Karwar Part - 1

I wasn't too excited about this trip for three main reasons - This was one more outing without Arvindh (he couldn't have come as he was supposed to go to Bombay) , second - the money factor and third was that I had lost my mobile recently and thought it deserved some mourning. But, I had already committed and Nrutya's mail did touch a cord.

Friday was a disaster for me - afternoon had a bad stomach upset. Left early for home, skipped lunch and slept for an hour. Was feeling better in the evening. Went to mom's house - she cooked some dal and rice for me. Aahh...mom's food after so many days - heavenly. Wanted to leave before Pappa returned home (didn't want to hear a lecture on losing my mobile) but bad luck - he came just when I was about to leave. Anyway, he had just started to crib when I told him I am getting late and left. And inbetween all this galata my patidev calls and asks me very sweetly where exactly I was going? GOD!!!!

Since I had time, I decided to walk to the bus stand - turned out to be a walk down the memory lane. Took the road I used to take for school. Also passed our old house too.
Didn't have to wait too long for the bus thanks to the mobile technology. Mobiles...oh...I have lost 2 of them now. Lets get back, Aparna, Nrutya and Sowmya had got into the bus at Majestic and were giving me the latest position of the bus at regular intervals. Finally got into the bus. The threesome had akki rotis (Aparna's mom's) and chapatis (Sowmya's mom's) for dinner. I just tasted both. Were chatting for sometime and then we all fell asleep.

The first sight I see next morning is Aparna and Sowmya synchronously knotting their hair ;-) Nrutya too had the privilege to see the same sight. Reached Karwar at 7.45am. Enquired about the hotel and walked to the hotel. It was a decent place. Unanimously decided to take it. By 9.30 we had finished our bath and breakfast and were all set to go. The hotel manager had arranged for a cab. We negociated a price and left for Gokarna at around 9.45am.

I did the mistake of asking for some music, we got some blaring music which was hell bent on busting our eardrums. After a few requests we got it to bearable levels. We stopped at a
Ganapati temple on the way. After prayers there we headed to Gokarna. The view around the road was great. Aparna was busy clicking snaps.

As soon as we stopped at Gokarna, a priest approched and wanted to 'help' us get darshan. We entered the temple and another priest offered to do archana for 50 bucks. Aparna and me agreed. He said the same mantras asking for gotra and nakshtra. He took us to the actual shrine and we performed puja there. He asked us to touch the atma linga. It felt like touching Gurudev's feet.

After pradaksina and visiting a Parvatidevi temple, we headed to the Om beach. We planned to be there for sometime and then visit all the other beaches - Half Moon, Paradise and Kudle...well only if things always went according to plan.

There are a set of steps you need to get down to reach the beach. The view was amazing. Guess by the end of this post I'll either run out of superlatives or end up repeating myself a lot. There was a rocky tract which we all ventured into - me with a lot of help from Nrutya. Spent sometime there and headed to the beach. There was hardly any crowd and we found a water crevice. All of us settled around it and enjoyed watching the crevice widening itself. Spent quite sometime there...just sitting sometimes silent sometime chatting away. Sowmya, Aparna and me decided to get into the water. Played for sometime. Then climbed a rock to dry ourself. By now we were famished. Headed straight to a hotel on the beach. Ordered some food, which took long to come - or rather felt long becoz of our grumbling stomachs. The potatos were good.

Finally with stomachs full, we left Om beach. On the way back, we realized that to reach Halfmoon and Paradise, we need to trek from Om beach. So gave up the idea of going to the beaches and headed back to Karwar. The journey back was fun. We laughed a lot (even the driver- Vinod, commented) thinking of our good ol' college days, discussed some future plans, pulled someone's leg...overall had a great time.

We had a lot of time on hand and the driver said he'll take us to a spot in Karwar from where the sunset is beautiful.(I don't remember the name of the place he took us to.) The place was on top of a small hill. What an amazing sight from the top!! We could so clearly see the Kaali river joining the Arabian sea. There were also some carvings on the trees. The carvings reminded me of the Arumbaya Fetish in Tintin and Broken Ear. There was a beautiful stump with carvings like a fort.

The sun played hide n seek with us. By sunset time he was completely hidden in the clouds. We were disappointed. But that didn't stop us from enjoying the view. It was absolutely breathtaking. We settled on some of the rocks around and a good time discussing what else - life! We decided to walk down the hill and asked the driver to pick us up from the bottom of the hill.

Reached back hotel around 7pm. After a quick bath we headed for dinner. After dinner we had a few rounds of Uno which I kept losing, thanks to the Draw 4 and Draw 2. And Nrutya always lost when she opened her mouth before any game. Uno was fun as always. By 10pm Aparna fell asleep, Sowmya followed and then me too.

Shall stop for the day. Will post the the second days events tomorrow.