Before starting this blog post I would like to salute all the graffiti artists all over the world. Here’s a definition of graffiti from our side:

Graffiti : Draw what you love <3

It takes great deal of patience and dedication to complete a masterpiece. Starting off with great zeal is one thing, but to finish off in style is quite another.

Before visiting Gokarna, we tried to research as much as possible about the city. We read the entire wikipedia page dedicated to the city and read as many blogs about it as possible. We had an image of Gokarna as the following:

• Holy Land of Shiva
• One of the 7 important Hindu pilgrimage centres
• Less commercialized than Goa
• Situated in Uttara Kannada
• Hippie’s Paradise

I had already visited the city in peak season, during the month of December, and thought that I had seen everything, but I was wrong. All my research went by the by as soon as we stepped into the city this time. This was the month of September, out of season for the city in terms of tourists visiting. So all the beaches like Kudle and Om beach were quiet this time. But we were in for a treat! Visiting a place off-season gives you the chance to witness things which you would easily ignore during the peak.

As soon as we stepped out of KSRTC bus at the Gokarna bus stand, the first thing we did was to search our maps for Kudle Beach – Google maps said 2.7 kms – we first thought of taking an auto, but then decided to walk to the beach instead. And looking back it was definitely the best decision to cover the distance on foot.

Gokarna is for everyone.
Some visit this city in search of Shiva.
Some come for soul searching.

We saw a glimpse of this in the form of simple, yet intriguing graffiti! One pictured the Hindu God, Lord Ganesha, widely revered as the remover of all obstacles. Another read, “This is the way to God” (see photos) it was actually pointing towards Kudle beach. We decided to follow it. We couldn’t stop ourselves from taking out our cameras after witnessing such soothing landscapes along the way. Soon we reached our destination, Kudle Beach. The 2.7 kms was over soon, but the quest for more was not, in fact it had just begun! Gokarna surprised me. People say if you want to enjoy Gokarna, stay on the beach. I say if you are a little bit curious and want to explore, just walk around the city. Those 2.7 kms gave me an altogether new perspective which is missing from the guide-books – we decided to name this walk, “The Graffiti Trail In Gokarna”.

After covering all the beaches we decided to come back to the city. The graffiti was calling us back. We could sense it calling, “Come witness Gokarna in a whole new way. Witness the different flavours and colours of Gokarna through this art form. Get soaked in divinity and get a chance to meet many Hindu Gods including Shiva through our eyes, the Graffiti perspective!”

We had already decided and said to ourselves. Let’s just do it. Let’s try to visit all the graffiti present in the city. Everyone is aware of “Beach trail” and “Trek trail”, let’s start a new trend, “Graffiti trail”. We got the chance to witness some amazing creativity along the way. Among all the graffiti, there was one with political slogans written on it – Yeahh, welcome to India! The plan was to cover each and every piece of graffiti in the city. And I think we succeeded. While some of them were really interesting, we had no clue about others. Cows hold a great significance in Hinduism and are worshipped like Goddesses. We also met this Aghori baba along the way, the most “Yo baba” that I have ever come across.

Now this journey on the graffiti trail turned out to be a whole new experience for us. Gokarna is mostly popular for its untouched beaches, hippies, Lord Shiva connection and of course, the holy stuff! But the graffiti trail helped us in understanding the city’s architecture and how things have changed over the course of time. It also helped in understanding the core values of Gokarna to some extent.

As well as posting on Top Tourist, I blog about my travel experiences on www.srijalism.com

Let me leave you with a travel quote this time:
Stay Awesome and Travel 🙂

Cheers!