Back to Gokarna - I

I had company

I was at Thane station by 315 PM to catch the Matsyagandha express to Gokarna. It left at 345 PM and reached Gokarna by 310 AM. I hoped that it would be late coz 310 AM was too early and I didn't want to spend 2-3 hours on the railway station.

The onset of monsoon had worked wonders on the Konkan landscape. The green all around was refreshing to the eye. The roads, no longer unexplored, looked enticing! It is a bliss to travel in the rains, especially on the coastal route. It was still a little humid, in another week it would be perfect! My time on the train set the tone for the entire journey. I figured that I was gonna be interacting with quite a few people. The girl sitting next to me turned out to be from my company (Saw the company name on her bag). And there was another set of well-travelled guys who were on their way to Mangalore for their vacation. I played the guitar for a while and that triggered an interesting conversation. One of them filled me with details about his journey to the east. I told them about my experience from different journeys. We all ended up learning a little more about travelling.

View from the cliff

I reached Gokarna at 630 am, 3 hours late. The Konkan railway trains are always running late during the monsoons. An auto from the station to the bus stand cost me 150 bucks. The weather was nice, and it was drizzling. I got a room at a hotel near the bus stand at Rs. 400/day. It was equipped with the bare minimum necessities. Due to the long weekend, all the hotels were full. I rested for a while, before freshening up and leaving for the beach. On the way, I had my breakfast at the market place. As it is a religious spot, all restaurants are 'Pure veg'. Although, the beach shacks do serve non-vegetarian food. From the bus stand to Kudle beach, its a 2 km walk. I reached there at around 11 AM, and there was no beach! The sea was violent and overflowing onto the shore. All the garbage fed by the tourists was returned, with interest. It would've been stupid to go on to the beach at this point. I got onto a nearby cliff on a hill, that overlooked the sea and sat there for around an hour. I started going back to the hotel when a policeman came up to me and asked if I was carrying 'narcotics' of any kind. I told him I wasn't and he was easily convinced. I wonder if I look like a drug addict.

sunset

After lunch and a quick nap, I was back on the cliff by 430 PM with my guitar. I was accompanied till the entrance of the beach by another guy who needed directions to Kudle. We had a nice little conversation about Gokarna in general before I left for the cliff and he went to the beach. I expected the beach to be crowded. Hence, I went the other way. I was here on my own, exactly how I wanted it to be. I spotted a lot of birds from up there, a few peacocks, brahminy kites, a White bellied eagle and a few others. I sat there on a rock, playing the guitar. The sea waves lashing against the rocks seemed pretty rhythmic. By 6 PM, people had started to arrive there. Even then, it wasn't really crowded. The guy who had walked with me a while back was there too, with his friends. We spoke a little before they settled down near me, smoking. And then out of nowhere, a couple of policemen appeared, and went straight for these guys' bags. They found weed and took the gang away for questioning. One of the policemen came for me but the other guy stopped him saying I was clean (in kannada). He was the same policeman I had met that afternoon. He waved to me and I waved back with a smile. 

That's me

The gang returned after half an hour, and the guy told me that they paid 800 bucks to get away. I had tried to warn them about my morning encounter but it was too late. We were laughing about it later. They sat around me for sometime, without the cigarettes, listening to the guitar. They left soon after.  The crowd was thinning out now. I was later joined by 3 girls from Bangalore, who sat there listening to the guitar. I played 4 songs, and it was starting to get dark. So I bade them goodbye, and made my way back to the market. Dinner was uneventful, although the market had a lot of shops selling some interesting stuff. I finished watching 'Bangalore Days' on my phone that night at the hotel, I had started watching it in the train the previous day. This was the 5th time I was watching it. I love the movie coz it reminds me of Kerala and Bangalore at the same time. 

Part II : Back to Gokarna - II