Sunday, 30 January 2011
GOKARNA
We got here painlessly enough by 4.5 hour bus ride along a new road, which is in parts at least being turned into a coastal double lane dual carriageways, from Mangalore every 15 mins to Udupi then Kumpta. (As we passed through Mangalore we thought it looked a nice spacious planned modern city - hardly Indian at all, our floor manager at Woodlands restaurant in Udupi a said their Ideas ice-cream parlour was exceptionally good, and well known but surprisingly it did not make the guide book). Road building was very much in evidence not on the Turkish scale perhaps but in a quite different league to China.
Rather sad to move from Kediyoor hotel which was spotless, they even damp dusted the floor of the room which impressed Joan who remembered it as the way they used to clean hospital wards.
After getting off at Kumpta found a bus to Gokarna was waiting and an hour later we were looking for the Gokarna International Hotel, which wouldn't get any plaudits on the world stage (or even the Indian) though it was the best rated in the book - but for 600 rp you can't expect too much! The first young rickshaw driver approached said it was near and declined a fare pointing the way to walk instead, when we really were close another driver offered us a lift, that man will go far in India!! When I asked Joan if she wanted to look for another place she felt it was too much hassle.
Dirty washing has gone to the laundry but will not be finished until tomorrow evening. So here we are at an Internet shop, not too slow but need to push firmly on the keyboard, waiting for the sun to moderate and then hoping to go to one of the four beaches to the south, which are the normal attraction for those prepared to put up with the lack of security for possessions left in a beach hut. Put on bathers instead of pants, will report back later, the main beach at Gokarna said swimming forbidden - it seemed ideal to me.
 |
| The men in white, here as Hindus |
 |
| Camel rides make up for lack of swimming |
Spent 4 days at Gokarna said to be an improvement on Goa, bit too much of a modern Hippie experience for my liking. We thought the town was rather scruffy until we later discovered a route banned to motor vehicles which went passed a big tank and and old square which gave a much better idea of why it became popular for Hindus in the first place. We had gone this route thinking it was the way to Om Beach and so it proved though it was far from the shortest way there but it was shady and lovely passing through a little hamlet at the half way point. It finally led to a T junction with the round about road used by motor traffic to get to Om. This in turn meant that we looked down to Kudle Beach and then Om from the greatest height possible making for lovely views.
 |
| The Old Hindu heart of Gokarna |
Om was a beautiful beach in its own right but its great advantage was that the edge was shaded by dense foliage of Laurel type leaves, you had to compete for the a shade with the cows which pervade both town and country around here. I had a nice swim and so did Joan but she thinks she upset her knee a little because of the extra buoyancy of salt water, the problem being caused by artificial knees which mean she cannot do her normal breast stroke leg actions and has never been convinced to convert to crawl because of the need to put one head under water.
Om Beach at last, lovely swimming and shade in beach cafe for Joan
The next day we found the short route which follows the coast but involves scaling the headlands, but stopped at Kudle Beach where there was no natural shade, so that Joan spent the day drinking lime soda at one of several restaurants around the shore, I confess to doing the same apart from a couple of swims and a walk right along the long beach, almost Rhossili size. There are two further more remote beaches and a fair number of young '30ish' back packers were taking heavy packs there. That is a said to be the destination for long stay and I bet that really is idyllic.
We got into a habit from day one of eating dinner at the Prema restaurant which was right next to Gokarna's own beach, a restaurant which pleased at first and last. This was at the very opposite end of the town to our hotel Gokarna International, a high sounding name for somewhere which has seen better days, its saving grace was two comfortable chairs in the room ideal for reading - what can you really expect for 800 rp! For breakfast we went half way to the Pai Hotel restaurant in the main street and they had the most fabulous curd made in pottery jars. The hotel manager told us of their new establishment above Kudle Beach at just twice the price which he described as luxurious, it won't stay that way unless there is more attention to minor maintenance and cleaning the less essential items like the top of the toilet tank.
Both there and at our next destination it was obvious that this was the season for school group visits, both the Gokarna hotel and the superb one at Margao had their fair share of boisterous teenagers. We also became aware at Gokarna of the extent to which this area is now holiday home to lots of Russian tourists, even to the extent where menus are duplicated in Cyrillic script. Joan met a woman with two children, one 16, who said they always ate at our Prema restaurant but we never saw them again, she said they came every year for 52 days, the extent of their Russian visa, to Goa or Gokarna.
Gokarna as well as being a holiday resort is a centre of Hindu festivals, hence the interesting mix of cultures, with quite different reasons for being there. Hence too the enormous tank and the bathing ghats and the procession with the ceremonial car along the main street on one evening. We were inveigled into a temple that turned out to be a Math and parted with a couple of hundred rp less after being invited into an Ashram in exchange for a couple of indelible red blobs, by an ageing enthusiast.
 |
| Gokarna has Temple Cars too |
No comments:
Post a Comment