Monsoon Diaries... :)

It is time for yet another Trip!!!

Yes, this time we planned again for Karnataka. Karnataka seems to be our favorite location for the time being. We have made plans for few more places in Karnataka like hampy , shravanabelagola, chikmagalur. That does mean that you will come across few more blogs in our bucket list soon.

It was a Thursday, 20^th of July 2017. After our daily routine of work we left early from office at around 3:30PM. As usual our companion rain was pouring while we were on our way. Our plan was to stay at my home that night and then to start from there next day at around 8AM. After driving for around 8 and half hours of driving we reached my home at around 12AM. We had just 2 stops on the way, one for coffee and another one for dinner. As we had to start by 8AM the next day we went to bed after talking with my Achan and Reejamma for a while.

Day 1 – 21^st July 2017:

The next day I got up at around 6:20 and got ready and woke up Rakeu to get dressed up. After having our breakfast from home off we go for our road Trip!!!

There were many tolls on the way, we paid a small amount in each one of the tolls. Crossing Kannur and Kasaragod we reached Mangalore by afternoon. Rakeu had a collections of eat outs at Mangalore among them we choose Woodlands Hotel which turns out be a pure Veg hotel. We had an authentic Karnataka style meals from there. After a sumptuous meal we started off to Murudeshwar Temple. The roads in Mangalore was an extravaganza for our trip. Rakeu was like its ok to pay for tolls if roads are maintained in good shape because that’s one thing which was missing in Kerala. Our roads are really in a bad shape compared to other states. We were enjoying our long drive in NH, and on the way we saw a beach and we stopped our car and got down to enjoy the fresh air. There were few families who were enjoying their dip in the sea and there was a boardwalk as well. And there were some stalls where people were selling snacks, drinks, etc. Google helped us in identifying the beach name which is Maravanthe Beach. After spending some time in the sea shore we started our journey to Murudeshwar. Murudeshwar is another name of Hindu god Shiva.

Maravanthe Beach

By the time we reach Murudeshwar it was around 4:40PM and we could see some crowd in the temple. We parked our car in the parking lot and walked inside the temple. The big Gopura through which we can enter the temple was 20 storied. To tell you the truth whoever had constructed the temple have spent some penny on it. The big sculpture of Lord Shiva, which is the world’s second tallest Shiva statue is visible from a long distance but I didn’t feel any kind of devotion while I was inside the temple. These days’ temples are turned out to be a business material. 

Murudeshwar 

After getting Darshan we came out of the temple and enquired how to go near the big sculpture. One guy informed us that we have to go behind the temple to get a good view Lord Shiva. As we walked past the temple and reached the stairs Lord Shiva was getting near and near. We climbed the stairs and reached another temple like structure where we could see that one guy was selling some tickets to enter the cave which costs us INR 10/- per head. We were in a misunderstanding that if we enter the cave we could reach near Lord Shiva’s Sculpture so we took tickets and went inside the temple. It was a disappointing fact that we could not reach near sculpture but instead the cave was constructed with sculptures which explains the story of The Lanka King Ravana who tried to obtain immortality using Atma-Linka. (PS: For the complete story please refer Wikipedia￿). And my disappointment vanished by the time we came out of the cave. 

Story of Ravana - Statues inside the cave

There was a chariot and sculpture of Sun which we could see from a distance. The temple was located on the shores of Arabian Sea. And from the top of this building we could see a good sight of the sea as well as the village. It was already past 5. As we were running out of time and we were new to this place we hurried up and started off to Gokarna where we have already booked our rooms. And after the whole long day drive we reached our Resort, Sanskruti Resort at around 7PM. As we were really tired we thought of having our dinner from the Resort itself. We went to our rooms and got freshen up. We didn’t like our rooms that much and we were not expecting much as well as the reviews were not that great about this Resort but as there were very few hotels/Resorts in this part of Karnataka we didn’t had much choice but to book our rooms here. I saw few mosquitoes as well in our room so when we went to have our dinner we asked the receptionist to do something about the same. He gave us Good Knight and we pugged it in for some time. After a tasty dinner we came back to our room. We thought we will stay there only for 2 days and then we will check out and go to Dharmasthala. So we checked for the availability for rooms at Dharmasthala and fortunately we got rooms which was under the authority of temple. Was it the food or the tiredness we both slept off pretty early.

Day 2 – 22^nd July 2017:

The next day I got up at around 6AM and got ready and woke my husband and we both were out of the Resort by 7:20AM. Today would be the biggest day as we had saw many places to visit. Gokarna is famous for its beaches. The scenic beauty of beaches and the luscious greenery is a mind blowing sight. Our first destination was Om Beach. Om Beach is shaped as two semi crescents joined together forming the shape of Om-Hindu Symbol, hence the name Om beach. On the bank of Om beach there was a café called ‘Namaste Café’. As we have heard about this café we just checked whether it was open and we were informed that it will be open only by 8AM. There was a park chair placed on the rocks at the sea shore. We went and sat there watching those waves crashing the rocks as if it is dancing to the music of nature.

Om Beach & Kudle Beach 

From there we went directly to Kudle beach which was just 5 minutes away from Om beach. The way to beach was steep and slippery and we could see many cows roaming around the place. There were many workers carrying big cut stones through those slopes. We felt really bad that these people started working so early in the morning. We were feeling difficulty in climbing the slope even when our hands were free whereas they were carrying those big stones and walking.  We didn’t spent much time at Kudle beach as the beach was not kept clean. From there we went directly to the famous Mahabaleshwar Temple at Gokarna. We reached at the Temple premises in 10 minutes. The roads in front of the temple was narrow one and there were many small temples nearby. While we were approaching the temple many ladies started accompanying us asking us to buy flowers to offer for God. One lady was bugging us to buy flowers which were placed in a small leaf and finally we too bought one. And finally when we entered the temple there were many Pujaris (Hindu Priests) surrounded us asking us to do many Puja’s and abhishekams. We felt like we entered a business place but this is the place where Atma- Linka was placed by Lord Ganesha as per the story which was depicted in the caves of Murudeshwar temple. The temple is one of the seven sacred Muktikshetras or Muktistala ("places of salvation") in Karnataka. It is a place where many Hindus of Karnataka perform obsequies (death rites) for their departed. The six other Muktikshetras in Karnataka are at Udupi, Kollur, Subrahmanya, Kumbasi, Koteshvara and Sankaranarayana.

According to legend, the Atmalinga was perforce placed at Gokarna, in the temple precincts where it is now deified. It was Ravana, the demon King of Lanka, known from the epic, Ramayana had carried it there from Mount Kailash in the Himalayas.

Here people can do Abhishekam themselves. And there was some rush to get Atma-Linka darsan. The Atmalinga is enshrined in the temple on a square Saligrama Peetha (pedestal). The pedestal has a small hole at its centre from where devotees can touch the top of the Atmalinga. After touching Atmalinga we came out of the main building and saw a big white cow which was being worshipped as God Nandi. I too touched that cow and after that we started off to Karwar. When we came out of the temple premises we saw the Arabian Sea and there was a beach nearby. It was raining heavily outside. We were feeling hungry but none of the restaurants were open. We had some snacks which we had with us. Time was 9:30am and we were wondering whether we will be able to find some good restaurants nearby. On the way we saw a small shop selling Tender coconut and we could see some people drinking tea. I asked that lady whether there will also be coffee in whatever Kannada language I know. From what she said I understood that it is there and I ordered one coffee and one tea. I thought she understood my language and I was waiting for a coffee but when she delivered us the drinks it turned out to be 2 cups of tea. Rakeu were forced to drink both tea. We took tender coconut water in a bottle and we started off from there. On the way we saw Kamath Uphar, a restaurant and we got down to have our breakfast. We had one plate Neer Dosa (which is a famous Dosa type in Karnataka) and Ghee Roast. After finishing our breakfast straight we went straight to Krawar which is located at the north end of Karnataka. It was around one and half hours journey. From Karwar it is just 85kms to Goa. On the way we saw Karwar Naval base. We went directly to Rabindranath Tagore Beach. Rabindranath Tagore has said these lines for the beach: "The sea beach of Karwar is certainly a fit place in which to realize that the beauty of Nature is not a mirage of the imagination, but reflects the joy of the Infinite and thus draws us to lose ourselves in it. Where the universe is expressing itself in the magic of its laws it may not be strange if we miss its infinitude; but where the heart gets into immediate touch with immensity in the beauty of the meanest of things, is any room left for argument?"

In and around Karwar 

Yes, of course the beach was a beauty. We strolled across the beach enjoying its beauty and watching people playing around. There was INS Chapel Maritime museum nearby. INS Chapel was a missile boat of the Indian Navy which is converted into a museum ship on Rabindranath Tagore Beach in Karwar. We went inside the ship. This was the first time I was entering into a ship. The whole ship was maintained in the same way with rooms of captain, kitchen, the whole engine parts, etc. The view from ship deck was really awesome. I would say this museum is a must see of its type as we will rarely find any ships turned out to be a museum. After our visit to the museum we got into our car and our next destination was nearby fish market. As Karwar is a coastal area we could find different variety of fishes. You could say that you will find all sorts of fishes here. Mostly ladies were selling the fishes. In fact we could find some ladies cleaning and cutting the fishes for their buyers. We just strolled across the whole fish market and then we just went out. 

Fish market at Karwar 

Our next photoshoot location was a sea shore where many fisherman boats were aboard. After that we went straight to Gokarna. It was around 12:30PM when we started from Karwar. On the way we had our lunch from Hotel Niharika. I would say this as a nice hotel as food was tasty and hotel was neat. After a sumptuous meal we went directly to Mirjan Fort. As we have visited many Forts I was not expecting much from this Fort. When we reached the Fort it was 2:30PM and we saw that the gate was closed. We were disappointed to see the closed gates but then one guy told us you can just open the gates and go in. He asked us to close the gate once we get in. We were wondering why this guy is asking us to close the gates and why they are closing the gates always. When we got in we saw that one cow was running and coming towards the gate we closed the gate immediately after getting inside. Then we understood why the other guy was asking us to close the gate. 

Mirjan Fort 

The Fort view was really amazing and breathtaking. As it was rainy season the complete fort was filled with grass. The green grasses decorated the fort with its charm and beauty. There was a deep well and big well in Mirjan Fort which was covered with metal. You could find steps which will take you to the well. The end of the steps were also closed with a gate. There is a tree in the mid of the Fort and a statue of Hindu Goddess Mahishasuramardhini is placed under the tree. It started drizzling, as we had an umbrella with us we enjoyed the Fort view and calmness. Finally we bid adieu to Mirjan fort and started off to Yana at around 3:15PM.

View from Mirjan Fort 

It was around 1 hour’s journey to Yana and we lost the GPS on our way. Fortunately we had installed the offline maps and we depended on our offline map. Though we enquired with few people to confirm that the route we are following is correct. Finally we came across an uncle and aunt to enquire about the route. They said they are also going nearby that place and they asked us to give them a lift. We asked them to get inside. We were a little worried as we were not sure what kind of people they are. I did some adjustment with my mirror so that I can see them. Actually I was checking that they don’t have any chloroform which they will use to faint us :P. he he… Effect of movies that we watched. On the way I simply asked the aunt with my little knowledge of Kannada whether they are also going Yana. That was it, I provoked a person who was sitting silent till that time and she poured me with Kannada. Fortunately I could understand what they were saying but I couldn’t utter even a word to them in response. My dear husband was laughing at me by sitting beside me.

They got down after some time and told us after some time board will come and you just read it and go. (Nodi nodi hogu :P) Luckily the boards were written in Kannada language and we could not read even a single word. And there were not even a single person to whom we could check the route. So as expected we lost our path and we reached somewhere else. At that point we saw some houses and enquired the route. And finally we reached Yana at around 4:15PM. Yana is famous for two massive rock outcrops known as the Bhairaveshwara Shikhara and the Mohini Shikhara ("Shikhara" means "hill"). The huge rocks are composed of solid black, crystalline karst limestone. The two rock monoliths surrounded by thick forests and streams, rise sharply above the surrounding area near Yana village. They are part of the Sahyadri hill range in the Western Ghats in South India. This trekking was really interesting. When we started trekking itself we could hear the sound of crickets (cheeveedu) and streams. The sound of flowing streams were really soothing as these rare scenarios where we could hear and enjoy the sound and music of nature. On the way we saw a stream which was flowing from one end of the path to the other end and there was no way to cross the stream without our shoes getting wet. Apart from this the path was slippery and it started drizzling as well. We saw few guys who were getting down and enquired them how long it will take and they said total an hour it will take. There were many boards with pictures of leopards and all. Thankfully it was written in Kannada so we couldn’t understand whether it was warning saying that there might be leopards around. :P After climbing the steep slopes we reached near a Ganesha temple and from there we could see the emergence of Monolithic stone. From the temple onwards you have to climb the steps to reach the top. We walked for some more distance and it was getting dark now as we were inside the jungle and Rakeu said we can go back. So we stood there for some time looking at the black Monolithic and then climbed the whole way down. We reached at the bottom at around 5:15PM and off we go to our room at Gokarna. We went for a walk and then we took our car and went to get some food. We bought food from a nearby hotel called Ashokavana and then we went for a drive. Then we came back to room and had our dinner. The food was tasty. Then we explored the resort and informed the resort guys about next day check out plans. Asked them to make our bills ready. We were really tired after a long day so we went to bed at 9:30PM itself.

Day 3 – 23^rd July 2017:

I got up at around 5:30AM and got ready. We packed all our stuff and checked-out of the resort at 7AM. Our plan was to go to Jog falls. On the way we stopped at a place to do a photoshoot in fields. There was a pond which water lilies in it. We took many photos in ad around that place. The next check list was a hotel and we had our breakfast from Makara Village (a restaurant name). We reached our destination, Jog falls at around 10:15AM. There were 2 view points for Jog falls we could cover only one due to time constraints. Jog Falls, Gerosoppa Falls or Joga Falls is the second highest plunge waterfall in India located near Shimoga district in the state of Karnataka. We got a good view from the view point. As I said there was one more view point which we could see from a distance. The number of steps which were going down was enormous and we couldn’t count it from the spot we were standing. There was a view point which was a bit down the lane and was closed due to Monsoon and slippery floor but there were many people who were going down there by risking their life. We enjoyed the view from the points where we have access to and it was an awesome view. I felt like someone is doing Abhishekam (a devotional activity) with milk. The falls were looking like flowing milk from that distance. After enjoying the view we left the place and started off to Dharmasthala.

Jog Falls 

On the way we saw there was another way to Jog falls through a bridge so we just gone on to the bridge just roamed around and came back to our route. It was around 11AM and we have to cover around 245kms to reach Dharmasthala. There was no network in these areas and as we had offline map with us we depended on that to get the route. On the way we saw a beautiful path with paddy fields on both sides. We didn't even think twice before stopping there to take few snaps.

We were on our way and at one point of time I noticed that all of a sudden the time we reach changed by 30 minutes in the map. We realized that we lost our way and we turned and drove the whole way back. Instead of a left turn we took a right turn and we realized only after 10-20 minutes. Even though we reached back to the route we were a little worried because of the language problem and we didn’t had Dharmasthala planned in our trip. The plan changed at the last minute and we didn’t do much investigation on the route. Fortunately we found and MH registration truck and we enquired about the route. That driver told us we have to go straight and we are on the right path. He told us that we have to go via Theerthahalli and then to Agumbe. He told us one more city names but we didn’t understood that name but we felt relieved that we got next two city names about which we can enquire with local guys. The people in these areas were not that educated to tell us the route to a place which was around 200+ kilometers apart. At least they will be aware of these nearby towns.  We stopped our car for lunch break and off we go through Agumbe. Rakeu told me that Agumbe is called "The Cherrapunji of the South" because this place receives second largest rain in India after Cherrapunji. Apart from that this is the place where large number of King Cobras are found. From Agumbe we entered into Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary. We had to go through so many hair pin bends and you could see only trees on both sides of the road. Yes, in fact we were going through one of the rainforests of India. Finally through the beautiful roads and after a tiring drive we reached Rajathadri Guest house at around 5:30PM. After freshen up we went to the famous Sri Manjunatha Swamy Temple, Dharmasthala. Luckily there was not much rush when we reached the temple so we got the Dharshan pretty fast but by the time we reach near the idol we could find the crowd behind us was double. And after dharshan we went to Annapurna (temple’s food court) where Annadanam (food distribution which will be free of cost to all deities) will happen from 7PM. Here as well we were lucky or you can say the food court was very big to accommodate many people at a time. So we went inside and had our dinner from there. The food was served in a leaf (not exactly one leaf but many leaves stitched together). People started serving us food initially they served a sweet followed by rice and curry. Then a second round of rice distribution followed by another curry, rasam and butter milk. They even served water. Usually we have seen in temples water will be placed in some place and people have to go and take it from there. So after having our dinner we went straight to our rooms. After a long day we were really tired and we didn’t even know when we slept off.

Day 4 – 24^th July 2017:

We didn’t kept alarm the previous day as I said you we didn’t knew when we slept off. Even then we got up early the next day. We took bath and went out for a stroll. We saw a restaurant Annapurneshwari and had our breakfast at around 7AM. Then we went to see Bahubali state which was near the temple itself. We could see a board saying Bahubali Vihar near the Dharmasthala Arch (Temple gate). Temple gate built by Sri. Ratnavarma Heggade. Bahubali Vihar was to the right of the arch. We were a bit confused whether we could take our car to the top as we came to know from our receptionist that we have to climb 1000 steps to reach near the statue. We enquired to an auto rickshaw driver and he said we can take the car up so we drove our car to the top. The statue was located at one corner of a garden. We took few snaps of The Gomateshwara statue at Dharmasthala. Then we saw the history, how and who erupted this statue and all were written in a small shelter nearby. The statue is 39-foot (12 m) high. After that we went straight to our rooms and checked out. Then we thought of visiting a temple which we saw the previous day on our way

Dharmasthala 

. We went to the Shri Rama Kshetra which was pretty big in size. The temple was beautifully constructed and there were many idols placed inside the temple. The whole idols were carved out of marbles but the maintenance was not good enough so there were leaks from roof and I almost slipped and fall down at one place. If temple authority had taken care of this temple this could have been a good site for tourists. From there off we went to Mangalore.

Kudroli Temple and Holy Hill,  Mangalore 

One of my friend gave me few suggestions about the places to visit at Mangalore. So we went straight to Kudroli temple at Mangalore. Kudroli Sri Gokarnatheswara temple was one of the biggest temple I have visited so far in my life. The temple was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi. There were 2 big elephants at the entrance itself. And once you enter the temple you could see the temple has Gopuram (tower like structure) decorated with murals of various gods and goddesses. Murals depict scenes from Hindu epics and legends. There was big structure of Lord Nandi and a juggernaut with Sri Krishna and Arjuna depicting the story of Vedopadesha. There were two Kalyana mandapas (marriage halls) and a big temple pond. There were statues of Lord Shiva and Lord Durga on all the sides of temple pond. And to our surprise these statues formed a fountain which will be operated from 6:30 PM to 8:30PM. After enjoying the big structure of the temple and getting Dharsan from each Gopurams we went straight to Holy hill. As the name depicts it is a small church (Chappal) located on top of a hill. From here you will get sky view of Mangalore city. We found it a bit difficult to reach this place as the roads were very narrow and steep. So we parked our car downhill and climbed the whole way up but when we reached the top we found that there were parking slots available and we could have taken our car to the top. It was afternoon and sun was at its peak so we felt really tired and was getting a little bit of headache. So we thought of taking a big break and went directly to City Centre mall. We went to the food court and ordered many varieties of food from different vendors. After ordering many dishes we realized that we were behaving like starved people :P. he he …Our plan was to do a bit of shopping after our lunch. We rested at the food court for a while and then off we go in search of Hampenketta market. We lost our way thrice and by this time I was like I don’t want to do any shopping let us go home. So we decided that we will skip the shopping option this time and went to one sweet shop to get some sweets and bakery items and then we bid adieu to Mangalore city. Yes, this was the last destination of our trip and on the way back itself we started planning for our next trip. So let us see when and where we could make it up. Good bye for now and see you soon!!!