Sapta Kshetra Darshan (3N - 4D) Day 1:

Bangalore - Kukke Subramanya - Dharmasthala - Horanadu - Sringeri - Kollur - Murudeshwar - Udupi – Kateel - Mangalore - Bangalore

We started from Bangalore on the Yeswanthpur-Kannur express, with our first point being Kukke Subramanya, we got down at the 'Subramanya Road' station. We had arranged for a vehicle with a tourist agent (gaya3travels) for our entire trip from Subramanya to Mangalore.  We checked into a private lodge to freshen up and visited the temple. Subramanya temple is very famous for getting rid of sarpa dosham. We were told even Sachin Tendulkar once visited this temple for doing pariharam.

Kukke Subramanya Temple

We visited during the monsoon season, and while going from subramanya temple to another - Adi subramanya temple nearby, the road leading to it was filled with stones and also had a lot of puddles, so you can’t see where you are putting your feet. So, it is advisable to put on your footwear after visiting subramanya temple and take the outside road to visit the Adi Subramanya temple than go from inside the kukke subramanya temple.

Abaya Ganapathi

After this we visited Abaya Ganapathi temple and Durga temple nearby.

Southadka Vinayaka Temple

We proceeded to Southadka vinayaka temple from there. It was raining when we reached there. Its an open temple with no walls or ceiling. The main priest was performing abishegam in pouring rain and didn’t mind the downpour at all and was carrying on without any protection from the rain. It was a wonderful experience, praying in pouring rain, getting to see an abishegam and aarthi with the sound of drums and bells ringing with the chanting of slokas and steady rhythm of rain beating against the umbrella.

Clouds pregnant with rain near Dharmastala

 We proceeded to Dharmasthala and stayed at the devasthanam run guest house Nertheravathi. Since it was off season we managed to get rooms without any problem. The rooms were well maintained and cost effective as well. There is also a small hotel opposite for coffee and Tiffin.

 We went to have lunch (Parasadam)  in the Temple. The Annadhanam is arranged here for thousands of devotees visiting the Manjunath temple. It was our fist experience with “anna dhana” and we were not well prepared mentally for the experience. The food was simple and served hot; however, we felt that the manner in which the food was served requires a little fine tuning. The food was literally thrown on our plates and regardless of whether we finished a course or not the next one was dumped on the plate. I understand that they  want to serve a large number of people in a limited time frame, but the effect of seeing rasam, mixed with sambar and vegetable kootu and buttermilk, all in one big messy puddle on your plate, makes you lose your appetite.

Dharmastala Devasthana

Bahubali statue

After Darshan at Manjunath temple, we went to see the Bahubali statue nearby.

We stayed overnight in Dharmasthala and after picking up some essentials for the next day trip at shops near the temple; we had our dinner in the hotel opposite to our accommodation. The place starts shutting down by 8 pm and is closed at 8.30 pm. Also, we learned that usually in places where food is served in the temples, there is no dinner served as such in hotels nearby, though you may get tiffin items.