Life And Motorcycle

Ride to NoWhere (6th Sept, 2009)

2009-09-07T13:46:00.011+05:30

A ride without any destination. We knew we will go on the Kanakapura Road and then take some deviation. There are lots of beautiful places with 100 km from Bangalore. Small hills - lush green, ponds - with small birds skimming over it, streams - languidly flowing and huge fields - gently rolling away, perfect stress busters.

After breakfast at Kanakapura, we took a deviation towards Bheemeshwari fishing camp. We found a small trail leading away from the main-road and we took it just to see where it leads.

This abandoned shed belong to the a electric supply company lay by the side of the trail.

After a while the trail brought us back to the main road. Reached Bheemeshwari. The fishing camp is a resort so we did not spend time there. Our aim was to find a secluded spot by the side of the Cauvery. We found this spot just beside the resort.

This bird was drying its wings. Cormorant it is called.

We then headed towards a deer sanctuary near a place called Muthati about 4 km from where we were. Later we came to know that we need to go on a 2 hour trek for the sanctuary. Motorcycle shoes are not very good for trekking :). At Muthati there is a temple and near that a picnic spot, where some groups were beginning to cook lunch. We found a spot near the river and after a few snaps we went ahead.

To go to Bheemeshwari from Kanakapura road, we had to take a left deviation from a place called Halagur. We came back to Halagur and continued straight on i.e. right deviation from Kanakapura road (when coming from Bangalore). This road should take us to Channapatna and the Mysore-Bangalore highway which is parallel to Kanakapura road.

There are so many enticing roads leading away form this road and each of them a bikers delight. However it was too crowded for our tastes us e took one such deviation from this Halagur-Channapatna road and found ourselves at the foothills of this gorgeous hillock.

From where we stood there was some cultivated land between us and the hill. Some locals told us the way to go to the hill.

We managed to find this trail. It was a gravel road winding up to the top. Some parts the gravel became small rocks which were quite loose and reminded me of my earlier off-roading trip. The going up is easy. The coming down is always tricky in such places. I had a fall in my earlier off-roading stint. And it plays on your mind. Anyway this time, while coming down I was very careful - no touching the front disk brake, clutch if absolutely necessary, engine to control speed so put bike in 1st gear and the rear brake to be used in case I needed braking. It worked. :) Renewed confidence :).

This is a place I am sure to return. There are too many small trails remaining unexplored.

Offroading (04/07/2009)

2009-07-22T10:52:00.007+05:30

This was a ride with a new group. A friend decided that the destination will be a hillock about 70 km from Bangalore near Kanakapura. It had been a few weeks since the last ride and and I was actually not keeping well for the past few days. A good ride should do me good I thought and joined in.

We gathered near the Banshankari temple and started off at about 7 AM. We passed through some chaos of an early morning vegetable market before leaving the city and getting onto Kanakapura road. The weather was fantastic (have been pretty lucky off late), it was cloudy with no rain. This road was fresh laid tarmac for most of the way and as we went further from the city the traffic dwindled off and it was pleasant to ride to ride through the sleepy towns and villages. The early morning air was fresh and as we passed through some villages we could sometimes smell the scent of fresh bread being baked in some local bakery. There is something very nostalgic about this smell. It reminds me of my childhood, when in holidays I went to my grandfathers place. It was a small town at that time and it used to have this smell coming from many localities there, when I used to be taken by my uncles on their cycles to get fresh bread to be had with early morning tea. Lovely days.

We reached Kanakapura a small town where the main road ends and we are supposed to go off into a village road which will take us to our destination BillikalRanganaBetta. We had breakfast here and shortly after that we took off. As we left Kanakapura the road became very narrow and it winded through villages and farmlands. I lost the group after a point but had no problems in following their route as whenever I came to a turn or a junction on the road, friendly villagers signaled me the way the other bikers had gone. They must have wondered where such a big gang of bikers were headed (we were about 20 of us).

The way to the hill

Suddenly after a turn I found them. They were waiting for everyone to gather. After this point there was no roads, juts a mud path climbing up a hill. We were to go on this path. We went ahead on this road and slowly the mud path became a little tricky. It was now strewn with small rocks and ahead I could see hairpin bends. We braved it. There were two hairpins and then the rocks became boulders. We were still climbing and the n we came to a flat area where the path went over a big flat rock which was a sort of a table and then the path went up further. I decided to stop there and most of us did. The rocks were increasingly getting bigger and it certainly was not a path to take on the bike I had. Climbing will be easy, the hard part would be coming down.

The climb

The way down

I parked the bike there and spent some time enjoying the beautiful weather and the even more beautiful surroundings. From this place we had a great view of the surrounding hills. We spent an hour there in genearl getting to know each other and chatting up about our bikes and then decided to get down.

The view was superb

It was extremely dicey. The downward path as I saw it was divided into 3 parts. First I had to negotiate the path with the big boulders. Then the small rocks and the hairpin bends and then the mud path. The last mud path would be easy.

The climb down

As I started down trying to go over the big rocks I had my first fall. It was not a fall exactly but the bike got tilted to one side with me standing with my legs on both sides trying to prevent the bike from lying on its side. I held onto it till some of my friends came to straighten it up and I managed to get negotiate the boulders without further problems. Then came the hairpins and this was scary with my tires, which are not really suited for these conditions slipping and skidding on the rocks as I tried to negotiate the curve. I had a fall this time. The bike lay completely on its side and I rolled away from it. I had my riding gear and the speed was too slow to do any damage to my body. I had a few dents to my ego though. I with the help of friends got the bike to stand up and this time I managed to negotiate the curve successfully. The footrest was bent and I could see that it prevented the gear lever to move and the only gear I could go to was the 1st gear. Well that was what I needed till I came on flat land. There I adjusted the foot-peg and all was well again.

We had a little snack on our way back at Kanakapura and then headed home. A day well spent, falls not withstanding.

Some Random thoughts...

2008-07-09T23:57:00.003+05:30

Motorcycle and Freedom. The classic answer to why one rides - Freedom. And this is obviously emphasized by the Hollywood movies, where bikers ride without a care in the world. If anyone asks me, why I ride, I hesitate to put freedom first. Yes it is freedom from the daily cares of our lives, may be freedom from the binds of a city life. But when I don my leathers, put on a full face helmet, put on my riding boots and my gloves, I wonder whether all this is actually taking away some of the sense of riding carefree.

My first solo long ride was a ride where I can say I was free. I had no plans, only 4 days of leave. I had no destination, only a direction. I had a rudimentary open face helmet. No gloves. Not even a jacket, only a wind cheater. I had absolutely no tools to work on the bike if it broke down, not even a spanner to open my wheels on case of a puncture. I guess i did not even think what would happen if the bike broke down. I just picked up my bike and rode for 4 days.

Then as time went by, I kept on riding and slowly I started carrying spares for the bike. Got myself a good leather jacket and gloves. I even wear a knee guard. I keep a rain coat. Fully loaded. But I wonder am I missing the essence of a ride.

Don't get me wrong. I am not trying in anyway to promote riding without proper gear. I have taken falls, and have seen people take falls and have realized the value of proper riding gear. I am just wondering...

Another thing I wonder about is the power of the mind. Once while riding I felt that my cable was not feeling right and I was constantly worrying that the cable will break. And it did. In the middle of a forest. I rode some 15 kilometers to the nearest forest check-post, changing gears without the clutch, before I risked stopping and replacing the cable. Many times in a similar situation, if I am preoccupied with some other thoughts and ignore the bikes condition, nothing happens and the bike behaves perfectly.

I also came across a friends blog, where she has described a motorcycle as a magic carpet, taking us from wonder to wonder. I just loved the description. It was so apt. It seems ages ago when, as a wide eyed kid, I used to listen to all these fantasy stories told by my grandmothers and aunts, about magic carpets with princes flying around in the desert. Later read Arabian nights and adventures of Alladin (I think), always wondering if only i get a chance to fly around like that! And reading this line, somehow it all connected - flying carpet, Alladin, deserts, motorcycle. Threading my life from my childhood to my present. Okay I think my thoughts are getting weirder by the minute. Its pretty late, I should go to sleep.

Thally (22nd June, 2008)

2008-07-06T00:22:00.006+05:30

Our motorcycle club has something called announce rides. This happens once every month. Once somebody has ridden for 2-3 of these rides they can request for membership to our club. Obviously there are a large number of unknown faces and of course some known faces who are the organizers of the ride. These rides are generally about 150 km round-trip so that we can all return latest by late afternoon. There would be a breakfast stop and one more stop midway for general introductions for all the new riders and some information to be given to the aspiring joinees about how the club operates. Okay its not as formal as it sounds but that is the general idea.

This time we planned a ride without a destination. The ride would go through small village roads through the interiors of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states.

The roads winded through villages and farms and forests and up and down hillocks. It was quite a sight at times, when we could see the first bike a long distance ahead on the crest of a small hillock and the rest of the bikes forming a line, snaking till where I was riding and extending beyond to the sweep. Sometimes the entire village came out to witness the spectacle of 45 bikes roaring through their roads. Not a very common sight for them.

At times the road became so narrow that it seemed if we stretched out our hands we could touch the huts on both sides.

We passed through lots of ponds and small lakes.

We stopped on the banks of one such lake for our introduction session and then the cavalcade continued back to our city.

It was a nice refreshing ride through the countryside. And after a long time I rode in such a big group.

Large groups are fun at times, although I generally prefer smaller groups. I used to ride solo for quite some time and I still do sometimes but somehow nowadays prefer to have friends to talk to during and particularly after a days ride.

I have fitted a new set of boxes to my bike.

They are pretty big and this ride also served as test for the handling of the bike with these boxes. It did not make any noticeable difference. However this time due to the nature of the roads the speeds were quite low. Have to test it some more to gain the confidence to take it for really long rides.

Glimpse of the Himalayas (7-11th April, 2008)

2008-05-04T03:26:00.019+05:30

First I wanted to go to

Sikkim

. Riding for two weeks. The plan was that Orgy, doc and I will travel for a week in

Sikkim

and then doc and I will ride back to Bangalore (taking the other week) and Orgy and Shayantani will stay back in Kolkata. Then doc dropped out and orgy's plan changed and wanted to go to Himachal. For once I thought I will take off alone to

Sikkim

but somehow decided against it as I wanted company this time. I decided to ride with orgy for 3 days from Delhi till wherever we reach and then ride back alone for 2 days to Delhi. Orgy had plans for 2 weeks. I would spend the rest of the week with my sister in Delhi.

I also decided not to take my bike. That was a big decision actually. I knew my bike would not like the idea (Oh yes, it understands! Ask any bullet owner and they will vouch for me). I too was feeling odd about going on a bike ride without my own bike. I thought it was not worth, taking the bike and getting it back by train for just 5 days of riding, and in the process risk damaging the bike. If it was a 2 week ride I would have taken my bike. I rented a green standard 350, the original bullet, from Madaan Motors in Karol Bagh.

The first day we started towards Shimla. The idea was to spend the night at Solan about 60 km away.

Orgy was on his machismo 350, with wife (Shayantani) and kid (Aaron). Aaron wants everybody to know he is 6 years old and not five and half and so he is quite big now. This trip will be a real test for him. Orgy’s sister in law and her husband accompanied us on their new thunderbird.

On the way in Chandigarh I met Mishti. PV and Mallika were waiting by the highway with her.

How she has grown up. The last I saw her was when I went on my Rajasthan trip. It was a long time ago. She obviously did not recognize me and was too shy to come to me. But for me it was an auspicious start to the trip.

Shortly after Chandigarh we saw the first glimpse of the Himalayas as a distant silhouette. Then slowly the road began to climb and then we were all surrounded by the Majestic mountains. As we rode through the mountains climbing higher and higher you seem to enter a trance.

It’s a feeling of awe but also of serenity. There were those huge mountains on side and a deep gorge with the Sutlej flowing along on the other. Since I was alone I was going at a faster pace. Many times I stopped, shut the engine, to hear just the river, as I waited for the others to catch up.

Solan was a nice cozy little town about 60km from Shimla.

We found a hotel with a great view of the valley from our rooms. We had a great dinner at what seemed like one of the more happening places in Solan. Well the food was superb and the experience was all the more great because it was served by an ever smiling and cheerful waiter. The days ride of 300 plus kilometers had taken its toll on little Aaron, and he slept off in the restaurant itself as Orgy made a place for him by joining two chairs. We too were tired and went to bed soon after we returned to our hotels but not before I clicked a few photos of the valley at night.

Next day we started for Mandi. Before that we entered Shimla to have breakfast. As were searching for a place to eat, Orgy saw an eatery which was a steep climb up the side of a hill. Before I could say anything I found Orgy has started to climb. This part was very steep and Orgy’s bike was fully loaded, not only with them three but also with lots of luggage. In the middle his bike began to lose power and then completely stopped and this being a hill Orgy could not keep a firm footing and to our horror his bike tilted over. Shayantani fell but was free of the bike, however Orgy and Aaron was stuck with one of their legs under the bike. It was not as dangerous as it sounds because their luggage and crash guard protected their legs but it could have been dicey. And we were stuck in the middle of the steep climb and could not get off our bikes because of the steepness of the slope. Somehow we coaxed our bikes to a flatter clearing and got them out from under the bike. Some locals also helped out.

The road to Mandi entirely through the hills and stone quarries and the road was not good for most parts. We reached Mandi in the evening and stayed at Hotel Rajmahal.

This was part of a palace converted to a hotel and the prices were pretty steep, but we got enormous discounts as it was off season. From outside it looked like a palace in ruins. The above photo is part of the original palace.

The above is a view of the main bus-stand at Mandi. The weather was quite hot out here and the town was also pretty unimpressive compared to the towns we had passed through. But it was getting dark and we decided to stay put for the night at Mandi itself.

The next day we headed to Manali. We passed through Aut.

Here the road seemed like chiselled out of the mountain and in some places the mountain was actually
hanging on top of us.

On the other side, deep down, the beas flowed silently.We passed through a 2.8 km long tunnel. I had never seen a tunnel that long. Once I was inside, the tunnel went on and on. And since I entered the dark tunnel from blazing sunlight, I could not see anything inside, in spite of the tunnel being lighted up. It can get pretty claustrophobic in there.

Thats Orgy and family coming out of the tunnel.

And on the way we had the first glimpse of the snow covered peaks.

Now, I had seen photos of snow covered peaks and imagined them to be beautiful. But nothing can prepare you for the real thing. Another interesting sight along the way was of sheep going to graze guarded by guard dogs. Well I hadn’t seen it before in real life and it was straight out the books.

We reached Manali and searched and found a nice cozy little place in old Manali with a magnificent view of the snow capped peaks.

The above photo is of the view from the balcony of our hotel.

The rays of the rising sun on the peaks.

Old Manali is a place full of foreigners mostly Israelis. Even the shops had their names written in Israeli (Hebrew isn’t it?). The restaurants had lots of Israeli dishes too.

At night while eating little Aaron asked me where the sun was and I, being a true science graduate, explained to him how the sun consisted of so many bulbs and at night how these people shut of most of them till only one remains, which looked like the distant neon sign visible from the restaurant window, and in the morning they put on all those bulbs so that after a while the sun becomes too bright to even look at. After doing my bit for science I decided I will stay for another day at Manali and head back to Delhi in one day as Manali was only about 560 km from Delhi.

Next day we took off towards the snow covered peaks. Intention was to go to Rohtang pass and from there to Keylong and then back. This was the climax of the trip atleast for me. I was to start back the next day.

From the moment we started our climb the scenery changed from magnificent to breathtaking. The height of the mountains on one side and the depth of the gorge on the other side, kept increasing as we made our ascent slowly. The road was quite narrow at places which made it all the more exciting to ride through. We could see horses grazing along the slopes of the mountains.

We reached the level where we could see snow along the roadside. This time a very excited Aaron was riding as my pillion, securely tied to me. He kept pointing to the snow and his excitement rubbed off on me too. I was looking for a place where we can park and enjoy the snow and finally we found it.

Here on one side of the road, the mountain was a gentle upward slope for about a 100 metres, before getting steep again and the other side was a small clearing, a flat piece of land about 20 metres before diving deep into the gorge once again.

We parked in this clearing, nearer the gorge. All around us were the huge snow covered mountains. It was awesome.

The side of the road with the gentle uphill slope was partially snow covered and Aaron was running around excitedly, playing in the snow. We even took our bikes across the road to that slope and went into the grass and snow. A little bit of off-roading in the Himalayas J.

We weren’t allowed past Gulaba as the road after that was closed, and we had to turn back. However it was an experience I will not forget. I always used to think, why do people go to the Himalays again and again. I still don’t know. But I am going back. And this time with my bike. And next time for atleast two weeks. And definitely further up. If this is what Manali is I can just imagine what it will be higher up.

While coming down Aaron most probably due to the height felt sick and we stopped by the roadside and Orgy made a bed for him on a stone ledge and he slept off peacefully.

We sat and enjoyed the beauty all round.

Some of the bridges were rickety too. The roads were surprisingly better than even our Karnataka highways. Hail BRO!

The next day I started early and headed straight for Delhi which I reached by evening. I spent the next week lazing around at my sisters place. Orgy and gang went around a few more places around Dharamshala and was back to Delhi after a 10 days of riding. We started back to Bangalore by train on Saturday and reached on Sunday night.

The first thing I did was to keep my stuff in my apartment, get down to the parking lot and start my bike. Single-kick start! Okay my bike has forgiven me!

West Coast (again)

2008-04-20T22:09:00.009+05:30

3 days holiday and forecast of rain. Arun, Jishnu and Myself headed to the Western Ghats. All the times I have been to the west coast the weather has been dry. And I always had wondered and imagined the western ghats in the rains. This was a good chance to see the ghats in its full splendour.

We headed to Udupi. We wanted to avoid the Shiradi ghats because we had heard that the road was under construction and so this time we took a different route. The route we took was Bangalore - Hassan - Belur - Mudigere - Charmadi - Karkala - Hiriadke - Manipal - Udupi. It was raining when we started but it dried up as the day progressed.

The cloud cover remained though and the temperature remained cool. This route was fine with most of the roads good, except in some patches after Mudigere and near Charmadi.

The problem was the traffic. Bus and truck traffic now use this road because Shiradi is in a bad shape. Progress was slow. As we neared Hiriadke the sky opened up. I love riding in the rain but the sun had set and riding in the dark in the rain makes seeing the road difficult. Luckily the traffic had thinned in this area and we reached our destination of Udupi.

It poured through the night and the next day. That day was spent going to Marawanthe (using bus and an auto-rickshaw as it was raining continuously).

In the evening visiting the Krishna Temple and having "Outlook Dosa" at 'Mitra Samaj' Cafe.

Below photograph is of the famous Krishna temple of Udupi, taken in the evening.

When we started back on the 3rd day, it was raining still and we started in the rain. The route we took back was Udupi - Hiriadke - Agumbe - Shringeri - Jayapura - Kottigere - Mudigere - Sakleshpura - Hassan - Bangalore. This route was much more scenic than the previous one and there was next to no traffic. And it was pouring down.

It was great fun riding in the rain in the ghats. Everything was clean and green.

Nobody on the roads. It was just perfect for a ride. Before starting we had put a film of coconut oil on our visors so that rain doesn't stick and it worked perfectly.

The rain stopped as we neared Bangalore.

An interesting thing happened in the Hassan-Bangalore stretch. I always had the impression that my bike did not go beyond 90 km/hr however hard I try. Here also I was traveling with locked throttle and speedo showed 90 km/hr. I was passing traffic with ease. I found that Jishnu was behind me. Now Jishnu rode a LB 500 the fastest and 'torqiest' bike from the RE stable, and so I thought Jishnu just wants me to lead and was going slow.
Later when we stopped he told me that he was doing 110 km/hr and was unable to catch me! My damn speedo does not work... the maximum speed it shows is 90. I was traveling at 115 atleast! Cool!

Hyderabad (22-23 February, 2008)

2008-04-20T22:00:00.005+05:30

I traveled to Hyderabad for a friends marriage. Life is strange, for I had not met this friend in person before. But somehow I, who generally is averse to attending social functions, was present at the wedding. Of course this was was more to meet her and her husband than to attend the wedding.

I traveled by train to Hyderabad. It was a long time I undertook a train journey. Now it is true I love trains. In my childhood I had a whole collection of toy train engines. I also gave sleepless nights to mom when I told her I would like to be a train driver when i grow up, instead of the usual and much more presentable (in her and in general society's eyes) pilot, or a doctor.

Anyway now I have grown up and layers of civilization and education has taught me to be 'prudent' and to follow the mind more than the heart. And the fact that in some cases when I did follow my heart, I got badly burnt, did not help either. (Strange, for in some other cases, my following my heart has given me immense pleasure, happiness and memories to cherish all my life.) So now, I am a 'software engineer' like half of India. Thats one worry (out of many else) less for my mom. It counts.

Spent a great day at my friends house in the outskirts of Hyderabad, roaming around in BHEL colony. It reminded me of my childhood which was also spent in a company colony (My dad used to work in IISCO).

At night I met my friend and her (would be) husband (the marriage was supposed to be late at night). It was a short meeting as obviously she was very busy and to top that I had to catch a bus back to Bangalore that very night. So I had to rush to the bus station.

The bus journey was horrible. Although it was a "Volvo bus", still it is not comfortable for more that 5 hours and I tend to feel cramped. I think my bike has spoilt me.

No photos this time only memories.

Wild Valley Farm (16-17/02/2008)

2008-03-04T22:26:00.023+05:30

It had been a long time I rode with in a big group. It was decided to head to wild valley farms, a beautiful place nestled in the Satyamangalam forest area, once the den of the dreaded dacoit and sandle wood smuggler, Veerappan.

At night Praisy calls me and says she will go as my pillion, as Vodka needed to change his tyres. That meant I had to take my tank bag instead of my usual bag as I wont have luggage space.

Picked her up form her place at about 5:30 in the morning and headed to our meeting point, at the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Arch. Guys competing in the hill climb challenge at Chamundi hills, Mysore were also there. They left before us and we started at around 7AM, some 25 bikes.

We had breakfast at Indradhanush on Mysore road and reached Maddur. After Maddur we took a diversion towards Malavalli and Kollegal.

This next line is for remembering the route later :
Just before entering Kollegal we regrouped at an IOC petrol bunk. After this we had to take a left (the right enters Kollegal town) and then reach a T junction and again a left.

After this we go straight thru village roads and reach a fork on the road. This was our next regroup point. It was marked by a forest Department board.

At this we have to leave NH209 and take village roads. The roads were bad after we left NH207 but this was worse. There were no roads in some places. However I did not mind as we went thru some beautiful village areas.

We passed thru a village called Lokenahalli which used to be a provision point for Veerappan. We could see the Tibetan monasteries at "Odeyarpalaya" at some distance as we rumbled on.

We then entered the forest area and after some time came to a small village where we turned left onto a narrow road and after some time found the board of Wild Valley Farm.

The place was beautiful. A huge clearing area had our tents in a semicircle. In the middle was a place which was used for a bon-fire.

There was a pool where water was stored for irrigation. It was relatively clean and many people jumped in. It was great fun including the part where they had to chase a snake away from the pond!

I had not slept properly for the last 2 days due to working late and I caught a much needed nap for some time. The inside of the tents were hot. But once we opened the flaps of the tents entrance which served as the door, the wind began to flow and it was tolerable.

In the afternoon after a fabulous lunch we went for a trek in the nearby forest, some 15 of us. We were told it would be a stroll along a small rivulet and I went with my slippers and pyjamas. We kept on going and slowly the forest became dense and we began climbing a hill. The climb at places was quite treacherous where we hung on to roots of trees to keep ourselves from falling. I should have worn proper gear. Anyway we found lots of elephant dung and as the sun was setting it was making me a little uncomfortable.

Sandy an avid trekker told us, that there are 3 animals in the forest, which one should be careful of. 1. Elephants 2. Wild Boars and 3. Bears. All other animals including tigers and leopards will mostly steer clear of humans, not the above three.
Elephants will do whatever they want and are in general considered psychos :). They charge and can kill. The wild boars and bears dont have good eyesight and charge when in doubt :), and they can seriously injure if not kill.

We hurried on and finally reached back at the camp just before sunset.

At night there was a great bon fire and barbecue. We sat around the bon fire and played an interesting game called "Hows Yours?". One person had to go away from the group and then the group decides on a body part. The person comes to the group and asks the group members "Hows Yours?" and that member has to give a description of the determined body part in a 1 or 2 words. He keeps asking the question to members till he figures out the body part. The member who gave the last clue now has to guess. It becomes quite hilarious after a while.

Then after the barbecue, our host Mr. Daniel, sat around with us near the bon fire and told some great stories of Veerappan and life in these parts. It was quite interesting and we were listening spellbound. I guess the fire and the surrounding jungle made the atmosphere perfect.

We had dinner and then slept peacefully in our tents.

In the morning we got ready and after breakfast prepared to leave.

I would be the sweep. We decided that they group will regroup at an IndianOil bunk on the way. But as the last 5 or 6 of us were going out Trishul had a puncture.

And by the time we fixed the puncture, 2 hours had passed. The guys in front patiently waited for us at the petrol bunk.

We had lunch in Mysore and headed back to Bangalore.

Testing Docs Bike (26/01/2008)

2008-01-28T11:21:00.000+05:30

On Saturday Doc, Arijit and myself went for a short ride to test out docs bullet. We had lunch at a dhaba near Krishnagiri and came back.

The bike is good. It held on to 90/100 km/hr comfortably. No issues at all.

There are some work to be done though:
1. Valve/Guides need rework. Lots of valve train noise and some black smoke at times.
2. Wheel alignment.

I also rode his 'elim'. Man that bike is too good. I never imagined I will say this of any Bajaj bike, but the 'elim' is fantastic. I mean okay, u dont feel like God :-), but still... there is absolutely no vibration, the shock absorbers are superb and does not let you feel the road undulations at all.

And to think my bullet lets me feel the entire road, even minute bumps and it goes straight to my bum...

Anyway a nice ride, since I rode after a long time. Next week testing time for my bike :-).

cheers!

Riding and Maths (05/01/2008)

2008-01-05T10:55:00.000+05:30

I have been riding for about 7 years now. And the last serious maths I did was some 10 years ago. Only recently I have again come into contact again with the wonderful world of Maths. Off late I realized that for me Riding and Maths have some things in common.

1. They both teach you new things everyday.
2. After a particularly grueling day spent doing either I feel strangely elated, whether I win or loose.
3. After every corner theres magic.
4. You can never become too complacent with either. One can crush your ego and the other your ego and some bones.
5. Strangely although I love both so much I am not particularly good at either. But then who cares!
6. At this point of my life and career, they serve absolutely no practical benefit. Or does it? Again who cares!

A Dance Drama

2007-12-02T21:27:00.000+05:30

Went to see a dance drama being performed by a charitable organization. They work to support and educate underprivileged children. This was performed by kids.

They tried to highlight the cause of the environment, the pollution and the bleak future if we continue our present way of life. It was a good piece. The kids acted and danced very nicely.

There were lots of people who went to see the show, people like me who are a participant in the mayhem, surely thinking that by going there they have done their bit for the environment. I felt miserable. Their lie exposed my lie (apologies to FightClub)!

I don't know, maybe I read too much into things. Maybe I have become a cynic. I mean the audience were cheering these kids and laughing and enjoying the show. Surely a good thing to do. But why was I keeping on thinking that the message that they were trying to convey was lost in it.

I better go to sleep now.

Freedom

2007-12-02T21:14:00.000+05:30

George Hanson: They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em.

Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.

George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.

Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about.

George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

-Easy Rider (1969).

Monsoon

2007-11-26T11:34:00.000+05:30

I love the monsoon. I started reading a book 'Chasing the monsoon' by Alexander Frater, this weekend and it brought back memories of the monsoon in the place where I grew up, Asansol. And then I watched a bengali movie called 'Titli' and though the movie was a decent one, the thing that captured my mind was the rains in North Bengal, in all its splendour.
Hmm just added another place to ride through, to my ever growing list...sometime in the rainy season...

Madurai Rameshwaram Trichy(1-4/11/2007)

2007-11-08T11:23:00.000+05:30

Day -2 (22:00 hours)

"Dude its Tamil Nadu, Khoday's not available and Old Monk is twice the cost" stated my friend over the phone. Hmm... now theres a point to ponder.

He asked later if my bike is ready for the trip. "Never been better" I said. I think Murphy was listening!

Day -1 (8:00 hours)

I got ready to go to office. The bike started like a dream and I felt great. About 200 metres from my home. It spluttered and stopped. Ah I must have forgotten to turn on the fuel tap I thought. No, thats on! I put my bike to "reserve". Still no sign of life. I changed the ignition to a CDI unit. No life. By this time I was complacent no more. I realized it must be the spark plug. I called the mechanic and he came and confirmed it was indeed the spark plug. Now why did it foul? I was running a tad rich I knew but that I have been doing for a long time. Then I remembered, my carb needle was bent, and thinking that it has settled down to this shape as the bike was running perfectly, and not wanting to tamper with a thing which was not causing any problems, I let it be. It was a time bomb. (Life's lesson by the way). The needle must be getting stuck sometimes and too much fuel had fouled the plug.

I in fact thanked God for letting this happen the day before that ride and on the day of the ride. Well it was fixed quite easily.

The ride:

We started off early in the morning and got out onto Hosur road. We stopped to tank up after entering TN (well petrol is about 2 INR cheaper in TN). And guess what my fuel cap was not opening. The key wont go in. Somehow I managed to push the key in and filled the petrol. Then I put in a little oil into the key hole and it started working again. But it gave me an early morning scare. Fuel cap not opening means end of the trip.

We decided to have breakfast at Krishnagiri. My friend knew a road side shack which served real tasty dosas and idlys and even an omelets.

The road till here is a four laner. While not being an ideal road for a seriously underpowered bike, atleast the road condition is good. And also most vehicles are underpowered in this fuel starved country. Not a bad thing an environment conscious friend had once told me.

After this the road is bad. Littered with pot holes. Where there is no potholes the sun has melted the tarmac and made it come to one side of the road in a small wave like formation, which made it extremely bumpy. And traffic was quite heavy. This road from K'giri to Dharmapuri is for some strange reason always bad. This time the bad roads stretched to beyond that. Only in patches was it good. And this continued till Madurai.

Just after Dharmapuri on our way towards Salem, we find a huge traffic pileup. We managed to get down into the shoulder of the road, which in this consisted of a slushy mud layered ground and somehow managed to wriggle ahead fish tailing and slipping along the way. After a point we decided enough was enough got up onto the road, parked our bikes in between the stranded trucks and decided to chill. A bus in the front had managed to slip into the slush and got stuck. A crane was trying to pull it up onto the road. Hence the pileup. How did he manage to land all four of its tyres in that slush God only knows.

We had lunch at a roadside place in Karur. Reached Madurai at about 5 PM after negotiating thru some bad roads and doing some good speeds on the patches of better ones (not too many potholes or where the pot holes were far enough to leave a gap where our two wheels can speed thru.)

We checked in at a Hotel where my friend had booked a room. Dumped our luggage had a quick bath and headed for the Meenakshi temple, which was very near to the hotel.

The temple is huge, surrounding a lotus pond. 5 entrances with magnificent gopurams. We took a guide and it was nice to hear the stories.

I try to get hold of a guide in most 'historical' places. Thats because firstly they know lots of small interesting things that only a local can tell you. And although the 'facts' they tell you cannot be verified, its usually nice to hear, great if true and a good story if not.

Like a huge Ganesh idol kept in the temple, which was found while excavating the ground to lay the foundation of the temple or the 'nataraja' with his right leg up instead of the left leg as in all other 'Nataraj' idols elsewhere. There was a gopuram which is covered with Gold.

We came out at about 9:30 PM when the temple was about to close. The next day was a friday and supposedly an auspicious day and there will be huge crowds.

While coming back we had Lala's halwa from Lala's sweet shop near the railway station because we had heard recommendations like "will make you forget Tirunelveli's Halwa". Well this was a thick paste of a sweet concoction dipped in ghee. I had what is called a "taster pack". A 5 INR worth of the stuff. I could not eat anything else that night. It was heavy and it was rich. My friend had 2 such packs and said he controlled himself from buying more because he was afraid of his cholesterol level.

Next day morning we woke early and walked to the temple to take photos of the exterior of the Gopurams which we could not take by night light.

After this we had breakfast and started for Rameshwaram some 166 km away. The night before we read in the local news paper that there was some tension in Ramanathapuram because of some stabbing of a politician. And this was on our way about 60 km before Rameshwaram. Anyway we could not find any sign of tension anywhere as we rode past it and onto the bridge (Pimban bridge) that connects mainland India to the island of Rameshwaram.

It was here that we had the first glimpse of the sea. The roads were fantastic; a welcome 2 laner, going thru villages and green paddy and banana plantations. The trees were sometimes lined with coconut trees forming a long arch.

Anyway this ride was very good and we were constantly doing speeds of 90/100 km/hr. But for our long and frequent stops for photographs we could have covered this distance within 2/2.5 hours.

We checked into TTDC hotel and after lunch hired an auto-rickshaw towards the checkpost near Dhanuskodi, from where the jeeps go into Dhanuskodi.

Dhanuskodi was a bigger settlement than Rameshwaram. In the year 1964 a devastating cyclone and accompanying tidal waves completely destroyed the town.

There was a train with about 110 passengers which disappeared without a trace on that fateful night. There are only some temporary settlements now mainly for fishermen. They have to relocate for half the year as the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean rise up on this part of the island from both sides and meet, submerging the area.

We did not ride and it turned out to be a good decision for the simple reason - the auto rickshaw driver was a good guide.

On the way there were ruins of the old railway station, a railway colony, mangled remains of the railway track. These we would have seen but without the guide we would not have recognized. He showed us an area where we could see the Indian ocean separated from the island by a high bank of sand.

He told us that during high tide this is the place from which water from the India Ocean pour into the island. Another strange fact is that although this is an island surrounded by the ocean, in any part of it if the ground is dug up, within 2 feet, there is fresh water. This we later tasted.

We reached the checkpoint in the evening and had to wait a long time for a 25 seater small truck to fill up, for it to start towards the actual Dhanuskodi town ruins and the start of the now famous Ram Setu.

It is recommended to visit this place early in the day as during the evenings security gets tight and many places are out of bounds.

We were told this is mainly because Sri Lanka can be easily reached by walking on the Setu (and swimming a short distance which is submerged in water) and there is a lot of LTTE activity in this area.

We reached the ruins when the sun has already set. The ruins looked surreal in the fading light.

There was an old church, A temple and some other ruined buildings, and a railway track.

We could see the Ram Setu as a faint white bank of sand cutting across the sea. But we were not allowed to go near it as it was dark. It gives a strange feeling to wonder that this was once a bustling town, full of life. Symbolizes the uncertainty of life I guess.

By the time we started back it was already dark. And while returning our driver had to explain our late return to some security men.

I tried some night photography of the Rameshwaram Temple from our hotel balcony. We could not go to the temple as it was pretty late by the time we came back.

In the morning we had to ride to Trichy.

The next day we woke early and started for Trichy. We tried to take a less traveled route thru state highways. We took one, but we later realized there was a shorter one. Anyway since riding was the main aim we did not mind. The highlight being a good 15 minutes of riding in heavy rain. Strangely this was the only rain we faced in the entire trip. We reached Trichy and met Simrit who was hospitality personified. Had a great lunch at his place. My friend's bike had some minor issues which was fixed by Simrit's mech. Till late in the evening we spent talking about all and sundry and finally went to sleep at 1:30. Next morning will be our ride back home.

We woke up to a dull morning, drizzling. We started about 8:00. Again the route from Trichy to Namakkal was superb.

We knew the road from Namakkal to Krishnagiri via Salem and Dharmapuri, will be bad.

So we took it easy with many halts for photos and in general enjoyed the ride. Just before Dharmapuri we decide to take a detour to Mettur, primarily in search of "Kottu Paratha". We could not eat that, but then the extra 70-80 km was a good ride thru some good roads.

By the time we reached Bangalore it was about 7 in the evening.

Sea Hills and Forest (15-19/03/2006)

2007-10-22T20:34:00.000+05:30

Again this was a ride done some time ago, thought of putting it down.

We had a few days of leave and myself, Lohith and Rahul with wife, took off towards the western ghats. We had booked a place at Turtle Bay (okay so there are no turtles around) a nice little resort on the sea-shore, in Marawanthe, just after Udipi on the west coast.

Now this place is has a special charm because here the highway goes between the sea on one side and the river Kali on the other. I have been here lots of times and loved it always. Also I came here on my first solo trip on my bike so I remember this all the more. By the time we checked in it was already evening and we had plans to stay the next day and loaf around in the area.

We had a nice time at the beach, with fish and some chilled beer. It was a nearly full moon that night and I remember getting up late at night to try and capture the sea and the moon :-) with my camera.

The next day we went to a temple in Kollur about 30-40 km from Marawanthe. The temple was of Goddess Mookambika, ultimately a form of Durga. The ride to this temple was very scenic and a visit to this temple, whether one is a believer or a non-believer is highly recommended. We reached the temple after a beautiful ride and the temple was also a nice cozy place of worship.

Luckily that day there was not much of a crowd around too. There was a huge "Rath" or a carriage for the Goddess, standing outside, generally used during some Pujas. Myself and Lohith went inside the temple to pay our respects.

We came back to "Turtle Bay" in the afternoon. After some rest in our cottages we again came out onto the beach with beer and fish fry. The sea breeze blowing gently and the evening sun made for the perfect atmosphere and the beer and fish added to the spirits. Coming away from the hustle and bustle of the city soothes down the 'ever on the edge' senses. And the place, the food and ofcourse most importantly the company of friends really re-charged our brain cells.

I had a slight mishap (mishap atleast for my friends) that night. He he he... that part I will leave out...but suffice to say that after that day I have never touched KingFisher Strong Beer.

The next day we left early. We wanted to climb the Agumbe Ghats. Now these are very steep twisting roads.
Okay the photo does not do justice to the steep climbs. And this place has very recently taken over from Cherrapunji as the worlds wettest place. It gets the highest annual rainfall and has thick evergreen forests. And the most fascinating animal to live here is the King Cobra. Okay when we crossed, neither was there rain nor did we see a king Cobra. :-). But the scenery around was beautiful and green. And best of all my bike climbed the steep ghats effortlessly. The reason I mention this was previously my engine had some issues and it used to knock whenever there was some climb. It irritated me. I was at peace now.

We crossed the Agumbe ghats and headed to our next destination. That was the bhadra wildlife sanctuary. Jungle Lodges had recently opened a resort there and they were giving an introductory offer on the prices. The road to this sanctuary was also beautiful and we kept going thru some forest areas surounded by shady trees and bamboo groves. The place was very near to the town of Shimoga. We finally reached the resort at about 1/2 in the afternoon.

They were charging some 1100 INR for the night. This included a Jeep Safari into the jungle. A boat ride in a lake. Lunch, Dinner and next day Breakfast. And its worth the money. The cottages were on the edge of the lake.

We can sit in the porch and the expanse of the lake stretched out before us.
And with the moon at night it was a fairy tale place.
The rooms were luxurious. The cottages (ours was named Hornbill) was cozy and quaint. The food served was delicious.

The icing on the cake? As we entered the forest for our safari, we spotted a leopard (no photos :-(). It was ambling across the mud road. Looked up at us, and ran across. We saw it a few more times thru the bushes before it finally disappeared. But it had made our day. We saw lots of elephants inside the forest and lots of unusual trees.

That night we had a bon-fire made for us and had a nice time exchanging stories, along with beer (not Kingfisher Strong) and kababs.

Next day early morning we went on our boat ride. It was beautiful.
We could spot lots of deer. And although we heard many langurs signalling the presense of a tiger, we could not see the animal.

There were some kids doing some early morning fishing.

We had to start on our final leg of the journey. We decided to go to Chikmaglur via Kemmangundi. Kemmangundi is situated on top of picturesque hills.
And riding around here was heavenly.

We finally reached Chikmaglur where a few more friends joined us. They had spent the day visiting some places in and around Chikmaglur and waited for us to ride back together the next day. We had a wonderful time that night with Rocky/Pallavi, Arijit/Sayantani, Ronald, Tanay and his colleague (her name I forget - sorry), with Arijit keeping us in splits with his incessant jokes.

The next day we started for Bangalore after breakfast.

After a brief stop at Belur we blasted our way to Bangalore.

A run-in ride (14/10/2007)

2007-10-21T12:24:00.000+05:30

A friend riding an RE, and dreaming of riding a big honda, decided to show off, by giving chase to a car full of girls; went to 100 km/hr in the third gear, and promptly seized the engine.

He got it done and for the next 3000 km he has to run-in the engine. During the weekends he has to cover as much distance as possible at terribly slow speeds initially and slowly getting it up. Well now is the initial period.

Myself and 2 other friends decided to join in on one of his rides. We decided we will start at 6:30 and will go on Hosur road for as long as we are not bored, as riding at 50/60 km/hr on a highway with even mopeds and heavily laden trucks overtaking you, will quickly make you impatient.

We went till Krishnagiri, about 90 km from Bangalore and decided enough is enough and turned back. But it was not that we did not enjoy it. Riding at that pace maybe boring when u have a destination but when u have just come out with nothing in mind it is not that bad. You are for one, much more aware of your surroundings.

We stopped frequently. We had lunch at a 'authentic' punjabi dhaba. Now dhabas or roadside eateries most probably originated in the northern part of India, particularly for truckers to eat and rest. It was till a few years ago, generally a mud hut, churning out amazingly tasty food, which you needed to eat sitting on a small cot, with a wooden frame with rope nettings, under shady trees... pity I don't have photos of a dhaba as it originally was. Nowadays it is a much "more modern" affair, with cement buildings at least.

And although the settings have generally changed, the food is as tasty. And truckers still stop at these places. So the food although may not be very hygienically cooked, it is fresh and piping hot. And in general u wont have stomach issues with it. :-).

We rode all in all for about 190 kms and was back home by 3 in the afternoon.

Coorg (29-30/09/2007)

2007-10-10T08:57:00.000+05:30

This ride was for our clubs 6th anniversary. I have been a member of the club
since 2002, December as far as I can remember. Its an informal motorcycle club
starting off with members having and loving the Royal Enfield Bullet.

Its a single cyclinder, 350 and 500 CC, overweight and underpowered bike, with
a solid character, a deep voice and a heart of Gold. We just love it. Its a
simple machine and that is what endears it to to its owners. Its huge 19 inch
wheels took each and every pothole of 'developing' Indias pot-hole ridden roads
easily in its stride. The roads in India are improving, a sign of its
strenghthening economy and faster and faster japanese bikes are coming to
India to take advantage of it.

The bullet still maintains its status and dignity on Indian roads.

This trip was to Coorg, a beautiful land nestled in the Sahyadri hills of
Southern India. From Bangalore we took the Mysore road till the turn towards
Srirangapatna/Ranganathittu bird sanctuary. From here the road is straight and
hits the Mysore Hunsur road. This road continues till a small town called
Pariyapatna. From here there are 2 ways to Madikeri, the capital of coorg. In
Periyapatna, there is a fork on the road. One goes directly to Madikeri,
the other is a much more beautiful route to Madikeri via Siddapura. We
took the latter.

The road we took was a narrow one laner, through small hamlets, and
thick forests and the occasional waterfalls. It was beautiful.
We went just after the rains and the so the hills were green and clean.

The best part was whenever we passed thru the villages, all the children lined
up by the side of the road to wave at us. Smiles all around. It sure gives a
nice feeling.

It was a small trip, about 600 kms round trip with about 120 bikes, going on
a saturday and back to Bangalore and Chennai on Sunday. The stay for the night
was arranged in 2 places, the main was Capitol Village (about 3 kms before
Madikeri town) and the other was Crystal Cottage just at the entrance to the
town).

The party was as at Capitol Village.

Both places are good with Capitol Village, being a resort being the
more beautiful and scenic, with ponds and grasslands inside.

Rain (13/09/2007)

2007-09-17T10:06:00.000+05:30

My work was over by 7. I waited for the rain to get over or at least slow down, before I left office to go home. It was 9 when I decided enough was enough, put on my rain gear, wrapped the laptop in plastic and stuffed it into my backpack and took off. My home is about 11 km across the city.

The rain had slowed down but within a km of starting it started again with full force. I tried to think of the advantages of riding in the rain. Apart from the fact that I loved rain, traffic especially 2 wheelers are less on the road, and the traffic eases out somewhat, which in a city like Bangalore is usually packed from 6:00 in the evening till 10:30 in the night.

I was right for the first 2 kilometers and then I approached my first hurdle. A huge traffic jam in Koramanagala. Water collected in some areas, and although shallow, even the cars wont go over it. They will try to go around it. Cannot really blame them, God only knows which man hole is left open and which drain does not have a cover. I waited patiently and the the traffic inched forward and I finally crossed the blockade.

After that it was a good speed riding till I hit the intermediate ring road. This is about a 3 km part of the road which is wide and so in spite of the traffic one can go at relatively good speeds. But today traffic had piled up till the end. And this was not even moving.

It was raining very heavily. I love the rain from my childhood. Where I had grown up, the terrain never let rain water be stagnant, rain just washed the trees and the road and every thing sparkled after a shower. Nature looked at her enchanting and enticing best. And then there was football in the rain. The ground was soft and even though there were numerous falls, it never hurt, and even if it did, in that age, it really did not matter and nothing short of a broken bone could keep us away from our evening bouts of football. And even then if our mothers had not locked us in our rooms I think we would have played broken bones and all.

And now working in city where a light drizzle causes huge water clogging, I long for those days of the rainy season. The memories are as fresh as those trees that fill them, after the showers.

But still the rain fascinates me. As I stood in the pouring rain, my only concern was whether the plastic will be able to protect my laptop. I did not mind the wait in the rain, on my bike. I was protected by a leather jacket and a waterproof pants. But I realized that in this rain nothing can be waterproof. I could feel some water in my arms and could feel that my trousers were slowly getting wet. But over all my jacket and my rain pant took the rain. I was warm and quite comfortable. And the feeling was doubly re-inforced by the reassuring beat from my bike. Oh yes, my bike never missed a beat. I had waded through water in many places, afraid of the bike stopping. But she too enjoyed the rain. I waited knowing she will be with me. She will take me home...

Some people got out of their cars and went ahead to check what was the problem. Initially I thought it must be some accident. But they came back and told me that there was water logging on the road upto above the knee level and so the vehicles have stopped in front. I realized it will be a long wait, as with the rain pouring down, I dont think the water will recede any sooner.

I waited patiently sitting on my bike, with people in the cars wondering how can this guy be so cheerful in the traffic jam, sitting on the bike in the pouring rain. But I was not there. I was playing football, sloshing around in the water, with my friends, in the waterlogged field, surrounded by the huge trees of imli and mangoes. With the warning sounds of thunder the rain came pouring down. But I had the ball and my friend calling to me to make the pass...

Bike Testing (25/08/2007)

2007-08-26T13:58:00.000+05:30

My bike has 2 ignition systems. (Why? long story; maybe sometime later!). One is the points system, and one the CDI system. I can use any one of them by a simple changing of wires connecting to my spark plug.

The CDI though a more modern system has the disadvantage of static timing, though it does not require a battery to make the bike start. The older points has adjustable timing but it requires a battery always. I have forever used only the points system. The CDI I have only connected sometimes and tested the engine running. But I had never actually ridden the bike.

I thought I will test it out on the road and see how it behaves.

Took off to Nandi Hills. This is a small hill just outside of Bangalore on the Hyderabad highway. This place has always been my favorite to test out my bikes after any modification I do. And sometimes when I just feel like riding and do not have time for anything long, this is the place. It is about 60 km outside of Bangalore, with a 50 km comprising of flat roads, parts of which is a 4 lane highway, ideal for speed testing and about 10 km of twisting road to the top, with quite a few hairpin bends to test out the torque and timing of the bike.

No photographs as I did not take my camera (some photos can be found in an earlier post of mine). My main aim was to listen to every sound the bike makes, in particular trying to hear any 'pinking' or 'knocking', to ascertain whether the timing is perfect.

The bike behaved perfectly, taking most of the hill in third gear and the hairpins in 2nd. Cheers!
Had a good time in general.

CrossCountry-Delhi2Bangalore (Sept-Oct/2006)

2007-08-20T19:45:00.000+05:30

"To the desert go prophets and hermits; through the desert go pilgrims and exiles. Here the leaders of the great religions have sought the therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality." - Paul Shepard, Man in the landscape: A historic view of the esthetics of Nature.

This is an old trip. At that time I did not blog it. I had put this entire trip up as a 'photologue'. But then now I thought I will put up as a blog too. This was in Sept/Oct 2006.

This trip was a solo bike ride from Delhi to Bangalore, via Rajasthan.

The route: Delhi-Bikaner-Jaisalmer-Pokhran-Jodhpur-Ranakpur-Surat-Aurangabad-Solapur-Bangalore.
The total distance: 3600 kms.

It had been my long time dream to do this ride. And by Gods grace I could attempt it this time. The feeling of wandering about aimlessly without plans is anyway great and if that is in Rajasthan it just is heavenly. The weather was hot in the days and pleasant in the nights but it did not matter as it was just too exhilarating for me to be bothered.

I had shipped my bike by cargo truck (Speedage Couriers - nice helpful bunch and also we regularly transport bikes thru them) a week back and requested them to keep the bike in their storage for a few days till I pick it up. They charged 1500 INR to transport the bike. I flew from Bangalore to Delhi on a Saturday. I picked the bike up from their godown at the border of Delhi and Gurgaon. This suited me fine as I was anyway supposed to go to Gurgaon to my friends place to halt for the night. The bike was fine only the footpeg was bent. Got it fixed and went to my friends place. Had a nice time playing with her 1 year old daughter.

Next day early in the morning I headed off towards Bikaner. The route to Bikaner was via Mandawa and Fatehpura. From Mandawa till Fatehpura the road was one lane.

So whenever there was an oncoming vehicle one of us had to get down from the road. But traffic was little and whatever there was, was very well behaved, everybody literally 'gave way to the bullet' (hmmm for those who did not get it - the catch line of the advertisement for Royal Enfield is similar), and I had to get down from the road very few times. Somewhere on the way, in Haryana, I caught sight of a camel drawn cart as opposed to the usual bullock carts used in the rest of Indian villages.

After Fatehpura the road to Bikaner was superb.

At Bikaner I stayed in a hotel on the highway to Jaisalmer. The hotel owner was nice and friendly. I had planned to visit odd-ball places where generally tourists wont go (Rajasthan is packed with tourists all thru the year). I asked him and he told me of BajrangDhora - Or Hanuman on top of a hill (dune is the literal translation). He asked me to go there at night (it was a full moon night) when the place was totally empty except a few priests or 'pujaris'.

The place was a little distance outside of Bikaner and I was skeptical about traveling at night. However the manager assured me that Rajasthan is pretty safe compared to most other parts of India and rightly so. The place was really peaceful and serene, and in the moonlight the surroundings looked beautiful. The lights of the city of Bikaner were visible from this small hill temple.

The next morning I went to the KarniMata Temple - The famous rat temple. The inside of the temple is filled with rats of all sizes and obviously like most things in India they are worshipped.

You are specially blessed if you can see the white rat. The rats walk about the temple and even over your legs, there are so many of them that you can't really avoid. They even walk about the 'prasad' or offerings for the Gods, which are later distributed as blessed food for devotees. Strange thing there never was any disease reported. Hmmm... faith can do strange things... Also I did not find any rats outside (in the photo). In fact compared to many temples in India this was extremely clean and when I first saw it I actually thought I may have come to the wrong temple, since I was expecting some rats roaming around outside.

I came back from the temple and visited the Junagarh Fort. This was the first fort I saw in Bikaner. It was a medium sized fort. There was a chamber which had gold work done all over.

In the evening I went to a camel breeding farm. One of its kinds in India. Here I had some ice cream made of camel's milk. Tasted strangely salty. Camel's milk is supposed to be good for Diabetes patients. Also there was a small museum where there was interesting anthology of camels found in India.

In and around Bikaner, the desert consisted of mostly barren lands stretching to infinity. The actual sand was in areas beyond Jaisalmer. And there I was to head the next day.

I awoke early and headed to Jaisalmer. The roads were fantastic. There was a not an animal in sight leave alone humans and I raced along. And then it happened.

In the middle of no-where (after a small town called Bap) - All of a sudden I heard a "bhup" sound and the engine died. I immediately engaged the clutch and pulled the bike to the side. No compression.

The worse that can happen is that I will have to put the bike in a truck and head back to Delhi, my trip ended before it could properly start. But there will not be enough time to re-start the trip since I will not have enough leaves left over. That will be sad... First problem where will I find a truck. The place was totally empty and maybe I will have to walk to the nearest town... all this was going thru my head. But strangely I did not panic.

I called Prashy in Bangalore. He is well versed in the mechanics of a bullet and I and discussed the problem with him. He advised me to check a few things and find out the root cause. If it is an engine seizure then nothing can be done. If it is a valve seizure there was hope.

I opened the tappet door and found that the tappet had jumped off its seat. Hmm... a good sign, maybe it’s the valves. I took the tank off and then the rocker covers and found that the exhaust valve had seized and stuck in an open position (hence no compression) and since the tappet was loose and the rocker arm not holding it in its place anymore, it had just jumped of its seat. I was happy at the sight of the seized valve :-) it meant I had hope :-).

The pushrod was jammed. I took off the rockers and pulled out the pushrod. It was not bent. Cool. There was hope still.
Then next step was to try to pry the valve out with a screw driver. I tried and tried but the valve will not budge. I was to the point of giving up when I thought, what the hell, let me use a big screw driver and try it for the last time. I used all my force, and voila out came the valve. I assembled everything back and without the rocker cover on, and with a prayer, I kicked and the engine roared to life. Oh man, happy days were here again :-). I had extra oil, and I poured the entire amount onto the valve from top to lubricate it as much as possible. Finally the engine stopped for lack of petrol. I closed the rocker covers. The only thing left was the fuel tank. The thing was heavy, with at least 10 litres of fuel in it. And after all this I found that fitting the tank back was getting tricky. Luckily all of a sudden a few kids appeared out of no-where. These guys were going to School...to Bap which was quite far actually. They stopped by and I requested them to out in the bolts in their proper places as I held the tank in place. They happily helped me out.

These kids were walking to school which was quite far off, I mean no wonder kids dropout of school in rural India. After spending some time with the kids and a brief photo session later I took off towards Jaisalmer.

Nothing is a bigger ego booster than when you have repaired a broken bike on the road :-). I was euphoric. This ride was a dream for me and this experience just put the icing on the cake.
By the way anybody traveling alone in India get BSNL mobile :-).

One of the many charms of traveling alone is I guess it makes you accessible to people. You too have no other choice than to mingle with them. I think if you are traveling alone, some how people you meet, tend to get a protective feeling towards you and makes it their duty to help you out :-). It is quite true when they say, that you meet some of the best people on the highway!
And of course the 'bullet' is a great conversation starter. Generally starts off with "What is the mileage"... then after a while it comes to "but if you want to ride a bike then bullet is the one"... and then comes the stories... of 'them' and 'their bikes' in 'their' days. Fun really. Near Pokhran (near the Indian nuclear test site), I was having lunch at this shanty dhaba, met a school teacher who also owned the dhaba. He also had stories... of bikes...of 'the Bomb'.... But what impressed me much was the way he was quoting Nehru and Gandhi... he really believed in them... These people have not totally lost their faith...or is it plain naivete...?

On the way to Jaisalmer. The nature of the vegetation had slowly changed. The leaves were fleshy and thick. Dull colored flowers. But the bushes were surprisingly quite green.

And then I got a glimpse of The "Golden Fort".

The main reason behind my fascination for Rajasthan was a novel by Satyajit Ray (later a film) in Bengali called "Sonar Kella" or "The Golden Fort", because of the golden yellow sandstones the fort is made with. As a kid I read it and reread it many times as I grew up. The seed for this trip was planted long ago. Then a long time later I had the bullet.

I spent some time walking in the fort. It was huge fort and most probably the only fort where people still actually live. I mean almost half the town of Jaisalmer was inside. It was bustling with activity, shops and bazaars and what not.

Then I went to the RTDC information centre in Jaisalmer and enquired as to how I can stay in or near the dunes for a night. They had a guest house in a town called Sam, where the dunes start and there were rooms available. They had a package for one night stay including dinner, camel safari into the desert, some cultural programs and morning breakfast. It cost me some 1100/- INR. I asked them that I wanted to take the camel safari at night and not during the evening time as was on their published schedule. The manager readily agreed. One thing about Rajasthan is that this place is amazingly tourist friendly. Not only are the ordinary people friendly and helpful but government officials also tend to be very helpful and that in India is a rarity. I roamed the fort a little more and at about 4 PM headed towards SAM village about 40 km away from Jaisalmer.

This year strangely there had been floods in Rajasthan. This was supposed to be desert areas and nobody in these areas has seen so much rain. And also the rain water in many places could not flow away and there were floods. So in many places as I traveled I found lakes formed and talking to the locals found that those areas were arid and the lakes have formed only this year. Many were displaced and had to resettle elsewhere. Talk about climate changes.

The main reason of my trip, was to see the sand dunes. I reached Sam village and caught a first glimpse of the sand. From where the sand dunes started it was just endless sea of sand. There were some huts by the side of the dunes. Then the Thar desert starts. You can’t go very far alone into this sea of sand for it is a military zone and also you can get lost in the desert.

The place was too touristy when I reached in the evening. Hordes of tourists poured in to see the sunset from the dunes. Most took the camel safari in the evening, to see sunset from inside desert. Even some big shot from the military came to see the sunset - with a full convoy and a machine gun fitted jeep leading the way.

At night the dunes looked magical, bathed in the moonlight. I took a night safari into the sands. At night it was totally empty except for me, the camel and my guide. My camera could not capture the moonlight scenery :-(. It was a magical experience.

By the way I will avoid riding a camel again. It is a strange beast and getting up and down is pretty scary. My bullet is much better.

At night before my safari the 'cultural programme' started. In the middle of the compound of the RTDC camp where I was supposed to stay there was a courtyard. In the middle a small fire was lit. And around the fire a few Rajasthani folk artistes performed. The desert tunes are something I always loved and to hear them from the desert people in the middle of the desert was a superb experience.
The folk artists (introduced to us by the RTDC manager, who himself was a very helpful person) - though unassuming - were all national award winners and master musicians who have performed all over the world.

Among the families staying there, I was the odd man out. A lone guy, on a motorcycle traveling across the country. Among those who did not find me mad was the DMO of the RTDC guest house. He came to me and started chatting about my trip. And then came the stories. He was an elderly man with an army cap. Seemed like an ex-army guy. It seemed he had a "Jawa" and used to flick flags of diplomats' cars near the Delhi airport... in "his days"... :-) He told me about a place called "Ranakpur", his hometown, which is a must see.

The RTDC guest house manager told me that there is a desert sanctuary nearby. His brother-in-law is the forest officer there. Very few people go there but according to him it is a must see. He wrote a letter to his BIL and told me I should reach there early in the morning and show his BIL the letter. He said he will take me around the sanctuary in his jeep.

I went early in the morning. It was a nice ride and before on the way itself I managed to spot an antelope, some rabbits and a fox.
However I could not go very much deep into the sanctuary, as the road was totally covered in sand. It was quite deep. I managed to cross some areas, my back wheels swiveling madly, but then after a point I just could not see the road and gave up. I did not want to get stuck in the sand. Alone. I could not meet the forest officer and request permission for the jeep safari as I could not go further.

From Sam I wanted to go to Jodhpur. For this I had to backtrack into Jaisalmer and go further south. Kuldhara Village falls on the way. This is another place which is not frequented by the tourists. It is a heritage village near Jaisalmer. Legend has it that this village was inhabited by Pahliwal Brahmins who flourished in this area. They managed to cultivate the land very little water. One of the king’s ministers began taxing them heavily. They left, cursing this place. After that many attempts have been made to resettle the place, but no one could survive with so little water. The village is in ruins and is preserved as a heritage village. A very old man is in charge of the place. He told me to park the bike and see the village on foot. Nice idea except for the hot sun :-). Anyway I did as he told.
A guy, a Pahliwal Brahmin himself came to see his ancestral home. He was quite surprised as to why I came there. He showed me around the place.
It seems one can stay at night (camping) in some huts which still has a roof. I saw some burnt logs etc as proof. But I am not sure if you need permission or not.

After spending a few hours roaming around the village, I headed towards Jodhpur. For this I will have to backtrack to Jaisalmer till Pokhran and then take a different direction. By the time I reached Pokhran, I was tired and feeling very sleepy. So I decided not to take chances and stay back in Pokhran. I went to the next RTDC guest house, found it empty, got a room and slept off. It was about 6 in the evening. I woke up the next day at 4 AM.

I reached Jodhpur and again searched out the RTDC guest house and found a room for the night. I had reached early as I had started early from Pokhran and had the entire day to myself. I went in search of a mechanic and got my bike checked up. Next I went to see the Meherangarh Fort.

This fort was huge and pretty impressive.

You can see the "blue city" of Jodhpur from the top of the fort. It is quite nice view of the surrounding area. The fort had a chamber fully covered with glass imported from Belgium, called Sheesh Mahal. Anyway this fort impressed me a lot just because it towered over the city of Jodhpur.
It is in Jodhpur that I did my only shopping of the trip. I entered a Rajasthan Tourism approved shop. They had lots of stuff, right from traditional clothes, to blankets, to camel leather products to traditional ornaments. I generally don’t enter shops because if I enter, I end up spending a lot. This time I also had the excuse that I cannot carry it. It was a convenient excuse when roaming around the streets you find people pestering you to buy their wares. The shop keepers here too kept pestering me to buy stuff. I used my excuse and they immediately said, not to worry they will post to whatever address I asked them to, and at whatever date I wanted them to, without extra charge! Hmmm...I bought some blankets and posted it off to my parents. They took down the dates as when I wanted the package to reach. And I learnt later they kept the promise. The dates were important as I did not want it to reach my parents before I got back to Bangalore. This was because I had not told them about the trip. That was because they will keep worrying about it till I reach Bangalore and in general suffer in silence. Ignorance was bliss.

From Jodhpur I went to a place called Ranakpur. This is the place which the RTDC DMO at SAM told me to visit. This place is nothing but a gathering of a few hotels and huts. A tiny village in the foothills of the Aravalli mountains. This place was a must see according to the RTDC DMO in Jaisalmer. It was also his hometown. The RTDC guesthouse was nestled in the forest at the foothills of the mountains. I was the only guest when I reached. The DMO was right! The place was amazing. From here 50 km uphill in the mountains is the fort of Kumbhalgarh. Another must see according to the DMO.
He was right again.

If I had not seen this fort I would not have seen anything in Rajasthan. Here there was nothing inside the fort like the other forts. The quarters and palaces were empty and made of stone. But the sheer enormity of the fort boggles your mind. The massive stone walls exude an aura of invincibility. The surrounding mountains add to the magic. How they could even plan to build it, that too on top of the mountains is truly amazing!
This wall runs for 36 kilometers - on the mountains. It seems it is the biggest manmade wall after the great wall of China.

The proud security guard of the fort also told me that this was the best fort in Rajasthan. I agreed fully. He gave me a lot of helpful tips about some of the interior routes.
After coming back to the guest house, I went to see a Jain temple, just walking distance from the guest house. It was huge and covered with beautiful carvings.
Lots of peacocks just in front of the hotel. I sat in the balcony till night fell.

The best part of Rajasthan is that no two places are alike. Here the landscape bears no resemblance to the dry, arid areas of western Rajasthan. Here nature again takes the form of "sujalang suphalang mataram".

From Ranakpur I wanted to go to Surat. This was my longest ride in a day. Started off from Ranakpur and rode till Surat. Some 750 kilometers. I rode for over 14 hours as in many places the traffic was bad. Generally I made it a point to stop wherever I was after 5 PM. Here too I had thought I will stop at Ahmedabad. But when I reached there I saw it was about 4PM and postponed my plans to Baroda about 2 hours away. When I reached there I thought I will give it a push and make it Surat which was another 2 hours. Those 2 hours actually turned to 4 because of massive traffic jams on the highway because of some road constructions going on. Surat is where I have studied my engineering. I was going to see my college after 10 years. I was staying with a friend who was my college senior and is now a professor in our college. He stays inside the college itself. I stayed with his family for 2 days. And how things have changed. The city was dazzling (a little more because of approaching Diwali). And no more a town :-).
There was an auto show going on in my college. Some experimental bikes from our mechanical department were also on show.

From Surat I went to Aurangabad. NH 6 is horrendous. As a truck driver mentioned where I had stopped for some food, this road is a highway in name only. I reached Aurangabad and the Ellora caves were nearby. I found a hotel very near to the caves. I thought I will rest for the day as the days journey was really tiring because of the road conditions and see the caves next day. However I was informed that the next day was the weekly closure day for the caves. So I rushed to the caves. It was evening and so I decided to spend whatever time I had in the famous Kailasa temple.

The Kailasa temple in Ellora - chiseled out of the rock face - top down!

The next part is uneventful as I took off the next day and reached Solapur by afternoon. Stayed there for the night. Solapur is a small town with nothing much to do and that is exactly what I did. I slept early woke early and started off towards Bangalore. Again my initial plan was to stay back at Chitradurga enroute. However after reaching Chitradurga, I found that Bangalore was so near I might as well give it a final push and make it. I reached Tumkur town about 75 km from Bangalore at about 5 PM. Had an early dinner at a roadside restaurant and headed back to Bangalore.

Tired but pleasantly so. It was a dream ride for me. I had many experiences on the way and as I was riding the final stretch, I was trying to think what experience I not had in this trip. It struck me that it had not rained. Maybe the thought came to me because all of a sudden there were dark clouds overhead. And as I was thinking all this suddenly it started to rain! Bliss!

Bisle Ghats (17/08/2007)

2007-08-19T23:07:00.000+05:30

It had been a long time since the last ride of some decent distance. I was planning to ride this weekend but had not planned anything. If I went alone I would have decided at the previous evening. My friend wanted to join and suggested the Bisle Ghats (part of the western ghats).

I have been to the western ghats many many times but have never been to the Bisle side of it. And anyway I just wanted to ride.

Started off by 7:00 PM Friday evening. We had dinner near Channarayapatna (~140 km) at about 9:45 PM. The traffic was high and in India 95% of the people do not know what a low beam is. So our progress was a little slow. But it was Okay and we had decided wherever we reach by 10Pm we stay put. We started after dinner at 10:30. We By the time we reached Hassan town, it was 11:30, and we barely managed to find out a hotel, not a good one, but good enough for a good nights sleep :-).

We started off at 8:00 the next morning and reached Sakleshpura at 9:00, stopping in between for some brief photo sessions.

At Sakleshpura we had breakfast. It is here that we need to take a diversion to Bisle. Just at the junction of the diversion and NH48 (on which we were thruout from Bangalore) was the Manjirabad Fort, built by Tipu Sultan. Nice little fort built on top of a hill, with some spectacular views of the mountains from the top.

We spent some time in the fort and started for Bisle. After a while the roads become very bad, full of potholes and the surface very rough. But the scenery around made up for it. The road winded thru the mountainside and we stopped in many places just to soak in the scenery.

We reached Bisle and found that there was a viewpoint, a concrete structure over hanging the hill side and offered some fabulous view of the western ghats all around. It was surprising that this place was empty. In India any such place will in general be teeming with tourists. Here there were none.

We just sat there inside the 'view point' and slowly dark clouds gathered. They enveloped the surrounding mountains and it started to rain. Rain made the surrounding hills, covered with lush green vegetation all the more beautiful.

When an hour or two we decided to head back to Sakleshpura, to stay put for the night and then head back to Bangalore the next day.

The rain had made the roads wet and the surroundings clean and beautiful.

On our way we found a film crew shooting for a Telugu film, a remake of a very recent hit Kannada movie, 'Mungaru Male'.

We thought we will see the shooting for a while, but the roads were too beautiful and we decided to ride on. The roads twisted and turned its way thru the mountains.

You know what bliss is : Entering a curve in the ghats, leaning fully with engine straining.... till halfway thru the curve and still leaning, shifting to the higher gear.... giving the bike the extra juice to exit the curve smoothly...... and then you straighten up!... only to lean on the otherside at the next curve...

We reached Sakleshpura which has only one decent hotel and found that the hotel had only one room left. The rest were booked by the same film crew.

Anyway we were tired and slept of early. The next day was the ride back to Bangalore.

BR Hills (13/01/2007)

2007-01-19T11:52:00.000+05:30

[Most of what follows has been shamelessly lifted from Docs email]

We had a long weekend, starting on the 13th of January and Doc and myself decided to ride up to BR Hills. We left Bangalore at around 4 pm. We met at the Banashankari Temple and went on the Kanakapura road about 8 Kms and then on the NICE road to reach the Mysore road.

There was'nt too much of traffic. A stop at Maddur for the typical Maddur vadas and then a left turn on to K.M.Doddi (or Bharatinagar), Malavalli, Shivanasamudra and Kollegal. 147 Kms.

The road from Maddur is not like Mysore road, but it was pretty good and only some patches were bad. Overall I will term that part of the road as 'interesting'. We took about 2 hrs for this part, but it was mainly because we stopped to take pictures and also it was dark.

In some parts there was no traffic on the roads and me and doc were the only ones. Doc on his Elim and me on my bullet. It reminded me of my Pollachi ride. I somehow am doing a lot of night riding these days. The sky was absolutely clear and the stars were bright and shining. Small pleasures of life.
We stopped overnight at Shantisagar in Kollegal, located near the New Bus Stand. Rooms at Rs.300 /-, pretty good, and ample parking for the bikes and cars. Nice location for someone who can't make it in one day and wishes to split the journey. MM hills is 80 Kms in the opposite direction, and we reserved this visit for the next time.

Next day we took off to BR hills early in the morning. 40 Kms via Yelundur. We took about 2 hours plus, as we stopped on the way, just to enjoy the local scenes. Paddy fields being cleaned up and so were the cattle. We rode thru the forest towards BR Hills. No animal sighting, although we saw some fresh elephant dung on the road :-).

We reached BR Hills. The town was getting ready for Sankranthi. We stayed at a guest house managed by the temple authorities.

We rode to the forest / Pwd guest houses. BR Hills is very quiet, we walked around, visited the temple and a friend of docs who has retired in the hills. Now he is a very interesting person and it was a privilege to meet him. His interests are Astronomy and he is an avid HAM radio enthusiast. He lived in the midst of a wooded land in the hills. He also cultivated bees. All as a hobby. In his house were two very interesting tings. A huge grandfather clock and a big poster of our Milky Way galaxy, covering an entire wall and detailing all the stars in it. Because of this biking thing I have met a lot of interesting people. It gives an altogether different perspective about life.

We had lunch at the only place Giri Darshani, which serves typical south Indian sapad. No choices, if you are lucky, you may get a chapati.

Had a rested day, visited the forest and PWD guest house, walk around the lake and some few pics. K Gudi is where the jungle resort is: about 20 kms from B.R.Hills. We decided to visit it sometime later. This trip was for lazing around.

We started early morning in the hope of seeing some animals on our return to Bangalore thru the forest. We saw some peacocks and deer, no elephants. We stopped at Shivalik Hotel at Mysore road and then rode into Bngalore by 11:00 AM.

Pollachi Ride (22/12/2006)

2007-01-04T11:06:00.000+05:30

The "Junglee Jungle ride" we termed it when we started. We started on the 22nd of December. And that morning I realised that the insurance of my bike has expired. Luckily we were supposed to start in the afternoon so just had enough time to rush to JC road and get the insurance done. I was at the meeting point exactly at 12:30. Our plan was to start at 1:00.

We started finally at 2:00. Myself and Muthu took off keeping Vodka and Boom waiting for PP and Praisy. They will catch up. We went to Mysore road thru the NICE road from Kanakapura road. A fantastic stretch of tarmac.

We hit Mysore road and entered a roadside dhaba to take a quick bite before the other guys catch up, and surely enough Vodka came in with Praisy as pillion. PP and boom had gone to fill petrol and would catch up later.

We started off and again stopped at Coffee day on Mysore road to wait for PP and Boom. This coffee day was on the right side of the road and soon we saw them blasting past us. We waved and then followed them. And then we see PP and Boom who had seen us coming down the opposite side of the road to meet us at Coffee day :-). They had managed to see us waving and took a U turn and came back. They were informed by the watchman that we had taken off and they had a cup of coffee and took off after us.

We had come to know that the road from Maddur to Kollegal was bad and so we headed to Mysore. The problem was there was a little miscommunication and PP and Boom took the Maddur Kollegal route. We waited near Mysore for them and finally Muthu managed to contact them on their cell and we realised our goof up. We decided to meet up at Chamrajnagar and headed off. The road was good with patches of broken roads. But overall it was fine and we reached Chamrajnagar by 6:30PM.

Here finally all 5 bikes came together. We had some chats and other snacks on the road, topped up our tanks and finally headed towards Sathyamangalam, or sathy at about 7:30 PM. Now this road was thru the famed Sathyamangalam forest once the den of the dreaded Veerappan. He is not there now but I was more concerned about wild animals and I was a little concerned about my headlight. But anyways we took off. And it was a great experiance.

Slowly we entered the forest area and it was pitch dark by then. To boot the road was twisting and winding its way towards the Sathy ghats. Not much traffic on the roads. My concerns went away as the five bikes sped thru the darkness, and i got into the groove. I was the last with PP in front of me for most of the ride. The darkness was pierced by the five headlights and the forest reverberated with the sound of our steeds. It was a fantastic experiance.

In some stretches, I was left behind, and the romance of riding alone thru the dark and brooding forest was exhilerating. It was my first such ride and the slight element of danger only added to the charm.

We were keeping good speeds thanks to good roads and only occasional traffic. We took a break when reached Dimbham at about 8:30 PM. This may not be late in the city but for a village in the middle of the forest it was pretty late.

Now this was a place, which at that time of the night, looked straight out of a Ruskin Bond story. (Vodka later mentioned the place had the same character anytime of the day). All I could see under the light of a single lamppost, by the side of the highway, was a government rest house, a few hutments and a chai cum snack stall. We had some hot snacks and chai.

Muthu had a fall earlier and his tank bag had fallen off. He worrying about his bike and himself did not realise it till he reached Dimbham. It was decided that he would go along with Boom to find the bag while we would try to mend his bike which had some minor injuries. They went off in what seemed an impossible task. It was difficult to find the spot where he fell let alone the bag after that, in the pitch dark. They went anyway.
We in the meantime enjoyed some delicious hot snacks and tea, while fixing Muthu's bike.
After sometime a triumphant Muthu and Boom came back. They had found the bag!
We started off from Dimbham and then it happened. I saw a car stopped on the road with his high beam on. I could not see anything else being blinded by the high beam. I decided to slowly pass him, and as I went ahead, i sensed something and turned my head and then I saw the tusker. It was huge with great tusks and it was trying to cross the road. Luckily it was not in the middle of the road (maybe it was also baffled at seeing me approach) or I would have gone into it directly. And what would I have said, that i could not see an elephant and crashed into it. That would have been funny if I had lived after. :-)
After this was a long hard ride thru the night. It was a new experiance for me and definitely my longest ride in the night and that too thru ghat roads.

Our next stop was a about 20 km from Avanashi. We stopped at a roadside shack that served Kottu Paratha. This was a TN speciality and was basically crushed paratha (crushed and broken into fine pieces) mixed eggs or chicken pieces. This was again a first for me and it was delicious.
After this we raced ahead and reached Pollachi at about 1 AM.

The Madbull guys were waiting by the road in front of the hotel (Hotel Shakti) to welcome us. They had reached earlier. Ajith's brother had an accident and they had to send his pulsar back to Chennai in a truck.
We went to our rooms and was pleasantly surprised. Not only were the rooms big and clean but the refrigerator was packed with chilled beer and lots of cold drinks. We kept our stuff and headed for one of the rooms of the Madbulls and the party started. The drinks were ready and so was lots of snacks. By the time we finished our drinks with plenty of anecdotes about places near and far, rides short and long, it was 4 in the morning.
We realised that early morning safari into Annamalai was out of the question and so slept till late.

Next day by the time we got ready it was near lunch time and it was decided to have lunch at Kodaicanal. It was about 135 KM.
We stopped once to have something which I can only describe as unfermented Toddy. It tasted bitter-sweet and was quite refreshing.
The climb to Kodai was fantastic. After a while the climate turned cool and there was a thin mist in the air. We did not see much of Kodai as our main aim was the climb. But it was a beautiful place surrounding a lake. We had our lunch and started our descent. It was dark by then.
Bala had mentioned during our drinking sesion last night that it was easier to ride in the ghats during the night contrary to popular belief. And while riding down the Sathy ghats and the Kodai ghats I realised how true it was. You can clearly see vehicle lights around the bends and so you can maintain a faster pace round the bends without fear of oncoming traffic.
We reached back to the hotel at about 9 PM had our dinner and again the party started. This time we had to retire early as the plan was to go to the Anamalai very early the next morning.

Our initial plan was to take a car/van from Pollachi and not to take our bikes, however some old timer of Pollachi told us that it is better to take a bus from the base of the hill. So we decided to take our bikes as far as we could.
We started off for Anamalai forest at about 6AM as opposed to the plan of 5 AM. After losing our way inside Pollachi a couple of times we reached the forest checkpost at the base of the hill, where we were told by the forest guard that bikes are not allowed further in. The first bus upto the top of the hill called 'Top Slip' was supposed to be at 6:45. we were on time.
What a bus it was. It was packed, Most of us managed to get in but a few of us had to hang onto the bus with a foot somehow wedged inside. It was 10 km drive up a hill. The bus groaned and strained and somehow managed to reach the top after about half an hour.

The place was beautiful, misty and cold. We went on a safari into the forest. The safari vehicle was a modified truck and costed around 650 for the entire vehicle. It took us thru the forest into a camp where elephants are trained. There we saw a cow elephant with her calf kept for entertainment of the visiting croud. The calf was very playful and friendly much to the amusement of the people there. However it was sad that this calf will never know what it is to be free. He seemed to be unmindful of it though, atleast till now.

On our way back we saw some wild elephants again with calfs. I had expected to see some other animals as well, particularly when i saw a board at the forest checkpoint listing the sighting of different animals, along with the date/time/location of their sighting. This included a tiger and leopard. We also wanted a trek into the forest but the guides were not available that day. Anyway this Anamalai was a bit of an anticlimax.

We came down gathered our bikes and headed for our hotel. On the way we stopped for breakfast and it was decided that as it was early we would go to a nearby waterfall. We bought some towels off a local shop and headed towards it. we crossed the Aaliyar dam on our way. On our way we spotted a waterfall by the road side. A family was just coming out of it. They told us that the actual waterfall was a little distance away but it was packed with tourists. We decided to stay there only. The entire waterfall was to ourselves and we jumped in. The water was cold and the trick was to just jump in. After the initial shock of the cold water we never felt the cold. The water falling from a height massaged our bodies and we were refreshed. We took some photos for what was described by Sherin as the Madbull/RTMC swimsuit calendar. We had a great time in the waterfall and after coming out some of us lay down on a parapet by the side of the road under the shade of trees.

We started for our hotel after sometime in our wet clothes. And on reaching the hotel we changed and immediately headed for the bar.

The bar was underground and had swings instead of fixed seats. After a few rounds of drinks and food we headed back to our rooms. Again in the evening it was party time inside a room. some of us were totally blown by the time we finished and then we went to have food outside the hotel and gorged ourselves on kottu paratha, idlis and dosas.

Now Praisy was supposed to leave for her friends wedding in the morning and would not be riding back with us. She was dropped off at the Pollachi bus stand to catch an early morning bus.

We started back for Bangalore/Chennai next day at about 7:00 AM. Th Bangalore gang decided to take a different route. It was decided we will ride along with the Madbulls till Dharmapuri where we will go towards Krishnagiri and the Madbulls will go take a diversion to Chennai. We started of and till Tiruppur everything was fine.

Bala's bike had a puncture and we continued after fixing it. Myself and PP were riding along with the Madbulls while the rest of the RTMC guys were a little ahead of us. Then about 20 km from Bhavani, Ajith's already ailing bike, gave up. We tried to get it to fire but it would die immediately. With all local remedies not working and the bike kick start also not moving freely enough we decided to either tow the bike or put the bike in a truck to the nearest city, and from there ship it to Chennai.

Except myself and PP the rest of the RTMC gang had gone ahead and were waiting for us, and did not have a clue to what happened. We called them and asked them to go ahead ... we will catch up. Anyway we were lucky that all this happened near a petrol bunk. A small truck came in for fuelling and offered to carry the bike free to the next city if we put it in the truck oursleves. We thanked him and put the bike in the truck. It was decided that the Madbulls will go slowly with the truck while me and PP will try to catch up with RTMC gang. We headed towards Salem.

We crossed Salem then Dharmapuri and then reached Krishnagiri. We tried to call Muthu but he did not pick up. We realised he was riding and so so we SMSed him about our wherabouts and went ahead. After Krishnagiri we decided to have a cup of Chai and then checked my SMS to find that that the rest of the gang was behind. Anyway we decided to meet at our usual 5 star petrol bunk, which has a good restaurant, at Hosur. We later came to know that Muthu and Vodka had taken a different route to Dharmapuri (not thru Salem) which was shorter, but Vodka's silencer fell off and was waiting for it to be fixed when they saw us blasting past.

We met up at Hosur , had a lunch. We were very hungry as none of us had had anything after breakfast. Boom had ridden with us till Pollachi and the next morning had gone to a friends wedding. He was returning and met up with Vodka and Muthu on the way. Anyway after lunch we left the 5 star petrol bunk and entered Bangalore.

I will remember the ride for all the night riding thru the forests and ghats, the wonderful waterfall and ofcourse the close encounter with the pachyderm. That encounter will rate as one of the highpoints of my rides along with the bike breakdown and fixing in the middle of nowhere in Rajasthan.

Mullaingiri/Belur/Halebid Ride (25/06/2005)

2006-12-16T10:35:00.000+05:30

We, namely Arun, Anil and myself, started early on the saturday of 25th June towards Mullaingiri. A few weeks ago some friends of ours had been to this place and seeing the photographs of this place was too tempting.

We started of from Bangalore and headed towards Nelamangala from where we took the NH 48 towards Mangalore. We had breakfast at Kollegal at a roadside stall where they served some amazing idli (Tatte Idli I think they are called - basically a flat roti like idli).

We went straight to Hassan and then took a diversion towards Chikmaglur.

Freshly Bathed

This road was very nice, gently winding. The roads and countryside was sparkling after a shower and everything around had the freshly bathed look.

We reached Chikmaglur by about 1:30 PM. We found a hotel to stay on the road towards Mullaingiri. Dunmped our belongings had lunch, which was not bery good by the way, and then went in hunt for the highest peak in Karnataka.

The road is a ribbon

The weather was cloudy and as we started climbing up there was again the signs of fresh showers. Then it started drizzling. The road was a narrow ribbon winding up the hill. From some places along the hill the entire road was visible upto the top.

The roads were surprisingly in a good condition maybe because of lack of traffic. It was narrow all the way to the top. It started to drizzle. We chugged along. Near the top suddenly it was getting colder and windier. Then all of a sudden we could see clouds moving in. And then abruptly the clouds surrounded us. We could not see even a few metres ahead of us.

Reaching to the clouds

At the top all of sudden the tarred road ended. And from then all we could see was a mud trail ahead of us which was wide enough for one four wheeler to carefully go. We could not see far and so we could not gauge how far this gravel/mud road would last.

Road to nowhere

We parked our bikes and then one of us clambered up some distance to find out how far we were from the top. He could not see much but then we decided lets move on. We started slowly , cautiously. Once stopping I could see only a yellow spot a little distance away. The yellow was Anil's head light.

A light behind

Then after continuing like this for a while we came to a clearing and the road or whatever that was ended. We looked around and found we were as high as the bike can go. From here we have to walk.

The place was magnificent. The wind was howling and it was difficult to hear each other's voices. It was wet, partly due to the drizzle and partly due to the wet cloud that was surrounding us.

Steps to heaven

We could see a trail of steps going up into the clouds. We went up a little distance and sat down on the steps. We did not intend to go the entire way. After a while the cloud began to clear and we could see around. We found that the steps lead to a Mandir on top of the hill. Everywhere we looked it was wet and gorgeously green.
The wind was still howling and the force of the wind actually made walking difficult.
We sat there for a while talking of all and sundry.

After a while we decided to head back. We reached the hotel and had some snacks at a place called "town canteen". This place is famous for its "bene-masala", basically butter masala. It was real tasty and I think we had one too many of it. Anyways after that we went to the hotel, parked our bikes and then settled in our room for an evening gathering before we hit the bed.
We went on chatting about bikes and riding and our friends in our bullet club.

At night before heading to our beds we went to inspect our bikes and found that they have been moved from their positions. This was done to make way for other bikes whose owners have come to this place for their evening drinks. This was the only decent bar we could figure out.

The problem is that in our country, most people dont realize that bikes are very valuable sentimentally to many people. The idea of bikes to most people is of a two wheeled contraption to take you from one place to another in the most economical way. To me atleast it is the closest to family I have as I live very far from my family. In many places I have seen people sitting on bikes parked as if it was park bench. But this irks me to no end.
And so they took it for granted that they can shift the bikes on their own and that there is nothing to think twice about. How dare they touch it. They could have called us and we would have moved it. We had two enfields and a BMW and we blasted the caretakers. However I have my doubts whether they apreciated our concerns.

We woke up in the morning to a cloudy day. We had breakfast at "Town Canteen" and then headed towards Belur.

Belur

Belur was nice. The ruins of a magnificent temple. The sculpture par excellence.

Exquisite

We headed to Halebidu. Here too were the ruins of a beautiful temple. With beautiful sculptures of various Gods and Godesses.

We left Halebidu and headed towards Bangalore. We took a different route than when we came. From Halebidu we headed towards arsikere. The road was empty and nice, with only an occasional bullock cart in sight. But after a while the road condition became bad and then after a while worse. The road was bumpy with small lumps spread all over and you cannot avoid them and have to go bumping along. As a consequence our speed dropped to about 60 kmph.

After arsikere the road became nice.

We had lunch at aplace called Gubbi. The food was horrible and they even managed to make the curd rice taste bad.

We crossed Tiptur and then after a while hit Tumkur. From then on we blasted on the 4 lane highway and shortly reached Bangalore, from where it took us more than an hour to reach our homes. Good old Bangalore traffic !

Tumkur Ride (14/05/2005)

2005-05-19T18:50:00.000+05:30

We started towards Tumkur. My friend assured me that there is a very nice Ashram and some sort fo a forest out there. We started at 10:30 AM, a bit late but it was a sudden decision to ride. The traffic on Sunday (sigh!) was horrible till Nellamangala. We reached here at 12:00 noon. After that the traffic thinned out and road became better. By this time we were hungry and we decided to have lunch at a roadside dhaba called Chandu Dhaba. The place was huge and neat and had lots of trees in the compound under which tables were laid out. There were a few tables inside small thatched huts and we went under one of them. The food of chicken Kadahi and tandoori roti was delicious and we were on our way by 1:00 PM.

Near Tumkur

We reached the toll gate of Tumkur road and found that there is no toll for motorcycles. Cool! We went past it and I opened the throttle. I realized that my speedo was broken and was not moving above 20kmph. It had been some time when it was swinging wildly and I think it finally gave up. The odometer was also not working. Good for us we anyway did not have any plans that depended upon distance covered etc.

We reached Tumkur and my friend had remembered the way to the ashram. We none the less confirmed it from a passer by and were on our way. It was not an ashram, it was a mini-town called "Siddaganga Mutt". We parked our bike, washed ourselves and went for a short stroll around.

Siddaganga Mutt

The place was obviously based around a Shiva Temple. However it also had schools and colleges inside. A nice small community and a nice peaceful place.

We then visited a small temple on top of a rock and then decided to go into, what my friend said was a forest. Actually it was a road winding thru a few trees. The trees were thick enough and close enough to cover the road but in no way was it a forest. We reached an eco-park. There was a permanent spring where Lord Rama is supposed to have bathed.

The "Forest"

We also saw the directions to a 700 year old VidyaShankara temple. And so we went. This place was recently renovated and done very aesthetically. It still had the looks of an old temple, although the area was neatly laid out.

VidyaShankara Temple

We left this temple after paying our respects to Shiva. We headed to the top of a hill. We then realised that this was DevarayanaDurga. I had been to Shiva Gange but not to this place and it was on my list. Cool!
We winded upwards. In between we stopped at a vantage point from the entire valley could be seen from a jutting rock. We then reached the temple on the top. We did not enter it since it was packed.

On top of the hill

We headed instead to another peak a short distance from this one where the temple stood. There on the top was a guest house also. The view from this place is superb.

Me and ....

We could see the Tumkur town from here and far far off.

At the top

While descending we found that there was a direction towards Tumkur and also to Bangalore. We estimated that this road towards Bangalore would not hit Tunkur road directly but would take us thru some other route and hit Tumkur road at a later stage. We decided to try this out. At first the road was superb. It was a narrow road, and winding along the trees. It was a typical village road and many villages passed us by. We were wondering that although this road goes thru villages it was surpriingly well maintained.

We offroaded down some rocky terrain towards a big pond. The right side of the road the ground gently sloped away towards a huge clearing and on one side of the clearing lay the pond.

To the pond...

I parked the bike at the edge of the pond and relaxed. After some time spent and photo-shooting we went away. It was a nice place and since it was evening the sun too was not very hot.

At the pond

Then the road slowly worsened and our speed came down. And since the road was narrow we had a to follow a tractor full of giggling village-bells for a long time.

Getting past...

After quite some distance we managed to overtake them and increased our speed although it was still slow because of the road conditions.

We then hit Tumkur road near the Shivagange turn. After that it was plain sailing till Bangalore outskirts. And with a halt to have some omelette and egg-bhurji at a "pravasi dhaba" on the road, we reached bangalore outskirts. From there we carried on at a snails pace and finally reached our destination at about 8:00 PM. A day well spent.