Ride to the Past

The curtains were up on 20 Dec and the show was completed on 29 Dec. But guys dont feel bad about not malking it to the show. It was one hell of a ride and we had a blast, well our ass also blasted thanx to some wonderful roads in our trip. I am sure you have seen the round trip map in my earlier post and here I will be elaborating on the daily events that you all have missed :-D.

A big thanx to Reddy who took a big foot back in the n-th hour and decided not to come for the trip and AK for being as busy as he can be. Well the two (Sandy a.k.a Sandeep a.k.a 401 a.k.a Mudde a.k.a Potty Machine (Christened this trip)) of us made amerry :-D. For me this was a long awaited trip as I wanted to see Hampi, Badami and other places that will come to picture as you read on. Simply put I had never been to these places and even if I had I was too young to remember their names. Sandy was riding on his aged and trusted Pulsar and me on my Basanti Bullet. The previous fortnight was sepnt in doing some detailing on the routes, places to visit, what to carry and what not and some shopping. Our bikes were pepped up to be in theri bestest shapes and man it was an expensive service that I had ever got done :-(; but then she is my darling muahahahah.
For the record
Distance covered:1700Km
Duration of the trip: 10 days
Cost: Rs6600.00
Experience: Priceless (U dont get scars on Ur ass everyday)

Day01 (20 Dec 2009) Hoody - Anil Kumble Circle - Yeshwanthpur - NH4 - Tumkur - Chitradurga
Geting up for a bike ride has been a pain. I just cant handle the excitement previous night. But never the less the feel of riding on a highway conquers all the loss in sleep. So we met up in Anil Kumble Circle behind the Biblical Society and took some snaps and headed strainght to NH4. Bloody geting out of Bangalore is a pain on this road. So much development that sometimes I have heard people telling about jams all the way upto Tumkur. But we were the early birds and before the traffic could build up, we crossed major stretch of NH4 and reached the toll gate from where all you have to do is cruise. We stopped at Kamath which has opened newly on the left side of the highway as we rode through. I must say it was the sadest breakfast I ever had in a Kamath resturant. Here we met a guy who was driving a Maruti800 to Mumbai along with his friends and his dog Basanti ;-). Strange but true; reason he was relocating to Mumbai and he did not want to fly Basanti as dogs are sedated for the flight and they are not known to take this well. Well so we cruised on after our disastrous breakfast. I was desperate to have lunch in a dhaba, I like the food in dhabas on the highways. But the dhabas on the highway were not inviting. We checked a couple of them and they were all DANGEROUS. A little on the highway; well maintained 4 lane, flyover on towns/villages. Most of the time my legs were on the crash gaurd instead of resting on the foot rest. As we approached Chitradurga we were able to see lots of windmills, they are using them for power generation and the terrain also changed, turned out to be a little rocky and hilly. Sandy was well versed with his childhood memories about the town and went inside the city in search of a hotel, damn there were no decent hotels in the city. Finally after lot of searching we landed up in a cheap hotel next to NH4. It was ok for our needs to sleep and go, but the night was nightmare. Lots of mosquitoes and the fan was of no use. We had lunch and slept for an hour. Then we went to Chitradurga fort. The fort belonged to the Nayaks of Vijaynagara empire. It is famous for two things mainly Onake Obavva and the fact that it was difficult to conquer this fort because of its design and geographical location. It is interesting to see how the fort was built in those in this rocy terrain and they were using simple methods for construction and living, like rain harvesting which has gained importance now a days. Onnake Obavva is an attraction here, at this small loop hole on the structure of the fort when the enemy soldiers were trying to sneek in Obavva beat the shit of the enemy with her Onake while her husband was having his meal. She kept on doing this till her husband had his meal and returned to gaurd the fort. Kill Bill of her days. After clicking photos inside the fort we headed back to the town in search of some hang out place to kill time. But the town had none and we landed up roaming out on the rods like fools. We had some hot baji's and tea and headed to Sandy relative's hotel to say Hi. Here we were treated to Masala dosa, puri and tea. I was like burpp not any more please. They were like Sandy we know your capacity eat eat. I was like a Guinea pig. After that when we came out of the hotel WTF, my front tire had flat. The locals said that cop had let the air as my bike was too close to the road. Ass hole. I had tough time searching for air in the town. At the end we were tired and retired to our hotel room to be greeted by blood sucking mosquitoes quien quien. We could hardly sleep, but manage to zzzzz for a good amount of time.

Day02 (21 Dec 2009) Chitradurga - Kudligi - Hosapet - Hampi

When we woke up in the morning my eyes were all foggy. I wanted to sleep more but then the road was calline me ba ba ba. Well geting hot water in the hotel was an excersie. I had to waste 2 buckets of water to get hot water. The bath was really refrershing, wish there was a bath tub :-D. All this time Sandy was snoring with mosquitoes. Then he also got ready and we saddled up for another day. We thought we will have breakfast here only as out way on NH13 there were no big towns to get a decent breakfast. We had idli which was OK and moved on with the hope that we will get some thing good to eat. The first impressions of the road was bad, we thought let us go further it mite improve. I had to stop twice to readjust the tent on my bike. The traffic was also heavy on this road. The roads were like pot holes here and pot hole there and pot holes every where. I had fastened my camera bag on the pillion seat and while riding it slipped and fell. I did not take notice of it and the truck driver who was in the opposite lane started shouting. When I turned back fuk my camera was lying in the middle of the road. I was glad that there was no other truk rite behind me else my Nikon D40 would have gone krack krank plunk. Then I made sure that the bag would be fatened properly and rode on. Oh my what roads. We stopped for tea in a dhaba and it was really good. Then again we stopped for food in a highway hotel and man here I realised that Idli's can be screwed up. In South India Idli is a common food and simple to make. But this guy had a talent to screw it up. Damn we could not eat that also; insted had egg rice, which he did not screw. Here we met a German who was on his way to Bangalore from Hampi. He said he also has a bike and loves touring on it. The cab driver was cursing the roads. Somehow we managed to reach Hospet. The approach to the city is horrible. The whole path for about 10-15Kms is ruled by mining trucks and the colour of trees and any vegetation living or dead is RED. Then we saw Thungabhadara Reservoir. Man so huge and the water was inviting, shades of blue and green. It was a pleasant site. The T.B Dam is in the same vicinity. We got into the city and headed straight to Hampi. The city looked like a mess lots of people and vehicles all over the road. There are many options available to stay here but we had other things in mind. Hampi is about 15Km from Hospet. We reached Hampi and wanted to cross the river, Thungabhadra. People cross the rivers on boat or coracle. Yes you have to load you bike into them and cross it. We took like two hours to search for a place to stay. I had seen about a place Mowgli Guest House on the net and wanted to stay there. We did not get a room and finally landed up in Goutami guest house. He gave us a cottage for Rs250. The crossing the river, sitting on ur bike was freaky. Geting the bike down to the river bank and back was also fun. I could see that my shocks was utilised fully. We crashed in the room, freshend up and went to the restaurant that was in the same complex. The restaurant is nice a very different look, they have laid table in bricks and marble stone a little above the ground and on either side of it he had put beds. Vola what else you need, have beer, sleep, eat and watch TV. It was very relaxing. Then while eating we talked to the care taker and he suggested that we go to Anjineya Betta (Monkey Hill) and Sanapur reservoir. By the way the food is good and priced like here in Bangalore. Then we went to the hill first, a small ride and a small climb about 500+ steps. When you go to the top there is a temple of Anjineya and lots of monkeys. There were lot of foreingers here and all were waiting for sunset. The view from here is amazing. You can see entire Hampi from here, all in ruins and lots of rocks. We had a nice time till sun set and came down the hill. Then we went to Sanapur reservoir which is in the opposite direction of the hill. A huge reservoir with lots of water located admist rocky hills. Bad part was there was no sun light. We went back to the guest house and to our suprise there was a movie scheduled Dargeling Limited. We crashed on the bed in the restaurant. This palce is actually an Island like Sri Rangaptna and mostly foreigners live here. This is the only place in Hampi where you get beer and maye grass also. After drinking and eating and tiring ourselves we slept like a log.
Day03 (22 Dec 2009) Hampi

We had nice undisturbed sleep in Hampi. The next day we had a steaming hot water bath and went in search of idli and dosa. We had to cross the river to get South Indian breakfast, and crossing the river and climbing the bike was fun. We found a road side eatery for breakfast and it was delicious. We hogged like we had never food for ages. The first place we went to was Virupaaksha Temple. Beautiful carvings and paintings. There was a place in the temple where the shadow of the gopura was falling on the wall and it was invereted. intersting, there was no lens to do that but still and also you can magnify the image by playing with the light beam. We then decided to hire a guide for Rs500 for the entire day or rather to cover the importnat places in Hampi. So the guide Mr. Gopinath took us back into the temple and explained in detail what who and why. Then we went to our next destination Saasvikaalu Ganesha and Kadalekaalu Ganesha. Both are temples of Lord Ganesh but there is no puja performed as the idols are broken. Then we stopped by Krishna Temple and Market. Next was Laxshmi Narasimha temple. It is a huge idol of Narasimha sitting in cross legged fashion with Lakshmi in his lap. But Lakshmi was missing as it was destroyed. I was wondering who did it, then our guide told that it was Mohd. Ghazni & Deccan Sultante who did it. Infact the state of Hampi today is because of them, there were a lot of carvings in stone and wood that were broken or burnt down by them. Then king Krishnadevaraya wanted to live and harmony and let Muslims and Buddhists to live in his kingdom, but Muslims wanted to know the kingdom to destroy it and when they had enough information before leaving the kingdom they destroted a lot of property and finally invaded. So then we went to Zanana enclosure, here there is Queens Palace and Elephant Stable , Queens bath and other monuments. Queens palace is an amazin place. A lite pink color and supposed to be cool in summer. It is said that it can be so cold here in summer that an AC will feel ashamed about its performance. Then we went to Hazararamam Mandir, Pan Supari Bazar, Stepped Tank (latest excavation), Public swimming pool, Mahanavami Dibba and the final stop was at Vithalla Temple. Famous sculpture of Stone Chariot and the musical pillars are here in this temple complex. It is real the pillars make sounds from a musical instrument. Our guide made sounds from a pillar that was of a tabla. We are not allowed to climb actuall hall where the pillars are there as it is destroyed beyond repair. But the place is worth seeing and experiencing. After this we came back to Hampi and a loooonnggg meal and walked along Hampi Bazar which is opposite to Virupaksha temple. in the market we got bells that are fastened around domestic cows and bulls. One of the bell is donning my Basanti as on today....gllunk glunk. Then we crossed the river and went again to the Sanapur reservoir. It was one hell of a ride, suitable to do time trial. There was on particular turn that haunted me, it was dark and a there was a hard left to be taken; if u are not alert I bet that you will sway away from the road and fall straight into the canal....scary. We spent time near the reservoir and came back to our room and started packing and preparing for the next day. We raked a lot of time planing on the route to Badami and Sandy also did some office work in this tussle; corporate slave :-).

Day04 (23 Dec 2009) Hampi - Sanapur - Hutgeri Cross - Koppal - Kuknur - Gajendgragad - Belur - Badami
We got up early and headed towards Badami. The route was chalked out last night after talking to lolcals in Hampi. The ride till Hutgeri Cross was wonderful; early morning riding through paddy fields and unknown villages. It was just too good. From Hutgeri Cross it is NH286. Man o man u should have seen the traffic jam of trucks and trucks and only trucks; as I remember it was about 3Kms and the colour of the highway was RED; mining lorries. Koppal was targeted for breakfast and man what a breakfast we had there, shit load of it. I was so full that the rest of the journey was uncomfortable for me. From Koppal we headed to Kuknur and then to Ron. On the way we asked a guy how to go to Ron as we need to go to Badami; this guy gave us the best route to reach Badami. Away from the NH and traveling on non-highways it was ust too good. I would bet that this country side was no boring. All kinds of things to see fields, people and fodder animals. We stopped atleast twice for tea before reaching Badami. Once we were there it was mission HOTEL for us. Another hour or so spent in finding room; we even asked in Inspection Bunglows but they were not interested in entertaining us. At the end we settled in a hotel near the bus stand, freshened up had snacks and then headed to Badami Caves. There are 4 caves carved somewhere in the 8th century by the Chalukyas. Two of these caves are dedicated to Vishnu , one each for Shiva and Budhha. There are wonderful carving in the caves like Natraja with 18 hands depicting the 81 poses in Bharatantyam, bull and elephans sharing their heads et.al. Most appealing is the colour of the stones; colour of almonds (badami). Very soothing to the eyes. The Chalukyas carved each of these caves from top to down and begining from the most interior part of each cave. From here on the caves we could see Bhoothnath temple on a lake front. There are couple of shots taken here for the bollywood hit Guru. We went to Bhoothnath temple from there and took some nice snaps of the temple and sunet. At sun set the Badadmi Caves were looking wonderful. Then we came back to the market area in search of tea and bajii's (cha and mirchi in local language). I must say the baji's that we stareted eating now had a profound effect on our ass hole :-). Scented HOT air was spread all over we went. We went back to the room relaxed for some time and went to have dinner. At dinner we gulped down some beer and had dinner. Sandy went for the kill of 8 bajii's at a shot and the rest is history. Bed was calling us ba ba and then zzzzzzzz.

Day05(24 Dec 2009) Banashankari - Mahakoota - Pattadkal - Aihole

The next day we went to Banashankari temple famous for Banashankari devi. It was a normal temple that you would see in Bangalore but there was Chitranna and Pulliogare. Chitranna nange Pulliogare for Sandy as he onlt saw her ;-). Because of Chitranna we landed up going around temple three times; neverthless worthy :-D . Our next destination was Mahakoota; our guide at Badami insited that we go there otherwise the trip would be worth less. Mahakoota is basically Shiva temple and there are a lot of Shiva statues and Linga. There was a school excursion here also happily enjoying their bath in kalyani. We did not spend much time here and had a pit stop for tea and bajji. I was reluctant to have bajji for the hot air effect but then I had to give in to temptation. Next we rode to Pattadkal, the road was not good and while negotiating a road hump we landed by loosing back brake of Pulsar. the brake rod was broken into two pieces. We decided we will continue our journey and sandy skillfully rode with only the front brakes. Pattadkal was impressive with its monuments in Dravidian and Aryan style and spread across a reasonable area. The guide did a pretty good job of telling us about the sculpture and also the recent floods that forced the villagers to come on to the temple premises and live for about 2 weeks till the water receded. Pattadkal is on the banks of river Mala Prabha and it was not flooded....intereseting.Next we went to Aihole the oldest of the ruins in time. The ride was pretty good and when we went there we could not identify which one was a monumnet and which one was a house. people had converted some of the monuments to their homes and if you look at the names of the monuments that exist now the bear the names of the people who lived there earlier. We had some amzing curd in a earthen pot, too good thick and tasty. To be precise Aihole was R&D centre, Pattadkal was Tech Centre, Badami was their launch platform and Hampi turned out to be a concept. At the end of the day we realised that the brakes had to be fixed yet and rushed back to Badami. We got that done and had to satisfy our hunger. We went to a hotel and had some snacks for lunch. Then all we had to do is pack up for the day and dinner. Dinner was at a khan-huli; serving jowar roti.
Day06 (25 Dec 2009) Badami - Kulgeri - Nargund - Navalgund - Dharward - Dandeli

Our day started with some tea and serach for petrol. The bunks were not yet open in the city. We just rode on our pre-planed route. The ride was good, small road coutry side and no traffic until we reached NH. Initially for some distance it was horrible then it was just cruize madi. We had our breakfast in Nargund and it was good. We did not go to Hubli but took an intermediate road to Dharward. 30Kms of pure ass blasting road, I was desperate to hit the city limits and it never seemed to come. Once we were in Dharward it was nice, the roads are big, city is clean and there was not much traffic. We stopped at bunk filled our babies and ourselves with some ice cream. Then after a long break we headed towards Dandeli. The geography changed slowly to forest and the ride was geting better and better. All the way till Dandeli we were just burning the road with our presence. Dandeli is a very small town, less options to stay here. We were hunting for a place to stay and one of the locals suggested us to go to a guest house near the river Kali, you might get lucky. And so we did, although he was runing full he agreed to let us pitch in the tent and we were excited about it. It would be the first time we will be doing that and it was fun when we did it later in the night with torch light. We had a heavy lunch and decided to go to Syntheri Rock. It is about 35Km from Dandeli and the road was totally fuked up. I was dead afraid that I might get a flat in those condition but did not. On this route there was lot of dust that I exposed myself to and the next thing I knew is achoo. It was coming non-stop, damn. Synteri rocks is a huge rock of granite where the river is flowing and the water has cut the rock and it now looks like a cliff. Nothing awsome about it. I was wondering if we were better off in our tent drinking. We headed back to Dandeli so that we can use all the sun light avaialable for the ride in the bad part of the road. We zoomed into Dandeli got a torch and came back to pitch the tent. Then we got some HRD and drank. We applied odomos and slept, suddenly in the tent it turned out to be a oven. We were sweating. I had not changed into night dress, was still in my riding gears. I had a feeling that if I change the cold could worsen. But we slept well, in the morning I did the honours out in the open and what a feeling aaaa. We undid our tent packed up and started for the next destation.

Day07(26 Dec 2009) Dandeli - Joida - Anashi - Karwar - Gokarna

Morning was foggy and cold. I opted to use the nature as my bathroom for everything :-).Hmmmm splendid. The ride was ok till breakfast but after that it was horrible till Anashi. Worst roads and our ass had a signature embedded. From there on till Karwar it was NFS; too good roads and we were racing down the hills. The weather also changed from cool to humid as we got down the hill and approaced Karwar. Karwar to Gokarna was on NH17, some sections of the highway was horrible and not to mention the killer traffic and trucks. Once we reached Gokarna it was clear that it has to be a shack on the beach no hotel; in the worst case we will pitch our tents and spend the night. Sandy went down the beach searching for room and I was gaurding our ladies. There was a huge rush of people to go to the beach and the approach road was clogged. In the mean two Britishers who were touring India on a Bullet purchased for Rs20,000 came back with their rear wheel. Theie bike was parked next to mine. The bearing of the bike had gone for a toss and they went back to get that fixed. It was fun talking to them and helped them to fix the rear wheel, although I was not able to help them to get the chain tightened. By then Sandy came back and we got a kinda of arrangement with the chack guy to get us some place to sleep and use their loo. I was glad and we got the bikes down the hill to the shack. When we went there he suggested giving a half complete hut to us, so that we can keep the bags and sleep for the night there. We readily agreed. The hut was a HUT nothing inside just a door to get in and out. We dumped everything, changed and went to the resturant. We were thirsty for beer and gulped down a few of them. there were some guys playing football on the beach, very inviting and hoped they played till we finished. But our luck ran out soon. Next thing I wanted to take a dip in the ocean and wash away all the filth from the last two days ride. Luckily no sea animals died :-), Sandy had his reasons to be a spectator. After that we some how manage to get the ball and kicked around. There were some jerks who wanted to play themselves and not invite us. It was sunset time, so we got a spot on a rock, got a bottle of beer and enjoyed the scenary. Now is bath time and odomos time :-D. Both of us were fresh and sat down for dinner. I ordered a red shiffer and devoured it completely, it was a huge piece of meat, yummy. After an elaborate meal we went on a long walk on the beach and retired in our hut. Initially we did not feel anything inside but as the night passed on man there were so many mosquitoes, odomos failed miserably. Somewhere around 01:00AM someone gave tortoise and after that was lit, we could sleep well. I was desperate for more sleep when I got up in the morning.
Day08(27 Dec 2009) Gokarna - Kundapur on Killer NH17

This was the most undecisive and scary journey that we had in the entire trip. We did not know exaclty where we will end our trip for the day. We had thought we will ride on upto Manipal or some place after Agumbe for that day, but it turned out that we stopped at Kundapura. The ride was horrible on this day because of the weather & traffic. I got whisked twice on the highway by some crazy drivers. The only good part was there was some streatch where we were next to the coast line. In Kudapur on that day we saw Marvanthe beach, Kundapur beach and Sidhi Vinayak Temple. The Kundapur beach wsa horrible. All the filth from the beach was geting washed back on to the shores. Filt like waste food, batteries, empyt bottles and tube light chokes. It was like nature saying take it back in your face. The best thing on this day was the accomodation. It was a brand new hotel and we got a good deal.

Day09 (28 Dec 2009) Kundapur - Agumbe - Sringeri -Balehonoor - Chikamagalur

This was by far the best ride. The entire stretch was really good. Cant crib about anything on this day.The ride on Agumbhe ghats was good except for the sudden no road on hair pin turns. The view from the top of the ghats was also good. I think it would have been even better if we had come early in the morning or for the sunset.Most of the time we were riding in the forest area, in ghat sections and coffee plantations. It was a pure delight to zip through these sections. The lunch at Balehonoor in a local bar and restaurant was simply good. The taste just beat the looks from outside. When we reached Chikamagalur it was almost evening and we lodged ourself in a decent place called Rest Inn. In the evening we went to Coffee Day hoping agianst all odds to see some chicks and had tea and biji's in a road side cart. For dinner we went to an old glory hotel called Planters Inn. We saw two beautiful bikes one was an Indian and the other was BSA motor bike. At what a sight.....We signed off our trip with some Vodka, a toast to our bikes, for a hassel free trip and to ASI (Archeological Survey of India): These guys have done a wonderful job in maintaining and restoring all the historic monuments that we have been in this trip.
Day10 (29 Dec 2009) Chikamagalur - Halebidu - Kunigal - Magadi - B2B

Nothing much on this ride as we were heading back home and not feeling good about it. Worth mentioning is the sad breakfast in Halebidu, me just missing hitting a bullock cart on the highway, Sandy missing the promised dhaba food and the cheapest lunch in Magadi (Rs24). Back in our home I had fun caressing the scars on my ass and thinking about the ride, the places and the fun we had.