"Poor Man's Taj Mahal"

"Poor Man's Taj Mahal"
Aurangabad, Maharastra, India

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

COASTAL KARNATAKA TOUR

October 7th - 13th
                Good. Bad. Ugly. That's what this trip was for me... and I think the other exchange students too. Thankfully, the good outweighed the bad and ugly. A big part of the good, for me, was being with the other students, as well as seeing wonderful sights, and experiencing more of Indian culture. The bad included traveling for hours on end in an uncomfortable bus, not having any idea of where the bus was taking us, and in general, no organization. The ugly was a lot of the food, and expecting more than what I was given (I have learned to never expect anything fabulous by now, but still, there was some disappointment). Ugly also included some things that the other exchange students and I had to experience firsthand - like some interesting creatures throughout the trip.
                The trip started out on Friday morning, at a supposed to be 7:30, but being India, we finally set off at almost 9:00. The first disappointment hit when I saw the bus. We were told we would be taking a coach bus, so my immediate thought was to the nice, comfortable, spacy coach buses that we use in the US. I couldn't be more wrong. The bus only had 17 seats for passengers... of which we filled up 16. The room to relax and move around with a small group in a big bus was not at all in the equation of the trip anymore. Luckily, my mom had a plan for me to get a good seat on the bus; arrive first, and pick out the best seat. It was nice to have a single seat between the window and the aisle.
                So on the 7th we left Pune for Belgaum, where we would have our first night at Hotel Ramdev. Well, about 10 minutes into the trip, the leaders decided that it was time for breakfast. Having no notice that there would be breakfast that first morning, all of the students had already eaten, and just wanted to keep going after being over an hour behind schedule already. Never the less, the leaders and our driver enjoyed some tea in the restaurant while the students got accustomed to the bus. Our first stop after that was for a bathroom break where I was introduced to the "real" Indian toilets, and disgusting stalls. Then we got to know the bus even better, until lunch that is. Due to a unanimous vote in favor of non-veg, we stopped at a hotel with a restaurant and all ordered chicken in either a spicy or non-spicy sauce. Personally, I ordered the so-called non-spicy, but it still made my eyes water and mouth burn. Compared to the sauce, there was barely any meat, and when we asked for more meat, the waiter brought us salt, because in Marathi, “meat” means “salt.” Thankfully, my family had taught me this, so I was able to explain to the others what happened before a big scene took place. After lunch, we got on the bus yet again, but luckily, this time we arrived at our hotel.
The hotel was alright -it wasn’t spectacular by any means- but it was nice enough to stay one night. Due to a miss calculation in the number of rooms some of us had to sleep four to a room instead of just three. We (the exchange students) went for a small walk around the town looking for anyplace interesting, but didn’t find any. After having dinner at the hotel restaurant, we had a party in our hotel room with junk food we found at a supermarket down the street. Looking back on it, we actually went to bed at a decent time the first night and slept soundly after a long day of traveling.
The next morning we woke up early and left the hotel to start on our journey. Leave Belgaum for Sirsi (Beetle Nuts Plantation). En-route Magod and Kavidekeri. Hotel Panchwati.

9th - Leave Sirsi for Murudeshwar (Trasi Beach and Aneegudi Ganpati). En-route Vanvasi and Jog Falls. RNS Residency. -Banvasi (Ancient Capital of Karnataka)

10th - Free Day (Change)

11th - Kollur and Udupi (Temple of Lord Shri Krishna) Temples. Maple and Maravanthe Beach.

12th - Leave Murud. for Yellapur. En-route Gokarn (Temple of God Shiva) and Edgunji. Banana County Resort.

13th -Leave Yellapur for Pune.  Arrive at around 4 (8:30).

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