Diving in India : a one-of-a-kind expedition from Goa to Karnataka

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“Messy”, “Magic”, “Dirty”, “Dazzling”

I heard so much before I touched the Indian ground for the first time! Dirty and messy? Well, this is kind of omnipresent reality, so much that most visitors get the view blurred about anything else and tend not to like India… at all! Even Indian recognise it: I had an interesting discussion at Mumbai airport while waiting for ages to check-in my luggage with a man telling me how much he loves his country, how beautiful it is but how challenging it is to get anything done.

The conclusion to many stories of travellers and tourists is almost always the same, “India: you hate it, or you absolutely love it!” So when I heard about the opportunity to go there for a friend’s wedding, I immediately wondered… on which side would I be? I didn’t take so long to buy my flight ticket and start researching about how to turn this discovery trip in a World Adventure Divers expedition to go diving in India.

India, or testing the waters in the country of patience

boat arambol beach goa

My starting point was the wedding place in Goa, it was just perfect to test the “waters” of India for the first time. This former Portuguese colony, while being the smallest state of India (here you note that Goa is not a city but a state), is as well the wealthiest of India. I heard many times “Goa is not India”, it depends on where you are going to… The change of scenery between Baga beach and Ponda countryside is dramatic. To me, it is India. It is just one of the infinite nuances of this dazzling country.

It is also said there is a very different atmosphere between South India and North India, that South India is easier to travel to…  All I know is from Maharashtra (Mumbai) to Karnataka (Netrani Island), I felt good and at ease walking around  (please note that being a girl I always paid attention to my outfit to be respectful to the culture and to blend as much as possible). Yet, I had some weird moments… a beach in South Goa I should not have worn only a bikini, or a cab in Mumbai at night where the driver thought he was playing Mario Kart video game.

Yet, in the middle of this mayhem, something magical happens:

  • The authenticity of a country far less touched by tourism than I thought (6,6 millions of tourists in 2012 in a country of 1.2 billion people, in comparison with Thailand who received 22,3 millions of foreign visitors in 2012 for a population of 67 million)
  • The photogenic colours of women’s sarees in red, orange, pink, green and gold with shining glitters such as they were attending a wedding every day
  • Millenary culture and history which could be seen such as in the Buddhist caves  from the 7th century of Elephanta island next to Mumbai
  • The streets blocked by sacred cows which can stop time
  • The kids playing cricket, India’s unexpected national sport, on the beach, in the streets, in the fields, just anywhere they can

From transportation to the general organisation, every minute is a challenging adventure in India. But at the same time, every moment can catch your breath away. Just remember, do not make plans with more than one goal per day!

Scuba diving in India from Goa

Grande Island Goa - Diving in India

It seems Goa being the highlight holiday spot for India helped developing scuba diving businesses (I found 4 main dive centres).

Unfortunately, the coastline of Goa includes 2 rivers’ mouths which bring a lot of particles and minerals in the water making impossible to get more than 5 (usual) to 10 m (lucky day) of visibility underwater.

Nonetheless, it is still a nice place to dive with 29/30°C water, perfect for beginners thanks to its shallow reefs where you won’t go deeper than 12 m.

Dive centres mainly go around Grande Island, near the town of Vasco. However, the boat will usually leave from Dona Paula, in the surroundings of Goa’s capital city, Panaji.

One of the dive site is a shipwreck from the 1940’s in rather good conditions. The artificial reef is now the home of many reef crabs but also colourful nudibranchs. In the surrounding, there is also a vast coral reef which looks like the petals of a flower.

So if you don’t have much time to go further than Goa, it is an excellent occasion to get your fins wet. The bonus of the trip from Dona Paula to Grande Island: Dolphins coming swimming nearby the boat!

A last-minute expedition to Murudeshwar, Karnataka

The secret for diving from Continental India is actually 4 hours driving south from Goa, in Karnataka State : Murudeshwar and Netrani Island. You have 2 options to get there:

  • Taking the train for very little money from Margao station in Goa. It takes about 3 hours and a half to arrive in Murudeshwar. Regarding the time schedule of trains, you will have to spend at least one night in Murudeshwar. Watch out train booking especially in high season, it requires some organisation as you will have to go early morning the day before at the train station to get the last-minute tickets as most trains are now booked almost 3 months in advance for high peak season.
  • Hiring a driver : If everything is booked because it’s high season (like in our case, in December, which is a holiday for Indian people as well), you still have the solution to book with a driver (which is the easiest solution and most common for tourists to go anywhere in India) for the day and drive between 3 hours 20 minutes and 4 hours (depending on the traffic). From a cost point of view, compared to the train, you will have to be at least 4 to make the journey not too expensive. To be in Murudeshwar at 8 am, we all woke up at 3.30 am: It was the earliest wake-up time to go diving ever, but it was totally worth it!

The scenery became wilder as long as we went further away from Goa to Karnataka. When we arrived in Murudeshwar, I directly felt that the atmosphere was different, I understood why a couple of hours later. This is mainly a holiday destination for Indian people, not really foreigners. They are visiting the Hindu temple with the famous-2nd largest-in-the-World statue of Lord Shiva (37 m high!).

The statue is facing massive carved tower which is the gate of the temple and a mirador at the same time. It is on the top of the cliff, looking in the opposite direction to the Sea and surrounded by many other statues reminding of famous episodes of Shiva’s life… Well, we felt a bit like in “Shiva land” (Murudeshwar is actually one of the names of Shiva!), but the place and the view of the surrounding beaches are absolutely stunning.

Murudeshwar was quite crowded especially around the temple and on the small part of the beach next to it. But beyond this part, the beach is kilometres long and empty! According to the owner of the dive centre, it seems most Indian people are very uncomfortable in the water, and most of them don’t know how to swim… They still have fun in the water but staying close to the ropes of the boats parked on the beach.

Yet, India is always full of surprises: We had the pleasure to share our adventure to Netrani with a delightful young woman working in Bangalore. Before jumping on the boat, we went playing in the waves, and I can tell by the way she was holding my hand she was terrified! But still, she was there for a discovery scuba diving and was really looking forward to it!

Scuba diving in India at Netrani Island

honeycomb moray eel diving netrani india

After 1 hour 30 minutes boat ride, we arrived at the marine conservation area of Netrani island (just remind you should have a copy of your ID/Passport at all time onboard, so prepare a dry bag beforehand). Diving in Netrani is quite shallow as well, no more than 15m. But compared to Goa, visibility here is about 20-25m and the fauna to be seen so much richer!

Dive sites are formed of rocks and coral reefs in the shape of little mountains. Among the large parrotfish and the massive schools of red-toothed triggerfish, I was mainly looking for one fish: the honeycomb or laced moray eel. Particularly beautiful with her white, yellow colour and her black spots looking like the ones of a giraffe. I was really not disappointed, I saw about 10 of them in 2 dives.

You can also expect smooth drift diving on the South part of the island and some surprising encounter… Following and shooting video of a beautiful big blue angelfish under a rock, here it was… Monster Lobster!!! I know masks with the water are making things seem about 30% than they are but still… This lobster was huge! I think about 50cm (I removed 30% of what I actually saw)! Unfortunately no pictures…

To summarize, between the very Indian atmosphere of Murudeshwar with the temple, the small market and the cows on the beach, the women swimming in colourful sarees, the delicious food 50 to 70% cheaper than in Goa but also the possibilities of lazy day alone on a heavenly beach in addition to the many diving opportunities of Netrani island, I would say 3 days is not too much to enjoy this pearl of South West India. This is why I decided to add Netrani Island to my list of the best diving in Asia-Pacific.

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Posted by Florine

  1. I’m really interested in doing a diving/yoga trip. Any recs?

    Reply

    1. Yes you can definitely do this in Goa, especially if you are going to Arambol beach for the Yoga, the hippie beach in the North of Goa,, about 1h of bus from the capital Panaji.

      Another option for a good combo Diving /Yoga is Thailand, in Koh Tao where I did my divemaster there were many options for Yoga and then you can go from one activity to the other in a couple of minutes only.

      Reply

  2. Cool one. It is good to read from a Non indian and professional diver about Netrani diving 🙂

    Reply

  3. Thank you it was great to see another blog post about Murudeshwar and scuba diving by someone from India! 🙂

    Reply

  4. hmmm… I am Indian women and let me tell you my point of India… the urban forks that is us are a confused lot heading towards modernity but in a conservative fashion and I am sure you have meet many cool Indian forks who have nothing against nice foreigners whatever clothes they wear… though some forks are plain shy… I don’t know swimming yet but want to learn, took a while to think it is ok to go in swim suit to enjoy swimming and not bother about anything else… but ultimately all are human beings(: and I am sure like to have a good time doing some fun stuff…

    Unlike you I was disappointed with Murugeshwar, with the Shiva statue and also the people spiting there… though love the ocean to a big extent and the rides… and I don’t thinkj it is all that safe for women to go around alone everywhere, I can just feel it, one has to be really brave to be like that, especially travelling around India and staying but if they have good group of friends it is manageable to do some more exciting stuff… that being said they are really lovely forks out here, who would help you and treat you well, I think things are changing, lot of women are travelling around out other places thesedays(: anyway, I enjoy chating with foreigners, I think they are fun and open and cool, spoted some in Mysore and Murudeshwar as well… I admire that you guys adjust and adapt to our general environment,
    I think we got to learn to be cool like you forks anyway…

    Reply

    1. Dear Maria, thank you so much for your feed-back from your experience of your own country. If my blog wasn’t clear enough about it I met wonderful people during my stay in India. My favorite moment was with this young lady from Bangalore who was doing scuba diving for the very first time. She hold my hand so hard because she was actually pretty scared even by the waves to go to the boat but she felt confident with me and she was so happy that she could do it. To see the beauty of the underwater world was a dream for her. India is a country that is disorientating most Westerners like me, but if you take your time for sure you fall in love with it… like me 🙂 . Please join the other World Adventure Divers on the Facebook page to learn more about traveling, adventure and scuba diving! http://www.facebook.com/WorldAdventureDivers

      Reply

  5. hmmm… yes lady I am glad you had a great experience in my country… I have to say that though there are lot of good rather wonderful people out there…there are evil people too… as a women I did face some problems or minor assaults in place like Pondicherry recently… and I know it was just minor portion that are the black sheep… I have not been to foreign places so I don’t know how things are like there… but as Indians now we are surely confused on lifestyle as we are going towards modernity and as a Indian who is open to both modernity and traditionality, I think it is fun to be a spectator and comment… anyone nice reading your blog… I did see some foreigner women in Murudeshwar in that Naveen restuarant, I liked they are cool, adjusting not snobish… I think we Indians become very critical and snobbish of our own country but still I am happy to be Indian because never been out of it(: …hope I make sense… I will check out more water stuff, I am yet to learn swimming(:(:…anyway

    Reply

  6. I wished I had dived in India though I lived there for 7 months plus. I will definitely head back for diving. I miss Goa!!

    Reply

    1. I really recommend you to go to Murudeshwar! 4h driving from Goa or you can go by train

      Reply

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