MURDESHWAR, SRINGERI TRIP

During the Diwali holidays of 2010, me and my wife planned on a trip to Mangalore and surrounding places in South Karnataka. We boarded the Chennai-Mangalore West Coast Express at our home town of Tiruppur, at 7 pm on the 6th of November. After a hearty dinner of parrottas from the Pantry and a nice sleep, we reached Mangalore Junction at 4.45 am. We checked into Hotel Srinivas (where I had already made my booking) just 1.5 km from the railway junction, had a quick bath and returned immediately to the station to catch the Mangalore-Madgaon Passenger(Konkan Railway) departing at 6.20 am, for our trip to Murdeshwar Temple, 165 kms from Mangalore. The train journey was through a beautiful route (on which we had already travelled twice before on our trips to Goa), passing through lengthy tunnels and backwaters.We reached Murdeshwar Station around 10 am and took an auto to the Temple some 2 kms away. The whole temple area and the adjacent shops and hotels were jampacked with tourists from all over Karnataka and from nearby Goa, enjoying their Diwali holidays. We had our breakfast at the crowded Kamat hotel just in front of the Temple. On reaching the temple, you are welcomed by a tall, imposing Gopuram(temple tower), flanked on both sides by the Arabian Sea. Interestingly, there is a lift to reach the top of the Gopuram from the ground floor at the Temple entrance(I have never seen such a lift inside a gopuram, in any other temple). The charges for the lift are Rs.20 per person and the lift takes you to a platform inside the gopuram just below the top tier. The views from the platform, of the sea surrounding the temple from the three sides is truly amazing. But the real highlight is the view of the mammoth Shiva statue, constructed a few years ago, on a hillock behind the temple. The statue and the sea behind it, when viewed from the platform at the top of the temple gopuram will leave everyone spell bound.The trip to Murdeshwar is worth just for this single view. After the views from the lift, we went to the temple for the darshan. After the darshan, we went behind the temple to have a real close look at the massive Shiva Statue. Really you run out of superlatives, describing the imposing statue and the beauty that surrounds it. The spot is a photographers delight and there were numerous domestic and foreign tourists, clicking away merrily from all possible angles. We too gladly did the same. There is also a small cave like enclosure, under the pedestal of the statue, where one can view a lot of beautiful statues depicting the history of the temple(if i remember correctly). The entrance charges to this place is Rs.10 per person. The beach on the north side of the temple, is a nice place for bathing and water

rides. The waves too did not look too rough, and there were a lot of kids who were having a great time. We returned to the Mangalore-Goa highway(NH 17) and took the bus to Udipi at around 12.15 pm. The condition of the road to Udipi was pathetic(remember it is a National Highway) and we being used to well maintained roads all over Tamilnadu, found the journey unbearable. Even the sight of the beautiful Maravanthe beach, situated right by the Highway (15 kms before Kundapura), wasnt enough to mask our discomfort. We were relieved when the State transport bus reached Udipi at 3.30 pm. We had a nice lunch at Shiv Sagar, a very good vegetarian restaurant at the heart of the town. We reached the famous Udipi Krishna temple at around 4 pm and were surprised to find very little crowds. We had darshan twice in around half an hour, which was an unexpected bonus. We took the bus back to Mangalore at 5 pm and thankfully the road from Udipi to Mangalore was good and we reached mangalore at 6.30. Since we did not want to return to our room that early, we enquired the locals about some interesting place to visit inside the town and went to Kudroli temple(situated in the heart of the city, just 2 kms from the railway station). It was a very famous temple among the locals, and there was a big crowd. The temple had a lot of grandeur and was well illuminated and the lights presented an appealing view at night. After the temple visit we had a very good North Indian Dinner just near our hotel and returned to our rooms, very very tired. Details of Sringeri trip in part II After our visit to Murdeshwar, we had a good nights sleep and woke up early the next day. We vacated our hotel at 6 am. As per our request, the manager at our hotel had arranged a Tata Indigo for our trip to Sringeri, 110 kms from Mangalore. We had a nice hot coffee while waiting for our car (Hotel Srinivas has a neat vegetarian restaurant and it was up and running at 6 am and some guests were even having piping hot idlis served at that time). The car arrived at 6.15 am and were on our way to Sringeri on a cold, drizzly morning. Our first stop on the way was at the town of Moodbidri, 35 kms away from Mangalore. We had our breakfast at the town. The town was famous for its Jain temples and we decided to have a look at the most famous one, the Thousand Pillar temple at the heart of the town. The temple was built completely in wood and it had three floors with wooden staircases linking them. We were the only ones at the temple at around 7.30 am and the whole place was eerily calm. The main priest of the temple was kind enough to show us all the dieties right up

to the third floor. The temple has a tall Mahabali diety, at the ground floor(just like the one at Sharavanabelagola). Locals started coming in for darshan as we were leaving the temple. Unfortunately, I could not take any photos of the temple, since photography was prohibited. From there, we proceeded on our way and reached Karkala. From Karkala, there are two routes to Sringeri. One route is through Agumbe ghats which is to the north of Karkala and the other route(NH 13) is to the east of Karkala. We took the more adventurous Agumbe ghat route. It started raining heavily, as we reached the town of Someshwar, at the foothills of the ghats. Our car moved ahead cautiously amidst the narrow ghat roads and pelting rain. What made the ride more thrilling was the thick forest cover(the ghat road is situated on the fringes of the Kudremukh Reserved Forest), with not a house in sight for almost 15 to 20 kms at a stretch. We had signboards reading WATCH OUT FOR SNAKES and THIS IS THE LAND OF THE KING COBRA on the way. Anyone will think twice of getting down and taking snaps of the scenery if they saw those boards. We reached Agumbe viewpoint amidst continuous rain and stayed there for just a couple of minutes. We could not get a clear view of the valley below because of the rain. On a clear day, this is a famous stopping point on the way to Sringeri. For your information, Agumbe is the place which gets the highest rainfall in Karnataka and some say it gets the second highest rainfall in India after Cherrapunji. Amidst the rain we passed through Agumbe(actually the town has just one road with housing quarters for forest officers on either side). Every house in this area is covered with thick blue/black sheets(looked like polythene sheets) over their roofs and walls, to protect them from the continuous rain which lasts for months at a time. The rain eased up as we neared Sringeri and we reached the pilgrimage town around 10.15 am. The beautiful temple is situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. We had a relaxed darshan at the temple, because there was not a very big crowd. After darshan, we went down to the river bank. There were people feeding the fish in the river with whatever snacks they had brought with them. We too joined the feeding crowd and had a very good time, amazed at the sight of fish jostling for their food. Then we crossed the bridge over the river, and reached over to the beautiful green parks at the other end of the river. We spent some time amidst the lush green surroundings of the park. Since we had a train to catch at Mangalore at 4 pm, we left Sringeri at 11.30 am. We could not go to Annapoorneshwari temple at Horanadu which is 85 kms from Sringeri, which we left for another visit.

On our return we took the NH 13 route to Mangalore. This route is also a very scenic one, thickly forested (for atleast 30 kms from Sringeri) with the Tunghabhadra river accompanying you all the way. We reached Mangalore well in time at 2.30 pm. Since we had completed all the temple visits, we decided to go in for some much need Non-Vegetarian lunch. We chose the Kairali restaurant, very near to the junction, specialising in Kerala style dishes. We had excellent Biriyani, fried fish and chicken gravy. We thanked our driver for suggesting the restaurant and took our train and reached Tiruppur at around 1 am the next day. Great holidays.