Well, it’s September!! time to travel. Time to refresh my outlook from the slumber IT life.
Need to recharge my cells to fuel my dreams.

This time it’s gonna be the World Heritage Site, The Architectural Wonder, The city built by the great JayaVarman VII, the city of temples: ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA.
Just the thought of it gave me goose bumps. My imagination went wild I started to picture monks, great stone buildings, temples, steep stairs, captivating sunsets, breathtaking sunrises and most of all the combodian people the country side the language, the food, the ladies…

So I quickly decided to book my tickets. I logged on the only low cost airline Jetstar which files out of Bangalore and booked myself a ticket to Bangkok, Thailand for not a bad price
of 9000 RS (INR, Inc. Taxes).

So it’s gonna be BANGALORE - SINGAPORE - BANGKOK.

Since the plan from Bangkok was not chalked out I decided to take a day more to find out means to travel from Bangkok to Siem Reap (the city closest to Angkor Wat).
After gathering more than enough details I went back to book my return tickets BKK-BLR but the prices have now soared from 9000 INR to 14000 INR(inc taxes).
So I looked around for other airlines which fly to Bangalore from Bangkok. After googling for a bit I managed to get a decent priced ticket from Srilankan Airlines BKK to Colombo to BLR (1 day stay in COLOMBO), without any second thoughts I booked it as I could visit another country for the same price..gee

Since now the tickets are booked I decided to do a rough budget plan for the 10 days of my travel. Alas, I would be travelling through Bangkok by Bus, Tuk-Tuk, Bicycles, Pick-up trucks.
Need to get my CAMBODIAN VISA. Visit Angkor Wat (a three day pass costs around 40USD). Travel to Phuket/Pattaya and then fly out. I havent actually been saving for this trip but am sure that whatever am gonna spend on it’s gonna be worth it.

I started to look for pictures of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom etc on Flickr.

These are some of the useful links I found about Thailand, Cambodia

Tales of Asia (A very detailed experience. Nice site)
Travellers Point (cheap accomodation reservations)

After a long tiring week I decided to take off from the city and decided to go to some place quite, historical, cultural with similing faces and laid back atmosphere so I decided to go to HAMPI.

Boarded the HAMPI Express from Bangalore which leaves at 10pm and reaches HOSPET,the closest town to Hampi, at 7:30am. Hired an auto rickshaw (indian tuk-tuk) to take us to HAMPI which is around 13kms away from HOSPET.

The landscape was a nice change tea shops, mud houses, children playing on the streets to banana plantations and finally the rocky hills indicating that we have reached HAMPI. The experience was exhilarating: ruins, temples, carvings, pillars, rocks, boulders, restoration sites, archealogical sites are definetley a get away from the city’s hustle-bustle.

Some of the moments captured from HAMPI.

History: Hampi (ಹ೦ಪೆ, Hampe in Kannada) is a village in northern Karnataka, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in India. Hampi is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire. Possibly predating the city of Vijayanagara, this village continues to be an important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple. The village of Hampi contains several other monuments belonging to the old city. It extends into some of the old ceremonial streets of Vijayanagara.

Hampi is identified with the mythological Kishkindha, the monkey kingdom which finds mention in the Ramayana. The first historical settlements in Hampi date back to 1 CE.

Hampi formed one of the cores of the capital of the Vijayanagara empire from 1336 to 1565. Hampi was chosen because of its strategic location, bounded by the torrential Tungabhadra river on one side and surrounded by defensible hills on the other three sides.

you can wiki for this more here
Ruins at Vittala Temple

The famous stone chariot “Kalyana Ratha, Vittala Temple”

Hemakoota Temples

for more information you can read this