Rediscovering Kunjarugiri and Coastal Karnataka

A new role at my company, as well as issues with the website, have kept me busy for the last few months, and I couldn’t post earlier. But here is the latest one.

After a 3-night stay in Kali Adventure Camp in Dandeli, we made our way to the coastal part of Karnataka. Both my parents call this region home, and I was born here, but I never really explored some of the places. This trip changed that as we got to stay here for a week, visiting family and spending a couple of days at a resort with friends. Our first stop was Gokarna.

Gokarna

Gokarna is known for its temples and beaches. As we drove towards the Shiva temple through the narrow lanes of the town, we realized it was a very busy day to be in town. We went into the temple, saw the lineup and turned around and instead went to the Ganesh temple.

After a quick stop at the Gokarna beach, we drove out to Om beach. It was lunchtime, and on Google Maps, I saw a restaurant with a nice view of the Om Beach. So we decided to head there, but once we arrived at the Om Beach parking, it was packed as well. It was about a half-km walk to the beach, and then another half-km to the restaurant. But we were tired from the drive, and considering the hot weather and the crowd, we decided to skip it and continue driving south.

Murdeshwara

After a lunch break at a restaurant, we stopped by Murdeshwar. It is known for its Shiva statue, which at 37 m is the third-tallest Shiva statue in the world and its 20-storied Gopura (temple entrance tower).

The area around the Shiva statue was undergoing some construction and was not accessible to visitors. The main temple was also busy, so we took the lift in the Gopura to go to the top. The lift took us to the 18th floor, and from the top we had some amazing views of the town, the Shiva statue, the beach and the Arabian Sea.

Kunjarugiri

Back on the road, now we were heading to Kunjarugiri, about 11 km from Udupi, and it’s my dad’s native village. It was late in the evening by the time we arrived at my ancestral home.

The last time we were here was in 2016, so it was good to see my extended family after a long time. The village home has gone through some upgrades over the years and has a much smaller footprint now, with a barn next to it. It is surrounded by farmland, and waking up to the “may-awe”s of peacock was a pleasant experience. Just a few minutes on the terrace, and I could spot a dozen different bird species.

I have thirty-seven first cousins, and now most of them have one or two kids. So it is impossible to get everyone together, but I still managed to meet a good number of them on this trip. Kavya enjoyed connecting with them and impressing everyone with her Kannada skills.

After a couple of nights, we moved to another uncle’s place in the village. There was no wedding or other functions, so I had the time to explore more of the places in the village and connect with family.

One of the days, we booked a cab and visited some other family members in Mangalore and nearby towns like Polali and Hiriadka. Some of them I had not seen for probably 15-20 years now.

Temples and Teerthas

One of the entrances to Kunjarugiri Temple

One of my favourite places to visit was the Kunjarugiri Devi temple. It is located on a hilltop, and there are multiple ways to get up to the temple. One approach involves going up 250 stairs, which was probably my favourite. Another approach has steps cut into the rock in some of the steep sections. Kasturi also joined me once. From the top, you can marvel at the place’s beauty and, if you time it right, enjoy the music at the time of the pooja (prayer) at the temple.

Right opposite the Kunjarugiri Temple, on the other side of the road, is the Parshurama Temple. There is a teertha (holy body of water – here a pond) just off the road to the main temple. It’s shaped like a gadha (Indian mace) and is called Gadha Teertha. This temple is on a smaller hillock than the Kunjargiri temple, but it is beautiful and peaceful, especially early in the morning.

Another teertha is close to my ancestral home, and I have memories of my uncle doing a cartwheel jump into the water. The best part here was when you dipped your feet into the water, the small fish would swarm in and nibble at the dead skin, giving you a fish pedicure. The third teertha we visited was in Pajaka Kshetra, another temple complex popular in the region.

The most popular temple in this region is the Krishna Temple in Udupi. Over the years, the temple complex has grown as the number of visitors has increased. Even my friend who lives in Pune has been here a couple of times now with his family. During our stay, I visited the temple twice, once with family and then again with friends. But only once we went in; the other time, the lineup was insane.

Food

My daughter’s favourite place in Udupi was the Naturals. Even though she likes the Pune location better, I think the ice cream was a good break from the heat, which, even in December, was in mid-20C. I thought the store in Udupi had done a great job of celebrating culture and ice cream with their artwork.

Whether it was Gadbad at Pabba’s, Mangalore Buns at Woodlands, prasad at a temple or simple home-cooked meals served on a banana leaf, we savoured it all. Even a simple goli soda at a corner store brought back fond childhood memories of visiting this place.

Kudru Nest

After a few days, Kundan, Satish, and Milind drove from Pune to Udupi, a 700 km one-way trip. I initially suggested they fly from Pune, but they wanted to drive together. It ended up being a good decision, as operational issues of Indigo Airlines were impacting air travel across India.

We had booked Kudru Nest for our stay based on its relatively isolated location on an island on the Suvarna River near Udupi. All of us met late afternoon at Kudru Nest, and it was fun to be together again after a long time. Although I have met these guys on every India trip, we have not done a trip together since the Kheerganga Trip in Parvati Valley in 2017.

The resort was much smaller than I expected, but otherwise it was clean and well-maintained. It seemed like many resorts in the area love to light up the property at night and even cater to groups that want to party with loud music. Fortunately, we had only one evening with a party group, but for the most part, it was quiet.

Kayaking

The next day, we took out the Kayaks for a short paddle on the river. After a quick orientation, we were off on our own. Kundan was the expert, Satish and Milind had some experience, and I was the noob in the group. So, we were asked to stay in the calm waters between the two islands and not venture too far.

We paddled to the eastern tip of the island while admiring the beauty of the place. Then we turned around and raced back to our resort. None of us had kayaked for years and knew we would be sore the next day, but it was so much fun that we decided to do another lap and race again.

Boat Tours

The resort also offered sunset and sunrise boat tours. While the sunrise tour was serene and beautiful, we didn’t have great views due to the cloudy weather.

The sunset tour, on the other hand, was a lot of fun. The tour was much longer and took us all the way to an island with mangroves. We also had time to fool around on the beach and enjoy the sunset.

St. Mary’s Island

One day, we went to St. Mary’s Island, a popular tourist destination in the region known for its Basalt Rock columns. We first went to Malpe Beach and from there took the ferry to the island.

About 10 minutes into our ferry ride, the captain played popular Bollywood and South Indian songs. We had a big group of high school kids on our ferry, and soon the front of the ferry turned into a dance floor. I was tempted. Twenty-two years earlier, while we all were still in Engineering and lived in the hostel, we would have jumped in – no second thoughts about letting it loose.

But now it felt a bit awkward, but eventually we all joined in, probably having the best moments of our entire trip dancing on the ferry – with our life jackets on. It was surreal. We still had some moves, and the high school kids gave us their approval by joining in.

Eventually, we reached the island. We followed other tourists and stopped at various points of interest before heading back for a fruit plate and ice cream. After two hours on the island, we were back on the ferry to Malpe beach. We had dinner at Nemo’s – a popular restaurant- before heading back to the resort.

Chende-Kahale

On our last day, I took my friends to Kunjarugiri and showed them some of my favourite places and my ancestral home.

We stopped by the teertha close to the home and found the temple door open. So after dipping our feet in the teertha (pond) and treating ourselves to a fish pedicure, we went in. Lucky for us, a group of local musicians were practicing and just listening to the beautiful music in that setting was a unique experience.

Later in the evening, we went to Bengre Beach. It was quite busy, and we were a bit late reaching Delta Point for the sunset. On our way back, we enjoyed “goli (marble) soda” at a local shop. The goli soda was making a comeback after being banned for several years.

The next day, we all had an early start. Kasturi, Kavya and our moms took the flight to Pune, and I decided to drive back with my friends. It was a long drive, but it was fun spending more time with all of them. A few years later, when I look back at the 2025 India visit, exploring my native place with family and friends would definitely be the most memorable part of the trip.