[safari_lover]

This is my first travelogue here. Please excuse any mistakes.

It was three of us, let’s say G, R and H, who decided that we wouldn’t idle away the Dasara weekend, as couch potatoes, binging on some seemingly endless (and pointless) TV drama. So, we got on the phone the week before and began discussing about going to Chikkamagaluru on our bikes and explore the places around there. But, we felt that three days would be an overkill for this plan. It could be done on any regular weekend, it was thought. While Coorg made a brief appearance during the discussion, it was Murudeshwar-Udupi combo that won over us soon as it came up. Consequently we decided to drive up there in R's i20 instead of riding, to a collective sigh of relief from our bums. The driving route was finalized soon and the hotel stay at Murudeshwara was booked. The prospect of a long drive and beach had lured me in, R was happy that we could stay busy for three days and H was ready to overcome his fear of long drives at the prospect of Scuba diving in there. We had no clue if it was still a thing there though.



It was supposed to be an early morning start on Friday the 19th. The filter coffee that R’s mother generously and lovingly offered helped me kick out the morning slumber and we were on the road before sunrise. With R at the steering, H had neatly snuck into the backseat to complete his sleep. And I, sitting on the front passenger seat, was trying to keep an ongoing battle in my body under control. You see, the festival special meal that my masterchef Cook had prepared the day before hadn’t found my tummy very friendly. With the sleep deprivation during the intervening night, the matters had only escalated and by morning there was a raging war inside me, making me fret and fidget. I soldiered on, however, giving company to R and finding things on the road to discuss and make fun of. When we were approaching Tumakuru, I suggested that we take a break to let me negotiate peace with my enemy in the tummy and provide it an honourable exit. R obliged and we stopped at the Kamat Yatri Nivas next to the highway.

I found R and H lurking around a cheap gifts shop as I came out of the peace summit. I joined them while H was buying something. From there we moved to the car and decided to get going. R took the steering again and I entrenched myself on the passenger seat. He hollered out to H to get in and we heard the backdoor close. We rolled on, joined the highway. A Duster whooshed its way past us from the left side. R and I began to discuss about its driver and we couldn’t agree if it was a he or a she. So, R decided to solve the mystery and was about to indulge in some pedal-to-metal stuff. Right at that moment my phone rang displaying a number that I couldn’t recognize. As I answered the call, with a puzzled face, I heard a seemingly recognizable voice from the other end and it said, ‘you guys left have me behind!’ Startled, I turned around to take a look at the backseat and to my utter disbelief found H missing! I cut the call, showed the empty backseat to R and burst out into a loud laughter with him. We didn’t stop laughing all the way back to the Kamat Yatri Nivas where we found H waiting. Poor soul did not have his phone with him and had only ₹10 on him. Fortunately, he could recall my phone number and called me with the borrowed phone from the gifts shop owner! As we rolled on once more, this time with me and R both looking at the back seat, for confirmation, before moving, I couldn’t help but think aloud what would’ve happened if I was in H’s situation. As it happens, the only phone number I remember is my home (which is 700KM away) landline number!

I switched over to the steering wheel at the next pitstop after a couple of hours. The rest of the drive was uneventful except for us almost missing the turn towards Shirsi from the highway. We stopped once for some coconut water and then once more, in the midst of the forest between Shirsi and Kumtha, to devour the extremely tasty Uppittu that R’s parents had packed us for the road. It was supposed to be our breakfast but we had turned into a lunch or brunch. A little rain kept us company outside the car on the way for some time, as did the hauntingly melodious Kaushiki Chakraborthy inside of it. Meanwhile, H had kept himself busy and audible (for our benefit) by calling up folks in Murudeshwar to find out about scuba dives. It seemed he was successful to get hold of an instructor’s phone number, though it was unreachable. We all assumed (rightly, as it turned out later) that the fellow must be at deep sea.



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We reached Murudeshwar around 4, checked into the hotel and washed up. We ventured out to seek the blessings from the deity at the temple but turned back after encountering the humongous queue there. We thought of watching the sunset from the beach but were turned off looking at the large, boisterous crowd there. By the time we could reach a secluded area on the beach, the Sun would well have sunk in, it was thought. We went back to the hotel room and tried watching the Sunset from the balcony but found a tree obstructing our view. Right then, H had a brainwave and suggested we go to the Hotel terrace for the unobstructed view. The view from there was majestic as the large red ball disappeared into the womb of the ocean. R had a chance to give his a Camera a decent workout and he’s usually not the one to miss out.





We ventured out to the beach after dark and after the crowd had dissipated. To find that there was no beach sand to speak of was kind of disappointing, to say the least. After spending sometime there we went to the Temple again and this time Shiva was in a generous mood and granted us entry into his abode in quick time. Next thing was dinner. We went to a restaurant that was recommended by our Hotel staff because H wanted to taste some fish. He ordered the fish there and was disappointed because it was available but turned out disappointing; I ordered curd rice and was disappointed because it was unavailable which was disappointing. While we were there, we found that our man from the deep sea had come ashore. We met him after dinner and stuck a deal to get us into the sea. As we retired for the night, the excitement about us going underwater was palpable!



It was another early morning the next day and we cleaned up ourselves in quick time. After a quick breakfast and checking out of room, we were at the beach ready to be taken away to the Netrani Island, whence we’d be diving into the Sea. The boat ride was an hour long and it was an interesting experience in itself. Finding oneself surrounded by never ending water can be little humbling. It’s the same feeling that one gets when one is in the midst of mountains. At least, I do. But the ride was more than interesting because of the company we had. There were about ten people on board who were like us the so called DSDs — discover scuba diving. There were two others who were into a course to get their advanced scuba diving (ASD) certification. And then, there were the instructors — Rupi, Ram and Rajesh.





It appeared like the instructors and ASDs were a community in their own right. Their enthusiasm to this — sport, skill, tradecraft, adventure activity, call what you will — was revealing. And amongst them Rupi stood out. Her passion for this thing was infectious. The narration of her deep water exploits were mesmerising. The accounts of her encounters with sharks, whales and the innumerable fishes that she could name were bewitching! And she had done it across the globe — in Europe, in Africa, et al. I have never before in my life, experienced an acute sense of under achievement I did at that time. Suffice to say it all made us feel like we were about to begin on a very beautiful, adventurous and a passionate journey of love into the ocean and amongst its dwellers.

But before that could begin, we had to wait! There were about ten people before I could get a chance to go in. Each person would take about an hour and there were three instructors who would each take one person at a time. So I had to wait a good three to four hours before I could take the dip! We idled away these hours by floating on that wonderfully humongous swimming pool that Nature has bestowed upon us — with a life jacket of course! And then the moment arrived.



I was sure that I remembered most of the instructions that were given to us on the boat and I felt confident of handling myself deep down. Soon, I was kitted up and thrown into the water. My instructor tested if I could handle the air regulator well and I passed. She asked me if I was ready to go in and I nodded. We began descending and I could see stuff in the water clearly. She would point me to fishes and I would reply with a hand gesture that said it was lovely. But as we descended further down, I began feeling an acute pain in my ears. This was expected, as was explained on the boat and there were instructions given to mitigate this. Obviously I was failing at it. When the pain reached an unbearable level, she brought me up. There she taught me the steps to mitigate again and having got a go ahead from me, took me into the water again. This time my ears were faring a little better. And soon we came to a place where I could see the big rocks on the ocean surface and large contingent of fishes of many varieties. We hung around there for a while, watching fishes, shooting videos and then it was over. Apparently I had spent a good 40 mins in the water but the thing felt like it was over in a jiffy. Overall, I had a mixed feelings about whole experience. The ‘Love affair’ I was hoping to begin, I wasn’t sure of it anymore! May be two time’s the charm.











We grabbed a quick bite after reaching the shore and headed towards Udupi. The night drive was uneventful with us trying to gain some gyan from BBC podcasts that I was playing from my phone. We found a hotel, White Lotus, after some struggle, to stay the night. The dinner there was sumptuous with neither H nor me disappointed with our orders. Back in the room, we fell asleep watching BBC Earth.

Next morning the plan was simple — clean-up, temple, checkout, home — all to be done ASAP. While at the Temple I met quite a chatty chap, who had broken into the queue right in front of me. Within the next five minutes he gave me his life story without leaving me a chance to utter a word. Apparently, he’s a lawyer from Mangaluru living in Delhi and Mumbai. He even got knifed once, in Mumbai but he’s never scared. To top it all, he revealed that he’s related to Aishwarya Rai!
We left Udupi after breakfast. I was at the driving wheel because I wanted to drive through what was supposed to be the wonderful Kuduremukha mountain range. And the drive was indeed as wonderful as it had promised out to be. The twisty roads, surrounded by mountains, are a driver’s delight. Add to it the almost non-existent traffic, with only a car here, a bus there. I haven’t had so much fun behind a driving wheel ever before. While I was consumed by the drive, R was busy giving his Camera a serious workout. I’ll let the pictures do the explaining.





















Just after we exited the forest, we stopped for tea at a shop run buy a welcoming lady. She offered to fry some Mirchi Bhajjis for us with the mirchis of our choosing. It was an offer that we couldn’t refuse and we devoured quite a few those lovely little hot things. Even H who was being very cautious about what he ate, due to motion sickness, joined in the feast. But it turned out to be quite fateful for him. He spent much of the remaining drive retching!

The rest of the drive was uneventful, the expected traffic after entering Bengaluru frustrating R, who had taken over the wheel by then, and H sleeping on the backseat, exhausted! When R finally dropped me at my place, it was 11.30 in the night and I was exhausted. Happily so!

PS - All the pictures were taken by my friend Ravindra.

[R2D2]

Thanks for sharing details of your journey and the pics specially those taken underwater. Murdeshwar with its grand Shiva murti is one place that has been on the top of our must visit list - my wife and I hope to make a trip in 2019.

[yogeshsom29]

Congrats on the first T-logue, hope many more to come, nice write up with subtle narration.

Your pre-scuba experience was straight out of the movie “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara “ & co-incidently you’ll too were 3 friends , however looks like the experience was a little underwhelming, any reasons?

[safari_lover]

Originally Posted by R2D2

Murdeshwar with its grand Shiva murti is one place that has been on the top of our must visit list - my wife and I hope to make a trip in 2019.

Yes, the statue is very nice. Looks nicer from the Sea. Hope you'll the trip soon.

Originally Posted by yogeshsom29

Your pre-scuba experience was straight out of the movie “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara “ & co-incidently you’ll too were 3 friends , however looks like the experience was a little underwhelming, any reasons?

Thanks. The nagging pain in the ears was the spoiler for me. It kept distracting me from my wonderful surrounding.

[V.Narayan]

Thank you for sharing this travel essay. How did you take those photos underwater? Excellent photography.

[safari_lover]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you for sharing this travel essay. How did you take those photos underwater? Excellent photography.

Thanks. My apologies for the delayed response.

The underwater photos are actually screenshots from a video captured by the instructor using his camera. The video is part of their diving package. All the other pics were taken by my friend Ravindra.