Archive for June 2017

Kudle Beach (Gokarna): The Longing to Stay Back

Published on Thursday, June 29, 2017 By Oasis Holidays

I remember humming a soft tune as I walked down the beautiful Kudle Beach at Gokarna – a town kissed by the Arabian Sea in the South Indian State of Karnataka.

The melody of the tune was completed by the sweet sounds of the crashing waves, regular chirping of the coastal birds, shouts of kids playing soccer and the whispers of lovers walking on the beach. I also remember splashing waters on to my friend’s faces as all of us joyously bathed in the cool Arabian waters. The gradually receding beach was both merciful and welcoming. In the evening, nearly forty pairs of eyes stood staring at the beautiful sunset as the sea gulped the sun, to keep it safe in its hiding for the night. Quite a love story. And quite a sight to behold.

I remember walking down the streets of the beautifully antique town of Gokarna to reach Kudle Beach. I bumped into some really interesting people and sights on the way. And as my eyes caught the glimpse of the beach through the leaves of an ancient tree, I blessed the walk that had led me to it.

But what I remember the most from those two days at Kudle Beach, is a longing – a longing to let go. A longing to delve deeper and understand. A longing to stay.

When we travel, we come across numerous beautiful roads and destinations. And very often, we spend days at these locations and then move on to other places and things. Sometimes we come back from journeys and the places we saw take deep roots in our memories, as our minds get exposed to the realms of everyday life. But at times, we visit places we just can’t get enough of. At times, we feel the strong urge to call a distant land our ‘home’. At least for a while.

Such was the case with Kudle Beach and me. Having been there several times, I still feel the longing to stay there for a longer duration. Still feel the need to stare at the Kudle sunset for days together.

And it’s very difficult to state the reason why. It is definitely not the most enchanting place I have ever been to. But there was something in the way my thoughts completely melted and mixed with the aroma of the place. It lent me a peaceful, easy feeling very difficult to replace. I felt that I completely belonged to the place, at least for the time I spent there. So much so that I’ve been planning to go and stay there for a month or two.

I don’t feel the urge to spend my life away at Kudle. But for what she gave me, I definitely owe her a month of my heart and soul. For me, it will always be my favourite escape.

Things to Do in Gokarna

When in Gokarna, do not miss out on the following:

· - Trek from Kudle Beach all the way up to Om, Half Moon and Paradise Beach. The beach trek is an amazing experience. You are bound to bump into some amazing travellers and picturesque locations.

· - See some beautiful temples and walk the old markets of Gokarna town. Gokarna is considered to be the birthplace of Lord Shiva. Delve in its history and culture.

· - If you are going to stay for long, you can also take Yoga classes near Kudle beach.

· - Go on a boat ride and if you are lucky, you can spot dolphins in the sea!

· - You can get a nice massage and spend the day out in the beach sun.

· - The bike ride around Gokarna is really beautiful. // Amarpreet Singh for Oasis Holidays

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For an all-India tour in 22 days, you may want to check out this video.

For Tour and Travels India as well as International packages from India, please contact us at Oasis Holidays.

Unshod Rover is a worldwide-eyed wanderer currently based in Bangalore, India. You may follow his musings and wanderings on this blog. "Unshod in India" is a series of articles based on Mr. Rover's adventures and discoveries in this very interesting and incredible subcontinent.

{About the Author}

Amarpreet Singh is 25 and lives in Bangalore, India and apart from journeying with a waste management organization called Daily Dump, likes to spend his time scribbling words wherever he can. His passion is penning down random sets of words that may seem gibberish to most people and may make perfect sense for some insane ones out there. He doesn’t seem to stop any time soon too. Poetry is what people say he is good at. Music and Football are his other hobbies.

Looking up the Lisbon Sky: Circumnavigating the Portuguese capital the Second Time Around

All Rover the World

Published on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 By Oasis Holidays

Under the intricate web-like structure that was the ceiling of the Jeronimos Monastery, I found myself in the middle of Sunday mass in Portuguese on my first day back in Lisbon. The ceiling -- with its palm-like branches supported by columns that mirror the small group of churchgoers and early tourists spread throughout the otherwise enormous church – reminded me of the train station on the other side of the city.

We actually arrived last night. And while I would have wanted to start my second time in Lisbon in full “Age of Discovery” mode, straight from the airport at almost midnight we were already clamping some prego and wolfing it down with a glass of Super Bock. We landed instead in “modern” Lisbon, at the former site of the ’98 expo now turned pub-resto-discohouse boulevard. Above the entrance of the place where we were, a sign said “There are no strangers, only friends who haven’t met.” Yet and/or again, I added.

By the Tagus river, a pair of cable cars hung like broken lamps. But here, was life, night life in Lisbon flavored by the post-expo effort to move forward. For a city and a country so much in love with its glorious past – if not attached – here was some hint of facing the future.

Two artists, one on the guitar, the other on the drums, performed The Beatles’ “Come Together” spiked with Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. The old and the new coming together, losing oneself. When people come together, one definitely has to lose himself, lose in the sense of letting go and lose in the sense of wandering.

Lisbon was not an exception. There were all sorts of people here. And that night, amid the crowd, I found myself again with a bunch of foreigners for a vacation that included the south of Portugal, Morocco and then Spain. It was for them, mostly, that I had wanted to start this trip right: by being at Belem where boats and ships started, now site of the tombs of Vasco da Gama and Luís de Camões.

One’s a voyager, the other a poet: two things that in me come together, where I lose myself in. That was where I would have wanted to start because slowly, slowly it was coming to my attention that as I continued traveling some moments and experiences in my life were coming full circle. But then again, in a circle, the end is the beginning as well as the other way around. Also, there’s not just a perfect beginning.

As we reached the Monumentos dos Descobrimentos, I found on the pavement a map of the nation’s early conquests. I stood it, as many thoughts came invading the unchartered territories of my tourist sensibilities. I remembered how I felt in Genoa, as I took a moment by the Garibaldi monument, the very same spot where the Italian national hero gathered a thousand volunteers (i Mille) on May 5 in 1860, and left Genoa to unite the north of Italy with the south.

Little did I know that just left of Thailand across the pond, in a year or so I would find myself coming out of the Vasco da Gama airport in Goa. And there I will find a little piece of Belem and a little piece of the Tejo. And somehow, another episode could come full circle. I knew then though that in a few days’ time, the tomb of Columbus in Seville, Spain awaited us in one of our stops on our way to Morocco.

Before that was a day spent in Sintra, where among the castles there one features initiation wells that seem to be inverted towers. From the bottom of these wells, you can look up and sense the depth of the skies.

Later, sitting by the edge of Cabo da Roca, at the westernmost extent of mainland Portugal and the rest of the Eurasian land mass “where the land ends and the sea begins…”, I stared at the horizon where the sky kisses the Atlantic.

By sunset, it may have looked like the sea was swallowing the sun and that the day was ending. But then again, in a circle, the end is a beginning as well as the other way around. Somebody else from the other side for sure was just waiting for the sun to rise and signal the start of another day.

Rover Recommends How to Measure Paris by Metro

Adventure

Published on Friday, June 23, 2017 By Oasis Holidays

Paris, Paris. There’s nothing like the City of Love. You’ll definitely fall in love with its structures and corners. If you have the chance and the time in the world, you can walk for days on end around this lovely, lovely city, but you won’t find any end to its beauty and grandeur.

So, what if you only have a couple of hours (preferably at least a day) and a few euros to spare? Let’s try to measure the City of Love by metro (and other convenient transportation) based on what #RoverRecommends.

Your ticket to this French wonderland is called the Ticket Mobilis. It’s a day ticket that currently costs starting from Eur. 7.30 only, but will allow you unlimited number of journeys within selected zones of Paris on all modes of transport. It is valid from 00:00 to 23:59. You can purchase it at ticket offices in rail stations, on automatic ticket machines and in some shops.

1. Let's say we start from Olympiades, the southern end of line 14, from which we proceed to Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, then change to RER C to Saint-Michel-Notre –Dame.

Our First Stop is at the Notre Dame Cathedral, where French Gothic architecture adorned with gargoyles and chimeras would take you back to scenes of the movie, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Across the river is my favorite secondhand bookshop (well, along with those literarily scattered about the streets) in Paris, Shakespeare and Company.

[If you’re up for it, you can go tomb-raiding at not-so-nearby Paris Cemetery where you can try looking for graves of famous people like singers and musicians Frederic Chopin, Jim Morrison and Edith Piaf as well as writers Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, and Honore De Balzac, and just about the strangest and most fascinating tombs in the world. It’s an hour walk from Notre Dame one way, so no matter how interesting the prospect is, you might set aside your Lara Croft skills and fan mode for another time.]

2. Again from Saint Michel, we take 27 towards Gare Saint-Lazareand stop at ...

The Louvre Museum. Perhaps, the Museum of museums, where the Mona Lisa awaits to half-smile at you. It’s a big place, so we might take a couple of hours here.

[Actually, a few strides away is the Musee D’Orsay, another very important museum and a less-frenzied alternative. But then, again, Louvre would take time. So, another day then.]

3. From Palais Royal Musée du Louvre, we take 1 towards La Defense and stop at Franklin D. Roosevelt to marvel at the...

The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, Champs-Élysées. The arch that pays tribute to the heroes of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars stands majestic at the centre of the famous Parisian roundabout that we usually see in movies.

4. From Rond-Point des Champs-Elysees take bus 42 towards Hôpital Européen

Georges Pompidou and stop by the ...

The Eiffel Tower. On my very first time in Paris, I was treated to one of the best surprises in my life when my French friend took us along without saying anything only to be greeted by this beautiful iconic monument as we alighted from the metro.

[From here to our last stop, a long ride awaits. And so, don’t get mad at me if I told you that for now we have to skip Moulin Rouge, which is along the way, just to be able to catch the sunset at our last destination.]

5. From Monttessuy, we take Bus42 Gare du Nord to Concorde - Cours la Reine, then change to Metro 12 Front Populaire towards Abbesses and walk up to...

Montmartre. Where by sunset we can enjoy a view of the City of Love as it transforms into...the city of Lights. Here, we look back at our daytrip as we look down at the City that has been enchanting everyone for centuries.

So should I book a Ticket Mobilis for two? // Unshod Rover for Oasis Holidays

For a guided tour of Paris and other cities in France as well as tour and pilgrimage packages in Europe, you may contact our subsidiary Volando Tours.

For Tour and Travels India as well as International packages from India, please contact us at Oasis Holidays.

Unshod Rover is a worldwide-eyed wanderer currently based in Bangalore, India. You may follow his musings and journeys on this blog. "All Rover the World" chronicles his continuing travels wandering about the world and stumbling upon strangers.

Rover Recommends to Size up the World in 7 Milestones

Adventure

Published on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 By Oasis Holidays

How do we measure our world? What are our ultimate global travel goals?

#RoverRecommends to us to do it via these 7 destinations scattered all over the planet. Let’s see where we have been so far, and what is still left out there to be conquered.

1. 1. Sail across the equator. In 2003, our boat sailed from Malaysia to Indonesia, crossing the equator and I got a certificate to prove that! But the greater milestone would be at the Gulf of Guinea, in the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia.

2. 2. Stare at the Strait of Gibraltar. Here, Europe meets Africa and the Mediterranean joins the Atlantic. [Did this in 2014 while in Morocco during Ramadan.]

3. 3. Skip to Sentosa. Singapore is a stone's throw south of Cape Piai, Malaysia, southernmost point of mainland Eurasia. [Was out of my country for the first time in 2003, visiting Singapore!]

4. 4. Summit the Everest. The rooftop of the world at almost 9,000 metres awaits. [Still on my bucket list! And being in India makes it more feasible at this point of my world journey.]

5. 5. Stand by Cabo da Roca. In Portugal. Stood there in 2014, at the westernmost edge of mainland Eurasia "where the land ends and the sea begins..." (Luís de Camões)

6. 6. Swim in the Dead Sea. Stay afloat near its shore that is the Earth's lowest point on dry land. [Have yet to do this myself.]

7. 7. Skim the surface of the Mariana Trench. The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point

in Earth's oceans at 10,994 metres. Deepest dive done so far was by an unmanned robotic vehicle in 2009. Anyone?

How many of these milestones have you achieved? I've got 4 out of 7, so far! Join me as we complete the list. // Unshod Rover for Oasis Holidays

For tour and pilgrimage packages in Europe, you may contact our subsidiary Volando Tours.

For Tour and Travels India as well as International packages from India, please contact us at Oasis Holidays.