Western Karnataka Coast - Place to Stay and Eat

Here is some info on places where you can stay and places to eat at Gokarna, Karwar and Udupi

Gokarna: If you dont want to shell out a huge amount to OM Beach resort, the only other decent option is Hotel Gokarn. Ph No: 8386-256622, 8386-257368. (www.geocities.com/hotelgokarn/ ) This is not a fancy hotel. A basic hotel. The small Darshini type hotel attached to this doesnt look to0 great but the meals were quite good.

As far eating in Gokarna is concerned, it is better to head off to the beach and eat at Prema's place there. It is a small joint but serves some very good food.

Karwar: I stayed at Hotel Bhadra. Ph: 08382-225412, 225613. Decent value-for-money place on the highway itself. The Jungle Lodges office is situated opposite this hotel and you can do a day trip to Devbagh resorts of Jungle Lodges. The other staying option is at the Jungle Lodges resort in Devbagh. A nice place but will cost you much more.

Food at Hotel Bhadra is quite good so you can have it there. You can also check with the Jungle Lodges folks and go to Devbagh resort for lunch

Udupi : In Udupi we stayed at Hotel Srirama Residency (0820-2530761). A very neat place, good value for money and very close to the temple. There are a couple of more hotels around this place which also looked good. Hotel Karavali on the highway is also a good hotel, though it is a bit far from the temple. (http://www.karavaligroup.com/ Ph:0820 2522860)

Udupi has lot of eating options if you are a South Indian. We ate at Hotel Srirama and Woodlands, which was near to Hotel Srirama. You can always try lot of other good hotels around.

Kawar beach - Between a rock and a watery place

The main attraction of Karwar is the beach. On one side the western ghats tower over you. You can see the Konkan railway train precariously passing on these mountains. On the other side is the Arabian sea where the hot orange sun cools himself by slowly immersing himself into the waters there. No wonder Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore was impressed and inspired by this place.

We went to the Karwar beach that evening. We saw a strange sight there. We were standing at beach waiting for the water to careess our legs. The waves came and splashed against us. When the next wave came, the wave front would die a couple of feet before us. The next round would see the wave dying a few more feet before us and after a few mins the wave front was ending atleast 10 feet before us. It was as if the sea was withdrawing itself. In due course of time, the wave front would come forward till our feet and the cycle would repeat. The effect of tsunami. It felt as if someone had taken hold of the globle called earth and slowly rocking it.

The beach was quite clean and we had a good time there. We would see some ships anchored at a distance and the lights of the ship glow when it became dark. There were some municipal people monitoring the situation near the beach and cautioning the people not to go in too far into the sea. There was also some cultural show going at the beach. Some school kids were dancing and we watched it for some time. The whole setting on the beach was very nice, with the wind blowing from one side and music from the other.

The next day morning we started for Devbagh beach. This is a property of Jungle Lodges. If you dont get a reservation there, you can do a day trip to Devbagh from Karwar. I had paid for a half day trip at their office opposite the hotel I was staying (Hotel Badra). You need to go to a small jetty from where a motor boat will take you on the Kali river and deposit you at Devbagh. We went to the jetty and saw that the Kali river was boiling. See the state of the river Gayathri wanted to turn back and not take any risk. The boatman didnt make it better either. "I have never seen the river like this sir. Heard some huts along the banks were washed away yesterday night. All these due to the tsunami". Added to this we had to wait for some time for the boat to arrive from Devbagh. All these led to escalation of anxiety. Finally the boat arrived. As it took us towards Devbagh we felt as if was bobbing up and down too much. Anyway we arrived at Devbagh and went to the beach. The long strech of sand here is very clean and they provide the beach umbrellas and chairs to relax. Given that the tsunami had stuck the earlier day and the waves were behaving unpredictably, they didnt allow us to get into water, though we managed to get our feet wet !! There were no water sports either. The whole atmosphere at Devbagh invites you to just hang up your boots and relax. The cute cottage, the long stretch of the beach, the pine trees all around and the seclusion make this an ideal place for honeymooners and for those who want to rejuvenate themself. On the way back, Kali river has subsided quite a lot. That evening we went to the Karwar beach again. Well, there isnt much you can do at Karwar than go to the beach !!

Udupi, Sringeri and Hornadu - A short pilgrimage

The next day morning after breakfast we started our drive from Karwar to Udupi. The NH17 is a great road to drive. It follows the west coast all the way from Trivandrum to Karwar. The sea is always around 1 to 2 kms away from the road. Unfortunately the sea never is seen from the road except at Marvante. At Marvante for some distance the sea comes along with you. I made a mental not to come to this place sometime in the future (hasnt happened yet). On this road is Murudeswar, where the imposing Siva statue can be seen from the road. I saw it and went in to see it from near. It was hot at the beach and we had a darshan of Siva from the car. This place with the giant statue of Siva on the beach and the mutistoried hotel nearby is very impressive. I am sure it gets quite crowded during the season. We did see a lot of people on the beach even though it was close to noon and hot.

We arrived at Udupi at lunch time. By mistake I took a wrong turn and ended up at Manipal. I didnt realise the Udupi and Manipal were so near. I mean you just step out for a walk at Udipi and you are in Manipal !! Anyway we reached our hotel, had lunch and relaxed. Which meant we slept. The evening was spent at the Malpe beach. This is around 7 kms from Udupi. Here too the waves exhibited the same tendency as at Karwar but to a lesser degree. This was also a very clean beach but a bit crowded. Since it was the christmas vacation time, there were bus loads to school children at most places that we visited. The were some college going kids as well here. Ranjani and Harini enjoy being at the beach and they enjoyed themselves at the Malpe beach. They also had camel rides here, which for the kids, was a thrilling affair.

Returning back from the beach, we headed to the famous Krishna temple at Udupi. The temple structure is not like the traditional temples of Tamil Nadu. The way you see the idol is also is also unconventional. You the see the idol through a small window. (There is a story associated with this). I know that some people are disappointed when they see a small idol and that too through a window. Both Gayathri and I liked the atmosphere of the temple. It is paradoxical but there was some sort of serenity here though the whole area was crowded and noisy. We sat there for some time to soak in the atmosphere and we promised to ourselves that we will visit the temple again the next day. The temple has an elephant and we saw it outside the temple which made the kids very happy.

Since I had been driving for long streches, I decided to give myself a break and hire a cab to go to Sringeri and Hornadu. The cab driver came in later than we had asked him to. We started to Sringeri. On the way was Agumbe. It is a short ghat section but very steep. We stopped at the top to have a view of the surounding area. As usual with most hill top views the surrounding mountains were covered in haze. The sunset view is supposed to be great from here.

We arrived at the Shringeri temple around noon time. The temple is on the banks of the Bhadra river. We went to the Sharadhamba sannidhi. This is a very well maintained temple and the place is calm. There were some children learing the vedas and the sound of veda recitation always brings in some untold joy and peace. After the darshan of Sharadambha we went down the steps to be on the banks of the river. There a lot of big fish here which are fed by the devotees. The kids were happy watching the fish thrash around in water when some food is thrown. We had our lunch at the temple. Most of the temples in Western Karnataka provide food for the devotees. Here is the first time that I observed rasam being served first and then sambar !!

From Sringeri we left for Horanadu. The drive through Kudremukh was wonderful and I was sure I was going to come to this place again, which I did. (I had written in detail about Kudremukh and Hornadu in my earlier post). We had a darshan of Annapoorneshwari at Horanadu and came back to Udupi in the evening.

Next day morning was a visit to the Udupi Krishna temple, evening at the beach. The day after we left Udupi for Bangalore. While climbing the Sakleshpur ghat we could feel our car grunting and groaning and going up the ghat with great difficulty. After we got down the ghat, I opened the bonnet and peeped in, as if I knew all about cars. I had no clue what to look for and as can be expecetd found nothing wrong !!! We came to Hassan and I took the car to a mechanic. He found out that one of the cable which goes to the spark plug was faulty. Out of the three cylinders in the car, only two have been firing !!! So we had climbed up the Sakleshpur ghat with only 2/3 power !! Should appreciate the Maruti 800s sturdiness. The mechanic changed the cable and now it was a different car altogether !! We stayed at Hassan and visited Belur and Halebid, where the sculptures were mind boggling. That afternoon we left for Bangalore.

The drive from Hassan to Neelamangala was smooth and we came to Neelamangala in quick time. As usual the drive from Neelamangala to my house was a nightmare. Welcome to Bangalore !!