My Hampi Getaway! :)

The trip to Hampi was my fourth attempt of a getaway. And I almost missed my bus! Thanks for last minute hurries and multiple traffic jams. Luckily KSRTC does provide you the number of bus conductor. I kept on pestering him with my calls, with only one statement "give me five minutes more please!" Finally he said "I will give you 10 not 5, but not further", and luckily we made it.
Now to reach Hampi, I had to go to Hospet. The bus stops there at 1:00 am and with my friend dozing off after the dinner, I had no choice but to stay awake, or else we'd reach either Gangavathi or Hubli :D. The bus reached there at 2:30 am. After two hours of rest, we came out of the stupid lodge at 4:30 am.

My major plan was to trek the Matanga hill and reach the top an hour before sunrise, just as to stay prepared for dawn shots. Our journey from Hospet started in pitch black darkness. Not realizing that the auto we hired had no headlight! Just one blue LED light! And he simply drove into darkness for 13 kilometers! I was just hoping he wouldn't kidnap us. I asked him to drop us at entry point of the hill trek. Instead he dropped me at the main temple entrance. Very few people were to be seen. I chose not to talk to anyone there, else they will identify us as strangers and that leads to strange happenings. I chose to follow Google maps and somehow reached  the bottom of the hill. Now this wasn't the traditional path of trekking the hill ( which I realized later ).

So it's 4:45 am, we are about to begin our trek and we have a hill to climb. The hill is slightly lit by moonlight with stars in background. Sheer beauty. I could have shot the scene but we wanted to climb first and shoot later. We had forgot our flashlights but we managed with mobile flashlights. The trek which initially looked easy become more difficult, with no signboards and no other humans to be seen around.At one point it looked like a dead-end, there were no steps but just random boulders. I knew that this place wasn't it. So we went around the boulders and found a small pathway hidden in darkness to the top. Again, sheer luck. As we reached the top, there was a small house like structure one has to cross to reach the other side.

So, inside it's pitch black, smelled of age and several rooms to cross. I must say, even a flutter of bird then would have given me a heart attack :D. I feel I am too urbanized for such places. We soon came out to the other side thankfully. In a short while after relaxing a bit, we got onto our business.
Here are the pics:

 Small temple like structure, lit by mobile flash light, before sunrise

 My first dawn pic

 The majestic view of Hampi ruins

Climbing down was much easier as we took the easier route this time. After these shots, my plan was executed successfully. For the rest of the day, with no particular plan, I just did the "run the gun" with my cam. Here are the pics from the rest of the day:

 Lake near Krishna Temple Road

A 500 year old ruin

 The Madavi Linga

 Get blessed for few bucks

 School kids at Virupaksha Temple

 Lone travellers

 It was me vs her :D

 A langur resting near Krishna temple road

 The lotus mahal

 Lone time with gods

 Hanumanji Relic

 A surrealistic HDR in Vitthala temple

Sunburst at the famous Stone Chariot, Vitthala temple

 A handheld panorama of 11 vertical shots

At the gates of Vitthala temple

My trip was mostly done. We went to sunset point ( forgot the place) out of Hampi.
The view was serene but were too tired to take anymore shots. I almost slept there but just before sunset, I captured this:

It took a day to click these and almost a week to process them.

Hope you liked the pics. As usual, comments and feedback always welcome :D

Last but not the least, here's a pic of mine, shot by my photographer friend:

Updating blog with newly processed pics :