Continued from Part I...
Much to our relief, we came to know that Hubli is birth place of Gauri. Even better, she could converse well in Kannada. We got down at Hubli around 5:30. We took a rick to bus stand, only to find that the bus to Gokarna was at 9:00 AM. But Gauri and Nachiket inquired, and we decided to go to Ankola, and take a bus to Gokarna from there. I do not remember anything about our journey to Ankola, except that when I woke up, there was a cake fallen down near my feet. Later, after getting down at Ankola, I came to know that someone had bought 6 packets of cakes, each pack of 16 cakes. (By the time we reached Ankola, Geeta was already on her 10th piece, and 2 packs had been devoured). I took one piece of cake, and it was too tasty to resist. I immediately finished 4 pieces. After having a breakfast of Idli Sambhar, we took a bus to Gokarna.
Our hotel was very close to bus stand, just 5 minutes walking distance. After reaching hotel, and resting for some time, we left for the main attraction of Gokarna, the Mahabaleshwar temple and the main beach. Gauri had already made arrangements for the travel, she had some friend who lived in Gokarna, and we got a Sumo (or whatever vehicle it was) pretty cheap (just the diesel charges and driver charges, it really helped reduce the overall cost of the trip). After going to the beach, we visited temple, and had some horrible snacks in some hotel. (But I must admit the juices were really good =)). We enjoyed our first day, (only exception being one of our trip members was always hungry and wanted to eat every 20 minutes!!!). We retired to our hotel, and started to decide for next day. Gauri's uncle suggested we leave the hotel and stay at Murudeshwar, but we had paid advance, and canceling the stay seemed difficult. Also, some people wanted to go to Jog Falls (seems it is the biggest falls in India). So, we decided to go to Jog Falls and Murudeshwar, and then return to Gokarna, and all agreed (although reluctantly, because that meant getting up early in the morning at 5 ;'( )
We left hotel around 6:15 and left for Jog Falls. Jog Falls came as a bit of disappointment, as there was not much water there. But we clicked zillions of photos here (and the best one being Prasad's solo photo =D). We left the place after couple of hours. We reached Murudeshwar around 2, and we were too hungry to be mesmerized by the huge Shiva statue. After satiating our hunger (with yet another thali), we looked with awe at the huge statue. We visited the temple (again, a zillion snaps were clicked here, I am not sure what they were trying to capture) and then went to beach for some water sports. We stayed in water till sunset, and then began our return journey to Gokarna.
By the time we reached our hotel, we were completely exhausted. After taking some rest, we left for some hotel for dinner (some people still too tired to have dinner, so they opted to have a good sleep instead). Well, we decided to go to Purohit, the only hotel that would serve something other than regular thali, but we were deceived, and had to settle for thali again. We retired to hotel, and decided to leave for the 2 famous beaches in Gokarna in 8:30 morning. But we were still tired, and I think Gauri was furious when Rahul opened the door and she saw all of us sleeping. We tried our best to get ready asap, and I think we were done in an hour (pretty fast, given that we were 4 of us). We left for Om beach, and it was the best beach we had ever seen. We clicked some snaps. Then we left for Kudle beach. And this beach was better than Om beach. The waters were very clean, and we could see ground even under 5 feet water. We went to a hotel to have a light bite, and suddenly, we started to plan to extend our trip by one day. But after some consideration, we dropped the plan. After playing in waters for couple of hours, we had lunch (the best food we had during our trip, Gauri trying some exotic dishes). And then started back for the hotel. We had booked an Omni to take to Hubli. We left the hotel around 4:30, and left Hubli at 8:00 PM. We had a quick bite at some near by hotel and then boarded the bus back to Pune. (Thankfully, the bus the sleeper, and moreover, it dropped us all the way to Nigdi =)).
Well, unexpectedly, we enjoyed the trip without any major worries. Well, Gauri's Kannada conversing skills need a special mention here, as it really helped us quite a lot. With Guhagar in 2008, and Coorg in 2009, we finally managed to add Gokarna in 2010. Just wondering what our 2011 destination will be (given that we finalized Gokarna after Ladakh, Andaman, and Lakshadweep, and took more than 6 months to do so ;))
P. S.: This by no means is complete description of the trip, and I had to skip many fine details, like not being able to contact Geeta till last day, aweful lunch we had on first day, etc etc., but it seems Prasad is taking efforts to write down the complete details of the trip, so will leave it to him to fill in the missing fun parts =D.
Much to our relief, we came to know that Hubli is birth place of Gauri. Even better, she could converse well in Kannada. We got down at Hubli around 5:30. We took a rick to bus stand, only to find that the bus to Gokarna was at 9:00 AM. But Gauri and Nachiket inquired, and we decided to go to Ankola, and take a bus to Gokarna from there. I do not remember anything about our journey to Ankola, except that when I woke up, there was a cake fallen down near my feet. Later, after getting down at Ankola, I came to know that someone had bought 6 packets of cakes, each pack of 16 cakes. (By the time we reached Ankola, Geeta was already on her 10th piece, and 2 packs had been devoured). I took one piece of cake, and it was too tasty to resist. I immediately finished 4 pieces. After having a breakfast of Idli Sambhar, we took a bus to Gokarna.
Our hotel was very close to bus stand, just 5 minutes walking distance. After reaching hotel, and resting for some time, we left for the main attraction of Gokarna, the Mahabaleshwar temple and the main beach. Gauri had already made arrangements for the travel, she had some friend who lived in Gokarna, and we got a Sumo (or whatever vehicle it was) pretty cheap (just the diesel charges and driver charges, it really helped reduce the overall cost of the trip). After going to the beach, we visited temple, and had some horrible snacks in some hotel. (But I must admit the juices were really good =)). We enjoyed our first day, (only exception being one of our trip members was always hungry and wanted to eat every 20 minutes!!!). We retired to our hotel, and started to decide for next day. Gauri's uncle suggested we leave the hotel and stay at Murudeshwar, but we had paid advance, and canceling the stay seemed difficult. Also, some people wanted to go to Jog Falls (seems it is the biggest falls in India). So, we decided to go to Jog Falls and Murudeshwar, and then return to Gokarna, and all agreed (although reluctantly, because that meant getting up early in the morning at 5 ;'( )
We left hotel around 6:15 and left for Jog Falls. Jog Falls came as a bit of disappointment, as there was not much water there. But we clicked zillions of photos here (and the best one being Prasad's solo photo =D). We left the place after couple of hours. We reached Murudeshwar around 2, and we were too hungry to be mesmerized by the huge Shiva statue. After satiating our hunger (with yet another thali), we looked with awe at the huge statue. We visited the temple (again, a zillion snaps were clicked here, I am not sure what they were trying to capture) and then went to beach for some water sports. We stayed in water till sunset, and then began our return journey to Gokarna.
By the time we reached our hotel, we were completely exhausted. After taking some rest, we left for some hotel for dinner (some people still too tired to have dinner, so they opted to have a good sleep instead). Well, we decided to go to Purohit, the only hotel that would serve something other than regular thali, but we were deceived, and had to settle for thali again. We retired to hotel, and decided to leave for the 2 famous beaches in Gokarna in 8:30 morning. But we were still tired, and I think Gauri was furious when Rahul opened the door and she saw all of us sleeping. We tried our best to get ready asap, and I think we were done in an hour (pretty fast, given that we were 4 of us). We left for Om beach, and it was the best beach we had ever seen. We clicked some snaps. Then we left for Kudle beach. And this beach was better than Om beach. The waters were very clean, and we could see ground even under 5 feet water. We went to a hotel to have a light bite, and suddenly, we started to plan to extend our trip by one day. But after some consideration, we dropped the plan. After playing in waters for couple of hours, we had lunch (the best food we had during our trip, Gauri trying some exotic dishes). And then started back for the hotel. We had booked an Omni to take to Hubli. We left the hotel around 4:30, and left Hubli at 8:00 PM. We had a quick bite at some near by hotel and then boarded the bus back to Pune. (Thankfully, the bus the sleeper, and moreover, it dropped us all the way to Nigdi =)).
Well, unexpectedly, we enjoyed the trip without any major worries. Well, Gauri's Kannada conversing skills need a special mention here, as it really helped us quite a lot. With Guhagar in 2008, and Coorg in 2009, we finally managed to add Gokarna in 2010. Just wondering what our 2011 destination will be (given that we finalized Gokarna after Ladakh, Andaman, and Lakshadweep, and took more than 6 months to do so ;))
P. S.: This by no means is complete description of the trip, and I had to skip many fine details, like not being able to contact Geeta till last day, aweful lunch we had on first day, etc etc., but it seems Prasad is taking efforts to write down the complete details of the trip, so will leave it to him to fill in the missing fun parts =D.
