Antharagange

It has been a long time after the Zimply South trip that we did on bikes that we went out as a gang. The last time we did was for Pondy. This time we were planning something for New Year but our friend Chandresh/Chandu/Naveen had decided to quit the corporate world and returns to his good old students days. He is still young at heart. He will be going to do his MS to Colorado on Christmas. So all our New Year plans were called off. We decided to spend a day or two together before he leaves. We had initially planned to got Coorg for a trek there to a hill called Tadiyanmol. But we did not get any accommodation in Coorg and there were people who were interested in a days trip coz of work load in office. So we hot upon this Antharagange in Kolar.
It is 65 Km from Bangalore, adjacent to Kolar city. We decided to leave Bangalore on bikes on Saturday at 7 AM. But considering the cold in the city now a days it was a skeptic time to start the journey especially when AK and Chandu have to start early. Well that was true we Mindu/Harsha his cousin Suresh/Surya had to wait for 1.5 hrs before we could all meet up. It is so irritating to wait when you want to spend time with people and when time is a commodity and is not free like those days in college. You get two days off in a week and there will be so much to do if you have no one at home to take care of you. And above that you have planned to do something so that all of us remember the day and the time we spent together. Well so we had breakfast in Hungry Hunters our local joint for food. By the time we left it was 9 AM. We had to take the Old Madras Road to Kolar. There is terrible traffic on this road at least till you reach Hosakote. After that the situation changes and the traffic is like what you should find on a NH. We took a pit stop at Kamat Hotel on the highway to get some food packed. This place is about 40 Km from Bangalore. Had a glass of Tea and resumed our journey.
After reaching Kolar we took direction from the local people to reach Antharagange. It was the end of the road indicating to us that no way you can ride further. Now we had to continue our journey by foot climbing some 400 steps to a temple on the top of the hill. There were a lot of monkeys and seeing their teeth’s I was in no mood to get mugged by these primates. But these guys did not attack us considering that we did not have any food with us although we had it in our bag packs. We reached the temple at the top and saw a Kalyani (A pond of holy water). Sadly the Kalyani had been polluted by soap. People were having bath using that water and you could easily make out the reason by the colour of the water. There was a interesting thing here, the source of water for the Kalyani was coming out from the mouth of Basava (Official transporter of Lord Shiva). And I must mention that the force of the water was also strong, wonder from where the water was also coming. It was a sight to watch. But the local people used to tap this water for drinking as this water was sweet than what was available in the town. We still climbed up the hills and from here the steps made way fro rocks, it was fun to climb the rocks and do some balancing acts. There were rocks of all shapes and sizes placed in some awkward positions giving rise to some strange structures. We kept on hiking till we reached a place where the land was flat and the local people had cultivated some cereals. At this place there was a huge collection of rocks big ones and they were inviting to be conquered. By this time Ak and Chandu were done and they opted to sleep…aw those lousy lazy pigs….were better off in a bar.
Mindu, Suresh and I took the challenge of the rocks. It was awesome I felt like Tom Cruise in MI although I did not do something so daring. It was entertaining to find paths and place to put you feet and grip to hold yourself, coz if you fall you are bound to break a couple of bones. There was one particular place where there was two huge rocks and the gap between them was just enough for a person of my size or less to squeeze through. I did that and if was great fun to get through them. Took a snap there to depict something like you are getting crushed between two rocks. We reached the top and the last rock available in the pile. We thought of going further but nonparticipation of the two sleeping beauties and time did not permit us to go further. So we came back to the place where they were sleeping and we decided to sit at a place and have or parcel lunch. We had lunch sitting in the middle of a Ragi field. After lunch we came back to the place where we had parked our bikes and headed back to Bangalore. The return journey was not that smooth because of the sun staring at you face. At 4PM we were at our place and that was the end of our journey. At the end of the day I was happy that we did not go to Coorg for the trip with such participation. It would have been miserable.

Zimply South

Ingredients to a perfect trip: 2000Kms of road, 50 ltrs of gasoline, 9 days of time, One big 350 CC Bullet, One bald rider ;-), one saddle bag, rain, sun, wind and cold as per taste and loads of josh.

Preparation: Fill in the 350 CC Bullet with as much gasoline as it can take it, place the saddle bag in the back seat, take days off from reality and relatives and hit the road that runs till the last point on main land India. On the way get ready to face some rain and sunshine and chillness.

Well this was the perfect long trip that we were looking for a long time and it did materialize. Actually we had plans of going to Ladakh-Leh to the highest motor able road ion the world. But the notice/idea occurred really late and we had to resort to South India as a prelude to THE CALLING. This trip was the brainchild of Harsha (Mindri) who took pains in organizing it. Laxman a colleague of us suggested the route . We were three people Mindri, Raghav and myself. Three bikes Honda Unicorn, Pulsar 180cc and my Bullet Electra. Not to mention of the problem that I had in my last trip to Pondi I was a little careful in pushing the bike to the limits. The idea was to go to Kanyakumari the last point in India and return back in a week time. There were many places to be covered and seen as we traveled. All the ground work and shopping exclusively for the trip was done much in advance, except for a few of them;-).

Day 1(09 Sep 2006): Bangalore to Kozhikode

Well the D-day was there and frankly I did not sleep well. More over I had the strange feeling and the hitch in my body that I will fall sick, but the enthusiasm of riding got over all of it and I am glad that it did happen. We mindu and myself left our place at around 06:10 AM to Chandu’s (Naveen) place, as mindu did not have an mp3 player he decide to borrow Chandu’s after much of deliberation. From there we went to Raghav’s place at around 7:00 AM, but strangely he made us wait for a neat 20 min. I still don’t know what he was unto but later in the journey I could figure out what he mite have been unto. So finally we let our horses do the talking. We left towards Mysore our first pit stop. The roads are really good and you can literally cruise on. We did have a loo stop and tea stop which are more common on the entire journey. Tea was served in PYAPER CUPS;-). There were a fleet of bullets and non-billets heading towards Mysore. One of the Thunderbirds had a pair of horns fixed to the headlight, looked cool. We took three hours to reach Mysore and boy we were hungry. We directly went to Mylari Hotel in Kuvempunagar and had some real good dosas slurp…we did some catching up with our batch mate Sajeev who works in L&T, Mysore. After having breakfast we left Mysore at around noon. Before getting out of Mysore I had to get my emission certificate done. Got that done, this was a play safe mechanism as I did not want be held in other states for not having the correct set of documents even though the bike was less than a year old. From Mysore we headed towards sultan Bathery. The roads and the ride was great, there was a pit stop in Gundlupet for tender coconuts. On our way to Gundlupet there were three more bullets on their way to Ernalkullam. The weather changed a lot after Gundlupet. It was cloudy, it had rained and we entered Bandipur Forest. It was very scenic. Later on it started raining, we thought it will stop but it never did. It just kept on raining. We could not stop anywhere as we were in the middle in the forest and there was no shelter. When we came to a forest check post we were not allowed to take shelter. The ass hole guard was rude. So we kept on biking till we reached Kerala border where we took shelter in a teashop. We had a cup of hot steaming tea and boy it was great feeling. The only bad thing was we were totally wet and the weather was making it even colder. After it stopped raining we rode toward sultan Bathery. After reaching Bathery we had food and changed our attire a little bit. We decided to get raincoats and thanks to Raghav for this idea, else I am sure we would not have got one. After shopping for the raincoats in Kalpetta we continued. We knew that we were running behind schedule. We were actually destined ourselves to break in Guruvayoor. But the weather did not permit us to ride faster. So we decided to break in Kozhikode. After Kalpetta there is a Ghats section and when we reached this pace it was dark around 6 in the evening. When we reached the top of the hill it was totally covered in mist and clouds. Boy it was great to ride in this atmosphere. The high beam made a lot sense in this situation. The descent was horrible. The roads were literally fucked up and to make matters worst the turns and twist of the Ghats. After grueling ride we reached the bottom of the hill and had a cup of tea. Later we headed towards Kozhikode. It was around 8:30PM when we reached. Checked into a hotel, which did not supply hot water. Hot water would have been refreshing after riding the entire day in rain. The first thing to do was strip off the wet clothes and put on something dry…we had dinner double boiled rice and had a sound sleep.

Day 2(10 Sep 2006): Kozhikode to Kochi

Ha a good nights sleep charged us up and luckily 80% of the clothes were dry. We were also happy the sun was smiling at us when we were up at 6:00 AM. We got ready for the day put on the bags back to the bikes and got ready to ride on. The hotel owner was wondering ever since we checked in what we were up to and finally asked when we checked where we came from where we are headed to and things like that. On the road passersby gave inquisitive looks at usJ. We had a cup of tea in a local teashop and filled up our tanks with more gasoline. We started riding and hardly covered 3 Kms when the weather changed and it started raining again, damn the water…we pulled over and put on the raincoats and started riding again. The entire journey was raining and we were damn hungry to eat. We found a hotel and had the first Kerala Breakfast in the trip. Appams and Idiappam. I tried black tea here and I kind of liked it. The other bullets that we had met on the previous day also passed by when we were having breakfast. The next beast thing to do was a loo stop, but unfortunately Kerala is so densely populated on these highways that you cannot think and stopping by and going to the loo. I was so happy to find an empty spot on the highway and relieved my pressure. The roads on this route were also bad to a small extent. While we were riding the sun came up again and we thought all right this the end of it, but the very next moment it poured like hell. There was no scope of riding and stopped in a petrol bunk. Lucky to find one. Oh by the way we had put on our slippers instead of shoes. While waiting for the rain to stop I had a small chat with the other bulleters, they were on their way to Ernakulum. After the rain stopped we headed towards Guruvayoor. It was still raining and on the way I had a close shave with a Jeep. The buses and jeep driver in Kerala are mad. They have the license to kill any one on the road, very rash drivers. I thought Bangalore was bad but Kerala is worst. We reached Guruvayoor in the noon at around 01:00PM and went directly to the temple. It was almost closing time. We had lunch in near by hotel and headed towards Kochi. In this route there was heavy traffic and people and also the width of the road is small. There was a series of 6 buses which really got me pissed me off. They moving alike a train one behind the other and getting out of this formation was a real pain. The rain stopped completely and gave way to sun. It was sure that it wont rain anymore. We stopped in a teashop and changed to normal riding gear and had some tea. Got some mallu snacks also to eat. In about an hour’s time we entered Ernakulum and then Kochi. The city was looking good at least on the roads that we rode on. No filth hanging around. We checked into a hotel and freshened up. Later we went out towards Marine drive which was supposed to be a 2Km walk according to the receptionist, but it turned out to be more and we were dead tired. Before we embarked on the walk we had to eat something and had some baked stuff in Ceylon Bakeries. This guy has many outlets in Kochi, must be very famous. The stuff also tasted good. On reaching Marine Drive there was a little stink in the air, the place was just along the seashore and we just walked d a little bit got some snaps and headed back to the hotel. Mindri was done he was tired to walk further and wanted to take a rickshaw. Thanks to Raghav who had to buy a Cap we had to walk back to hotel. We even thought of watching a movie Lage Raho Munna Bhai, but the tickets were all sold out. On reaching the hotel we had food and slept. In the night it rained again.

Day 3(11 Sep 2006): Kochi to Kanyakumari

The night in the hotel sucked big time. There were a lot of mosquitoes and they did not allow us or rather me sleep. The others too had a tough time but as time passed they dozed off. To make matters worse the hotel was next to the main road. Suddenly in the middle of the night there were honks. In the morning when I got up my pillow was covered in my own blood. Damn thing was red in colour. When we were getting ready for the journey it started raining again, so we decided to have breakfast in the hotel itself and continue our journey. After breakfast the rain had ceded and made way for the sun this encouraged starting the ride. We headed towards Kanyakumari with raincoats on. It did not retain all the way, there was light rain when we were on the outskirts of Kochi. We did a tea stop in Allepey and changed our riding gears. I was wearing shorts under my raincoat and did not change into jeans. So I just rode, was still afraid of the rain. On the way we could see elephants and flock of ducks on the highway. Later after riding for about and hour we were next to the coastline. The smell of seawater was really good and so was the breeze. We stopped for lunch and we were desperately hungry and exhausted. Except for mindu who had munched in enough bananas that a monkey could have for a meal. Not enough and tried his talent of spoke Malayalam in the restaurant, creating a debacle of Parotas and Chaptis. Thanks to the timely intervention and we were saved. After lunch I did a crazy thing, I got my raincoat pant off and my shorts and out on jeans all in the parking lot of the restaurant. The bar tender inside the hotel was dumbstruck at this and was having a puzzled look on his face. And so we biked on. We first went to Kovalam, a world famous beach and it sure is. Very beautiful. The approach to the beach was like a never-ending road. Before getting to the beach there was a pond or lake whose boundary was a rack, awesome it would look like a pond in a trough created by rock. Later we went to one side of the beach which was a private property owned by the Leela Group of hotels, that made clear why there were no people around. But the hotel was really good, I would not mind taking someone special there. The next thing that we did was hit the beach with our bikes, yes we took our bikes on to the beach and parked on the beach. The white sand and the water were really inviting. I now wonder why we did not stay back there. We spend around half an hour on the beach and had tea and left towards Kanyakumari. We first hit a town called Nagercoil, which was about 40Km away from Kanyakumari. The ride from here to Kanyakumari is really good. Awesome road, no traffic just cruise control and make it better it was dark. We reached Kanyakumari t around 7:30PM got in to a hotel, which was the last hotel in India. From here we could see the cape, Vivekananda Rock and Kanyakumari Temple. Well by now our requirements of the hotel was very clear…A/C Room, hot water and lastly BAR. Sadly till this day there were no bars attached to the hotel, forget BAR two of them did not have a restaurant also. Ok so we freshened up for so long that it was almost 10:00PM and we still did not have food. So we went in search of food and got food on a Gujju Hotel. Awesome spicy food after three days, I ate so much that the next day there were two huge dumps. While having food it poured like mad. After that sumptuous meal we headed back to the room and slept.

Day 4(12 Sep 2006): Kanyakumari

Had a nice sleep in the A/C room. Hmm…it was a refreshing one. Suddenly early in the morning there was phone call form the reception, “Sir the time is 5:30AM, the sun will rise at 6:05 AM”. Aw damn I was having a nice sleep…well then got up and tried to wake up but in vain. Then there was something more waking up and I had to wake up. We went to the terrace of the hotel and were waiting for the sunrise. We could not see the sunrise, as there were a lot of clouds. Rejected, dejected…we came back to the room except for Raghav who was busy clicking photos. Suddenly he came down and asked us to come back to the terrace then we could see the mighty and beautiful crimson sun rising. Started taking more snaps and after a complete sunrise went back to the room to get going for the day. Now we had a problem with the number of days and the places to visit on our way back. We were running behind by a day. We were trying out all routes to reduce the distance on the map and see all the places that we had initially planned. So finally we decided to extend the trip by one more day. Well then with that we had breakfast and got ready for the day. After having bath the first place we visited was the Kanyakumari Temple. It was a nice place and had an opening facing the sea. Next we went to the Kalyani adjacent to the temple. There was a notice, which read, ”Non-Hindus not allowed and Suppals not allowed ” amongst the list of other things. Crazy!! After this place we went to Vivekananda Rock by a ferry. The ferry ride made mindu go ga ga. We spent a good deal of time on the rock island. And then went to the statue of Thiruvallavur. It is a huge statue of Tamil Saint Thiruvallavur. Came back to the main land hopped on our bikes and headed to a place called Muthuvamalai. There is a temple on the top of a hill. You need to climb to the hill; it would take about half an hour. While climbing mindu had MANLY chappal bites and decide to hide his chalppals in a bush near the steps. The climb exposed us too much more beautiful sights of the coastline. On coming back to sea level we wanted to have food but before that I wanted to attend to my bikes disc brakes, which were not allowing free movement. It took a whole 2 hrs to get the job done and lots of chatting with the garage guys and an employee of the electricity board. It has to be noted that in Tamil Nadu there are a lot of Diesel Bullets. We had nice fun when describing the garage guy about the performance of our bikes and esp. mindus J. Later we went to a Circular Fort hoping we will get food there, but alas there was no food there. There was a beach also but not inviting and no people also. So we went back to hotel had food and hit the Kanyakumari beach. I am not found of the beach, as much as mindu is so did not enter the water. Here we saw Mindus FUTURE (Call me for info). Spent a lot of time of time before we realized that it is time for sun set. We started running to the Sunset Watch Tower and on reaching it had already happened. It wasn’t much impressive as there were clouds blocking the sun. We headed back to the room and on the way had a cup of tea and bought a couple of seashells. We had bath and an awesome meal. Mindus system had given way to cold and cough and Raghav’s looked threatening. Went to bed with the note that Raghav get up early and get ready fast and pack you bag in advance. And also it was decide to take a photo before we leave tomorrow with our bikes at the last motor able road on the mainland.

Day 5(13 Sep 2006): Kanyakumari to Madurai

After the snaps we left toward a place called Cutrralaum. This place is famous for it water falls. The water is supposed to have an herbal effect because of the fact that it flows through the forest, which has many herbal plants. The ride to Cutrralaum was really good on the state Highway. We were actually going around a range of mountains. Raghav sure did have many snaps taken here and so did I but less than his. We were very hungry and the only substitute for it was chocolates and tea. Man I was dying of hunger. On reaching the fall, damn the people. There were so many of them taking a bath and washing clothes. I wonder if they did not get any better place to wash clothes. The water was damn cold. I though I would take a shower in the falls but the sight did not encourage it and also me being bald was not a good idea. The fall was really majestic in its own glory. This was the main falls. There was one more to be seen, mindu was loosing control and Raghav was holding back his desire. Before we could see the fall it was sure that we needed something to eat. We had dosas a lot of them. Let me tell you people one thing; dosas are the things in this part of India. Ghee roast is the one you should be having when you are damn hungry; man they are so big in size and fill you up. After having enough dosas we went to another falls. It was the same scene here also except that the crowd was less and the size of the falls was also less. There were many shops giving you oil massages, very inviting after you have been riding for so many days. Mindu decided to have a shower and went straight in to the falls after stripping off. Raghav and myself did not. We stood there guarding our bikes and stuff hanging. After our boys refreshing shower we went to the town Tenkashi, there is a huge temple here. I was very much impressed with the Gopura. So huge and tall. The temple had been closed for lunch and would open only at 4:00PM so we went ahead to ride towards Madurai, the city of Temples. The ride to Madurai was also good. All along the highway there weren’t any hotels and that made us very hungry. We were so hungry at a point that we stopped under some tamarind trees to take a break and munch on the mallu snacks that we had bought earlier. A truck carrying sugarcane stopped near us and I asked for a couple of sugarcane for us. He was glad to let us take some. We were so happy to finally give our teeth’s something to bite on. Raghav said he was feeling damn sleepy wile riding and that made me really tensed. Anyways the ride was safe with tout any problems. We finally cam to a big town called Rajapalyam where we a good meal…burp. Later we went straight to Madurai. The ride from Kanyakumari to Madurai was kind of hot so far. So we were exhausted. We just wanted to get in to a AC room and chill out. And that is what we did, had a nice bath and went to Madurai Meenakshi Temple. We had a long walk to the temple from the place we were staying. The temple is really beautifull and so big that you would not know from where you entered and that is what happened to us. The carvings inside are really beautiful. The ceilings were painted with oil paintings and they were really huge. Spent a whole hour inside the temple. Now we were hungry as usual and went to a restaurant to have dinner, Hotel Ashok. Surprisingly it had not meals only Chinese and stuff like that, on the outside it looked d like an authentic hotel which serve some traditional food but on the inside was different. The place was jazzed up. But still we were hungry and had food slept well in the night.

Day 6(14 Sep 2006): Madurai to Munnar

Next as usual got up early and got going. First we went to the Madurai Temple for some more snaps, as we could not click in the ark. In this event Raghav got lost with his photography and subsequently us too. We were waiting for him to return that looked like ages. In the mean time a cop came up to me and asked “what trip on bike aa…. bullet nice vandi sar”…he he he who would not like that. So we headed off towards Teni a major junction town on the border to Kerala. Madurai is such a big city it felt like I am getting out of Bangalore. Teni though is 70Km from Madurai we took out own time to reach there. From there we took a diversion to Munnar, this route was supposed to be short on the Ghats. But when we reached the point from where we were supposed to start the climb we came to know that the NHAI is constructing roads on this route and explosives are being used. So we had to reach Munnar by another route. We came to a place called Bodi where a truck driver said wait till 5’o clock they will open the road and then you can cover the Ghats in one hour. We sure were happy to hear the time frame and mindu was all ready to sleep in a hotel. But then two wise men approached by Raghav told us to go to Cum Bum and then got to Munnar. If you want to stay till evening and climb it will be difficult keeping in mind the rain and ghat roads. So we decide to go to Cum Bum. On the way the clouds were treating us. As we were traveling there was a line of buses on the road stopped and then a cop came. People said that there is a doctor who need to go the next village for a surgery but there are fights going on in this village and they have already captured a couple of passing by vehicles. Well what to do said ok hop on if you are comfortable sitting on these seats I dont mind. Then we went back a couple of Kms back took a round about route to bypass the village and then joined the highway again. We left the doctor in the government hospital where he was suppose to operate and went to Cum Bum. By this time our bladders were full and desperately wanted to do the dew. We had a good meal in a local restaurant and started our journey to Munnar. Before we could climb we made sure to relieve ourselves. And so our climb started thumping along the ghat sections winding through the roads. We kept on riding and riding and looked like I had covered 100 of mountains. Until we went to Munnar. The ride was really good especially 20kms from Munnar. Tea estates owned by the Tata’s came in to picture and so did the clouds. There were clouds everywhere, above below and in between us. There was a falls also on the way. Finally we hit the streets of Munnar…it was very lively.

Day 7(15 Sep 2006): Munnar

We were happy be in a warm place in Munnar. The hotel prices are really costly. Man they are sky high. We got something for our budget a decent place but the rugs really stunk big time. First thing that we wanted to do is have a hot shower but hot water was available only for a limited time and none of us were ready to plunge into water in that chilling weather. The next thing to do was to have some vodka and good hot food. The hotel where we were staying did not serve drinks so we went out in the cold weather searching for a bar and restaurant. When we did find a good hotel sadly he did not serve any drinks…L so as the last resort had to drink hot soup. Had a good meal and have course the tuty frooty biryani. Went back to the room watched LOST and slept like a log. None of us moved an inch till 8 in the morning. After having long baths, we had a big time breakfast in the hotel itself. Then we went out for local sight seeing. But it was raining and none of us were ready to ride in the rain and god knows about the roads. So we thought of taking a cab, but the prices for a 60 Km ride was so much that I would have preferred going back to Kanyakumari with that money. So we thought lets go the city and then try our luck, on the way we enquired an auto rickshaw who quoted a price about 25% of what we had enquired…we were like aright lets go economy class machha. My spoken Tamil was so good that the driver was very impressed and said you speak well even though you are from Karnataka. So we headed to our scenic spots. First spot was Mudupetty Dam. It was very beautiful place, the water was really inviting for a dip but it was cold. Oh by the way we had purchased carrots on our way and we were eating them. They were fresh and juicy;-). After the dam we went to Echo point. We wanted mindu to shout the way he did on Kochi streets in the middle of a busy road…when he tried he just coughed…poor guys sick. Next stop was another damn not interesting though. On the way we saw an institute in collaboration with some Swiss organization that were doing something on reproducing cows of better species. The cows did look different than the normal ones. The last point for the day was TOP STATION where we could see Tamil Nadu border and Neela Kurinji a wild purple colour flower that blooms once in 12 years. The scenery from this place is breathtaking. There was a trekking path also and was inviting us for a trek. I am sure it would be a challenging one to trek on that terrain and weather. We came back to the hotel and it was 4:00PM so had luch spent time in the room and went back to town in bikes, got the break light for the unicorn fixed and came back to the hotel after getting some chocolates and a some biscuits to grub on for the next days journey. Had a good meal in the night forced Raghav to do his packing and slept early.

Day 8 & 9(16 ,17 Sep 2006): Munnar to Bangalore via Salem

We assumed that we will reach Bangalore on the same day only but a distance of 500Km was a catch in the journey. We left as soon as there was no rain in the day. Early in the morning it was raining and it was a pain to watch and wait. We had to pass through another place called Rajapalyam on our way back and I must say the ride was the best so far. Riding through cloud tea estates man that was something. At one point we were 6000MSL and then visibility also was poor. And then the descent started and we entered Tamil Nadu. Man the vegetation changes a lot. From green to no green. We had to reach a place called Karur that is on a National Highway 4 as soon as possible to make sure that we will be in Bangalore in the night. When we reached the place it was almost 4 and we were in no position to ride that extra 200Km from Salem. So we just cruised to Salem from Karur with a tea stop on the way. There was a cricket match being played between India and WI in KL and the score updates excited mindu and Raghav. When we reached Salem one thing was sure that I needed beer, searching the hotel was a pain in the city. It is so huge and the traffic was a curse an added to that the pollution. Finally go into a hotel had a good bath and a bottle of beer. Cheers to South India Trip which had almost come to a halt without any hiccups. What next?? Leh was the unanimous answer. The next day we headed to Bangalore at our ease and when we entered Bangalore all the three of us were fists in air. After that we had to have lunch and mindu stopped for some uncomfortable feeling in his bike…nothing confirmed so went to the hotel and had lunch. By the time we came back from lunch it had a flat tire. So the first puncture of the trip was there. We did a big search for the puncture shop and finally we got one. It being a Sunday the shops were close the guy who had opened was about a KM away and was not willing to come down. So our man had to come there with the bike. After thr puncture was settled we came to Bangalore and it was back to home.

A great trip ended and I would also like to thank my cheats and thambi’s and one maple in Kerala and Tamil Nadu for guiding us through out the journey. I would also like to thank NHAI for the good roads and respective State Governments for their State Highways and BP for all the fuel.

Cao for now

Independence Day

it is the 59 th birthday of India today. 59 year of freedom from the British Raj. Work of unknow unaccounted number of people who visioned India to be free for a better future for people like me to do what they want to do even this blog;-). Freedom means a lot to all of us, it is a sense of freenes ,security and development. Over period of time we have seen a lot of development in our country.....from white to green revolution. Revolution in all aspects of life and in all fields, u name it you got it even corruption:-0. Well somethings never change, and the reason i guess people are not ready to take up change. changin governmnet, changing weather, changing fuel prices, changing changing changing..........sometime I wonder wat am i doing to fight back????
well honestly i myself doint know what to do. But there is one thing that i would like to speak out for sure and that would be against corruption. people are so greedy for money and power that they are ready to stoop doen to any level. there are many projects that are started but because for political foray they are never completed in time. the public miney has gone for tss and to add that the inconvenice to the people. in the process the politicians make away with enough money for their coming generations to survuve without working. on the contrary there are people who work all the day to earn them selves a square meal.

well just thought no actions wait and watch

Pondicherry

Give time a break………this what all of us wanted from a long time……………Pondicherry, which other place can give us that. We were eight numbers in all……………four on bikes and four in a car (all unclesJ) . The characters are Harsha, Prasad,Kishore,Chandu,Alwandi,Ganesh,and Raghav and I modhu.WE had three bikes a Bullet and two Pulsars. Things were not working for the trip for a pretty long time…….finally this did happen. We were slated to leave Bangalore on Sat morning at 06:30AM. But uncles can’t grow up for ever,,,,,,,,we left Bangalore at 7:45AM….the traffic had picked up b then and there was a jam near Attibele. We had planned to travel via Hosur-Krishnagiri-Thiruvanamallai-Pondi. It is a NH and the road is awesome u can just hit the pedal and just cruise thru. We crossed Hosur and immediately after that we had our dinner…..the cab had got stuck on the traffic and we were waiting for them. So let me tell u another story till these guys can catch up with us. Harsha was most xcited with the trip , he had his bike serviced for the trip and was already. His insurance for the bike had expired and he paid it on the last day……so he had not yet received the acknowledgement. He realized it one day before in the night, alas he had to drop hi Unicorn. Well these guys are here lets have breakfast and in the mean time let me sort the ages. Kishore, Chande,Alwandi and Prasad were in the car, Harsha and I were in the bullet, and ganesh and raghav were on their pulsars. After having breakfast we left….at the first petrol bunk we had our tanks filled with petrol, after that I decided let me zoom with my bike I was waiting for this moment. I touché 110 and later while was going at 100 there was a huge explosion and the engine cut off……..I went really mad……..n tensed in the middle of highway there was no way to get help. But then the engine strted after 2 kicks but there was an additional sound like a tinkering in the engine……….I carried on . The drive till krishnagiri is great from there we have to deviate. The road from krishnagiri to Thiruvanamallai is not all that good…… it goes on n off…….the entire stretch is engulfed with tress so the drive was even better. When we reached Thiruvanamallai we were spellbound by the temple. Well I admit we don’t know anything abt the temple. We were hungry and so we had some good meal in a restaurant. From there to pondi the road is really good but the ride was really bad….thanks to the scorching summer sun……………….it was blowing hot air, water got hot…hot as in finger bowl hot as in chetinnad food…phew we were feeling really frustrated and sweating…………..to top it up sleep was groping us up. We stopped on the highway there was a stack of ay in a field…..had a small nap ……….it was refreshing. We reached pondi at 5:00Pm……the region was undergoing by elections so there were few diversions and blockages.

Pondi gives u a very good feeling things happn at its own pace and the weather is really different…………….hot n humid. The place was bustling with the week end crowd. We checked in to the hotel. The cabbies had already reached. It was great to get into an ac room after a long hot n dry drive. Had a shower and ac blown all over the body. Took some rest and then went for a long walk on beach road. It just next to sea….Bay of Bengal to be in specific. Sea water was lashing against the walls and the sound n smell was really welcoming. Localities and tourist were having a stroll and the crowd was huge……even then it never felt like taking a walk in Forum. Well there was a Gandhi statue there and it was surrounded by 6 pillar in white they were really beautiful. In the mean time we had ice cream. After the walk we were all hungry, thirsty and tired…..went in search of a restaurant and finally landed in a French restaurant Le Club…….the ambience was good. We had to wait 15 good min and that was killing all of us. We had beer fish, panner, fries,rice, dal and rotis. We walked bak to our hotel and slept. The hotel where we had boarded is Ram Guest. It is a nice place and as a heritage touch to it. The care taker speaks French and he wised us Bonjoure in French meaning good morning the next day. Since my bike was not in good condition I went in search of a mechanic thanks to the care taker who guided me to the garage. It was a Royal Enfield authorized garage and being a Sunday it was closed. I called up the owner Mr.Felix who came down to the workshop and had a look at the problem and advised me what to do. While searching the garage and on our way back we had a good time looking around Pondi local stuff. We got ready and had our break fast in Indian Delight restaurant. After that our local sight seeing started. We first went to a church named Notre Dame deses Church. The church is very old and sea facing. From there we went to Mannakkula Vinayaka Temple, it was very crowded and the sun did not encourage us to go in. here was an elephant outside the temple that was drawing a good amt of crowd. By now the sun had played its trick we were all sweating profusely and the sight of ice cream was welcoming. We had ice cream and from there we walked to Aurobindo Ashrama. Well I don’t know who this personality is…..but has a hue fan fallowing. Some religious guy. After that we had tender coconut to chill us out but that was not enough. From there we went to Auroville ashram part of Aurobindo ashram 10Km away from pondi toward Chennai. The place is full of greenery and very silent. There is a globe kinda structure where u can meditate, to get there u need passes…which we did not get coz we were late. Well so we had stroll and had a lime juice. We spent good amt of time there. Later we decide to have lunch in a beach resort. On the way I did some shopping got a pair of slippers. Well we had beer dat was really needed at that point of time……..nice way to chill out. After a good meal we hit the beach. It was not crowded but very inviting. We had fun in the sea…it was a shallow beach and the waves were really strong. It was great in the beach…….playing in the strong waves. Except for uncle Chandu all of us were in the water. After a good time in the beach we headed bak to our hotel. The bikers had decided to leave early in the morning so we had our tanks filled before we went t the hotel. After having a shower we went for dinner and then slept early. The next day we started off at 6:30AM in the morning to Bangalore. On the way there is Gingee Fort. Boy it is really beautiful and a magnificent fort made of stones. The location so strategic,,,,,,,surrounded on three sides by hills it would have been impossible for any army to break in. just BEAutiful. Well we had some tough time riding bak home coz of the sun and I must say I have drunk so much aerated drinks and maaza. Never ever I wud have drank so much other than beer. Reached Bangalore at 3:45Pm and home at 4:30Pm. The cabbies were late by around 3 hrs.

Rajkumar and Yercaud

long time since anything hapend here. well i did get my Bullet fpr my Birthday:-)
I was longing to go on a bike trip .....and the time line was prety well laid in from of me. It was to be on the good Friday when we were getting three days holidays in a row. i was all gread up for the ride but hingd took such big U turn. On Wed I was woring and suddenly there was news that Dr.Rajkumar passed away due to heat attck. this man is a cinema actor and for the ppl he has the image of a god. well i knew one thing that Bangalore would be thrown into havoc. ppl in my ofc started leaving with the fear of geting stuk in any unwary incident. the next day was also declared a holiday. his death created such sik scenes all over bangalore............i was watching all this siting at my home................wat a way bid adieu to your fav actor................it was a mockery of shouwing love to a person. DISGUSTING......well in the mean time we (AK,Chandu,Raghav,Mindu and Sheik Ponni) were discussing as t o where to go for 2-3 days oon bikes. first to bak off was Chandu as he had a release to work on.......nxt cam AK for saving himself from GOOSEBUMPS......den Mindu was had an un-expected work to be finished over the weekend.......so only Raghav and myself were left out for the trip althought we were ready to go.................but 2 ppl wont be fun on a long bike trip. so it was called offf and i was damn pissed offf..:-((
out if the blue Abhi called me up and said shall we go on a trip there is a car available over the weekend,,,,,,and it was all over again. we decided to go to Yercaud..............240Km drive from Bangalore . It is very near to Salem in Tamil Nadu. So on Good Friday we (Abhi, Jogle and his wife Vanita) started from my house at 6:30AM. took some stuff on the way and by the time we left bangalore it was 8:15AM. We first crossed Hosur which is 40Km from here. The road being a National Highway was awsome to drive on. just put ur leg on the acellerator pedal and zoooooooooooooom:-).
we had breakfast after crossing Hosur and then we headed to Salem..........we had to cross Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri to reach Salem. The road btw Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri is really bad. we had to hit brakes. when we reached Salem it was 12:30PM. from there Yercaud is 30km of ghat sectio. the ascend was good with the temp dropping each km we ascended...........when we reached the hill top our first job was to get a hotel to stay. we looked in 6 hotels before we got an accomomdation. we got a cottage and the amt for the stay was Rs1500.00 it is while we were paying this amt we realised that we did not have enough money for our trip.......we did not have cash as previous day all the ATM were closed coz of the voilence. so were in literaly in soup.....we had somr 700 in hand. the hotel guy did not take card as his machine was conged up.
so were spending like crazy.......keeping tab on every Rs10 that was spent. after having lunch and freshing up in the room we went to this place Pagoda point.............a scenic spot. we spent some time there and headed to Lake. There we did boating for abt half an hour and after that we had T in a road side shop.it was fun doing soemthing very local.....well wid less money though. then we took a long walk on the hills in the dark......it was getting colder as time was passing by. the we decided that we will go to a place that accepts card for dinner. there was this place Hotel Grand Plaza which was glad to accept the card we were so happy. we went in and the firat thing was DRINKS...........unfortunately that being a Govt. Holiday no liquor was served..:-((
so we just hogged and then we spent some time in the lawn, this place is at a good height and it is really chilly.we were there till 9:30 and then we left to our cottage we went to the terrace and spent time till 10:30............the place is perfect if u want to be isolated and be calm.................very soothing.
then we slept and the next day got up pretty early and went for a morning walk. we got ready after that and checked out of the room and headed to have breakfast. we went to a hotel run by Tamil Nadu Tourism.............but the scenec there did not encourage to have ay food..........there was a family shouting at the staff for food poisoning. we went to another place after that we had plans to go to water falls.................but there was no water sp we to Gents Seat and Ladies Seat................it was just a scenic place..............i did not know wat gender had to do with the place..........at around 12 noon we left bak to bangalore.........on the way in Salem we got a ICICI atm and withdrew money......boy we finally had money it was a huge relief..........on the way we stopped at a Reliance Petrol Bunk for food. we reached bangalore at 5:00PM but the traffic got me home at 6:00PM

GOA

“Go Goa” was the Mantra “Eat, Drink and Make Merry” was our Motto. This year we went to Goa to celebrate New Year as wildly as possible as a Bachelor.!!!!! Well nine of us took this trip to paradise in India. The gang was totally weird and crazy it had Ponni, Kishore, Naveen(Chandu),Harsha (Tsunami/Mindu), Ganesh(Gen),Rajendra, Dinesh(DVD),Prasad (Kempi) and myself Modhu(BK). One hell of people in a helluva of a place. Goa is a tiny state situated on the Western Coast sharing its borders with Maharashtra on the North, Karnataka on The East . The place is very vibrant with tourists and this time of the year it is fantastic, fabulous, sexy, colorful, hot and wild.
Well Gen and I started off from Bangalore on the 26 Dec night to Belgaum. We went to Belgaum to attend Abhi’s sister’s marriage. The marriage was on 28 Dec but we were there in advice just to kill less the corporate world would have done dat. It fun to be there in Belgaum for two days. Got to know abt the Marathi Culture. Their marriage was full of fun all the family members were so involved and every moment of it hey were having fun. There was good food, a dance completion between the bride and groom party and I should say bride side raped the groom party. The next day i.e. on 28^th the rest of the gang arrived to Belgaum. We picked them up from the railway station in a Cruiser and went to Kempi’s house. We all got freshened up and attended the marriage. After the marriage and food and things like that we left for GOA at around 4:00 PM. The Cruiser was big enough for us to sleep royally and travel. On the way we came across a place called as Thillary. It is a like a hill station and power is generated. This place is in Maharashtra. The place is very steep and scenic. You can see a lot of hills and mountain from this point and the greenery adds to the beauty. We had a photo session here and mindu was forced not be in the photos. He went to attend natures call and I went behind him to shoot him on a CALL. He was so conscious that he kept running away from me in the call. Well finally he was trapped in the bushes and had to surrender to Mother Nature. From there we proceeded to complete the remaining journey. We reached Goa at around 7:30 PM and checked into our rooms which were booked earlier in Circuit House in Altino Hills. This place is right behind the Residence of Chief Minister of Goa. The rooms were big enough to accommodate all of us. We did not go any where that night as all of us were tired of consecutive traveling and decide to be there in the room itself. We ordered some beer and food and watched TV and slept.

The next day we got ready as early as possible except for the delay blocks Harsha and DVD and left for sight seeing. We had breakfast in Kamath Hotel in Panaji. Adjacent to the hotel there was a shop selling shirts to suite the Goan spirit we purchased a lot of them and decided to wear the next day. We went to Old Goa where there were churches to be visited. St Catherine was the first one. This church had tomb stones of some personality in the floor. It was built in Portuguese Style and was beautiful. There were a few painting on the wall which was good but the maintenance was really bad and the color on them was fading away. Opposite to this church is Bom Jesus Bascillica. This church houses the body of St Francis Xavier. This guy had come to India to spread Christianity. His body has been preserved here for a long time. It seems that the coffin is opened once in 10 years for the public to view, after visiting these two churches we headed towards Ponda for Lunch. On the way we visited two temples Ganesh and Mahangtesh temple. Mahangtesh temple was good and there were few chicks also to be seen;-). Here in the local market Gen got a tattoo done on his arm. The tattoo was not permanent, it was a dye that would stay there for about 2 weeks. Then we reached Ponda and had lunch and lots of beer. The scorching heat was a good reason for us to drink more beer although we had not yet been to any beach, After filling ourselves to the brim we left Colva beach. This beach had lots of people and there was Water Sports also like Parasailing, waterbikes and banana ride and things like that. We bought some Frisbees to play with. It was great fun to play with on the beach sand and fall tooo. After that one by one we took chances to Parasail, I was the first one to sail in the air and it was awesome. It is a great feeling to be high up in the air and the vast air below you. Fully maja madi. Later we all hit the sea. In the water also we played with the Frisbees and ahaha it was better than playing it on the sand, we played in the sea till the sunset and dried ourselves, I am not a sea maniac I hate the salt water. We had a cup of Tea on the beach and left for Vasco da Gama. Vasco is a port and there is not much to see. We went to a beach called Bogmalo Beach. This beach was small and kinda private, there were hardly any people and it was great to walk on the sand (my personal favorite). We took a long stroll on the beach and went to a restaurant called Joet’s. This place had a lots of foreigners and started drinking. Many of us Gen, Kishore, Naveen and I tasted Fenny. I did not like it that much. Then I ordered for a Pomfret fish masala. Hmmmmmmmmmm when I was served with the dish yuppy it was a big fish cooked so well that my mouth was watering. It had been a long time since I had fish in a coastal region. The fish was great I ate till the last bone. To end up my dinner I had a Tequila shot. DVD had a glass of beer and affected him drastically, he started feeling light and a little heavy and pressurized at one point. Gen who had already gulped down fenny and beer had joined Kishore and Chandu with Port Wine, Chandu was drinking like a maniac who had just returned from the desert thirsty. Phew I was shouting at him to stop drinking and eat something. Which he did not do. There was a good looking babe in the restaurant. After this we left to Panji to sleep we reached our rooms at midnight. All the places that we covered on the first day are in South Goa.

On the second day we got ready asap and thing like that. We were destined to visit the northern half of the state. First we went to a fort called as Aguada. Aguada in Portuguese means Water Storage. The for was built to store water and ammunition. It was at a height and gave a scenic view of the sea and the adjoining shore. The sun always gets ur spirit down here. After this we went to Calangute beach. On the way I struck a deal with mindu. The deal was that when I write this blog he will have to pay me that percentage which will be correct in this blog. So the stakes are high as I write this blog. As we approached the beach the traffic was getting thicker and we were seeing small jams. The beach was happening with helluva of people from all over the world. It was a sight to be watched, it looked like of those California beaches or something like that lots and lots of people having fun, here also there were water sport options. We took up a shack and settled down on the inclined benches with beer. Most of them went into the water to have fun. Four of us decided to have beer, get burnt and look at the crowd. In the mean time there was TV crew who had come to cove the enthu of the ppl on new years eve. After the water kids back we ordered for food. I should say that Gen is a HUGE DRINKER,,,,,,,he will some day evolve into a barrel drinker. Oh yeah for the food I had King Fish, the dish was served to us on a platter and there was so much that I did not feel like eating it. Here in one of the photos while I was looking now I saw that Ponni had a tummy similar to and Earthen Pot J. I am a goner now for this he e he he he. There was one event that occurred between Ponni, Harsha and myself. The action was by Ponni, the event took place on Harsha and the reaction was on me and Harsha. I guess Newton’s Laws of Motion are applicable here also……….. Close to sunset we left Calangute beach and headed to Baga Beach the traffic was too much and there was huge jam. We were not allowed to go to the beach and we were at a junction where going back to the beach was illogical, so we headed to back to Panji to take a cruise along the river Mandovi. This is a major attraction amongst the tourists. We got the tickets in advance and had an hour or so spare. S went shopping for Booze and Cashew. I got some Bacardi Breezer, port Wine and a Schnapps and lots of Cashews. We dumped our belongings in the Cruiser. The driver had locked down the doors and we some how got into the vehicle to dump these stuffs. We were standing in the q for the cruise and slowly we realized that the crowd was pathetic there were lot of Panjabis who were sick to the core and creating nuisance,,,,,,,,,,,it was pathetic. As the minutes passed by we realized that we have made a bad investment. On board the Princess De Goa the Deck was brightly lighted and there was an attached bar. There were shows by Ukranians. They dance Tango and Rumba and things like that. It was great to see them dancing and especially one of them. We were pissed of the entire cruise and were like when can I jump off the ferry and get back to the shore. Finally after one and a half hour we were able to do it, by then we were hungry and went to restaurant by name Ruchis. Here we ate fully and went back to our rooms. This was one night where we did not have booze.

The next day the scenario was almost the same but we were supposed to vacate the room by noon because there were other bookings already done and a little miscommunication between us and the circuit house. Well dat was not an issue as we had to have a new year bash and weather we had a room or not was immaterial. We packed off from the rooms and went to Chapora Fort in North Goa after breakfast. Chapora Fort is the place where the movie Dil Chahta Hai was shot. It is a very scenic fort facing the sea. On either sides of the fort there are beaches. On one side of the fort is Arambol beach where there is sea water on one side and fresh water on the other side. On the other side there id Vagator beach. We did all those dil chahta hai stuff in the fort and then left for Vagator beach. The beach is cool and calm with lots of foreigners tanning their skins. The beach is a little rocky and the water is not violent, it was a lazy beach. We did the same things that we did in Calangute beach. Took up a shack had beer and food and things like dat, I took a long stroll on the beach and did some shopping in the stalls that were there. We were there till sunset and after sunset we went to Anjuna beach…….this is another famous beach in Goa. On Friday nights there will be a flea market where u get anything and everything. But coz of new year the market was not there but still there were enough shops selling some good stuff. We spent almost and hour in the market, I got a pipe which holds CHELUM a drug…….it is kinda good to have it. When we went to the beach the first sight that we got to see was that there was no one and no shacks or restaurants for us to have a bashL. But as we walked along the shore vola there were so many places that had a good crowd and it was happening. We settled I n a place called Liliput’s were we had our tables on the beach adjacent to a camp fire. Surprisingly there were a lot of foreigners partying there. We started off with beer and beer and beer and some vodka and wine there was no tequilaL. As the time passed by more ppl came by the place. There was good music being played and some of them dancing to the tune. At the stroke of mid night a wide variety of fire crackers were burst and boy wat a view was it especially after drinking….phew. then ppl really went out of control they started dancing like hell. All of them just dance madi the crowd was too much for me to dance so I just sat down enjoyed the momemt to with beer and fish. After some time played two frames of pool……it is a different feeling o play pool after u r drunk. Gen was almost sloshed and he also danced……I feel he has an inclination towards foreigners……..he goes and talks to them in all the places……..now dat he has danced for the new year he wished that he could dance the MARAMMA DANCE with some one that we know (ID cannot be disclosed). DVD was a goner after a bottle of beer ……he was feeling lighter and felt happy abt it. He also danced properly for the new year. Kishore, Ponni ,Kepi and Mindu all danced on the new years eve. It was nice to see these ppl to dance they rarely danced even in college functions they wud sit idle where as I wud freak out. But now they have made history.

The crowd was so energetic that they kept dancing…..wat pissed me off was the local crowd that just came by and screwed up the showL. The foreigners were excited to see such a crowd….they kept on taking snaps of the show. Revelers had fun and so be it, after a while we were out of fuel and we had to sleep but the shacks cud no way be placed on the beach coz of the crowd and we had no place to go so we decided to go bak to Belgaum to Kempi’s place. Before we cud leave I took a stroll on the beach and met a foreigner from Argentenia. He was very happy with the place and said this is happening. He was planning to spend one more week there in Goa,,,,,,,,,Goa is on the world Map……cool na. we left goa at 03:00AM and had to pass thru Tillarry Ghats. the ghats are not safe in the nights and it was hard foe me to keep my eyes open in the night I was constantly falling to sleep. When we passed by Thillary the wind was blowing very strongly and above that it as very chilly.

We reached Belgaum at 6:00AM and wat a relief it was to sleep. We all tugged ourselves to bed. Kempi did not sleep as his parents were off to Rajasthan and he had to drop them off. His mom had prepared some chapattis and dosas for us.I got up at 9:30AM in the morning and wat a relief it was I was feeling good. One by ppl got up and got ready for the new day of the new year. At around 1:30PM we left for Abhi’s house. He had invited all of us for Lunch. There was mutton gravy, mutton chops and fish fry for the two non-veggies. The veggies had a simple food. Boy wat meal it was…..I like the Mutton from the bottom of my heart, usually don’t eat it….my preferences are with fish and chicken. We had a nice time at his place. We played cards and badminton and Frisbees. At 6:15 PM after T we went to a joint in Belgaum famous for Vada Pav…we had vada pav and went to the bus station to catch the bus. The bus left Belgaum at 8:30Pm as soon as I sat on my seat I fell asleep and was woken up when we reached Bangalore. My tummy was all growling and making some strange noises. But I thought it wud be okay to wait till I reach home. We took a taxi to home and after we crossed Ulsoor Lake it was totally not under control. I asked the driver to stop at any empty site on the highway, as soon as I stopped I just ran and attended the call. There was a small shop in that plot and the owner was fuking shouting at me at the top of his voice where as I was just pleading to him just leave me ………thank fully he did not come near me to shoo me off. In the mean time kempi also got some receiving from the owner and a second later he asked for water so that I can clean up but he was shooed off. Phew wat an embarrassing moment for me. But then it was coolJ. We reached home and den went to ofc. It was very akward to be in ofc and work. I hope the others did not face anything like wat I did. Well I wud like to Abhijit’s family for their hospitality and doing the arrangements in goa and Kempi’s family too for their hospitality. And not forget the asses who took up this trip for wat ever reasons.