Yaana, Gokarna, Jog Falls

After much planning and forwarding of dates, we from PLM united team had gone for a trip to Yaana, Gokarna and Jog falls during Sep4-Sep6 2009 weekend. Group of 24 had gone for the trip and most of the logistics of the trip was taken care by Nandish and Manju. Bus picked me near my house at around 9.30 PM on 4th Sep Friday and I occupied the last seat. Manju and Santosh were the last to board the bus and we took NH4 Road which goes via Chitradurga, Davangere, Ranebennur, Haveri and then to Sirsi our first stop. Around 70% of the road we travelled was good and rest was bad. Initially we had some general discussion inside the bus and after a while we tried to sleep. Most of the time my sleep was disturbed by the voice of Nandish and I think others were also disturbed by noise made by small group lead by Nandish. I saw Santosh was the only person who had sound sleep while travelling to Sirsi. Early morning on the way to Sirsi we stopped at some place just before Sirsi and took some snaps. The weather was cool with slight drizzle and I felt like walking all along the road.

We reached Sirsi at around 8 AM on Saturday 5th Sep and occupied the hotel Madhuvana which we had booked for our early morning stay. The hotel rooms were quite good, clean and worth the money we paid. Due to smart negotiation from Manju we had booked the hotel for about Rs 265 per room. We had booked seven rooms for our stay and Manju, Santosh, Prashanth and I occupied one room. Some of our team members had kept their bags inside the luggage cabin in the rear end of bus and due to water leakage their bags and clothes had gone wet and some of them had horrible time making them dry. After getting fresh, we had breakfast and were ready to leave our room. Also we packed rice item Pulav and banana for lunch to have at Yaana.

Our first visit was at Sri Marikamba Temple in Sirsi. Sri Marikamba Temple houses a huge idol of Devi and after paying our obeisance to God, we started our journey towards Yaana. Our journey towards Yana was full of fun especially the dance by our team members. I had occupied the front seat near the driver and I enjoyed the dance of Murugan, Prashant, Manju, Neeraj and others as well. As we proceeded towards Yaana, the road became narrow and I enjoyed the greenery all round with slight rain making the environment amazing to see. The bus stopped around 2 Kms before Yaana, the time was around 1PM and we decided to walk rest of the distance. As I walked some distance, leeches had already made inroad into my shoe and I removed them with the help of my friend. After that everyone applied Odomas cream and lime which I think is ineffective in controlling leeches in getting you. Murugan and his family decided not to venture out of the bus mainly due to rain and they might have had bad time inside the bus waiting for us for about 4 Hours.

As we walked we saw small water fall made due to the rain, a river near the bridge and view of the forest of Sahyadri hills surrounding us was amazing. This was the first time I trekked in monsoon rain and it was comfortable walking and not that tiring. After walking for about 1 Km the road ends and we have to walk around 0.5 Kms along mud path to reach Yaana. Manju, Santosh and I were the first to see Mohini Shikara and we made some noise when we saw the magnificent rock formation. We took some snaps and as we proceeded further we saw another amazing bigger rock formation Bhairaveshwara Shikara. Karthik and I took some photos and everyone halted at tea stall which is present near the temple which is at the base of Bhairaveshwara shikara. We had good hot tea and other light snacks midst the rain which accompanied us all long the way. We also had photos session and visited the temple where the temple priest explained about the significance of Yaana. Some of us visited the small cave which surrounds the temple and Hemanth was waiting for me take a snap in the waterfall. After having good view of the rocks everyone proceeded towards our bus. Vivek, Ramesh, Ramesh’s friend and I took the stairs which goes towards Mohini Shikara. We climbed down the stairs and we were not exactly sure where the steps were taking us. I took a photo near the base of the rock and we did not go further down the steps and we climbed back and tried to join rest of our team. Vivek and I decided to run some distance to catch up with rest of the team. We ran some distance after that we were tired and walked till we came to the road. We again decided to run and I overtook some of our team members and stopped after I saw uphill climb. It was bit difficult to walk back and I was always looking for the sight of the bus. We reached the bus , had Pulav and Banana which we had got from Sirsi. As usual we were ready for photo session and some of our team members were very keen to get photographed with different styles (Especially Nandish Style). We boarded the bus and with lots of incredible dancing from the team, we reached Gokarna at around 7.30 PM.

We had booked Hotel Gokarna International for our stay. Only the name and exterior of the hotel was attractive. Inside the rooms we could see wet ceilings, beds and pillows were not clean and rooms were in pathetic state. Manju, Santhosh, Prashant and I walked some distance till we found Pai Restaurant to have dinner. The food was OK and perhaps lot better than the hotel where we stayed. We came back to our room and rested for the day. I got up in the morning and I had to have some argument with the hotel personnel to get Hot water for bath. Everyone of our team were ready by 9 AM and we visited the Mahabaleshwara temple in Gokarna to have blessings of the lord. We had breakfast and started for OM beach at around 10.30 AM . It started to drizzle a bit and we were afraid that rain will spoil our visit to the beach. Fortunately the rain stopped and as we approached Om beach, I saw beautiful landscape of the beaches and reached OM beach at around 11.00 AM. The beach was clean and Karthik was the first person to get into cold water and Manju, Santhosh, Prashanth, I followed him. We had good time inside the water and Murugan also joined us. Hopefully Murugan’s son who was always telling about the beach had good team time seeing the sea. All the team members had photo sessions and we came back to our bus and started for Jog falls at around 1 PM.

Just after Kumta, we stopped for Lunch at Kamat hotel and ordered Veg Biryani to be parceled. We then decided to have lunch in the hotel itself. We proceeded towards Jog falls and driver told that he would stop at some places where scenery of the nature is worth watching. The bus stopped at a place where we could see a water fall. I took some snaps and rest of the team also were part of photo session. After a while the bus stopped at one more beautiful landscape and perhaps our team members were disgusted that I stopped the bus again for one more view as the team were playing dumbcharades and were in the midst of intense competition. We did not get down at that place and we travelled towards Jog falls. We reached Jog falls at around 4.30 PM and everyone got down to see the majestic incredible highest water fall in India, the JOG falls. Jog falls was at its full flow due to incessant rain the region had received for the past few days. Jog falls was amazing and the landscape of the surrounding the Jog falls was worth watching. We had a long lengthy photo session and we also took some group photos. I wanted to visit the other side of the falls from where the water comes down and where there is a Bungalow. Due to paucity of time we could not the go there and perhaps some of us were too tired. We had tea/coffee in the hotel which is present in the premises of Jog. We then left Jog falls at around 6.00 PM. We stopped in Sagar to have dinner and most them had best dinner of the trip. By this time I was tired a lot and wanted to have good sleep. Got into bus and occupied seat next to Santosh and I did have some decent sleep. Early Monday morning on 7th Sep we reached Bangalore and I was in my house at 6.30 AM.

• I have skipped details about all the team members
• One should carry food/snacks to Yaana. I felt we should have explored the rocks of Yaana more by staying there for a day
• Cost per person for the trip came about Rs 1700
• Thanks to all team members who were part of this trip

One more exiting trip came to end for me and hopefully each one of 26 including the driver and his assistant had good memorable time during the trip.

-Mahesh

A Journey to Remember

Udupi, Malpe, Kaup, Marvanthe

We (Me, Shashi, Ravi) decided to go Muneer's wedding in Kundapura and also visit few places nearby. I asked Muneer about the places near Kundapura and we decided to land at Udupi first. Shashi booked the KSRTC bus tickets to Udupi and return tickets from Kundapura. I was the last to arrive at 10.35 PM on 29May09 at Majestic bus stand, bus was at 11 PM and Shashi & Ravi were waiting for me.

We saw beautiful backwaters from the bus in the morning after Mangalore on the way to Udupi. We reached Udupi on Saturday morning at 8AM and Muneer had arranged for our stay at BSNL inspection quarters at place called Kadiyali around 1.5 Kms from Udupi bus stand. We reached BSNL inspection quarters with help from Neelesh (Muneer’s friend) and after finishing our morning activities we decided to go to Malpe beach which is around 5 Kms from Udupi. We decided to go by Bus and what’s amazing about places near Udupi is the bus facilities available. Private bus facilities and frequency of buses are better than in Bangalore. We reached Malpe town and from there we reached Malpe beach in Auto at around 11 AM. Whenever we travelled by Auto, the charge was Rs 25. Malpe beach was clean with very few people around. We thought of going to St Mary’s Island but boating was stopped to the island. Boating is not available to St Mary’s Island during monsoon (Mid May to September), so better to visit during early winter season. Ravi was very eager to get into water and I & Shashi followed him. The sea was calm and we spent good time in the water at Malpe.

From Malpe we decided to goto Kaup Beach and we got a bus to Udupi. From Udupi we got another direct bus to Kaup beach, I don’t know the exact distance from Udupi to Kaup beach and it took almost one hour to reach Kaup beach. The bus took to most of the nearby places and finally reached Kaup beach at 2 PM. The greenery was worth a watch all along the way. There was board saying “Swimming is prohibited” and we came to know why when we saw the beach. The waves were quite dangerous and it was not possible to go 20 meters inside the water. We had lunch at some fast food hotel and the options and food available was bad. Better to have food at some other place than at Kaup beach. There is a light house at Kaup beach which was to open for visitors at 5.30 PM and we can reach top of light house for some good view, since we had other plans we did not stay till the Light house opened. We took some good snaps from rocks and rested for some time in the shade.

The weather was quite hot and we were always looking for shade to protect us from hot weather. We took auto from Kaup beach to reach Kaup town and from there a bus to Udupi. We reached Udupi at around 4.30 PM and decided to take some rest at guest house. We took a bus to Kadiyali and since the bus was also going to Manipal which is 5 Kms from Udupi, Shashi and I wanted to go to Manipal much to anguish of Ravi who was not at all interested to visit Manipal. Finally Ravi was convinced and we reached Manipal. There is nothing much to see in Manipal, One can find lot of colleges (From Engineering, Medical …). After buying a gift for Muneer and we came back to our guest house at 5.45 PM.

After staying in the guest for about an hour, we prepared to visit Krishna temple and Ravi got short cut route from BSNL security person to the temple. As we walked we saw posh houses along the way and finally reached temple after walking for about 20 minutes. As we entered temple premises we saw a pond, an elephant greeting devotes, chariots waiting for procession. We entered the temple and got confused not knowing the entrance of main Krishna temple. After searching for few minutes we entered the temple and got darshan of Lord Krishna. There was some argument between Ravi and Me about Kanakadasa as we had different stories of him. We waited till 8 PM for food counter to open inside the temple premises and we got inside a huge hall for food. Food was quite bad partially because of bad attitude of suppliers. It is better to eat outside than inside the temple. We came outside the temple and saw procession of chariots. After that we came back to our good BSNL guest house and rested for the day.

Early morning on 31May09 Sunday we got up and we were ready to leave the guest house by 7AM. We again visited Krishna temple and there was less crowd in the morning. We had breakfast at Mitra Samaj hotel and food was tasty and worth having something at the hotel. The hotel is near the Krishna temple, within the temple complex and the hotel is known for Masala dosa and we could not have it as it was not available for breakfast. We reached Udupi bus stand and got a bus to Kundapura at 8.30 AM. We reached Kundapura at around 9.15 AM enjoying the backwaters and greenery on the way. From Kundapura we had to reach Tarsi, the wedding place of Muneer. Ravi wants always to travel by Auto and Shashi and I wanted to go by bus. We took a bus and we initially thought Tarsi is nearby but it was around 10 Kms from Kundapura. We enquired about the place with the conductor and the bus stopped at Classic Auditorium just before Tarsi town. We reached the marriage hall at 10.15 AM and we were the first to reach there. Surendra had to come to the marriage with his family and Ravi somehow recognized him as he had not seen him since our college days. After Nikah of Muneer and we had good nonveg food. We kept our luggage inside Surendra’s car and at around 1.30 PM we visited Marvanthe which is just around 3 Kms from Tarsi.

The sea at Marvanthe was looking beautiful with no people around and the sound of roaring waves was hitting our ears. There was no shade to protect us from hot sun and we walked some distance to find some coconut trees and we decided to stay there. Occasional cool winds made us comfortable and around 3.30PM we walked along the road to reach Marvanthe temple where there is a river flowing next to it. We sat near the River and saw gorgeous island formed by the backwaters. There is boating facility available and the charge was Rs450 to go round the island. We decided it is not worth going and there was a boat to ferry passengers to cross the river. We thought of crossing the river but the person at the ticket counter refused to give us ticket saying that the boat is only for local people. I decided to taste the water in the river, hoping for some fresh water but it was salty. There is road which separates the river and sea at Marvanthe and the view is amazing. We visited the temple and again came back to sea side. We could not get into the water as sea was quite dangerous and we took some snaps close to some rocks which were battered by the waves. We rested near the rocks and waiting for sun set. The best time to visit Marvanthe is during evening and cool breeze from the sea made us feel like heaven. Ravi and Shashi started a long conversation about marriage and I was reluctantly listening to them.


After Sunset we came back to Tarsi to attend Muneer’s marriage reception and again we were the first person to arrive there. Ravi and I had long argument regarding mode of transport for trips. I preferred to travel by Bus and Shashi supported me, as we will know more about the culture of the new place. Ravi always prefers to travel by car as it is more comfortable. We had booked the return ticket from Kundapura, the bus was to start at 9 PM and we were having little time to attend the reception and have food. We wished Muneer and he made early arrangement of food for three of us. We again had some good food and thanks to Surendra who dropped us in his car near the KSRTC bus stand to reach on time to catch 9PM bus. We got inside the bus and Bus reached Bangalore at 8.30 AM on Monday. The beaches we visited, the backwaters we saw and the greenery all around will tempt us to visit these places again.