Out to the Beach

[Samurai]

Yesterday I was taking the car out to visit my native village. I was supposed to bring my parents to my home for the weekend. Right at that moment, my wife asked me to take our son to the beach on my way back. So, my son got into the car with his beach implements like plastic buckets, shovels, etc.

I reached my parents home by 5:20PM, it is about 35Kms from my home. As we were prepared to start back, it occurred to me that the original beach I considered to go was far and 5 Kms off the main road and it might be dark by the time we reach there. But I knew that the local village beach is barely 2Kms away. The odd thing is I have never visited this beach as long as my memory serves. Then my mom reminded me that I had last been there when I was two for taking bath in the sea on Mahalaya Amavasae, that's a local tradition. Considering yesterday was Mahalaya Amavasae, that makes it exactly 35 years ago.

My parents home is located at the far end of village across NH-17, which means we rarely venture into the village on the other side. Our nearest market/shops are in the next town on the national highway. Once we decided to visit the local beach, dad called my aunt for the direction, which I thought was odd. Then my mom tells me they too haven't visited the local beach since my last trip! On the way my mom was excited to see the old primary school, she passed out of it 55 years back. As the beach got closer she was mightly surprised to see lots of new houses. In fact she was surpised to see even the tar road all the way, she only remembers narrow trails. I said Mom, things do change, especially over 35 years!

You know how beaches are, lots of people, lots of cars, parking problems, etc, etc. As I entered the beach area, I stopped for moment wondering where to park. Since there were no sign posts, I picked a vacant spot and parked it. And then got everybody out of the car and off we went towards the water.

I didn't have any camera except for the one on my mobile phone, therefore the snaps are average. But look at this beach, the crowd, and the parking lot.


Notice how clean the beach appears. This is the other side.


My son busy at work, or is it play?


Anyway, this is the output.


The sunset was bliss.



We Indian are not beach crazy people. May be Goa is an exception, but otherwise we don't get excited about beaches. I am not saying beaches are not fun, but for an average Indian beaches are passe. If you look at beaches in USA, they are jam packed on summer weekends. The residents of beach towns curse their decision to settle down near the beach. People from 50 miles radius decent upon the beach every weekend and you can't get parking for miles. My boss who used to live in one of the beach town used to say that if he takes out his car on summer weekends, he had to park half mile away and then walk to his apartment. This is absolutely not the case in India, except may be near cities.

But people in cities away from beaches do have interest in beaches and are often ready to travel long distances to play on the beach. But they usually go to crowded beach resorts in well known places. My first visit to Goa was in 2004 and I was not too impressed with the Goan beaches, the water was dirty and beaches were crowded. This is mainly due to the amount of tourists I suppose.

I am used to very clean beaches and water simply because I always visit unknown beaches around my native district. Somehow I never visited the beach in my native village. Why spend your hard earned money at expensive beach resorts if you can have more fun in deserted/clean unknown beaches. Therefore it is advisable to check out lesser known beaches. Ok, you may not be able to stay in a beach resort, but you could stay any hotel within 10 Kms from the beach and then drive down to the beach. You would feel like you own the beach since you won't see anybody else there.

[v1p3r]

Please prepare the good people of your native village for a 6 foot plus apparition, with wild hair and orange clothes, most of which end above the knee. This is his idea of some beachin' fun.

[DRC]

Samurai san, I do agree with everyone of your words.
I am one of those who travel hours to go to a beach. So is my son. Last time we drove to Summer Sands beach, he is the one who drove us till there from Bangalore. Some how my family seems to enjoy the beach very much.
I do have a special interest for such virgin beaches. Being a coastal guy, do let us know such beaches you might know about .

Unfortunate fact about sharing info about such beautiful places is that many times it draws wrong set of people though not a beach And soon it will have broken liquor bottles, plastic garbage, what not. My native is one such victim.

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by DRC

Unfortunate fact about sharing info about such beautiful places is that many times it draws wrong set of people though not a beach And soon it will have broken liquor bottles, plastic garbage, what not. My native is one such victim.

Hmmmm are you hinting at some particular person eh v1p3r

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Please prepare the good people of your native village for a 6 foot plus apparition, with wild hair and orange clothes, most of which end above the knee. This is his idea of some beachin' fun.

[DRC]

Originally Posted by Godfather

Hmmmm are you hinting at some particular person eh v1p3r

Honestly, I did not know about V1P3R's reputation . No offence meant folks, just a joke!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by DRC

Honestly, I did not know about V1P3R's reputation . No offence meant folks, just a joke!

Is anybody suggesting V1p3r is 6 foot tall? I thought he was referring to somebody who just returned from europe.

Originally Posted by DRC

Unfortunate fact about sharing info about such beautiful places is that many times it draws wrong set of people though not a beach And soon it will have broken liquor bottles, plastic garbage, what not. My native is one such victim.

You'll notice I haven't named any location. People have to find their own virgin beaches, there are thousands of them.

[Sam Kapasi]

I'm afraid v1p3rs right. My life is a quest for beautiful beaches. I'd like to see this one. Well written, nice article samurai-san. Domo arigato.

[DRC]

Yes Samurai, I did notice,.. Thats a good thought.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

I'm afraid v1p3rs right. My life is a quest for beautiful beaches. I'd like to see this one. Well written, nice article samurai-san. Domo arigato.

For that you'll have to come down here, like you promised once. I'll take you personally, the roads are quite tricky, remember even my dad needed directions being in the same village.

[souravbasu]

Good post Samurai-san !! The photos have come very nice, considering a mobile camera (I guess it is 1.3 MP camera).

[kvish]

Very nice place indeed...where exactly is this place? Would love to spend time there!

I think the primary reason for people to go to beaches abroad is different

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by kvish

I think the primary reason for people to go to beaches abroad is different

No i think they go there to enjoy the bright hot sand and the splashing sea and the bright clear sunny day. Same as us.

It's only the activities and the clothes that are different.

[sammyboy]

Thats one really pretty and unspoilt beach samurai ..nice write up.Where is this place and how can i reach it from bangalore?Would like to take the wifey ..am sure she will love it too.

[Samurai]

Ok, so it happened again. I go to the beach third time in a row and leave my dSLR at home. This is what happened... Wife says let's go out for lunch at the beach restaurant which is like 10Kms away. I say fine and we take off.

While sipping my drink I see this across my table...


And the wife says let's spend couple of hours in the beach. I am like... because I am stuck with my camera phone again. If I knew we were spend longer time, I would have packed the dSLR. Some interesting things did happen while we were there as you see...

As usual my son pulled out his beach gear.


This is again my kind of beach, clean and deserted... Notice how wide and shallow unlike the beach in my native town.


In fact the ocean is so far out, I saw some natives taking proactive action to pull it back.


Not buying the ocean pulling story? I too found it hard to believe, after watching them for 30 minutes, I went and asked one of the workers. He said they pulling in fish. With a rope? Turns out the rope was connected to a huge fishing net, nearly 200 meters long. If you include the rope, the whole apparatus was half a KM long.

They are finally getting the net out of the water...


The fishes are out of the water, you can see them literally flying to jump out of the net. Some succeeded, but some were caught by the fishermen, and some by the eagles and crows that were flying low to catch the stray fish.


So I tried to catch an eagle in flight, not much of a close up.


My kid was one happy camper today, he is finally losing his fear of ocean. That's not hard to do in this really shallow and wide beach. Look at him roaming alone.


Cows own our roads, and now they don't spare the beaches either.


I know I refused to name the beach at my native town last time. But I'll give one clue which should reveal the location of this beach which is locally popular. Do you notice an island that has lots of trees in the ocean pulling photo? That's called Saint Mary's Island.

[nitrous]

Nice photography for a cam phone,samurai.
Good write-up.