Gokarna

We caught a private bus from Coll to Kumta at around ten p.m. on Friday night. The bus ride was amazing, so smooth we didn't feel a thing, even on the last seat. The bus goes form Mangalore to someplace up north, and gives preference to people boarding at Udupi, who can reserve seats. So basically we were unreserved and were shunted into the last seats, still we all slept soundly.

The bus reached a half hour early, at around 1:30 in the morning. We went to the bus stop at Kumta in hope of finding an auto to the beach, but they were charging too much and we thought we'd walk it up. About ten minutes later we managed to stop an auto who charged a bit lesser, and we all landed on the beach, in two trips. Four of us started playing football while waiting for the rest. Great fun :)

Soon they arrived and we were off.... we walked along the beach and we finally a rock outcrop jutted out from the beach. We tried to go over it, but the other side was a cliff, so we had to climb towards the land, and finally took a long walk around the 'hill'. This took about an hour, where we used the Big Dipper or Great Bear or somehting and decided which way was west at a fork road, cos that would take us back to the beach. so about two hours of that led us just three km from where we started, but around the rock. phew...

So we trudge on, taking a break once. We lay on our backs watching the stars, it was brilliant, the whole milky way stretched out. We could see Orion clearly, I had just learnt what the Dipper looked like, and we looked for scorpio, unsuccessfully.

We kept walking after that, well into the morning. Harry, Sundi and NJ jogged ahead, Bacat, RJug, and Kant were behind us taking pictures along the way. We is Anil and I. We walked, it was a bit bugging not knowing where anyone else was. By dawn we finish the first Stage, which meant we had reached this river mouth. We rested, then played football again, with a volleyball mind you. As usual nice. Kanta NJ and I lost 2-1 to Harry and Sundi and Anil.

After that we try to hire a boat to cross the river mouth and reach Paradise Island. Somehow the rock ahead looms large with its challenge, and we decide to climb it and find a boat on the other side. We expected to be in the boat in forty five min. Huge and terrible mistake. We climbed up in about five minutes, jumped a wall and came to this field of elephant grass, running to the other side of the hill, a bit like the Gladiator seen. We reach the other side and guess what? There's no beach at the bottom, so no point climbing down. There's a wall on this side too.

We keep following it till we get fed up cos we seem to be just circling on top of the hill, and hence decide to just go down the bushy hillside. This is why it was a mistake to climb up. We go through thorns, under thorns and over thorns for about twenty minutes until we finally reach tree-land, meaning no shrubs. My first experience in tree climbing began, although it wasn't a big tree or anything. We keep heading down till we come to a crescent of a beach. It was awesome. We jump into the waves and play around for a while, then pack from there. The ferry to the pther bank of the river was two beaches away, so we wade through the sea next to a cliff face, which was waist deep, then we climb up and over the next similar cliff, come down again. After soe negotiation we get a boatride straight to Half Moon beach. Its about 10:45 right now. We had to skip paradise island, becasue the trek to Om beach would be long and it wasn't that great anyway.

Half moon beach was empty, so we begin the trek to Om beach. We go a bit then Anil wants to go down and drink some coke, however we walk all the way down and the'shck' is really just that, two locals working mud. They give us some water from a plastic pot. We climb back up and cross the first few foreigners, they were coming from Om beach. As usual Om Beach is separated from Half-Moon by a rocky cliff, so we climb upto the cliff face and walk along the cliff, with a path cut out. This view, is amazing. We see beautiful images of Half Moon Beach, the sea and then Om beach as we descend to it. It's 12 noon right now.

Om beach was awesome. It's called that beacause it has two crescent-chaped beaches looking like an 'Om' symbol from the southern side. The beach was moderately populated by foreigners, which in the end is why anyone would go to the beach, to catch sight of the 'phirang' babes. We were not disapointed. We crash in a restaurant-shack, avoiding the overly priced Namaste restaurant in the northern crescent. We ordered lunch then sat around doing nothing. Sundi and RJug went swimming/ogling. Lunch was served after around an hour and a half. I get hold of Bacat's 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus, from Harry who dozed off. I must read that one. I had a chicken burger that was more like a chicken sandwich with a burger patis. There were french fries and salad. This place served all types of quisine, even Israeli and Penne.

Anyway, to the crux of Om Beach. The babes. In the shack arbit bikini-clad babes are coming in and going out, all pretty and all well-endowed. So uptil lunch we had an entertaining time. After lunch we go play, yes you guessed right, football for ten min after which the insane heat forces us into the water where the waves were simply great - nice and high. Nearby is a group of four isrealis, two HOT chicks amongst them. We play around, occasionally staring at them. They stare back sometimes, I guess we're both exotic in some way to each other. Unfortunately no sexual undertones there. So then this THIRD Israeli walks into the sea, and she is simply stunning. Great figure what not. This goes on a bit, we play, till about three when its time to leave. I'm not sure how to explain it, but that trip at Om beach will always be memorable. Perfect - sun, sea, sand, waves, food and pretty women all around.

So we catch a boat to Gokarna, after much bargaining. In the middle the boatsman claims some 'kerosene checking' will happen, so he must drop us off at Kudli, not Gokarna. We flatly refuse and finally we're on Gokarna sand. Very populated beach, unlike Om. we pass by, go straight to the bus stop, and begin the bus journey home, via a change of buses at Kumta, where we also grab a bite and a nice cool think chikoo shake for ten bucks. They fleece us back home. Anyway... we reach home at 11 pm, after an uncomfortable ride with almost no sleep. I thought I'd stay up till two to study. I did stay up, but I wrote all this.

It had been a great day... I learnt a lot.