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Saturday, May 28, 2011

Mangalore trip Travelogue - Part 1

Guys, here's the much-delayed Travelogue for our Mangalore trip. I'll be posting it in multiple parts, just to sustain the interest a little longer ;). If you remember and funny/interesting things which happened to you or others during the trip, mention it in the comments. Sorry if I have forgotten anything.

Feb 25
It all started with Ashu, Vids, Rash and me meeting at the restaurant at the railway station and hogging like never before. We knew this is how its going to be for the next 3 days - tables filled with loads of food. Krish came late so we parceled a meagre dosa for him. John and Shwetha would be joining us at Mysore. But until then, we had a major task at hand. Our berths were all scattered around in different coaches and we had to get our berths together. Krishna asked us not to intervene and assured us he will "take care" of this. But when the TC actually arrived, Krishna was all confused as to what our demands were. And everyone started shouting. The TC calmed us down ("yaaradru obre maatadi") and assured us that he'll get us berths together. And so we waited. And waited and then got berths near the toilet and then more waiting. And we waited for more than 3 hours till we got to Mysore station. John and Shwetha got onto the train, Shwetha looking lost as usual. Finally the benevolent TC got us some good berths and we slept for the night.

Feb 26
Morning came, charmadi ghat came and went, people woke up at leisure and Krishna was playing Sodexho on his phone. Finally we reached Mangalore and got down at the right station. We had breakfast and left for Udupi. There Shwetha posed as the Afghan woman, Ashu did her 108 rounds and then we all had a nice lunch with whatever food items we could lay our hands on at Mitra samaja, not to forget the ever tempting Masala dosa. From there, we went to Div's place to fulfil our purpose of the trip - to meet princess Ananya. We all paid due respects to our Godmother. And aunty ( Div's mom) kept us entertained with her non-stop talking. Then the princess made her grand entry. She was so tiny, everyone was scared to hold her. And of course Div gave strict instructions before we could hold her :P We took lots of pics. Sandeep came and then we all paid a visit to Div's "actual" place. Later at Div's parents' place, John taught us an amazing game - Mafia. We have played Mafia a number of times since then, and I guess some awards are due.

Best Mafia - Vids
Worst Mafia - Me ( I was Mafia like, only twice till now . And it shows on my face :P).
Best police - Krishna
Best villager - Rash
Stealthiest Mafia - Rash/Shwetha ( You'll never imagine them as mafia)
The ever-innocent victim - Ashu
And of course, The lifetime achievement award - John ,because its all his teaching :D

 Coming back, we had a sumptuous dinner prepared by the Kamaths and left for our hotel but not before we discussed our next 2 days itinerary with Div ( Div saying "Useless you are") and assuring her that we'll be calling her again for clarifications. Actually the plan was to visit the beach at night but the driver told us that its not safe at that time due to some incident and so we had to drop the plan.

BTW something happened while on our way to Div and Sandeep's place. Something which was going to change the overall experience of our trip, something which would take it to a whole new level. I randomly selected a kannada song amidst protests from everyone and then it started - Amantrisi nanna, alangisi. A song with genius smeared all over it - the start ( oooooooyeeaahh, ooou ooou  ooou yeaaah ) , the mindblowing lyrics ( komala manasu BUT hands of steel.. OMG) with just a touch of sensuousness ( mai chumbisi, for instance)  and the range of musical instruments used like never seen before. All of us were so besotted with the song that we would play the song over and over again. It was running in our heads all the time and at the end we weren't able to part with the poor driver's CD!

Back in the hotel room, it was time for our all time favorite game, Dumb charades. Biggest highlight was Ashu enacting Zubeidaa. When they were unable to guess it, Ashu went to advanced mode - she got onto the bed. Vids tried her best ( Shah Rukh Khan, Bandra Bandstand, rowdy in the river etc etc) until by sheer luck, Krish ( half asleep until then) said Manoj kumar which led them to Manoj Bajpai.I guess there wre couple of good ones which I can't recall now.

Feb 27
Next day,we get up early morning tomorrow for a visit to Suratkal beach. I have lots of memories here from my previous trip and this time was no exception. Coming early morning was a great idea. There was not a soul around and we had the entire beach to play, roam around and click mad snaps - John the Don and his (cough) gal Vids, Munni snaps, the Shwetha visarjan snaps etc. Next it was time for breakfast. Easily one of the best breakfasts ever. The first round of items were so yummy, we ordered everything available there - plates and plates of idli, vada, goli bajji, khara bhath, kesari bhath, some biscuit the waiter got, buns, mosaru avalakki - everything except for the dosa. And then we packed pulao for lunch to boot. With our tummies happy and content, we started for our first destination , Moodbidri, the 1000 pillared temple.

Krishna was cribbing throughout on the way to Moodbidri. It seems he has gone there before and he felt terribly cheated to find out that the temple doesn't even have 100 proper pillars, let alone 1000. He was so dead against visiting the temple that he even refused to get out of the vehicle. But we TFTs are no ordinary gang. We paint any place we pass by with our own colors, however dull and dreary it might have been. We got some super cool snaps there on John's cam ( my "Don" pics , for example :D). Next stop Hanumangundi falls. BTW I should tell you, monkey Shwetha kept stealing stuff from me all the time during the travel. Monkey habits don't die.

Okay then, I will stop here for now. Let people read, absorb and recollect whatever they can before the next part comes up.