Evolve Back, Kamalapura Palace Hampi

2018 August, Preeti and I celebrated 10 years of our Wedding.

2018 July / August was another milestone as well.

We had begun our journey as a “Family unit” by renting a 3BHK in South City Apartments. We needed another car, and bought a Bright Red Baleno for our use, while mum and dad kept the EcoSport.

We took a road-trip to Hampi in the shiny new Baleno.

The Roads were awesome up to Sira and then the turnoff to Chalakere / Rayadurga.

Once we hit Bellary, the roads were full of traffic, potholes and dust.

At the Turn off After Sira, We got some awesome roads lined with sunflower fields.

We reached Evolve Back, Kamalapura Palace, Hampi, a little after 3 pm, for a late lunch.

Arrival & Day 1

Post lunch we spent in our rooms and exploring the property.

However, unlike their other resorts, this one had their “entertainment” area very far away from the restaurant. So while Ishaan was playing his games, or in that area, we couldn’t stray away and enjoy a cup of coffee or a drink etc. The pool was adjacent to the restaurant area. Very unlike the other 2 resorts, we have been to.

Dinner service began at 7 pm and we were able to get Ishaan some hot rice and daal. We put him to bed and headed to the restaurant for our meal.

The chicken, fish or mutton that we tried was either too dry, or overcooked, or too oily. The vegetarian food was extremely good though.

The Evolve Back Kabini and Coorg have a separate counter promoting local cuisine and we were sorry to find that this was on the menu here

Day 2 – The Discovery of flies

The next day we woke up lazily and had a boring breakfast. The spread at this venue was quite small compared to the Coorg and Kabini resorts.

We signed Ishaan up for an Evening cake baking class with the house kitchen

Turns out the room had quite a few flies, which were larger than your average house fly. We complained to housekeeping who sent their engineer, with an electric fly swatter and cleaned out the flies.

We went for lunch, and again we found the vegetarian food to be far better.

We decided not to try any more non-vegetarian food. The desserts too were not too appetising. Most of the muffins and baked goods were dry to a point of being inedible. The high tea snacks were the saving grace.

Preeti is the baker at home and takes orders for cakes and dessert. She accompanied Ishaan to his baking class at 4 pm.

She was quite appalled at the way the kitchen staff were handling the baking process, especially mixing the dough and handling the cream by hand, sans gloves

We got back to the room, to find more flies making themselves comfortable. Housekeeping staff came, cleaned the area, and gave us electric fly swatters in case we needed it. and we did!!

Random Pictures, around the hotel through the day

Day 3 & The Virupaksha Trail

I did the “Virupaksha trail” with Evolve back, as Hampi is all about photography and architecture. The guide was very knowledgable, patient and I learnt a lot from him about this wondrous place. This is a must-do through their resort. The Resort has in-house guides and I could see that they genuinely cared about leaving a good impression about Hampi

We started at 8 am, and we were done at about 12 pm. Though it was quite hot and sunny, I did manage to see and photograph to my heart’s content and we were back in time for lunch.

Post lunch, we had another photography session around the resort.

The hotel suggested we do the Tungabadhra River view and Sloth bear sanctuary the next day as it was close by and something Ishaan would enjoy. By evening we went to retire to our room, which unfortunately was taken over by more flies!!

We were shifted to another room after much persistence.

The beds were comfortable, and we slept blissfully after an eventful day.

Day 4 – Sloth Bear Sanctuary & Tungabdhra View

We left early to view the Tungabhadra a little away from the city. It was cloudy day but the view of the river was quite nice. A couple of gardens in the vicinity but we didn’t feel like stretching our legs much. We headed back in time for lunch

We took off post lunch for the Sloth bear Sanctuary. It was 15kms from the resort.

We also were accosted by the local village boys who stopped our car in the middle of the highway and would not let us leave until we coughed up enough money for the Ganesh Festival for their village. We didn’t want to take a chance with the kid in the back seat. But after much shouting / negotiating and waiting they let us pass for Rs 100/-

We did see a bear and some peacocks and spent about 1.5 hours there.

I missed my 4 pm Massage slot, by the time we reached back. We had a great tea/snacks session and Preeti left for her 6 pm appointment with the masseuse.

Ishaan and I enjoyed the new room, while the skies darkened and soon it was raining heavily. The downpour lasted about 30 mins, and our new room had a big puddle of rainwater on the inside near the balcony door!

This time I got the General Manager’s attention, and he apologised profusely. After even more requests to change the room, as i couldn’t afford to have another pool of water if it rains at night in the room. Around 8pm they found a room that became “suddenly” vacant and we got an upgrade to a larger room. By this time we were quite exhausted with our 3rd room change, and all we wanted was a good nights sleep.

Day 5 – A Vintage Ride & Check Out

We checked out late, post-breakfast the next day. We enjoyed a ride in the vintage Ambassador around the property

We headed back home, taking the road Google recommended via Sandur. The road was a state highway, with beautiful well laid tarmac and barely any traffic, scenic with hills and greenery around. We didn’t stop to take pictures, as we wanted to be back in Bangalore before dark.

Things we want to go back for…

The staff at Hampi Kamalpura are the best we have ever come across. They always have a smile on their face and always willing to please. They’re very kid friendly and were happy to entertain my toddler. Special mention to Mr.Libin who always made sure we were comfortable. Ms.Swathi, our host during our stay was also were kind and accommodating to our needs.

Preeti, who is extremely picky about massages, had a very good experience at their spa. She said that the spa is unmatched in terms of the masseuses. Her massage was just heavenly.

Ishaan’s food requirements were taken care of by the staff with utmost care. His food was served freshly made and on time every time.

We would definitely go back and give this beautiful property another go sometime soon!

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