A weekend getaway from Bangalore
This is a short description of a budget trip that I took to Gokarna over the weekend. Staying home on weekends is something very boring for me, so I decided to pack my bags, book the bus and push off!!
Hope this is informative :)
I booked a bus from Bangalore through the KSRTC to Gokarna. A perfect semi sleeper bus for INR800.
Reached Gokarna bus stand in the morning and took an auto to the hostel which I had booked, Hostel La Vie (INR 400) per night per person in a 6 sharing air-conditioned dorm room
The hostel, Hostel La Vie has an amazing view of the Arabian Sea from the cliff. The Gokarna main beach can be seen from the cafeteria of the hostel. The next picture shows it well.
After having a light breakfast, I went to find myself a ride. And got a nice Honda Navi from Wicked Ride which costed me around INR600 per day, which meant INR1200 for my two days in Gokarna.
After filling the Navi's fuel tank (INR280) , I headed out to the Kudle Beach which is hardly 5 minutes from the main town.
One has to trek down from the parking lot for about 3-5 minutes to reach the beach. The best part about this tiny trek is that, when you're halfway there, you hear the waves crashing and your speed increases and your enthusiasm shoots high with excitement!
At the Kudle beach, I grabbed a beer and a plate of nice chicken kebabs. And then went for a dip in the water. I am not sorry that I don't have a photo of myself in the water, because I am more concerned that my uber hot beach photos are not on the internet. (You guys do understand sarcasm right?? Because I have a beer belly and I don't really want to show it) .
After the Kudle beach, I went to the Om beach and clicked a few photos and videos which can be found on my Instagram profile.
The Om beach is pretty much bigger than the Kudle Beach. At the entrance of the Om Beach is a nice cafe called the Namaste Cafe which serves really nice food. I only had a cup of coffee though.
I headed back to Kudle beach again in the late afternoon to take some videos and photos of the sunset and reached there right on time. Well, reaching there was again a short little journey which turned out to be unnecessarily long due to the flat tire of my Navi. I got my scooter fixed by making just one call to the owner though. But I lost quite a lot of time waiting for the mechanic to arrive and fix the tire since I really wanted to go see the sunset. (I am crazy about Sunsets).
I finally reached Kudle beach and you can see the photo of the sunset in the following photo.
After the sunset, I went to a shack on the beach and had my dinner and tasted some amazingly tasty sea food.
I came back to the hostel after the nice meal and then got talking to the fellow travelers who were staying at the hostel. We were talking and mixing up pretty well, when one of them came up with the idea of trekking at the night by the beach. He said that we might find Planktons on the beach
For the night trek, we planned to Go to the Belekan Beach and then trek to the Paradise beach which is about 15-20 minutes of walking. The hike is not very steep and the terrain is pretty moderate for a regular person to complete. We saw many people camping in the Paradise beach at night and a pyre of fire too. It was overall a nice experience but we didn't see the planktons :P
The next morning I woke up pretty late and after a cup of tea at the hostel's cafeteria and went to have a brunch at this lovely cafe called The White Elephant just near the Kudle beach entrance.
After the brunch, I went to a nice viewpoint onlooking the Gokarna main beach and a nice cliff. I cannot exactly name the viewpoint but it is right next to the White Elephant Restaurant.
I then spent my afternoon in a shack in Om Beach, called the Ganesh Cafe. Had a couple of beers and a nice plate of Chilli Chicken which was actually pretty cheap. I was in a very relaxed mood as my bus to Bangalore was at 7.10 pm in the evening. I returned my Honda Navi at the shop where I rented it from and the guy was very polite and he dropped me back at the bus stand, which was actually just a 300m walk from the shop
I had a wonderful weekend in Gokarna. Unlike Goa, it is not a party place. It is very much calm and one can spend his or her day in peace at the beach or the cottages on the beach. If you ask me, i'd say yes! I'll go to Gokarna again :)