Karnataka & Kerala Trip I.

Last week I went for my longest trip so far. Together with Vimarshan (I've already told you about this guy who I first met on IndiaMike) we spent 8 amazing days in the south-western part of India: Karnataka and Kerala. Thanks to Vim and his connections, this trip was really unforgettable and for the first time in my life I felt like a princess: staying in very nice guest houses, being driven by our own driver, being served by army of servants (OK, not army but usually two ;o)) and all the time being called Madam. And what is the best about all this comfort? It was all GRATIS!!! Well, this was quite an unusual experience for a poor Czech girl, daughter of railway workers ;o) Vim, thanks a LOT once again!!!

So, let's get it started!!!We left Chennai on Friday evening taking a night train to Mangalore in south of Karnataka.

Sleeper class is very cosy, isn't it?


Mangalore 09-11/05/2009

We arrived to Mangalore on Saturday morning. Our driver picked us up at the railway station, took us to the guest house (very nice one just 20 m from the beach) and after some rest we set out for our first sight-seeing. In fact in Mangalore itself there is not that much to see so we took full advantage of having a car with a driver just for us and we travel all around. Already when travelling in the car I experienced my another (and there were supposed to be more during the whole trip!) first time in India: I saw a jack fruit tree. This fruit is just so funny! It's so huge and growing not just on branches but also directly on the tree's trunk. I just don't want to imagine what happens when the fruit is ripe and falls down.



















Our first destination was Moodabidri - a little town 35 km from Mangalore. This town is a center for Jainism and has 18 Jain temples among which the most prominent is the Thousand Pillar Temple. It's a very old (it was built in 1430) and really nice temple. As you can see on the picture below (it was strictly prohibited to take photographs so unfortunately I had to download this pic) it's completely different from temples in Tamil Nadu (no gopuram, no tank, no little statues of gods, no colours). Although we weren't sure about the number of pillars (they didn't seem to be thousand) we had to admit that the carvings on them were pretty nice.














Then we continued to another "tourist attraction": Gomateshwara (Bahubali) statue. This granite statue is the second highest (I wasn't able to find the exact height, different sources give different information), the oldest (same problem as with the height ;o)) and the most important Jain pilgrimage centre in India.



















Next destination was Agumbe - little hill village famous for its sunset point. Since it was too early for sunset and it was not a very clear day, we just took a quick look from the view point and continue to Sringeri. We went to see another famous tourist place: Vidyasankara temple. Again, it was very different from shining colourful temples I was used to from Tamil Nadu and it looked really ancient (it was built in 14th century). Unfortunately we had a bad luck again: 1) the temple was closed and supposed to be open one hour later, 2) president was supposed to come to the temple that day, so there were many policemen with huge guns who were kind of disturbing my meditation at this holy place ;o)














And that was the end of our first day sightseeing. We had a long way ahead of us so we set out back to our guest house. Although we saw quite nice places, we weren't very happy about how the first day looked like (it was kind of American style hop on-hop off sightseeing and we spent too much time in car). So we decided to do it differently from next day on: fewer places but more time spent there.

Next day we headed to the north - destination Udupi. On our way we stopped and took a morning walk on a lovely, deserted Kaup Beach before we continued to Malple port well known for St. Mary's Islands.




























After 30 min of waiting for a boat and 45 min of travelling we finaly reached the islands. St Mary's Islands is a set of four small islands known for the unique formation of basalt rocks which have crystallized into columns and split into vertical hexagonal blocks. When you see these rocks, you really don't believe that they were created by Mother Nature! Despite the heat which was already culminating we spent some time relaxing on the beach, watching waves smashing on rocks and Indian people swimming in their clothes, we were jumping and climbing on rocks and examining almost every corner ;o)




























Then we continued to our destination Udupi, city located 60 km north of Mangalore. It is considered to be one of the holiest places (well, there are many "the holiest places" all around) for pilgrimage in southern India. It's famous for its 800 years old Sri Krishna Temple. Since Vim is not that much into temples, I went inside on my own. It's rather small but very interesting temple. The interior is in wood and it looks almost like a nice old mountain cottage. I was just wandering around and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere when a priest joined me and decided to be my guide. He told me a lot about the temple and Lord Krishna but I didn't understand him much due to his very strong Indian accent. He showed me even some non-public places like dinning room of priests and graveyard of the most important priests who weren't incinerated but buried into ground. It was quite nice to have this guide until he start his: "You're a very good girl. I really like you. You will never forget Udupi and me! Give me your number" So with "I'm sorry, I don't have cellphone" and "Thank you" I just ran away ;o)



















From Udupi we returned to our guest house and spent the rest of day on the beach. First I wanted to swim (in my bikini) because we thought it would be empty but unfortunately it was pretty crowded and I wasn't brave enough to strip. So we were just enjoying the evening breeze, watching waves (they were huge!!!), scaring poor little crabs and walking around. It was quite nice even without swimming (although it was really tempting).

Plan for our last day in Mangalore was quite simple: Bekal Fort. Spreading over 40 acres it's the biggest fort in Kerala (yes, we left Karnataka for a while although we were just 50 km from Mangalore). The shining red-stone fort is towering above a lovely sandy beach so together with a clear blue sky and green palms around the play of colours is just amazing. It was hot like a hell but with all the breathtaking views I enjoyed it a LOT.










































This place is quite famous (a movie was shooted here) because it's just wonderful when you're standing on that "balcony" are waves are smashing on the rocks around and splashing on you ;o)















Since we were supposed to catch an evening train for Cochin, after two hours at the fort we headed back for Mangalore. But on our way we stopped in Pilikula Nisargadhama. There is a zoo but unfortunately it was closed. So we just relaxed for a while in a very well maintained park with a big lake...If only we have some parks like this in Chennai (well, we have some but not that big and not that nice ;o)).















So, that was the Karnataka part of my big trip. On Monday evening we took a night train to Cochin from where we continued by car to Munnar and thus the Kerala part started...And the write up about amazing time in Munnar, Cochin and Allepey will come soon...hopefully ;o) So stay tuned!!!