Go Kar Na

Best of all worlds, as I called Gokarna! Which also happened to be one of my most satisfying trips

Taking an overnight bus through Bangalore, on a Friday night, sneaking out of office and somehow reaching Yeshwantpur-a killed N. I’ve never seen the woman so worried, all thanks to her extensive pre tour date and my battery. It was R’s birthday weekend and I had just somehow saved my job so a trip was necessary and sick leave was out of question. The bus arrived, we found washrooms, no hot boys around and thus we started, Go Go GoKara :)

With a very satisfying DCB dinner and extensive non sensical discussions, the night grew deeper, R and Pdi shifted to their coupe and the goodnight ended in the small little place. The man of the group N, fixed it all with an autowala and there we began! Again.

Now there is this thing about Gokarna. If you are a group of enthusiastic bouys please stay in shacks and live your life, if you are group of girls who have very little time and money but want comfort Gokarna could be a tricky place to find staying places. Thanks to Pdi’s teammate and his guidance, we found this super awesome beachside hotel. The name of the beach is Middle Beach and they would call it as ‘Medley’. The crowd is all Russian, these people wake up early and go off to bed by 9-9:30. Our host was extremely happy to see Indian faces because all that you can see here, the Middle Beach, are Russians. Yes boys, yes, it is exactly what you thought. Somehow managing to stop R from sleeping and farting and finishing off with our breakfast in this cute little shack, owned by the hotel, we started off with the auto-wala N had potao-fied to Kudle.

Kudle is a clean and nice beach, there are mostly foreigners (and you will ALWAYS be overdressed) and you are going to love it if you go during an off season. The water is clean and everything around is green. The hippies would smoke weed but you would never find the supplier. Caution: carry whatever you want! The catamaran ride from Kudle is nice and if you’re as lucky as us, you would even find Dolphins in the dark blue water! If you have time and good company, try doing the catamaran ride at the sunset. And if you are as unlucky as us, you won’t get water sports.

There is a trail of Paradise beach, Half moon beach and Om beach which you can of course trek. Carry food, shoes, water and plan your time properly. Otherwise catamaran ride to all these is equally fantastic. One of the most amazing moments of this trip was the jump into the water, half a meter to Paradise beach (an otherwise deserted beach now because of some rape scene as our boatman mentioned).  I have hardly ever felt so alive, all by myself, with so many unknown equally enthusiastic people! We ended our trail at Om Beach.

Now, this Om Beach is called so because it looks like ‘Om’ from high up, which you would get to see because to reach the road from Om is a stairway trek which will make you tired, especially on a sunny day after so much chahal pahal.

We trekked up to the auto stand and had this big fat fight with the auto-walas. Very pissed and thinking of ourselves as god-knows-what, we started walking down the road. Thereafter we realized that there is just one road and Om to Middle beach will take the entire day if we try walking. Going back was also not an option after the kind of fight that we had, no other auto which was coming towards the beach agreed to take us because they were too scared of the auto leader we fought with. The sun was right above our head and I had already started feeling dizzy, the cold water bottle from Namaste and four of us were LOST! R and I were sent to find help, towards Om. I knew it for a fact that I would not bend down, thankfully, an autowala was going home for lunch and he, somehow, agreed to drop us. I still do not know why he agreed and exactly what had happened but yeah, thank goodness! So one small tip for everyone who is visiting this place, avoid heated arguments with the locals. They have string network and they are very very united. No matter who is right, YOU are wrong and you cannot survive without their help, cause it’s a deserted place anyway.

Lunch and raater jonno mach bhaja order, and the initiative was entirely our hotel wala-s later, we jumped into our private beach. Now, I’ve seen a LOT of beach and bathed in LOT but this beach was entirely different. We lied on our front at the shore for I don’t know for how long and I was completely at peace. You can easily swim a little in the water if you go a little inside, however, beshi pakamo merona if you do not know swimming. One thing about Middle Beach is, you will ALWAYS find these Russians doing yoga here and there. But yes, there is hardly any crowd and you can spend hours bathing all by yourself, in the calm waters with occasional waves. We were there till sunset and I have never experienced something more surreal. The tan that you’ll get is another tangent but then, how does it matter.

The evening was for the overhyped Namaste Café, at Om. I was not too keen on visiting Om after what had happened in the day but it was Rs birthday treat so, we started off. Passing village, local market, temple, road, Kudle, the auto-wala would take an empty hilly road with dense trees here and there. This is the same deserted road that we had taken in the morning before we resigned. At night, it looked dangerous. There was not a single person or light. Just one auto-wala and four of us. I had watched Angry Indian Goddesses the night before and the morning fight actually scared me. Goosebumps you’ve felt? I actually had Goosebumps in the last 30minutes of the auto ride when he took us zip zap zoom through the hilly roads, no street light, no human being! Getting down at Om, before this downwards trek to actually reach the beach was this autostand again. The leader we earlier had a fight with was dancing with a bottle of beer with few others over some south Indian song. Without even looking at them we started taking the steps downwards. Now this trek too, had NO light and we kept checking if someone is following us. With Ns super hot dress, I was all the more worried. Finally, the descent ended to Namaste Café which again had glitz and lights and breeze.

Namaste Café is an overhyped place. Thank God we were too broke to stay there. The food was good. N spotted some random group of guys staring at us and we were irritated only to find it was Soham from college trying to be sure if it’s me. We of course requested him to walk us till the auto stand while going during the up trek and he of course agreed and of course disappeared at the time of need, like most men do! No complains, just that we should not have asked him for any favor in the first place. The food was good, a girl was singing and the breeze by the sea was perfect. Our auto wala was sweet enough to wait till we completed our food because he said he just knew we would not be able to make it back. When he reached back up, and I saw him, besideethese drunk Om autowalas with dirty looks, I could hug him in relief. Back to Middle finally!

It was close to 11 and the hotel people had slept off. They said booze is allowed by the beach, they said we could play whatever song we want in the shack. We played songs and danced inside the empty shack. When we got all tired, the owner gave us a guitar and he himself played the Banjo and something else (drums? Check for yourself). He talked of life and love and sea :)

He left soon after and I went aloof with the guitar, N joined later and we had similar love disappointments and tears to shed, which of course, we would not and could not in the daylight for we were scared to disappoint each other. R and Pdi did some heart to heart in some other beach kona. When we all realized that we would not be able to reach up after sometime and it’s too late, room it was.

N of course swore away to glory at A-dada and Pdi did not mind as always. I HAD to demean myself over the phone and so I did. God knows when the night ended and we missed the planned sunrise snan. Checked out after breakfast, visited the temples and local shops, bought happy clothes, bargained, met hippies and Pdi left soon enough. Oh we also pushed our last auto from the dust and dirt after it was down and broke the hind glass. We were left in the shack for the entire afternoon with sea and other travelers who came with their stories till it was time for us to leave at well, 5pm exact!

The return journey was tiring for we had hardly slept in the last 72 hours. N fainted the moment we stepped at Bangalore. However, I was very very pleased with the trip. For the leisure, and the fun, for the sea and the sun. I do not know if it is a place to go with family but with friends, a MUST, especially if you can do without posh hotels and expensive food! You shall find laal maati and temples and hills and sea and high and waves and breeze and pilgrims and foreigners and love and peace, PEACE! :)