Gokana

Another place, another entry in the blog but after writing so much about Hampi, there isn’t so much to say about Gokana, which whilst it had some charms it was more of the same sand and sea relaxation we’ve experienced in Goa, rather than anything unusual or exceptional. In fact by the end of our stay we had mixed feelings about why it’s attracted much attention in the first place.
It was on our list of places to visit having just appeared in travel guides over the last couple of years. It was said to be “like Goa used to be”, before it became “over commercialised” as far as the hippies were concerned and they’d apparently migrated there over the last few years. Om beach in particular had quite a reputation of unspoilt beauty that was a great place to chill out with an authentic hippy vibe. Whilst it’s just few hours travel from Palolem, we were starting to take the beach for granted, which is why we decided visit Hampi first, despite knowing we’d have no alternative but a 12 hour bus journey to Gokana from Hampi.

The bus journey ended up being one of the more notable experiences, having to travel overnight and attempt to get some sleep in a double bed bunk travelling on the less than smooth and straight roads from Hampi to Gokana. Maren has slowly been introducing me to pleasures of cheap long distance travel in India and this was the roughest so far. It wasn’t as bad as either of us feared but when you get to your destination there is not much chance of arriving in any other state than tired and fed up. It was about seven in the morning once we got to Gokana with a rickshaw required to get us to Om Beach.

The ride over to Om Beach confirmed that this was beautiful place, as we rode high up in the hills looking down to Kudle Beach and this was confirmed again as we walked with our bags along Om Beach looking for somewhere to stay. I wasn’t much in the mood for searching for the best possible room for the best possible price, but Maren persevered whilst I waited with our bags and we ended up with a nice room along the beach. I’d already noted several people who had got up early to meditate as the sun rose and thought Gokana might live up to its reputation.
However, after taking a nap and getting up in the afternoon to take a long swim (something we’ve been trying to do every day when near water) the people here didn’t seem too much different to Goa or Hampi. In fact we noticed several of the young pot smoking Israelis in a room opposite us who were, as they seemed to do in Hampi, getting perpetually stoned.

Swimming however, proved to be another one of the notable experiences in Gokana, after on our first swim we spotted dolphins once we clambered out on to the rocks a few hundred meters from the beach. When swimming the following morning we kept out an eye out for more dolphins and we spotted the same pair swimming close by. I attempted to get even closer by swimming in their direction hoping they might come over to play and show off, but they were clearly too busy trying to catch some breakfast and every time they popped up in the water for air they appeared in completely different direction and eventually they moved away. That said it was something special and it’s the closest Maren and I have come to clichéd “swimming with dolphins”.
Whilst back by the sea we also took the opportunity to get a healthy fix of protein after being on a pure veg diet in Hampi by eating as much fresh fish as we could. We quickly noticed a place at the end of the beach called Dragon Cafe that was barbequing king fish, red snapper, tiger prawns and shark fish. For just less than three pounds, you could enjoy two long skewers of king fish (or for extra pound 6 huge Tiger prawns) served with a fresh salad and rice. Heaven!

Authentic Indian food however was harder to come by, in fact we even struggled to find a single place along Om or Kudle beach that served a good Chai and switched to drinking instant coffee. This seemed to me one of the symptoms of what, for us, didn’t feel quite right about Gokana. The unspoilt beauty of what may have attracted the hippies to the area originally seemed to have gone (along with the majority of hippies) and Gokana is in transition. It’s a new place on the tourist map, just established on the backpacker guides and will surely in time become a destination for package holidays just like Goa. The people themselves also seem to be in transition and you could see how the way of life was being changed in this quiet and traditionally holy town. It seemed to us that the language barrier and the culture clash had made many of the locals uncomfortable, especially the women, like at our guest house. When you are having to deal with young backpackers who, as Sky had told us in Hampi, rarely talk about much other than getting high and sex (and are less than discreet at hiding at least one of those activities) it’s not really surprising. We found it both sad that there was a lack of respect being shown by many backpackers and how we often seemed unable able to raise a smile or have a greeting returned by the local people.

It was only when we visited the town of Gokana that we got a good feeling about the place, it not having perhaps been changed as much as life at the beach had. Preparations were underway for another festival (Maha Shivaratri, the Great Night of Shiva) and these huge carts with massive structures on top that had been wheeled into town from the temple were impressive. It was fun and hassle free to wander round the streets to do a bit of shopping. Cashew nuts are one of the main crops in this area, so we were quick to pick up a bag of freshly roasted ones. We also purchased a couple of new bits of “hippy flare” adding to our ever growing collection of bracelets, necklaces and other hand crafted items that will no doubt be as fashionable as flares once we get back to London. Finally we stopped at a local restaurant recommended by our rickshaw driver, Vinuh. They served a great and inexpensive Thali for lunch, which cost us just 50p each. Whilst eating our food we got talking to the owner (who seemed to enjoy the novelty of western guests) and we got talking about the guru Sai Baba who we were thinking of going to see. He certainly didn’t put us off, so we are now more determined to stop at his Ashram later this month.

So, in summary we enjoyed another few days at the beach but we weren’t particularly sad to be leaving Gokana. We hadn’t grown attached to our temporary home like we have elsewhere. Our next destination was in Kelra (near Alleppey) to stay at a river guest house recommended by one of Maren’s recent acquaintances. Getting there was my longest journey yet, requiring 2 rickshaws, a local train and express train that took us just under twenty four hours. We had an enjoyable stopover in Karwar killing a few hours eating at another restaurant recommended when getting a rickshaw. Free from tourist inflation it cost us far less than we expected and the food was not toned down to western tastes. We particularly enjoyed “Veg 65” which we were warned was very spicy (the 65 being some indicator of spiciness we guessed), though not as spicy as “Veg 88”. Not so enjoyable however, was spending over sixteen hours on one train but, as soon as we arrived at the River Guest House, I knew already it had been worth it and I’ve not been proved wrong so far during our stay here, which I’ll no doubt write about as soon.

Pictures for Gokana are at http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Gokana