Whenever Mummy and Papa visit us, we always plan for a trip. Which never somehow materializes. This time too, we had planned a trip to Murudeshwar -Udupi - Mangalore on the Aug 15th Weekend. But sine Navya fell sick during that time with cough, cold and fever, we could not make it. So, we decided to at least drive down to Mangalore for some outing. This was first time we were taking Navya out on the Weekend's trip. With Tia, I remember we had started moving around when she was mere 3 1/2 months old. Her first one was in Nagarhole / Ooty.

The plan was to drive down to Mangalore on 30th Aug morning. Ved was aiming for 6:00 am, we finally left at 7:40 on Saturday 30th Aug :-) So much for the time management. With kids the no. of bags just keep multiplying - bottles, bottle steamer, shoes, medicines, extra clothes/towels, toys, Diapers..... The list goes on ...........

The route we took was Nice road, (merged in it from Kanakpura road) and NH 48. It was a long 8hrs drive. The NH48 road was horrible with pot holes and in some sections there was no road whatsoever. The traffic too was good enough, with lots of Oil tankers and trucks on the road, driving towards Mangalore with speed not more that 15 kms/hr. We packed eggs/milk/biscuits for kids and snacks/cold drinks for the way. Since Navya has motion sickness, atleast 2-3 towels were kept handy for the emergency which was inevitable. In the ghat section she had a bout of vomitting. Which kind of irked Tia a lot. She just could not stand the mess in the car. Luckily all was in control. We took a break in small tea shop on the way and had idli, dosa and barra along with coffee. with the road condition we could not maintain good and consistent speed. Near Sakleshpur, Ved saw a nice coffee shop "Ossoor" and halted. Tia and Navya ran around a bit, and made most of it. With Tia becoming rich by some lollipops. Throughout the ghat section, Mummy kept on saying this route reminds me of Bhimtal-Haldwani road. The scenery, landscape is same. With similar thatched houses, winding roads, low lying hills, green trees on road side. The only difference being that this road has palm, beetle nut trees and there we have pine trees. Both side of the roads we could see coffee plantation and kalimirch creepers in between coffee shrubs.

We reached Taj - Manjarun around 6:00 in the evening. Checked in and took rest for sometime. Ved wanted to eat out. I called up Travel desk and enquired about if there was any place worth visiting at his hour. Since it was pretty late, we were advised to go to a shopping mall or watch movie in theater. The first option was better. We visited Bharath mall. Roamed around there, did window shopping. Our initial plan to visit some hotel was dropped and we had dinner in the food court at Mall only. The food was ok. Mummy and Ved had chat. We had burgers and tea at hotel, so no one was very hungry. It was fun watching Navya eating chicken drumsticks. She kind of liked them a lot. It was back to hotel after that. Everyone was looking forward to the bed and good nights sleep.

For Sunday, 31st Aug, we had booked Indica to take us around. The Itinerary planned was 1000 Pillars Temple (Moodbidri), Gomteshwara statue (Karkal), Sri Krishna Temple (Udupi) and Maple beach.

First stop was 1000 Pillars temple. It took us around 1 hr to reach it. It was around 11:00.

Savirakambada Basadi (Thousand Pillar Temple) built in 1462 AD-Basadi of 1000 pillars, famous for its stone sculpture. Mahadwar, Bhairadevi, Chitradevi, Namaskaara, Teerthankara and Garbhagruha are the 8 Mantapas here. The idol (8ft high) of Chandranatha is established in the garbha gruha. It is said that no two pilars are identical. The temple is famous for the open pillared hall in front, consisting by a large variety of ornate pillars decorated with carvings typical of Vijayanagara style. A 15-meter tall single stone pillar called manastambha stands in front of the basadi. Because of widely grown Bamboo in ancient days, this place got named as Moodabidri. Moodabidri comes from two words Moodu and Bidiru. Moodu means East and Bidiru means Bamboo. For the travellers from west, this thicket of bamboo was called Moodabidri

Next we went to Gomteshwara statue (Karkal). Karkala is situated about 60 kms northeast of the city of Mangalore. Now the afternoon sun was pretty harsh and it was becoming very hot and humid. Driver showed us the steps and told us we had to climb our way up. Ved and Papa, gave up and decided not to go up. It was Tia, Mummy and me who went up. It was very tiring for 3 of us, especially Tia. Who finally told me "Why did I bring her up in so much heat?". The view from top was breathtaking and the light cool breeze which was blowing there, was very soothing.

Legend has it ,Bahubali or the “ one with strong shoulders” was a local prince who fought his brother Bharata and won the kingdom. Having done so,he was overwhelmed by both the enormity and the futility of the desire for material wealth - a pursuit that sets brother against brother. He gave it all up for meditation and prayer. This went on for 12 long years and even the surrounding creepers had grown around him. In his honour, the ruler at that time Veerapandya Bhairava Raja built this temple and statue. It was completed on 13.02.1432. The statue is 42 feet 12.6 meters in height and was engraved from a single stone at the foot of the hill on which the temple stands. It was carried up the crest by a forty-wheeled vehicle. In 1907, 212 steps (182 are continuous) were cut into the rock face of the hill leading up to the Temple. A stone pillar, Brahma Stambha, and holy stone or Kshetrapalaka stand in front of the Temple as protectors. A grand festival that comes alive once in 12 years, the Mahamastakabhisheka is held for 9 days. On the occasion, appointed priests anoint the Lord, first with water, and then with tender coconut, sugarcane juice, milk, rice flour, turmeric paste, kashaya (a herbal concoction), shrigandha (sandal paste), chandana (coloured sandal paste), ashtagandha (eight varieties of sandal paste), saffron, gold and silver flowers, precious stones and finally with a shower of flowers.

Our religious journey continued, as we started around 12:30 for Udupi. Around 1:30 we reached Sri Krishna Temple (Udupi). It is around 60 kms from Mangalore. The temple is worth visiting once. One feels the peace and calm inside it. There was not much of rush and everyone was able to do Darshan at peace. All had ample of time to view the Krishna idol and sit and meditate as they wished.

Another attraction of this temple is the 'Kanakana Kindi' -a small window through which Krishna is believed to have given darshan to his ardent devotee, Kanakadasa. The sight of the beautiful MudduKrishna is available to everybody through the Kanakanakindi. This viewing window is decorated with carvings depicting the ten incarnations of Vishnu. Through the nine small holes of the window we see the tiny icon of Sri Krishna as a small boy. He holds the churning rod in His right hand and rope in his left. The main entrance to the Mutt is on the southern side. As one enters, on the right side there is a tank called the Madhwa Pushkarani. Udupi is also the birthplace of Sri Madhwacharya, founder of Dwaita Philosophy and one of the three great Acharyas, he is reputed to have discovered the idol of Shri Krishna from a ship, which he saved miraculously from the clutches of fatal storm breeding on the sea at Malpe. The captain, considering his greatness offered all the cargo, in return for the help rendered. Sri Madhwacharya refused to accept anything, except two big pieces of Gopichandan, which he knew, contained the images of Lord Krishna and Sri Balarama. The images of Lord Krishna is the same that can be seen in the Sri Krishna Temple at Udupi and the image of Sri Balarama can be seen at Vadabhandeshwara Malpe.

Final destination was Malpe beach, where we reached around 2:30. Tia was eagerly waiting for it. All her hunger vanished once she saw the water. We had lunch first in the restaurant apposite to the beach. With sun so strong outside, it was a great way of cooling down and fill our stomachs before diving in water. As usual Tia wanted to have chicken, and only chicken. She has suddenly taken a fancy to chicken in recent times. It was spacious hall with lots of space for kids to move around. Navya and Tia had a field trip in the lunch room. Finally when we came out for beach, it started drizzling. So Mummy and Papa went to the car, while four of us went to water. It was difficult to hold Tia back. I was so scared sometimes watching her playing with waves. She had no qualms in going deep in the water. Deep according to my understanding :-) Navya was initially enjoying her walk in the beach. But as soon as she reached the cold water, it was "godi" time for her. She wanted to come to my Godi and enjoy all the fun from up there. When I got tired of holding her, I went back to car. In between Mummy joined us (with Umbrella in her hand) Some stretch of sand there was very white and soft. Navya enjoyed playing in the sand. Though it was a nightmare for me, washing the sand off her and changing her clothes. We finally left for Mangalore and reached hotel around 6:30. Since Ved too has motion sickness, he was very tired after the trip. Much than the day before, when he had driven for non stop 8 hours. It was sleeping time for him. We went in Mummy's room (room no. 216) for gossip session and watched Sai baba in TV. I had not taken the room keys with me. When we went to our room, Ved was so deep in slumber that he did not hear the door bell. With Tia constantly ringing the bell and Navya banging the door and shouting "papa, papa" it was a comic scene outside the room 219. So, not to disturb the neighbors, we went back in Mummy-papa's room. Tried calling up our room for 5-10 mins. But to no avail. So took the last resort and requested the front desk to open the door. It was decided we will have dinner in one of the hotels' dining area. But with Mummy and Papa not eager to eat, and Ved sleeping, I had no option but to order room service. Tia was very disappointed, since she was looking forward to get dressed all over again and go out. But it was not to be, we ordered at room (yes you guessed it right -chicken and ice-cream) and called it a day.

For Monday 1st Sep, our plan was to visit "The Sultan’s Battery" ruins. But since we got delayed in starting form hotel, we drove down straight to Bangalore. We started after having a heavy breakfast of Parathas and Aloo-puree. Mummy had the healthy option -Museli and omelet. Luckily the way back Navya did not have her bout of motion sickness. She and Tia slept a lot throughout the drive. We stopped in the same place "Ossoor" for lunch break. Were back home by 8:00 pm. After reaching Mummy prepared Tea and rice pulav for all of us. It was yummy after having all the hotel food. Tia and Navya were all recharged after the sleep they had in the car. So they were back to their usual selves and it was back to business as usual in our home. Aha - home sweet home.

Captured moments of the trip.

Link to Sisters day out.

Link to Paris trip.