Madikeri to Mangueshi - Incredible India

We started from Mysore by bus to Madikeri and in less than four hours we were in Madikeri (Coorg) looking for a good hotel to stay. Being a weekend all the hotels were full. Finally we did manage to get a good room. All the hotel rooms cost upwards of Rs.650/-. Finally we did manage to get a room in a newly opened hotel(and struggling to get known) close to the town's main centre.

We then went around the town after an hour's rest and refreshing ourselves. It was wonderfully chill. We went to the fort and the museum (which was closed). We also went to Raja's Seat and enjoyed the view of the mountains and valleys ... great!!

Then the next day we scheduled a visit to Bhagmandala and on to Talacauvery.
There was no regular transport from Bhagmandala to Talacauvery. So we hired an auto to and fro (8+8 kms) for Rs.100/-. Both these places are currently under major renovation. We returned to Madikeri town for lunch. The routes were wonderful ... very green ... full of trees and forests and plantations. A lot of stalls were there selling honey.... a popular forest product of that area.

We made it a point to visit the Namdorling Monastery near Kushalnagar (about 5 kms from this town) where the most beautiful temple is constructed by the Buddhists at Bylakuppe. We took an autorickshaw from the town. It was around 4pm after a 10 mins ride. The whole place was swarming with Tibetan buddhists of all ages all dressed uniformly in the same colours as the Dalai Lama. This place is really fascinating for its gardens and general Buddhist architectural beauty. Well maintained and very clean - we enjoyed our visit to this monastery - a great visual treat. We returned after a satisfying visit back to Madikeri.

At the Madikeri bus stand the timekeepers were not at all helpful even knowing that we are tourists. They were curt and rude. Also a big drawback was the locals did not converse in anything other than Kannada. All the name boards were mostly in Kannada barring a rare few. This was the situation till we reached Udupi a couple of days later.
Finally we took the morning bus next day to Sulya enroute to Subramanya. We then took the connecting bus to Kukke Subramanya after taking advantage of the short interval for a quick bite of idli-vada breakfast at a good hotel opposite the Sulya bus stand. The whole journey took about less than 4 hrs i.e., from Madikeri to Subramanya.

Finally we reached Subramanya at 10am. Immediately we got a room in one of the several guest houses maintained by the temple. There are three or four good hotels there where we had our food. The temple also provides lunch and dinner prasadams but this involves waiting in long queues.

Subramanya has a nice ambience with an ancient temple surrounded by hills. A km away there is a Ganapathy temple with a huge idol. Close by there is a cave temple dedicated to Vasuki - the serpent .. who is said to be living in hiding. There is a nice park being developed adjacent. Both these lie on the main road where several buildings stand providing lodgings for devotees and pilgrims.

We left for Dharmastal - a Jain pilgrim centre - the next morning reaching there around 10am- after a 2 hour bus ride. We were quickly allotted a simple small room which had no toilet attached. To visit the toilets one had to go to the next building a little away which proved difficult because you had to come down the stairs every time and walk a little distance. All the same this was very inconvenient. After a quick wash we were in line for dharshan of Lord Manjunath. The crowd was considerable but I was told it was much less compared to normal times. I saw another huge line where devotees were waiting in long winding queues for the lunch. Infact Dharmastal is famous for this free lunch offered to all devotees. We had a good dharshan

We however did not wait for the lunch and instead made enquiries for the bus to Udupi and received very curt and confusing replies. Incidentally I found the employees of the Government run bus company very unhelpful and oftentimes rude even to answer very simple questions from a tourist. However some of the bus conductors and drivers made up for this by being extremely helpful. Another big problem I noticed was that throughout (from Mysore - where I started this journey) people spoke nothing but Kannada and knew no other languages. Everything too was written in Kannada - on the whole a very tourist-unfriendly region. Infact it gave me the impression that they truly considered tourists as pests. So much for the Indian Government waxing eloquent on "Incredible India" campaigns. Its all hogwash and nobody who visits will believe this. And people generally believe first hand accounts of other people's experiences. They are not influenced by these grand advertisements on which crores of rupees are just wasted. Instead they could spend the money on training the government employees to be polite and extend basic courtesies.

I was not too impressed by Dharmastala and contrary to original plans took a 3pm bus for Udupi. I had really no intention to visit Udupi having visited the famous Sri Krishna temple there several times on short visits. My idea was to reduce continuous bus travel and avoid the fatigue by making these bus journeys short and manageable.

However to my surprise Udupi wore a positive ambience. Not only the town looked clean and prosperous ... one could interact with the locals in several languages (atlast!!). Our bus passed through Manipal town on the highway. This town is famous for its educational institutions and medical facilities and is just about 5 kms from Udupi. Udupi has several good eating places. After the customary visit to the temple and participating in the daily ritual of the chariot going round the streets around 8pm we retired for the day. The journey to reach Udupi was about 2hrs from Dharmastal. So it was not a very tiring journey. The weather too had become warmer from Subramanya onwards. But it was not quite as hot as in many other parts of India.

We also visited the Malpe beach in the morning. This beach is very clean and impressed me. A month earlier at home I had watched a programme called "foodie" on a TV channel "Times Now" which showed fish fry delicacies on the Malpe beach. However it being morning the stalls were yet to open. However we had a pleasant and quiet time playing with the waves.

After a 2 day stay (unplanned) we moved on to Kumta - about 4 hrs bus drive from Udupi.

At Kumta we were there only for about 6 hrs visiting an elderly relative whom I did not remember meeting anytime earlier.

There was a last minute change in our travel plans which I regretted later. I was to visit Gokarna, stay overnight and then move on to Madgaon after a brief halt at Karwar. Instead We took the bus to Karwar direct from Kumta.

By evening we were on our way to Karwar about which I had heard a lot about its 'unspoilt' beaches. I was eager to visit Karwar thinking that it would be a much beautiful place to enjoy a quiet day on its beaches.

Yes we reached Karwar but it in no remote way fitted to the description of a beautiful quiet little town. That night in that newly constructed hotel where we stayed we were inundated with hundreds of mosquitoes ... spoiling our entire night into a restless sleepless one. None of the hotel staff were available for any help. All the same ... the morning after we went to the beach ... yes the "TAGORE Beach". The great poet seems to have been inspired by this place and a grateful people have named this beach after him. Just like the town itself the beach was no different in giving the visitors a "dirty wink". Some advised us to visit the Devbagh beach but we felt enough was enough.

A quick breakfast and we were now on a bus to Madgaon enroute to Mangueshi via Ponda.

Goa was refreshing. There hardly seemed any crowds any place we visited in Goa. The climate was mild. It was not humid as I had expected as the monsoons were to set about 10 days later. Now and then we could see vehicles - decorated with all colourful banners - of political parties driving past. Otherwise we did not notice much of the excitement anywhere that is usually associated with election campaigns. But everywhere there were newspapers at their vituperative best ... painting some candidate or other in lurid colours. But the politicians seemed to take it 'cool' and they advertised in those very papers that ridiculed and criticised them short of expletives.

We camped in a good room (one of the 97) at the Mangueshi temple compound. This helped us to visit Panjim (40 mins at the most - 18 kms away) by the exceedingly good private transport buses (one mini bus every 2 mins). Ponda too is nearby via Farmagudi in the opposite direction. The road runs from Ponda to Panjim via Mangueshi.

We took the north and south Goa conducted tours by some private tour operator. There are hardly any differences between them! And they pool their resources depending on the number of tourists booking with them. I was told that they conduct atleast one tour a day each to north and south Goa through out the year without fail.

Goa is through-out green and beautifully quiet. We went to Farmagudi from Mangueshi on the way to Ponda to visit a Ganapathy temple. We then thought to walking to the Ramnathi temple - a good 40 minutes by walk. Incidentally this was a beautiful experience walking on very good tarred road surrounded on all sides by wooded forests and plantations. The last bus was at 630pm to Ponda or else we would be at the mercy of the autowallas. So we skipped the walk to Shanta Durga temple and took the minibus from Ramnathi to Ponda. However we visited this temple the next day which was part of the conducted tour. This is in a place called Kavle where on of the four religious Mutts (of the GSB's or Gauda Saraswath Brahmins) viz., the Kavle Mutt is situated - alittle away from the temple.

All the temples in Goa are different from their counterparts elsewhere in India. Their architectural designs are totally different.

The language spoken is Konkani. Konkani is spoken right along the coast from Goa to Mangalore. But the tone, accent and the vocabulary differ all along the coast. The script is devanagiri. There is a clamour for writing Konkani in the Roman script. In Karnataka Konkani is written in the Kannada script.

I would rate the Goa leg of the trip was the most satisfying in all respects and very enjoyable. The one sore point in Goa is the high prices which I feel is being charged only on the tourists. Even the bus fares were just half for the locals. Though rules were written boldly in the interiors of the bus no tickets were issued in most cases while the conductors just collected the cash and I think pocketed the money unless the minibus belonged to them which I fear was most unlikely.

The other means of transport was way beyond the normal in terms of cost though available in plenty and mostly for the benefit of tourists. The Goans justified the high prices everywhere saying that tourism was their mainstay and this period reached its peak only during the six months from Oct to Mar and the other six months they were forced to remain idle. Moreover as there are not many industries except for Cashew and Feni.

We had started from Mysore on the 12th May, 2007 and had reached Goa on friday the 19th May '07. We left Goa from Panjim for Bangalore on 22nd (monday) by Paulo Travels by the 1830 hrs bus which was half hour late. My agent had booked a 'Super Luxury' seat which really made me rethink and meditate on the word 'luxury'. The seats were cramped and anything but luxurious from the dictionary meaning I knew. There were strangely only 14 such 'luxury' seats and the rest were 32 sleepers (which were anything but sleepers from a glance at their faces the next morning). All the same no one complained and these "travels' i.e., operators carry on merrily with their 'get rich quick' business. I had a sprained neck for the next three days.

They had specifically promised me that their final stop will be at the Majestic bus stand. Instead we reached much beyond our schedule at 11am and refused to go beyond Race Course road. Meanwhile as we got down several touts and auto-rickshaw drivers gathered around the tourists as they alighted from the bus demanding exorbitant fares to reach them to the Majestic bus stand about 2 kms away. Indeed 'incredible' and this is what we have seen throughout our travel that India is really "INCREDIBLE". There is hardly any concern or care for tourists. There are no proper toilets and if you did chance upon one there is a big queue and if you indeed did finally manage get to the toilet you would have beaten the record of the 4 minute mile.

Infact I found about 5 western tourists looking really helpless, bewildered and unhappy. I wondered what they would say to their family and friends back home. A local mistook the depressed looks on the faces of the tourists and in an aside commented to me that this was a reflection of an unhappy west in search of peace in a spiritual India. I replied that infact these western tourists have lost whatever joy they had after mistakenly believing that the India trip would help them in the discovery of their higher self but ended discovering their lower ones with lightening purses. So much for "Incredible India".

The Indian Government has a tourism minister who I think goes on her own tours (abroad ofcourse!) mistakenly believing perhaps that, that is her real job!! You cannot fault these ministers. They first study how tourism is conducted in foreign countries. Can you blame them if they find their 5 year tenure too short to implement anything! India is a great - world's biggest - democracy and it has its own compulsions - the minister knows this and we the citizens too know what "strain" they undergo travelling abroad only to make life better for all tourists visiting India.

Word-of-mouth is the greatest advertiser and 'incredible' indeed it is that India is nowhere on the world tourist map. The so called tourists to India, the figures which the Govrnment dishes out periodically (ofcourse after duly cooking them up ) , is less than one percent of the world tourist traffic. You will wonder how even this traffic comes to India. Actually India does not get many tourists - incredible you may say (perhaps the government hoardings are saying this very thing and invites the tourist to discover why!!) and the visitors are mostly on official government and business trips ... because they say India is booming (another item on the 'incredible' list) which is really a mirage. Come to India and discover why. I shall come to it later in a separate blog. Tell your friends that India is indeed "incredible" and do not worry, for you will be not be really telling them an untruth. Only leave it at that and don't explain. They will come and discover why. As a starter try this on your enemies ... and you will get even with them without doubt.