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Old 8th October 2008, 21:38   #1
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Civved : Goa, Yaana, Jog, Murdeshwar, Maravanthe, Mangalore...

Just completed a 2825km drive through top south west India exploring a little bit of west Karnataka and Goa. Mostly you can call it a sight seeing (survey as my wife called it) as to see where I must holiday later.

For some reasons our base was at Goa. Dont ask me why. It so happened.

Places Covered.

Maravanthe
Murdeshwar
Gokarna
Karwar
Yaana
Jog Falls
Goa - the complete coastline.

Total 8 days, 28/09/08 to 06/10/08.

Car driven - Honda Civic 1.8S MT.
Total Kilometers done - 2825Km
Total Fuel Used - 244.22Litres
Fuel Efficiency - 11.57Km/Ltr (I know I have burdened the environment )

I'll update the trip details day by day soon.

Before that a word of thanks to ravibhat for the route details and akroy for his goa travelogue.
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Old 9th October 2008, 10:15   #2
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Awesome!! Iv done this entire stretch though not at one single go and was mostly by bus! Yaana has changed over the years Iv heard.

BHPian KartikKumar has also hit the coast Karwar, Goks and then onwards to Hampi I think.

Waiting for the pics, Envy you guys!
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Old 9th October 2008, 10:28   #3
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Thats a looong drive.
Seems you had fun. WHere are the pics, waiting for those.

Seems ravibhat is the guide for "exploring" coastal karnataka. Lol.
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Old 9th October 2008, 10:34   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by s0uljah View Post
Awesome!! Iv done this entire stretch though not at one single go and was mostly by bus! Yaana has changed over the years Iv heard.

BHPian KartikKumar has also hit the coast Karwar, Goks and then onwards to Hampi I think.

Waiting for the pics, Envy you guys!
I really envy the BHPian who did Bombay to Ladakh

Yaana is now very easily accessible. Park the car walk a few minutes you are there. Now its easy for families since they have done the roads all the way. If you really want to trek you still can.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mjothi View Post
Thats a looong drive.
Seems you had fun. WHere are the pics, waiting for those.

Seems ravibhat is the guide for "exploring" coastal karnataka. Lol.
We really had a lot of fun. My kids were as much enthusiastic as me.
ravibhat is the masterfor these roads.

I am typing the details in a word document now day by day. Once its through I'll post it immediately with the pictures.
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Old 9th October 2008, 10:51   #5
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The road is complete eh? I went to Yaana around 7 years ago, it was wild! Gokarna and surrounding area's we visit atleast once a year. Yet to do it as a road trip
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Old 9th October 2008, 13:01   #6
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Lalu Ji

Three thousand kms, 8 days, Karnataka and Goa coastal line - looking forward to a great travelogue.

Quote:
Originally Posted by laluks View Post
I am typing the details in a word document now day by day. Once its through I'll post it immediately with the pictures.
Sometimes you end up with lot of junk characters if you use external editors like MS word etc and then paste it here. Please use "preview post" feature before you actually post the travelogue.
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Old 9th October 2008, 13:05   #7
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Originally Posted by BomBatt View Post
Lalu Ji

Sometimes you end up with lot of junk characters if you use external editors like MS word etc and then paste it here. Please use "preview post" feature before you actually post the travelogue.
Thanks for that input. I already got a warning once when I copy pasted. I'll be careful now
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Old 9th October 2008, 13:39   #8
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Background.

This idea to drive to Goa was in my mind for a long long time. Since I love pets I have a black labrador "Dashy" at home. The idea of keeping her at a kennel and moving around always disturbs us and most of our trips normally gets cancelled because of this sentiment. Further I could not always find a place that accommodates pets to take her along with us. This time it was perfect as we had a maid who was living with us and likes pets. I was definitely not in a mood to let go of this wonderful opportunity and decided to make the idea a reality.

Convinced my wife to take a couple of leaves from her office, and as for kids their puja holidays was chosen. The deal was to look around Goa for a few days and to see a little bit of Karnataka on the way to Goa. Karnataka got added after I saw the thread http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-pictures.html. It was going to be an inspiring drive and my family was very much enthusiastic seeing my energy levels, though somewhere in their minds they knew it would become hectic. After all the initial discussions are done, we started to note down where all we must visit and find out what the place offers.

So from the beginning of September, just immediately after our Yercaud trip, me and my wife started finding out the best deals on the net for a stay at Goa. Finally Makemytrip offered a good deal at Santana Beach Resort at Candolim. Costed Rs5300 with extra bed and breakfast for a family of four for 5 nights and 6 days. Actual costs are high, since I had some coupon code due to my air travel through them I could use it for some discounts. The accommodation consisted of a living room, bedroom, kitchen cum dining room and a balcony. AC included too. Perfect isn’t it. Most important kitchen had a mini bar. Food at their restaurant is just average – but who wants that from them in Goa? Just behind them is the coastal line of Candolim.

But once when Karnataka coastal line got added in our trip, additionally two more nights have to be planned and we were in no mood to settle down any where else than Goa, so decided on another place – LaBen at Colva. This is more to the south of Goa so as to ease our south trips. Costed Rs1300 for 2 Nights with extra beds and AC. Again booked through makemytrip and used some more coupon codes. Decent place for a family to stay. No frills, just clean rooms. Very near to Colva Beach, and hence shacks and other restaurants were just nearby. The additional travel involved due to this was taken as an opportunity to drive for me and my wife. We are one crazy family

We were reading frantically through all the travelogues here at team-bhp and sometimes referring to the 52 weekend getaways from Bangalore by Outlook. Outlook traveler turned out to be shocking in reality – more of it later.

Most of the road details were discussed at team-bhp and with the help of ravibhat decided on the routes to travel. As a backup for the travel I took my satguide GPS and Lonely Planets India and Bengal road atlas which is a very comprehensive map of all the National and State highways.

All set by 25/09/2008. Three weeks of reading, dreaming, discussions, working out the economics, we started to become comfortable with the data collected and just wanted to get going. The plan - start by 28th September and return by 5th October. Places to visit – Yana, Jog, Maravanthe, Murdeshwar, Gokarna, Karwar, Goa.

Oh my God, I just cant say how much frustrated you get since the day was not approaching to just hit out. Waiting for 28th September was the longest wait I ever had. Every passing hour seemed to be too long.
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Old 9th October 2008, 15:25   #9
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Quote:
Finally Makemytrip offered a good deal at Santana Beach Resort at Candolim. Costed Rs5300 with extra bed and breakfast for a family of four for 5 nights and 6 days.
Thats really a cool deal. I always think that booking through these makemytrip or other online agents is not safe
Seems its time to change the thinking.
Quote:
Outlook traveler turned out to be shocking in reality – more of it later.
OMG, what is it man?
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Old 9th October 2008, 15:56   #10
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Originally Posted by mjothi View Post
Thats really a cool deal. I always think that booking through these makemytrip or other online agents is not safe
Seems its time to change the thinking.

OMG, what is it man?
Makemytrip is quite safe if you book in advance - atleast 5days before your travel. Even a late booking is fine, but then it is better to call them up and let them do it than you do it online. I have been booking through them my flight tickets and hotels - no issues till now.

Outlook travellor, I cannot blindly believe it. For example in Gokarna we wanted to go for lunch. Looking at the book it says go to Gokarna International's Down Town Restaurant for local coastal cuisines or go to any of the shacks. We checked out the shacks - nothing was available than biscuits and tender coconut. Enthusiastically my wife finds out the hotel, and all of us walk in. Oh my god it is horribly unclean, it is a bar with locals drinking like hell, and to see us in that state of affairs - I blamed myself for not asking any BHPians about Gokarna's good hotels. Since there were no hotels in sight we had to eat there. Horrible food as well. We threw the book then to the dickey, why waste space for that in the cabin.
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Old 9th October 2008, 15:57   #11
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Originally Posted by laluks View Post
Background.

So from the beginning of September, just immediately after our Yercaud trip, me and my wife started finding out the best deals on the net for a stay at Goa. Finally Makemytrip offered a good deal at Santana Beach Resort at Candolim. Costed Rs5300 with extra bed and breakfast for a family of four for 5 nights and 6 days. Actual costs are high, since I had some coupon code due to my air travel through them I could use it for some discounts. The accommodation consisted of a living room, bedroom, kitchen cum dining room and a balcony. AC included too. Perfect isn’t it. Most important kitchen had a mini bar. Food at their restaurant is just average – but who wants that from them in Goa? Just behind them is the coastal line of Candolim.
The deal seems to be awesome. Well did you drive you Civic (I know a silly question). But yes want to know on how did it perform in bad roads and how was it to drive in the ghats.
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Old 9th October 2008, 16:33   #12
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The deal seems to be awesome. Well did you drive you Civic (I know a silly question). But yes want to know on how did it perform in bad roads and how was it to drive in the ghats.
There are no silly questions there are only silly answers.

Yes, I did drive my Civic. Civic unlike it is portrayed did the roads with grace. You have to be careful, and slow for her to do the bad stretches. Not even once her underbelly got scraped in this 3000Km.

Ghat roads was no problem for her. She did it all in third gear with ac on in tremendous grace.
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Old 9th October 2008, 17:38   #13
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Nice start Laluks, keep the travelogue and pics flowing !!

Abhi
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Old 9th October 2008, 17:55   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by laluks View Post
Oh my god it is horribly unclean, it is a bar with locals drinking like hell, and to see us in that state of affairs - I blamed myself for not asking any BHPians about Gokarna's good hotels. Since there were no hotels in sight we had to eat there. Horrible food as well. We threw the book then to the dickey, why waste space for that in the cabin.
I can understand the state you would have been especially when you are with the family.

On a lighter note - you should have thrown the book out of the car, to reduce the weight over all

But everything has excpetions right?
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Old 9th October 2008, 18:50   #15
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I guess it will be huge travelogue with lot of pictures

Good to hear that Yaana road is complete, did you travel from Sirsi side or Kumta side to Yaana and from Yaana where you have travelled and which route. The reason I wanted to know if you took Yaana - gokarna cross nh17.

6 months back when I visited Yaana they said before mansoon they would put Tarr road there, did they do it because I told them going by past works I told them I will be surprised if they complete it in 1 year. How many minutes(meters) you walked to see Yaana Rocks/Temple? Please pour in more details on that so it would potential visitors like me.

Regards,

Ravi.
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