A perfect getaway to end a rather frustrating and depressing 2020, and an amazing way to welcome 2021.
We planned to celebrate the New Year's along with my childhood friend's group - CGCC, this year as well.
As we explored safer stay options during the Pandemic, we came across Vitamin Sea, a private beach house near Mangalore. As it was a private homestay with no other guests, we booked the entire 3 bedroom beach house.
With all bookings done for 5 of us and 2 kids, including a T.T to travel to Mangalore, Immi in the group dropped out at the last minute due to personal reasons, We explored other friends who could join us in his place, and We somehow landed with my niece Mahima and my another friend Srinidhi's daughter Sukruthi willingly joining us.
With such a odd group, especially for Mahima and Sukruthi who never met each other, nor did they know Ashwin and Family, We started our journey on 30th Dec Morning.
Luckily the group quickly gelled very well, especially Mahima and Sukruthi who are of the same age group, found great company in each other.
The excitement of travelling and a beach vacation kept all of us happy and eager.
Not sure if It's because of Covid or because of the day we chose to travel, the traffic all along was very normal, unlike the typical holiday season rush.
The Charmadi ghats route that we chose to reach Mangalore was in great condition.
Despite having many in the group with travel sickness, all of them made it through the Ghats without too much of discomfort.
Reached our destination - Vitamin Sea. A beautiful, yet simple house with 3 rooms. 2 rooms having attached bathrooms and 1 small room with A/C and a common bathroom.
It has a hall that opens to an enviable backyard and a mesmerizing view of the beach.
I had never heard of a beach property that is bang on the beach. Most of the properties I have come across would have a view of the beach at a distance or access to beach after a short walk. But this one!! The back door literally opened to the sands.
The view was magical and all were super excited with the view and access to the beach.
We did not waste any time and dived into the Bettampady Beach immediately.
Though the beach was rough, with harsh waves and steep sea bed, we were way too thrilled for it to keep us away from playing in the water.
After having a great time at the beach, the quick bath we took in the fresh water sprayed from the hose added to the fun.
Rafiq, caretaker at Vitamin Sea took good care of us. He was humble and nice to the guests. He did his best to organize everything We requested him.
They do not prepare food nor have a cook/kitchen at the property. We have to order food from nearby restaurants. We Ordered food from Karthik Restaurant nearby, which was too spicy and oily to our liking.
Next day Morning, 31st Dec, We started our day early and headed towards Udupi, stopped for breakfast near Suratkal.
We realized midway that due to Covid restrictions, the Udupi krishna Mutt closes at 10.00 in the Morning, and reopens again by 2.00 PM, and shall remain open only till 6.00 PM.
We improvised our plan and covered other temples enroute - Guru Narasimha Temple in Saligrama and Brahmalingeshwara temple in Kota.
We then headed towards Marvanthe beach.
Back to Udupi, after a sumptuous meal at MTR, We visited Udupi Sri Krishna Mutt by 4.00 PM. The way in and out has been drastically changed at the temple to better manage huge crowd. But on that day there was hardly any crowd.
We had peaceful and satisfying Darshan of Lord Krishna.
We then visited Hariram Bhavan, Preeti's ancestral house. Kids had a good time experiencing village way of life.
We drove back to Vitamin Sea, after a very hectic full day outing, under hot sun and humid weather. Kids were all tired and exhausted.
We had made food arrangements with the local cook - Siddique, who served us some lip smacking food for the rest of our stay there. He brought us breakfast and dinner over the next 3 days.
Siddique also arranged Barbeque as part of our new year's celebrations.
One of the most peaceful and tranquil new year celebrations, with the view of the sea, sounds of the waves and a calming silence.
While the 4 of us sat chit chatting, kids found their own fun things to do.
On 1st Jan 2021, we just wanted a relaxing day and cancelled all the sight seeing activities we had lined up. We sat on the sands and played in the water for a long time.
We headed out for a short visit to Mangalore. Started the New year taking the blessings of Lord Manjunatha at Kadri Manjunatha Temple.
And to the excitement for everyone, especially the kids, We decide to go on a icecream eating spree at the famous Pabba's, instead of Lunch.
We came back to Vitamin Sea and spent rest of the evening and did what all of us loved to do - by the beach.
Last day of the Trip, We went on a long walk on Bettampady Beach, which is the last Beach in Mangalore, after which Kerala state begins.
Bettampady Beach is indeed rough, it has eroded many close by buildings and roads.
We started our return journey, after the breakfast, bidding adieu to Vitamin Sea.
We took Charmadi Ghats Route on the way back, which was good as well.
A much needed trip to rejuvenate ourselves from the pale 2020, end the troubled year on a high and step into the new year with hope and positivity.
All of us, especially Mahima and Sukruthi had a good time in the Trip, who were tired of sitting at home through out the year.
Ishan and Shriya enjoyed the most on the beach. It was extremely difficult to pull them out of the waters, as they literally begged us to let them play for some more time, every time.
While Preeti enjoyed her beach time, visits to her native places, Ashwin and Sindhu loved the beachside stay, playing with their kids, taking some postcard worthy pictures, Mahima and Sukruthi just loved the freedom, away from their parents and had loads of fun.
Covid and It's scare didn't stop us living life and break away from the shackles. We took the basic measures by wearing masks and using sanitisers regularly and yet did things normally.
As I have written in the past many times, and what we see on ground every day, millions of people have started to live life normally. Let Covid not control our lives, but let's take some courage and beat the misconceptions, scare and being paranoid about the situation. The no.of people being infected, fatality ratio and the no.of people living life normally outside, proves it's not worth being scared and Covid doesn't deserve this much of hype and panic.
I guess this trip was very much required to help ourselves out of Pandemic fatigue.
The vibes of coastal people, coastal language, places, food, temples and the beaches were a great treat.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
