Mangaluru is a quaint little coastal town nestled between the Arabian sea and the Western Ghats. I've heard of its serenity and the old world charm and always wanted to visit, but heard discouraging remarks that there was 'nothing to see'. We arrived to find that Ola was devoid of cabs, only to find later that the drivers had gone on a strike! Which was good in a way, that we got to enjoy the local culture better. The local town buses take you on awesome roller coaster rides, which had us in raptures. Enroute the guesthouse, we were suddenly riding over a bridge, under which was winding a beautiful wide river dotted with nummmmerous fishing boats - a sight I was totally unprepared for and got me sitting wide-eyed in awe drawing some odd looks from the locals (ahem!). (Memories abound of Kalki's beautiful descriptions of the Ponni-nadhi and I feel compelled to copy some of them). Our guesthouse was about 25 kms away from the town and was completely a different world altogether, the beauty of which I shall try to capture in poetic verses; my prose cannot do justice to it.
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| View from the Guesthouse |
We took the rollercoaster ride (a.k.a. the town bus) back to the Mangalore city and missed our stop, but the bus driver and conductor were really friendly to drop us off at the right spot for the Kadri Manjunath temple. The sad part was that we reached the temple around noon, by which time it was already very hot. I heard it was a very old temple where the Pandavas stayed for a while, but it just didn't have that old time charm to it. Since we visited on Dussehra, it was way too crowded and I kept wondering as I watched the crowd, why they would push and shove at others only to touch the Deepam that the priest was carrying without even sparing a glance to the idol or taking a minute to pray. Seems like wasted effort to come so long. There was a long queue for the free food, which I'm not sure if a daily affair. There's a natural spring apparently called Gomukha at the top, which fills nine ponds and was quite a nice spot.
It was time to move on to hunt food and there was a very famous restaurant called Gajalee near Circuit House. The interiors lend a very British feel and it was located at a picturesque location. The Fish Curry there was the best I've ever had (apart from mum's)! Everytime I think of Mangalore, I wanna return just for that food. For dessert, we took a rick to Ideal Icecream House (after a looongg... debate between Ideal and Pabba's, the two famous dessert destinations here). The friendly driver was full of information about the Mangaluru Dasara and we learnt that Kudroli Gokarnath temple would be adorned with festivities that day (sadly, we were too late to make it to watch the festivities...). I should say Ideal was nice, but not exquisite, perhaps to a foodie who's had too many prior dessert experiences.
The Tannirbhavi beach is special in the way that you get to a take a ferry to the island from Sulthan Battery, which was Tipu Sultan's watchtower, though it looks like a mini fort all by itself. Its a beautiful view of the Gurpura river and the surrounding greenery from here, but the sad state of the monument is just one of the numerous examples of our disrespect to conserve our heritage. The ferry to the beach is quite enjoyable and the sunset scattering sparkles on the waves is a sight of awe. Notable are the ATV rides here.
The heat was unbearable for us, so we took a day trip to Kudremukh, the highest peak in Chikmagalur. Enroute were a number of Jain temples at Moodabidri and Karkala. Saavira Kambada Basadi (Thousand Pillars Temple) is built in a Nepali architectural style and has amazing intricately carved pillars. Beautifully maintained. I'm going to skip the other temples we visited, that seemed to hold more monetary significance in grandeur, which is always a repulsive thing to me. There's a huge monolith of Gomateshwara atop a hill, which leads you on a mini trek. This is a statue of Baahubali, smaller than the one in Sravanabelagola. What's curious is the name Pandya in the line of kings, who built the structure! Wonder if there's any connection between these Pandyas of the Vijayanagar kingdom and Madurai, which was ruled for a large part by the Nayaks.
Kudremukh has one of the most captivating views with lush greenery everywhere. The best part of the visit was the Hanumanagundi Falls with it's trek-like adventurous descent. The Kudremukh National Park apparently has a safari that starts in the morning, with bird-watching included that had some rare birds local to the region listed in the pamphlet. (We spotted those birds in the Sangama area near Bangalore during a bird-watching trip).
Panambur is a very popular beach with a lot of adventure sports in Mangalore, which we missed. It turned out to be a holiday we hadn't expected, due to the humidity and heat, but Mangalore took us very close to nature and ended in a beautiful experience.
The Tannirbhavi beach is special in the way that you get to a take a ferry to the island from Sulthan Battery, which was Tipu Sultan's watchtower, though it looks like a mini fort all by itself. Its a beautiful view of the Gurpura river and the surrounding greenery from here, but the sad state of the monument is just one of the numerous examples of our disrespect to conserve our heritage. The ferry to the beach is quite enjoyable and the sunset scattering sparkles on the waves is a sight of awe. Notable are the ATV rides here.
The heat was unbearable for us, so we took a day trip to Kudremukh, the highest peak in Chikmagalur. Enroute were a number of Jain temples at Moodabidri and Karkala. Saavira Kambada Basadi (Thousand Pillars Temple) is built in a Nepali architectural style and has amazing intricately carved pillars. Beautifully maintained. I'm going to skip the other temples we visited, that seemed to hold more monetary significance in grandeur, which is always a repulsive thing to me. There's a huge monolith of Gomateshwara atop a hill, which leads you on a mini trek. This is a statue of Baahubali, smaller than the one in Sravanabelagola. What's curious is the name Pandya in the line of kings, who built the structure! Wonder if there's any connection between these Pandyas of the Vijayanagar kingdom and Madurai, which was ruled for a large part by the Nayaks.
Kudremukh has one of the most captivating views with lush greenery everywhere. The best part of the visit was the Hanumanagundi Falls with it's trek-like adventurous descent. The Kudremukh National Park apparently has a safari that starts in the morning, with bird-watching included that had some rare birds local to the region listed in the pamphlet. (We spotted those birds in the Sangama area near Bangalore during a bird-watching trip).
