Leg 2 – Praveen’s Wedding and the drive back to Mangalore

The morning was spent catching up. Rajini fixed us a breakfast of bread and omelet with hot tea. The plan was to start from Mangalore after lunch. Praveen’s parents also stay in Mangalore and the groom to be was in town so Randhir and I paid him a quick visit. Praveen looked his usual calm and composed self.
Rajini’s brother along with some of his friends were expected around lunch time. They were stopping en route from Mumbai. Their plan was to drive down to Cochin, a total distance of about 1,500 odd kilometers! It reminded me of my days in the states when we used to drive such fantastic distances. Anyway, lunch was finally had at around 3pm and anyone who has had Rajini’s food will agree that some sleep is in order afterwards. We just lazed around. Hours came and went by and yet we had not started for Honnavar. The distance of about 180km or so was to take about 4 hrs, as some part of the road was not good. We were going to do it in Randhir’s car. Meanwhile Praveen had already started for Honavar and kept calling and checking with us on whether we had started and we kept saying we would start in a bit. The hour finally arrived at 11pm! Don’t ask why and how, but we decided we would start that same day. The drive we peaceful or should I say the sleep was peaceful. I managed to stay up for only about an hour and then dozed off. You could hear snores from the back seats and Randhir was the only one awake (thank God for that). He woke us all up at 3am in the morning to announce that we were finally at the Hotel. Praveen had taken care of the bookings and we just had to check in and sleep, again. We all obliged.
We all got up hungry and headed down for a quick breakfast of Mude Idly’s, wada’s, and dosa’s. After a quick shower we all headed to the venue of the wedding.
The wedding hall was quite unique in that it was a cinema theater converted into a wedding hall. We were unable to secure any seats in the stalls but were only too happy to be seated in the Balcony! We were just in time for the ceremony and it was good to see the couple. They look very good together. After a sumptuous lunch served on banana leaf we headed back to the hotel to check out and start on our way back to Mangalore.
There were quite a few places to see on the way back and we had to choose what we wanted to see. We decided to stop at Murudeshwar. There is an amazing temple of Lord Shiva here. The idol of Shiva is huge and the temple entrance is magnificent. “Size matters” is put to the best use here. You are overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty of the idol and the temple entrance. To make things more scenic its right next to the sea on the beach! Words cannot do justice to the location and the temple so I’ll just let you go through the photos instead. Check out all the photos here.
We reached Mangalore around 10pm and headed for the Royal Treat restaurant to have dinner. Their Biryani was certainly unique. I’ve never had white biryani (the color of the rice is white, not the usual yellow). It certainly was yummy. Meanwhile, Randhir was calling his contacts in Mangalore to arrange for a cab for us for our trip. We decided on having a car with us round the clock instead of taking a bus to Madikeri and depending on the local transport for sight seeing around the area. Fortunately a Chevy Tavera was available and we asked him to report at 9am the next morning to commence the next leg of our vacation. That brought an end to another wonderful day. And yet, our entire trip to Coorg still lay ahead of us.

Leg 1 - Trip to Mangalore

Geeta and Ahan were already in Bangalore and I took the 7pm Bangalore express from Hyderabad on the 25th. The train journey was pleasant and the train was on time. I reached Bangalore in the morning and we had our train to Mangalore to catch at around 8:30pm that evening. Packing was quick as most of the stuff had been packed and brought along from Hyderabad. We chose the train as Ahan wouldn’t sit in one place and so bus was not a viable option. We had booked through Tatkal as the plan was pretty last minute (also getting tickets through the regular quota is pretty difficult). Unfortunately though we couldn’t get any AC tickets and were left holding sleeper class tickets. As expected it was hot and humid as we neared the coast. Geeta and Ahan were sleeping on the upper berth and Ahan was not getting too much cool air I think. He got up in the middle of the night due to the heat but slept well when I put him to bed on the lower berth with the windows open. However, that meant I had to stay up to watch over him and it gave me an opportunity to test out the new Chess software I had loaded in Geeta’s mobile phone. Playing chess and listening to music simultaneously made 2 hrs pass by without any problem and when sleep finally got unavoidable I moved him to the upper berth with Geeta and slept.

We were greeted in the morning by these breathtaking views of the Western Ghats. I had heard a lot about the scenic routes all along Konkan Railway, but seeing is believing. Here is a shot of the train trudging along in the morning mist of the ghats. It got really uncomfortable as we approached Mangalore though. The heat is not so much a problem as is the humidity. The constant sweating is what makes you really uncomfortable. To add to it, the train was running late and we finally reached Managlore all of 2 hrs late at 10am in the morning. Randhir and the kids were at the station to receive us and it was wonderful to see them after all this time. The last time we had met was when they had visited us in Bangalore about 15 days after Ahan was born.

Vacation at Coorg

We just got back from a much needed break in the hills of the Western Ghats, at Coorg. Praveen was getting married on the 28th of April in Honnavar, Karnataka and it was Rushil’s 8th and Rushab’s 2nd birthday on the 2nd and 3rd of May. With the holiday on the 1st, taking off for the remaining 4 days in the week made a lot of sense. Also, Geeta has been wanting to go on a holiday for some time now and this seemed like the opportune moment. Well, it couldn’t have been time better spent, in the company of friends and nature. I had also promised some photographs from the new camera phone, so here goes, a day by day account of the entire trip with lots of photos.