7 months of B-school grind killed the bug of photography but not the travelling one...
So, when the opportunity came during the year-end break, I latched onto it and decided to go to Bangalore. Of course there were other plans but destiny has its own of playing out things. So, took the 29th evening train to Howrah and a flight next day to Bangalore.
Met near and dear ones but the bug was getting worse and finally I succumbed to it as I hit the road to Gokarna, 480 kms away from Bangalore. For more information on Gokarna.
Cut to 8.30 AM, and I was near the Hotel Gokarn and savored the sights and sounds as I walked towards Gokarna beach. 20 mins more and I met the rest of the Gang keeping the hotel cook busy, gorging on anything coming their way.
Started from Gokarna beach and took the path running to Arabian Sea towards Kudle. But this time we decided to follow the unconventional route generally followed by cows or goats rather than the locals or tourists or hikers. The route starts behind the Ganpati temple, circles dangerously around the edges of the cliffs before hitting Kudle beach. Thorns greet you at multiple places followed by the typical weird characters that makes Gokarna mysterious and inviting.
It was almost noon as we reached Kudle after some minor hiccups. We decided to hit the Sunset cafe, shack right at the middle of Kudle for some energy drinks. But as law does it to you at the most righteous of times, sale of alcohol was banned till midnight due to local elections.
After sipping something of a compromise between Balaji (a local cola found near Kudremukh) and Pepsi, we started towards OM beach on a more normal route this time.
The OM beach is so named as its shape resembles the Hindu letter 'OM'.
OM beach was a sight for sore eyes. Quite a lot of changes have happened since the time I first came here while backpacking through the western coast. Saw banana boats, speed boats, extended Indian families littering the beach. We made a quick exit from this beach, with half of the junta deciding to take the boat to Paradise and the remaining , the hour long trek across 3 more hills. As one scales up the hill at the rear end of OM, we see why its so named.
More climbing later, we take a deviation to reach the palm tree that juts out of the cliff and overlooks the Arabian Sea.
From the archives:
After spending about half an hour, we made our way towards half-moon beach, the name coming from as you might have already guessed, the shape of the beach.
Another 20 minutes and we came to Paradise or full-moon beach.
We went to our regular 2nd cafe(the 3rd consecutive year), owned by Nagesh and named as the Evergreen cafe.
Lots of wait and lots of food later, a few to sleep, a few went to water, a few went to shoot and the remaining did the most common activity on that beach, i.e. did NOthing.
Paradise is rumored to be so named by the Israeli hippies who found this beach in the late 70's. Its accessible by boat only till sunset, when the tide is too high for boats to come. The nearest bus stop is about 4 kms from away in Belekhan village and the last bus is at 5 PM. So, after dusk, the only route is via climbing 3 hills and trying to avoid slippery rocks :). Luckily, this very relative difficulty of accessibility kept the beach away from the footfalls of the Indian visitors for quite a long time , till almost 2 years back, when me along with a couple of my colleagues were the only Indian non-locals on the beach. But times have changes, so has the demographics. And so has the litter and respect of individual-space levels. However, the beach is still a must-go because of its relatively less density even on the new year.
Although the hippies are long gone, the beach is still heaven for backpackers and trippers, who like to spend a few weeks on lesser crowded beaches, practising yoga and stuff.
The last sunset of the year was awesome due to clear skies.
The last boat to the mainstream...
And then people let out their joy....
And some more joy...
After sunset, the entire group of 13(not very unlucky with Rags dropping out at last moment) sat around the table, chit-chatting... bottles were readied, starters ordered...cork came out and so did the fizz....cops made their appearance too... surely, the times have changed now, I felt...The music became subdued with more of rock than shiv or Goa trance this time...
The darkness outside, the sea behind our backs, a long awaited get-together made up for all the tiredness...The clock struck 12 and we were on the other side of the beach and unlike earlier times, this time it was a few shouts and everybody went back to their businesses :(
And more orders followed and after dinner a walk-up-the-hill-to-gaze-at-the-stars followed and the clear sky did not disappoint us....with the lighthouse interfering periodically.
Soon, we hit the sack at around 2, remarkably early for 31st nights...
Post-early morning activities and a breakfast at Shanti Garden, Bishu, Prasanna and myself went out to find the lighthouse and after two ascents up two hills and chasing down trails to dead-ends, we gave up and returned back to base...
The group(excluding me)
Post-lunch, I decided to start back for Gokarna as ferries were going only to OM beach due to high tides in Gokarna... Had a quick look around OM beach and found a high speed Internet cafe of all things...maybe the proverbial last straw...Just for the info, the speed was real good as I updated my facebook status...so much for my rant at materialization ...
The journey from OM to Gokarna was fun...made a couple of Spanish guys pulling their bikes up the hill...Offered them the matches to light up and shared a few moments with them, before they went to depths of Hindu mythology and culture and I made a quick exit before my poverty in knowledge of my own culture embarrassed me...
Since, I had 2 more hours to spare, went to Bahadur's place at Flower Garden and had his special French toast and cutting chai before taking the return bus to Bangalore...
More travelling followed and I reached Jampot by 10 PM...well-spent 102 hours away from there...
PS: Thanks to Chetan, Jaggu and Madhu for the pics...
PPS: Guys, time to find a new new-year destination, a new Paradise :)
