Memories galore on the beach in India

A mélange of emotions, potpourri of feelings, intellectual discussions to the usual female characterized jibber jabber, unrestrained gastronomic delights, spiked with the sense of liberation all jam-packed in one weekend.
An impromptu decision to break free from the week-long monotonous life and to explore something new had us booking tickets to Gokarna.

Gokarna, a small town houses many beaches like the Om beach, Kudla beach, Paradise beach and many temples. The best time to visit it is from November to March, it is when all the vendors are geared up for the visitors and the waters get placid becoming more inviting. It looks like Goa during the older times.

With not much time on hand, we packed hastily, slept late but had to wake up early to catch a train from Mangalore. We include me and my roomies. We boarded a 6 am train, had two berths to ourselves and spent the four hours of our journey by narrating happenings, experiences and sharing tips, all these besides pulling each other’s legs as hard as we could.
Gokarna station was unusually quiet (because of the off-season. Yes, our spontaneity landed us there during July) with only a very few people around who had come just like us.

From there the best way to get to the city is to take the auto rickshaws and the minibuses stationed outside. Haggle! Yes, we did and settled for a rick who agreed to take us to Om beach, at a distance of 19kms for 250 bucks. These ricks are customized, the curtains and doors protect you from the rains and the bumpy roads (You can be sure u won’t fall off the auto).

If you are adventurously inclined, you can also opt to trek from Murudeshwara (a famous temple devoted to ‘Lord Shiva’) to Gokarna.
Gokarna has visitors all over the year, few come just to enjoy the serenity besides doing their jobs on their laptops while the others come during the season time to witness the Nature’s beauty in its full glory.

Our accommodation was on the Om beach (named due to the formation of rocks in the divine ‘Om’ shape), provided by the ‘Namaste café’ where we ate most of the time. Refreshed, we started out to the city to visit the town. The temples here are very famous and the roads are laced by numerous shops selling trinkets.
After shopping and going around for a while we returned to our room, left our bags and headed out to the sea. Soon, we were a part of a pretty animated picture painted by nature with a strikingly beautiful sunset in the backdrop of the gushing waves. The transition from the drizzle to the downpour had us gamboling around and embracing the beauty.

As it got duskier, we returned back to our room to wash the sand off us and to get ready for dinner. Dressed in pretty frocks and accessories we did make many heads turn when we entered the café for dinner. We occupied the only vacant table. The ambience was aesthetic immersed in yellow lights from electric lanterns hanging from the roof against the darkness of the open. The light music, soft voices of people around besides the sound of the sea upped its charismatic appeal.
The café on the beach, also frequented by foreigners, knows how to please all. It has a nice delectable menu to choose from. With a light dinner we retired to bed. Next morning, after gorging on an elaborate English breakfast, we headed out to the beach. The tides were high in the morning, so we maintained ourselves to the shallow area and had our ‘photo session’ as we call it.

Kudla beach can be reached from here by a walk of twenty minutes. The route starts with a staircase leading to an open ground and climbing down to the beach. During season time, it is very beautiful with many interesting stalls on the beach and facility for water sports. You can visit Paradise beach too in the season time.
The best part of the trip was that it dint seem like two-days, it felt longer with so many phases packed in so well, from leg-pulling, laughing silly, contemplating about our problems, sharing our goals, discussing current affairs, to deciding upon the next-place for getaways. The entire trip was liberating, energy-filled, carefree and a guilt-free indulgence. The holistic appeal of this place is so surrealistic that it is thought-invoking and you are sure to connect to yourself, a dose of this which I feel is needed adequately to keep us inspired and well going.

All in all, times well spent like this are sure to be an everlasting etch in our brains, something that we’ll cherish years later like a winning trophy.

About the author:
Hi, I am Naimesha Thakur, from India. I love travelling, exploring new places and writing about them. I am working as a software engineer.

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