Hampi is just breathtaking. The ruins of this ancient city built on trade in the 1300's are sprawling and beautiful. The whole area is surrounded by natural sculptures of monolith granite boulders that are piled in impossible ways, rising out of a lush green landscape. The Monkey Temple is deemed the birthplace of Hanuman, 600 steps straight up the rock face! But well worth it and the sunset is not to be missed. I reached Hampi with LiveIndia Motorcycle Tours on a Royal Enflied Bullet. 14 days starting in Goa and swinging inland up through Karnataka and the Western Ghats in sweeping loop. There were too many amazing sights and experiences to list. The tour group was tiny, the guides Andy and Nitin, were knowledgeable, attentive and endlessly flexible. The entire experience was faultless. As a biker the Indian roads were a totally engaging experience - beautiful black top that suddenly became rubble; buses carrying hundreds lumbering towards you on your side of the road and goats on the motorway! India is a country soaked in history and has learned to absorb the ebb and flow of life's challenges with grace and humility. We stopped in many remote villages for chai and lunch. We were strangers in a strange land but were always greeted with warm curiosity and a dazzling smile. Motorcycle touring puts you right in the landscape and engages all of your senses all of the time. A perfect way to see India.

www.liveindia.co.uk

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Stay on the opposite side of the river to Hampi Bazaar. The accommodation is better value (you may even get a swimming pool if you're lucky!), cleaner and quieter than in Hampi Bazaar. There are some lovely places, some with circular rooms and beds, some cottage-style rooms. We paid about Rs350 (£4-ish) for a double. We could see women working in the paddy fields while we had our breakfast, whereas in our place in Hampi Bazaar we were regularly woken by shouting and hollering.
You need to get a coracle back and forth to access Hampi Bazaar (and the bulk of the famous ruins) and they do stop at about 10pm - but there's plenty going on over that side of town, films, etc, and you can even get alcohol there. (It's prohibited in Hampi Bazaar for some reason).
We took a bicycle out and explored that side of the river (way past the Hunamyan Temple!) and had one of the nicest experiences of rural India in our whole 5 months there. My partner had little kids pushing and pulling his bike along for most of the way from village to village. There really were very few non-Indians who ventured in that direction. We were a bit of a novelty to say the least!
There's at least 10 guest houses over that side - all budget at around Rs300-400.

Go to Hospet station. If you arrive during the day, get the bus to Hampi Bazaar (the taxis all know you're giong in that direction and charge a fortune. I think the bus was Rs30 (40p). You then need to find the river and take a boat across (Rs50 if I recall correctly).

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