Small vacation, Turtle Bay

Turtle Bay, Karnataka, India:

It all started with a small thought of going on a vacation with two of my good friends, Hema and Parul. Initial proposal was to go to Goa (I had never been to Goa). I suggested that we stay in a nice hotel, which was promptly refused by my other two friends. They said, “If we are going to Goa, we are staying in a small shack and get drunk every single day…that’s the real fun”. And I promptly refused…is it safe? After arguing for days we decided to go to a small resort called Turtle Bay near Mangalore, India.

As soon as we boarded the plane, Hema, being an ex-flight attendant in Air India, promptly started giving us a running commentary about the propeller plane we took from Bangalore to Mangalore. Nothing could stop her from her commentary, which rather took a technical turn, not even that cute co-pilot.

From Mangalore we took a pre-arranged car, which neither had a rear view or the side mirrors. After holding our hearts in our hands we arrived in another small town called Udipi. You know the famous Udipi hotels....we had a hearty early dinner and arrived in Turtle Bay only at 8:00 PM. The rooms were spacious.
Since we were tired we retired to bed early.



I woke up to the chirpy birds singing at 5:00 AM. While I woke up early, my friends were still pretty much snoring. After having capi (coffee) I set out to explore my home-for-3-days. To my delight, Turtle Bay was one of most beautiful beaches I had ever been to! It’s neither a pebble beach nor a clear water beach. Something about its seclusion has appealed so much to me. The reluctant sun slowly started rising from the Arabian Sea. Since we went there on weekdays, there was not a soul outside, at the beach.

Kariya, a small black cat, abandoned me as soon as it sensed that I would go towards the waves. If you call nature as God, sure I had seen God at that moment. I sat by the shore and I was totally lost in its beauty. I couldn’t take my eyes off the waves, relentlessly kissing the shore all day and night. That moment I wished in my next birth I should be born as a drop of water in this Arabian Sea (ok, don’t ask me how is it possible) just to experience the serenity of being one with the ocean.
Private cottages, beautiful coconut trees, abandoned boats…wow. I really would go back there again and most importantly, the seclusion! Perfect place for meditation and yoga and some light reading and romance.



After spending 2 peaceful hours at the shore, finally the sleepy heads arrived with more freshly brewed capi and swim suits. We went for along swim…actually playing-in-water is more appropriate than the word swimming.

Before we realized it was 11:00 AM. That day we had roti with egg burji. Lunch never tasted better. From 12:30 till dusk we just sat by the tree and talked and talked and talked. Ah the joy of spending time with girl friends!
A fire pit was setup and we opened a bottle of wine and Parul had started telling us both some horror stories. That evening we had egg burji again!

The next day was…interesting. We went out to a small island in the sea, sans life jackets in a super small boat. I was pretty freaked out but my friends were enjoying like they were merely taking a stroll in a park. While I was reliving the nightmare of drowning and dying in water, I should secretly confess that I would have enjoyed it very much in other circumstances; circumstances where I had at least a life jacket on. Sea urchins, mussels could be found every where, much to my dismay and much to my friends delight!

At last we came back to the shore and had egg burji for lunch. In the afternoon we went out for shopping in Udipi. All we could manage to buy were a few apples and attracted a lot of stares. What do people usually buy in towns?

We returned to our resort later that evening and enjoyed calm breeze with lots of wine and egg burji.

The next day afternoon we set out to Bangalore again not eventless! Our flight was delayed for 6 hours (no kidding). On the whole a wonderful trip.