mangalore

may 9 to 14, 2022

writing this en route to Bangalore from Mangalore

lessons from this trip:

1. vistadome rail journey is a once in a lifetime experience

2. Indian travelers aren’t sensitive to keeping luggage in the luggage deck.

3. There are two vistadome coaches, ev1 and ev2.

4. while ev1 is an old coach, ev2 is exactly how it looks in most youtube videos. both coaches have separate luggage compartments. This poses a security risk. there’s nobody to either guard them or neither is the luggage compartment closed...

5. This makes Indian passengers wary of leaving their luggage unattended. which then leads them to keeping the luggages with themselves. That means, turning your chairs left or right, then becomes a task in itself. It's like trying to walk in a crowded street without touching another human. impossible.

6. Another aspect is the food. There's a small pantry that sells junk food, water and beverages. now for kids, this is happiness, for adults and seniors, this isn’t easy. piece of caution: avoid tea and coffee at this pantry like a plague.

7. The train journey from Yeshwanthpur to Mangalore is almost 9 hours. it is best we carry our own food and not depend.

8. i am told there are close to 60 tunnels this train passes through its journey from Yeshwanthpur to karwar, of which, we got to experience 23 or 24 of them up to mangalore.

9. the gorgeous western ghats come up on the right side of our journey towards karwar and on the left while returning. fasten your seatbelt’s. after sakleshpur all the way to subramanya road, your sore eyes are in for a treat!

10. one favourite place is the end of the vistadome coach, ev2, has a glass door at the back which opens up to the view at the back. now this view gets blocked while returning from mangalore to yeshwanthpur. the engine gets attached while on return journey.

11. a co-passenger mentioned the best time to take this train trip is end-june to mid-july time. that’s when the monsoon hits this region and one gets to experience western ghats in its truest beauty.

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the trip:

1. in hindsight, it may have been better to keep udupi as a base instead of mangalore.

2. hotel samanvay is my preference. why? it has mtr restaurant attached. for a famished tummy, their special thaali will do more than justice. must try.

3. second reason why i recommend udupi is the krishna temple. one must experience both the morning as well as the evening darshan. we were lucky to experience the evening darshan. the entire temple is lit up with diyaas. there was also a rathothsavam. krishna isn’t a god. he is a magician. his temples are nothing short of a hogwarts experience. watching his through the tiny window (google up the story of udupi) is another joy.

4. my only disappointment was hotel diana was closed. it was a tuesday. apparently a weekly holiday, no gudbud.

5. udupi interestingly has plenty of ice cream parlours. wonder why though.

6. i am putting out a recommended route map separately for you to plan your trip better.

7. noticed how clean the temples and the towns were. didn’t find a single garbage pick up truck. or garbage dump cans.

8. mangalore city had excellently constructed high rises.

9. throughout our trip, we were blessed with good roads and a pleasant weather. some stretches, we experienced rains lashing on the highways.

10. the best stretches of roads were:

1. mangalore to sringeri via kudremukh national park

2. sringeri to udupi via agumbe

3. udupi to kollur

4. kumta to udupi (one highway that’s filled with sights of rivers...and then there’s the maravanthe beach that allows us to experience river on one side of the road and the beach on the other side. self driven cars must definitely stop by and soak in the sights)

the temples:

1. our journey included 3 significant temples. when i planned this trip, it was like a calling. one morning i woke up and said, let’s go and visit sringeri madam. that then led me to adding udupi krishna math and then the powerful kollur mookambika.

2. let’s begin with sringeri, it was adi sankara’s first spiritual establishment. saradhambal here is pretty. legend has it that vidyashankar (shiva in the form of a lingam) guided adi sankara to share his knowledge with the world here. hence the adjacent temple that has both vidhya shankara and vidhya ganapathi. sources say this temple is at least over 1300+ years. i couldn’t visit the sringeri math because both the swamigals were out of the math on a spiritual trip across the country.

3. udupi next. i wasn’t aware that temples can be built to bring in the cuteness factor. the last time i visited this temple, i must have been not more than 7 or 8 years. only a faint memory remained in me. at 45 now, i witnessed a magical experience. a temple tank filled with lamps, young children running around in their dhotis. mortals like us waiting in queue to get a glimpse of him. but for a terrible leg pain, i would have stayed back all evening until he was put to sleep. there were fireworks, huge rathas, a giant sentry walking into town checking if it was safe for krishna and his comrades to step out and have some fun in their respective raththas. it felt like we were part of a theatre play.

4. over to kollur mookambika. this was our final stop. from udupi, on the karwarwar highway, our car took a detour into a smaller road. the next 30th kms to the temple was most picturesque. the government and whoever was responsible did a fab job in putting out a neat road. trees on either side, rains gently welcoming us. it was as if she, mookambika had planned this well in advance. upon reaching, we straight went into the queue. it took us almost an hour before we got to see her. she was ferocious and yet gentle. she was angry, yet protective. she was shakthi, the purest form of energy. a temple consecrated by sri adi sankara. a lot of people from kerala could be seen. this visit set a new train of thought in me, visiting temples in kerala. mookambika, as i would like to call, reminded me of that strict school principal who was hard on the outside and soft within. thaai mookambika is omnipresent.

5. some side notes. men must be in their veshti and angavastram. this is safest in all temples. though sometimes they allow with just veshti with a shirt. however places like kollur are super strict. one cannot enter the sanctum sanctorum with their shirts. as for women, traditional wear is good. remember to tie up your hair. prasadam queues are always long. udupi has these tuck shops around the temple and one can get some cool merchandise and souvenirs. after covid, somehow i did not muster the courage to experience the annadhaanam food in any of these places. that was a huge disappointment personally. temple food in this part of the country is extremely tasty.

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original itinerary

mangalore - sringeri - udupi - kollur - kumta - gokarna - kumta - mangalore

recommended itinerary

udupi - horanadu - sringeri - kollur - honnavar - jog falls - udupi - kasargod

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more notes:

1. unless you love travelling by train, the best way will be take the train one way and fly back from mangalore while returning.

2. avoid murdeshwara and gokarna. these are touristy places that are eternally crowded. there’s filth and dirt in these places and what you see on the internet is nowhere closer to reality. there are better places to visit and lot more calmer and cleaner beaches.

3. 3 to 4 days of back to back travel followed by 3 days of unwinding. that will be the best form of travel.

4. also if you can self drive, that will be an added advantage. one can take their own time and reach their destinations.