what we did that summer :)

we : abhishek, harman, rajeev, shibashish and i
destination: goa, murdeshwar, jog falls, kemengundi
duration: 5 days
transportation: buses, bikes, autos, trains

its a very long travelogue, as it was a 5days trip and there were a lot of interesting incidents that happended with us. also the picture quality is not good as all these pictures are scanned
this travelogue is dedicated to abhishek, harman and rajeev ( harman was with us only during the bus journey from bangalore to goa).

our office was supposed to remain closed for 5 days (first week of july'04) as we were moving to new campus and all the stuffs ( workstations, servers, etc…) were to be moved. i was sitting in my cube ( last day at GVH office) , harman came and asked me that they were planning to go to goa and if i was interested in joining them. that was around 3:00 pm. we went to the ksrtc reservation center and got the ticket of bus which was at 5:00pm.

the journey from bangalore to goa normally takes 14 hrs but our ksrtc bus got delayed by 2 hrs. we reached goa bus stand at around 9 in the morning. near the bus stand is the goa tourism office from where we got some information and maps of goa. this time of the year is off season in goa so we decided to stay next to the best beach over there, calungutte beach ( queen of all beaches in goa). there we took 2 ac rooms for just thousand rupees per day. in the afternoon we went to the beach, enjoyed there for about 2hours. because of monsoon the sea was very rough so we couldn't go deep into the sea.

rough sea

in the night we went back to panjim and visited a beautiful hanumaan temple. it was really good, especially during night with flood lights directed onto it. when we came out of temple it was around 9 pm and the buses for calungutte beach from panjim stops after 8:30pm so we had to take auto from panjim. we paid around 200 rupees to the autowala. one can hire bikes in goa so we decided to hire bike instead of paying to autowalas. we started on bikes for anjum beach. which is around 10 kms from calungutte beach . the roads to anjum beach are quite narrow and with a lot of curves. riding bike on empty road with countryside setting at night..wow !! it was a real fun. that beach has got a disco. since there was no good crowd over there we decided to spend the time on beach instead of disco.

beach near aguade fort - behind is a ship which amir khan mentioned in dch

dch style - aguada fort

central jail aguada

next day after having parantha at one of the punjabi restaurant, we went to aguada fort. this is were dch was shot. it is an old fort on the sea shore. form there we went to chuara island. we had to take ferry to that island. the ferry carries from cycles to jeeps on it. it was a 15min trip to that island from panjim. on that island there are lake and few springs which are around 40-45 kms from the place where the ferry dropped us. then we started on bike at 65-70 kmph.

at chuara island

spring at chuara island

It was really thrilling. we went for boating and then went to the springs. at around 6 we were back at panjim, went to 2-3 more beaches mariymar and daonapaula ( i am not able to recollect the names correctly. they sound something like this only). at 730 we went for cruise. it was a 1hr cruise into the sea water but was bit disappointing, because of the crowd on it. we reached back to our rooms at around 9:30pm. whole of goa was excited about the since euro final since portugal was involved. at the football grounds large screens were put on for live telecast of the event. ndtv, aaj tak crew were also there. but we decided to goto beach and have drinks. took few beers and scotch (vat69). got prawns, pomfret fish , chicken packed and started towards beach. after beer and 3-4 pegs everybody was high and we started running around, chasing each other. somehow we managed to come back to our room. that time greece and portugal were 0-0. i think it was the start of the 2nd half. i started giving a lot of fundas about offside, offsidetrap and how they should implement it. don't know during the match when i slept, but morning at 7:30 we were up. no hangover. totally fresh.

next morning after having brunch we left for margaon, from where we took train for murdeshwar. the konkan track is ultimate.

murdeshwar beach

lots of greenry, tunnels, bridges, mountains. murdeshwar has the tallest shiv statue in the world. it is built next to the sea shore. in murdeshwar one can drive car/bike on the beach, but sadly we were without oue bikes. we spent some 2-3 hrs there and started for jog falls.

jog falls

we didn'thave any idea how to reach there. we took buses from one stop toanother to another and finally we reached jog falls at 10 in the night having no idea if we will find any thing to eat leave aside getting a place to stay. luckly there is a kstdc restaurant that serves meals and also a govt. guest house that has got really stinky rooms. somehow we spent the night there. morning we had bread toast at the same ksrtc restaurant and started down hill. the track was extremly slippery and dangerous near the bottom of the hill. it took around half an hour to reach. that place is really dangerous. a slip and you are gone and there is nobody to help you out, no facilities, no dispensary, nothing at all. after spending some time there at the bottom we started to track back. it was really exhausting. when we reached the top of the hill we couldn't move our legs... had some rest and after having lunch started for shimoga. we got a direct bus for shimoga from there. shimoga was really disappointing. we had thought it to be a hill station but it is a normal city like any other small city, so we decided to go to kemengundi. its a hill station in the heart of western ghats.

kemengundi

we had heard of that place from one of our friend in office but had no idea how to reach there. we got some information from drivers , shop walas and people with whom we could communicate :-(. we changed 3 buses before reaching the foot of the hills where kemengundi is there. it is 13 Kms from there. took maruti omni upto the place. kemengundi has got 15-20 rooms in 5-6 cottages, 2-3 canteens and an office where the receptionist sits. thats it. we decided to have beer. for that we called up a guy at the place that was 13 km from there (near the foot of the hill ), but we got a big kela as he got warm beer and were asked for service charges for bringing that. we had a big fight with that guy and finally we managed to return the beer but had to give him the service charges.
next day we enquired about the water fall and few other tourist places around it. the jeep wala asked for 1500 rupees for showing all that places. by that time we had spent more than our budget so we decided to go for tracking instead of going to those watefalls. we tracked for around 2-3 hrs.

kemengundi - on top hill after tracking

when we came back to our rooms there was no jeep, bus, car to take us back. so we started on foot. after travelling for about 2 kms with our bags on our shoulder we got totally tired and we had to go another 11 km. so we called up the receptionist to send the jeep when ever it comes. we waited for one and half hour and then decided to cover the distance on foot. jeep came after we had covered about 1km. from there we changed 2-3 buses before reaching berur. there we took beer and boarded train, jan shatabdi, for bangalore. we had to drink beer in toilet. people were confused about whats going on. 2 guys went inside, after 10 min one comes out and another goes in. one uncle wanted to use toilet after one guy came out but he couldn't open the door, and was surprised. we explained him that someone is changing the clothes inside and he was amazaed and we started laughing. after having beer we ate chips and snacks and slept. when we got up we were at banglore station.

mekadatu - goat's leap

mekadatu in native language means goat's leap.
here river cauvery has carved beautiful curves, cuts and holes into the hill and it is believed that the natives once saw a goat leaping over the narrow gorge which is created by the river and hence the name mekadatu.
how to reach mekadatu : this place is about 100 kms from bangalore. from bangalore you have to take kanakpura raod ( from airport road enter inner-ring road, keep driving through koromangala and enter btm. cross btm to reach jp nagar. keep moving straight in jp nagar and on your left you will find turning towards kanakpura ) . on the way to mekadatu, on kanapura road you can see "the art of living" ashram. the ashram looks quite good especially during night when it is fully lit up. the road is pretty good till kanakpur and you can easily drive at 60kmph or more. kanakpura is around 53kms from bangalore. you can pick up some stuff to eat this place as there is more option for food here compared to your destination and you will also save some money.

from kanakpura you have to take a left and move towards mekadatu,which is around 40kms from kanakpura. the road is like any other village road, not very good. drive very carefully on this road as kids, cyclists, dogs, poultry birds will keep coming on your way. keep going straight and you will hit a dead end ( banglorean way of giving direction ;) ) . this place is called sangam, where arakavathi river meets river cauvery. to reach mekadattu from here you will have to cross the river stream.

there are no shops at mekadatu so buy whatever you want ( or is available ) at sangam before crossing the river. across the river there is a rickety bus to take you to mekadatu or you can trek the remaining 4kms. the so called road to mekadattu from sangam is totally rough and full of rocks.

split-apart : picture clicked while trekking towards mekadatu

at mekadatu climb down the stairs and move over the sharp edged rocks to reach the place from where you can get the best view of the gushing water, but be very careful, the rocks are extremly slippery and very sharp.

some of the pictures clicked while at mekadatu.

man-made rainbow

same view - different result