Fun @ Murudeshwara

During the Diwali vacations of 2013, we made a trip to Mangalore.  It was a big family trip that included my grandma, parents, sister, my uncle and two cousins as well as my small uncle (Abhi paapan), aunt and little Avantika.

Most of our holidays have been by car, but, this time, for a change we went by train. We boarded a train from Bangalore City Railway station on the night of 31^st October, 2013.  The fun started right from the train journey !!  The dinner was on the platform, and with so many of us sharing the food, it was almost like a picnic – A picnic on platform No.4 :-)

<Inside the train..> The girls on the upper berth ...

From left to right - Adu, Avantika, Tanisha and Taanya.

The train chugged off and my uncle ‘allotted’ the seats and berths and soon everyone had retired for the night.  Taanya and I spent time playing on the tablet till about 11:30 in the night.

Next morning, I was awake by 7 a.m., and soon after breakfast, the train reached the ghat section where there were numerous tunnels through which we had to pass.  Some of the tunnels were quite long and it was fun!

A station on the way ... (Mangalore station)

We got off at the Murudeshwara station in Mangalore.  We all packed into two autos and went to our booked lodging at RNS Residency.

While the elders went around confirming our three rooms and checking the facilities, we kids went around looking at the swimming pool, play area, etc.

Everyone settled down and unpacked, freshened up and had an early lunch at the hotel restaurant. Some of us took a short nap and all of us then hit the swimming pool.

Grandma supervising the swimmers..

After a lot of fun-time in the pool, we trooped to the beach to continue the fun and games.  Beach football, sea-shell collection and running races… We threw the ball into the sea, but the waves always brought it back to us.  We played till it became dark.

The walk into the beach...
From left: Taanya, Arnav, Avantika, Advika, Tanisha, Pappan

At around 7PM, we had an early dinner.  There were plenty of frogs in the area.  While walking around, I stepped on a frog and immediately Taanya raised an alarm.  My uncle took a picture and distributed it to his friends in WhatsApp with the caption “Frog killer”.  I was feeling bad when I was told that the frog was actually killed by some passing vehicles.  :-)

After dinner we visited the nearby Murudeshwara temple which had a huge statue of Lord Shiva.  The story of the temple is depicted in a cave around the temple.  We took pictures of the entire story.

The temple and the Shiva temple - view from the beach.

The next morning breakfast was in a nearby hotel which was built into the sea.  After breakfast, we booked a Toyota Qualis to visit the Jog Falls nearby.

On the way, we visited the Idagunji Ganesha Temple.

http://idagunji.org/

http://idagunji.org/story.html

There were some beautiful view points on the way to Jog Falls.  After a brief halt to take some pictures and much some oranges, we continued towards the Jog Falls.

Raja, Rocket, Roarer and Rani – the four falls of the Jog Falls looked beautiful, especially with a rainbow across the four falls.  We had a lot of monkeys for company, a slow-coach snail and munched on cucumber as our cameras clicked away..

After almost an hour in the Jog Falls, we had a quick bite at a small restaurant at the Jog and returned to our hotel for a hearty meal.

Afternoon time was shopping time and everyone hit the beach after that.  Dinner was at the same “frog” hotel – this time, no frog killing… :-)

The next day was the check-out day, and everyone finished their packing.  We all got a chance to try out the famous GadBad ice cream.

Afternoon, we checked out of the hotel and reached the Murudeshwar station for our journey back.

Everyone had a lovely time and we all dispersed at Bangalore to our respective homes.  Looking forward to the next trip with the same crowd !!