Serenity in Chaos(3/3)
- 4 minsDay 2
With Gokarna, Murdeshwara and Mirjan Fort on the agenda for the day, we headed out early after breakfast by 8.30 AM. We’d planned for a long day and had a lot of things to see on the list, and we didn’t want to miss any of them.
We’d packed extra clothes, so that we could play in the beach at Gokarna. The road wasn’t that smooth and we had quite a bumpy ride. I was sitting in the back today, and we were all singing and having loads of fun. We stopped at a small temple en route because it was at the edge and was a wonderful viewpoint. Greenery extended as far as our vision could see, and the view was breathtaking. There were a few monkeys around, and a few of us began freaking out, so we hurried back into the vehicle and got going. After this point the road was fairly decent and we reached Gokarna around 12 PM. We visited the temple first - it wasn’t really as impressive as I’d imagined it to be. It was a sweltering day and everyone was cursing the weather, and regretting not having brought sunglasses and hats.
We walked to the nearby beach, only to find the beach disgustingly dirty and decided not to spend much time there. We headed back to the car to go to Om Beach, another beach which was supposedly cleaner than the one we saw. After about a kilometer of walk from our parking area, we saw the beach - much cleaner than we expected, and indeed in the shape of the Hindi letter ‘Om’. We found a nice spot to throw our bags and Samarth was the first one to jump into the water! Aniketh, Karthik and Deepthi shied away, while the rest of us eventually ended getting into the water and splashing the salty water over each other. Karthik and Aniketh were busy experimenting with the camera and sadly - Karthik lost his glasses to the raft of waves that were quick enough to wash away in a moment. It was hardly a few seconds and we could see him frantically trying to find them, but they were long gone.
After about an hour (and then two more where we went to shower and change, and Karthik getting annoyed because none of us were picking calls) we were back in the car, finding a place to eat. Our driver took us to a local restaurant, and we ordered quickly because all of us were extremely hungry.
After a sumptuous meal, we left for Mirjan Fort, and Karthik was still being grumpy. We stopped to buy cashews in between - and having had heavy lunch, most of us were sleepy and were dozing off. On reaching Mirjan Fort, we were all wide awake again. The place was beautiful - stark green moss, a ruined fort and to top it off, the place had an eerie feeling. It felt like I could sit there all day and just not worry about anything. It gave a sense of peace and was such a pleasure, something we can never find in the cities of Mysore and Bangalore.
After a dozen pictures and a few “ooh’s” and “aah’s”, we were on our way to Murdeshwara. Shyamili’s mother had informed us that we wouldn’t be let to go near the beach because it was too violent - and we werent. We reached and it suddenly started drizzling. We took out our umbrellas and ran for shelter, but much to our dismay, it stopped soon. The temple was brilliant. The place was brimming with tranquility, and I was really beginning to like the place.
You are allowed to go the 18th floor in the Gopura via an elevator. The windows give you an amazing view of the goliath Shiva statue, seated in a poise, while the endless sea behind him thundering with a vexation that only a God like him can ignore.
We took a few pictures and visited the museum, which gave us quite a histrionic version of the story of Ravana and Atma-Linga. After a 20 minute walk-through, we were at the entrance again, and we were walking back to our car, slightly exhausted now. But we weren’t done yet. As soon as the music began, we were singing and making up our own versions of the songs. We had dinner at a fancy restaurant at Kumta, and were back home by 11. All of us were tired and we headed straight to bed, although me and Samarth were up for a while and decided to watch a movie on Karthik’s laptop. Though we ended up chatting and not listening to a word of it, it was a fun night and we dozed off around 1 am, eager to see other places on the last day.