Coastal Karnataka - part 3

Day 4 : Murudeswar - Kollur - Agumbe - Horanadu
Day 5 : Horanadu - Hallebudu - Sravanabelagola- Bangalore

Day 4: We didn't have a strong itinerary for Day 4. Our initial plan was to visit Jog falls and head back to Bangalore. But we were told Jog didn't have water and was not worth the trip. With no planned itinerary and check out time only by 12 noon we had plenty of time to spend at Murudeshwar and I finally got into the water. The beach has facility for ladies to change, I found it extremely useful. It also had a mobile bus with bath facility and locker if you need.

After 12 it was too late to reach Bangalore so we headed towards Kollur. We were lucky to reach there by 2.45 and were the last few to get the dharshan of Mookambika. the temple closes at 3.00. I was a bit sick so again no photos for memoir. We next headed towards Agumbe for the next sunset experience. But after Gokarna I was not too impressed, but never the less it was quite good. It is a popular affair as i saw many tourist gathered at the sunset spot. After the sunset we headed towards beautiful Horanadu through the hilly and winding roads. He hoped to reach Hassan for the night halt.

But it was too late and we reached Horanadu only by 9.40. Though the temple was open till 10 we decided to rest for the day. So we did some room hunting. Again by gods grace we got an excellent room at one of the best hotels (Durgamba deluxe hotel) there for a reasonable amount (rs. 800) though it had no TV and western style facility..i was very very happy with the place. It reminded my village house and the hot sambar rice was really yummy after that long drive. All the warm clothes I had packed came handy for our stay at Horanadu.

Day 5: By now I had lost track of day and date. The hotels at horanaddu use fore from logs to heat up water. So Hot water only between 6 and 7 in the mornings. At 6 in the morning there was a hard bang on every room with a load voice yelling about the availability of hot water. It was quite dark for 6 am and the visibility was poor due to thick fog that was settling all around. We got ready for the temple visit by 7 and the annapoorneshwari temple was one of the temples with longest queue that I visited in this circuit. But I was very happy with the way the place was managed and we got an excellent Dharshan.

We decided to get the aarathi done and joined the 9 am pooja. I had never felt so moved by anything before. The lighting of lamps and ringing of bells and the vedic mantra chant was soul cleansing experience. i would love to be there once again to participate in a pooja like that. It was a very spiritual experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

We started back towards Bangalore at around 11 am. Reached bellur for lunch aroung 2 pm and spent some good time at hallebedu watching the Hoysala temple for Shiva. The carvings there are some of the most beautiful, better than Belur and Somanathapura temples. especially I liked the Govardana carving.

We then headed towards Sravanabelagola. We reached there at 5.45 and were told the temple closes at 6.15. We were to rush up and the steep hillock was unnerving. I think there were atleast 450 to 500 steps to climb. By the time I reached, what appeared to be the top i had gone breathless several time and I kept praying to good that I remain fit enough to climb it. On reaching the top spot I realised it was not the end and it was only 2/3 I had covered.

It was an accomplishment that we reached the top in time and spent good 10 minutes before we headed back. The tender coconut shop at the base is strategic and i was thankful that i could quench my thirst and recoup after all that hard work. Sravanabelagola was a fitting finish for the wonderful 5 day trip. We reached home sweet home by 10 that night.

Coastal Karnataka - Part 2

Day 3 : Murudeswar - Idugunji - Gokarna - Murudeswar

Day 3: I was eager to get a view of the sunrise and woke up by 6 am. Surprisingly the beach already had students/tourist taking bath and i could hear them from my room's balcony. With father and son fast asleep I sat by myself for about an hour looking at the sky going all black to shades of violet & pink and finally to bright day light. It was one of the most memorable times of the trip.

Later we went to the Booloka kailasha on top of the small hillock and enjoyed the show on the story of Ravana getting athma linga and the significance of Gokarana and Murudeshwra temples. It was very well presented and I felt the Rs.10 per head was a very reasonable ticket for such a nice show.
By afternoon we left towards Gokarna. On our way we stopped at Idugunji ganesha. We missed Batkal beach as we didn't know about it. My uncle says it is an excellent beach on the way to Gokarna and a must see.

But we stopped at Ramatheerta near honnavar. (missed clicking some snaps). It is a small temple, not many know about this place. A shiva temple that was worshiped by lord rama is present here. The story here is, as Rama was going through the forests in this area during his vanavasa there was no water and he shot an arrow in the land and it became a source of a fountain / stream and it is a source of water to this date. We collected a bottle of this water.

After luch at kumta, we reached Gokarna by 4 and there was an hour before the temple would open. So we spent about half hour in the Gokarna beach. Swimming is not recommended here and so we dint enter the water. There are too many westerners here. I guess it is because of its prximity to Goa / Karwar. we couldn't make it to Karwar as we dint get any hotels. In fact we didnt get any in Gokarna and we were returning to Murudeshwar that night.

We decided to go to Om beach (named after the shape of the beach, you can see it behind aadi in the next photo) for the sunset. This is the best beach I have been to so far. A quite secluded beach. The water here is as calm as possible. Spotting dophins during the boat ride was fun. The beach side resort can be accessed by boats only. The only negative point, I saw only westerners on those beach resorts. I was told they are too expensive for Indians.Not sure how expensive :(.

Aadi and Mahesha were back into the water and I was happy watching from the rocks and waited for the beautiful sunset. later we went to the Ganesha temple and the Mahabaleshwara temple. No banian and shirt for boys and men. I was surprised to see Mahesha comply immediately. The more surprising aspect was he even got an elaborate pooja done and he was lost in it. He was very pleased with the priest and made some generous offerings.I was happy i could touch the athma linga. There are very few hindu temples which allow you to touch the deity. Even at Ganesha temple you can offer pooja yourself if you had had a bath before coming to the temple. This was a pleasant surprise to me. We spent some time at the Parvathi temple and then were ready for some eats.

I was again surprised to see a small eating joint with Indian name filled with westerners and then realised it was run by westerners. It was houseful and the boy at the counter, a westerner, spoke in perfect local kannada and directed us to the Pai restaurant nearby. After the Dosa eats I realised I had not been to the rest room since we left Murudeswar. Thatz when I realised these places are definitely not women friendly when it comes to these matters. Finally found a decent place at the bus stop. The worst was at Kollur. So ladies beware.

We reached back Murudeshwar by around 10 pm later that night.

Sunset

Murudeshwar ....




Gokarna - Om Beach




Agumbe

Coastal Karnataka Trip - part 1

We had a Gala time last 5 days. The Day 0 went in deciding the itinerary (thanks to various blogs and outlook traveller) and calling up hotels & resorts we had a plan for day 1 to day 4 and left the last day flexible.

Day 1 : Bangalore - Belur - Sringeri - Udupi

Day 2 : Udupi - Maravanthe Beach - Murudeswar

Day 1: I had done all the packing the previous day and we started towards a wonderful trip from Bangalore by 7.45 in the morning.Luck was on our side and we were on the Tumkur road in about half hour.We hit the road towards Belur. By 12.30 we reached the architectural wonders of Belur. I loved the intricate carving in the temple and wanted to spend more time. We promised we will be back at another time for trip to Belur-Halebidu-Sravanabelagola (my long awaited place to visit).

After lunch at Chikmagalur we headed to Sringeri. We wanted to cover Sringeri Sharadda Devi Temple and Agumbe Sunset. Sringeri temple is closed between 2pm and 5 pm. We reached the temple Just in time for the opening in the evening. The temple was Serene and beautiful. The old eshwara temple looked divine. The Sharaddamba temple had a crowd as they had just opened the doors for the evening. We spent a while inside the temple and then enjoyed the beauty of the thunga river. The fishes were well fed a huge. Aadi was nostalgic about his pet fishes he had.

We decided to spend more time in Sringere and gave up sunset at Agumbe, as reaching there through the hilly winding roads will be impossible for catching the sunset. ( I was disappointed and kept complaining to Mahesha it was just like Yosmite ). We spent about an hour in the temple and then headed towards Udupi. It was about 9.00 pm we reached the Karavalli at Udupi and we were ready to retire for the day.

Day 2: we decided to skip breakfast as we were to go to temple. The three of us reached there by 7.45 and decided to get archana done. Since it was Dwadasi the pooja was over already over and we got an excellent dharshan of the god. It is amazing to see the gos through the narrow window and we later saw from the kanakana kitiki also. But we missed the Channakeshava temple, inspite of my moms reminders. Being a Madhwa myself it was important for me to go there. So hoping another visit will happen in some time.

We the went to the geeta sadan and took blessing from the presiding guru. The Brunch at the temple at 9.00 was yummy. Mahesha and me relished it. But aadi was complaining as he is not used to sitting on the floor and having lunch. Though banana leaf lunch is something he always loved.I shopped to my content in the temple premises. But I later realised the rates were much cheaper outside. I bought a "kadagolu" (the wooden spinner used to churn the butter milk) for 40 bucks and outside the same one was just 15 bucks. But, I decided not to complain.

Aadi loved the elephant blessing. It was first time for me and I shrieked when the elephant touched me with its trunk. Photography was prohibited. Guess the elephant gets scared.

We were now ready for the beach and it was about 10.30. we spent a good amount of time at the Maple beach which was just 2 kms behind our hotel. After a good swim in the beach and some beach cricket we were ready to hit the road for our next destination - Murudeshwar.

We were supposed to stop at Aneguda for Ganesha temple and we missed it. But, we did stop at Marwanthe beach. The drive reminded me of the west coast highway 1 in LA. The road running parallel to the beach. Here it was even better with one side the sea and the other side was a beautiful river (I think it was Nethravathi river not too sure). You can choose to stay in the turtle beach resort here instead of udupi. We couldn't get rooms there due to last minute bookings we did on Day 0.

I enjoyed the boat ride on the river. The residents of the islands are heavily dependent on the boats for their everyday commute and i felt a bit bad when we took away the motorised boat for half hour pleasure ride. Guess the residents are used to it. after some time at the beach we left for Murudeshwar and reached the RNS residency by 4.30. I am glad we stayed at the hotel and not in the resort. The view from 6th floor was breath taking.

I got my first view of beautiful sunset into sea from the majestic eashwara temple. Aadi and Mahesha continued to enjoy their beach trips and they insisted I join them in water and I continued to resist.

We went to the historic eashwara temple later in the night just before the temple was closed at 8 pm. The seaside restaurant at Naveen and at RNS were too good. I went to our room with a heavy tummy and crashed into the bed, dreaming about the sunrise view I would get next day.

Budget Vacation

With 2 weeks off at Mahesha's office and Aadi's school, i have been looking for a nice long trip. Mahesha has fallen in love with Mangalore and the nearby beaches and is keen to do a Coastal Karnataka trip. As a first step he has got couple of books for us to do a study. So hopefully we will hit the road tomorrow and I will have a story to tell after a week from now.

The difficult part is neither me nor mahesha wants to lift the phone and start making reservations. I want a vacation were I am treated like a queen. Someone takes care of everything and my role is nothing but to enjoy the trip. I guess Mahesha wants to be the king. With tight budgets we cannot afford a vacation like that. I am worried this vacation will only remain in our minds and never get real....

The wanderer

My mind has been a wanderer for many days now. The latest being my mom telling that the குரு பெயர்ச்சி (change in Jupiter position per horoscope) effect is not good for Mahesha. While it is supposed to have no negative effects for my stars, it is not great for him. I am not sure to believe in these or not but I guess it is good to ensure damage control if possible.

This brings back to the good ol' topic of my job. Do I get back into a regular job. I am sure it can bring better financial stability but what about aadi and other good things I have gained in last 10 months....

My N70

My mobile has been crying for a while that it has got old and would like to retire. In fact it has lost its voice. It does not ring any more and goes blind very often, the display turns to grades of maroon to all white and some times all black. It has been just 2.5 years back I bought it as B'day gift for Mahesha (Don't ask how it became my phone :)). It was one of the expensive ones ( for me atleast )in those days in the market. I spent a solid 17K on the N70. I am a huge fan of Nokia even today. I have changed 3 Nokia phones (including one I lost at my desk) in last 6 years. So I guess the average life expectancy of a Nokia is about 2 years and its time I upgraded.

Mahesha bought his Samsung just after I bought the N70. It is still working great. For many reasons I am in no mood to part from my N70. Mahesha has offered multiple times to buy a new one, but I have declined. I continue to miss my calls and still hanging on to dear old N70.

What do you call this??

Media ....

I have been watching a lot of TV since last week. For the first time I know all the news channel numbers, though they are not stored in my favourites list I can quickly browse from one news channel to another. I have watched Times Now, CNN IBN, NDTV, UTVi, Udaya varthegalu and the business news channels as well.

I have been always amused at the Jargons we use in the IT industry and used to wonder if this was unique to us. But the way the media covered the unfortunate incidents of last week, I saw them competing with each other to give a unique phrase to what was happening out there. I did feel like saying 'enough of this' to the Media folks. I was flipping to BBC every once in a while to see an outsider view. Though I felt BBC was more biased towards our neighbour, their stories were of much better quality. The host had better control on his interviews and discussions.

Guess our folks are still in maturity level 2/level 3 !! Long way before reaching level 5.