Hands Up (Gimme a break)
Gokarna was an interesting place for me. It was Mumbai. It was Goa. It was friggin Karnataka. Most of all however, it was India.
Gokarna (a.k.a. Gokarn) is a coastal city in North Karnataka. For the Delhi-ite in me, the place was little more than a village. The only development the place had, it was because of the tourists (with bodies shriveled to pieces with dope).
A look at the map for this place shows Gokarna is not your average beach town. Close to, and about 2 hours south of Goa, its slightly peninsular in geography. (All maps courtesy Google Maps)
Gokarna (a.k.a. Gokarn) is a coastal city in North Karnataka. For the Delhi-ite in me, the place was little more than a village. The only development the place had, it was because of the tourists (with bodies shriveled to pieces with dope).
A look at the map for this place shows Gokarna is not your average beach town. Close to, and about 2 hours south of Goa, its slightly peninsular in geography. (All maps courtesy Google Maps)
This shape of the coastline springs up a number of beaches, oriented along multiple directions. Gokarna beach, for example, faces west. Om beach, on the other hand, faces south.
We rode on the Kumta Express (Train no. 109) to reach Gokarna from Mumbai. The overnight journey was hot as hell since it was May, and it was India.
The railway station is a few kilometers from the town, a rickshaw takes Rs. 120, and a taxi Rs. 150. Haggling rarely works, and in the rare cases that it does, its got to be in Kannada. So beware.
We reached Gokarna in the afternoon, and immediately settled in the Shastri guest house in a set of pretty basic but clean rooms (200-300 per night). We wanted to stay in Hotel Gokarna International, which had AC at possibly the best value for money, but it was full. The first night we spent eating at the Downtown Restaurant (good food, booze too) and making merry on the Gokarna beach (the westernmost).
In the morning we realized our mistake. The image below spells it out.
kachra peti
We reached Gokarna in the afternoon, and immediately settled in the Shastri guest house in a set of pretty basic but clean rooms (200-300 per night). We wanted to stay in Hotel Gokarna International, which had AC at possibly the best value for money, but it was full. The first night we spent eating at the Downtown Restaurant (good food, booze too) and making merry on the Gokarna beach (the westernmost).
In the morning we realized our mistake. The image below spells it out.
kachra peti
In the afternoon we checked out to move to the Om beach - the big thing here. Its the reason most tourists come here, and in hindsight, definitely worth it. You can find it towards the lower-left coastal corner in the third map above - the beach is actually shaped like an 'om'. Its slightly off the city, which means one needs some traveling to get there.
Some of us trekked to it, some of us took a rickshaw (and the luggage) for 100 bucks. Both ways the path was nothing short of a spectacle. We're talking about the Kudle beach - seated beautifully between Gokarna and Om beach, and on top of a perfectly blue ocean.
Kudle Beach
One enters Om beach from a hill - and gets to see the om in its entirety.
Om beach
Some of us trekked to it, some of us took a rickshaw (and the luggage) for 100 bucks. Both ways the path was nothing short of a spectacle. We're talking about the Kudle beach - seated beautifully between Gokarna and Om beach, and on top of a perfectly blue ocean.
Kudle Beach
One enters Om beach from a hill - and gets to see the om in its entirety.
Om beach
At the head of the om is 'Namaste'. The lodge a collection of shacks in the forest above the beach, and a cafe that sits on the sand. The shacks are slightly expensive at Rs. 400 per night, but the cafe's cheap, with even the most expensive dishes under Rs. 100 (although tasting some of them actually justifies the price). Italian and Israeli are the cuisines of choice - which goes well with the population of customers.
We spent the next two days dividing time among the following tasks:
The shore.
Basically, we lounged in extravaganza for three days, 2000 kms from home - and we loved it.
Our return tickets got a little mixed up on the date, so we lost a cool 500 per head. What's more, we had no idea how else to get back to Mumbai. Pai Travels, the only agent in Gokarna, assured us bus tickets - and ditched us 5 minutes before scheduled departure. Never trust him (below).
After several hundred phone calls gathering advice from people big and small, we took a local train from Gokarna to Madgaon (Goa). This took two hours, and we reached at around 1:30 pm. Here we were told there were no vacancies in buses to Mumbai. So we booked tickets in an overnight train in the general compartment. And we burned all night (I had contracted a back allergy after one fine midnight sand-fight), in a hot crowded train. And we sat all night, among people sitting around our legs and above our heads and below our seats. And we reached Mumbai at six, tired, exhausted - to the mercy of Ticket Checkers capitalizing on our simple error. Balance minus two fifty.
In retrospect, this holiday was full of several uppers and quite a few major downers. It was happy and it was sad (and hot). And I would never want to go there again (especially in summers), but given a chance to go back in the past and change anything I wish about those 7 days, I would choose nothing.
We spent the next two days dividing time among the following tasks:
- eating/drinking on the cafe, watching the waves hit the om
- trekking on the shore nearby
- relaxing in the shack - our home
The shore.
Basically, we lounged in extravaganza for three days, 2000 kms from home - and we loved it.
Our return tickets got a little mixed up on the date, so we lost a cool 500 per head. What's more, we had no idea how else to get back to Mumbai. Pai Travels, the only agent in Gokarna, assured us bus tickets - and ditched us 5 minutes before scheduled departure. Never trust him (below).
After several hundred phone calls gathering advice from people big and small, we took a local train from Gokarna to Madgaon (Goa). This took two hours, and we reached at around 1:30 pm. Here we were told there were no vacancies in buses to Mumbai. So we booked tickets in an overnight train in the general compartment. And we burned all night (I had contracted a back allergy after one fine midnight sand-fight), in a hot crowded train. And we sat all night, among people sitting around our legs and above our heads and below our seats. And we reached Mumbai at six, tired, exhausted - to the mercy of Ticket Checkers capitalizing on our simple error. Balance minus two fifty.
In retrospect, this holiday was full of several uppers and quite a few major downers. It was happy and it was sad (and hot). And I would never want to go there again (especially in summers), but given a chance to go back in the past and change anything I wish about those 7 days, I would choose nothing.
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