Winding Roads & Never Ending TalesFamily trips, wrong turns and the places we still talk about.
Bekal: Fort Walls, Sea Views and a Film Memory
A film can quietly put a place on your travel list long before you know where it is. For us, the Tu Hi Re connection helped make Bekal an easy yes when my wife found it while looking at our coastal route. A fort facing the sea, beaches nearby and a small detour into Kerala: it seemed too good to drive past. Once inside, finding the spot we had in mind involved more walking than expected. The camera was willing; the legs also needed to cooperate.
Bekal was our detour into Kerala on the coastal road trip.
A note on this archive story
From the travel archive, first published 27 Feb 2017. This is our experience at the time, not a current price or booking guide. Check opening hours, access, fares and services before making your own plans.
I have been living in Karnataka for almost 4 years now and have travelled a lot on weekend trips near Bangalore. But longer holidays were normally destined for long hauls. This time the plan was to keep it simple, a road trip covering the entire coastal Karnataka till Karwar. So on the eve of Christmas, I finally set off on this most remarkable journey of my life spread over 7 days.
Please read Day 1 - kushalnagar adventures here.
The next leg of the journey took us to Kerala backwaters and beach destination of Bekal. Although not part of Karnataka this was almost at the border and we thought of it to be a good chance to capitalise on seeing the place as we were passing so close to it. It is a small town that has a beautiful sea facing Fort, a unique backwater, and some very clean beaches. A multipurpose destination that is not there is any mainstream tour plan.
Day 2: (Sunday 25th December, Kushalnagar –Bekal,
travel time- 4 hours)
We started after breakfast and took the Madikeri route and wow what a beautiful route it turned out to be. There were places so densely covered with trees that we had to switch on our headlights. Our next destination was Bekal. The credit for finding this place goes to my wife who while browsing found out about this beautiful place where the shooting for Tu Hi Re song was done (remember the fort where Manisha Koirala is running towards Aravind Swami). The place is not found on any tourist map maybe because the place has not been promoted well.
WHERE TO STAY
There is hardly any good hotel here except Taj Vivanta and Lalit which does not cater to Budget travelers. Although not taking anything away we did visit Taj Vivanta and the property location itself makes it worth the bucks along with the service. Bekal beach is within walking distance and that is where we headed.
Few words of advice here, though, first as soon as you leave NH and turn towards the Bekal road around 5 KM road is in a very bad state filled with potholes and the driving of buses and autos in the area make things worse if you are driving your own vehicle.
Secondly don’t blindly trust google maps here, the routes are not mapped properly and many times we ended up at alleys where there was no further way. So lesson learned is to look for road signs more than your google map.
BREAKPOINT: BEKAL FORT
The Fort itself opens at 8:30 am so plan accordingly. We reached early and ended up clicking the picture of a group of youngsters who like us were waiting for the fort to open. Finally, it opened at 8:30 a and we entered the fort walls. Once you enter after going few hundred meter turn right and proceed on till you reach the paved road. If confused don’t forget to ask.
Finding the Tu Hi Re spot inside Bekal Fort took some doing. We could not find signs for it and kept wandering around in the heat. By then our film-inspired plan had left us properly exhausted.
Should have asked somebody earlier! Knowing the scene from the film was clearly not enough to find our way around the fort. The sea view was lovely, but do leave time for the walking rather than assuming it is one quick photo stop.
The place itself has been well maintained with lawn and red stones. There used to be an excellent resort called nirvana@bekal which was next to the fort but it seems they have closed for good. Beside fort, there is a famous church nearby but it could be skipped if you don’t have time. This place has a hidden wonder of sorts in terms of being the twin of Kerala Backwaters near Poovar.
There are many boat service here that will take you to multiple cruises, the most famous being the Sunset cruise. It’s a beautiful journey amidst all those lush green stretch of trees and water.
We also visited Ananthapura lake temple. Ananthapura Lake Temple in Kasaragod, built in the 9th century, is the only lake temple in Kerala and is the moolasthanam (original abode) of Ananthapadmanabha, the deity of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The sanctum sanctorum of the temple is reachable only by a bridge. The temple pond was part of the setting we remembered; I have removed the old claim about the crocodile's age..
TIPS
1. The Fort opens at 8:30 am only
2. As soon as you enter the fort and find the first unpaved road to right, take it as although unmarked it will take you to the TU HI RE movie spot.
What I would keep in mind
- Ask for the part of the fort you want to see before walking the entire circuit in the heat.
- Check current opening hours rather than copying the time from our old trip.
Enjoyed this story?
Comments
Post a Comment