A Trip through the western Ghats - Day 1

Time frame: April 4th 2008 night to 6th night
It all started one Tuesday night. Phani and I were walking our way back from office (that’s a 10 km walk dudes!!!). We suddenly decided that we had to go somewhere that weekend. No planning, no groups. Just we both. It sounded fun. We started thinking about the possible destinations. One thing stuck us, Agumbe. We had reached home by then and after looking through the Karnataka map, we finalized on a list of places.
Sivamogga (also called Shimoga), Kollur, Murudeswara, Agumbe, Udipi and Sringeri.
It was unanimously decided that the trip would be executed with severe cost cutting in mind :)
Thursday morning we booked our bus ticket to Sivamogga (2+3 seater) for Friday night. There was no chalked out route as such. The rest of the journey was not planned. We would enquire the routes, possibilities etc on the fly.
The Friday arrived. We pushed off the majestic, had dinner there itself and boarded our bus. It started at 10.30 sharp. We were chatting on several things and finally fell asleep.
Bangalore - Sivamogga is 350 km. All was smooth till 2 AM around and then suddenly everyone in the bus was jumping around their seats! The bus was still doing over 60 and the road was pretty much bad. People started complaining but the driver did not slow down. He had is own schedule to keep up I guess! Anyways, Phani and I enjoyed jumping around. By 4:30 AM we reached Sivamogga.
We got down and tried to figure out a bus to Udipi. There were none standing. We went to the enquiry counter. It was closed. Lookup with the charts painted on the wall told that there was no bus for us till around 8 AM. We enquired a few people out there and could not get much information. We waited for sometime and met a Telugu bus conductor. We started chatting with him and also helped push the bus. Not many were there to help, so it was a deemed a pretty tough job but then, it was Phani at the back so the bus moved easily.
We tried to take a room for an hour or so and freshen up but could not strike up a decent bargain. “An hour or day, price is 200” was the answer and the cost-cutting mode did not allow us to exhibit such extravaganza. We just walked out of the bus station to figure out some other hotel when we saw a bus stand right out there for private buses. There was one bus scheduled to leave to Kollur in the next few mins with the Udipi bus being much later. So we decided to move on to Kollur.
The bus started sharp at 6 AM. Then I had the first chance to have a glimpse at this town called Shimoga, though I prefer the traditional name of Sivamogga (and I do refer to it that way always). It was a small town, pretty much calm (or is it bcoz its 6 AM?) and looked well organized. After sometime we were out of town and instantly fell asleep. Somewhere, at around 8, we stopped for breakfast. We had a heavy dinner the previous night and I had not even used the rest room that morning, So, I decided to skip breakfast. Phani had a plate idly and I, a coffee. The bus started, moved a few inches and reported a flat tyre. Ok now. We had to switch to the spare wheel. So I decided to use the restaurant’s restroom for a loo. I went in, relieved myself and came back to see the bus just starting to move and Phani waving animatedly and getting ready to halt the bus. I could not comprehend it! I was away for may be like 3 mins max and a bus tyre had been changed! Shoot! I take 10 mins to change a car tyre! I believe flat tyres are a common scenario on those roads giving extensive experience to the drivers! Anyways, we proceeded towards Kollur. Guess buses are not really frequent in those routes. There was heavy rush through out the route from daily laborers to teachers moving from village to village. We were lucky to have boarded at the start and have a seat.
All this while, we were moving through the Western Ghats. I had done the madikeri-sakleshpura route previously but this was different. There was no too much coffee plantation anywhere. It was proper forest type thing. Road was decent too and I realized I was gonna do that route on my tiger (you ppl read Pulsar 180) soon. Anyways around 10 AM we reached a decently big village, something like a Taluk HQ and the bus almost emptied. Few were seated and we were enjoying the route and nice landscapes and valleys along the roadside.
Suddenly I noticed something else.
In the long seat besides the driver (its parallel to the bus wall, giving a sideways view of the person seated) there was a girl! There are some faces you can never forget! She was one of them. Fair, sharp features, beautiful smile, dressed in white chudidar and talking cheerfully to others seated across. It’s been really long that I have not been able to take eyes off a girl. And there was one, right in front of me. And suddenly I realized that she had noticed me staring shamelessly and was noticeably embarrassed. I recovered and turned my face away. But I admit that I was stealing a few glances at her once in a while!
In the midst of all this, it was 11 and we arrived at Kollur. I was hoping she would get down but alas! It’s not a movie and so she was gone! And I was back to my senses :)
Anyways, we took a small room there for 100 bucks, bought soap and had a nice bath and flush. The temple at Kollur was just a stone’s throw away.
The goddess at Kollur was Mookaambika. Its the typical temple you find across Western Ghats, with wooden ceiling, low roof and lit inside by only oil lights.
The temple would open at 12, we were informed and so had to stand in the queue. I noticed that there were many Malayalam people and that all the writings on the walls had three languages Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam written. Later, I came know that Kollur is a very important destination for Keralites. The temple opened at 12. We had a good darshan and then proceeded towards the meals section.
One thing about the temples in Dakshin Karnataka is that they all serve free meals. Free and really tasty too! Added to that, there was this cost cutting thingy! So, we went ahead and had a nice lunch there.
Out at 1:30 PM and pushed off to room. Packed what ever was outside including the wet soap (rmr cost cutting??) and started towards the bus stand. We starting enquiring the route to it and were told “it’s just around the corner” and yes it was! Half a km from our hotel, we found it.
Enquiries back at the hotel told us that Murudeswara was not enroute Udipi as we had initially thought, but it would be a triangle and considering the distances and time, we had to skip it :( further enquiries had also told us that there would not be any buses after sunset from Agumbe to either Udipi or Sringeri, so we had to drop the idea of Agumbe by sunset too! So our next destination was Udipi.
After a wait of about half an hour, we started off to Udipi. The road was as usual really awesome and we finally exited the Western Ghats and entered the coast. Soon after we reached the coast our bus had big time problems and we were switched to another bus passing by. We moved on and suddenly we started crossing a bridge. It looked like a big river initially but then it was the back waters of the Arabian Sea. The scene was awesome. It would be a real nice idea to pedal or row a boat leisurely in that. Then we came across one more bridge like that. Finally Kundapura. It was a nice town, with the typical hustle and bustle. As we neared the bus station, I was surprised to see a big poster of Jalsa, a Telugu movie! Man! Here I was at the other end of the state nowhere even remotely near Andhra and I was seeing a big poster of the lastest Telugu hit! Wow!
After a brief halt, we proceeded to Udipi and reached the main bus station at around 4:30 PM.
Udipi! Across south, where ever you go, you are sure to find an “Udipi restaurant”. They are known for their quality and taste of the South Indian style of food. And here we are at the town of Udipi itself! So does every restaurant one finds here ensure such reliability?? :)
We started looking for some hotel to stay for the night and initially cam across a big one, but then the cost cutting made us move on to the next hotel down the line. We got a deal of 150 bucks for a night and settled in.
Just as we were arriving to Udipi, we started chalking out our next part of schedule. I thought of covering the Udipi temple that evening so that we could push off to Agumbe early next morning. But there was something else. Phani was very excited. I instantly recalled a dialogue from the Rajni movie Chandramukhi: “She was in a psychic vibration” and here Phani was in a psychic vibration. Udipi had a beach! He was excited and wanted to spend the evening there. Being the guy who grew up along side the coast, the sea is not new to me. But then I realized sea is really amazing for someone who lives in the interior regions! So we agreed to spend time at the beach that evening.
And thus, we started at 5 PM from our room, had some snacks and headed for the local bus stand right besides our hotel. I opted to take an auto direct to the Malpe beach at Udipi, but Phani was particular about cost-cutting and hence we boarded a bus after some enquiries.
Now the Malpe beach, 6 KM from city center, is the Arabian Sea, calm and nice. There was a water scooter for ride but we not really dressed for getting wet and neither did we have some decent waterproof bag to shield our mobiles and purses. So, we skipped it and took a loooong walk at the edge of the water. All the while chatting away. We took a few photographs of each other on our mobiles, ate some junk food and relaxed at the beach. It was near 8 and the beach was almost empty. We decided to head back and suddenly my routine migrane started. Understanding that buses were rare to ply at this time, we had to ignore our cost cutting rules and take an auto back to hotel. Ofcourse, had that migrane not started, we could have had a leisurely walk back!
I skipped my dinner, bought a bottle of amrutanjan and anti-migrane tablets enroute, headed directly for the hotel and slept immediately. I told Phani to lock me in the room, have a leisurely dinner and come back. But Phani, being the nice guy he is, got some small time stuff packed right across the hotel and came back to stay by my side. Ofcourse, I was already half-asleep by the time he came in and so he too started his good night’s sleep after dinner.
And thus ended our Day 1.