Gokarna-a 1000 miles for a sunset

Following is our trip to Gokarna, wonderfully captured by my friend. So gokarna for you
All of us dream.... and some of our good dreams are like-"a beautiful beach... serene nature showing off its beauty so much dat it gives u a complex... a nice trek on the wonderful hills along the coast.. sailing across the sea with dolphins as companions....sitting on a rock and looking at the huge red ball dive into the ocean... lie on the beach all nite long, gazing at the stars and listening to every wave hitting the shore.... "

ok.. people get up now... the dream ends here and the reality comes alive at Gokarna.. Gokarna is 500 miles away from bangalore on the northern coast of karnataka... trust me.. goodness gracious me d place is so virgin and untouched that u will not find indians tourists there at all.. the only people living there are the hippies who settle there during winters.... so the place can actually get scary, in the sense dat, it is isolated and these hippies living there are always on dope,charas,drugs and always desperate for sex!!!!! so better to have a big group like ours... but all this actually adds to the excitement of an adventurous trip..... and just to give u a better idea of how untouched this place is by mankind... no electricity... no cell phone signals.... only tarzan like communication.....



the trip was planned on thursday and v guys left on friday(30/12) nite with only one way tickets.. so coming back to bangalore before monday morning was actually like asking ganguly to score a run!!!! so with the thrill of not knowing wat lies ahead v set off.... travelled over 12 hours on these pathetic karnataka roads.. reached the next day (31\12)... by the way gokarna is actually a holy place uh!!! :-) i think v trekked around 3kms to a cottage on kudle beach which is the first one in the series of beaches that follow, so usually you start off with kudle beach



After attending all of nature`s calls v set off first to kudle beach... anyways as we enjoy all the beauty around us v all also make use of wat nature provides... played football... played in sea.... yea the usual beach stuff here actually..... by the time v were done at kudle beach v were all hungry... so after lunch v set off to om beach. there are quite some places to eat along the coastline, the usual beach shacks with restaurants, the shacks on the beach front are inexpensive and provide you the bare neccesities. and at om beach u will find a few indian tourists... very few!! Fine wats so special about om beach ...well the beach is in the shape of a perfect om... a very rocky beach though .. in the sense has a lot of rocks on it... and people people people.... dint v have fun climbing on a huge rock on top which there is a pillar.... and gz wats written on the pillar... end of territory,union of india..... and the view from the rock ... my god... u see only water from the rock... now how amazing is dat....

By now its already 4 30 in the evening and all of us are damn tired.. but then the beauty around us lifted our spirits again... 2 more beaches left and v had to get back before sunset... so how do u travel quickly wen u have water around???? yea... boats, after quite a bargain we settled for 25 per head to head to paradise beach ... wat a bumpy ride d boat ride was in the high seas... just wen fear was creeping into all of us about the boat.... now hold ur breath!!! v all saw a flock of dolphins playing around us... man dat sight is absolutely unforgettable... phew!! i mean, remember dat scene in titanic with dolphins near the ship... if not dat cinematic,it was fantabulous....

so the bumpy boat ride takes us to half moon beach where u have no humans at all .... pretty soon v landed on paradise... paradise beach.. once again only hippies here...and indeed is aptly named paradise for there is no electricity in dis beach all of us gear up here to see the last sunset of 2005.



.. and my god it was so beautiful.... i wish my last sunset is also like dat.... seriously this english language has too few adjectives or i dunno them... anyways... u must experience it, i am sure everyone will run out of words.... after watching the most beautiful sunset of our lives, v set off to kudle beach... if the initial boat ride was exciting.. this was scary... sailing over very very rough silver water and the sun down... my god.... exhilarating...

time for dinner... at this point i gotta say the only bad thing about this place .. food is quite a problem... the best part of the entire trip is dat the excitement level just keeps growing, like it had no limits.. so once dinner got over by 9, v had to get back to our room to get the stuff for new years... v actually trekked back to our room absolute darkness in the woods with only a mobile phone torch to save us from possible danger.. well not save us from danger.. but to actually wat was the danger and probably to have a better look at oursselves wen v die... seriously .. common wat more can a dat little torch do....


and v take this ultra deadly trek just to get back to the beach in another 30 minutes... and jesus christ d return was equally frightful.... this time around though, there was an added extra tinge of excitement... yea baby!!! v were getting our stuff for our new year party by the beach... yea.. booze and lots of it!! ... logs for bonfire and lots of other stuff....
now there have already been quite a few best moments of my life on this trip.... i say add this one also to it.. a new year party by the beach which is all to urself... no bloody police crap and all... and the bonfire which started at 11 and faded away into 2006 at 6 in the morning... mind u some of the guys worked really worked hard for the bonfire to last dat long..... though this new years nite did not have a moon, god compensated it with a rather extra dosage of stars... man wat a feeling dat is...... looking at a million stars above and every wave lashing ur feet... wwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooowwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so i wake up on this beautiful beach to greet the early morning sun of 2006... and i was like .. man shud i get back to bangalore ... y cant i stay back here and spend of the rest of my life here...... but this i gz is too much even for a dream .. isnt it!!! so v get back to the room... freshen up quickly in 3 solid hours!!!! wat begins has to end doesnt it...
so had to say a good bye....


sorry folks i just cant coz the adventure continues.... probably shud have released the adventure in editions!!! anyways.... so the locals give us so many options to go to bangalore.... with a lot of arguments v decide to take 1 hour van journey to kumta which is supposedly very well connected to bangalore... so v reach kumta and wow how well connected it is yaar... they have even daily flights to london... bloody dat godforsaken place had a bus at 6 in d evening to bangalore ..and v r at this place at 11 30 in the morning(01/06)... so once again the locals step in and advice... once again dilemma and the argument routine follows suit... this time v decide to take the 2 o clock bus to this place called shimoga .. one of the 13 is from infy and he had to go to mysore , luckily for him the bus took him there... but man dint v have fun even while waiting for the bus to come... all thru our return v ate at places which were no less to the taj and oberoi uh!!!! :-) so thanx to schumacher saab driving our bus v reach shimoga by 8.... by the way v saw the jog falls on the way!!! so once again the local advice and confusion routine.. this time bus or train to bangalore... i personally am so happy dat sense prevailed and v took the bus after dinner at le meridien this time!!!

bangalore,touch down at 5 am..... rush home and leave for office at 7 30.... in d bus i just close my eyes and just retrospect and i relive the dream!!!!! but we suggest that you book your return tickets to avoid the last paragraph

pics,
1. A view of the Om beach
2. The ferries tat took us to Paradise
3. Rocks arising from the sea
4. The last sunset from the bay
5,6. Sunset at paradise Beach
Guest writer,
Chaitanya!!