Gokarna Trip 5/26 -5/29

Beach Cows on Om Beach. You know, totally normal.

You have not truly traveled through India without taking an overnight, non-AC, sleeper bus. It’s an insane experience all its own that you wouldn’t understand unless you had been on one of these buses for 13 hours for two separate nights. To say it was like a roller coaster ride would be describing it mildly. On the way there, I had a single sleeper (it’s a bed) in the middle of the bus, on the upper portion. There are no stairs to an upper level, just a couple ladder steps to help you get up.

The bus:

On the way back, however, I was all the way in the very back of the bus. These back sleepers are perpendicular to the direction the bus is moving. The other sleepers are straight in line with the direction the bus is moving- I hope this makes some sense. We left at 7:30pm but with various stops and who knows what, we really didn’t leave Bangalore until 3 hours later. I actually managed to sleep a bit, even though it was beyond bumpy. Think: worst turbulence in an airplane you’ve ever experienced, then multiply that by about 20. Janine and Katinka (the German girls) were in a double wide sleeper next to me, also lofted. I just put on my iPod the whole night and drifted in and out of sleep. We only stopped once for the bathroom- which wasn’t too big of a deal since I had given up drinking liquids since 3pm.

Enough about the bus for now…

So when we arrived in Gokarna, we decided to get off a few kilometers early in the town of Om Beach, which, according to the Lonely Planet book, was the place to stay. After an exhaustive search of the beach we really didn’t find anywhere decent enough to stay, so we had breakfast at Namaste Café for a couple hours and thought of a game plan. We ended up staying the first of our two-night-trip at the Seabird Hotel in Om Beach. While it was a decent place, it was considerably more expensive than anywhere the girls had stayed on their other weekend getaway trips, and it really wasn’t close to much. Janine and I explored the town of Gokarna and after another very scary “charging cow, bull, and calf (charging cow family!!) encounter,” we took a long walk down a path to Kudle Beach, which was just beautiful. We found a deserted portion of it and actually stripped down into our bikinis! Freedom from hot, heavy clothes at last! It was so, so very hot there- at least 10 degrees hotter than Bangalore and extremely humid. I am so glad to be staying the majority of my trip in Bangalore where the weather is so mild. After a nice swim we walked further down the beach and found what I like to call a little “hippie campout” area and met an Israeli guy who offered us some coconut. We stayed there and shared a beer for a while until we decided we better start the long walk back before dark. Janine, Katinka, and I had dinner right at the hotel, where we were the only dinner guests. I had a fish fry dish, but I swear the fish was no bigger than your standard goldfish- disappointing to say the least, especially in a town on the water that is supposed to be good for seafood! In any case, it ended up being a great first day.

The next day, Saturday, was quite an adventurous one. After breakfast at the hotel, the three of us took an auto-rickshaw from the hotel to Paradise Beach, the farthest beach away. Paradise Beach was gorgeous! The Arabian Sea was so refreshingly cool, and there were only a few other people on the beach, surprisingly all of them white. When we were ready to go, we knew we would have to hike back, since the rickshaw dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. That’s ok though, because that was the plan- get a ride one way and walk the way back. Well…the hike ended up being really intense! It really reminded me of my hiking in Cinque Terra, Italy. The terrain was so rough- dirt/rock paths no wider than a foot straight up hills-what seemed like 90 degree angles. For areas we could not find a path, we had to hug the rocks of the coast, and use all four limbs to maneuver our way through the huge boulders. You had to be extremely careful because if a rock was wet, it was extremely slippery, or if you stepped on a pebbly or leaf-covered part of the path, you could easily lose your grip and go careering down the cliff. Of course the three of us only had flip flops on….go figure. For some parts of the hike all I could think about was how much some of my running friends, who also love to rock-climb, would absolutely love this! I must admit, a few times I was afraid we wouldn’t find our way back before dark, but just as I would think that, we would find the path and signs that we were headed in the right direction. It was such a blast and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon there. We stopped at Dolphin Bay Café on Om Beach after the hike to have some delicious Nutella crepes- see, I told you I am not going to lose any weight in India.

Unfortunately the day was a bit too long, and by the time we got back, shopped a bit, and got a shower, it was already 9:30pm and all the restaurants were closed, except for the fish place. It was such a simple place and packed with locals. They serve one thing- a fish meal! It was very yummy. We each got a whole fried fish (maybe 6 inches long? And yes, they keep the head on and the bones in. It’s literally an entire fried fish), rice, a fish curry, and a vegetable that I think might have been okra. All of this for 45 rupees, which is almost exactly $1.00.

We originally wanted to check out the Pai Restaurant, which looked good and was recommended by both the Lonely Planet and a local we met, but when we arrived they told us they were closed. Funny thing because as we walked by a second time, we saw a large Indian family of maybe 8 people get seated, right after they were turned away at another closed restaurant and after we were turned away at Pai. Janine asked the waiter why we were turned away and this large family was not, when they told us they were closing? Unfortunately we can’t stop some of the racism (I hope this is the politically correct word…I sure can’t think of a better word to describe what happened to us), and a restaurant is allowed to seat whoever they want. It was just a lousy experience to have but a reminder that of course we are the minority. After dinner we returned to our new, cute hotel called Nimmu House, which is located in the center of Gokarna and was a much more reasonable rate. I slept on a floor mat with Janine’s mosquito net over me since the windows did not have screens!

Sunday did not start off much better than Saturday ended. We took an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to Om Beach to spend the day sunbathing and eating/drinking at the beach’s cafes. On our way down the stairs to the beach, we were harassed by a group of 23 (yes, I counted) young Indian men with seemingly nothing better to do than take pictures, and probably videos, of us 3 white girls. It’s a pretty intense experience to have these guys in your face and them continually yelling ‘hello, madam, hello, hello, which country you from, hello, madam, excuse me,’ and all you do is ignore. Of course there comes a point where you can’t ignore anymore, and when one man had his camera phone a few inches from Janine’s chest, she knocked the phone out of his hand and into the sand. We walked faster and stepped into a café to lose them, which fortunately, we did. The owner of the café we had met the evening before and had previously made remarks about not being able to stand Indian tourists (he was Indian himself, though), so we knew he would probably be on our side if the harassers followed us in. Thank God they didn’t.

There were many other sets of white tourists around in normal bathing suits, so we made our way over to them after breakfast and set up our towels on the beach. There seemed to be an “Indian side” and a “foreigners’ side” of the beach, so we kept to our respective areas. After a long while of swimming and more awful harassing by another group of men, we went back to the café and had some drinks to get away.

Unfortunately, again, while leaving the beach, yet another group of young, clearly immature, Indian men approached and surrounded Janine and Katinka (I was in the bathroom) and did the same bit about what is your name, where are you from, taking pictures, etc. We wear t-shirts and huge baggy pants, so it’s not like they were gawking at our bodies; it was purely due to us being white girls. Katinka eventually gave them the finger which just excited them more, and the harassing continued. I met up with the girls at the top of the hill where we took the same auto-rickshaw back to the hotel. Halfway down the road, the car in front of us, which just so happened to be carrying the last group of harassers, and they opened the back door and were continuing to harass us from the road! We told the rickshaw driver what happened and he seemed very upset, and at the end of the road he got out of the car, along with some of the men from the car and another rickshaw driver and all had an argument about the situation. One guy apologized and said they were drunk, then continued to say they didn’t do anything wrong. So if you’re apologizing, wouldn’t that constitute admitting that you did something wrong? Unbelievable. It was a little scary but the rickshaw drivers were really on our side, and wanted us to file a police report. We knew this would do absolutely nothing so we just said that was OK and continued on our way. We tipped the rickshaw driver big-time for helping us so much. It was such a shame all these men had to ruin our time in Gokarna which is otherwise, such a beautiful and peaceful place. So, so sad. I won’t let the experience be completely ruined because I’ll just remember the good times with friends, delicious meals, wonderful beach cafes, and incredible hikes and beaches.

I’ll just say a few things about the bus ride back to Bangalore. First, I had terrible heartburn again and just a general feeling of not feeling well for the first few hours. Second, a man had something like an asthma attack a few hours in, and the bus pulled over, lights went on, and Janine talked to the man and tried to figure out what was wrong and how to help him. After that episode, we all settled back in and I literally flew the rest of the way home. The bumps are SO TERRIBLE and especially in the back of the bus, that you literally go airborne on the bumps. I am not kidding when I say that my entire body hoisted off of the mattress and into the air. Sleeping was a bit difficult to say the least. Just glad it’s over.

Overall I’m happy to have taken the trip this past long weekend and had a great time. It was great to have the German girls to travel with, because I certainly wouldn't have done it alone, unless it’s a flight to meet a friend. I’m hoping to go to Cochin (south of here, in the state of Kerala) to meet a friend from school in mid-June.