The abovephoto was taken near Sringeri. Rao and our driver.
I was in the province of Karnataka many times in my life. I did my 8th grade public exam (in the good old 50s) in Bangalore. We lived there for about 3 years. I love the place. Many sweet memories!! But this yatra, my desire was to see Sringeri Sarada Peetham. The holy place established by Sri Shankara Acharya. We added few more places like mangalore, Dharmasthala, Kukke (Subrahmanyam), Talakaveri, Udipi, Madikare, Annapurneswari etc.
We left Tirupathi on Nov 26th around 10:30 a.m. by Taxi. Reached Katpadi Junction by 12:30. Great driver, scenic drive. On the way I noticed a structure with symbols of the three major religions Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The driver said it was a school!!! The train at Katpadi was at 1:30 p.m.to reach Mangalore by 5 a.m. We slept well. Nirmala had arranged for a Taxi, driver cum guide to meet us at the train station. This was done through the help of her niece and her husband who live in Ernakulam, Kerala. The driver had a sign and we recognized each other. Nirmala was told that the driver could speak Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English. We were thrilled. But, as soon as Rao spoke a few words in Kannada, the driver dropped the other languages (which he knew very little anyway). But he was intelligent and polite, unlike our Tirupathi driver.
It was already 27th. We went to Hotel Manorama, on K.S. Rao Road in Mangalore (excellent) to shower, rest, have breakfast etc. Attached to this hotel was a restaurant.The rates were reasonable, food was healthy and tasty. The official tour began at 10:30 a.m. on Nov 27th visiting the local Temples. The driver knew where he was going and what he was talking about. We will meet in my next post.
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