In the search of pH7...!!!

In the Search of pH 7

If you have a science background you wouldn’t take much time to understand our quest 😉.

Well, for the one’s who aren’t from the science it’s here in the below picture :p.

 

Not to sound boring I’ll just give an anecdote of our travel.

Our journey started with only motive of spending some quality time with the people whom we know for years but never spent enough time with each other.

But we never expected that there would be a lot to explore, it’s six different people with six different mentalities.

Four of us (me, tarun, jaggu & rajesh) started our journey from Bangalore in a ‘late’ night train (I mean delayed 😉)  after experiencing a good hospitality at one of the restaurants.

Day 1 :

Witnessed a scenic beauty in the morning, train halted at a place where fog turned gold in the morning Sun.

There you go, the other two guys (Rakesh & Suresh) joined us at the ‘Sagara’ station and we headed towards Jog falls not knowing that it isn’t the right season to go for.

I wouldn’t forget the cutest smile I’ve seen in the bus while heading to the water falls. People feel that a man with a beard would scare an infant, no it isn’t true. I was amused by the baby’s reaction, even a slighter movement of your eyebrows could tickle an infant and bring out the innocent smile. It isn’t exaggerating calling it a euphoric moment.

Not the real one 😜

JOG falls:

Don’t blame me for using a pleonasm as a title :p, Joga (kannada) also means a water fall 😉.

We finally arrived at Jog falls and it’s a sunny day, to our surprise there was not enough amount of water and we understood it’s not the right season to visit the place. Started towards the bottom of the falls with the help of oddly built stairway.

Photo freaks started capturing moments on our way.

It's that feeling when you don't see water at waterfalls 

It is not easy to climb down 300 – 400 oddly built steps, but our regular trekkers didn’t mind and they were at ease dealing with it, others suffered a bit but did reach the bottom by taking few breaks.

Rajesh: do you feel we can make it. Jaggu: not a big deal!! 

We did find a shelter for ourselves which saved us from the hot sun and helped us to hibernate for some time.

Hibernation 

Then the toughest part started, we had to climb the same steps to head towards our next destination. Believe me, I could hear my heart beating due to high respiration rates.

We had to take longer breaks to save our legs from getting dysfunctional.

Never knew this could be so tough 

By the afternoon, we had our delicious lunch with some expensive onions in the salad 😉.

Our next halt was at Murudeshwara, known for world’s second tallest Shiva’s idol.

Murudeshwara:

To reach murudeshwara, we had to hop to Honnavar (sounds like ‘an hour’) and the bus journey was through the ghat road with its driver showing his expertise in turning skills not knowing he has breaks as an option when something blocks his way. It was a roller coaster ride but for a change ‘on the road’.

We arrived at Murudeshwara in the evening and the view was admirable, the metallic grey Shiva’s idol with the height of 123 feet, reflecting shimmers of the evening lights with a bunch of dark clouds wandering in the background.

While we were enjoying the view, we didn’t realise it was already late in the evening to head to the next place.

All of us had to jump into a conversation, debating pros and cons of travelling again after a hectic day, agreed to stay for the night and checked into a beach view hotel room (though we couldn’t see anything in the dark night).

It’s midnight and when the surroundings turned silent, waves from the Arabian sea resembling a girl’s footsteps with belled anklets and on the other hand, rather than enjoying the breeze from the window our chess champions decided to attack on each other by guiding their soldiers.

Well, we even had a coach (suresh) who feels knowing chess is the minimum qualification of a human (on a funny note).

Groupie with murudeshwara 

The next morning, we took a groupie before starting our journey to Gokarna.

Day 2:

Operation Gokarna:

            We arrived at the most awaited place of the trip, Gokarna – known for many things but we are interested only in the beaches 😉. It’s a place for Lord Shiva’s disciples who are known for being in trance (hope you get it).

It was a very hot day, we reached Om beach (known to be in the shape of Om'ও' symbol). May be due to the heat we couldn’t feel the beauty of the place.

After an experimental lunch at a beach hotel, which was taken care by one man, running all over the place and successfully delivering the orders consuming ample of other’s time. It was fun watching him though.

It’s only after little food and brewed water in the tummy, we started enjoying the place.

All of us jumped into the sea (I mean at the beach 😝), few exploring the art of swimming, few showing their already acquired swimming skills and a photo freak taking pictures in all possible angles.

It's SURI man ;)

After spending good amount of time in the beach, we half-heartedly headed back to the bus stand finding way towards our next destination.

Trust me, the best way to enjoy a trip is not to have a perfectly drawn plan, it will let you explore different ways of reaching places and the passage could turn adventurous helping you to have more fun.

Jaggu & Tarun lagging in the brisk walk race 

We had to reach nearest railway station and catch the train to 'Madgoan' but we only had little amount of time and only option available was to walk briskly.

Our pack had managed to reach on time and we were at a station which looks abandoned.

It turned dark while we were waiting for our train, the sound of dogs screaming along with chirping of insects resembled a crime scene from one of the detective series.

Gokarna railway station

When the train arrived, we managed to find some place for all of us to get seated and the journey begun on one of the finest train routes with tunnels and bridges at regular intervals producing enough sound to help us not to fall asleep due to the day long physical strain 😟. We had to engage ourselves in conversations opting out the idea to sleep.

It was 21:00 hrs when we arrived at Madgoan (yes, we are in GOA now, the land of pleasures 😉), Thanks to OYO it helped us finding a good hotel for the night’s stay.

Next morning we had to head towards ‘Dudhsagar’, a renowned waterfalls.

Day 3 : 

Dudhsagar:

In the morning, we checked out from the hotel and started towards Kulem by train.

We had 2 options to reach dudhsagar waterfalls, one by following the railway track & tunnels which is a bit riskier and the other to go by vehicles provided by local authorities.

7kms way from Kulem to Dudhsagar is a wildlife sanctuary and driving through it needs an expertise to drive. An hour’s journey would just go like few minutes if you are a true admirer of natural air, if you are in real need of oxygen it’s worth visiting this place.

I was surprised when we were provided with life jackets, assumed it could be used in case of emergencies while crossing small canals on our way through the sanctuary.

No, it isn’t the case here. We could get into a small pond at the water falls, and it has enough depth to drown a person who’s incapable of swimming.

View of a waterfall hasn’t really made an impact on us, we didn’t know that the actual thrill is only when we dip ourselves into the water. The instruction was just to stay for an hour at the place and you’ll only understand when you experience the magic.

Off season picture of Dudh sagar

Guess who’s the magician? It’s the Nature. Temperature inside the water could straighten your spine with its chillness, but once your body gets adapted to the condition, you’ll feel the real heaven Inside.

Woaahhhh !!! yeahhhh !!! woohhh, I don’t know how to express my state of mind. Yes, I tasted it, may be the purest form of water (pH7) in my lifetime. You have right to question me, stating the Himalayan mountains to be the place for purest form of water and I might not win the competition(I'm not worried about winning or losing😁), I have reached a position where I believe that I’ve tasted purest of all 😇.

Our pack had a lot of fun, our swimmers had fun swimming, newbies had an opportunity to try their luck with the help of life jackets, floating was real fun. It was only 'time' which had pulled us out of water, else the whole day wouldn’t be enough.

Satisfied souls

After posing for few photographs we headed back to Kulem through the same 7Kms way, this time with a sense of happiness, a kind of euphoria given by the mountain water.

We had a delicious Konkani meal for our lunch and started our journey towards the place which’ll bring out kid in you( few turn out to be brats 😉), It’s time for Goa.  

The Land of Expats:

Memories from the old trip started rolling in when we arrived at most crowded beach (Calangute). As it was not in our list we didn’t book a hotel for our stay and unfortunately, we arrived on a busiest day i.e. Saturday. Our pack was already tired and hunt for the hotels turned difficult with tired souls.

Thanks to OYO! somehow, we got rooms to stay and we checked-in late in the evening. Time has come to use the hired bikes. We all headed to Anjuna beach to soak our legs in salt water :p. our idea of having sizzler at one of the shacks was disastrous, waiter with a ‘don’t care’ attitude and our group with a ‘what to do’ attitude somehow tasted the burnt food on the sizzler and headed back to the rooms.

That was an infuriating night 😤,the next day we had time till the evening before we end our trip and disperse to our respective destinations.

It's innovation time :-P 

Day 4 :

An innovator cum entrepreneur(Tarun) helped making our last day of the trip more memorable. We built our own tent with the minimum available resources to survive from the hot sun while enjoying the view of the sea. Ashvem beach was a scenic beauty.

Rajesh throwing questions at the sea 😵

Last segment of our trip was more challenging than all the others 😉. Breaking down of bikes and running out of time to catch the bus to home.  

Broken bike 😩

Though with the hurdles and last minute surprises the trip has given us enough memories which we could cherish and no doubt it'll bring smiles on our faces when we look at these pictures.

Rakesh's happy face when he knew he's on the safest bike :-P 

The trip which never had any specific motive but looked like it was destined to taste purest form of water ( it's just an attempt to justify the title 😜 ).

P.S : An attempt to preserve memories in the web.