My Travel Tales

When I reached my hotel at Badami, the hotel manager told me that there are a lot of places to visit inside and outside Badami. I had two days at my disposal to visit these places. So I dedicated my first day for visiting places within Badami and I decided to spend my second day to visit places outside Badami. Pattadakal was the first destination in “my list of places to visit outside Badami”.

After visiting the Badami fort and the cave temples, my next destinations were Aihole and Pattadakkal. From my previous day's visit to the Badami  Archaeological  museums, I got an opportunity to read about the history of the Chalukyans and their kingdom. The articles say that the Chalukyan's early capital was at Aihole. Then they moved their capital to Badami, which is about 33 kilo meters away. Aihole earlier known as Ayyavoḷe and later Aryapura. So, as usual, I  inquired  about the bus timings and the share auto timings to Aihole at the hotel's reception, the Royal Deluxe lodge. The boys at the hotel, were of great help as they suggested me two options: 1) To catch the van that was going to Pattadakkal at 9 am. From there, I can catch an auto or another bus to Aihole. 2) To use the direct bus service from Badami to Aihole. However the overall one sided cost for the trip will be around 12 rupees.

 When I was searching for the weekend destinations near Hyderabad, I found this beautiful, archaeological wonder - Badami. I was not much interested about this place until I read about its history, and viewing the beautiful pictures of sandstone caves and temples. So I made up my mind to visit this place as the first trip in 2013 and also I'm writing this post on the same day of my visit to Badami.