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