Saturday 31 March 2012

Kundapura and Malpe


Finally woke up early. It was only us and these doggies to see the sunrise.




 Went the wrong way and ended up at this beautiful view point. We wanted to head to the other side of this river but after many hours of back roads we ended up at the bottom of this hill. After some kilometers of backtracking we decided to get a bus to the next bigger town, Kundapura. It was about 30km away. Jason was a bit hesitant to take the bus because he is getting a bit too obsessed with biking all the way. Anyways we got the bikes on pretty much by just forcing them to take them on and Jason had to lift them to the tiny rear storage compartment and chain them to the bus because the hatch didn't close properly. He was so worried that our bikes will be damaged on the very bumpy road but all went well. Yay!


Hotel Sharon. Does not look like much but it was clean and the bed was sooo soft!

We took this tiny little boat from Kundapura boat stand to Kodi the next morning




Wild peacock. Once we saw one gliding over the road high above our heads so it looked like it was flying


Tankar!! haha no this is Kodi lighthouse. Looks similar but I think our Tankar lighthouse in Kokkola looks nicer...





Hotel Sharon was great. When we left our room there was the paper outside our door. Good service!


When we tell people that we are biking through part of India they picture hectic traffic and crazy bus drivers. That is true on the highways but we have tried to take as many small coastal roads as we could. Sometimes it has meant getting a little lost and backtracking but overall well worth it.

 

Indian school kids



On our way we came accross a cashewnut factory and they invited us in gladly. The women were using these hand-operated machines to crack the nuts. They worked so fast clonk clonk clonk all the time..


The manager gave us a bag of cashew nuts and they were so tasty. 





Took another ferry accross another river. This time we threw the bikes on the roof of the little boat. 


We came to a long narrow peninsula with the Arabian ocean on one side and the river or some backwaters on the other. So beautiful! And coconut trees everywhere. 



Fishermen pulling their net in


Beach near Malpe


What a pose


Angry camels


We spent two nights in this little house to ourselves. It was really nice. We ate with the neigbours who were running this small scale home stay. Some French people were staying in the house next door. Franc from France comes here every year now for ten years. He directed us to a ayrvedic massage place where we got oil massages. It took so many showers to get rid of the oil, especially from the hair! haha. But it was relaxing.  



Murudeshwar


One of the few pictures of us together...very nice one indeed haha on the road.




Murudeshwar is a city right by the water. According to our trustworthy source Wikipedia, they have the world's second (or third?) tallest statue of Shiva http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murudeshwara. The tallest one is in Nepal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailashnath_Mahadev_Statue but that's just taller because in Nepal he is standing up haha.  

South Indian thali 40 rupees feeds the both of us












Murudeshwar was a nice place to stop for a day.

Eco lodge


We slept in and then had to carry bicycles up the stairs from Om Beach in the heat.


Ferry to cross the river from Tadadi fishing village.


Saaras view.


Waiting for the fishing catch to come in.






Nice views on the top of yet another hill in the heat just before discovering Jason got a flat tire.




Turned out that getting a flat tire was pretty lucky. When we stopped for a cold drink the waiter told us about a nice little Russian beach resort just a few hundred meters from the cafe. So off we went and ended up staying for a few nights. Such a great place!


The beach was so beautiful and clean with white sand..the same beach we saw from Om Beach.


Sergei the Russian designed and made all the huts and eating areas. One of the best parts was being able to drink the tap water.


Saara enjoying ocean views while making riisipuuro or rice porridge.


There was no butter in the village shops but Ghee was a good substitute.




Turned out very well. Chef hard at work.




Our first attempt at hand washing much easier and cheaper think i will get Saara to continue doing it.


Restaurant and view from our window.


Heard this very disturbing squawking noise and found out it was this frog's desperate croaks. In the end the frog got away. I would have bet against that happening. 


The next morning people were erecting a funeral pyre. A 90-year-old man died  in the night and according to Hindu traditions was cremated. No one was sad or crying. They have a different view of death and they believe the soul will move on to another life. We were encouraged to take pictures and to observe their rituals. We talked to the nephew of the deceased and he informed us that this is where the cremations usually take place and after the ashes are scattered into the ocean.




After two or three hours the fire went out. 







Our hut
geeky J with his headlamp haha
We could have spent a lot longer in this place but decided to go on since there is many more places to discover..