Let the soothing nostalgic beaches take your heart away!
It was Wednesday night when I decided to visit this place as my college had declared an unexpected holiday on Saturday.
My friend helped me book the ticket and I hoped on to the bus on Thursday night.
You can reach this place by bus or train. All buses to Gokarna from Bangalore are overnight buses.
There I was, on my way to one of the temple towns of west Karnataka. Well, you'd be surprised to know that this isn't just a temple town but this place has got more to it than that.
By Friday morning, I reached Gokarna bus stop and took an auto to Kudle beach. Beware of the autowallas, they think you don't know anything about the prices and charge extra but a little bargaining and "Bhaiya, chal lo naa" and you'll be on your way.
There are two aspects to this place: the beaches and the temple and the city.
I spent 3 days adoring the beauty of the beaches.
This place has 4 beaches- Paradise beach, Half moon beach, Om beach and Kudle beach being the major attraction out of all the 4 beaches.
To find a place to stay is not really that difficult. There are variety of shacks lined up all along the beach. These shacks are of two types. They are either rooms with attached bathrooms or huts with common toilets and showers. The minimum cost of staying in these shacks start from 500 per day and if you stay in a shack in Om beach its much lesser than this. There is only one hotel on this beach called the Gokarn International. Other hotels are there in the town. There are resorts too. But I would suggest you to stay in a shack for the fullest beach experience.
After getting a room to stay, I headed for the beach. I held my slippers in my hand and started walking on the sand. It felt as if each tiny grain of sand had absorbed the heat of the sun and it felt comfortable against my skin. As I reached the shore, the wind started to blow. Fresh air hit my face and all the exhaustion and drowsiness due to traveling went away.
I saw the sunset and realised that the sunset was a major reason why people visited this place. It was as if the sun was melting gold and mixing with the Arabian Sea. Truly, it was breathtaking and a sight to behold. If you ever come here, you don't wanna miss the sunset.
The cafes here serve amazing food. They have a menu full of American, Chinese, Italian and Continental dishes but I would suggest you to try other cuisines except Indian as the cafes train their cooks to make other cuisines better. You get beer in almost all the cafes here.
When the sun sets and the moon comes up, all the shacks and cafes are lighted up with decorative coloured up lights which looks stunning. After dinner, I walked on the beach. You can see people sitting on mats on the beaches in a group, or a couple, even single. There were a few people who dared to go for a swim at night with the risen tides. There were some groups who were playing songs and enjoying the warmth of a bonfire. Some were playing volleyball with the moonlight and the beautiful lights of the shacks and cafes guiding them.
I was just enjoying the peace.
Even though the temperatures reaches like 35 degrees during the day, it comes down immensely at night. Unlike in the busy cities, you can see the stars very clearly here.
I lay there till 3 am at night enjoying the serenity.
The following day, I decided to trek till the Om beach. It's a 5-10 minutes trek from Kudle beach to Om beach depending on your walking pace.
With the hot scorching sun exactly above my head, I was sweating profusely. But that didn't stop me from unraveling the beauty of the beach. This beach had a different charm and vibe to it. It had more rocks compared to Kudle and the area of the beach was also smaller then the Kudle beach.
But still, it was pretty in it's own way.
There were many tiny creeks from where the water was flowing between two huge rocks.
There is this famous cafe called the Namaste cafe. The food there was scrumptious. Do visit this cafe if you happen to come here.
The people here speak English and Hindi along with their local language so you wouldn't face any language problem here. And they are pretty friendly.
Even the foreigners who come here are pretty sociable and friendly and you can easily strike a conversation with them.
My total trip cost was 4k which would have been even less if it weren't festival time.
Do carry sunscreen lotions to this place.
My favorite thing here was to relax at the beaches with a sweet lime soda in my hand.
I left the place after 2 more days although I wasn't ready to pack my bags and head back to reality just yet.
If you want a relaxing and peaceful weekend getaway or you just want to chill and throw your worries in a bonfire, then this is the place for you, my friend.
Come, walk along the shore. Sit under the palm trees, melt your heart with the golden bliss of the sunset, sleep on the beach, on the hammocks, feel the breeze and let your soul wander away!
Go, get your 3 shades of tan. :D