Life's a beach: Gokarna and Goa

Another big day of travel : from Kumily, a 6hr bus ride to Kochi, then an overnight train to Mangalore and then a 5 hr bus ride (with 3 bus transfers) to Gokarna and a small rickshaw ride and we were in heaven: Kudle Beach.  If you're looking for beautiful beach, without the hustle bustle of Goa, you've found it in Gokarna (province: Karnataka, where they speak Kannada, go figure!).  Gokarna itself is a very spiritual town. Hordes of Hindu pilgrims gather here throughout the year to pay their respects to the ancient temples found in the town (non-hindus are not allowed in the temples). :-(

Kudle beach is a beautiful place

And then, walk 20 minutes and you get to Kudle beach, another 2 km to Om beach, another 4 to Paradise beach.  There isn't much to do in Kudle Beach but lie around and sit on the beach, which is exactly what we did for 5 days.  Wake up, meditate, lie around, eat, lie around, swim, lie around, eat, lie around, swim, lie around, eat, meditate, sit out and watch sunset.  That was our days' schedule.  Good days indeed.

Kudle beach

Love you

Our place, cozy and right on the beach. The only downfall: a rat came for visits every night, running around the rafters. He wasn't annoying really, except that he tried chewing through my backpack. 

Our neighbors' place and huts all over the place

Hammocks and sunsets go together like curry and chapathi

Our hang out place.  We had a lovely neighbor, and he had a lovely hammock.

Looking out into the abyss

Yep, cows are everywhere. Even on the beaches. And sometimes, they can be a nuisance.

You'll always find a cricket game on the beach

I think "The Gorillaz'" animation was inspired by these fellas.

Colored powder for sale for the Holi festival in Gokarna

Fruit huts are a place for refuge.  Chris taking his daily hit of coconut water

We made it.  We travelled from Gatwick to Goa.  We enjoyed both places (okay, Gatwick airport wasn't THAT great, but still) and everything in between.  Goa is not India.  It's a beach paradise, filled with foreign (and a few Indian) bathers. Indian culture did not seem so genuine here...much of it was "set up" to impress and delight tourists. Okay, so maybe I'm generalizing a little bit.  There is Goan cuisine and culture, it's just not so obvious.  Goa (which is a province, not a city) can be split into three parts: north, central and south.  The north is party central where the trance scene (and thus the drug scene) is huge.  Head to the center and things get decidedly more cultural.  Here lies the capital (Panaji) as well as many mansions, forts, temples and cathedrals.  Then there's the lazy and calm south, which is where we hung out. Isolated beaches are more common and the up-and-bnmping beaches cater to the calmer, quieter crowd, looking to lounge in their hammocks at night rather than party the night away.

Every country has it's paradise beaches (Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam) and Goa is where you'll find India's.  Yet, despite this bashing, it is a BEAUTIFUL place.  It's luxurious, clean and easy to travel.  For us, it was a nice return to our comfort zone.

We stayed on Patnem Beach.

Just chillin'

Nope, nobody.

We rented a motorcycle and toured around Goa province for a day.  From top to bottom, Goa is only about 30 kms, so you can see a lot of the province scootering for a day.

The hog

A hindu temple we drove by along the way

Sunset on Patnem beach

Enjoying fenni, a cashew spirit

After spending just over a week on the beaches, we had enough.  We're not really beach bums (Chris, being a redhead doesn't tan, he burns.  And then burns again, and again, and again....).  Things were starting to get a bit too hot, so we decided it would be a good thing to head way up north, close to the Himalayans (Nepal and Tibet) where a totally different kind of India was waiting...