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I woke up to the sound of glass shattering on the floor, it doesnt matter how Bhatta managed to find his long hands all the way to the glass & make it fall, all that mattered was that they didnt ask us to pay for it. We had a whole day and just one city to roam around, ok one n a half (considering Suratkal as a half city). Ajay wanted to (I stress wanted to) have breakfast at Janatha Deluxe. So once we were all ready, we first went there for breakfast. But on reaching there, the guard told us that the restaurant was closed, closed as in permanently. I dont know if they were renovating or they had shut it altogether. Anyways I then remembered this episode of 'Highway on my plate' where those 2 guys had visited Mangalore and been to Hotel Ayodhya. I took them there, and we started ordering just about everything we found Manglorish. Its one of those places where no matter how much you eat, the bill doesnt make you feel so.

Ajay felt that there was some problem with his front brakes, so I took them to the only Bajaj showroom I knew. The mechanic-guy over there took a small ride & said that there wasnt any major problem. We then started towards Surathkal through the highway route (which the buses & lorries take to avoid entering the city). ASAI knew that road was wonderful, but now there was major construction going on throughout that entire strech, which meant lots of red muddy dusty roads. Some super-duper flyover was being constructed as part of some super-duper highway from Mangalore to Udupi. That was the first sign I had of the concrete jungle (in terms of roads) that Mangalore was becoming. We reached Suratkal in less than half an hour at around 1 PM.

I didnt know where the Suratkal beach was exactly located and was surprised when I saw that the turn toward the beach was right oppposite to NIT Suratkal. I even heard from Ajay that NIT Suratkal had its own private beach a few kilometres away. Those lucky nerds! We rode upto Suratkal beach, and were sad to see that the lighthouse timings for visitors started from the evening. The beach was deserted and we got down from the cliff and walked along for a while. There was actually no one apart from us, so we decided to get into the water. So we did, played around a little, tried some games with one tennis ball, realized it was boring then finally came out. This was when Ajay had his first casualty, he lost his Jockey while washing the mud off in the sea.
There was this old fishing boat, which looked ideal for a morose black & white film photo. I did a lot of focusing & adjustment & made sure that I could fit in somewhere in the photo. Ajay was anyway looking at the sea, with his butt faced towards the camera,I asked Bhatta who was at the far end to look right, Ashwin who would be behind me to look left & I would be the frontmost & would look to the right. I clicked on the self timer & ran to my position, turned left (not right) & "click" the camera went.
We stopped for lunch at some place on the way back to Mangalore. The waiter was pretty pissed that we had come so late for lunch, after giving us the menu & waiting for us to place orders he told us that only meals & pulav were available. We ate whatever was available and because of the condescending attitude of the waiter didnt leave him any tip (Suttu will be proud of us).
We paid a visit to Panambur beach on the way back, just sat there for some time, had tea and thats it. I was surprised to see a 'baywatch' kinda guard-post right in the center of the beach. We did see a couple behind an umbrella which was more funny & corny rather than exciting or voyeuristic.

We went back to our lodge, freshened up & left to Kudroli temple. This is a really huge temple & I used to always enjoy walking around the vast open spaces surrounding this temple when my parents used to get me here. It had become even posher than what it was, full golden colored structures & pillars were erected everywhere, a new building had come up on the right side, the pond had been completely decorated with Shiva & Parvathi idols. This was the visit which made me realize that the actual name of this temple was Shri Gokarnatha Kshethra temple.
We then left to go to Pabba's. It was the same as before, less space huge crowds. I asked the guy at the counter if we could give our names somewhere like in a waiting list, but there was none (guess the professionalism of Bangalore has got too much into me). So people had to basically walk around & check who were the most likely to finish soon & stand somewhere nearby without obviously letting those people know their real intention. Since people were actually doing it, we walked out to Saibeen complex, bought a pair of Duracell batteries for Ajay's digital camera which had somehow managed to switch ON using a pair of new Everyday batteries to give the message "Battery low, please change batteries". After wasting some more time we came out of the complex, I insisted that I had to (like had to had to) go to Pabba's if I came to Mangalore, so we decided to try our luck again & luckily we readily got a table. I had Tiramisu and I can safely say that it beat Chocolate Dad to no.1 slot, hands down.

Ajay then took us to this place for dinner, some rooftop bar & restaurant (Surabhi if I am not mistaken) right beside the only mall in Mangalore. A very elegant looking decent place. I had no clue about such places in Mangalore, coz I was still young & innocent back then & secondly these kind of places were never in my circle of places. We finished the dinner with Neer dosa, so guess we didnt leave anything undone in Mangalore.

26/12/08 : Mangalore-Suratkal-Mangalore