Kodachadri Trek - The last few hours

The last evening of our trip was spent at Malpe Beach. Malpe Beach is about 5 km from Udupi. One can witness some of the most beautiful sunsets here and especially days where the clouds are present near the shore and are a bit scattered, the light patterns make for some of the most stunning landscapes. Malpe is also a quaint little fishing town.

A new dockyard is coming up where they have started to make mechanized trawlers for the local fishing industry. Close to the mainland of Malpe are four rocky islands

* Daria-Bahadurgad is the northernmost island
* Kari-Illada-Kallu is the southernmost island
* Daria-Gadara-Kalluthe is situated in between the two islands mentioned above
* The fourth one is St. Mary's Islands, also called thonse paar.

Regular ferries are available though your return is entirely dependent on the boatmen. They usually give it a couple of hours to drain the engine off the water and also let the engine cool down. God knows why they do that but you've been warned.

The usual fun in the beach started off and all the troubles faced the previous night were all forgotten. When you're in the midst of doing what something you enjoy doing, you never know how time canters off. Spend sometime in the company of some brilliant friends, u could practically declare that time is faster that light.

Here are some pics

Sunset at Malpe:

The bunch of amazing people:

Next day, Valentine's Day of 2011, it was time to get back to our routines. The place of farewell ironically was Mangalore Central Station, the place where all this started, our rendezvous point. Bidding goodbyes is always the hardest thing as far as I am concerned. This was particularly overwhelming. After 4 days of togetherness, fun and laughs it was particularly hard. But life as usual goes on. We bid our goodbyes, promises of doing such things again were the order of the moment. I hope this group, plus the people who we missed this time come together for another fun filled trip.

I might call myself a LoneWolf, as I do travel alone most of the times, but trips with my gang are any day an icing on the cake and I do pray we do get to do such trips again.


The Sri - Krsna Temple at Udupi

Western Ghats Sojourn - Part 3

All those places covered and I returned back a weary traveller. Not to be satisfied with such a long trip, it was time to explore Udupi itself. Udupi has quite a few places to have a look at. Religious, if you look at it that way but pretty stupendous for the neutral eye which enjoys magnificence. Each and every temple is like that in its own way, but spare me of the cliche, the Udupi Krishna temple takes the cake for that.

Every stone carving in that temple cries out for your attention and gets it too. The sacred idol, of a young Krishna is out of this world in all its rich adornment. Again I run out of adjectives to describe this from a neutral point of view and I'll leave it to you people to visit it and describe it for yourselves. Having a picture of the entrance to the temple at night for your eyes to feast on, that is assuming you think this picture is good enough.

There are a number of other temples worth mentioning. There is the Mahakali temple at Ambalapady. The goddess is so imposing that you get the jitters on the first look. But a few moments in the temple and you feel as serene as you might have ever felt. Such is the spiritual influence here. Getting itself added to my list of must see temples is the Anantheshwara Temple, located just opposite to the Krishna Temple. The Shiva Linga is truly a sight to behold.

The best part of Udupi is the Malpe Beach. While the calm and serene beaches of the Arabian Sea are world famous, few have the silent and calming influence of Malpe. Its not so very famous, famous with the locals though. A very thin crowd. So if a silent and calm visit to the beach is what you desire for, Malpe is the place for you. The icing on the cake would be to watch the sun going down the Arabian Sea in the evening. You wont get more beautiful sunsets anywhere else, other than Goa of course. Posting one of my clicks here. Don't mind if the colors are not that very highlighted, these were taken from my mobile cam.

All good and bad things, especially the good things come to an end sooner than later. After 10 wonderful days at home, I had to head back to the city of Chennai where my daily bread and butter(read work :P) beckoned. Left with a heavy heart, bidding goodbye to everyone, promising myself, the next time I come back, I'd explore these picturesque Ghats all the more and fall in love with it over and over again. What wonderful places the Western Ghats have!! God surely was in his best of his moods creating this!!

P.S: Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing about them all.

P.P.S: Next trip coming up in July, so assure yourselves of more details and pics.

P.P.P.S: Brickbats and Bouquets always welcome :)