Love Life and Work

What do all these things have...are they interlinked??
Love rules and rocks your life. But when love fails life is miserable and that thing called Life u wished was not there at all. Life without love??? work in life is a must..a WORKout is also important. Work makes some people go mad an loose love and life. most of us have already lost life working in front of a machine ogling at things most of the times we dont know why thy are there.

Love Life n Work....phew!!
-@)*($%$#@!%#$%^&#%&

Bangkok

All good things must come to an end, but why?? Heheh my assignment in shanghai was over and I was slated to return back home. It was not a desperate get back home situation for me. I loved and lived every moment that I was there in Shanghai. I will surely miss all the people, food, beer and girls. It was a wonderful time. I decided to take a stop over at Bangkok on my way back. My flight was via Bangkok. I did not bother about the visa as on arrival visa was issued without any problems. They charge 1000THB and you photograph must be handy. Getting visa was no hassle. After that I straight was heading to my hotel Holiday Inn in Silom road. It is a long ride about 50Km. It was about 1:30PM local time when I checked into my hotel. It is a nice place. Very big and comfortable. The next thing on my mind was food. I was hungry. So I set off on foot in search of some hotel for food. Before that I asked the concierge people some advice about the local sight seeing that I could do on this day. They said Wat Tri Mit is a nice option to go to. I saw that on the map and seemed do able on foot. The concierge warned me about the traffic and pollution. I was like who the hell gives damn. So I started walking towards Wat Tri Mit. Here is the statue of Golden Buddha. Thai is big time Buddha. I kept on walking and there was no sign of restaurant, I was wondering what the hell is happening here. Suddenly there were some street vendors serving food. I saw a white guy eating so I thought it is ok to eat. I went and treated myself with a Hainan Chicken Rice. Yummy it was the best food that I had. Great soup and the tangy sauce. I was walking after lunch and I could feel the pollution in the air. The weather makes it even worst. It is hot and very humid. I was feeling very weird also. Now about the place. It is some where between India and Shanghai, geographically and development wise. It has far good infrastructure, but what I felt is it is not as clean as Shanghai. People don’t care about it. Traffic is a mess just as in India. The Tuk-Tuk and the bikes are the main pains in the ass. There are a lot of cars too; Toyota and Isuzu have a good market share I believe. I wonder how the situation is outside Bangkok.
As I was walking towards my destination, I bumped into a Thai local. We started talking and I did not say that I am from India but from Shanghai. The reception is different when you are from India and not from India. He told where all I can go today and how to go. He got me a Tuk-Tuk and told me how much to pay also. The deal was for 40THB he will take me to 3 places and all the places he is going to wait for me. I was cool. So there we were in a Tuk-Tuk. Let me tell you about the Tuk-Tuk, it is a three wheel taxi like the auto rickshaws back home. They are longer, have a lot of room for anything and everything. They are big time maniacs on the road and the sound is very typical. It almost sounds like a Moto GP race bike. So my driver Alex was more than happy to take me around. He kept on talking about everything. My ride was long and exciting. I was moving all over the seat and up and down. Our first stop was Wat Intaravihan. Here there is a tall standing Buddha in golden colour. Height I am not sure. Maybe around 21ft. It was majestic to see such a tall Buddha. Not much to see apart from the statue of the Buddha and one small temple adjacent to it. This temple had a seated Buddha. The entire temple was made of wood. From there we went to our next destination Wat Sam Phraya, lucky Buddha as they say. It has a sleeping Buddha and a standing Buddha. Here I met a security guard who talked about the temple and informed me that there are 40000 Buddha temples in Thailand and 450 of them are in Bangkok. The sitting Buddha was made of concrete and coated with gold. He started telling me to go away from Bangkok as in Bangkok there is not much to see and the other thing that you can do is shopping. He said that their country is poised for a change in the government and there are chances of some violence also. He then told me about the suit sale that is happening and I must go there. He instructed Alex to take me to one such place. Alex also yes sir, I will. I was not interested at all. I told Alex forget it; take me to the Golden Mountain. But that man, phew he straight away took me to that place, Voglee. It is owned by an Indian for sure. Here I met another person, he was from Burma and when I said I am from India, he became senti and told me that India and China have always helped his country. US are a fool imposing sanctions, I just wanted to get out of there and soon I was out. Finally. SO next I went to the golden mountain. It is a small hillock and the top of the mountain is a small pagoda kind off thing made of gold. The climb was tiring although it was tall. At the top there was a cool breeze and that felt really good. From there I saw on my map that the Democracy monument was nearby and said ok let me walk. As I went walking and was pretty close to it I again fell into the hands of a security guy, who said take a Tuk-Tuk to the river side and some Thai factory to see the Thai handicraft. I did want to, damn I was cursing myself. But I was made to go to two shops coz the driver would get a petrol coupon if I buy anything. I kept telling him don’t go there I wont be buying anything. Finally I reached the river Chaophraya and was waiting for sometime for the sun to go down a little. I took a boat that keeps ferrying up and down the river for 18 THB to Sathon that is nearest pier to my hotel. The ride was really good. You can see the grand palace also on the way. When I reached Sathon I was fully drained out. No energy no enthu. It took me about 10min to reach my hotel by foot. There is a sky train station at this pier. When I reached my hotel I did not want to eat in the hotel. I was still looking for some local restaurant and I found one right opposite to my hotel. I went there and ordered a stirred vegetable minced with shrimps soup and steamed rice with Singha beer. When I started eating boy o boy it was damn hot. Hot hot since ages. Phew I was gasping for air. All I knew at that moment was fire in the hole. Finally after finishing my meal I crashed back in my room and I as glad to be in bed. In the meantime there are a lot on Indians in Bangkok and guess what they do, jewelers and clothes. That is my observation. There are a lot of shops for suiting and the names of the shop so Punjabi. You can make out if you are an Indian. There is a wide range of bikes also. You can see Vespa scooters, RX-100, RXZ, Honda Wave, Harleys, Phantoms and what not. A good market.
I had a good sleep but my legs had still not recovered fully. Today I wanted to go to the Grand Palace. I went there by a taxi and as soon as I entered there was a march of royal guards into the palace. Here they have a strict dress code. You cannot wear shorts in to the palace. Even if you are wearing one you get pants for hire. The entrance fee is 250 THB. As soon as you enter you will be spell bound by the three magnificent structures. The palace huge and cover an area of 218000 sq-meters. It was built in the year 1782 during King Rama I rule. There are some interesting sights to see and a lot of history matches with the Ramayana. You can easily kill 2hrs here. But the sun and humidity would be in turn killing you. After the grand palace my next destination was the Wat Phro. Here there is a sleeping Buddha which is about 41ft long. It is simply majestic to watch it. You can spend close to one hr here. From there I took a ferry to cross the river to Wat Arun. It was used as a temple by the king and is about 67meters tall. You can climb up and when you are near the steps it is not encouraging because it is so straight up you will think twice before embarking on it. But when you reach the top it is a panoramic view, you can see the river and the grand palace and a good view of the city. I got back to the pier where I boarded the ferry to go to Wat Arun and had my lunch. I had rice with chicken in garlic sauce and pepper. It was good sitting beside the river and having food. The river does not appear to be very clean. There is a lot of pollution also. There are a lot of fishes also in the river. Then I came back to my hotel to rest before I left for the night market and life ;-). I rested properly for about 2hrs watching movie. At around 8 I went to Phat Phong. This place has a night market till 01:00 AM and good amount of bars and pubs. There are a lot of girls and they are waiting for you. The market sells everything. Same as what I had experienced in Shanghai. It mite be cheaper but never bothered to enquire. The scene is a lot different than in shanghai. After having enough beers I headed back and crashed. The next day I just laid there in my bed for a long time. I just did not want to do anything. Just relax madi!! At noon I checked out of my room and came to the airport. After 3 days I am using my laptop so much h ah ahaha. It is sometimes good to be away from work ;-) but I know on Monday when I am back there will be a lot of things to do .

Beijing Bites

It was along pending trip to be made and finally I could make this trip. I was all excited about it. I was going to see one of the seven wonders of the world. I was slated to travel by train on Friday night at 7. I left office early and went to the station. I had taken the sub way and half of the journey was smooth, the next half of the journey was something funny. There were so many people in the sub-way that I had literally push all the people to make my way out. Reminded me of Mumbai metro trains. Now coming to the train that took me to Beijing. Boy that was another luxury. It was more than a first class AC train. There were cabins and only four berths per cabins. It was so comfortable to travel in it. They also provided you with tooth brush and paste. And the cost was just 500RMB. I had taken a package tour, so all the arrangements of hotel booking, train tickets and local sight seeing was handled by the travel agent. I wanted to do it alone without anybody’s help but now I am glad that I did not. There were no untoward incidents but covering the places on your own would have been a pain. Morning oh god the mornings are too early here, at 5 in the morning the sun shines right into your eyes. I reached Beijing station at sharp 7, the slated time to arrive. I was suppose to wait in a nearby hotel before I joined a city tour group. The hotel was right opposite the railway station I had to just cross the road. At 7:45 my guide for the day Tony arrived and picked me up. There were other tourists in the bus and we had to pick more. For the day there were people from Finland, Taiwan and Iran. Totally we were 10.
Our first stop for the Day was Forbidden City. It is not a city it is a palace, so huge that is more or less like a city. There is a lot of history associated with the place. The guide was telling it very well. One thing I realized was that the emperor was damn afraid of people waiting to kill him. The walls are thick n tall, the ground beneath you had 8 layers of brick and there are no trees. Glad that there were no B2 bombers at that time. The palace is spread over an area of 72 hectares. There are huge court yards. Majestic carvings and buildings. Most of the buildings top is yellow in colour and from a sight it looks beautiful. There was also a clock museum inside the palace. The clocks were gifted to the emperor by foreign national. Clocks of all shapes and sizes were available. Most of them came or were made in England. There was one interesting clock which could show time based on flow of water known as water clock. I am still wondering how it does so. We entered from the south gate and came out of the north gate. It took is whole 2 hours there. Surprisingly there was a Star bucks coffee shop inside the palace and Tony said “Disgusting isn’t it” I totally agreed him. It was like having Pizza hut in Tirupati Temple. The next stop of the day was a silk museum. Here they show the life cycle of silk and how they make it. It was interesting and then shopping which I loathed the most. Coz I did not buy anything. Next was food. I was waiting for it hoping to eat duck. But we were served some imperial cuisine which mostly had pork and I could not eat well. The place where we had lunch was very near to the Temple of Heaven our next destination. By now the sun was blazing hot and the temperature was above 35 degC.
The temple of heaven is the place where the emperor came to worship the heaven god. He use to consider himself as a placement of the Heaven God on earth. He also worshiped here for a good harvesting season. There is an echo building here which happened accidentally during construction. Two interesting things. At once place if you stand and clap you can hear up to 3 echoes and in a different place 2 and in a different place 1 echo. Also if you stand the wall of the circular fence and speak anything the person standing at some other place can be heard. The temple occupies an area of 272 hectares. There is a lot of greenery here. By the time we were done looking at the temple I was drained out. All my piss evaporated in to air. Phew after a ling time such a thing had happened. The next destination was the Summer Palace and that being a little far got some time to relax and recharge. There are many places which were undergoing renovation and maintenance for Beijing Olympics 2008. So some places we could not see. The summer palace is like any other summer palace in the world. There was a huge lake, with three islands and a long corridor to walk along and a palace. The palace was located on a small hill and I must say from a distance it didn’t look easy to climb it. When we went near the entrance of the palace I had to look straight up to see the steps. Man it was no way possible considering the state in which we were. We just walked around the lake and came out of the palace compound. Now the sun was cooler. Next we went to a tea ceremony. To see how tea is made and served and different kinds of tea. IT was a good experience. Here there was a bird, I think a mocking bird which would respond to Nihao (Hi in Chinese). Some time pass there also. So that was the end of the first day trip for us. I was dropped back to my hotel. I freshened up and got ready to go to Tian an Men Square. I took a taxi to the place. The square is a huge open place and is at entrance of Forbidden City. Damn big place. You can have a rock concert here. Surrounding the square is a museum and the parliament. I was just walking here and seeing people and taking snaps when two girls approached me.
They started talking in English and we built up a conversation. I got to know that one of them was a English teacher in a school in Beijing and the other was her friend who had come to visit her. They said they were going to Old China Street and if I wanted to join them. I said ok let me check out the place. It was 7 in the evening and it looked like 5. Yes the sun doesn’t set here till 8 in the evening. Such a long day, damn!! We came to the old street and were walking along. It was not as I had expected or I did not see the entire place. There were some shopping places and some nice bars and local food stores. Then we decided to have some beer and went to café. But it was a tea café and they did not serve beer. So we had a tea instead. While we were having tea a police guy came into our room and started asking for ID with these girls. He did not say or ask anything to me. HE took the ID of on of the girl and asked the teacher to come along with him. Now I got scared. But she did not return back soon. Now I got spooky and wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. We finished the tea soon and got out of the place. The other girl accompanied me till the taxi stand and we bid farewell to each other. I wonder what had happened there. Anyways I was glad to be safe. I got back to the hotel and had my dinner.
Next day the tour was suppose to start at 8 in the morning. I got to call to be ready at 7:30. When I finished my breakfast and coming out, there was a girl looking for me. Mama mia, she was gorgeous. Sigh !!!. she spoke a lot and also wanted thing in her control. Her name was Sally. She used to always say Sally’s friends come here , sally’s group this way. There were three Germans who made mast fun of her. But she had enough data to feed us with. Our first stop was the Ming’s Tomb. The place is located away from the city, about an hours drive. This place has the bodies of the 13 emperors buried in different locations. They are the emperors who ruled China in different times. Not very impressive place. I was not excited to be there. I was looking forward for the Wall, which was the next destination. As we were approaching the Badaling Section of the Great wall, we could see some part of the wall over the mountains. It was a feast to the eyes. When we reached the place we had to take a cable pulley to reach a point from where you have to walk. We had two hours time to spend on the wall. We had to walk to tallest point on the great wall. The climb is not easy. At places the wall just follows the contour of the land. Phew it is a very physical and challenging up there. When you reach there you can find a tablet of Chairman Mao, which says “He who hast climbed is not a hero”. There are many vendors who make certificates and medals saying that you are a hero or you climbed the great wall and things like that. At the top it is windy and a little cold. It is a good relief from the Beijing heat. The wall is such a strong structure that most of it is still intact. I wonder how many people got themselves killed to get through the wall. At the end is was a wonderful experience.

Hangzhou

There is a popular saying in China: "Above there is heaven, below there are Hangzhou and Suzhou." I had already been to Suzhou and now it was Hangzhou. I was supposed to go last week but I did not get tickets and I did not want to travel by bus. So this weekend I got my super fast train ticket for the round trip. My plan was to come back on the same day. Now a days I am reluctant to get up early in the morning. But then can’t have that luxury all the time. I got ready pretty fast and left to Shanghai South Railway station. Man this station is a miniature model of the Suwarnabhumi airport in Bangkok but a lot better. Round in shape and well maintained. You won’t feel like you are going to catch a train. I like the system here you need to check in at least 5 min before the train leaves. They don’t allow you to enter the platform until the train is ready. Once it is all ready to go, usually 15min before the departure time they open the gates, check the tickets and let you in. After you board the train there is no one bothering you to show your ticket. And once the train leaves there aren’t any relative waving at you. Cool an!! Well when I got inside the train man it was more than economy class. The leg space was so much that I could spread my legs to its length and sleep comfortably. The trains are so well maintained and the cost to travel is also lea 50RMB to my destination that is Hangzhou. He takes 1Hr 20Min to cover the distance between Shanghai and Hangzhou at an average speed of 100Km/hr.
When I reached Hangzhou, it was raining and I was feeling bad about it. I wanted it to be bright and sunny day but I guess I was not granted that. I took the taxi to my first destination of the day Ling Yin Si (Ling Yin Temple). The taxis are like in Shanghai well organized. On my way I had my breakfast in the taxi. It took me a long drive to reach the place. First need to cross the city and suddenly you are in the middle of a green cover. Whoa forget Ooty this place rules. It was so beautiful and green all over. You need to but a ticket to get in to the temple rather two tickets. I was some what puzzled why twice. The temple is inside a compound and again inside you need to buy ticket to see the temple. I got lost in finding the entrance; the directions were kind of misguiding me. Finally I got to know where the entrance and temple is. When I went in there were lots of trees and rocks. The rocks had the carvings of Buddha and Buddhism. All over the place you can find that. There was a small stream also flowing inside the place adding to beauty. There were some caves also and I went inside them. There also there were some sculptures. Then finally I got to see the temple. Man that was by far the tallest and largest structure that I had seen so far, it was mind blowing. Inside there a huge a very huge splendid statue of Buddha in golden colour. You can spend half and hour here. After that I wanted to see The Peak flow from Afar (Beng Ji). Legend has it that this large piece of rock flew from India, crossed the Himalayas and landed here. I thought the rock is at the top of a hill and started climbing it. Phew it was a steep climb for about 20 min. When I reached the top, damn what there was nothing? So I came down to see that the rock was same as the one that I had initially seen. But then it was fun to climb the hill. After a long time doing trekking. A good exercise and my legs were cursing me, h ah ah ha ha.
My next destination was the Six Harmonies Pagoda. I took the taxi to reach the place. The pagoda is a tall tower. The architecture is kind of different. There is nothing much to see here apart from climbing the Pagoda. It is about 13 floors high and you can go up all the way by foot. Damn this climb was killing me. The stairs were not normal. They were spiral and steep too. When you reach the top the view from there is breathe taking. You can see the river and the hills and the forest. It was a cloudy day and could not see far from there. My next destination was the Song City. This place is a replica of the Song Dynasty. You can see the culture, people, buildings and everything that was there in that period. There is also a food street selling I suppose food that belongs to that era. I had one snack that was like a stuffed puri. The stuff inside had some meat and I don’t know which one but ate it. It was very tasty too. There was another dish that was like a roti but I did not want to have that as my plans for lunch was entirely different. While roaming around there were a couple of Chinese tourists who were taking some snaps and when they saw me they wanted to take a photo with me. One after the other, they were just excited about it. Then I went and sat for some time near an artificial lake. There a kid had dressed up in a song soldier costume. I took a snap of him. You get costumes that you can hire and sport them. While I was relaxing the drums started playing and there was a show at the main entrance. It was an acrobatic show. The artists were standing on a stick on both the legs and were performing a wide range of tricks. It was a nice show that they put up. This place is good for children as they can see their history and also have fun. I was done with this place and now was the last and most talked about destination Xi hu (West Lake).
All I knew about this place was that it was a huge lake and you can spend the entire day here. That was true; it was such a huge lake. I could only see water as far I could see. There are a lot of gardens on this lake and on its shore. There are three islands also on this lake. You can take a boat or ferry and go to them. I was not willing to do that, I was more interested in having a beer and some good food on the shore and kill time. But the place I got down was on the other end of the city/lake and there was not such luxury as I had anticipated. So I was walking and looking for the restaurant and then I finally figured out that I have to get to the other end of the lake. So I hopped on a ferry who would take me to two islands and then to the city. I t was a good deal. So there I was in a ferry on the lake cruising along and enjoying the beauty. The islands that I went on did not have much to see. Some gardens and some smaller lakes on it. When I kept my foot on the city the time was not permitting to look for a hotel on the shore. I had to catch the train back to shanghai at 5:20PM and now it was already 4:00PM. I was also concerned about the time to travel to the station as in the morning it had taken me almost half an hour. So fast food was my only option and landed up eating a Fish Fillet in Mac Donald’s. Actually the city side is very posch. Somewhat like shanghai. Then I took a taxi back to the railway station which was just 10 min away and I was back in Shanghai in 2 hours.
http://www.chinahighlights.com/hangzhou/attraction/

X-Treme Sports and YuYuan Gardens

Friday I was done, I was breaking into pieces and wanted some fun. After office I went to my favorite joint in Shanghai, Malones. Had beer, surrendered to the music that was being played and just enjoyed. From there I went to Judy’s a stones throw away place from Malones. Here the crowd had not yet picked up and it was almost 11:30PM. I was there was some time had one more beer and danced for sometime. I was looking for the girl with whom I have danced the most so far, but she was not to be seen. There were others too, but they seem to be too much to be taken on the dance floor he h eh eh e. Now I was hungry so as usual I went and the pizza that we usually have, but this time she served me a large Pizza and sadly I was alone to eat it. I ate as much as I could and that was about 10 slices. I had to leave 2 slices on the plate. Then just went on a stroll on the same street (Tongren Lu). To see what the other joints had in place. There were some places like Judy’s and some which cannot be gussed. Me and my friend wanted to see what these places had inside. There were lot of girls inviting us to their bars and then we decided to go into one of them. As we entered a girl hooked on to each one of us and took us inside, the bar is on the first floor and there were not much people as in Judy’s or Malones. We sat on one of the high chairs and the girls ordered the drinks for us and for themselves and started talking to us, where are you from, how long in shanghai, what you do…blah blah blah. And slow the topic shifts to sex. How she feels and what makes her horny. She said I like bald head and the body hair turns me on. If I want something mushimushi…..he he. She was trying to go naughty with me a lot, so I decided let me play around with her without loosing anything. While all this was happening suddenly I realized that it is so easy to easy your virginity.We danced for sometime also. She kept on asking for something extra from me and I kept on denying. It was fun though, she acting erotic from time to time. Finally we decided to move on and left the place.
The nest day I got up damn late and just went out shopping with my other colleagues who were there. On Sunday I was thinking of going to Chongming Islands but I was alone to go there and didn’t feel like going there. So I went to YuYuan gardens. On my way in the shuttle bus of our bus I met a NRI who is about 65 years old and working for a company that makes ATM machines, He asked me where I was from and when I asked the same to him he said he is from Ohio, US. I wonder if it is an identity problem for these guys. So far I have never seen a guy telling that basically I am from such a place in India but settled in ……..I don’t know why??!! Anyways he wanted to kill time and said I will join you, although this guy has been many times to China. So we took the metro and walked to Yuyuan gardens.(http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/yuyuan_garden.htm) The first time I went to this place I was searching where the hell the garden is and the second time I went there the timing was wrong as the place closes down at 4:00PM. My companion for the day al kinds of stories to tell me about hi family and I was listening to them mast time pass and curiosity to know what these guys do in US as Indians apart from being a professional. I went alone to the garden as he had already seen it. It isn’t a very big garden. I felt it is also not very beautiful as Lingering gardens and I feel all the gardens look and feel like the same. Anyways it was a nice time pass. Later we thought of going to the bund and heading back to home. But we lost direction and decided to go to Nanjing road and have lunch. I had unbearably lots of pizzas. After that we took the taxi and came back to the hotel. I saw a movie and ended the day with some Chinese massage ;-).

Shanghai Moto GP

Eeeeeeeeeeeehaw…..there was Moto GP here in Shanghai on the 06 May. I was all happy that I will be able to see the show when I am here in shanghai. John agreed to give me a ride to the venue along with one of his friends Richard. The Shanghai circuit is far far away from the city, it took an hour to reach the place. The circuit plays host for the Grand Prix also. That is there in the month of October. The venue is such a huge place, phew mind blowing. It will take ages for India to get such a place and facility running with perfection. The main stand is about 5 floors high. When you go near the circuit I could hear the bikes ripping on the tracks. It was a great feeling. A feeling of power represented by the short burst of sound as they zip past the main stand. The main stand is right opposite to the pit stop and there is the start line. I was getting high. There were stalls put by the manufacturers of the bikes. Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki flaunting their super bikes and other normal bikes. We had our seats in Grand Stand B. This is located at the first turn of the track. It was the best view possible that one can ask for. Beautiful day not too sunny, the weather was perfect and we were enjoying the show with some beer. The riders were warming up with their bikes. First race was for 125CC bikes. Man you must see how fast they go and the sound they make. Damn….I should tell mindu to give up his bike for these ones. They had 16 laps for the race. After this there was 250CC bikes race. This race was interesting than the earlier one. The leader of the race had kept the lead for most of the race but there were others behind him who kept challenging him. They would over take him and he would also do that. This fight for the first place amongst the first 5 player was interesting. Meanwhile one of the drivers lost control at our stand and went sliding off the track. It was a sight to watch. But the poor guy could not get up, don’t worry he was alive. A stretcher was used to move him.
After one hour gap there was the super bike race coming up. So we went out to the common open area. By now my kidneys had become balloon and was about to burst. I took refuge in the wash room first. That was my best and longest relieving piss I ever had. After that we took some pictures of bikes. The Suzuki team had put up a stunt show. Skidding, doing wheelies and braking on the front wheel and doing a swing. It was a nice. Most of us would have seen such stunts in Hollywood movies. After this show there was the most awaited race of the day, ever one there was only concerned about bike no. 46, The Doctor, Valentino Rossi. That guy sure has what it takes to be a super bike champ. Boy o boy these bikes are even more noisy and fast. It was a thrilling experience. Whenever a bunch of riders would pass through our stands I could fell the stand and my balls vibrating a little bit. It was great feeling. The Doctor was well challenged by Casey Stoner who eventually won the race. The Doctor over took Stoner on three occasions. On the third occasion he lost control and went outside the track. I am sure if he had this turn correct he would have won the race. Sigh all good things must come to an end. SO did the day and the race and I was heading back to my hotel. I wanted to get a ride on those bikes as a pillion rider. That would also be a good experience. Well let’s see, maybe next time or maybe F1…in a Ferrari.

Venice of China

I got up in the morning and decided that I will go to Shuzhou. Actually before deciding that I was trying to figure out when is the actual MOTO GP race day in Shanghai Circuit. Once that was clear well almost, got ready and let the hotel to go to Shuzhou. It is a one hour travel by train from Shanghai. That meant that I had to take a train.. I went to the Shanghai Railway station and got a ticket , but the train was at 1:30PM.and there was a lot time to kill. I was worried about the weather as it was dark and cloudy and the forecast was for rains. If it rains then the trip to Shuzhou would be a total disaster. Shuzhou is called the Venice of China. Because of its backwaters that criss cross the city. I got to know about this place from a booklet that a travel agent had printed and was interested after reading the description of the trip that he had to offer. All I knew is that I have to go to Shuzhou and nothing more that that. What is there and how to travel locally no data available or known. Went around the railway station area to kill some time. And at 01:00PM I went inside the railway station. I must say that the railway station is like Bangalore airport. Modern and sophisticated. I saw that they don’t have platform concept. They have waiting rooms. Each waiting room has many platforms. And you have to check in as you do in airports. The check in stops 5 min before the departure time. No body comes and asks you for a ticket after you have checked in. The train that I took is a double Decker one. I was seated on the lower portion. The seats were good, ones that you can find in a luxury bus. The train left the station on time. They do travel at a good speed. After cruising for about 45 minutes he stopped at a small station. I was wondering why and then in a span of half an hour 6 super fast trains maybe bullet trains passed by us. And I was getting pissed off. Finally in another 15min I was at Shuzhou station and now wondering what to do. I could see a couple of places where some tour operators were there. While I was searching for tourist information centre a guy came and spoke to me in English and asked me if I needed a taxi. I told him I am here to see the gardens and back waters and gave him the booklet that I was carrying. He saw that and told me that the backwaters and garden is in the city but the other place is about 70km away from the city. I was not willing to go so far at that of the day. He said the boat ride would be 250 RMB. I thought it was expensive and asked him to just take me to the place. I will not boat. He also told me that for 100RMB he will take me to the backwaters and another famous garden, Lingering gardens and back to railway station in his car. I accepted his offer and there we were riding in the streets of Shuzhou. The city still has the old buildings preserved and you can see that the water crisis crosses the city a lot places. We reached the place of boating and the entrance was that of a gate. He told me that at this gate the architect of the town was beheaded and his head was hanged here. This was done by a king. The price for the boat that he said was not for one person it was for the entire boat. Later I thought what the big deal. Let’s go, so I had the entire boat for myself. It was a nice and beautiful experience to go boating in the backwaters. Very nice bridges, houses and restaurants don the banks of the backwaters. There were a lot of tourists also there. The entire trip took me 50min , not bad huh. From there we went to Lingering gardens. This is a world heritage centre. And supposed to be one of the famous and beautiful gardens in China. The garden is small but very beautiful. It has some weird shaped stone sculptures and a green ambience. There are small ponds and streams inside the garden. A nice and peaceful place. The garden is in the centre of the city and there is so much peace inside. I guess it is mostly because of the large number of vegetation that suppresses the noise. Well I spent about 45 min inside the garden and after that we were headed to the railway station. Our guide dropped us off till the ticket counter and told me to but tickets from there. When I got my tickets I saw that the train leaves Suzhou at 11:30 PM. I was pissed off it was still 06:30PM and I had to wait for five hours to travel one hour. Damn…..then I realized what the guide had told me about the buses, a five min walk away there is a bus station from where we can get buses to Shanghai. So I went there and found a bus to Shanghai. I was asking her the bus operator what time you leave from here and how much and to get that information from was fun. She did not understand what I was asking and so did I. finally she gave up and went inside the bus to get hold of a guy who could understand English. Finally I came to know that the bus would leave to shanghai at 7:00PM and the fare is 50RMB. I was happy to loose the 7RMB train ticket and travel on this bus. Over all it was fun and adventure for me on that day.

Golden Week Celebrations

May 1 is labors day and in China that entire week is off. Yep the whole week I was on a vacation here in China. Sadly I was in Shanghai but did a lot. I could not plan much for that week as my extension here in China was decided pretty late and you need to do all your bookings well in advance. But I had other things to take care of and that was being a tour guide for the people who were stuck here in Shanghai as they were not able to get tickets to fly to their countries. I am planning to start a Tour Operator business here for the people who come. I am sick of going to the same tourist spots again and again. I took my colleagues to Shanghai Museum. One of them was very interested to know and see the Chinese arts and history. This place I had to go around the same exhibits all over again for the second time. Boy o boy that meant lots of walking and standing and waiting, phew at the end of it I was dead tired and I was craving for a can of beer. During the golden week the Chinese take pride in going out seeing places and having fun. You can see a lot and lot of people on the streets. Anywhere you go you will find rush and never ending q. After we were finished with the museum we were hungry and had to cross the road to eat Pizza. The situation at the zebra crossing reminded me of Mahabharath serial, where in at dawn soldiers from both the ends are waiting to attack and once they are given the command to charge they just pounce on each other. At least here we did not pounce to kill each other. Hundreds of people on both the side of the roads was waiting to cross and once the signal turned we were attacking the other end of the road. That was a scene worth watching from the side and being part of it was fun. Before going to the museum on that day we went through the people’s park. It was such a beautiful park with all greenery and colorful flowers. Outside there was so much of noise from the modern machines that man created, but inside it was peaceful and calm. People were doing exercise, hanging out with friends and family and having fun and eating and drinking.

The second day we went to two different places. One was the Jinang Temple. It is a Buddha temple. A place bigger than the Jaded Buddha Temple but not as good as it. The architecture of the buildings was good. There was a tomb in the courtyard of the temple with some openings at different heights. People were throwing coins into these openings. I gues it was to make a wish and when your coin successfully gets into one of the openings then it will be granted. I also tried and it was fun to put the coins. Outside the temple there was a ban playing the bagpiper. The music was really good. They had attracted a lot of people to listen to them playing. It does take a lot of effort to blow air into the bagpipers. I could see that on the face of the artists who were blowing air into it. I would have gasped for air if I had to do it for the first time. Form there we went to the Shanghai Old Street or Yuyuan Gardens, This place has the old Chinese style buildings. More of a place where you can shop Chinese art and some souvenirs. The whole street is doing the same, attracting tourists to buy them. And to mention the food that they sell. Yummy I wanted to get some steamed dumplings, but the Q was so big that I did not feel like standing in it. We went the Yuyuan garden entrance to find that the place was closed at 04:00PM. Man that was bad. The garden looked beautiful from the outside. I wanted to go there desperately. Anyways I will go there again. After hanging out for some more time and doing some shopping we headed back to our hotel. The next day also was spent in shopping and most of the time I was at home.

Shanghai Auto Show

The 12th Auto show was organized here in Shanghai and we went to the show on the last day of the event. There was a hell of a rush on that day. We were four people in all. The venue was a huge place near the Maglev station. There were six big halls hosting all the auto makers and part manufactures. There were all the big names in the auto industry from all over the world and the local Chinese guys were also there. We started off seeing VW and BUIK (Shanghai GM). GM had some real cool cars. The interesting part in these events is the concept cars and the girls. Both of them can make you sigh for their impeccable beauty. There were so many cars to see and we had so less time. I was bowled by the Corvette it was a mean machine and no wonder why people go crazy about it. There were a couple of cars which ran on fuel cells and flex fuels. The next generation of power to drive your wheels. The Chinese car makers were also not behind. They too had some real good designs with them. Geely is the No. 1 automaker in china. The crowd who had come there for the grand show was more or less behind the models taking their pictures. I was taking so many pictures that I did not realize that I was not carrying my spare batteries. Damn toward the end of our visit I was out of battery power and so the end to photos. We thought there were 6 halls in all, but actually there were more. We realized that when we couldn’t see the Mercedes and Honda. Hey they should have been here, where are they. There were two bikes displayed by Suzuki. One was a super bike and the other “Intruder”. Intruder was a cruiser bike. I sat on that and got a couple of pictures. Man that bike was so comfortable. The moment my ass rested on it, I knew it this baby is very comfortable to ride on. Blue color with white stripes. Phew!!. Now that reminds of me of my Bullet and for the rides that I have been missing so far . At 02:00PM the show dropped its curtains on the auto show and we had to leave the place. When we came out there was a dearth of taxis. I was ready to get on to a two wheeler taxi and go back home. But there were others also not willing to do so. So we waited and asked and waited and asked and did not get a taxi. So we started to walk and found a guy who was ready to take us at extra cost in his car which was not a taxi. I was reluctant to pay so much but then we had to get back home some how. So we hired him and that fool of an ass driver was in such a hurry that he could not wait for all the passengers to get in. He would just hit the pedal when a guy is getting in the car.

Buddha

Traffic jams in Shanghai are the best place to write my blogs, he h eh he. It is really nasty here and the reason is that they are layin some pipes for god knows what an the 3 lanes is raod is now 2 lanes. Friday night was horrible as there was a release and I was not prepared mentally to stay back for it…..:-(. Saturday morning I went to play football with my office friends, this time there were a lot of people and the size of the ground was not sufficient to hold us. We were I guess 8 a side and it looked like playing football in a crowded street. It was fun though. Some skin from my foot got chipped off and the clot in my toe nails is not yet gone. Thanks to the shoes that I am wearing it. Then went back home and had a nice lunch which Rags had prepared. Later I had a small nap before we went out. I wanted or rather desperately wanted to go to the Jaded Buddha Temple, but these guys are too old to travel. So we were just there near the river side and walking. We did some enquiry about mp3 players to buy It for others back at home. We walked and walked and walked. On the footpath there were some native Chinese who were selling some jade jewelery and something really caught my eyes. It was like the claw of a tiger in stone and had some carvings on it. When I decide to buy all the other guys selling the same were behind me to but this and that. One guys even came along with me some distance to sell his stuff to me. He was hell bound to sell it to me and I was not to but it ;-). All the guys in the street were looking at us as to what the hell is happening here. As we walked on there was a guy on the street who was making animals from grass. He was rather weaving it. It was really impressive and very intricate. I could not resist myself buying a dragon. It is really beautiful. And as we walked along there was a pile of live small lobsters and some freshly cooked ones was sold. It was a sight to see smell to relish. I was afraid of tasting it as my tummy had already showed signs of churning out some exclusive dishes before I left the hotel. So we continued our walking. And then a time came when I felt that my leg muscles are stiffing. Phew that pain had come after a really long time. And now we had to decide about the food. I was promoting Chinese veg to these guys but they were not ready to buy that from me and finally we landed up eating in Nepali. The sleep that night was awesome except for a dream that literally shook me off the bed in the wee hours.
On Sunday I was glad that I was going to the Jaded Buddha Temple. History has it that the jaded statues of the Buddha two in numbers were brought by a Buddhist monk from Burma. The Chinese visit to this temple the way people visit Tirupathi. I took a bus and then the metro and then a taxi to the temple. I thought that the temple is far away from the metro but it was not. It is in a narrow street. And when I reached there I saw a huge gathering in front of the ticket counter, and these guys were old Chinese guys, I guess from a village. They made a havoc there to get their tickets and the foreigners who had come there were really wondering what to do, some of them felt great to take a picture of the scene. Finally the crowd disappeared and all of us got a chance to buy the ticket in a disciplined way. As soon as you enter the temple, you will see some smoke from the burning fire and the insect sticks that the people were offering to the Buddha. It was a calm environment with a soulful hum from the monks there. There are many statues in the temple. There was a sleeping Buddha also. The main temple has three big statues of Buddha of may be around two floors high. You really need to look up to these statues. And all over this statue there are other figures some which are the guards of the lord. They were also very huge. All the statues are in golden colour. There is a vegetarian restaurant in the temple which is run by the monks and serve veg food. I had my lunch there . There was another statue of Buddha which was white in colour at the top and as you move down the colour changes to grey. It was very beautiful and you are not allowed to take pictures here. This place was segregated from the entire temple area, it was exclusive club privileges. The roof of the temple had the carvings of miniature Buddha and they were many of them In the backyard there was a pond with fishes. The colour of the fishes was white and orange and there were many of them in all shapes and sizes. There was also different colours of lotus floating on the water. But these were not growing there, it was left by the people who visit the temple. So after this I was done in the temple and walked back to the metro station.
The metro was about 2 Km from the temple. From there I went to a place called Qi Pu road. This road is like going to Alankar Plaza. This street has clothes and clothes and only clothes. Sadly I could see clothes only for girls. Hardly anything for the boys. I was in no mood to check the place in and out for clothes. So decided to go back to the electronic market to enquire about something. I took a BIKE TAXI to go to the metro. Yeah a bike which is a taxi. This guy was telling me I will drop you on my bike come come……and I was excited about the idea. I cannot resist a bike ride so took it and for 10 bucks he dropped me to the metro. The ride though small was good enough. By the time I reached home I was half dead. Had dinner and slept like a log. There was a visitor from the US and we decide to take him out to see downtown shanghai. The day we left for sigh seeing after office was raining all the day and it was pretty cold. We went near the bund and damn it was so cold so cold that my hands froze. I could feel the numbness even the next day. To add to the cold weather there was no taxi available for us so we were waiting for a long time in the rain to catch a taxi.

Traffic Signal

Guess what I am writing this siting in a traffic jam on my way to office he h eh ehe. Well this weekend Iagain went to Malones. I don’t know why but I am loving that place. Great live music, nice crowd and not to mention the beer;-). We were there in Malones till 2 in the night. We were completely carried on by the music. These guys played a very popular Punjabi number. When he did so, my friend I danced like hell. Not to mention that my friend took the entire show light. IT was fun to dance for a Punjabi number in Shanghai. Then they started palyin some rock number from U2, Metallica and GnR. What else do you need to finish the night with. There were two British couples who were very impressed with my friends enthu that they got him beer and started dancing with him. They were all ga ga ga about him and India. Good for us. From there we went to Judy’s. The crowd there was usual. I got to know that Judy’s Too was closed down and reopened in a different place. So I guess I could find all the Judy’s Too girls here. We ate some Pizza’s here as both of us were hungry. Oh yeah forgot about Hot Pot, where we had our dinner. This place is on Loushan Lu. The idea is nice to eat, you order what all you want and they bring a pot filled with two different kinds of soup and pour all that in those compartments and start boiling. So you get to eat hot boiling food from a Hot Pot. IT was nice spicy Chinese food that we had along with some Pejo. The waitress who attended us was very sweet and she gave a personal touch serving us and making us eat almost everything that we ordered. After that only we went to Malone’s.
Well I got a Philips DVD player to do some time pass, but now it has become our entertainment box. We are totally three in numbers now from India. Over the weekend we watched five movies. Piracy zindabad!!! We are cooking now in the hotel as one of them is a Veggie. Atleast one time in a day we land up cooking in the hotel. After lunch on Sunday we went to Nanjing Lu. Took a long walk the entire Nanjing Lu and came to Bund Area. It was day light and the weather was really good, just perfect. We went to the Bund Sight Seeing Tunnel. These guys have built a tunnel for crossing the river and inside they have made it a tourist attraction. You need to pay 35 RMB for the ride. I was just impressed by the way they had put this show and the ride. The capsules in which you travel is a beautiful engineering example. There are twol lines ferrying people from either side of the river and we were wondering how the Capsules changed directions at the ends of the line. They would just rotate the capsule and the base and put it on the other lines. It was a neat work. The tunnel is brightly lit with different kinds of light and variation giving a feeling of cosmic travel or time travel. Something different and pleasing. Then we had our dinner …Pizza in Pizza hut. The Pizza here was really good. Better that what you get in India. Now I wonder if these guys really cooked well back home. After that we came back to the Bund area to see the bright lighting which has always awed me. After spending some cold time there we headed back to Carefour got some beer and ration and back in the room to watch Déjà vuuuuuu….!!!

Shanghaied

Alright I am gonna have tough time writing the stuff for two weeks flat. The interesting thing about being in Shanghai is weekend starts exactly on Friday night and boy o boy…phew. Last Friday and this Friday we were at Malone’s. Once with my colleague from India and this week with my Chinese friends. Both the times we enjoyed the live band music and the atmosphere of the bar. From there we went to another pub called Baby Face. Now you may think naam mein kya rakha hai….man if Malone’s is flock of Americans and Europeans, Baby Face is a sea of Chinese. Man the place is fully jam packed. You have to pay 60 RMB to get an entry. And as you enter for sure u gonna rock. The music is awesome hip-hop and they keep belting awesome songs thanks to the Dj. We were there for about 3 hrs and I was sweating it out. There is no place to just free yourself. You have to literally push people and go any where in this place. It was like traveling in a BMTC bus back home. It was great fun till 2 in the morning. I was exhausted by the time I came out of the place. Oh yeah two consecutive weeks we have been playing football. And that 2hrs flat. Boy the first week I was bowled out. After the game my whole leg was frozen with movement inhibited. It took me two days to get it free. This week was fine no issues. Had a nice time. These guys play a nice game. It is really fun. The best part in the game is that after 5 goals the team who scores gets the other team members to do 5 push-ups for every goal from there on. It was fun to watch the opponent team to do pus-up’s for hmmm…..(I am counting)….We had to do it thrice. On Sunday I went to the Science and Technology Museum. This place is huge very huge, three floors of exhibition in two separate buildings. The exhibits are on a wide range of subjects, science, human life and evolution, space, IT, animals and more. They have put a very impressive and interactive museum. People come here more for fun than for knowledge. The exhibits are really nice, you know you can go and play games and see videos which are 3D in the midst of artificial factories, play foot ball and boxing and get o know something. The best thing that I liked in the Museum is the 3d and 4D movie that I saw in the I Max theater. The 3d movie that I saw was about helicopters. IT was about how they work and their roles in day to day life. It was nice except for the language it was in Chinese. Then was the 4 D movie, I was wondering what as the 4th dimension. Guess what it was the feel of the movie. The movie was about Lego Racing, in which a driver goes about driving his car in a race and there are crashes and falls in the race. These things are what you get to feel. The crashes make your seat to go down and when you bump into somebody it vibrates. When driving in snow they put up the foam and when somebody drives ahead of you in the snow water is sprayed on your face. Wow it was fun. After that I was exhausted and crashed back in the hotel.
On Wednesday we went to a Korean restaurant, the Chinese call it Barbeque (BBQ). This DIY (Do it Yourself) restaurant. Meaning to say all the ingredients are got to you and a stove in the middle of the table is used for cooking. You have to cook it. It was fun, my colleague was doing most of the cooking and I was enjoying the meal. What all did we have, sheep, chicken, octopus, some Korean rice dish and veggies and not to mention Pejo. It was a great dinner. I especially like the chicken and octopus. I guess it was the way it was cooked. Ah I am having a nice time eating nice food and now I need to get ready to go the Museum and Peoples Park.
The Shanghai museum is a huge place housing the Chinese history and art. It is really good. I like the way these guys have preserved their art and artifacts. The preservation is really good. They have so many things to display spread out in 4 floors. Phew it took me 4 hrs to see them till they actually threw us all out. The museum closes at 5 PM. The museum has bonze sculptures, stone sculptures, calligraphy, Chinese pottery, Chinese currency, Chinese painting and some miscellaneous stuff. I was literally lost in the sculptures, painting, carvings and pottery. Mind blowing images and intricate art. It was some sight to see and feel. Hats off to their collection. I was too tired to go to Nanjing road to have a stroll.

Jin Mao Tower

This week I had another colleague of mine in Shanghai for company. We did a lot of shopping and roaming around before he left for Bangalore. Shopping we bought so many watches and one that I bought is like an old age watch. You can see the mechanism of the clock. And supposedly branded as Omega. If the company guys see this they will commit suicide. These guys fake or have replicas of almost everything in this world. Rolex, Gucci, Mont Blanc, Polo, Tommy u name it they have it. It can be a shoppers paradise. I was even advised not to carry clothes ;-). Yesterday we went to this place called Jin Mao tower. This is the fourth tallest building in the world. The first being in Taipei, second in KL: Malaysia, third in Chicago. I have been to the second tallest building. This building is 420.5m high and has 88 floors. The place has The Grand Hyatt hotel hosing itself from 56th floor to 87th floor. The other floors have offices and the 88th floor is an observatory for the public and tourists. Another interesting part in this building is the elevator that shuttles people. Boy o boy the speed of the elevator is 9m/s…..in less than 50sec u r up up an away. I wonder if superman can do that. AS soon as you get out of the elevator you can see the oriental pearl TV tower. The view from that height is just mind blowing and stumps u at the first instant. You can see the Huangpu river taking its course through Shanghai. You can see a couple of more spots but the binoculars. Then in the centre of the observatory you could peep down. Boy people fearing height don’t do it! It will surely take you for a toss. What you see is the Hyatt fully illuminated till the 56th floor. Just awesome. I was wondering how it would look in the night, I think we should be there when the night falls. Shanghai can be seen in its true, magnificent and bright colours. For dinner we went to our ex director and current director for Shanghai place. He had asked the cook to cook Indian food and I must say she has learnt well from him. My colleague was very happy to eat Indian food. His place is like heaven for me, phew what a place he has to live. Ah I was in love with that place. But then you need to be at that place in your career to be there. Long way to go !!!

Too Hopping

This week I had been to one of our cutomer’s plant. It was a nice exposure to see all the parts being made and assembled. When I was back in shanghai on Friday a friend of min was back in office and things were cooking already cooking up of what to do over the weekend. At 5:30 in the evening we took a cab and went to his hotel where he was staying and went to a café near-by where we had to meet another friend. Here we ate some food….it was more or less like dinner. This was at 6:30PM, yes the Chinese eat their meal very early. I had rice with fried prawns. It was good. There was frog also to eat….yew. from there after freshing up in the room we went to this place called Malone’s on Tongren Ren Lu. This is an American café and they serve you good food n beer. When I entered the place it was like a different world. Just Americans and Europeans. The waitresses here speak very good English and the crowd is also good. We came to this place at around 8:00 PM. There is a live band playing here and they start playing at 9:30. we wanted to see the band playing so we waited for some time. There are actually two girls in the band who do all the singing apart from the drummer, two guitarist and a pianist. These girls have really sweet voice and they know how to entertain you. They started singing and all the crowd their was just listening to them to singing. There were singing mostly pop and country songs …there was one song from U2 after which they took a break at 10:30PM.
Now we changed the base, we went to another place called Judy’s Too on Maoming Nan Lu. This place is kinda a pakka joint for having beer, dancing and maybe hooking on to somebody. As usual some more beer and dancing. When we came in the crowd had not yet gathered. And the dance floor was mostly occupied by some girls . there were these pali girls guessing here, two of them dancing like hell and they did not want to dance with anybody else. I guess they were lesbians. Well thenas the crowd poured in and it was our time to get on the dance floor. I was not willing to dance, don’t know why it didn’t get my dancing shoes turn on. I just sat there and had my beer. Sometime later my friend along with a girl came to me asked me to dance with her. He he he I said ok and during the time that we dance with her I came to know that she is from Philippines. She asked me to buy her a drink I said ok. The interesting part is that they don’t drink booze, they drink milk. The again I was back on my stool for sometime and on the dance floor…chuma dancing . Then I danced with another girl also from Philippines . I danced with her for two songs and it was the best that I did while I was in Judy’s too. Then around midnight I could not take it any more, I was tired and wanted to sleep. But this friend of mine got hooked to a Chinese girl and was making her dance her like hell. She was also enjoying though. The Chinese do know how to enjoy. It was around 1:30 AM in the morning that we took a taxi and went to another place called Cincinati. I don’t know where it is. This place has the ambience of an European street. We went to a bar called Rendezvous. Here also the atmosphere was the same as in Judy’s too. We just had a beer hanged out for about half an hour and went to another placed Judy’s. all the places that we went till now are open till 2 in the morning, except for this Judy’s which is open till 5 in the morning. By the time we reached this place I was damn hungry and had to eat something. We had a pizza before going to Judy’s. We did not drink here. There were girls who were dancing on a pole, not naked though. There was one huge girl in all aspects hardly wearing anything…phew I was wondering how the hell can she tolerate the cold. I was bloody freezing. The entire day it may be sunny but once the sun goes down, that’s it is freezing cold and if it is windy you are done. From this place we went to play pool and TT in the adjacent building. Heh he he pool and TT after getting drunk. Finally we went back to the hotel at 4 AM.
In the morning I came back to my room and had a nice shower before going to the Westin hotel for lunch. Ah this place is like heaven. Very good. It is a seven star hotel and went there specifically for food. Had a Mexican drink (not getting the spelling). The food was really good had sea eggs (brinjals), dumplings, dim sum, spring rolls, duck and a beautiful fish. We also got sparkling water to drink. It is also know as soda water. Actually it is carbonated water with essential minerals in it. It tastes good also. The food was filling. From there I went towards the Bund but landed up in Yu Garden. This place is like traditional Chinese, the buildings are like what we see on tv or in movies. And more interestingly the entire place sells only and only Chinese artifacts. I guess it is the best place to but some souvenirs. The weather was bad, cloudy, windy and damn cold….brrrrr…..from Yu Garden I went to meet some more friends and then we went to a Japanese restaurant. A nice place to eat. The scene is like it is a rectangle table with on side for the chef and the other three sides are for the guests to sit and eat. The chef makes all the dishes in front of you and serves it hot. Huh it was a long time that somebody was serving me fresh hot food. What all did we have apart from Asahi Beer (Japanese beer and the glasses in which it was served was more than a pint) had fishes (which all I don’t know), prawns, lamb, mutton, mushrooms(I don’t like it), vegetables and to top it up fried banana ice cream. Yes banana was fried and put on the ice cream. The most exciting part is when the chef makes the fire and the flames go up…ooooo it was so warm.:-)
Oh I had lots of beer and fish and at a stage I was like a heavy rock. So after havin and elaborate and heavy dinner we went to KTV ( Karaoke TV ). Chinese are very crazy about this place. You get to sing the songs. The lyrics come up on the TV screen and you just have to sing along. It was fun, although there weren’t any songs that I could understand. At around 11:45 we all left to get back to our places. Now as I am writing this I am wondering what to do today???

Downtown Shanghai

This is my first weekend in Shanghai. To kick start the week end my office colleagues here hosted a dinner party for the entire team to welcome me to Shanghai. Wah kya baat hai!! The dinner was in a hotel in downtown Shanghai. Our office in a industrial area and the ride is really long. You need to cross the river to go to downtown shanghai. We rode on and on and on and it was a long ride and when we entered the downtown shanghai called as Puxi, you can see that it is very colorful and bright. Then we were in a elevated road all the time and reached a major junction where you are like on top of the world. It looked like we were at least 6 floors above the ground. It was a major interchange to change directions. The roads would just wind in and out. And then we reached our famed destination. We were riding in a BUICK (these are made by GM in shanghai). The restaurant where we were supposed to eat was based on the Xinjiang province of China. This is present in the north of China bordering with Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. These guys are known for the Goat/Sheep meat. They are mostly Muslims and they have inherited their culture and religion mostly because of the Silk Route. I was made to sit in a position where in you can see the stage. I was told that there will be a show by a troupe which is traditional Xinjiang. Their folk culture. And the first thing that came in was the beer; it was called BLACK BEER, a local brewed beer in Xinjiang. It was black in colour and looked more like a cola and beer taste was not there. And then came the first meat of the meal. It was horse meat!!! I said ok….i cant eat that. Then came the goat meat and it kept on coming. It taste good, preparation was more the Indians do but a little cooked. Some of them not all. There was capsicum masala which was spicy and yummy. And then after we were done with the Black Beer we got the Harbin Beer another Chinese beer. The sad part of the beer was that it was not chilled. Later I learnt that the Chinese did not know how to drink beer. There was this kebab of thing cooked on a strong stick, it was good. Then the entertainment starts. A girl came out and she started dancing to the tunes of Xinjiang music. She came to our table (we were sitting on a big round table) and started dancing and she pulled in John (our chief engineer) to dance with her. It was so entertaining. The nest event from her was balancing a stack of six cups on her head. She got one more person from our team (Dave) to balance a cup on her head. The next one was belly and booty dance, and the favorite target was me to dance with her. He he he he he I just went der and showed the lady how to shake it!!!! It was fun. Then there a couple of Chinese and Russian songs. They were melodious and emotional song. I got to know the gist of the songs that were being sung. And then John and other two guys had to leave as they had landed in shanghai earlier day and were tired. And then the mood on the table was very light. We got more beer and did Gumbhe (bottoms up) Chinese love to do that. And as we were drinking there was the last show and again I got a chance to dance with the lady on the stage this time. Oh boy it was fun. Some crazy steps and moves which made sense to the Chinese. It was around ten when we left the restaurant and headed back to my hotel. On the way back we passed through the Shanghai TV Tower. It is very very tall. Ever since I have been here in Shanghai the weather has been changing from cold to chilly to sunny to rain. Keeps fluctuating.

The next day Allyn and I decided to go to Puxi and check out some electronics in a big mall. Allyn is a Japanese bachelor born in Canada and now working in China for the past 9 months. He is a interesting guy, he has this attitude of traveling and experimenting. He is guy who takes calculated risks. So after breakfast we headed to the nearest Subway station which is Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. We took a taxi and went there. We boarded the train to go to People’s Square. Here we had to interchange to another line and though may as well have a stroll on Nanjing road. This road is like Brigade road in Bangalore. Crowded lots of people and many shops offering you so much to buy. We did not walk the entire street just a little bit and then took a deviation as Allyn wanted to get some screws, there is this street which sells only hardware. After he got his stuff we went to the subway and took the metro to our destination Shanxi where the electronics mall was supposed to be there. When we reached Shanxi there was nothing, Allyn was confused and called up one of his friends from office and came to know that we are 3 stations behind. So we got back and went to Xujiahui. Interestingly if you are a foreigner in Shanghai there are a lot of people who wants to be friends with you and sell stuff to you. DVD and watches and shoes and things like that. When we got out of Xujiahui subway, we just entered the mall where only and only electronics goods like cameras, hard disks, computers, laptops et.al are sold. It was a like fish being sold in a fish market only that not @ of a kilos. I just wanted to see and feel Shanghai as language is a big problem here, and this was a nice opportunity and exposure. I checked out a couple of stuff. Now we were hungry and went in search of food and landed in a hotel serving only dumplings. We got goat dumpling, veg-n-chicken dumpling, peanuts, Tofu , Kombu (a sea weed) and cucumber. Yummy all of them tasted so good. Allyn was specifically looking for some hobby kits. While searching for it he dumped into one of the sales girls who recognized him. They had earlier met in a mall in Pudong. Here we tried ask them about the places where Allyn’s stuff was available. After we got the address we went in search of the place by foot. The search looked like a never ending one. But finally we ended up in a place which was selling only consumer electronics. Huh what a waste of energy. So we came back to our hotel in metro and taxi. In the Shanghai Science and Technology museum grounds people were flying kites and roller skating. What a way to keep yourself busy.

The land of Dragons

Swatika

What is the difference between democracy and communalism? To find that out I am in Shanghai, China. Kidding I am in Shanghai for official reasons. I started my journey from Bangalore on the 25th Feb to Shanghai via Bangkok. The initial start of the journey was a long waiting Q to check in my stuff. I had a fear of exceeding the weight limit. My friends from office who had been here earlier were threading me about the food available here and I was playing safe with some ready to eat stuff and snacks. After waiting in the Q for an hour I got my bag checked in without any over weight. Then the immigration and customs was not an issue. Then I had to wait for an hour for the schedule departure. I called up some of my friends to do time pass. One was bloody drunk and repeating the same thing over n over n over. The flight took of on time from Bangalore 00:30. The flight had a hell lot of people going to Phuket, some package trip and making noise. It was like Honey Moon Travels Pvt. Ltd. All men�..:-(. In the flight there was food served at that hour and they woke me twice in the middle of my sleep to serve me food. Even though I did not want it. Idiots, could not sleep at all in the night. There was this movie Mistress of Spices being played. Looked more like a mystery. Could not watch that also my eyes were burning. In 3:45 hrs we were hovering above Bangkok and the time there was 5:45AM when we landed. I just got out and headed to a loo to do the most pleasurable job a man can think off�ah!!! The airport is called Swarnabhumi. The I had to do a transfer to my next flight which was at 11 in the day. Damn the Q here also was so big it too took one hour to get me the boarding pass for the next flight. By that time it was 7 and I was looking for a lounge to sleep. I went to the lounge operated by Thai airlines and they directed me to the economy class lounge. It was an open area with lots of sofa and couches . I found one and just crashed for about two hours I slept peacefully till my tummy grumbled for food. Then I realized that I had not eaten the previous night, den I went to Coffee World ordered a sandwich and a cold chocolate drink. I could not finish the sandwich it was too much to each, may be because I was too hungry. Then went about walking all over the terminal, I still had 2 hrs for my flight. There was everything available there in the terminal including a massage centre, it was nice place more like a mall to hang out. Some good girls also. Then boarded my flight to Shanghai which left at 11:20 and reached here at 3:45 PM. After immigration and baggage collection I took the Mag Lev to reach a place close to my hotel. This train run fuking fast. It runs at 430Km/hr and that is its maximum speed. Phew damn fast and in less than 10 minutes it got us to our destination. Very good and nice ride. From there I took a taxi and reached my hotel. One thing I realized after getting out of the airport that it is damn cold and my head was feeling it�brrrr�.. The hotel is good with all the facilities, fridge, washing machine and an oven. Nice and comfortable so far in China.

Quarter Mile

this year i turned 25 on the 10. It was a wonderful day and one of the bdays dat i m never gonna forget. i had bad first half of the day as i was in the ofc working under pressure. it was horrible i wanted to be out having fun but instead i was chained to my comp. by 12:30 i was done n my lead said he will take care from there on....it was like a trapped bird let free in the wild....yahwe...i literally ran.
mindu was der to pick me up from ofc as my beast was in mysore with ponni. we went to a restaurant called Jayamahal Palace. it is set in the back drop of a place and it is a nice place to sit and drink n drink...very peaceful too. incidentally satish also was born on the same day. so we both hosted a part for our team, candia, meenakshi, gen n bala. we had one hell of time there, started off with wine and then 3 cans of tiger beer per head. cani and bala did not drink...candi wanted to drink only with her parents...she was very uncomfortable siting with drunkards. sat was at his best bull shit formalities. meenakshi was doing wat he is good at entertaining us wid his stories and cheers and gumbhe!!! one hell of a guy...i appreciate him for the energy levels that he has...awesome never ever he gets tired. it was 6 when we all departed except for candi who just ran away from us. well then i was waiting for ponni and minchi who were riding to bangalore from mysore. i was a lil concerned as the cauvery tribunal had started a state wide agitation and mandya happens to be a place know for pro-cauvery. well they made it to bangalore without any hassles ans dat was great. it meant party party party n beer :-). meenakshi (who almost got crushed) and sat were also suppose to join us and we decide to go to Taika.AK should have been there but his brother getting married the next day meant curfew in advance. mindu n me waited for almost an hour and sat came and then ponni also came. we went to taika and were waiting to hit the dance floor. we were 6 in all. mennakshi was not yet in, he joine din later. when we entered the dance floor there were a small number of girls on the dance floor and the music was really good. there were a lot off ppl siting on the bench and sipping on...we found ourselves a comfortable place and got beer to satisfy our thirst. the music was intoxication and the disco lights along with the beer was tkaing you on high. the crowd started to pour in and the dance floor was getting crowded. I was in my second bottle of beer when meenakshi came in and said wat d fuk come down and this ice breaker did it all...we were dancing and dancing and dancing.......mindu the shy guy (self proclaimed) was also on the floor shaking his booty(although he has none...14' flat)...my my he just danced on on ononononon....sat was high to the core...he was jumping shouting and screaming and dancing all at the same time. ponni was too heavy to move arnd...but his moves are very cheeky....minchi wat do i say she was waiting for a fat girls clothes to slip off...her instincts were cropping over her (i m done for this...)...we all danced like mad ppl and suddenly realised that there was no fuking place on the floor. it was jam packed. the crowd was good with ppl from all races and i mean it. music good and so was the beer. entry charges of 300 and a pint of beer wud cost u 150.den it was time like u cannot stay in der...lots of smoke and the fumer dat you wud like to go out for some fresh air. when came out wat the hell the lounge also had turned into a dance floor and ppl were happily dancing...and den we realised that it was 11:30 in the night and food was at a premium at that time. we decide to leave and went to empire on church street for dinner. that place was even more crowded. we had food and dropped minchi and ponni in kamanahalli. by the time we reached home it was 1:30 and slept at 2 in the morning. oops forgot abt bala and malvika who were there at the party. bala is a lil slow starter and was new to this culture, but he opened up and later told himself that he will be coming with his girl to Taika. malvika is from assam and sat's date. she too had a good time on the floor except that she went home hungry ... how much she cursed sat only god knows. well so thats a part and day that i m gonna remember and as i was thinking 12-12 party...it did happen :-)

Hooka Bar

It had been a very long time since I went to Mysore. A very very long time, the last time I went to Mysore was when Ponni was here. I went again or rather passed through the city we went to Kanyakumari on bikes. Never stayed there or had fun, just passed through.
For about a six months or so I only got to hear stuff about Mysore now I really got to see the city on my own. There has been a lot of changes in the city a couple of more shops, restaurants and infrastructure improvements. The IT crowd had also grown, but the thing that had not changed is the pace at which life and the city moves. Just at leisure and that I like it a lot. You have the entire day to yourself to do what ever you want. In the evening had been to a place called Planet-X. It has a bowling alley, go-karting track, games arcade, restaurant and a pub/disco called the ‘Hooka Bar’. This was the venue for us to have fun. I ws hearing a lot about this place and the crowd through out the day. We finally got the entry after much f pushing around as stags :-(. Inside the environment was different. People were grooving to the music the DJ was playing and the crowd was a mixed one. People from all quarters and age were there. There were these pali girls who were really good…at least their ass was good in the low waist jeans ;-). The dance floor was really small but big enough for the enthusiastic dancers. I found myself comfortable on the bar stool with a mug of beer. While drinking those pali girls found some place in front of my stool to dance and of them was just shacking her ass…I was like gaping at them. They were really good…he he he. I must say that the crowd for Mysore was too much. It sure has grown up in all aspects. Just hope that it doesn’t get spoilt the way Bangalore has gone. I would still prefer it to maintain the integrity and purity and lazy boy status with all modern attires.

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