Kingfisher calendar - here we come!

Saturday, January 28, 2012
Mangalore, Karnataka, India
After the late evening and adventures finding a hotel, we had hoped to get out at 9. That was about the time we woke up. Westway hotel had a great breakfast - really our first good south Indian food on the trip. For some reason, everyone peddles north indian food along this route! By the time we left, it was 10.

Couple of hours north, we hit Kappad beach. This is the place where Vasco de Gama supposedly landed in India, and called it Pondicherry. It still retains the name. We decided to spend some time on the beach with Ashish and Pawan getting into their swimsuits. Not too long after, ashish was posing for his own swimsuit calendar! He took us from Jan to Dec with total enthusiasm, granting some us guest appearance in some of the pics. When this calendar comes out, kingfisher models will be scurrying for survival! Yours truly of course didn't mind being Atul Kasbekar. The calendar has turned out great, but perhaps a bit risque - Ashish has embargoed that it should only go to close friends (his close friends, so plead with him).

Some distance further is another great beach called bekal. We tried to find a way to the beach but instead landed at the lalit hotel. Nice property but was hard to figure out who would come this far to a lone resort. The place looked empty. There was a helicopter but apparently "for madam's personal use". Given that Ashish had loaned a ton of money to them, and Pawan had built their kitchen, I would have expected better. Isse acchha to mera Ashok nikla... Anyway, ameet did get his fill of coffee before we left.

It was about 7 now, and we figured we would park in now at a beach hotel, hopefully get a run on the beach next morning. Ameet wanted to push on to go further, and successfully managed to miss two beaches, but then finally had to cave in into the third. There was a hotel, red rock residency, that showed up on the map. No phone number. We drove in and thankfully they had a couple of rooms. Good we didn't find their number earlier - the owner said if we had called, he would have told us there was no vacancy (seems he liked Pawan's face). The place was actually great with the beach couple of hundred metres down.

We caught hold of a few beers and walked to the beach. Paradise! Carried ipod and speakers there for music. Came back, had a great dinner and poker. Ameet managed to see some "babes" at the resort, who none of rest of us could see (as babes). Distinguished taste. Slept before midnight with a 5:00 alarm (finally) for the morning run.

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