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.