My Udupi Visit

After a lot of talk in last three years, finally I got the chance to visit Udupi. When Daya informed about his wedding date, we immediately booked the tickets. A week before the journey, I explored the available information about Udupi on internet and I was stunned to know that this is so interesting place to go around. Finally on last Thursday, we started for Udupi. We left the office at six and took the Volvo for Kempegowra bus stop. Before that we had dinner at Adiga's. We had bookings in Airawat bus for Udupi and this is very luxury to start with. I was besides DNC whereas Vignesh, Deepak and Seeni were seating in back rows. Journey to Udupi was very comfortable. I had good sleep in bus. Before I got awake, we crossed Mangalore and were near to Surathkal. It was cool inside bus and I was under blanket. Outside was little cloudy and even after six, sun was nowhere. I saw the dawn just before reaching Udupi.

Day1

Just after coming out of bus, I could feel the humidity in air. We asked for our hotel “Durga International” and reached there in ten minutes by walk. The town is very clean and also calm. In last three years, I found that most of the second tier cities of south India are very clean and so this town too. There is no sense of hurry in people around there and life is slow. OK so we checked in our hotel. Shridhara reached there on last evening only. We had a little sleep and got ready in next two hours. 

We headed towards Krishna temple. It’s very old and identity of this town. You have to put off your shirts and banian before entering the main temple and we did so. The main statue is inside a closed room and you can see that through a window only. You can see an elephant there, who will bless you on giving some money. There is Madhwa sarowar and other temple in the same premises. Outside of main temple, some gold chariots are there, and we had few photographs with those. A nearby shop was selling masks for Yaksagana. After this we looked around for Tiffin. We went to ‘Mitra Samaj’ and had Dosa & Idli. It was not good not bad. From there we started for Katapadi for Daya’s marriage.

It was the first time; I attended a marriage of someone from south India. Traditions are very different here and it’s not very long too. We went to mandap (stage), had photo with the new couple and greeted them with best wishes. Food there was cooked in coconut oil but as I was hungry so I liked it. 

Now it was the time to go for the beach. We took a local bus, reached to Malpe port in half an hour. From there its one to two kilometer walks to reach the place where you will get the ship. Seeni was too lazy to reach there on time and we missed the ship for St Mary’s island. Then we had to wait for one hour to catch the last ship at four thirty. Ride on ship was so good and if you are at the deck it’s awesome. The ups and downs of ship in sea will make your stomach crazy. It was half an hour ride to reach near Island. We got moved to another boat to reach and get down at the island. It was a rocky beach and waves are very strong here. We entered in water though it was slippery. We went to rock inside water and had photo there. But when I saw crabs there, I just ran away from rocks. When we came back to port, it was late and so we decided to go back to hotel.

Day2

This was the best day of our trip. We booked a Tavera from nearby Karnataka tours agency and this cab was so good. Deepak was proud to say that this car is by Chevrolet, so comfortable. We started for Murudeshwara, though it was not in the first plan. Road to Murudeshwara is along the sea and you will cross a number of rivers which make the scenery around the road so beautiful. You can stop anywhere and have few good shots if you are interested in photography. We stopped in Kundapura and had our breakfast there. After Kundapura, we crossed the Maravantee which is sandwiched between Arabian Sea and the Satuparnika River. At about eleven and half, after three hour journey from Udupi, we reached Murudeshwara. The first thing we noticed is the gigantic long Gopura. This is 249ft high and one of the biggest gopura. We paid twenty rupees there and by lift we reached at the top. Top is not very open, so you will not get a feel of height but its excellent position to take some good shots. Our photographer DNC was good enough to take a number of photos from there. You can see a great view of Arbian sea shore from here and of course the highest Shiva statue. The statue is 123ft high and one of the modern marvel.

After visiting the temple, we went to beach. Beach there is so nice and it’s not very deep near shore. We were able to go very far in sea. Thrilling YamahaWater bikes were waiting for us. We had a lot of fun in driving this in deep sea. After spending a long and good time in the beach, we left for lunch.

Now we started for Kollur to visit the Mookambika temple. I got tired and slept in cab. In Mookambika, again you have to put off your shirt to enter into temple. After a pray there, we had tea nearby. We started for Udupi now and reached to Malpe beach at nine. Walking at beach in so late night is very good and feels some freshness in you. It was so peaceful there. We had camel ride also. With all these tiredness, we had a good dinner and slept in our room with a great sense of joy and excitement for next day.

Day3
Starting of this day was not so good as the travel agency sent a Sumo in place of Tavera. Today we started for Singeri fall. It went through ghats and journey at some points are breath-taking. Traveling on hilly section comes with natural scenery and so it is too. We reached Singeri around twelve and there we realized that fall is actually in Sirimane not in Singeri. This fall is so good.

Not very big but flow is huge. We had a lot of fun in water. We went up on hill to have better feeling of falls and we enjoyed a lot. All our tiredness just went off after coming out of it. From there we started for Surathkal. Our driver was not very aware of the routes, so we couldn’t make up a visit to Kaup beach and DNC’s Alma mater. We reached Mangalore at five, had late lunch there and moved to Panambur beach then. It was full of crowd. 

I and Vignesh went for a walk along sea & Deepak and DNC went to opposite directions to have some good photos of beautiful girls around. Seeni got excited to reach here. This is one of the best beach in Mangalore and atmosphere here is like some picnic spot or some fair. It was seven and late for us to catch the train. We reached the Mangalore central just five minutes before train started. We had to start for Bangalore now for our usual life again. I missed few more beautiful beaches but I will visit again with some more leisure.