Trip to Goa and Belgaum: Calmly Sailing Past Those Waters...

Late planning and late execution always lands you in a heap of surprises. If not you, the one who not even in his dreams thought that all of us would attend his sister’s grand wedding, would be left speechless and in tears! These are the moments we live for, right? One such opportunity came to us and we took no time in surprising our friend, Vijay, we took KSRTC Airavat Club Class overnight bus to Belagavi from Bengaluru and planned Goa {last time I had covered- Anjuna, Fort Aguada, Chapora Fort, Baga, Calangute, Dona Paula, Panjim, Churches - in my hired bike, during those days, when India won world cup 2011!} for later part of the week. Here is the travelogue of my trip-

Bogmalo Beach Resort

#Belgaum, with wide roads and decent traffic, looked clean. Thanks to pre-monsoon rains, weather was very enjoyable. Wedding was scheduled to be at Gandhi Bhavan, near Sanman Hotel. After managing quick shower at Keerthi Lodge, I attended the wedding wearing Modi jacket (no surprises!). Loved the typical North Karnataka food at the lunch. Soon after the wedding, we bought couple of Kunda boxes, the local delicacy; we caught Kadamba bus, run by Goa govt., to Margao. The single road, NH 4A,passed through many breath taking visuals {thanks to plush green Western Ghats} and a university that has constantly taken student’s breath, VTU- Visvesvaraya Technological University!

#Bogmalo Beach Resort, we sort of crashed here directly from Belagavi or Belgaum. We hired a cab to travel 28kms from Margao to reach Bogmalo. Cabbie, John, reminded us the Goan attitude and Goan unique lingual! His stories were around cab tourism mafia, places to see in Goa and anything related to tourism! The bubble lake, were bubbles appears on a lake when you clap, still resides in my memory and I will explore, sooner or later!

At Vijay's Sister, Shweta's Wedding

At the resort we had those rooms which directly opened to the beach view. I think mercury had soared up to around 35c and good amount of humidity added to the summer of Goa- leading us all the time in the water- either in the pool or beach! I recommend this resort- for its swimming pool, decent food, shacks in the beach, poor room service and proximity to Bogmalo beach! {Which was almost empty most of the times}

Basilica of Bom Jesus

#Baga Beach, spent a evening there, just to soak the hyped #Goa excitement! Tried jet skiing and spent some time at a shack- Britto’s, which needs to credited for it’s amazing ambience! Did some shopping and window shopping, and didn't get into pub hopping!

#Basilica of Bom Jesus, we hired a guide for 100 INR and it was totally worth it. He spoke how in 15th century it all started with Portuguese, how St. Francis Xavier spread Christianity with Society of Jesus and passed away on the way to China. Guide also tracked the life of relics of St. Xavier, after his death, which travelled to Malaysia, Rome and then finally, to Goa, at Basilica of Bom Jesus. This church is also called old church of Goa and UNESCO world heritage site, you'll spot IHS- first 3 letters from Jesus in Greek, inscribed on top of the church. IHS also means Jesus- Human Savior. Outside the gate, we had good dosas and ice creams to beat the heat!

Mangeshi Temple

#Sahakari Spice Farm, new trend in Goa these days is to show rich flora and fauna of Western Ghats. They include food prepared from veggies grown in this 132 acre farm! For those who are from western ghats, nothing much to look out for, for the rest, it may turn out to be eye-opening exciting 1 hour study tour in the farm- showing coconut, Arecanut, jackfruit, mango, cashew, feni preparation and display of spices.

#Mangeshi Temple houses Lord Mangeshi, form of Lord Shiva, the main deity of Gowda Saraswath Brahmins. This temple looks rich with unique Goan architecture comprising of a sanctum and a tower kind of structure that can lit 450 diyas (lamps) at a time. The road leading to temple houses many eateries (Don't forget to drink kokum juice here!)and small shops selling memorabilia.

Sahakari Spice Farm

#Margao Flea Market was up since to mark the feast of local church that was coming up. We entered and exited (in VRL sleeper bus which stopped at Ankola for dinner) Goa via Margao- and both the times were held up in middle for some time because of the crowd that was busy shopping and blocking the road!

{Thank you Manu for being amazing trip organiser, yet again! Thank you Vijay for inviting us and inspiring us to plan this trip. Thanks to Archi, Manu & Sushma for making this trip memorable}

Udupi, Mangalore, Temples, Eateries, Beach, Sun and Fun: Travelogue of Unusual Places

I often keep getting questions on places to visit in and around Dakshina Kannada, i.e. undivided Udupi & Mangalore other than well-known places like Krishna Temple, Kollur Temple, Kapu Beach, Kudroli, Manipal End-point or Malpe Beach. I had to visit my homeown thrice, i.e, Udupi to come up with the unique travelogue which is compilation of not-so-popular places but really worth to visit. I have also included couple of places which are on the way in Bangalore- Mangalore highway where you should definitely stop over next time you drive!

#Manjarabad Fort is just after Sakleshpur town and it is really hard to figure out the location since there exists no welcome or sign board. After a steep climb, exploring this star-shaped fort built by one and only Tippu Sultan is just out of the world experience with amazing visuals!

Manjarabad Fort

#Hotel Laxmi Nivas, Kalladka has special KT or Kalladka Tea with goli baje and tuppa dosa- Go for it! 3kms from B.C Road. Old set-up with wooden furniture and unbelievably spacious! If you are not a chai-party, go for coffee- Rhimjim!

#Pabba’s icecream located at the heart of Mangalore serves various delicious ice creams of Ideal, I highly recommend you to try tiramusu and double decker sandwich!

#Neelavara Mahishamardinee Temple is a beautiful, calmness personified riverside old temple and adjacent to it is Panchami Kaanana which is a place dedicated to snake god. Also visited a Go-shala(place where over 1000 cows are nurtured) run by Pejavara Mutt of Udupi and was very heartwarming to see the infrastructure, productizing the medicines derived from cow and whole wide-spread set up.

#Guddattu Mahaganapathi Temple’s history runs back for about 700 years. It is said that the three feet idol of Lord Vinayaka was emerged by itself here in a rock. This Ganesh is always under water and is uncovered only twice a day!

KT

#Mandarathi is place where Sri Durgaparameshwari resides and boosts 4 yakshagana teams which have a history of 600 years. Interestingly, during the times where art-forms like yakshagana are on a back-seat, Mandarthi Melas(teams) next vacant slot to perform is in 2040 now!

#Kamalashile is noted for its temple of Brahmi-Durga Parameshwari and also a small cave on a hill about one km from the temple. Again a riverside in midst of dense western ghats and many stories told of the place. Serene!

#Ambalpady, Indrali, Kadiyali, Bailur, Alevoor & Kannarpady Temples- Known as Shaktipeethas of Udupi.

Ambalpady Temple

At Ambalpady, on every Friday evening after a special puja and collective prayer offered at Mahakali Shrine, Goddess Mahakali is consulted by devotees through a functionary called pathri, who as a medium gets possessed by the Deity, and offers effective solutions to the numerous personal problems presented by the devotees. The Mahakali Temple also covers nine beautiful statues of Navadurga. Why special mention for Ambalpady- I come from here!

Indrali Temple, built in eleventh century, is situated about 2 km east from Udupi near railway station.

Kadiyali Mahishamardini Temple is again one of the oldest temples in the district of South Kanara and has a history of more than 1200 years.

Rest of the Shaktipeethas, I leave them for you to explore!

#Paajaka Kshetra & Kunjarugiri
Parashuram, incarnation of Vishnu, choose Pajaka, a place 16 Kms away from Udupi for his penance, and established "Durgamatha" on the top of Vimanagiri, now known as Kunjargiri. Parashurama created four Thirthas, a pond of holy water. They are called Gadathirtha, Banathirtha, Parashuthirtha and Dhanusthirtha, in the four sides of Durga bette. It is believed that Parashurama is in deep penance in the cave in eastern side below the Durgabetta even today.

The Kunjarugiri Temple is situated 100 feet above from the ground level and devotees have to climb 257 footsteps to have the Darshana of Goddess Durga.

Pajaka has the birth place of Sri Madhwacharya, founder of Dwaitha philosophy, bears many marks associated with the child-hood incidents of Sri Acharya.

Delta Riverside

#Diana Gudbud, 30 Percent and Idly Roast- Try all of them!

#Railway Bridge & Sri Siddivinayaka Temple, End Point, Manipal- Again scenic place with river Swarna flowing calmly and couple of eateries close-by. Temple also has significant history of over 1000 years and on the day of Krishnangaraka Chaturdashi(don’t ask me when!), it is believed that the holy Ganga arrives at this place and if you have a holy dip in this place, you will hear the sounds of the burning evils you have performed all these day. Anything you hear?!

#Delta Beach & Hanging Bridge, will be the most cherished place of my engineering life at Manipal. Imagine you riding your bike with buddies on a narrow road decorated with coconut trees, left hand side you see the roaring sea, right hand you see the calm river, and the road ends- Life begins! This is Delta for you!