Gokarna!

Scene 1: Coffee Corner discussion..

Its been so long since we all went for an outing...lets plan for 1. The usual coffee corner gang rack their brains..places are suggested..debated..dates are planned and re-planned..people keep joining and dropping out..and finally the plan is in place...Venue: Gokarna, Date: 8-9 May 2010, People: Elite ++..*++ refers to family and friends where applicable..

Scene 2: Packed bags, traffic and heat!

10 of us packed in a Sumo set out for Gandhinagar to board the bus...(Deepu and PJP came directly to the bus stop). Friday evening traffic is as bad as ever, plus the tiring temperature rise...and to top it all the Sumo kinda gives up somewhere close to Residency road...Sita and I start imagining ourselves scampering for autos amid honking traffic while the stronger of the lot push the Sumo to a start. We reached the bus stop before time...yes we had full 8 mins to spare ;)

Our first halt on the way at Kamats for dinner at around 11... All 12 of us settle around a round table in the A/c part..and the orders start to roll..the list is big and it had to be coz most of us had eaten only the jilebi that Vishal got for us since evening. There comes a small figure shouting..Sreekumar Sreekumar...it takes me a good 10 secs to register that this was the name of our travels..he wants us to finish soon when we had no order on the table. Few orders come up and few of us are left with hope alone. There comes the bus guy again..and the smartest of the lot tells him "Bhaiyya saare juice cancel kar do"...he leaves as if to comprehend that as "aap chalo, humare seats cancel kar do"...


Scene 3: sand and water!
Fighting the centrifugal force (ours was a sleeper and we would roll from one side to the other at ever turn throughout the ghats)...we finally reach Gokarna! Namaste Cafe mein humara swagat ..is not really worth mentioning..I would save that for another review blog of mine. We settle in our huts..hogg lots of breakfast and head straight to the beach.

The beach is beautiful. Its comparitively clean and has a few visitors. The beach gets its name OM from its shape. Looks like a giant "3".
We play a lot in water...play with sand, made 2 jalparis.. I am super scared to go inside the water... gather courage and venture, twice...and both times get my system cleaned with salt water. The second being especially scary with 3 back to back waves.

And with this was the time when we start donating stuff to the sea...starting from 'shades' to hair bands to cell phones.

We come back clean and the sand off ourselves...and ya the bathrooms were are dirty after this (guys remember this joke?).This is followed by lunch, a walk on the beach and a trip to Gokarna town.

I had to stay back coz of my watering eyes :'(

Scene 4: Tides on one side, us, food and drinks, a cow and a dog!

...we decide to have some liquid diet on the beach.

Now I can’t disclose all jokes about philosophy jhaad ne wale, animal lovers, gou baba or goose bums and turning around cows ok...kuch suna???

Scene 4: Sunrise at OM beach!

I do not want to miss the rising sun and wake Jeev to join me. Deepu wants to jog..the 3 of us set for the beach...the sea is not calm as usual..perhaps a side effect of the new moon last night. We have a nice walk along the beach went over to the other side and saw the sun rise...it was marvellous to see the small orange ball rise up from the mountains !

We meet Vishal and Shikha on our way back, and now decide to walk westwards towards Kudle beach...for a darpok like me...this walk was no less than an adventure...imagine walking on a tiny path along the mountain side, with a roaring sea and rocky shore on the other side...with slippers on... Thanks for the breathtaking view...I was speechless...

We already have a couple of business ideas and a financer for this place…

Scene 5: Kudle beach!
We take autos to the beach this time. We meet a "Tourist friendly" auto driver. He plucs a fruit for us, which tastes like dates, plucks figs and also shows us a fish bone..the size of my palm... we also see a peacock out in the wild

This beach is nice and refreshing, but for the sun!...the beach boys(PJP, Harish, Kiran)remain in the water most of the time, Jeev, Vishal, Mani and Rahul..are also in the water for lesser time. Rest of us prefer to munch at the Gokarna restaurant. Most of our energy has drained, but the sea breeze and the Beach boys' antics are refreshing.

Scene 6: Packed bags, no traffic, no pollution, only heat!

Back in the bus, lots of heat, some mango showers and some soulful singing my Sita and Mani....ya ya and rest of us as well in chorus :)


Scene 7: Back to life as usual...with memories of this trip to cherish forever.

Guys did I miss any other interesting part…please feel free to add in your comments.