Craving for curves - Ooty revisited

My therapy-my bike, my medicine-My bike, My companion-My bike. Week full of crazy work and when weekend shows up, its time to gear up and head out. When there was a discussion of heading out to Ooty and Wayanad for a days ride, I was excited- excited beyond imagination. I have always wanted to ride in the cool twisty roads surrounded by serene forests and this was one heck of an offer. I jumped in and said yes I am joining. What better way to set my twisted off head due to tons of work straight than hitting the twisty and curvy roads of Ooty. 

Sunday 2AM was decided as the time for departure, and as usualy, sleep eluded me. However hard I tried to, all I could do was drool over the beauty of Ooty, and to add over to it, the list of places what I had missed in my previous visit were the ones that we were planning to visit this time around. So mentally picturing and framing my photos and thinking of how fun it will be, alarm started screaming. It was time to head out and so did I. 

Everyone was on time and we left for Bandipur at 2AM taking the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Whoever named this road a highway should be shot in the knees. There are millions.. no zillions of speed breakers on this road and lot of them crawl up at you and show up at the last minute like a surprise visitor, or more like an unwanted guest. Lots of these are unmarked and some of these are really hard to spot even in the day light. Somehow we waded through all these and reached Bandipur gates at 6AM which is the exact time for them to open. Stopped for a cup of tea and pulled out the camera.

Some nice views all around on a foggy morning.

Bandipur gate which was just open for vehicle movement. Travellers please make note that the gates are closed from 8PM to 6AM as this is a reserve forest area. Plan your travel in this route accordingly.

So done with tea we headed on into the forest. The roads have speed breakers every 100 meters. This is to stop people from over speeding and hitting the animals. Early morning, you get to see lot of animals. We spotted elephants, deers, lots of monkeys and some one spotted a fox. The views inside the forest had nothing great to write about since this being summer, all we could see were dried trees. It was the fog that made the journey amazing. The roads were smooth except for the occasional speed breaker and we stopped somewhere for a few clicks.

Few Deer who gracefully posed for a pic

The roads inside Bandipur forest

PC: Pratik Gupta

We crossed over to Tamilnadu in quick time and we took a left from Mudhumalai gate towards Ooty. The fun starts now as this road is decorated with 36 super steep hairpin bends. I was looking forward to these and was grinning from ear to ear. The road till the base of Ooty hill were average and very narrow. We started the climb and I who was tailing the group all this long started leading in all excitement. 

Few pics en route:

Once the curves were done and dusted, we headed for breakfast in Ooty city. Filled up the hungry tummy and the next destination was Avalanche lake. If you read my previous travelogue of Ooty, you will remember that I missed this place due to heavy rain and this time I wanted to make sure that I visited the place. 

We headed on, loosing way, people sending us in all directions, finally it was Google Maps to the rescue and we continued on our merry way. The roads need a special mention here. They are brilliant, smooth, super curvy, super scenic and every damn thing is superb on this road. I stopped for a few clicks as I knew few of the best spots from my last visit.

Emerald lake as from the road:

The city:

Emerald lake:

We reached Avalanche to find out that we had to take the bus service from the department to visit the place and it would mean loss of 3 hours. We had to visit Wayanad too and hence we decided to skip the trip. But this is when few people in the group started to say no to Wayanad. I was a little disappointed as I have always wanted to ride in the Ooty-Wayanad road. Finally we decided  not to visit Wayanad and head out after visiting Emerald lake.

We spent time here clicking pics and having fun. As it was noon and we had no other plans we could relax. Few pics from Emerald lake.

There she is, she completed 10K Kms with me in 4 months.

A panorama of the lake.

Some more posing:

We had food in Ooty and headed back leisurely. A little sweet talking to one of the security guards ensured that we could take the same route we took on our way in. Slowly steadily we descended the ghats. Here I guess few kids were in a hill climb race on their bikes, and one of them suddenly crossed our way in haste in one of the hairpins. Lucky for him and us that we could stop in time. To those kids if you are reading this, please try to take your lives out where there is no one else to be harmed. Don't hurt others due to your foolish acts.

Met another group of people, couples actually who were clicking pics of our group ride. Got stuck in rain and somehow reached back home by 3AM Monday. I was a little heartbroken that I could not visit Wayanad, but that is coming up shortly post monsoon. Till then the journey continues and I will be back with a new destination. Stay tuned for more.

A tale of 3000 Kms, 8 days, 3 states and 2 bikes – Day5

Life is not lived in the past, neither is it lived wandering in future. Life is for today, and it is today. Live it, love it, see it, and show how capable you are of everything you wish to achieve. This is one very motivational quote and true to it, we started the wonderful day at 5:30AM. We were to head to Valparai today to meet up with a group of beloved bikers from Yamaha Riders Club (YRC) and spend the rest of days in their company. But as fate would have it, one of our friend, Saquib who was in the YRC group could not make it and we did not know anyone in their group apart fro Saquib.

We continued on the fantastic Salem-Kanyakumari highway and stopped for the tea ritual. I suggested Lohith on continuing the ride for somemore time than going to Valparai. After lot of thought, he came up with lets go to Rameshwaram? This was what exactly the doctor had ordered for me, and I happily agreed. We took directions from the gentlemen in the tea shop and headed towards Rameshwaram.

This was the view in front of us and we were really enjoying ourselves riding on this beautiful stretch.

Mr. Sun decided to play around with clouds and not show up for a nice sunrise shot. What a spoil sport.

As we moved towards Rameshwaram, the roads again changed to undivided single lane ones which made Lohith get tensed up. Me having ridden in TN, assured him that the roads will be joy to ride on and we carried on.

Stopped for some snaps and some monkeying around.

Thats me.

The surrounding fields.

My new found super bike.

And that's the camera shy Lohith hiding his face.

The roads were fantastic, small cities scattered around, no hint of traffic and we were happily cruising. We stopped for tea at a small road side place and became instant celebrities. The bikes were ogled at, touched, analyzed in detail by the locals. They found the underbelly exhaust in Lohiths Duke interesting. Questions on if the exhaust was cut off? if there is no exhaust? speculations of Duke having an AC! yes AC, the radiator was supposedly AC for them and I was quietly listening, giggling and sipping my tea. Had fun there and thanks to these guys.

We were close to Rameshwaram and a slight traffic started building up. As we neared the famous Pamban bridge, we saw an open sea shore which we did visit.

Couple of fishermen kids showed up, one very shy (as you can see, hiding his face) and the other the exact opposite. We had good fun chatting to these guys, and the one posing with the bike said that his dad has the same bike as mine and he knows how to ride it! He wanted to take my bike for a round! He did a detailed compare between the CBR and Duke and decided that Duke was better and later switched his story to "my dad has a Duke and I know how to ride it".  

We bid good bye to them and headed towards the bridge, promptly to be greeted by a traffic jam. The bridge was under repair and the traffic was one way. While we were irritated at this, we also got the opportunity to meet this wonderful couple who were on a touring spree in their Suzuki Access! And all the people called us mad!

They were into their fourth day of ride and we were very happy to meet them and hear their story. Suggested them to get good riding gears and then we bid adieu to them and took off to cross the chaotic Pamban bridge.

The train showed up exactly on time and I love this train for making this shot complete.

The coastline of Rameshwaram.

Once we reached Rameshwaram, it was chaos. It was hot, we were not finding rooms to stay and we wasted good amount of time trying to find a room to stay. We decided to head to Ramanathapuram and stay there, but luckily we found a room and happily we stuffed all the luggage in the room and headed for lunch.

Next visit was to Dhanuskodi, the town that was decimated in Tsunami and it was around 15Kms from Rameshwaram. We headed on, met a couple of local guys on bikes who wanted a race. Lohith decided to pull over and gave them gyan on riding gears! The best dialogue was  when the guy said that he had a helmet, but he keeps it at home. Lohith snapped back and said why don't you keep it at the temple and do pooja. Lol, they ran away from us, real quick.

We reached Dhanushkodi where we were stopped by police guys who asked for our ID proof. I showed him my PAN card, but he wanted to know where I work and a proof of that! Crazy guy, I handed him my visiting card and had a tough time in explaining that I work for that company and don't own it. As per suggestion of locals, we decided to take our bikes to the end point which usualy is only possible by 4x4 vehicles. The whole place is covered with loose sand and we somehow decided to try our luck.

As fate had it, 50 meters into the path, the bikes wouldn't move an inch forward! More the throttle, the deeper the wheels sunk. Decided to push the bike and covered some ground. Meanwhile, the 4x4's had arrived and were constantly honking for way. How do I give way when I can barely move forward! One driver got irritated, came out, lifted my bikes front section and put it out of the tyre tracks and cursed me to death. Somehow we managed to push our bikes back and decided that we take the 4x4's after parking the bikes. We were drenched in sweat. We were in full riding gear and the heat had baked me from inside and I desperately wanted to find some shade.

Now the biggest hassle was in front of us. Parking! Where ever we had been, the bikes had drawn attention, people touching, sitting on the bikes, fiddling with switches! They say bikes are like wives and you are not supposed to touch others bikes. But this is India, no one cares how the owner cares for the bike, the love towards the machine, all they want is to satisfy their hunger. I still remember how I was in shock when a guy had placed a brick on my previous bikes tank scratching the paint off. This place was no exception either. The moment Lohith parked his bike and walked a few steps, there were posers all over the bike, lined up to take their pictures. High time for us to learn to  respect others property. We scrapped the plan to park and decided to head back.

We headed back and stopped at a temple, built across the sea and the connecting road was right between the sea. Sat there chatting, planning, and me as usual making jokes out of nothing to bug Lohith. We had fun whilst the evening sun was showering his golden rays at us.

After all the fun and jibber jabber, it was time to leave. The day was amazing. Met wonderful people, had fun, tensed about rooms, the feeling when we were stuck knee deep in sand with the bikes. All these make you complete as an individual and this ride thought us a lot. Had a quiet dinner, roamed around and retired for the day.

A tale of 3000 Kms, 8 days, 3 states and 2 bikes – Day4

Today was the last day in Kerala, known as gods own country, and I truly love this state for the unadulterated natural beauty it offers. It may have congested roads, but all this can be forgotten by a mere look at one of its rivers! And today that was what we had in plate too. We had plans of visiting the famous boat house and head out to Kanyakumari.

As usual, we started early and headed straight to the famous boat house station. I stood mesmerized, speechless, thoughtless for a few moments looking at the serene and calm back waters, the majestic house boats gracefully floating away into the distant rising sun. Let the pictures speak and truly the beauty of this place is unmatched.

I was having an odd sense of achievement and somewhere somehow was feeling very emotional at this place. We were reluctant to leave, but the fear of having to ride in the dreaded roads forced us and we had to head out from this beautiful place.

Did I mention about Lohith having not brushed his teeth for last 3 days and finally buying a toothbrush in the morning! Yes, here is the pic of the magic stick that saved me from suffocation for the rest of the ride.

So off we started, back to the NH-47 which had already squeezed the last drops of patience out of us in the previous two days. Traffic was again high, the normal routine of following some slow moving traffic, trying to overtake, falling back and riding at slow pace continued. I was praying for this torture to end, and I knew that roads in Tamilnadu would be better. I wanted to get out of Gods own country as soon as possible.

As we started nearing TN, the roads started getting a little wider and a little traffic free, and finally at 1:30pm, we entered TamilNadu.

The scenic roads allowed us to cruise easily and we were nearing Kanyakumari. I was happy, last visit to Kanyakumari was in my schooling days and I was waiting to see the sunset. As we approached Kanyakumari, I saw a board indicating direction for Kanyakumari as right, so I took the right. Lohith went straight and he was signalling to another signboard which said road to Kanyakumari is straight ahead. I was confused, and being the lazy bum I am, I asked Lohith to come join me and we decided to take the right turn.

Boy, the best award laziness has ever brought me! the roads were 4 laned, super smooth and nothing like we had seen in the last 2 days and there was no one even in sight in the road, let alone traffic. I stopped and slept on the road, hugging it, asking the 4 laned roads to never leave me and become single lane. After monkeying around for a bit,we headed on in lookout for room to stay. Being the holiday season, we had very tough time, and finally found a very good room which was cheaper than all the places we had stayed till now.

Dumped all the luggage, freshened up and after a hearty lunch, we decided to head towards sunset point. As usual, it was very crowded, and I decided that the best place to catch sunset without people was at the seashore below. We had to climb down a steep ledge, and as they say, grass is greener on the other side, the place was stinking of shit. People had happily offloaded their stuff and we had to run away, far far away from there, and I could still hear Lohith cursing under his breath.

It was time, the golden hour had come and we soon were busy clicking pic after pic.

The light house

View from the road of the sea.

A deserted boat, for some variety.

The setting sun.

Now these were real interesting people.  They not only asked the price of my DSLR, they wanted me to take a pic of them which I did.Showed them the pic, they happy, me happy. But wait, they were like give us the print! I was wondering WTF is this now. I said this is a camera and not printer, they were clearly not happy and walked away commenting on the camera being pricey but still cant print a pic.

Guys if you are reading this by any chance, take the print out of your pic



The Tiruvalluvar statue.



The boat strikes again.



Mahatma Gandhi memorial.

We headed out, having fun walking in the sea of people. Clicking pics of interesting things, and this happened. Lohith wanted to snap the pic of a roadside vendor selling sea shells. The lady was pissed off and started foul mouthing him in Tamil. I was having a blast laughing at all the abuse being hurled at him and snapped a photo for memory of this moment.

Satisfied, headed for dinner. We met this family of four, 2 kids and parents who were from Bangalore. Had a small chit chat, and the uncle was surprised that we had come all the way from Bangalore on bikes! Are you guys crazy!? Was the exact reaction from him and when we told him about the trip we had done so far, he stopped talking to us and turned towards his family. I think he was concerned about his son listening to our story and finally end up following us.

Headed back, discussing on what we had done. We both were happy that we had reached southern most tip of India and since past 4 days we had done what we love! We were living our lives and we went to sleep with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

Day 5 log is here

A tale of 3000 Kms, 8 days, 3 states and 2 bikes – Day3

Bekal to Alappuzha
We woke up early as planned and we hit the road by 5:30. The roads were very enjoyable at this hour and we were having fun riding in the cool early hours. We stopped for the ritual of morning tea which is a must have for me. A cup of tea is like my elixir of life that awakens all the senses and gives that strength to carry on. Lohith had come to terms of my craving for tea and did not create fuss when I stopped. We met thousands of pilgrims headed to Shabarimala on their divine journey and that too by foot! We had quite a chat on how they manage to walk all the way to Shabarimala on bare foot when we are not able to take the burning sun in a motorcycle. Quite an insight into will power and what it can do to a human we got at 5:30AM at a desolated dark tea shop far away from where we belong!

We reached Thalasseri by 8 and we had plans of going to the drive in beach. We had overshot the diversion by a good 5Kms when we stopped to enquire for directions. We rode back and boy, the narrow winding road that takes you to the beach through coconut plantations was waiting to welcome us. It was a bliss to tide towards the beach and finally when we reached there, the beauty of the beach was so overwhelming, that we had to be stopped and called back by the toll collector! We were rushing towards the back and he had to literally drag us back to his office or shack or what ever it was.
Beautiful white sand and amazingly clean blue sparkling water was a feast to the eyes. This is the largest drive in beach in Asia and true to its name, the ride in the waves was an experience which I will never forget.




Fishermen at work.



A video of ride in the beach. I was scared initially, but later on I ventured deeper into the water.

After having fun in the beach, we headed on and stopped for breakfast at Thalasseri, and continued on our journey. The temperature was rising and the traffic was increasing too. As per Google maps, the road we were riding on was a NH, but to our surprise or due to lack of riding knowledge, the roads were too narrow for even a State highway. There were cities strewn all across and there were no bypass roads to avoid the cities or major junctions. This coupled with all the holiday goers, the traffic was maddening and we were wondering if Bangalore traffic was lower compared to this.

The menacing and reckless nature of Kerala drivers is well known. Bus drivers who dare to overtake while going head on  onto the oncoming traffic, car goers who own the roads and act as if giving way to a bike is an insult to their priceless ride, autowalas who have no interest in driving on the side and the motorcyclists who try to sneak through, infinite number of signals that show up, mentally abnormal pedestrians who give a damn about looking sideways before crossing. This was driving us crazy, and the insane heat was the final nail in the coffin. We did not want to ride in this and the breaks were getting frequent. Gods own country has the worst roads and the road sense in these parts as per me is zero. Slowly we were making progress and we were not sure at this pace we were going to reach Alappuzha. Lohith wanted a break in the noon. Stopped by shade and this is how I was.



Exhausted from all the chaos, I took shelter on a compound and the 15 min power nap got some energy back in me. We decided to take it slow and stop at Kochi if the progress was this slow and carried on. I don’t want to crib on how the ride was, you need to experience it to know the pain and somehow we reached Kochi by 6:30PM. We stopped for tea and a quick discussion on what next. We decided to continue as Alappuzha was 60kms from here and worst case we could make it by 8PM. Little did we know on what we had in store for us, roads started filling up and we had to stop at 100s of signals in Kochi. The metro construction work was in full swing and this was causing traffic pile up. Another huge pileup before Alappuzha made sure that we reached only by 9PM and we had to find shelter good 7Kms out side the city.
There was a procession from the local temple festival and the ladies clad in classic Kerala attire with all the lamps completed with the drum beats was a feast to the eye. Even when we were exhausted and desperately looking for a place to crash, we stopped for a couple of clicks.


Lohith decided that we cant carry on till Alappuzha with the blocked traffic. We went straight into the first lodge we saw, and luckily we got a very comfortable room for 1000Rs. Right next to it was a 3* restaurant which was the need of the hour. Freshened up and headed to fill up our hungry tummies. No idea on what time I slept as the last thing I remember is opening the room door and crashing on the bed.

It was a tiring day and we covered 440 kms after riding for  full 10 hours, all thanks to the traffic. Next day we had to reach Kanyakumari and I was comforting Lohith that the TN roads will be great and hoping for Kerala to end soon.

Day 4 log is here