Go ....

We got up not so early, got ready at our own pace, had breakfast (including Mangalore buns) at some small eatery right beside the lodge. This was supposed to be a starter breakfast to sustain us till we reached Udupi, as Ajay had this fixation to eat at Mitra Samaj in Udupi. So off we started to Udupi.


We reached in about an hour & went to Ashwin's place. His house was of course locked from many months as his parents had shifted to Yellapur. His cousin & our old batchmate Madan's house was right behind his. So that was our pit-stop in Udupi. The original plan was to dump the luggage there, go to Mitra Samaj, go to Krishna temple, then go to Manipal, go to Downtown, have lunch & beer there, go to endpoint, come back, stay for a little while then leave. But Madan's mom made it pretty clear that we would all be having lunch in the house, so we had to make minor (which became major) changes in our plans. We had a nice lunch. Then even though madan's mom told us that there would be a huge rush in the temple at lunch time & and that we would be better off going after 2'o clock, we decided to check out if we could finish the temple darshana then itself. Madan also accompanied us. On the way to the temple, it was local boy Ashwin's turn to show around the building's as "my school", my this, my that etc. He even showed us the building where he had his Upanayana ceremony, I mean who cares right? (I was much better as a local boy in Mangalore). We should listen to elder's advice is the lesson we learnt when we reached the temple. So we turned back and headed to Manipal.


We directly went to End-Point passing by the huge awesome buildings which is the college/hostel/library/museum & god-knows-what building of KMC, Manipal. Manipal is truly a sophisicated educational paradise. It doesnt matter if they are actually producing world class doctors or not, the facilities & infrastructure are just mind-blowing & the urban-student culture there would give a complex to any true blue urban-Bangalorean. Just as a passing note, Manipal was the place where I did my 1st & 2nd standard of schooling as my dad used to work in KMC, Manipal back then. Manipal wasnt at all like this back then and all I could remember from those days was my school (Madhava Kripa) which obviously I did show to everyone.


Coming back to End-Point, this is a very famous spot in Manipal which is supposed to literally mean as it sounds. It used to be this long stretch of road on a cliff & then the road would end & you would be left with only cliffs around. There is of course no point like a suicide point, coz the cliffs/hills continue all along, so it isnt as if you would reach a point beyond which you cant take a step. But it is beautiful nonetheless. There was this nice resting spot where we just sat (Ajay slept) & let the calmness soak into us. The walls & benches over there were fully filled with graffiti ranging from very-funny to outright-vulgar. However from being a "adda" of sorts for the "anti-social" crowd, End-Point has now become an official spot for people to gather, I guess. A nice spacious park, a cricket stadium & a football stadium (both superbly maintained with lush green lawns) and a jogging track (in the making) at such a location seemed too good to be true. We then went to this Kaka angadi just at the entrance of End-Point where Ravish Kamath (known as Kama in our circles) came to pay us a courtesy visit. We sat there for a while and headed back to Udupi (visit to Downtown got cancelled because of lack of time).


We went to Mitra Samaj directly & planned to visit the temple later. However the waiter told us that the Goli baje would be ready in another 10-15 minutes, so we decided we could as well finish the darshana first. So off we went to the temple, but I guess Shri Krishna was just too busy for us that day. The queue was still extending beyond the doors of the temple, so we did the next best thing that you can do in Udupi for a darshana, we went to 'kanakana kindi' which is this small window outside the temple, supposed to give the devotees a straight-line view to Lord Krishna. Feeling spiritually contented with our darshana, we headed back to Mithra Samaj, plan was to order something else till the Goli baje was ready. From the time we entered Mitra Samaj till we came out, we just kept on ordering plates of Goli baje/vada one after the other. The vada's were piping hot & crispy and what about the goli baje? Dont ask silly questions, I say. I am sure the wait for Ajay from breakfast till now was completely worth it. In the josh of the moment, our Udupi boy Ashwin took out his purse & declared that this was his treat & we graciously accepted his generosity.

We went back to Madan's place, his Dad was also there, got some advice about the roads being the property of the private buses, so we were asked to respect that fact. We started at around 4'o clock from Udupi, with the intention of staying in Murdeshwar for the night. Midway it was already getting dark, so we started contemplating if we should just halt somewhere & visit Murdeshwar in the morning on the way to Gokarna. However on coming to know from some guy at some lodge that there were quite a few lodges in Murdeshwar we decided to go there & search for some cheap place for the night.


On the way to Murdeshwar we passed by Maravanthe beach. Well the beach as such isnt any special, its just that there is this nice highway right alongside the beach (the only beach in Karnataka to have this I suppose). So its kind of a tourist spot for anyone travelling on that road to stop for a while, sit on the rocks & take photos. We did the same, except that it was 7 PM & pitch dark. But a photo was a must, so Ajay got his bike down (as far as he could) near the rocks. I sat on it & asked all of them to sit close together, then raising the acceleator to make the High-beam of the headlights to beam even more I clicked 2-3 photos. It came out ok. Then we realized that taking the bike up wasnt going to be easy. There was no place to even turn around & the slope was a steep one. So me & Ashwin pulled the bike from the back all the way to the top. Bhatta was at the front and he said he was "push"ing the bike from the front, we just shrugged. We reached Murdeshwar at around 8'o clock and after a lot of scanning we found just 2 places having rooms available. One was at around Rs.1500 & the other around Rs.2500. It was way beyond normal rates, but since it was a Saturday the crowds were very huge. Actually on the way to Murdeshwar in Bhatkal, Bhatta had given a call to one of his friend Roshan who lived in Bhatkal. He had told Bhatta that we could come to his place anytime. So we decided to have dinner at Naveen beach resort & then give him a call. I wasnt very keen on riding all the way back to Bhatkal, so I had this plan that we will go back to that 1500 place and bargain for lesser. The resort had an open-air lawn restaurant. Without bothering too much about the families & other people seated there we placed our orders for beer, Bhatta tried to contact Roshan. We finished beer & placed our orders for food, Bhatta was still trying to contact Roshan. We finished food and asked for the bill, Bhatta was now trying to contact Roshan's friend, Roshan's girlfriend and anyone who could contact Roshan. Little did we know that it was Murphy's law at play- 'Battery of mobile phone always goes bust when someone is urgently trying to contact you'. Somehow Bhatta was able to get through & even though it was almost 10.30 PM Roshan said it was perfectly ok for us to come over. None of the others were keen on bargaining in that 1500 place, so off we started to Bhatkal.


Bhatkal is considered a sensitive place with regard to religion in Karnataka because of the huge Muslim population over there. We came across a check-post and we were pretty sure we would be questioned because of out attire/bikes/luggage/time-of-night etc. We were asked to stop and show all documents. I cant recollect the exact conversation we had with the cop (needless to say it was funny). Anyway everything went on smoothly and we carried on to Roshan's place. It was almost 12'o clock by the time we reached his place. Bhatta had to do a bit of sneaking around the house to wake up Roshan from his room window. The fact that his parents allowed us to gate-crash into their place so late in the night was more than enough for us. But what was actually in store for us was totally unexpected.

It was the only house that I saw on that road (maybe the darkness made me miss the others). We had already got booze on the way so we just put our bags inside & decided to settle outside the house. His dad was awake & we were quite scared that he would start cursing us at any moment but to our surprise he actually helped us with the chairs & later after we had all sat without a table, he got one from inside & told us it would be impossible to have drinks without a table!!! I guess we all knew then itself that this would be a long night. No one to get disturbed, no one to disturb us, just we with booze, loads of smoke & the darkness of the night engulfing us from all sides. I can say it was the most relaxing booze I had on this trip (maybe because I was the only one with a curvy cane chair which allowed me to stretch fully). At around 2'o clock we were all pretty high & thats when Roshan decided to get one of his Cuban cigar's !! He even taught us the way to smoke them and how not to smoke it as you would a cigarette (from whatever he had learnt in Canada). Well we chewed more & smoked less, but who cares, we all now have a 'Nike symbol' for "To smoke a Cuban Cigar". Ashwin was the first to give in to sleep, after a little while I gave up trying to doze off on the chair itself & went inside and from the instant I hit the bed it was a total blackout.

27-12-08: Mangalore-Udupi-Manipal-Bhatkal-Murdeshwar-Bhatkal