Om Beach, Gokarna, Karnataka, India

14th - 17th March 2011



Leaving the train station behind we took an auto rickshaw to Om Beach got a cheap room complete with a mosquito net and walked along the curving beach in the dim light of dusk we went back and ate our dinner of pizza, lasagne and beer in the hotel restaurant which was directly overlooking the beach, we weren't long for bed.

From Gokarna, Karnataka, India

We tried to be up early the next day but failed miserably, there is nothing like the comfort of a smooth bed, a breeze and the assurance that you won't be mauled by mosquitoes as you lay prostrate on the bed slumbering into mid-morning. We walked along the beach which is the light of day was every bit as beautiful as OI had imagined it to be the previous night, we came back had breakfast, checked emails, read and snoozed, it got so hot in room under mosquito net which very effectively cut out 80% of the breeze generated by our ageing peeling fan flapping about near the ceiling. So we left the confines of our room, through on some swimmers and went out for a dip, I came back and read while Djalma frolicked in the surf like a very beautiful albeit hairy mermaid. We had lunch and went for another walk this time we trekked and sweated our way over the forested outcrop to next beach we backtracked to an outcrop to watch the sun set and people falling off a racing banana boat. At dinner we met an English couple Johnny and Jess who are at the beginning of a six month trip throughout India, we had dinner and a couple of beers chatting into the evening and enjoying the cool breeze that came round the same time as twilight (we had to wait a very long time for the heat of the day to abate).

My stomach confining me to limited acts of physical endurance, I didn't do much the next day except lay in my room feeling a bit sorry for myself drinking water and reading a mountain of a book to keep myself occupied, feeling better by the evening we had dinner with Johnny and Jess and a new girl from America who when we said goodbye to the following day gave us her business card reading 'Julie Remp Wildlife Biologist & World Traveler' I will allow you to draw your own conclusions. We had another nice evening this time on the one table out the front which enjoyed the best view of the beach and slighter stronger breezes from it's slightly elevated position at the top of the steps going down to the beach.

From Gokarna, Karnataka, India

The next day, Johnny's birthday, we left our room, packed up our things and kicked back on the beach in the shade watching short cows meander up and down the beach pausing to peruse people's temporarily abandoned belongings for scraps of paper, or even better, books which they curled into their mouths and chewed away until screaming bikini clad tourists emerged from the surf to reclaim the belonging and what was left of their reading material. It was so nice under that tree, easily the best place to be on a hot day that I kicked myself that I hadn't done it on the other days – the temperature was made hotter by the humidity from the sea and spending it indoors or under a fan in the open restaurant was still uncomfortably sweat slicked.

From Gokarna, Karnataka, India

We along with plenty of other tourists made our way to the out of town bus station to wait for an overnight bus going inland to Hampi. We shared a taxi there with a couple of lovely German girls and the bus ride with a mix of other travellers who varied between interesting and intelligent (the French couple in front of us) to those who were boorish and loudly spoke of recent drug riddled experiences on various bus trips and at parties (reminding me a lot of school kids who brag about the things they done/taken/seen to impress their peers).

I had no expectation of sleep and so wasn't annoyed too much that I didn't get a lot of it although I did dose off and try to lodge myself in the seat, wedging my feet between parts of the seat to try and avoid slipping off and rolling onto the floor when going round bends. True to form, like ALL other Indian buses we have been on, we arrived early at our destination, instead pulling up at an almost respectable hour of 5.30 we were dumped at 4am red eyed and bedraggled on the dirt packed floor of the local bus stand.