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Published: March 24th 2012
I didn’t spend much time in Gokarn, will do so when I come here next time. My next stop was Udupi. The Gokarn Udupi road is infinitely better that the Panji-Gokarn road with patches of dense, forest canopies, beautiful winding ghats & just a couple of deadly potholes (Believe me they are deadly! You are cruising along at a decent speed and suddenly out of nowhere there is a pothole. You miss it or hit the ground.) The most beautiful patch is near Maravanthe beach, where for a km, the road is flanked by a river on one side and sea on the other! That something quite unique!
On the way, I took a small (2 km) detour to Murudeshwar, It hosts a temple with a towering Gopuram and gigantic (and I mean absolutely gigantic) Shiva idol. Being a Sunday, it was way over-crowded. I had to spend a few minutes to find parking for my avenger. I was a bit weary of hanging my helmet unlocked on the mirror. But I thought, the towering Shiva will keep an eye on it J. It is probably a nice beach sans crowd. I had my lunch at hotel Naveen, which has
Murudeshwar Temple
The gigantic lord Shiva statue a fantastic location, good and cheap food, and rude management. After lunch, I drove on, a little groggily to Udupi.
By evening, I reached Udupi and instantly liked the place. It is clean, green, & planned with wide roads and some good civic sense of traffic (although, that last observation can just be a one-off observation). It had a very organized bus station! That’s quite rare for an Indian town and rarest for a temple town! Finding a room was not a problem. In the evening, I headed to Maple beach, which was again choc-a-bloc with Sunday evening crowd. I just missed the local ferry to St. Mary’s island that run from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. I was not so much keen on hiring a private boat (Rs 1600 for 4 persons). So I was just hanging around where I met three software guys who had come from Bangalore. There was the usual, “You are living the life, Man” praise (??). Then I had a nice (and expensive) dinner with them at their beach resort (Paradise Isle Beach Resort, right on the beach, which advertised budget rooms of Rs 1500). At 10.30 pm, when I left the hotel,
Murudeshwar Temple
The Sun God and his chariot it was all dark with no street lights. The ‘straight’ road recommended by the guard soon forked and then forked again a number of times till I was completely dis-oriented. There was not a single living being on the roads. And then I saw an old man carrying a lantern in one hand and a cycle in other hand walking alone. A scene, straight from a B grade horror flick! I stopped and asked him directions and he was pretty normal and directed me back to the highway. That was quite some experience!
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