Who are you..?

Whereever you come from
Whereever you go
You make my dreams
And take away yours

When you walk thru the gardens
You tell something in the ears
You are not visible to me
But you are there in my breaths

There is air and breeze everywhere
Is this life, or its shadow
Have you come to take, or give something to me
I wont ask you, where you came from

Who are you..?

Udupi trip

Finally, the much awaited long weekend for Republic Day had arrived. Jyo had already booked the tickets to Udupi when the ksrtc ticket booking window opened 15 days back for 23rd night. The return tickets for myself and Jum were booked for 25th night via Mysore, as Jum had some programs to attend over there.

We left Bangalore at around 8:30 PM and reached Udupi by 6 AM on 24th. Jyo's parents welcomed us at their house, and there were already few guests at her place. Myself and Jum went to sleep after some time, as we hadn't had proper sleep in the bus. We woke up at around 845, freshend up and had breakfast - Idli, chutney, sambhar, jamoon & mysore pak. A very heavy breakfast indeed. By this time Jyo's sister Keerthi and her husband Subramanya had arrived. Jyo was still discussing where to go for the day. Finally, she chalked out a plan.

We started at around 10:45 towards Karkala in Subramanya's car - we 3, her father, sister & brother-in-law. It was around 45 mins journey to Karkala. First, we went to Ananthashayana Sree Ananthapadmanabh Temple , which is a 400 year old temple. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside the temple.

From there, we proceeded to Chaturmukha Jain Basadi. This was located on a small hill, with around 50 steps to climb. This was one among the 18 Jain Basadi's in Karkala. Over there, idols of 3 Jain Tirthankaras were placed on all sides of a square. Also, a mirror was placed from which the Gommateshwara on opposite hill could be seen. The priest over there mentioned that the sun rays pass in between the legs of the idols on opposite sides during sunrise and sunset times. The view from outside the temple was good. Again, photos restricted.

Next, we went to the opposite hill, where a huge Gommateshwara stood. There were around 200 steps to reach the top, and the sun was right above our heads. It is the second largest monolith of Gommateshwara in Karnataka, after the one in Shravanabelagola.
After that, we proceeded towards Moodabidri. Over there, we first went to Hosanadu Sri Annapoorneshwari Temple . This I guess is a relatively new temple, as many people don't know about it and get confused with Horanadu Annapoorneshwari Temple . We went around the temple and uncle offered pooja for the diety. We were asked to remove our shirts inside the Garbha-Gudi of the Godess. After that, we had lunch over there as prasad. It was already 2 PM or so, and people over there told that the lunch would be served from 12 PM - 3 PM. The prasad was very good - rice, rasam, payasa & curds, but too much.
There were temple horses and elephant near the entrance and a huge Hanuman statue.

Next, we went to some place where Kambala festival was going on. Kambala, or buffalo race is conducted in slush fields wherein 2 buffalos are tied and a person rides it over slush, and there will be 2 tracks for the same. Whoever finishes first is the winner. I'm not able to explain it properly, but the photos will give an idea. It was the first time I was watching such an event. But I felt very angry at the men who were beating their buffalos black and blue.

From there we went to Subramanya's sister's home and had some snacks and drinks. All the snacks, I was having them for the first time - Jackfruit's happla (pappad) and Kodbele, and one new sweet. All were too good.

Next we went to the world famous Thousand Pillar Jain Temple . Obviously, we didn't verify the authenticity of 1000 pillars, but it was superb. But again, no photography inside the temple :( . I don't understand why these guys dont allow photos to be taken there! No wonder, tourism dept is bad and they dont promote these kind of places.

Anyways, after this, we left this place and started our return journey to Udupi. It took around an hour and a half to reach back Jyo's place and we reached by 6:15 PM. We thought of going to the beach, but the idea was dropped as it was already too late. After freshening up, we left for a place called Babbarya Paade. This is on a small hill and a river flows nearby. As it was already dark, we couldn't see much. Apparently, Babbarya is a ghost, and people in the coastal areas do worship ghosts I believe (!).

We returned back to her place and uncle and aunt were ready to go to shopping. We all joined them and went to Big Bazaar of Udupi. OMG! It looked like half of Udupi was there at BB! Everyone shouting for some offers, some song in speakers, people talking and standing mid-way. Ooph.. I was completely lost. Finally after an hour or so, we came out of BB and went back home. We had a very delicious dinner and finally went to sleep at around 12 keeping in mind that we need to get up early the next day for our trek.

The next day, we (Jyo, Jum & me) started from home at around 6:30 AM for Kodachadri. We took a bus to Kundapura which is about an hour journey. On our way, we read about the printouts we took on how to reach Kodachadri and so on. From Kundapur, we boarded another bus to Kollur and this was about 30 mins. At Kollur, we just saw Mookambika temple from outside and went to the busstop for catching bus towards Nittur. But by the time we went there, someone told that the bus had already gone and the next one would be after half an hour or so. Hence, we decided to have breakfast at that busstop. Aunty had prepared Idly for us and nicely packed in banana leaves. After having breakfast, we waited for sometime and the bus finally came at 945. We reached Kodachadri Gate at around 10:20. Only a small signboard indicated that this was the route to Kodachadri, and we weren't sure if it was correct. Without hesitation, we just followed the board and started our trek at 10:30.

First part of our trek was quite ok, with lots of ups and downs, like we were just walking for an hour. We came accross a hotel midway, but didn't have anything. From there, the climbing part started. Initial few kilometers were ok, but there was one section where it was too steep and no shade. Burnt quite a lot of calories climbing this part.

Immediately after this worst section, we found a juice centre and refreshed ourselves with lime juice. When asked someone over there as to how much far is the peak, he told min 3 hrs to the peak but there were some Bhattara mane where we could have lunch and take rest and proceed further, and this Bhattara mane was another 45 mins. The next part of trek was good, as it was mostly in forest. We finally reached the area where Bhattara mane was there at 1:30 PM, a good 3 hrs trek to this point, around 7 kms from Kodachadri Gate and at a height of 1200 mts.

We freshened up at their place and had lunch - rice, sambhar, rasam, and curd. It was a nominal Rs. 30 per plate and we had it to the full, as all were exhausted. We thought of climbing further up, atleast till Sarvagna Peetha, where Sri Sankaracharya did meditation, but gave up this idea as the locals told that it would take atleast an hour to go and come back to that place. Also they told that to reach the peak, it would take around 1.5 hrs one way, and from the peak, one could see the Arabian Sea . We very much wanted to go there, but due to time constraints had to pack off.
We started to get down at 2:30 PM in the scroching sun. The return path was much easier as compared to the forward path. We reached Kodachadri Gate at around 4:30 PM taking as little breaks in between, as we had to reach Udupi atleast by 6:30 PM. But, when we reached the Gate, there were already many people waiting for the bus. One of them was waiting from 3:20 PM he said, and no bus passed by from then. Luckily for us, one KSRTC bus came within 10 mins and we got a seat too in the bus. It started at 4:45 PM to Kundapura. On the way back, we munched some spicy Awallakki given by aunty. We reached Kundapura at around 6 PM and immediately got into a private bus to Udupi. We were at home by 7:10 PM.
We took bath and had dinner - Holige, Akki Rotti, rice, rasam and curds. All were too good, and we had to hurry up as it was getting late for our bus. We reached the bus stop at around 8:10 PM in Subramanya's car. Jyo, uncle and her sister had come to drop us. We thanked Jyo, uncle and everyone there for all the things. The bus came at 8:20 PM and left Udupi at 8:30.

The return journey was blisfully awesome, as I slept for most of the journey due to the strain incurred after the trek (I don't generally get sleep while travelling overnight). We reached Bangalore at 6 AM and I wasn't ready to belive that we had reached so soon. I kept claiming that we were still in Mysore , until the conductor told us to get off from the bus. We parted at Majestic and I reached home at around 6:30 AM and again hit my bed.

Overall, another awesome trip indeed..! Next, I'm looking forward to Pune for Joy... :)