Take me home, Country Roads….

There are multiple ways to commute from one place to another – by air being the easiest but the most boring of the lot. We in India have an extra option of going in a train other than taking the road route. Travelling on roads in India was/is considered a night mare and so a lot of enthusiastic travelers like me used to envy the buggers living in the US and Europe for their great roads and the ease with which they take those road trips driving down across states. Not anymore folks, India is almost there Well, it is still ALMOST..

 

Anyway the lengthy beginning is for a lengthy road trip we took in the Sankranthi vacation. 2 years after I bought my car, did the poor thing have the fortune of travelling cross-country! Now, Karnataka is inarguably the trekker’s and wild-life enthusiasts paradise and we set out to discover it on our own. Starting on an early Saturday morning from Bangalore, we started driving towards our final destination of Udupi in western Karnataka, a beach and temple town on the beaches of Arabian Sea. With the new-found tourism itch of India and states like Karnataka, we saw more boards to Belur and Haleibidu than to more bigger towns like Chikmagalur or even Hassan. Taking our first break near Hassan, we stopped by a highway-side Dosa Camp – serving awesome “Thin Idli” (Some new innovation apparently!) and some tasty and hot Dosas all served in a wide open parking lot – an Indian version of a drive-in But travelling with a 20 month old spoilt brat can be quite challenging than the drive itself. We stopped for more time than we drove but managed to reach Hassan -> Belur and then to Chikmagalur. For people unfamiliar with Karnataka, CHKMGLR is like a base camp for most of the adventures treks/trips into the Western Ghats.

 

Lunch @ Plantain Café – a decent restaurant in CHKMGLR on the way to Aldur (our next town in the Ghats). As we left CHKMGLR the nature started welcoming us with open arms. Driving through the Somaishwar national forest and Muthodi Wildlife sanctuary we reached Aldur and after a lot more spiraling roads and a few breaks we reached our first destination for the day – Sringeri (one of the four Sakthi Peethas established in India by Adi Shankaracharya of Advaitha fame!) . Ramesh and Vasisht had some good time talking to each other and Ramesh spending the time recuperating from the adverse effects the ghat roads had on him before the temple opened One of the best temples of Mookambika I have seen, Sringeri is undoubtedly a paradise for spiritually inclined.

Still to cover close to 90 Kms and time almost being close to sunset, we hurried out of the temple and reached another small town called Agumbe – famously called Agumbe Ghat. We had a feeling of serendipity when we had a chance encounter with the sun, leaving work to his home! And what a place to watch the sunset – sun moving slowly down in to the horizon with nothing to obstruct the view for miles around. Certainly the highest point of our day – literally and figuratively

 

Reaching Udupi at 8.30 PM, all drained out – we dined and crashed in a hotel room. Woke up in the morning to visit the Krishna temple in Udupi. One of the most powerful temples I have seen of late, with the whole atmosphere inside the temple reverberating with Hare Krishna chantings, Krishna bhajans sweetly sung by groups of carnatic singers all together – totally wiping out any thoughts from the minds except of the Lord in his full magnificence. Words cannot and should not describe the feeling of peace and spirituality that touched me inside that temple. Out of the temple, we ventured to find out the next best thing Udupi is known for – yes the Dosa. Udupi is the vegetarian food capital as everyone knows and it was proven over and over, with the Dosas we ordered one after another and the Upma, that Ramesh savored After some temple shopping for idols, photographs and accessories by Paddu, we moved to the beach in Udupi, called Malpe beach. We had some 3 hours of great fun, good lunch and we could not stop ourselves to reach our next destination beach in Murudeswar.

 

Drive from Udupi to Murudeswar is one of the most beautiful drives of my life, with a wonderful looking sea with its waves crashing close to the road on one side and coconut groves by the backwaters on the other side of the road. Crossing multiple rivers like Sharavati (The River that causes Jog Falls, the highest waterfall in India), Sauparnika and Aghanashini on the way – and a beautiful beach of Maravanthe and a couple of movie star like snaps of Mr.Ramesh on the beach-side roads, we finally reached Murudeswar.

 

Murudeswar is an important location in the story of Bhookailas (old telugu movie!!) – Ravana bringing shiva’s atmalinga wanting someone to hold it while he does his evening prayers and hands it over to Ganesha in disguise as a cowherd boy, who calls for Ravana three times before he places it on the ground unable to bear the weight. It gets stuck in the ground then, as forewarned, and that place is Gokarna. Furstrated Ravana throws the holy cloth in which it was being carried all the while and it fell in Murudeswar – that is the legend! Though the age-old temple is disgustingly concretized (sic, modernized), it has conveniently screwed up the legacy by placing ceramic tiles on the stone built temple structure by a local real-estate contractor Mr. RN Shetty, trying to put Murudeswar on the map. So you see more hotels and accommodation around the great hill than the temple itself – so much so that a couple of my friends actually were surprised to know that there was one, when I told them that we visited the temple on that hill…! That apart, Vasisht had a great time at the beach and ofcourse we too. Sunset on the second day, after the Agumbe Ghat view, was at the sea shores of murudeswar – a brilliant sight of two minutes watch sun disappear in to those roaring waters.

 

Day 3, is Gokarna. “I am a Herbivore. What else will you call me – I thrive on ‘Grass’?” That is the thought for a T-shirt that crossed my mind as I looked at the hordes of ‘firangs’ in Gokarna (We call the whites that around here, for all you Americanized folks and Grass for Desi junta around is a street name for marijuana!!). It is a confusing, little town of extreme spirituality and hordes of foreign tourists pouring in searching for instant nirvana – either given by Lord Shiva himself or the street-side vagabond! But Gokarna remains a center for vedic studies and is certainly held in high esteem on spiritual grounds from eons of time. We managed to offer our prayers at the Mahabaleshwar temple in Gokarna and it’s a different feeling shouting ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ for eleven times over powering the crowds of devotees trampling around you, while performing that abhishekam. We saw around the place – Ganesh Temple, Parvati Temple and a few temple-side puja accessory shops etc.

Then the afternoon was spent at the famous (notorious?) Om Beach – a place with more firangs than Indians, relaxing by the sea side in huts built beautifully on the shores. (See the picture below!) And Om Beach is so called apparently because the beach looks like an inverted Om!??! (See the picture below for yourself)

We took a trip on a boat to the other beaches around – Paradise beach, Half-moon beach etc. Played in the waters for a while and waited for the sunset. This time, to view it from a hill top, courtesy Ramesh who trekked up around the hills to find the best view point! We waited for our dear sun to go down for yet another tremendous view with some great time pass with Lemonades and Frito Lays.

Starting back on the next day early morning around 6 AM, the drive through Shimoga and Sagar and touching Jog Falls on the way, it was an awesome drive at an average speeds of 90-100 KMPH (quite a feat contrary to the expectation of Indian roads!) and reached home (sweet home!) by 4PM! Dinner and crashed with a aching legs, after that long drive and with an aching heart – for I am not sure when I can take such a trip again.

That was a trip of mesmerizing natural beauty, enthralling views, thrilling speeds, broadened perspectives and a definition of a real holiday!

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