Udupi and Murudeshwara
|
|
|
|
Along the small coat of Karnataka are several small pilgrimage places such as Murudeshwar, Udupi and Gokarna. Each of these town has a different character and has some unique characteristics. Two of the three towns – Murudeshwar and Gokarna have been mentioned in the Ramayana while Udupi is famous for it’s ancient Krishna temple. Most people associate Udupi with food but there are very few good places to eat in Udupi itself, which is surprising considering that you get Udupi restaurants dime-a-dozen in most South Indian cities. Udupi is also much smaller than I had imagined it to be. The city has grown about 2 km radius around the temple which is located in the centre. The day we reached there, preparations were on for the chariot-car festivals and decorated car-chariots dominated the entrances to the temple complex. The Malpe beach is one of the few white-sand beaches in India but we had to skip it as we headed towards Murudeshwara.
|
|
|
|
|
One of the few things that I remember from my childhood when we first got a television home (in time for the ’87 World Cup) was a Kathakali performance. The other things I remember (other than cricket) were the Megaserials – Ramayan and Mahabharat. Ever since I saw that Kathakali performance as a child on TV, I always wondered how the elaborate makeup was done.
Kathakali is the classical dance form of Kerala which originated in the first half of 17th Century. Kathakali is derived from the Malayalam words for Story (“Katha”) and Performance (“Kali”). Kathakali stories are drawn from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Bhagvatha Purana. Kathakali is generally performed in temples during festivals. The performance starts around 9pm in the night and continues all through the night till early morning.
|
|
|
|
While at Thekkady, I booked tickets to see a Kathakali performance. I reached 2 1/2 hours earlier than the scheduled performance to see the makeup being done. All the colours used in the Kathakali makeup are made of various kinds of rocks found in the region. Oil and rice flours are used a binders to hold the natural colours together. The rice flour (along with a bit of lime) is also used as glue to hold together the “chutti” – a series of white ridges (made of matte paper) on the cheeks on both sides of the face. The “Chutti” are a distinctive mark of Kathakali along with the elaborate head-dress. The different colours of the makeup depict different attributes of the characters. Green depicts righteousness / godliness, red depicts regality and black depicts evil.
The first part of the make-up is done by another artist who paints the artists face. In the second stage, the artist does the fine makeup around the eyes, forehead and the neck. After the facial makeup is done – the artist has to put crumpled starched garments with lots of frills around the waist tightly. This holds the lower part of the costume. The final stage is when the artist dons the costume and the headgear. Another trivia is that there is often a scarf like accompaniment to the costume. It has mirrors at the end of the scarf which hangs around the neck. The mirrors are used stealthily during the performance by the artist to check if he is makeup is alright and not running due to the sweat.
|
|
|
|
The story that was performed and shown in the pictures is as follows:
Narakasuravadham or The Murder of Narakasura
Nakrathundi, slave (maid servant) of the powerful demon King Narakasura, leaves for the heaven to kidnap the heavenly beauties, as ordered by Narakasura. On reaching heaven, Nakrathundi finds handsome Jayantha, son of Lord Indra. Nakrathundi, filled with lust on the sign of Jayantha disguises herself as Lalitha (a beautiful woman) and approaches with beautiful dance movements.
Lalitha (Nakrathundi) tells that she is rejoiced at his sight and by the grace of god, she will be getting a handsome husband like Jayantha. Jayantha in turn, asks Lalitha to reveal her identity and why she has approached him. Lalitha introduces herse;lf as the heavenly beauty and invites Jayantha for a sexual relationship. Jayantha humbly replies that he will not marry anyone without his father’s (Lord Indra’s) permission. Lalitha tells that she is unable to leave Jayantha and tries to embrace him with her lustful desires.
Jayantha becomes furious and orders Lalitha to leave the place immediately. Lalitha informs him that she came to kidnap him and shows her original form of Nakrathundi and tries to catch hold of Jayantha. At last, Jayantha becomes angry and cuts Nakrathundi’s ears, nose and breasts. Nakrathundi, roaring with acute pain, returns to Narakasura and Jayantha leaves the place to meet his father to inform him of the incident.
South Kerala – Kochi to Athirampally
Recently I went to Kerala – a trip I had planned at the beginning of this year but could not do as I broke my arm during a trek to Thadiyandamol . I travelled to Kochi, Thekkady, Alleppey, Athirampally falls, Calicut and the Wayanad region during this 12-day trip. I travelled further along the coast to the towns of Udupi, Honnavar, Idagunji and Murudeshwar in Karnataka.
Some random trivia / observations from Kerala:
- The buses are open air with canvas drapes – the poor man’s idea of air cooled buses.
- Keralites love films. Every 500m you will find a big hoarding proclaiming the presence of a mohanlal fan club.
- Southern Kerala is thickly populated – so much so it is difficult sometimes to ascertain whether you have left the city.
- Everywhere you will see signs of influence of expats from the gulf – from majestic houses to the shops selling the latest goods (and flaunting arabic scripts). This is even more true in northern Kerala as compared to Southern Kerala.
- Because of the backwaters, using boats is pretty much a standard form of public transport – especially in the towns on the shores of the Vembanad lake.
- Everywhere around Kerala, you can see the traces of it’s trading past (and present) – from well developed ports to several large trading outpost handed down generations.
Kochi
I reached Kochi early morning by overnight bus from Bangalore and my parents reached Kochi by an evening flight from Mumbai. We were lucky to get accommodation in a home-stay that was by the waterfront near Bolgatty palace. The best part was however that the property had a licensed Chinese fishing net. It was a great experience to see the Chinese fishing nets in action. There is a hanging stretched net attached to a long poles. The net itself is attached to an intricate cantilever system with a variety of weights (attached with ropes of varying sizes). At the center of the net is a generally a light bulb which is meant to attract shrimps, crabs and other fish. The net is lowered and then hauled back up again after 15-20 minutes. The catch is collected from the larger net using a smaller handheld net and the net is lowered back. There is also a small hit attached to the Chinese net platform which is used for waiting when the net is lowered. Kochi is sea-food lovers paradise and there is a wide variety of fresh water fish available. The other attractions in Kochi are the Marine drive (an evening cruise there is recommended), the Jewish Synagogue and the St Francis church (the oldest European Church in India).
 |
 |
Thekkady
From Kochi we proceeded to Thekkady. The ferry on a Periyar wildlife sanctuary was closed as an overloaded ferry had capsized killing 45 people. All the hotels were deserted due to this when we reached there. We visited a spice garden nearby where we were able to see and listen about how various spices are cultivated and harvested. The downside to the spice boom has been that the natural vegetation in the area is being cut to make way for tea gardens (in Wayanad especially) or spice gardens. We also saw Kalaripattayu and Kathakali performance on consecutive evenings. I will cover that in another blog post though.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Alleppey
From the high hills and forests of Thekkady, we came back to Alleppey on the shores of the Vembanad Lake to stay on a houseboat. We boarded the houseboat at the same place where the annual Nehru boat race is held. Later on the cruise, I was able to see long snake boat used in the race. The houseboat stay was the best part of the trip – just listening to music and just hanging around the deck looking at the endless water and leaning coconut trees. The food was excellent as well with rice and fish being staple diet in Kerala. My idea of perfect idyllic holiday 
 |
 |
Athirampally Waterfalls
The Athirampally waterfalls are located in the middle of pristine forest about 80 kms from Kochi. They are often called the Niagara falls of India. They are wide and have a fall of about 80 feet. The view from the foot of the falls is majestic. There was a lot of water gushing from the falls as we had visited just after the rains.
|
I shall cover the Northern part of the trip in the next blog post.
Aquasports in Karwar
It has been a string of long weekends (I could get used to this ). On a whim my friends and I decided to go to Karwar on the Northern part of the Karnataka coast. It was organized by the Bangalore Mountaineering Club. We left on Friday night via Tumkur to Jog Falls. The road to Jog Falls was not good and we could not get much sleep on the overnight journey. Finally on Saturday morning we reached the Jog Falls. I was disappointed to see that there was not much water in the river (due to less rain in the region and a dam upstream) and the waterfall was almost dry. They now have stairs which go to the bottom of the waterfall (about 1600 odd steps). We did walk down to the base of the waterfall, but it was hot and humid all the way down with the sun beating down on us all the time.
|
|
We then left for Karwar and checked into a hotel near the beach. In the evening we went to the beach but it started to rain. But after the sunset, the rain subsided and we did get some good photos. On the way back we had a whole array of delicious seafood (oysters, mussels, prawns and crab amongst others) at Amruth Restaurant. The food was fantastic and very cheap as compared to Bangalore or other coastal cities.
|
|
The next day we tried out various kinds of aquasports such as canoeing, rafting, coracling and kayaking. I saw some islands from the shore and started kayaking towards them. The water was fairly calm and I was enjoying the kayaking and negotiating the waves fairly easily (they get higher as you go more into the sea) but the people from whom we had rented the boats were not confident that I could come back as people do not venture so far into the sea usually. So they sent the boat to look for me and I had to return on the launch. I almost managed to reach the island (just 200m away from the island’s coast). The island itself was about 7 kms off the beach shore. Later when I turned back, I realized that I had ventured so far into the sea as I could not see the coast but could see a few fishing boats. It was about mid-afternoon and we just spent rest of our afternoon floating in the sea with our lifejackets on. It was time well spent.
|
|
|
|
Later after going to the hotel in the evening, we went to the far side of the beach as the sea had become rough and it was tougher to do the banana boat ride in the sea. While awaiting for the our turn for the banana ride, I got to take some photos of fishermen returning with their daily catch. We found that there were some exotic fish they had caught such as the the Kopra (the large fish with the mouth wide open) and the sting rays.
|
|
|
|
I tried to take pictures of the Banana ride while sitting on bow of the launch pulling the inflated banana boat but it was extremely difficult as the waves were hitting the fast launch and causing it to jump in the air. Also there was a danger of the camera getting wet due to the splashing water. Nevertheless I did get a few photos but not as good as expected. The Banana ride was eventful as we kept falling in the sea ensuring good laughs for the bystanders . Later in the evening we went to the Amruth restaurant again to hog on seafood, this time with a larger crowd before catching the bus back to Bangalore. Karwar is a good 2 day trip from Bangalore if you like a good beach and great seafood. I felt it was much better and cheaper than the over-hyped and crowded Goa coast just a few kilometers up north from Karwar.
Preparing for the Europe trip
Some notes on Preparing for the Europe trip. Posting on my blog for helping out people plan out their trip.
Currency and Transportation
Easily the most important of the three if you are planning a long trip is your budget. Check the cost of living in each country, that you plan to live and then add maybe 50% because you have enough safety margin in case you get things wrong or the information online or in the guidebooks is outdated.
If you are travelling across several european countries then I recommend something like Thomas Cook Global Money card (also known as “Eurocard”). It’s way better to get money in local currency than traveller cheques. There are ATMs anywhere in Europe and once you load this prepaid card with money, you can go to pretty much any ATM (with Mastercard/Visa) and withdraw money. I used this across 7 countries and never had an issue. Also the transaction charges are pretty reasonable, the exchange rates are good and you don’t waste time hunting around for the best rates. Also you can use it at most places for purchases.
I used a variety of transportation for traveling as seen in my earlier post. Other than the air tickets I had bought the Eurail Pass online. It works out well if you are doing long journeys on certain days. Also there are some other benefits as you get discounts on ferries and bus journeys as well in some places. The Eurail pass enables you to travel on your chosen days no matter how many train journeys you do. This is a good way to travel especially as many of the train journeys are scenic as well as the comfortable. There is also the added benefit that most railways stations are in the city centre and along side local transportation hubs unlike many airports which are outside the city limits. The only downside is that rail travel in Europe is expensive but I felt it was well worth the extra cost. Also it is great for flexibility as train tickets (and reservations) are often easier to get at the last minute.
Equipment
I bought a Quechua Backpack (70Lt) and Sleeping bag (ultralight version) from Decathlon Store from Esteem Mall in Hebbal. Quechua Backpacks and the sleeping bags were of good quality. I was frankly disappointed with the quality of the backpacks (both in terms of material used and the design) from Wildcraft and Adventure one. I found that both of them did not have good back supports as well (which matters a lot if you plan to carry your backpack around for a long time – I carried my 15kg backpack + 7kg in another sling handbag long enough to qualify for a sherpa certification ). If you plan to do any serious trekking and want your backpacks to last and last I would highly recommend them. I later found that Quechua (and the North Face) are pretty popular brands in Europe as well.
In addition, I had a DSLR camera – Nikon D80 and accessories – A backup battery and a backup 8GB memory card as I shoot in RAW, a sturdy tripod by Velbon, A IR remote and two filters (A Circular Polariser and a UV filter – Hoya Brand). I had a backup battery for my laptop as well which was useful in longer journeys.
Research
I generally read about the places I visit – Culture, History, Transportation systems and Food – so that when I travel I have atleast a rough idea of what to expect and what to do. While this might seem obvious to do, I have found several travellers do not do this and are stranded or get sick by not eating the right food and rub locals the wrong way. In this respect, I did not have much choice but to do it as my schedule was pretty punishing and as I was backpacking solo, I could not afford to get sick. I found the following sites extremely helpful for for my research
- Wikitravel and World 66 – This was really useful in planning my trip with short articles about many obscure places
- Lonely Planet Thorntree Forums – Extremely helpful travelers here.
- Couchsurfing Travel Forums – for accommodation and local help – simply indispensable for travel in Europe.
- Hostel sites for cheap accommodation – in order of preference – Youth Hostels , Hostelworld , Hostel bookers , Hostels.com – if you have a YHAI card you will get discounts in Youth Hostels as well as others. Just ask.
- Flickr – Weird as it might seem, I found a lot of offbeat places just searching (using the “interesting” parameter) for the cities and countries that I planned to visit. Some of the places were surprisingly not even known to the locals.
- Seat 61 – If you want to plan your route using rail travel, Seat 61 is an invaluable website with loads of information.
Also I have heard BootsnAll is a good site for researching for international travel but I did not use it. For travel within India, Indiamike is another site which is extremely helpful for travel related research.
Travel within in Europe is both easier and more difficult now as most European countries have moved to the Schengen Visa. It is difficult to get the Schengen Visa due to the large amount of documentation that you need to produce but once you get the visa you can travel within any country within the Schengen area without any border controls.