Karnataka Round Trip- Sringeri, Agumbe

I've been waiting for baada to write his blog about our trip, but he hasnt yet. In all fairness to him it was a tiring trip and we're still recovering from the after effects.
I kind of decided to to write my own version of the trip, so here goes the first part.

The trip started at Bannergatta road on the 17th of March, 2006 AD. After agreeing to a chennai style blackmail from the auto driver we managed to break the sound barrier and arrived at majestic (kempe gowda bus stand) about 5 mins before our bus was to depart. We then had to convice the conductor that we were three of the six guys who had reserved tickets and that the other 3 were coming with the tickets. He seemed pretty cool about it.
So it began.
I was sitting in the second last row of a rajahamsa bus on my way to sringeri, next to Uncle-our tour guide for the trip. I was quite excited. After a long time i was travelling again.
My dad happened to call and was kind of elated that i was going to Sringeri. After all, which tam brahm dad would not be happy that his son was going to holiday at one of the spiritual centres of Advaitha. He immediately gave me a list of things that i should do there. I had to make it clear to him that i was with friends, among whom were vamshi the agnostic and battad the hedonist, hence such drawn out rituals would not be possible. Luckily when we arrived we found that the pontiff wasnt in town. Was kind of relieved. Gave me a good enough excuse with my folks. The place was simply beautiful and the temples were really amazing, extremely peaceful.
The kind of set me off thinking about my family's attitude to my religion.. I came up with a kind of allegory. If you bake a tasty cake and leave it on the table, then tell the kid that its really tasty, he might sometime try it out and enjoy it and really end up liking cake. On the other hand if you catch hold of the kid and stuff it down his throat not only will he choke and spit it out, he might never go near cake ever again.
The math (read mutt) at Sringeri offers free food to any devotee who comes there. Of course in the truest hindu tradition this is also casteist. The twice born were lucky enough to get special treatment and eat in a better cleaner place. I am sorry for being so against it but i think that unless my religion gets over this casteist mindset its going to be in trouble sooner rather than later. Well me being the hyppocrite decided(didnt oppose Uncle) to eat in the better cleaner place while still cribbing.
btw baada has just put up the first part of his post on the trip so i guess he's still as efficient as ever, but i might as well finish mine
Lunch was pretty awesome. Typical 3 courses + desert. Then it was time for us to take an afternoon nap. Sadly my plans were thwarted by the evil UNO . After a smashing game in which i made sure the guys next to me didnt win (though i finished second last) we decided to move our rear ends and head to Agumbe. Agumbe is supposed to be a traditional Kannada honeymoon spot and has such references in Kannada literature, so says Uncle.
After saying this Uncle became very quite, and began staring at the setting sun. He then whispered that he was feeling nostalgic. I never thought a guy like Uncle could be nostalgic about anything. But then i was to discover a lot of things on this trip.