I left Goa, and Palolem Beach, on the morning of the 7th and headed south along the coast to Gokarna in Karnataka. I took another walk along the beach and had breakfast before leaving, taking a 10:30 bus to nearby Chaudi. It took me another three buses to get to Gokarna, only about 60 miles away. From Chaudi a bus made a loop inland and then along the coast, crossing the Goa-Karnataka state border and a wide estuary before reaching the city of Karwar. I remember a long wait for a ferry across that estuary on my way to Goa in 1979. Now you can cross it in about a minute by bridge. From Karwar another bus took me south to Ankoli along the hilly coast, and the last bus continued south, crossing another estuary and then headed west onto the little peninsula where Gokarna sits on the coast. We arrived about 2 and I walked through the little temple town and got a nice hotel.
After lunch I walked through the small town. Gokarna mean's "cow's ear" and is supposed to be where Shiva was reborn from a cow's ear after a period of penance. It also has one of India's most powerful linga, dropped here by Ravanna after he had stolen it from Shiva's abode on Mount Kailash. He was tricked into dropping it and it was too heavy for him to lift. That's the story anyway. It is housed in a temple that attracts lots of pilgrims. Non-Hindus are not allowed in, supposedly because of the misbehavior of some tourists. Nearby the main temple is another, dedicated to Shiva's elephant headed son, Ganpati, also known as Ganesh. I watched the activity at the entrances, with bare chested men and sari clad women going in and out. Near the temples are two large raths, or chariots, used for temple celebrations, with interesting carved figures on them. I walked to the large tank, filled with lotus pads, to the east, and then a little bit further through the town's narrow streets.
About 5 I started walking over the low (something over a hundred feet high), rocky headland to the south of town to Kudlee Beach, about a twenty minute walk. This is a beautiful beach set between two headlands and facing west. It is maybe a bit more than half a mile long, with several guesthouses and restaurants along it. It attracts lots of western tourists, many who stay for weeks or months. I walked to the far end of the beach, with big waves crashing on the shore, and then walked back to town the way I had come. I got to the dirty town beach just before sunset.
The next morning I walked about town a bit, watching the pilgrims and old, tribal women selling flowers at the entrance to the Mahaganpati and Mahabaleshwar Temples. I walked to the Rama Temple at the base of the headland at the south end of the town beach and from there could see pilgrims further north along the beach taking a dip in the sea before making their pujas at the temples. I walked out a bit closer to the far end of the headland, passing a giant face carved into a rock. Back at the Rama Temple, I climbed the stairs up to the headland plateau and took a path to Kudlee Beach, a different path than I had taken the day before. I walked along Kudlee Beach and climbed another low headland at its southern end to Om Beach, so named because its two little coves resemble the auspicious symbol for Om. These beaches face south and I walked along them to a far end, arriving about 10:30 and stopping at a little restaurant for breakfast. I sat there eating and then reading until past 1, with a great view of the beach and a nice breeze off the sea. There are only a few guesthouses and restaurants, but there is a fancy and expensive resort situated behind the beach.
It took me about an hour and a half to walk back to town, with a few brief stops on the way. There was a cool breeze on the beaches, so that helped, but otherwise it was hot. I had lunch in town at a great little restaurant often jammed with foreigners where I had garlic cream cheese on toasted rolls with tomatoes and onions, a chocolate ice cream lassi with bits of chocolate in it, and a dessert called gadbag, three scoops of ice cream with candied dried fruit, fresh fruit and cashews. Quite a surprising lunch. Just before sunset I walked along the city beach, crowded with Indians just west of the town. The sun set not into haze, but into the sea a little after 6:30.
The next morning I walked through town again and then to the town beach, where I watched a group of about ten pot bellied men strip to their shorts and go into the ocean as the first step in their visit to the temples. They splashed each other, sat in the surf, and posed for photos. An old, bare chested Brahmin priest, with his sacred thread over one shoulder, was in charge and did not go in the water. One guy had a plate of flowers, coconuts and some other stuff that he offered to the sea. Right among the bathers fishermen were pulling a long net from the sea, which took some time. When they finally got the net all pulled in and onto the beach, they plucked out the fish entangled in it, mostly small ones of one or two inches in length, but others that measured four to six inches.
I walked further north along the long beach, passing fishing boats on the beach and wooden winches used to pull them up onto the beach from the sea. On my way back I watched one boat get winched up and then unloaded, the small (maybe six inches in length) fish scooped up from the bottom of the boat and dropped into a big, rubber lined basket, a heavy load which a woman carried off on her head. I also passed two Tibetan monks that I had seen before cavorting in the sea in their burgundy robes. Now they had shed their robes, which were piled on the beach, and were in the water in their underwear. There was little breeze and it was hot. I got back for breakfast about 10:30.
After spending the hot part of the day in an internet cafe and reading, I took another walk in the late afternoon, first around town. I watched a man make an offering on the steps of the large town tank, then bathe in and even drink the dirty tank water, with hundreds of lotus pads floating on the surface. I went into one of the temples that permit the entry of non-Hindus and passed by some langur monkeys munching some kind of fruit in trees. They made some spectacular leaps from tree to tree and then onto the roof of a house. Making my way to the town beach, crowded on a Saturday, I walked north and noticed that there were a few backpacker guest houses and restaurants in that direction, too. Boys were playing cricket on the sand here and there. I sat and watched the sun set into the haze over the Arabian Sea and then made my way back to town.
The next morning I was out before 8, making a quick stop at the temples before heading to the beach and spending almost two hours there watching all the activity. It was a Sunday morning and I guess there are a lot more pilgrims on the weekends than on weekdays. There were several family groups, including old women in their saris and jewelry, praying and frolicking in the surf. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. Some pilgrims carried plates of offerings, including coconuts, flowers and balls of rice, that they cast into the sea. Sometimes they tossed the coconuts backwards over their heads into the sea. A man and two woman made a small sand lingam and then covered it with red and yellow powder before dripping water over it just before a wave washed it away. Another group, a friendly bunch from Pune, made a much bigger sand lingam on top of a yoni (the lingam signifying Shiva's penis and the yoni a vagina). They sprinkled red and yellow powder on it and placed coins on it. They prayed around it and later posed for photos behind it. The coins were later given to a Brahmin priest. With all the flower offerings there was soon a thin strand of flower petals on the sand along the highest reach of the waves. A cow came along, eating some of the flowers. Crows also descended to eat among the flowers. An old man came up and asked me to take his photo. Others did, too.
After breakfast in town, I walked to Kudlee Beach about 11, found a nice restaurant on the beach and had a second breakfast, this time an omelet as the town restaurants are strictly vegetarian. I sat there until about 3, reading and watching the activity on the beach and enjoying the sea view and breeze. Bob Marley was on the restaurant's sound system and it could have been 35 years ago, except Gokarna wasn't discovered by backpackers until the '90's. I had a very good fish sandwich for lunch, on good bread, with french fries and salad, for just over $2. I walked back towards town over the mostly barren plateau and sat for about an hour just above the steps down to the Rama Temple and the town beach. I sat in the shade on the steps of another small temple and enjoyed the view of the beach and all its activity, along with the view of the town backed by coconut palms. The beach sweeps a long way to the north. Pilgrims were on the beach below and I also watched two little outrigger fishing boats, without motors, being rowed to the beach and then dragged up well beyond the reach of the waves.
About 4:30 I walked down to the beach and checked out the fishing boats I had watched. They were unloading fish, hundreds of thin silver fish about six inches long with spikes on their noses of an additional two inches or so. I walked quite a ways north along the beach, for about 45 minutes. The tide was low, very low, and there was large expanse of hard sand to walk on, with drier, looser sand higher up. Eventually, I reached a fishing village with about 40 outrigger fishing boats on the beach. These boats were larger than the ones I had seen in Gokarna and Palolem, maybe 20 feet long and five feet high. Also, they were unpainted and had inboard rather than outboard motors. About ten were being launched for a night of fishing. They were dragged down from the high sandbanks to the sea over greased and grooved pieces of lumber about five feet long before being turned around in the surf, their smoky motors started up, and heading out to sea. On some of the boats still on the beach men were slowly and patiently winding long fishing nets into the boats. The village seemed very simple, with grass huts. Perhaps there were more substantial buildings further inland. It did have electricity poles and wires.
A little further down the beach I spotted a dead dolphin on the beach in the surf. It must have been about eight feet long. Its smelled, its skin was beginning to peel off, and it had something between the teeth of its jaw. Whatever was in its mouth was gray, the color of the dolphin. Perhaps it was its tongue or some of its innards thrust out. The dolphin was on its back, though it rolled when hit by waves, and had one open eye staring out. I headed back to town, stopping and sitting for a while on the way back to watch the sunset and getting back to town about 7, just as it got dark.
The next morning I walked to the beach, but it was fairly uncrowded on that Monday morning, nothing like the weekend. The same old short, grumpy looking Brahmin priest was there to direct the pilgrims. I walked around town, to the tank and back, and watched the activity at the temples before breakfast. Near the temples three men were moving big laterite blocks, the kind used for building walls, from a pile on the street into a building and out the back door. They transferred the blocks from head to head, each man covering about a third of the route. I didn't do much for most of the day, though in the late afternoon I took a walk through town and then east of town into the country, and then came back through town to the beach for sunset.
After lunch I walked through the small town. Gokarna mean's "cow's ear" and is supposed to be where Shiva was reborn from a cow's ear after a period of penance. It also has one of India's most powerful linga, dropped here by Ravanna after he had stolen it from Shiva's abode on Mount Kailash. He was tricked into dropping it and it was too heavy for him to lift. That's the story anyway. It is housed in a temple that attracts lots of pilgrims. Non-Hindus are not allowed in, supposedly because of the misbehavior of some tourists. Nearby the main temple is another, dedicated to Shiva's elephant headed son, Ganpati, also known as Ganesh. I watched the activity at the entrances, with bare chested men and sari clad women going in and out. Near the temples are two large raths, or chariots, used for temple celebrations, with interesting carved figures on them. I walked to the large tank, filled with lotus pads, to the east, and then a little bit further through the town's narrow streets.
About 5 I started walking over the low (something over a hundred feet high), rocky headland to the south of town to Kudlee Beach, about a twenty minute walk. This is a beautiful beach set between two headlands and facing west. It is maybe a bit more than half a mile long, with several guesthouses and restaurants along it. It attracts lots of western tourists, many who stay for weeks or months. I walked to the far end of the beach, with big waves crashing on the shore, and then walked back to town the way I had come. I got to the dirty town beach just before sunset.
The next morning I walked about town a bit, watching the pilgrims and old, tribal women selling flowers at the entrance to the Mahaganpati and Mahabaleshwar Temples. I walked to the Rama Temple at the base of the headland at the south end of the town beach and from there could see pilgrims further north along the beach taking a dip in the sea before making their pujas at the temples. I walked out a bit closer to the far end of the headland, passing a giant face carved into a rock. Back at the Rama Temple, I climbed the stairs up to the headland plateau and took a path to Kudlee Beach, a different path than I had taken the day before. I walked along Kudlee Beach and climbed another low headland at its southern end to Om Beach, so named because its two little coves resemble the auspicious symbol for Om. These beaches face south and I walked along them to a far end, arriving about 10:30 and stopping at a little restaurant for breakfast. I sat there eating and then reading until past 1, with a great view of the beach and a nice breeze off the sea. There are only a few guesthouses and restaurants, but there is a fancy and expensive resort situated behind the beach.
It took me about an hour and a half to walk back to town, with a few brief stops on the way. There was a cool breeze on the beaches, so that helped, but otherwise it was hot. I had lunch in town at a great little restaurant often jammed with foreigners where I had garlic cream cheese on toasted rolls with tomatoes and onions, a chocolate ice cream lassi with bits of chocolate in it, and a dessert called gadbag, three scoops of ice cream with candied dried fruit, fresh fruit and cashews. Quite a surprising lunch. Just before sunset I walked along the city beach, crowded with Indians just west of the town. The sun set not into haze, but into the sea a little after 6:30.
The next morning I walked through town again and then to the town beach, where I watched a group of about ten pot bellied men strip to their shorts and go into the ocean as the first step in their visit to the temples. They splashed each other, sat in the surf, and posed for photos. An old, bare chested Brahmin priest, with his sacred thread over one shoulder, was in charge and did not go in the water. One guy had a plate of flowers, coconuts and some other stuff that he offered to the sea. Right among the bathers fishermen were pulling a long net from the sea, which took some time. When they finally got the net all pulled in and onto the beach, they plucked out the fish entangled in it, mostly small ones of one or two inches in length, but others that measured four to six inches.
I walked further north along the long beach, passing fishing boats on the beach and wooden winches used to pull them up onto the beach from the sea. On my way back I watched one boat get winched up and then unloaded, the small (maybe six inches in length) fish scooped up from the bottom of the boat and dropped into a big, rubber lined basket, a heavy load which a woman carried off on her head. I also passed two Tibetan monks that I had seen before cavorting in the sea in their burgundy robes. Now they had shed their robes, which were piled on the beach, and were in the water in their underwear. There was little breeze and it was hot. I got back for breakfast about 10:30.
After spending the hot part of the day in an internet cafe and reading, I took another walk in the late afternoon, first around town. I watched a man make an offering on the steps of the large town tank, then bathe in and even drink the dirty tank water, with hundreds of lotus pads floating on the surface. I went into one of the temples that permit the entry of non-Hindus and passed by some langur monkeys munching some kind of fruit in trees. They made some spectacular leaps from tree to tree and then onto the roof of a house. Making my way to the town beach, crowded on a Saturday, I walked north and noticed that there were a few backpacker guest houses and restaurants in that direction, too. Boys were playing cricket on the sand here and there. I sat and watched the sun set into the haze over the Arabian Sea and then made my way back to town.
The next morning I was out before 8, making a quick stop at the temples before heading to the beach and spending almost two hours there watching all the activity. It was a Sunday morning and I guess there are a lot more pilgrims on the weekends than on weekdays. There were several family groups, including old women in their saris and jewelry, praying and frolicking in the surf. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. Some pilgrims carried plates of offerings, including coconuts, flowers and balls of rice, that they cast into the sea. Sometimes they tossed the coconuts backwards over their heads into the sea. A man and two woman made a small sand lingam and then covered it with red and yellow powder before dripping water over it just before a wave washed it away. Another group, a friendly bunch from Pune, made a much bigger sand lingam on top of a yoni (the lingam signifying Shiva's penis and the yoni a vagina). They sprinkled red and yellow powder on it and placed coins on it. They prayed around it and later posed for photos behind it. The coins were later given to a Brahmin priest. With all the flower offerings there was soon a thin strand of flower petals on the sand along the highest reach of the waves. A cow came along, eating some of the flowers. Crows also descended to eat among the flowers. An old man came up and asked me to take his photo. Others did, too.
After breakfast in town, I walked to Kudlee Beach about 11, found a nice restaurant on the beach and had a second breakfast, this time an omelet as the town restaurants are strictly vegetarian. I sat there until about 3, reading and watching the activity on the beach and enjoying the sea view and breeze. Bob Marley was on the restaurant's sound system and it could have been 35 years ago, except Gokarna wasn't discovered by backpackers until the '90's. I had a very good fish sandwich for lunch, on good bread, with french fries and salad, for just over $2. I walked back towards town over the mostly barren plateau and sat for about an hour just above the steps down to the Rama Temple and the town beach. I sat in the shade on the steps of another small temple and enjoyed the view of the beach and all its activity, along with the view of the town backed by coconut palms. The beach sweeps a long way to the north. Pilgrims were on the beach below and I also watched two little outrigger fishing boats, without motors, being rowed to the beach and then dragged up well beyond the reach of the waves.
About 4:30 I walked down to the beach and checked out the fishing boats I had watched. They were unloading fish, hundreds of thin silver fish about six inches long with spikes on their noses of an additional two inches or so. I walked quite a ways north along the beach, for about 45 minutes. The tide was low, very low, and there was large expanse of hard sand to walk on, with drier, looser sand higher up. Eventually, I reached a fishing village with about 40 outrigger fishing boats on the beach. These boats were larger than the ones I had seen in Gokarna and Palolem, maybe 20 feet long and five feet high. Also, they were unpainted and had inboard rather than outboard motors. About ten were being launched for a night of fishing. They were dragged down from the high sandbanks to the sea over greased and grooved pieces of lumber about five feet long before being turned around in the surf, their smoky motors started up, and heading out to sea. On some of the boats still on the beach men were slowly and patiently winding long fishing nets into the boats. The village seemed very simple, with grass huts. Perhaps there were more substantial buildings further inland. It did have electricity poles and wires.
A little further down the beach I spotted a dead dolphin on the beach in the surf. It must have been about eight feet long. Its smelled, its skin was beginning to peel off, and it had something between the teeth of its jaw. Whatever was in its mouth was gray, the color of the dolphin. Perhaps it was its tongue or some of its innards thrust out. The dolphin was on its back, though it rolled when hit by waves, and had one open eye staring out. I headed back to town, stopping and sitting for a while on the way back to watch the sunset and getting back to town about 7, just as it got dark.
The next morning I walked to the beach, but it was fairly uncrowded on that Monday morning, nothing like the weekend. The same old short, grumpy looking Brahmin priest was there to direct the pilgrims. I walked around town, to the tank and back, and watched the activity at the temples before breakfast. Near the temples three men were moving big laterite blocks, the kind used for building walls, from a pile on the street into a building and out the back door. They transferred the blocks from head to head, each man covering about a third of the route. I didn't do much for most of the day, though in the late afternoon I took a walk through town and then east of town into the country, and then came back through town to the beach for sunset.
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