[MohsinRoadster]

where are the pics???

[daisyb]

More finer details regarding our coastal Karnataka Trip (written by my daughter with a few corrections made by me)

Our vacation started on 19th of December. We had a light breakfast and started early at around 6.30AM in the morning.

We reached Kalasa first via Hassan around 1PM. This temple is a Shiva temple. It is fairly popular. We donated rice in this temple (looks like it is a practice here, everyone seems to be donating rice). Prasadam was being served hot. We had hot sambar rice before we moved on to our next destination, Horanadu. It is said that anyone who eats prasadam at this temple will never go hungry again (that is if you work hard my mom added to my brother).

By evening we reached Sringeri to see the beautiful Sharada pitham. We first booked rooms at a temple guesthouse and then went for a darshan. It was very peaceful inside the premises of the mutt. The darshan went out very well. The mutt has a huge premises with multiple temples, prayer halls, dining halls etc. The pitham itself was built amidst Tunga River. It is said that a snake provided shade with its hood to a pregnant frog who was laying eggs. Adi Shankara Acharya was very pleased to see two natural enemies the snake and the frog in such a friendly posture & thus started this mutt. There was a very old temple (vidyashankara temple) in this premise. It was in a circular shape on a star base & was in a Hoysala style, visited Thorana Ganapati temple. It also has a very big dining hall in which we had a wonderful dinner. The aroma of the sambar itself will make u want to have the food. In the morning on 20th, we visited the temple again and had breakfast at Maruti Tiffin center (Don’t miss this. The breakfast is served in plantain leaf, and the taste is authentic south Indian, very cheap).

We then headed towards Kollur. There is a Mookambika temple in Kollur. It is said that a demon practised severe penance for lord Shiva to appear but Shiva did not want to give him a boon so he made him dumb. Devi killed him so she is called mookambika. Mooka means dumb. The devi vigraha was very glamorous. We had our lunch in the temple and then headed to Gokarna.

Gokarna has India’s best beaches. We went to OM beach & stood in its waters enjoying its waves dashing onto our feet. The sunset here was simply marvellous. There were many foreigners here mainly to enjoy the beach. We planned to go to 2 other beaches but they were quite far away. We took a room in Kamat hotel. We had our dinner at Purohit restaurant & then went to bed. On 21st morning we took bath in Om beach. Got home & and washed ourselves and then went to the temple. Here it is said that Ravana tried to lift Shiva’s atma lingam put down by Ganesha but he could not. This gives the lingam an irregular shape. It has now been covered & is underground. The top is allowed to be touched. This story is shown in the Bhukailasha caves in Murudeshwar which was our next destination.

We reached Murudeshwar when the temple closed for afternoon from 1 to 3pm. We had our lunch in a beachside hotel and visited the beach. We climbed a few stairs to reach the Bhukailash caves under a big Shiva statue. This shows the story of how Ravavna got the Atma lingam of Shiva. When he tried to lift it in Gokarna some pieces of it fell in many places. One piece fell in Murudeshwar. The main temple has an enormous gopura. Then we left to Udipi. On the way, we did a stop over at Maravanthe white sand beach, very nice beach

We first went to the Krishna temple at around 6:30pm. The temple was in a very different shape. The temple was extra-ordinarily pleasant even with the excitement & the noise of the 7 o clock puja. The Krishna vigraha was to be seen through a window with nine sections. The statue was extremely beautiful. After the darshan we went in search of our booked hotel. The hotel name is Sharada International. We had our dinner in its restaurant. Food is ok.

The next morning we went for Krishna darshan again. This time it was even more peaceful. We paid for a Seva but it was to be done at 10 o’ clock. We told them that we can not stay for that long a time. So he told us to have Breakfast in the temple & then take the Prasadam and leave. We had a type of upma for breakfast, took our bag of Prasadam and then left.

We went to Malpe beach & from there took a boat to St.Mary’s island. Nature was generous to St.mary’s island. It had natural formations of basalt. The beach was filled with shells. We found some kind of a rock which we thought was bleached coral. I was quite angry on my dress becoming wet while I was sitting ona large rock but I thoroughly enjoyed the island. Back to Udupi, had lunch and relaxed in the afternoon. Around 4ish, we started towards Mangalore

On our way to Mangalore we visited Karkala (saw a 42 feet Bahubali statue). Then we went to Moodbidri in which we saw the thousand pillars temple & the Guru Basadi. The jain mutt had beautiful & very old patras on copper and palm leaves (Dhavala texts) in its library. From Moodbidri, went to Kateel where we visited Durgaparameshwari temple.
We reached Mangalore at around 7 o’clock. We went to our hotel, Sri Kumar International, freshed up & then went to a Punjabi restaurant. The next morning we had our Breakfast at a restaurant called Abhinandan & had the Mangalore cuisine (mude was good). There were many temples to see. Kudroli Gokarnath temple, Mangaladevi temple (from which Mangalore got its name), Kadri Manunatha temple(Has India’s best bronze statue of Shiva). Also visited Infant Jesus Church, St.Alyoisus College and chapel. The chapel has many pictures. The pictures are very lively, beautiful & artistic.

In the evening we went to Tanneerbavi Beach. Near the beach there is a Sultan Battery. It was built by Tippu Sultan. To reach the beach, one has to take a ferry. The ride is for about 5 to 10 min. We then reach a mini forest like place with long trees. It was a mind-striking sight, walking across the leaf shedding trees looking at the multi coloured sky as a back-drop to the scenery at dusk. We enjoyed our time at the beach.

We had our dinner at Dominos. My brother was very happy with this. The next morning we went to Panambur beach and had a nice bath. Headed back to hotel, had BF and checkout to head to Kukke.

We went to Kukke Subhramanyam temple. We had our lunch in the temple. The queue is just very deceiving. It will not take more than half an hour even if the queue is longer. After our Darshan at kukke, we headed to Dharmasthala. We took a room in a temple guesthouse (Rajatadri). Itseems the accommodation should be booked 3 days before if we need best of the rooms. The temple authorities made a huge fuss, but after we got a letter from the temple trustee they provided the room. Other places we visited are Car museum (has a very good collection of cars), Manjusha museum (has a good collection too), Ratnagiri betta (Nice view of westren ghats from from the hillock, has a big Bahubali statue which is good)
The next morning my parents went for another darshan. When they came back we packed up and left for Bangalore. Bangalore was decorated beautifully since it was Christmas. It was about 5pm when we reached Bangalore & 7pm when we reached home.

We were pretty tired but spent our holidays in a good way.

[daisyb]

Posting some snaps

Car Museum at Dharmasthala


Voew from Dharmasthala Ratnagiribetta


View from Dharmasthala Ratnagiribetta


Dharmasthala to Bangalore Charmadi Ghat View


Dharmasthala to Bangalore Charmadi Ghat View


Sunsetat Om beach in Gokarna


Sunsetat Om beach in Gokarna


Horanadu to Sringeri - waterfall


Kottigehara to Horanadu view


Kottigehara to Horanadu view

[daisyb]

Posting some more snaps:

Sunset at Tannirbhavi beach in Mangalore


Sunset at Tannirbhavi beach in Mangalore


Towards Tannirbhavi beach in Mangalore


Murudeshwara beach


Murudeshwara beach


Murudeshwara Shiva Statue


Murudeshwara temple gopura


Sringeri Vidyashankara Temple


St Mary Island - near Udupi. Its around 10 kms from Malpe beach.


Another view of St Mary Island

[daisyb]

View at Agumbe

[daisyb]

Originally Posted by MohsinRoadster

where are the pics???

Have finally posted some snaps

[dreamdiesel]

Awesome writeup I must say.... supported by very good pictures.

[MohsinRoadster]

Originally Posted by daisyb

Have finally posted some snaps

Thanks much buddy!!! Was eagerly waiting for your posts sicne many days. Nice pics there.

I have driven thru charmai ghats a few times during the day.
Check it out the link below.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-charmadi.html

[daisyb]

Originally Posted by MohsinRoadster

I have driven thru charmai ghats a few times during the day.
Check it out the link below.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-charmadi.html

Awesome collection of Charmadi ghats photos. Thanks for posting

[libranof1987]

Very beautiful set of pictures there!

Which route did you take for Sringeri; through Kudremukh or the one for Agumbe?

N how did you manage to take pic at the car museum at Dharmastala?? When I'd gone, I was itching to take pics but din't because of their strict anti-cam policy. The guard wouldn't even let me take a pic from outside!

OM beach, st. marys island. Man, that's the dream!

In my 4 yrs at Manipal, I just went to Murudeshwar once and the huge temple was just reaching completion so couldn't visit.

Did you visit Kapu? Don't see pics, the lighthouse would have made a nice addition!

Overall, beautiful pics! I dream of a day I'll have a roadtrip there; all my trips while in Manipal were on the bike.

[daisyb]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Very beautiful set of pictures there!

Thanks

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Which route did you take for Sringeri; through Kudremukh or the one for Agumbe?

We took the Jayapura route to Sringeri, and not Kudremukh. I think here is a deviation somewhere to Agumbe in this route

Originally Posted by libranof1987

N how did you manage to take pic at the car museum at Dharmastala?? When I'd gone, I was itching to take pics but din't because of their strict anti-cam policy. The guard wouldn't even let me take a pic from outside!

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Did you visit Kapu? Don't see pics, the lighthouse would have made a nice addition!

Overall, beautiful pics! I dream of a day I'll have a roadtrip there; all my trips while in Manipal were on the bike.

We had Kaup in our itenerary but missed it. You should be easily be able to do these places, as they are located closeby

[Ride_4_Fortune]

Hi daisyb,

This is a very informative travelogue as I am contemplating on doing NH17 (Calicut to Gokarna) on my RE STD 350.

[deechan]

Nice travelogue, daisyb! How are the roads to Kalasa ? I assume you took the Belur > Kottigehara>Kudremukh>Kalasa route or did you go via Chickmagalur? I'm planning a drive to Udupi in feb - driving a Swift. From what I heard from friends who travelled in November 2010 was that the roads between Kottigehara-Belur was in a horrid condition.

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by deechan

Nice travelogue, daisyb! How are the roads to Kalasa ? I assume you took the Belur > Kottigehara>Kudremukh>Kalasa route or did you go via Chickmagalur? I'm planning a drive to Udupi in feb - driving a Swift. From what I heard from friends who travelled in November 2010 was that the roads between Kottigehara-Belur was in a horrid condition.

I agree, the road is quite bad from Belur-Cheekanally-Gonibeedu-Mudigere.
But rest of the route is in very good condition. Kottigehara - Kalasa road has been recently relaid, retarred

[aviorp]

Nice pictures daisyb. North Karnataka has so much to offer and ideal to explore the best of nature. Murudeshwara is the only place I visited from our recent trip, out of the places you had been to. Do post more pics.