Independence day weekend to Sakleshpur Ghats/ Udupi/Mangalore/Bekal

 Goal:  Train my 2 year old to be travel friendly ;) I know I sound mean but travel means lot of exposure to multiple cultures and experiences. I want to be bitten by the travel bug too and what better than startem'young! My elder one is travel friendly to a great extent. 
We as a party of 5 including my dad set out on our day train trip along the western ghats in the Yesvantpur Karwar Express one Friday morning at 7 AM 
It was pretty hot till Sakleshpur which we reached by 1PM (2hour delay than expected) and being a 2S class with 2 children was a little tough with the crowd and upright hard seats but it was a pain we were willing to endure to enjoy the next stretch.

The route didnt disappoint us. The moment the train crossed Sakleshpur, the entire crowd made a beeline for the doors to capture the sights on the route. 

Train leaving Sakleshpur Station.







I will let the pictures do the talking and writing :)






The entire stretch is so scenic and beautiful that words fail to describe it. The train passes slowly thru atleast 66 tunnels 
There is a water falls on left side and a beautiful gorge on the right with the water gushing to the extent you can feel the mist on your face if sitting on left side. 
My excited sonny boy was jumping on both sides of the train as not to miss the getting wet part of the journey and the beauty of the water cascading down.
As the train passed thru each tunnel there were loud cheers and excited hooting which adds to the fun of the trip. 

No matter what your affordability can be, please travel in second sitting to enjoy the true sense of this stretch of travel would be my recommendation. 
We reached Udupi by 8:30 at night  and halted at a hotel closer to temple. 
Went around and had dinner at Woodland restaurant. The hotel is quite popular and was brimming with people at 9:30 PM

We returned to rest for the night and had a morning darshan at Sri Krishna temple. Hired a car for 2500 for whole day and packed nendran bananas and chikkis etc apart from lunch and idli after our breakfast and started our Udupi tour

Such a serene and calm temple. This was the first time in my adulthood that I had visited this temple and was so smitten by the temple's beauty and energy that till date I have visited it atleast thrice later.

If you are lucky please enjoy the multi-course lunch meal (I lost count of number of items) at the temple. During one of the later visits I  had the blessing to eat the lunch at the temple and it was one of the tastiest I have had -
2 types of payasam, 2 sweets, 2 types of kosambaries, 2 vadas, 3 curries, 2 gravy sabzis, sambar, rasam, mosru saaru, murukku dal (first time i was eating that), Rice, pickle, curd and another round of payasam before curd rice...I wonder from where I had the appetite but I tasted all and I finished all. 

We visited Malpe beach, Kaup Beach, Maravanthe beach. 
Kaup beach is quite picturesque with the light house 






After day getting tanned in sun in different beaches we caught the train from Udupi to Mangalore (KSR Bangalore Express 16514) and reached Mangalore at 8:30PM
Checked in to Poonja Internation hotel suite room with breaktaking view of the Mangalore city.

Next day after Breakfast set out on a road trip to explore Mangalore beaches reached Bekal Fort.

The fort made famous by the handsome Arvind Swamy and gorgeous Manisha Koirala in movie Bombay song Uyire/Tuhire

An intriguing and dark complex fort with high walls befitting the coastline. 





How can Mangalore be complete without the taste of their famous Ideal Ice cream!

Yaaay.... I scream Icecream! Everyone scream ice cream!

Ideal is the biggest pull for the next 3 trips to Mangalore/Udupi we did in the subsequent years


Boarded train back to Bangalore from Mangalore and Reached Bangalore on Independence day fresh and ready for the next trip! 

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