Goa to Bangalore

19th September 2009
Day 1 - Goa to Gokarna

On the road to Gokarna

After a short flight to Goa from Mumbai during which I tried to watch for the umpteenth time an  interesting Hindi movie called 99 (Soha Ali Khan, Cyrus Broacha, Kunal Khemu)  unsuccessfully, thanks to the irritating interruptions by a masculine voice belonging to air hostess, we land at Dabolim airport where being a long weekend, it was crawling with out of towners.

In the land of sun and shine, everybody is here to have a good time and the scenes outside the airport are reminiscent of peak rush hour traffic in Bombay. After 20-25 mins of jostling and being jostled we are on our way to the famous Om beach at Gokarna in northern karnataka and a distance of 160 kms from Goa.

Om Beach

Much of the road passes through the beautiful countryside including Karwar, though a lot of the areas near Karwar has been cordoned off by the navy. TIP: If you are planning to hire a car from Goa to Gokarna, please hire a taxi at Gokarna and ask him to pick you up at the airport rather than hiring a cab at Goa as taxis can be quiet outrageously priced.

After a quick pitstop for lunch somewhere on the highway between Goa and Gokarna where we devoured on Goan surmai fish curry, rice and buckets of King beer where we almost changed our mind to stay back in Goa, we were on our way.

Gokarna Town

Om beach is so called because of the Om shape of the beach and is a wonderful beach town and much less crowded and as a result much less commercialised than its Goan counterparts . Apart from 4-5 shacks which will rustle up everything from dal rice to pizzas and pastas, and a couple of places catering to the "gora" crowd, the beach is quite clean and rocky in places. The main town is a few kms away from the beach and is dotted with temples and quite small with restaurants and ancillary tourist services such as guesthouses, car services being the main business.

Despite it being a weekend, we found a place a bit away from the teeming masses quite easily. Slightly rustic but in an almost jungle-like setting we were too kicked about the first day of our trip which will take us across some of the most beautiful temples in the southern state of Karnataka over the next few days.

A picturesque sunset, a long languid dinner with our close friends and listening to the sound of the waves calling out to us was enough to knock us out after what had been a long day on the road. Tomorrow we will begin our temple crusades. 

Goa to Bangalore

Day 4:  Ahoy Aihole. Hi Pattadakallu


22nd September 2009

Locals say” Aihole was a primary school, Badami the high school and Pattadakallu was a college” when it came to temple architecture. The name Aihole has an interesting history and is associated with the fiery sage Parshuraman who having destroyed the entire Kshatriya race comes to the Malaprabha river which flows through Aihole and washes his bloodstained axe which sends the women screaming in fright “Ai hole” or ( O river). This was an earlier capital of the Chalukya kings and is situated 36 kilometers from Badami. About 125 temples can be found in Aihole most of them strewn around the neighboring villages with only a handful concentrated in some places. An entire day can be spent here and the temples here represent a vast canvas of temple structures that can be found across the country.

 The Parliament Building in New Delhi was a rejected temple model and its poor country cousin can be found here in the Durga complex. Taking a guide here and not relying on your local rickshaw wallah for explaining some of the temples is highly recommended. Most of the guides here, unlike in North India, are not pushy, quite well educated and trained by the ASI. For some sumptuous local fare, please visit Anand Bhuvan opposite the main temple complex rather than the joint recommended by your tourist bus guides.  

Pattadakalu is a World Heritage site and belong to the era of Vikramaditya who ruled in the 8^th century is situated about 22 kilometres from Badami. This was the second capital of the Chalukya kings and the main coronation ceremonies were held here. Each of the temples here are beautifully built and even with the local population living inside the temple complex as recently as 50 years ago, the sculptures are breathtaking.

 Of particular note are the Virupaksha temple, which is a living temple and faced by a huge black Nandi and the Mallikarjuna temple which sports carvings narrating tales from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Panchatantra tales. Badami, Aihole and Pattadakalu can be easily covered over 2 days and apart from these places, there are a few temple tanks, some old temples around Badami of some interest. Alcohol is freely available with numerous wine shops dotting the main street though the food is largely vegetarian with few joints offering non-vegetarian fare.