATM machine gobbled it up! Well he had about 1k for the diesel we wanted to fill. We started off after calling Just dial for the customer care number of the bank. From then on it was wait for about 15mins before I got through to the customer & got the card blocked.
We hit NH7 at around 2:30 PM, from here on we made good progress & it was uneventful all the way till Mahbubnagar. We made a 10min stop over, went to super market to buy water & saw snickers, paid money for water & snickers, I came back to the car & saw my friend inspecting something, on the left side he saw scratches on the front fiber fender & I observed scratches on the wheel cap as well. We thought the A.S.S guys must have done it. We started again oblivious to the fact that I forgot Snickers at the Super Market! Well that's the second goof up happened I paid for the stuff I forgot at the counter itself! The traffic was horrible & took us about 25mins to cross the city, once on the open road we tried to speed up but then we hit a bad patch of road for about 10 KM, the road was riddled with potholes here & there with 1 small diversion tucked in. Once we were a good distance away from Mahbubnagar the road condition improved a bit however it was not really great, there were still potholes or big patches of bad roads.
By the time we reached Raichur it was 6:15, we asked for directions since I forgot the route, they said the ROB is closed for maintenance work & the traffic is being diverted, we took right at the first signal inside Raichur, then after half a KM another right, this was some kind of a bypass road. I was skeptical where this route would go, but anyway we stayed on the route, had to wait for about 30mins for 2 railway crossings. We started off from there at 6:45 again, asked along the way the route to Gangawati, the route was patchy but luckily no potholes anywhere, my friend was driving cautiously & maintained 80 all along the route. By the time we reached Gangawati it was around 9 PM, we still had about 30KM to go to Hampi. We hit the route to Hampi which bypasses Gangawati, the road till the river bridge is really good & then we hit a really bad patch of about 1KM road, once we crossed that we moved on & asked for directions, here yet again I was confused with the route, going back & forth we finally hit the correct route (for those going from Gangawati take First right from the River at the New Kampli Bus Stand from there on its a straight route until Kamalapuram, take right at the Petrol Bunk for Hampi) By the time we reached Hampi it was 10:30 PM, the town was already sleeping, we had to parked the car outside the entry gate as the guard said private vehicles were not allowed. We took all our stuff & walked into the town, we found one hotel which was offering only Sambar rice with papad, curd & some pickle. We had it & paid 50 bucks for 2 plates.
We then started the hunt for accommodation, what we didn't anticipate was the influx of tourists at this time. All the guest houses were full, luckily one guy asked if we want a room, we went with him & saw the room, it was small one with attached bath no running hot water! He quoted 600 bucks for one night & check out time 9 AM, I asked for a reduction in price & said to take 500 which slipped from my mouth 3rd goof up of the day. We settled into the room since we didn't have much choice, my friend had shower & I didn't & so we slept by around 11:30.
Hampi Tour:
We inquired from the cottage guy about guides & he said they would charge 1500 for English & about 800 for Telugu speaking one. Me & my friend thought about alternative of getting map which the guy said will be available at the temple. We paid the 500 for the room & left for the tour starting with the Virupaksha Temple inside the town. We bought the map for 20 bucks & started off our tour by 8 AM after breakfast & cleaning the car’s windshield, it drizzled intermittently early in the morning. Since I had been to Hampi back in 2008 I was able to guide my friend clearly where to go & what to look for where. The whole tour lasted about 5hrs as we covered every nook & corner possible by car
Return Journey 31-Dec-11
We decided to leave by 1:30 & head back to Hyderabad, went in search of ATM & in between found there is another Temple, saw the Rama temple which was the size of a football field. Once we got the money we needed we were on our way back, reached Gangawati the same way back by about 2:30 PM. Lunch was served from Bangalore Iyengar Bakery, we picked up veg puffs, masala roll, plum cake & this time we didn’t forget to take the stuff we bought. We pushed off from there after filling diesel for about 500 bucks & drove continuously for about an hour & when we started feeling hungry we stopped at an abandoned bus bay & had our “lunch”. Time was about 4 PM when we started off for Raichur, in between we saw a biker who was doing all kinds of feats on the highway as if it’s his backyard, he overtook us 2-3 times & slowed down right in front of us & did all kinds of stunts & even overtook us narrowly when a truck in the opposite direction was maneuvering to avoid another truck, my friend said I had enough with this namoona & lets overtake, so he hit the gas & we zoomed off at 100kmph! That guy was never seen again even when we slowed down as we hit a bit of traffic & had a stopover to buy a cold drink. By the time we reached Raichur it was 5:15 PM, from here on it was just race against time & light, we had about 1 hour of light left, we kept going & by the time we reached about 30 KM out of Mahbubnagar it was night fall maneuvered through dense traffic with frustration mounting on us. We refueled for about 200 bucks there & had a stopover at the super market where I forgot the chocolates & asked the guy at the counter about it thinking he is the same person, but apparently it was another person who was there & he didn’t know anything about it & to my bad luck I didn’t take the bill uh. So we left but had to stop as the gate at the level crossing was closed, I got the opportunity to do some rail fanning as well & so took the video of the passenger train at the LC. We started at 7:20 PM from the LC & took us about 10mins to reach Jadcherla.
Time was 7:30 PM & NH-7 looked inviting for my friend, he started speeding up we hit speeds between 100 & 120 on NH7, the whole ride took us just about 30mins till Shamshabad outer, as the road is still under construction we had to slow down considerably, once we crossed the single lane, we took the Airport road & by the time we reached my friend’s home it was 8:50 PM.
Epilogue:
It’s the same situation with roads year on year, during monsoon & post monsoon the roads get damaged quickly & become pothole riddled however there is never relaying of roads or improving the material quality so that the road lasts longer. People in Karnataka I observed think the road is theirs & literally seen a good number of people driving their motorcycles while talking or playing with their mobiles on the highway as if it’s their own backyard & to add to the frustration of the car driver they don’t give way & overtake other vehicles dangerously.
PS: Photos will follow soon, they need to be edited a bit & converted to JPG
Below is the Trip report to Hampi which me & my friend did it in his car on 30th & 31st Dec 2011. Read away & post your comments & criticisms
Prologue:
This was a trip that was not planned until the last moment, me & my friend first thought of doing a rail fanning trip on 3 trains, however due to the yearend rush the availability was running into Wait lists & we had only 1 confirmed ticket, we thought booking tatkal but after lot of discussion about it we dropped the idea. Since he had 3 leaves which are kind of hard to come by I decided there is no point in wasting the leaves for nothing. I called up my 2 other common friends if they would join us on the trip however they dilly dallied till the last minute & then told us we can't make it.
Preparation & The Journey 30-Dec-2011
My friend gave his car for servicing on 29th Dec & they took the whole day to do it, well my friend thought he got the car in one piece but it was not to be will reveal later what it is (nothing serious). On 30th morning I got up & got call from my friend saying let’s leave today since they our other 2 friends won't come, I got ready by about 11 & called him, he said he is out & will be late, he somehow managed to get to my home by about 1:30. I just then had lunch & we started off, since both of us needed to draw money we made a stopover at an ATM & from here on a parody of goof ups happened for us that day but luckily it didn't last long, for starters my friend lost his ATM card the ATM machine gobbled it up! Well he had about 1k for the diesel we wanted to fill. We started off after calling Just dial for the customer care number of the bank. From then on it was wait for about 15mins before I got through to the customer & got the card blocked.
We hit NH7 at around 2:30 PM, from here on we made good progress & it was uneventful all the way till Mahbubnagar. We made a 10min stop over, went to super market to buy water & saw snickers, paid money for water & snickers, I came back to the car & saw my friend inspecting something, on the left side he saw scratches on the front fiber fender & I observed scratches on the wheel cap as well. We thought the A.S.S guys must have done it. We started again oblivious to the fact that I forgot Snickers at the Super Market! Well that's the second goof up happened I paid for the stuff I forgot at the counter itself! The traffic was horrible & took us about 25mins to cross the city, once on the open road we tried to speed up but then we hit a bad patch of road for about 10 KM, the road was riddled with potholes here & there with 1 small diversion tucked in. Once we were a good distance away from Mahbubnagar the road condition improved a bit however it was not really great, there were still potholes or big patches of bad roads.
By the time we reached Raichur it was 6:15, we asked for directions since I forgot the route, they said the ROB is closed for maintenance work & the traffic is being diverted, we took right at the first signal inside Raichur, then after half a KM another right, this was some kind of a bypass road. I was skeptical where this route would go, but anyway we stayed on the route, had to wait for about 30mins for 2 railway crossings. We started off from there at 6:45 again, asked along the way the route to Gangawati, the route was patchy but luckily no potholes anywhere, my friend was driving cautiously & maintained 80 all along the route. By the time we reached Gangawati it was around 9 PM, we still had about 30KM to go to Hampi. We hit the route to Hampi which bypasses Gangawati, the road till the river bridge is really good & then we hit a really bad patch of about 1KM road, once we crossed that we moved on & asked for directions, here yet again I was confused with the route, going back & forth we finally hit the correct route (for those going from Gangawati take First right from the River at the New Kampli Bus Stand from there on its a straight route until Kamalapuram, take right at the Petrol Bunk for Hampi) By the time we reached Hampi it was 10:30 PM, the town was already sleeping, we had to parked the car outside the entry gate as the guard said private vehicles were not allowed. We took all our stuff & walked into the town, we found one hotel which was offering only Sambar rice with papad, curd & some pickle. We had it & paid 50 bucks for 2 plates.
We then started the hunt for accommodation, what we didn't anticipate was the influx of tourists at this time. All the guest houses were full, luckily one guy asked if we want a room, we went with him & saw the room, it was small one with attached bath no running hot water! He quoted 600 bucks for one night & check out time 9 AM, I asked for a reduction in price & said to take 500 which slipped from my mouth 3rd goof up of the day. We settled into the room since we didn't have much choice, my friend had shower & I didn't & so we slept by around 11:30.
Hampi Tour:
We inquired from the cottage guy about guides & he said they would charge 1500 for English & about 800 for Telugu speaking one. Me & my friend thought about alternative of getting map which the guy said will be available at the temple. We paid the 500 for the room & left for the tour starting with the Virupaksha Temple inside the town. We bought the map for 20 bucks & started off our tour by 8 AM after breakfast & cleaning the car’s windshield, it drizzled intermittently early in the morning. Since I had been to Hampi back in 2008 I was able to guide my friend clearly where to go & what to look for where. The whole tour lasted about 5hrs as we covered every nook & corner possible by car
Return Journey 31-Dec-11
We decided to leave by 1:30 & head back to Hyderabad, went in search of ATM & in between found there is another Temple, saw the Rama temple which was the size of a football field. Once we got the money we needed we were on our way back, reached Gangawati the same way back by about 2:30 PM. Lunch was served from Bangalore Iyengar Bakery, we picked up veg puffs, masala roll, plum cake & this time we didn’t forget to take the stuff we bought. We pushed off from there after filling diesel for about 500 bucks & drove continuously for about an hour & when we started feeling hungry we stopped at an abandoned bus bay & had our “lunch”. Time was about 4 PM when we started off for Raichur, in between we saw a biker who was doing all kinds of feats on the highway as if it’s his backyard, he overtook us 2-3 times & slowed down right in front of us & did all kinds of stunts & even overtook us narrowly when a truck in the opposite direction was maneuvering to avoid another truck, my friend said I had enough with this namoona & lets overtake, so he hit the gas & we zoomed off at 100kmph! That guy was never seen again even when we slowed down as we hit a bit of traffic & had a stopover to buy a cold drink. By the time we reached Raichur it was 5:15 PM, from here on it was just race against time & light, we had about 1 hour of light left, we kept going & by the time we reached about 30 KM out of Mahbubnagar it was night fall maneuvered through dense traffic with frustration mounting on us. We refueled for about 200 bucks there & had a stopover at the super market where I forgot the chocolates & asked the guy at the counter about it thinking he is the same person, but apparently it was another person who was there & he didn’t know anything about it & to my bad luck I didn’t take the bill uh. So we left but had to stop as the gate at the level crossing was closed, I got the opportunity to do some rail fanning as well & so took the video of the passenger train at the LC. We started at 7:20 PM from the LC & took us about 10mins to reach Jadcherla.
Time was 7:30 PM & NH-7 looked inviting for my friend, he started speeding up we hit speeds between 100 & 120 on NH7, the whole ride took us just about 30mins till Shamshabad outer, as the road is still under construction we had to slow down considerably, once we crossed the single lane, we took the Airport road & by the time we reached my friend’s home it was 8:50 PM.
Epilogue:
It’s the same situation with roads year on year, during monsoon & post monsoon the roads get damaged quickly & become pothole riddled however there is never relaying of roads or improving the material quality so that the road lasts longer. People in Karnataka I observed think the road is theirs & literally seen a good number of people driving their motorcycles while talking or playing with their mobiles on the highway as if it’s their own backyard & to add to the frustration of the car driver they don’t give way & overtake other vehicles dangerously.
PS: Photos will follow soon, they need to be edited a bit & converted to JPG
