Malpe, Karnataka, India

Hi everyone,
Last time we blogged we were about to leave Mysore. Our last day there was a long one. We had to leave our room by 11am and our train was at 11.40pm! Luckily near the train station, where we could leave our big bags in a cloak room, was a train museum. It was pretty big with a lot of well-maintained trains that we could climb on, information about the evolution of the train system in India and artifacts related to train. We spend a few hours there, killing time while having fun. After finding some food, we stayed in the train station, keeping ourselves busy reading and chatting until our train arrived. This time we travelled in 1st class, which was pretty nice: we had a closed compartment with our 4 beds, a bit bigger that the last train we took. The kids fall asleep quickly and us not far after as it was midnight by the time we settled! The night was uneventful and we arrived in Udupi around 10am the next morning.
Our hotel is in Malpe which is right next to Udupi but closer to the beach. That is the main activity here in Malpe: the beach. After settling in our room, we went to the beach which is beautiful: big, nice sand, beautiful water. We walked along, stopping in places for the kids to play in the water. We again had issues with people wanted to take pictures: a couple of guys asked Andrew and Emma (not us seating 3 meters from the kids) to take a pictures with them, Andrew said no pretty clearly and repeat it a few times, but one of the guys was still trying to take some, we intervene and they were still trying to take pictures, despite us being very clear that we didn’t want to. We had to move further to stop that situation. I know we are a bit of a rarity here, hence why people want pictures, but when the kids are involved, it feels creepy! It is not always easy to navigate those situations. Anyway, outside of that incident, we had a good time.
The next day, we visited Hasta Shilpa heritage village museum. This is a village where they rebuilt or transfer some typical houses and temples from the area. It is very well done and presented. Some of the houses are breathtaking, with amazing ceiling, carving, furniture… I really enjoyed walking around that reconstructed village, where some different types of shops were reconstructed with all the tools and utensils. I always love this kind of place: I love seeing how it was and what is still the same and what change. If you are in the area, this is a very good place to visit. After the visit, it was incredibly hot, we are all struggling, so we came back to the hotel to rest. I developed a really strong headache and was out of action for the rest of the afternoon. Kev found a pharmacy and got me some painkillers, but the afternoon was ruined for me!!! Kids did some school work.
The next day, I was better, so we decided to go to a small island near Malpe. We walked to the sea walk, a small walk with some statues that finishes at the ferry going to St Mary Island. After 20 minutes on the ferry, we arrived at the island to find out that we only had 1 hour on the island (we had to go back on the same boat apparently, not another one) and we could not swim! On an island!!! Anyway, the island is pretty, with some rock formation made by very old lava, the water is beautiful. We went around the island, which is not too big: the kids wanted to swim, so we found a beach on the other side with nobody checking on us and let them play in the water. The hour went fast, we took the ferry back to the other side, had lunch and went back to the hotel to escape the heat!! We’ll go out later when it is cooler! That is for this blog, tomorrow we are moving again. Malpe was just a quick stop to get some beach time.
See you In Goa!
Mel

16.3.2025. Do some blog, pack and move out. Got to the train station, found a cloak room to store our bags and off to the Railway heritage museum. It's right next to the station, so an easy walk. An interesting museum, kids liked that was a few old steam locos they could climb into and have a look. There is a small train that goes around the place, you get one ride with your ticket. We had a look at everything, climbed on everything, even had lunch there in an old coach converted into a cafe(food was ordinary tho). We still had a lot of time until our train, which was at 11:20pm, we thought we would go sit in a restaurant and have a coffee and play some cards and after get some food. We got some drinks and started playing, got told we're not allowed to play cards here, so we left without getting any food. Found a bit nicer of a restaurant, even tho the place was empty, still felt rushed. C'mon, order, eat and get out. After all that we headed back to the station. There's almost nowhere to check on your train, like nowhere. There's one screen that shows the next train, if yours, like ours, is in another 4hrs, you have no idea. Anyway, we sat at the station for ever. My arse went numb a couple times on the bench. Mel had checked online and found a website that tracks the trains, sort of. It told us that our train should be platform 1. 5 mins before the train and announcement, our train was coming into platform 5. Grab all the bags, start heading off up the stairs and over a bridge to find platform 5. The rest is history, kids got to sleep just before midnight, I had a shit night's sleep.
17.3.2025. We got to Udupi around 11am. We had been using uber to order Tuktuk's and taxis, doesn't work here yay! Went to a prepaid taxi rank and got to our room. Organised with the driver to pick us up tomorrow and take us to a heritage museum. Checked out our room, looks ok, a bedroom with a huge bed two small beds in the living area and bathroom. Bloody hot, we're right on the top floor and the sun here is brutal. Fans are on flat out but there's stuff all windows, so it's still bloody hot. The main bedroom has an aircon, guess we're all sleeping in there. Went for a walk later down to the beach. It's nicer here than in Allepey, the kids played for ages in the water and sand. After that we found some dinner, played some games and went back to the room.
18.3.2025. Taxi picked us up at 9:30, off to Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village Museum. Say all that fast three times. A not for profit place that has moved and rebuilt some of the old structures of the area. Lots of old pieces including horse carriages and old cars, to pottery and cooking equipment. Interesting, but eventually with the heat we'd had enough. Taxid back to the room and put the AC on. Mel maybe got a bit too much sun or heat and was not great that Arvo. Paracetamol and a sleep sorted it out though. Kids got time to catch up on their blog and play a few games on their computers. Later we went out for some dinner, then watched a little tv and went to bed.
19.3.2025. Today was supposed to be an early start, kids still asleep at 8:30, we had to wake them up. Swim suits on and were planning on hitting the beach, but since the later start we headed straight to the ocean walk and ferry terminal. Hopped the ferry to St. Mary's island, where we then got told the ferry would be back for us in 1 hour. What, that's not a lot of time. The island isn't very big but we still wanted to have a decent swim here. Nevermind, no swimming signs everywhere. Was not happy, but the swell and pull was pretty big I had to admit. Climbed on some old lava rocks, got a little wet splashing about a bit. I think I did a hammy chucking rocks, probably pull up sore tomorrow. An hour was up in no time, hopped back on the ferry and made our way back. Bloody hot still, grabbed a Tuktuk to take us towards the restaurant area of the beach, had lunch and now we're sitting in the AC in the room blogging again.
Kev

Hello people,
are you ready, yes you are, well on your marks, get set, READ!! On the 16th we did our blog for a while because today is our last day here, were leaving today, where going to go on a night train to Udupi. But that’s in in the night and it’s around the middle of the day, so we still have time to waste. We decided to go to a train museum, the train museum was right next to the train station, they did it on purpose, it’s no coincidence. When we went in it turned out to be a really cool, there were lots of old locomotives and some carriages, we were allowed to go in them. I went in them and then I would see what stuff moved or stayed still. There was also a track that someone was driving a little train around, we went on the train once. When we left it was dinner time so we had to go get dinner, when we finished dinner we went back to the train station. We waited for a while, then when the train arrived we hopped on and went to sleep. ZZZZzzzzzZZZZzzzzz On the 17th we were still on the train, we were going to get off the train at 11am it was 7:30am, still a while to wait. 3 and a half hours later, when we arrived, we went to our hotel. Our room has a few rooms but only one of them is airconditioned, and sometimes the power goes out. When we finished organizing our bags we went down to the beach this time with our swimsuits on, I went out to a good depth where my feet could still touch the bottom, and then when a wave comes along I would jump over it. I did that for a while, then I decided to make a sandcastle. Emma was helping to, the castle we made was made to last, it had 3 protective walls and 3 motes around it. When we finished it we took a picture of it then went out to find dinner. We went this place called Nemos we started with a few drinks, mum and dad wanted me to have something with fruit in it like orange juice, I wanted a soft drink. I ended up choosing a mocktail that had fruit juice in it, but also had Fanta, it’s a win\win if you ask me. After that, we ordered dinner, ate it, then went home. And to sleep. On the 18th we went to a village museum thing, in the place it was like a recreation of a village from the past there was a market and lots of houses it was really interesting, there was even furniture. There was lamps, pots, tables, painting and lots more, even the way they build the house were cool there were wood carvings on the house. It was amazing. I can’t really explain much because that’s what we did till lunch. When we finished we came back to the hotel, then went to have lunch. We went to a place that was close to the hotel, the food was good we ate it then went back to do our blog. On the 19th we wanted to St. Marys Island, so we did. We walked over to the ferry, it’s about a 25 minute walk, when we got there we got our tickets hopped on the ferry the ferry was about a 20 minutes. When we got there they told us that they were going to pick us up at 12:15 and it was 11:15, one hour is not enough. We went to the beach on the island only to find out we weren’t allowed to swim, apparently the currents were too strong. We were allowed to splash around a bit but no proper swimming, f**king rules. We went a part of the beach were there was nobody around it was pretty peaceful, we played a bit in the water, then moved on to another part of the beach. At one part we skipped some rocks on the ocean, it was fun, but then it was time to go. When we got back it was lunch time so we had lunch went back to the hotel and did our blog. We did our blog for a while then went to have dinner then to sleep
Andrew (9 years old)

Welcome back people. Wahahahah!!!!!!! I am finally getting use to spicy ness. anyway.
Sunday the 16th we visited the train museum. We had 12 hours plus it was close to the train station. When we were done, we waited for the train to arrive. It arrived at 11.40 pm. We slept in the train because it was a night train. We were in 1st class. So, we got a tiny bit better room.
Monday the 17th we arrived in Udupi. Took a taxi to our hotel and rested. After that we went and played on the beach. It was really fun. We went out deep and jumped over waves. Built a sandcastle and chased crabs. Then we had dinner. We went to a place called dah dah dah. Nemos. It is near the beach.
Tuesday the 18th we visited the heritage village museum. We saw pots, tables and other stuff you would see in a house. It was really cool. There were stained glass and wood sculptures. It had a market and for people who love sewing, there were lots of sewing machines. Then we just had dinner.
Wednesday the 19th we did a sea walk and then took a ferry to another island. Don’t freak out, we only spent one hour there. WHICH I STILL DON’T THINK IS LONG ENOUGH. We went there to swim, but we weren’t allowed to. I hate stupid f***king laws like that. (Andrew edit: it’s not a law it’s a rule, crazy Emma). It was still fun. After that we went home and played on computer.
Emma (8 years old)Read more