Karnataka Trip - Part 1

Music : On the Go Playlist from my Ipod

Starting with Dilemma – Kelly Rowland feat., Nelly.

[Yes I listen to stuff other than Classic Rock :-p]

Its been a while since I posted.

Yes, I know, I am a genius :-D

Even TheGirl has kind of given up asking when I will post next.

In any case, it’s been a good few months J

Among other things, have completed an almost 2000 km road trip on Trin [my Pulsar 180, full name Trinayan J] in Karnataka.

Its almost 2:15 AM on a Sunday morning and I am typing this in total darkness except for the laptop screen. Dad has seen foit to leave his new laptop in my room and I am using this to my full advantage. If only he had got his wireless net setup as well I would post this directly and not be bothering with Word. And I currently see that I am stuck using word with Courier New font at 12 point, which is a major hangover from wark L

Is irritating to type with this on my lap cos of the way the pad keeps moving the cursor above becos of my gut L

Ok, back to where we were.

Life has become very nice for sometime now.

Some stuff was revealed. Some acceptances have happened.

TheGirl and I have done a bit of early morning walking together as well J Taken her around Fort St.George as well J

Road trip was great. Thumper, B, Scam, Das and self went on it. Thumper’s T’bird, Shyam’s 350 and My Trin were the bikes.

Early morning on the 15^th after some confusion and lack of sleep we left for Karnataka.

To start with Thumper was irritated about frequent stops all through the ride :-P

We were supposed to leave at around 5AM after fuelling at the Shell opposite my apartment. Scam and Das turned up there pretty early on and were ready to go and I was there at 5 AM as well. Th and B however turned up only around 6 AM. We finally left around 6:15 AM and hit the Golden Quad road to Blore pretty soon.

Ate breakfast at Arusuvai Arasu and then went on ahead. Somewhere midway we stopped for a break. Stood in front of a parked truck cos of lack of shade. Took few pictures, including that of a goat wandering nearby. Started back off on the road. The road is rather brilliant, with practically no traffic in the day time, straight and smooth. Which of course is also a major issue. Not the smoothness. The straight and empty. It leads to a lot of sleepiness. Now on my bike, I had luggage strapped on the back. I also had my backpack on the tank like a tank bag. On the top pocket, I had a couple of stick of the new Polo Cinnamon [ not as good as altoids, but decent nevertheless] , and a bottle of Orbit sugar free. Had to keep popping one of both once in a while to keep awake :-P

A bullets rhythmic thumping can put one to sleep rather effectively :-P We were in a triangular formation with me on the left rear. Two bullets were thumping around rhythmically, and boy did I feel sleepy! I nearly kept riding into the dirt on the left more than once, before I broke formation and raced ahead. The route has some brilliant scenery though.

[The Guys – L to R – Das, Scam, B and P, Scam’s bike and some lorry]

Long story short, we kept breaking more often than we thought necessary and got into Blore around 2 PM. Ended up at Woodys in Jayanagar for lunch. Horrid place. Discussed for a bit, met Himan from college, who turned up to say hi, and a friend of B’s who came as well. There were these hifaultin’, foreign accent English speeking types who turned up and cribbed to us about the amount of space we were taking up, which we as expected, just ignored.

Around 4 PM we started, riding on the Mysore Bangalore Highway, with Madikeri as the destination. Sunset on the road was brilliant. Had a clichéd but nice shot of a temple silhouetted in the sunset, but couldn’t take the shot as we were already behind schedule and riding hard to catch up. Finally got a few shots near a petrol pump.

The higway was brilliant, much better than the road to Blore, mainly cos it was just as smooth, but was a lot more curvier :-P Took a right turn off the road after sometime to get on the State Highway [66 I think] to Madikeri. Here the road turned very bad, and my cold started getting worse. I already had a cold from two days of long hours and one night of very little sleep for getting lotsa work done to get time off for the trip. Around 10:30 PM, we were still about 50 KM from Madikeri, and at the outskirts of a town called Kushal Nagar. There we found a shop run by some sympathetic people from TamilNadu :-P They advised us that the Ghat section was better not tackled at night and for us to stay in Kushal nagar was the better option. I was also not feeling too optimistic about our prospects for getting there on time, so we opted to stay in a hotel in K nagar. Slept very soundly till about 10 AM the next day.

During the ride to Blore, was listening to some music I hadn’t heard in quite a long time. Old faves like Culture Beat’s Crying in the rain. Does anyone remember them now? This includes the nut who showed them to me and used to listen to Mr.Vain quite a bit. You know who you are :-)

Is now 3 Am, and I think my plans for the day are effectively changed :-P Will now go sleep for a bit and blog more later...

And now it is the next day. I am in Tam and using the laptop there. From what my dad has told me, this is mine, for all intents and purposes :-P

Next day night now.

Woke up around 9 AM the next day. Promptly ingested the mornings crocin dose after some essential activity. [Come On, Come In – Velvet Revolver] Finally got a bit ready [read, bathed and ready for breakfast]. The one decent place was shut for a puja, so we ended up at a hole in the wall, one where the dosa and idli alike were too salty and bad, and the chutney looked a lot like just white powder which had been mixed with some chilli and water. Tried another place, but had a bad time there as well. Finally settled for a bakery and gorged there [brilliant honey cakes!] B was trying to eat when two kids turned up, and asked, so he gave them the cake. Then the next, a mother and her baby came. B gave them his next cake, took another piece for himself and we left pronto before more people turned up.

[Scenes from our hotel balcony when I woke]

Then we set off for Madikeri and then to Manglaore. The road to Madikeri from Kushal nagar was decent. Wish we had more time though. We went past Dubare Elephant camp. If we had more time, would have spent a night and day there. Place is supposed to be brilliant. Finally reached a fork in the road which took us to Abbey falls. The road down to the falls was a decent ghat strech. Got to the falls. Y this time I started wheezing a bit and took an Asthalin. Which of course I haven’t in a while, but that story later. :-P .

On the way to the falls, there was this beautiful viewpoint. Spent almost and hour taking pics there.

[P and B en route to Abbey]

[Self, minus haircut and shave, with a fully loaded Trin]

To be continued...