Monday, October 16, 2006

East Coast to the West

Chennai- bangalore- Hubli - Darwad- Dandeli (2 day stop) – Ankola –Gokarna ( a day stop) – Gokarna road – Hubli- bangalore – Chennai

That was my itenary for a 4-day vacation to Gokarna and Dandeli – and not all of it was intentional and quite a lot of it was done alone. And to make it to all these places, I took 5 trains, 3 buses, sumo rides, autos – well, a flight figured in too except it got cancelled (thanks to AirDeccan).

Initially, while we were sounding out suggestions for this whole trip, I was the one who kept harping on Gokarna, and Dandeli – And when I realise I needed to almost travel about 20 hours (one way) alone to meet up with the others, I was kicking mysef for not having worked out the logistics before getting other people to join me. The other thing was that , not too many people seemed to have combined gokrna and Dandeli and till the actual trip we didn’t figure out how to get between the points. There was so much planning, trying to figure out the closest spot, the times, the distances – I don’t think ive taxed my brain and google more for any other trip …and co-ordinatin between 4 people with just mail and conflicting suggestions and lot of crazy jokes in between was enough to drive us all mad.

So it is with great pleasure I introduce you to the people who actually made it sane and safe – the I-banker from mumbai, the lucknowi lady and udaipur duo from hyd and urs truly ms.n from Chennai. Except for the I-banker, all of us travelled almost 14-16 hours by train and another 2 hours by bus from Dharwar to Dandeli and a sumo ride to the camp...

This is going to be one detailed write-up ... so i have broken it down into 2 more posts...

Rafting in the Garden of Eden - Dandeli

Sunset on the West Coast - Gokarna


I have always wondered if i would go on a trip where i would "figure it out" along the way - and this one certainly was like that. But I have to say, that the weather certainly made the 'figuring out' process smoother and the company made all teh difference. Ofcourse, one just missed out on couple of spare days for uncertainities!

The last post is on some details and phone numbers - but probably will post it over the weekend!

4 comments:

Arun said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Seems like a fun trip. Too much for four days though!

Mridula said...

Will you care for a tag? I rarely do it but I have tagged you this time.

Magesh N K said...

Hi i like to introduce myself as Magesh
me with our Kewlest gang are planning for a trip to Dandeli and gokarna between 22 dec - 26 dec 2006

we want some details about boarding and lodging, transporation and also about the cash in hand (max and min)
we have few guys placed in chennai and few in Banglore , so some inputs on the route to dandeli or gokarna

Which one to priorotize first gokarna or dandeli
number of days to explore (minimum and average)

It will be great enough if u could provide some mode of communication with u

My id is magesh nk@gmail.com
do drop in a mail , it will be great for us