EP 8 Mangalore to Udupi journey | Coastal Karnataka Tour
Namaskar friends! Welcome to Visa2explore! This is your host, Harish Bali. Today we are on a tour of coastal Karnataka in Mangalore. We will begin our day with breakfast at... ...the Hotel Janatha Deluxe, as you can see. Afterwards, we will do local sightseeing the whole day.
These are the breakfast items available here. I've asked for myself idli vada dipped in sambar. Ohh, thank you! So, idli, idli, no vada? No vada! One vada? One Vada! Dipped? Yes! Let us begin with idli, till the vada is served as well. It is terrific! It is ultimate! You would be surprised to know the kind of taste that I am enjoying here. This idli is so soft that it melts in the mouth.
So soft! I asked them for some more sambar! Very tasty! The taste of this sambar is completely driven by adequate amount of tomatoes in it. It is tomato-rich! And, of course, tamarind is there, it goes without saying. Sambhar also has a subtle sweetness from gur (jaggery). I liked the sambar here.
At most of the places here, the chilies that you'll find being used are... ...Byadgi and Guntur varieties. Restaurant owners usually use both these chilies mixed together... ...to cook sambhar and chutney. Here it is, Sambar-Vada! It is really good! To sum it up, I've had a highly satisfying breakfast at this hotel.
Badam halwa (almond-pudding)! I had assumed that there would be very large quantity but here they sell it in small portions. Great! Badam Halwa! I don't remember when I had Badam-halwa last time. It has a very rich taste! It has lots of ghee. And if you eat a lot of this halwa, your mouth will be filled with the taste of ghee.
Of course, the richness is also due to Badam.( Almond) The taste is remarkable! I really liked it. Kesari Bhaat? Yes! I still remember when I was in Mumbai, I had a set routine for dinner.
We used to eat seera (semolina pudding) for sure after our dinner. It is well-cooked and I like its taste. But not as much as that of the Badam Halwa.
That was absolutely delicious! But this is nice as well. Nice preparation. Now I'll finish my breakfast and we'll go to the Kadri Temple. We've reached the Kadri temple. I will go in from here. We had the Darshan of Shree Manjunath Bhagwan inside.
They are about to start the aarti. We'll participate in that before joining you again. Sage Parshuram meditated at this place centuries ago. That is the reason why this land is also known as "Parshuram Srishti" (creation of Parshuram). This land has benefitted from the visits of Sages Gorakshanath, Matasyendranath, etc. Each one of these sages made this land his home after they visited once.
Sage Gorakshanath received an order from his Guru, Sage Matasyendranath.... ...to bring back a Shiv ling from Kashi, to be established here. After years of meditation and travel, Sage Gorakshanath brought back a Shiv Ling and... ...placed it in the seventh of the 9 ponds of this temple. Years later, a Sage ( Vadiraja) visited a king named Heggade in Dharmasthala. Vadyaraja Swami tells him that he cannot visit a village without any temple in it. When the king goes back dismayed, he is in tears.
The king's servant asks him about the reason for his tears. The king tells him the reason. Anappa seeks a day's time from the King... ...to bring a Shiv ling from the Western direction and build a temple in the village. Just like there is Swami Anappa in the Dharmasthala... ...similarly, Swami Malaraya and five divine powers were established here. During a legendary war, Swami Manjunath appears before Swami Malaraya..
... and tells him why Swami Anappa has come to the place. He suggests to Swami Malaraya to assist instead of resisting Swami Anappa. They were also told to give the Shivling, placed in that Seventh pond,.. ...to Lord Anappa, so that he would establish it at the Dharmasthala. Since it is an order from the God himself, Swami Malaraya takes that Shiv Ling... ...places it in front of Swami Manjunath in the temple... ...and then hands it over to Swami Anappa. Swami Anappa hands over the Shiv Ling to Vadyaraja Swami, who then places it at the Dharmasthala. Thus, Swami Anappa was given the title of "Lingasthapaka" (one who has established the Ling). According to the scriptures, Swami Manjunath is present here as well as at the Dharmasthala.
Irrespective of caste or creed, devotees are welcome here to worship to Swami Manjunath. (chanting Sanskrit Shloka) This temple is famous as home to Shree Manjunath, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Same is the case at Dharmasthala too. Though videography is not allowed inside the inner sanctum of the temple but.. ...right next to it, you can see the bronze statue of Shree Trilokeshwara. As it is written here, "One of the best bronze statue of India." You can have a darshan of this statue from the outside as well.
There is a Pandava cave nearby, which we will visit next. We'll have to climb these stairs to reach there. We've reached the Pandava cave. But we cannot go inside, because of this gate here.
So, you'll have to see the cave from outside only. It is said that the Pandava princes visited this cave while they were living in exile. Now we are going to the Rosario Church, which is at a distance of 5 km from here. We are at the church.
I've requested Father to share some information about this church. I've heard that this church is about 300-400 years old? Yeah! This church is called "Holy Rosary Church." And it is also called 'Cathedral Church.'
This Church was established in 1568, almost 452 years old. This is the first church in the Diocese of Mangalore, including areas like Udupi, Mangalore and Kasargod. Today, in Mangalore Diocese, we have 124 parishes and total Christians about 2 lakh, maybe even more.
This Church has a rich history and its edifice is very nice. It also resembles the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Vatican to be precise. An Italian Father is the architect of this Church. Okay! And it has got 12 Apostles there, represented by the 12 windows. The church has cross-like two aisles, as you can see.
The Church looks like a cross because of this. So many devotees visit here because we are the oldest parish, church & Bishop's place also. This place is closer to the sea shore and it is very quiet and calm here. And beautifully managed here.
People are so good and everything is so nice. Father thank you so much for all this information. We are also grateful to you. It is our joy that you are also here.
Thank you very much! We've come 25 km from Mangalore, to be at the Sasihitlu Beach. Here we also met some of our channel subscribers, who've come to enjoy at this beach The sun is going to set in another 10-15 minutes. And it is feeling so good being here. Are you guys regular visitors to this beach? Yes, we are regulars here. This is a beautiful place. The most beautiful thing about this place,...
...which I was unable to visualise before visiting here... ...is the confluence of the river with the sea. I have Shambhavi river in front of me. The river is joining the sea here and, right now, it is Sunday, 29th November,... ...and a lot of visitors have come here. Everybody is here with the objective of watching the sun-set. We could have visited this place on way to Udupi but that would be day time, this time is better Such a beautiful place! It feels good to be here. Second thing - somebody just told me that due to high tide the sea-water level had reached further inland.
And the river water was left behind. But during low tide, the river water would flow in while the sea-water would recede back 15 m or so. Let us go and enjoy in to the water. It feels so good to stand in the water like this. I would have enjoyed more if I was wearing shorts.
People continue to sit on the rocks and enjoy the scene even as the sun is already set. And they are obviously enjoying! I really enjoyed my time on this sea-beach. Top reason is its cleanliness and the second reason is confluence of the river and the ocean. Lovely place! You must visit here if you are in Mangalore. We will leave for the Mangalore city after spending another 15-30 minutes here.
It is 8 pm right now and we've reached our hotel. I am standing right outside the hotel. Earlier, we'd planned to spend tonight in Udupi.
But we decided to drop that plan because the road from Mangalore to Udupi... ...passes right next to the sea and we didn't want to miss that opportunity for sightseeing... ... by traveling in the dark. So, we will be going to Udupi tomorrow. It is good night for now. We will join you again tomorrow.
We left to go to Udupi in the afternoon. We've first planned to visit the Padubidri beach on the way For your information, Padubidri beach is one of the 8 Indian beaches to receive the Blue Flag recognition. This recognition is granted to beaches based on standards like safety, accessibility, environment, etc. When we were approaching the beach, we were told that it is closed for visitors right now. So, we couldn't visit the beach exactly but,... ...we stopped half a km from there, right by the sea, at another spot. Now look at the scenery here.
There is road on one side... ...and you can enjoy the sea-view while traveling on this road. For your information, I find this beach to be very neat and clean. It feels good to be here. Overall, it is a good experience to enjoy this view here.
We will proceed to the Kapu lighthouse after spending some more time here. We've reached the Kapu beach. Kapu lighthouse is the main attraction here. They allow visitors to go up the lighthouse after 4.30 pm. While we were parking here, the attendant told us that... ... they were not allowing visitors inside the lighthouse right now. We will still go in and find out.
Or we would spend sometime on the beach. The highlight of this beach is these benches installed along its periphery. So, you can sit on these benches, enjoy the view and the ocean, Nice place! I have a good view of this lighthouse from here on this bench.
This lighthouse looks good stop this huge rock. This lighthouse is on this huge rock and there is lock on the entrance. It seems that the place hasn't yet been opened since COVID 19 last year. During the time when it was open, visitors could go in and climb to the top of the lighthouse...
...between 4.30 and 5.30 pm. Once you reach to the top, in the evening,... ...you can enjoy the top view of the beach and the ocean from the lighthouse. Though we are not going up right now, but just standing on top of this huge rock,... ...the whole dynamics have changed. Watching the beach from this height is an awesome experience. Just imagine, in this direction, I can see just the ocean till where my eyes can see.
There is sky above us and right in front of me I can see the sun setting. And in this direction, there is the sea-beach and lots of trees. Lovely! I mean if you've come here just with the purpose of sightseeing,...
...you can just climb up and sit here. And you can spend a lot of time enjoying this view from here. Beautiful! After 10-15 minutes here on the top, we will go down to the beach and spend sometime near the water. You can enjoy the sun-set only while you are standing on a sea-beach. Though we haven't shot a timelapse of it, but this sun-set looks really beautiful. We cannot see the sun setting completely because of the clouds. It is evening time on this Kapu beach.
Written as Kaup in English, pronounced as Kapu Truly marvellous! Whenever you'll travel between Mangalore and Udupi, you must visit this beach during evening. Whenever you'll travel between Mangalore and Udupi, you must visit this beach during evening. We've travelled 5 km from the sea beach, to see Mattu Gulla. Brother, what is your name? Vishwaraj. He is a staff member here.
This, you can see, is Mattu Gulla (a variety of eggplant). The name of this area is 'Mattu' and 'Gulla' is Baingan or eggplant. I am told that I won't find this eggplant variety anywhere else in India. And I was also told that even if I come across such a variety elsewhere,... ...it won't taste as good as the Mattu Gulla. It is dark green on top and light green on the bottom.
As the legend goes, a sage once gave the seeds of this peculiar vegetable... ...to the local farmers, asking them to cultivate the vegetable. For the past innumerable years, the Mattu Gulla is being cultivated in this 4-5 km area. The sowing season for Matu Gulla starts from when? October - June! From October to June. Its market price is in the range of Rs. 60-Rs 110. I'll try to have it at least once in Udupi and then... ...I will share with you how it tastes. For your information, Mattu Gulla comes with a GI tag.
So, this tag is also an identification mark for this vegetable. You can also identify it from its thorny stem. Brother, thank you very much! Okay then, now we are leaving here. We will join you in Udupi next.
I've reached Udupi. Today's dinner is at a famous local restaurant called "Thimmappa." They have two separate of seating space. One is right behind me, you can see, Thimmappa Fish Meals. And this one. The Fish Meals space is at least 50 years old and this one was opened two years back.
Both the places are next to each other. I've decided to have dinner here, since the lighting looks better here. I've with me the owners of Thimmappa - Satish ji and Krishna ji.
I've heard a lot about your restaurant. A lot of people asked me to eat at least one meal here during my Udupi trip. Tell me what should we eat here, which is your famous dish? Fish fry! Fish fry! Tawa fry! I would like to see how it is prepared. Can I? Okay! I've picked one Pomfret and one...
Kane! ...Kane!! One Pomfret and one Kane for me! So, this one is pomfret. And this is Kane, or Lady Fish. This is Suran, also known as Jimikand. There is pickle. I've seen boiled rice is more popular here. It is suitable to eat in a warm climate? Paddy is boiled and then rice grains are extracted from it.
Thank you! Fish curry. Pomfret & Kane! Great! Thank You. Prawns ghee roast. I also ordered prawns ghee roast for dinner. Let me taste prawns first. Good taste! True to its name, this dish is loaded with ghee.
The dish is low on spices, though it may not look so. I've become used to the taste of eating boiled rice with fish curry, ever since I've come to Mangalore. By the way, there can be no comparison between this fish curry and the Goan fish curry. Totally different taste of fish curry in both locations. This fish curry is not at all sour, instead...
...it is rich in coconut flavors, which you can feel on your pallette. One thing is there, the taste of this fish is unique. The fish is marinated in homely spice mix, very good flavors! Kane fish is usually found in the backwaters of Mangalore. Locals love to eat this fish. Very different taste! Take a bite & dunk it in this spicy rub! For our stay in Udupi, we've rented a very large apartment of a homestay. I've booked it through Air B 'n B. Its tariff is Rs. 2700.
It has two double bedrooms and it is 10 km from where we had our dinner, near the Manipal University. Now I'll say bye-bye to you. Now I will meet you again in the next episode. Tomorrow we will do local sightseeing in and around Udupi. Bye-bye! Thanks for your time.
2021-02-13 05:26
