Blogs from Udupi, Karnataka, India, Asia

6 January 2012 We are quickly learning that plans seem to change as quickly as they are made. Today, we thought we were going to visit some temples. Instead we landed at a Rotary Club meeting about 15km from Udupi in Brahmavar where we received yet more beautiful flowers and were asked to talk about ourselves. The English here is different and it is quite difficult to understand what people are saying. I do understand when they take us downstairs to the cake shop and ask us to pick anything. Unfortunately it’s a case of ‘can’t eat, won’t eat’. Nicola can’t eat cakes, and I was advised to avoid anything from street caterers. It takes all my willpower to say no!! We are taken to a research farm, part of Bangalore University. The presentation and tour ... read more

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 ... read more

After a four-hour journey from Mangalore, the bus entered Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary. One of the most popular pilgrim centres in India is covered in thick forest. Mookambika temple in Kollur is equally inspiring for the religious and the atheist, laymen and artists. The temple owes its mythological origin to Shankaracharya, the ninth-century pioneer of Hindu revivalism. The scholar-sage prayed the goddess of Sringeri, where he had founded one of his four mutts, to come with him to his homeland in Kerala. The goddess accepted to be led by him if he did not dare to look back at her. Shankara took the goddess to Kerala, the divine anklets chiming behind him. When the strange convoy reached Kollur, the sound stopped. The confused Shankara turned back. The goddess was still there but she refused to follow the ... read more