Ethiopia PCV: Gokarna

5/16

So for those of you who don't know, almost as soon as I arrived in India the charger for my laptop broke. Since I had no way of opening my pictures, I had no way of sending in any blog posts. So for the next little while I am going to try to go through the pictures I took while in India and write up some posts. I hope you can bear with me while I select and write these up. I hope you enjoy.

After Varanassi and Thrissur I headed to Gokarna in South Karnataka. The train ride there was of course long and hot, but it was an overnight train so I got to sleep and arrived in town a few hours after noon. Gokarna is a beach town that is somewhat famous for tourism both foreign and domestic. It is a beautiful area with several beaches and a small rural area surrounding. It was nice to see the way the rural people in India live.

I spent just about every day there in the mornings sitting on the beaches, and the afternoons walking around town doing some shopping or walking through the rural regions of town. The beaches there were quite beautiful, most of the people stayed on the main entrance areas to the beach leaving the rest of it nearly pristine. The second day I made the trip over to Om beach by foot. I didn't realize that it was five kilometers away when I set out but it was a nice several hour walk. The rock formations surrounding the beaches were interacting with the surging in the ocean by sending sprays of salt water feet into the air with an unending noise of the surge in the background. On the main part of the beach there were several small bars. The one I stopped in was run by a French man who was more than happy to keep the beers flowing. After half a day of drinking, eating great curries, and a Lassi for dessert I head back to town for some shopping. Since it is the off season for foreign tourism I was able to get what I consider some really good deals on gifts and souvenirs.

The final day in town I decided to take a long walk down the beach. After about an hour of walking I came across a small fishing village built right on the beach. As I walked up there were a group of men bringing in one of the large seven person fishing boats out of the water. As I got close they waved me over and in pantomime told me to start pushing with them. I being the pushover I am went along with it. We pushed and shoved until the boat was close enough for the locally made wooden winch to hook up to it and then helped as the winch slowly pulled it up the beach. I admit being a little disappointed when I wasn't offered any coconut rum or something for my pleasure but they did ask me to come back in the afternoon to push it back in the water. I am afraid I didn't make it.

I enjoyed my time in Gokarna quite a lot, it was very relaxing and quiet. It was not common to find small places in India to just enjoy but I am glad I made it to Gokarna and its beautiful beaches.

Two forts seen from the train