Om beach – Gokarna, Paradise Unexplored! 10th - 12th March 2006

A lazy Sunday evening…5 friends decide to hit the table at Java city…infact, it was meant to be 6 but guys like us actually slog on Sundays as well ! An hour of meticulous planning, and the next time we see each other is actually on the road to gokarna !!! Woow, what planning you would say, but it hardly turned out the way it seemed. Think it took all of us that extra moment to gulp it down, that we were actually breaking off from the orthodox city norms… A three day break was just the order of the day for all of us.

All in all 7 – Bipin, shevade, kulla, kris, keshav, vini & myself. So off we were on a Thursday night, and after some serious R & D (done by me ofcourse ;-)) decided to narrow in on Om beach! Dare do I say that the choice wasn’t a good one…

The start line happened to be Mojo’s where the beer intake just wouldn’t reduce..infact it never did all through the trip as well. A smooth drive to tumkur with what kris calls ‘dikchik’ music to give us company. Tumkur being the disastrous place that its always been greeted us with a huge downpour and an automatic power shutdown. But that was hardly a deterrent, infact just another reason to heat the body up with more beer! So, a deviation via SSIT and there we were on the Mangalore highway to the ultimate offshore location on the earth (atleast for me!). Never the quite ones that we were, there was bound to be lotsa noise, and that’s the way it should be. Shevade finally getting into his wits, man I didn’t know, but on his day, he could probably ridicule Einstien to death as well!! Cigarettes would never stop following, frankly we breathed more tobacco than fresh air in the 3 days I think! A mid-night break to put down some badly needed ‘solid’ food, note the word ‘solid’ huh, cuz liquids were never a problem ;-). In the aftermath of bird flu, imagine 7 non-veg’s eating vegetable curry, but sadly that’s how it turned out. Guess we weren’t yet ready to turn the tide! ‘Paet’-filling rotis & sabji, and back we were inching closer towards what I now call ‘Paradise’. Ofcourse, what’s a trip with 7 guys and no thriller. Things were just about going good till 3 when the driver gives us a scare. The Mojo actually came back to haunt us with Roadhouse blues, whereas our very own Mojo – kris was beyond awakening. Kulla n’ I in the front seat, the sleep deprived lot should I say, had to closely monitor the drivers movements. Fifteen mins passed, another minor scare, and the driver gives up! So what do we have now… A well – paid driver in the back seat snoring away and kullax at the wheel. But actually, we all pity these drivers cuz’ they seem to have a really hard time.. 8AM on Friday – At mangalore with a flat tyre. Things were hardly going to plan, and thoughts of us not reaching by noon as well, got shevade off his screws. That was his defining moment of the trip I would say, from where on, he just wouldn’t stop reminding us of the fact, that if we’d gone by his home-town (hubli), we probably would’ve reached by now. But, true to the guy, his words made sense, but when you have 5 other senseless creatures (you know who the excluded one is!), things are bound to go haywire.

Our first pit-stop happened to be malpe beach, the drive to there, totally adorned by the scented smell of tonnes of fish! Yakkkkk…Nevertheless, the beach was a beauty, my first meeting with the sea for over a year! The serene beauty of nature just stood bare naked before you. Clear blue skies with the sun beating down on clear blue waters. This infact was one of the cleanest beaches I must’ve have seen in my lifetime. A quick pit-stop, a much needed break and we were then back on the road to our destination, now with higher resolve to get their quicker after seeing what Malpe had to offer.
The drive from here on was hardly amazing, what with most of us being misleaded that the road from Malpe onwards, was totally along the coast and happened to be a superb drive. Haaaa…that was far from it, nevertheless, another couple of stops for more beer (!!!!) and a quick brunch and there we were at Gokarna finally at around 4 PM. Finally, all of us said. The intensity seemed to come back instantly upon seeing the beach. I must say, my first thoughts of the beach were simply amazing. At a certain point, the road ends and then you gotta trek down to touch the shore. From upon the hill, as you stand there looking into the sea, the distinct sign of the reverse – OM catches your attention! Amazing I must say, sometimes nature’s beauty is unbelievable, it just transcends all boundaries, each time crossing your expectations of what you’ve seen earlier! The start was however not very promising. Accomodation rejections by atleast 10 shacks had all of us tearing our hair. Simply cuz, we hardly saw that many ppl around to occupy all these shacks, but however, amongst them, the %tage of firangs were considerably high I must say… Dunno where these ppl find such places from to come down and show their bare bodies to the world.. Anyway, perserverance was the order of the day, and finally, lady luck shone on us at Om Shree Ganesh Café… and trust me, it was an absolute blessing in disguise to get this shack !!!!! Ofcourse, the rooms and bathrooms are far from what you’d expect, but in places like these, that’s the order of the day. Shevade and I ofcourse had strong concerns about staying there, going by our posh lifestyle (hehehhehe…the rest of them are surely laughing here!). Determined to find something better, we drove back to check on the resort about 2 km off the shore. A good place I must say, incase your going down as a couple or so, otherwise, the shacks are the best thing to happen to Om beach! Serious negotiations done with the fellas there ultimately boiled down to nothing, as a consensus revealed that we’d stay at the shack itself. Ironically now, a lotta others hadn’t taken a look at the loo themselves, and when they did so…hahahah, the moment was interesting. The only thing on most ppl’s mind was to finish the mandatory routine of the day….ah...crapping ofcourse as soon as possible…. With thoughts of the shabby room behind us, it was time to hit the high seas! Another round of beer, some awesome veg food (veg cuz we were still scared to do the chicken thing!) and, all 7 of us were amidst some seriously high tides.. Time in the sea just flies you know, you just stand there, and watch the waves slap against you time n’ time again, some of them taking you down as well, with nature each time trying to prove that it obviously is the superior one! More than an hour in the sea, and it was getting dark as well, so out we were. Another quick round of beer, and it was time to hit some hard liquor, which sadly was not available at the shack itself. A drive down to the town, picked up more booze and back we were at our abode. Settled down to a long night of wonder. The next 3 hours were simply amazing and I cant describle them, cuz I surely don’t remember much of it! Ofcourse, I do know that I eventually had about 6 pegs of vodka to go with the large peg of bacardi I started off with, in between ofcourse loosing both to kris ‘n’ vini I think, in a game of carrom, in which I claimed myself to be amazing !!!! foolish aint it …..hahah.. I ask, why do all drunk people make a fool of themselves! But ofcourse, I made up for that with a doubles win with keshav as my partner !!!!!

The time for the shack to shut had come, and we were literally shooed on to the shore. More booze, more buzz and I couldn’t feel a damn thing. Lying there on the shore at around 1:30AM, all I could here was the waves making this amazingly beautiful periodic sound, each time just barely kissing my feet. All this amidst, the rest of them trekking to the rock at the pinnacle of the OM sign and taking their respective positions. Back on the shore, I could occasionally see the strong flash of the digicam going off, giving the indication, that these guys were still alive after all, and ofcourse the soothing..i must say soothing voice of shevade chirping away with his bollywood no’s!! Finally, solitude gave way to boredom and amidst my drunken state, I did the trek as well to join the fellas atop the monument !! Again, what happened further from here on is not known to me for obvious reasons! All I know at the end of it all, was shevade waking me up at what must’ve been 4 AM or so, and practically helping me all the way back to the room. Day 2: The day began for all of us only after ½ the actual day had almost passed ….If you got what that meant. Man, the buzz in my head was still very much alive. I cant exactly call it a hangover cuz’ I was still loving the buzz….Nevertheless, morning bowels were reallllly fast, infact that seemed to be the only thing where all of us hurried our life out.. Quick amazing English breakfast and back we were in the sea. Frankly, life by the sea is so unique I feel, with the concept being very simple. You got nothing to do, get into the water! Isn’t that amazing…Time again flew by, and frankly from here on in, I don’t remember the intricate details as well.. Though, I do remember that we were pretty much done with the whole sea thing at about 3:30 PM.

The next thing – the trip to Paradise beach was something I cant explain, simply cuz I’m totally at a loss of words for it..
With the hot sun beating down, the last thing on our minds was the trek to the place, so the ferry ride was a open arm welcome. With a Danish couple giving us company, we did the journey to the other side in barely 15 mins. What we saw here at first sight was hardly amazing, cuz’ the beach was extremely small and most ppl you saw around were firangs. The best thing about this place is ofcourse the awesome shade of coconut trees at the backyard, with most of these firangs having set up hammocks everywhere. Truly, for the first time, I discovered how 1 piece of cloth can give you 10 times more comfort than probably the best mattress in the world!!! Yeah, I aint joking, cuz that’s how it felt, just lying down on those hammocks with beer to sip on, looking into the sea where far n wide up unitl the horizon, all that could be seen was BLUE....clear BLUE skies and BLUE serene waters.

Surprisingly though, one moment I just cant seem to forget is the firang who looked worse than a 15th century nomad playing the guitar and screeching some blues number in his absolutely disgruntled voice! Not to mention, there were some really hot women around as well. Coming to think of it, It was a welcome surprise to see so many European couples cooling their heels off on Indian shores. These ppl actually motivate you to go around and see the world, cuz’ that’s what they were there to do. Sometimes you think, the Indian mentality of a holiday is so much different from the west. Out here, when we go on a holiday, what were looking at is covering most places in a fixed amount of time. Frankly, that’s hardly how a holiday should be. Though ofcourse, there are 2 parts to it I think, which depends on the reason for which your taking the holiday. The first part I believe are the ones who love the traveling kind, see more places, get to know more things and stuff like that. There’s a 2nd part which is just looking at getting away from the normalcy of life and live up to the true meaning of ‘chill’! Coming to think of it, most of us fit into both the categories, depending on the mental frame were going in! This trip of course, for most of us I believe, would have to come under part 2, and that’s how it is with these foreigners as well, who again mostly come under part 2, eventually doing what’s termed today as ‘back-packing’. Oh, the whole thing got so really serious. So coming back to the essence of the trip, 3 hours at paradise beach made me feel alive again. For some strange reason, the laidback atmosphere and living, forces you to relax on life. It’s almost like you running to try and catch up on life, but there’s this mysterious force holding you back….for me, that day, the mysterious force was Paradise !

As the sun started to set on another day of our lives, we decided to do the trek back to Om, and here again, I must say, that this was truly adventurous and amazing. Whoever discovered this route, and took the pains to demarcate the entire route with arrows and other indications, may he live a hundred years, and if he’s dead already, may his soul rest in peace! This trek is one of the specialities of Om beach. Nature lovers yearn to go here just to do this trek. It ofcourse is quite tiring, but that’s hardly a deterrent. The view from up there is hardly explainable. As shevade put it, it truly felt like we were on NAT GEO!

Back to base, the day was again rounded off with a sitting of booze, this time, we cheered to Teacher’s scotch and Riveira, and oh btw, the previous night happened to be on kulla, which we selfish bastards hardly realized! So we cheered again to kulla on this night, which didn’t turn out to be any lesser than the previous one actually. Only that on this occasion, I didn’t go as far as the previous one. The sitting done, we decide to accompany some firangs on a campfire. As I almost dozed off there, the only thing I remember, is some chinki sun of a gun every now n then singing ‘Buffalo soldier’ and entertaining all of us away. The firangs left, the fire burnt out, and slowly did all our energies as well. Having had our share of awesome entertainment from that chinki freak who every now and then would go on his ‘mata pita’ rampage, we returned to spend what would be our last night in bliss!

Day 3: As usual, you know by now what time the day began for all of us. The routine was the same, however, the punchline of this day was ‘chillax and relax’, which is what all of us did to our hearts content. Leaving latest by 7 on Sunday night was atleast my primary motive, so making more of Sunday was even more on my mind. The English breakfast as usual, another brilliantly soothing dip, some amazing food, actually amazing is a understatement…I just cant remember all that we had, but truly, the greek salad, the Israeli salad, the pineapple salad, the banana-chocolate dessert ,the chicken steak, the sizzlers,mama……..ahhhh…My jaws have dropped as I write all this! For all in the world, who would’ve imagined that a shack like that would make food better than the Taj’s n’ Leela’s across the country…
Lip smacking food accompanied by our very own kingfisher beer and ofcourse lotsa the glamorous Slice drink (Mallya’s growling I guess ‘yella ok, slice yaake’ !) gave us company till about 4. Another and what was to be the final dip in the sea for some of the guys, went on for close to 2 hours, after which the curtains came down on a most memorable trip I’ve ever undertaken.
I’m infact doubly glad for having put this whole thing on paper, cuz surely, years down the lane, even if my memory despises me, this document and this blog surely wont..and for all you 6 others who were majorly responsible for this happiness, kudos to you guys…I love you all !
And yes, how ironic is it, that my previous blog just before leaving, was in search of that elusive phrase ‘peace of mind’! Now I can say, to my heart’s content, I’ve found it, felt it, lived it, experienced it, and watch it go away again over the 3 days of this trip and it felt magical !