Gokarna/Om Beach

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Ok, it has been quite a while, but what with Christmas and all I needed a break!
After Palolem so much has happened and it has really been 99% wonderful.
Kristen and I went down to Karnatka by train from Palolem. It was the superfast Kerela express from Bombay, and I think Kristen got some of my excitment about train travel. It takes me back to school travel aged 14, 15, 16 from Streatham to Dulwich and other fond memories, but she was also able to see the charm as soon as one blew past going the other direction and knocked all the air out of the carriage - or so it seems. The rhythmic sound of the tracks mesmorized her. It was however a little crowded on the actual train... ahem. It seems that if you are getting on an open seating train situation in India, and are not embarking at the source you are not going to be very comfortable. We did get half a seat each though.
When we got to Gokarn we had to transfer to a minibus and thenstop at a police checkpoint and declare all items of value. I declared pretty much nothing, but it took quite a while for the whole minibus to do this, and was quite unexpected. It was quite a strange thing to have to do... the word on the streat seemed to be that the local police wanted to discourage foriegn tourists from this pilgramage site. We checked into a place in town and grabbed some Dosas - tasty South Indian food. The next day after getting some home made peanut butter, ice cream and more for breakfast we packed a bag for beach and a night in a beach hut and hiked south to Koodie beach and then Ohm Beach. On the way a guide showed us the religious side of Gokarn with a large bathing pool and Shiva's lingum which people would touch and then put up a stone with two cobras carved in it for fertility. We didn't get one. There were also gigantic street floats which must have been pulled by elephants the wheels were so large (10ft) It was beautifully warm weather and the Indian Ocean was sparkling. Koodie beach was a nice place to bodysurf and relax for a while. Then later in the afternoon we hiked over a hill with a short stop for lunch and a wave at the fishermen, and then got to Ohm beach (so named because it is shaped like the indian om) which was quite full of stoned english. Quite relaxed and great sunsets.
We found a chilled out place to stay and chatting with the people who had been stuck there for between weeks and months - too stoned to move except for servicing the body. We got a hut with a sand bottom in preference to a concrete 'cell' and it was nice to sleep so close to the sea. We only planned to stay one night at Ohm beach and so the next day we headed back over the two hills in the hot sun to Gokarna.

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