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

A tale of 3000 Kms, 8 days, 3 states and 2 bikes – Day2

Gokarna to Bekal:

“Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on”
New day, out of Bangalore, fresh air, cool sea breeze, I was cuddling in the blanket and at around 5 I saw Lohith wake up and get ready. We had plans to visit the beach before we head out on our wonderful journey, but I was wondering why is he up so early! I know it will be pitch dark till 6:15 at least. I wanted to tell him, and I thought I told him.You know sometimes when your body just wants to sleep, it creates those feelings of waking up and doing some stuff that you have in mind, later you wake up to find it was all games played by mind!! This was one of them. I woke up late, got ready by 6:30 to see a disappointed Lohith sitting in the balcony looking outside, cursing himself for loosing sleep.

Now we start walking, walking to watch the sun rise and bestow all the beautiful golden orange colours that he has on the serene nature before transforming into a burning red hot avatar. The walk to the beach was beautiful and I will let the pictures do the talking.
This is what we saw once we stepped out of the room. It was late when we reached in the night so we couldn’t see on how beautifully the farm house has been maintained.


Now this is where I might have found Lohith, with may be couple of broken teeth had he tried to wade into the beach in the pitch dark.


The beautiful path which leads to another marvel of nature, filled up with cashew nut trees filled with flowers. I so want to be in my home town in summers, this place gave me all the memories of how school and college summers were spent, eating cashew fruit, mango, sleeping off in the trees, roam in the wild collecting peacock feathers. It feels like something that heart wishes to do, but the responsibilities force you to be otherwise.



Now once we crossed this path chatting, making fun of each other, and me asking some silly questions which apparently were bugging him, we see this.





Now, we forgot that we were together. I was filled with joy and happiness, I waded off somewhere and Lohith in the opposite direction, may be ( I don’t know). Clicking pics, soaking in the golden rays of sun, smirking at one nice lady who climbed a rock to start her meditation. Who wants meditation when you are in such a place! Found a Kingfisher sitting on a rock, and I wanted a pic of it. The moment I frame the shot, the bird flew off to another place. Now this continued for at least 15 minutes before I could finally manage one pic of the bird.



Few more snaps from the beach,











































Now it was time to leave, we had been on the beach for good 1 and half hours and we had to head on to our next destination. Now I have a problem, I cant start my day without tea. A desperate search resulted in no tea available and we did not want to wait. Headed back and packed our luggage, handed out the keys and went to our bikes to see this!!

Each and every part was red due to the Yana road we had taken, and Gokarna roads were not helping the cause either. Now we had to fill up fuel and hit the ATM for that much needed cash.After waiting for a long time, while Lohith struggled with his tank bag, we moved on only to be amazed by the road we had taken this time. Riding on the mountain, sea on my left, roads that were twisty like a serpents tail, this needed a photo stop. Now photo stops are difficult, remove the helmet, balaclava, gloves, take out the camera and do things in reverse order, but who cares! I am out here to enjoy, take home the memories to cherish (show it my kids someday may be).












































Headed on, it was a small lane, forcefully going through a sea of houses that had their doors right on the edge of the road. This was an awesome feeling twisting and turning, ever so carefully (not to hit any one and get beaten up by crowd) we got out of the lane to see the Gokarna temple. Now on the journey started, another stop at fuel station meant loosing at least 15 mins of time in tying Lohith’s tank bag. Temperature was rising and last thing you want is to become a toast by the end of the day. We stopped for that much needed breakfast soon. Eating to hearts content, we were discussing the plans. I assured Lohith that the roads will be good and we can make up for the lost time.

Headed out into the smooth tarmac, enjoying every minute, Lohith was riding like there was no tomorrow for some reason (May be he wanted to make up for the lost time). We hit the ghat section only to find trucks and cars piled up. It was difficult to stay together in traffic and Lohith overtook a truck and we split up. I like curves, and I started overtaking, carefully and swiftly, I overtook most of the traffic and in the process, left Lohith behind. Now I overtook an Ertiga, and the driver was not amused (How can a bike over take a SUV!). Best part was, driver and the co passengers peeping out of the windows to see what on earth is that . I stopped for Lohith and saw Snehith’s missed call. He was in Udupi and we made plans to meet up for lunch. Finally after waiting for 20 mins, Lohith turned up. Cursing me for leaving him behind, and telling me stories of how a lady ended up hearing Udupi as Monkey.

It was time to hit the road again, and the mercury level was at its peak. Crosswinds were high and it was getting difficult to overtake trucks without being pushed out to the other side of the road by the winds (I almost ended up under a bus due to this). There on I started calculated overtakes.




West coast is blessed with very serene beach lines.For explorers, Bhatkal has many beaches and a light house that is not crowded or hogged by tourists.

We moved on, crossed Bhatkal and after a point we started hitting diversions. Man, 4 lane conversion of the NH was in full swing and the roads had more diversions than the holes in a dosa. Now on it was torture for us. Find a good piece of tarmac, twist the throttle, and wham there's the diversion. Finally managed to reach Udupi and called up Sneh bhai, decided to have food at Sharada and we headed there. It was nice to find shade finally and we waited for Sneh for a good 15 mins. He showed up in his car. Showed all the luggage in his cars boot and entered the hotel. Lohith was in hurry to leave, I frankly had no intentions of leaving (I liked being in the cool AC room) and yeah, I got my favourite curd rice for food. Hotel felt like heaven and the hot roads like hell. Had fun chatting catching up on stuff, and then it was time to leave. Thankfully, Sneh thought how to tie the tank bag to Lohith and we hit the road again.

We were in dilemma when we were leaving. Sneh said the roads are not going to improve till Mangalore, we were not sure if we could reach Bekal as planned or would have to stop in Kasargod. We decided that we will see to it in Kasargod and rode on.

The roads as they were, were tiring and the hot and humid weather was not making it any better for us.
The traffic was crazy once we hit the Mangalore-Kasargod road. There was no common sense among drivers, and mainly the frustration of diversions were coming out in the form of road rage. I was almost hit by an unruly driver in Innova who was driving like mad. Lohith saw this too and he surprisingly said lets stop him!! Never expected that from Lohith. Tailgated the Innova for good amount of time which apparently got him scared and he did a mad dash and got out of sight.

The torture of diversions continued till we reached Bekal and it was 8 by the time we reached there. The roads had gone from ridable to unbearable after we had reached Kasargod. It was getting dark and the dust coupled with high beam wielding oncoming traffic was making the progress slow.

On the way we had stopped for tea, Lohith after ordering tea came out and we were chatting. One guy with whom I had enquired about directions started talking to me and I don’t know what prompted Lohith to reply in broken Tamil I think he thought he was being spoken to and when I replied in fluent Malayalam, Lohith was shocked. (I had not told him I lived in Kerala for 3 years during my schooling).


Reached Bekal, it was very dark and we were tired and very exhausted. Looked for a room, found a very spacious one for 1500 bucks after lot of haggling for price. Could not visit the fort as it was too late. Roamed around for food, ate to hearts content and crashed. We decided to leave early next day as the heat was becoming unbearable and tiring. We had plans to leave early cover good grounds before sun comes out all guns blazing so that we could make some ground without getting fried while praying that the roads get better.

Day 3 log is here

A tale of 3000 Kms, 8 days, 3 states and 2 bikes – Day1

It all started when one of my friends had an idea of going for a long ride for Christmas break. Applied for leave, got it too, but my friend couldn't make it. I was looking for a ride and I absolutely hate sitting at home with nothing to do. Started checking with friends on their availability. Now my friend Lohith had leaves and we decided to ride together and started planning 3 days before the ride on places to cover. We had already plans made of meeting with YRC guys in Valparai and ride back with them to Bangalore. So the plan that we stated working on was

Leave on 23rd : Gokarna

24th, Bekal fort

25th, Kochi,

26th, Pollachi and meet up with YRC group and return to Bangalore on 29th.

Now Lohith informed that he could leave on 22nd, one day earlier than the plan and we decided to include Kanyakumari in the route plan.We thought we were optimistic about the  places we had decided to cover but went on with the plan deciding to modify the routes on the fly depending on the fatigue levels. But we ended up doing more than we planned which is a different story which will be revealed in the later posts. The maps image for places covered is below

Now that the route was finalized, it was time to buy stuff and get the bikes ready and we had very little time, but we managed it somehow. Plan was to meet up at Hebbal junction at 4:15 and leave from there. I reached at 4:10. Lohith who usually is on time was not to be seen. Pinged him and waited. Finally he showed up at 4:45 and apologized for the delay which was due to his new tank bag and  he forgot his wallet at home (It must be age taking toll on him ). We started heading towards Tumkur road and stopped for tea at Tumkur road toll gate. I cant start my day without tea and frequent tea breaks will be a part of the log. This was first long ride for both of us, though I have done it to an extent, for Lohith it was new and I felt that he was a little scared when we stopped for tea. Gave him few suggestions and a pep talk and we headed out on our beautiful journey on the smooth roads.

Reaching Sira took no time and we stopped for a cup of tea. It was cold, my teeth were chattering and we gladly took the liberty of finding warmth shamelessly in the fire some guy was lighting up . We took a few snaps, mainly of our companions, my CBR and Lohith’s Duke,  who were posing like super models in the nice orange background from the rising sun.





Warmed up, we started our journey towards the city of forts, Chitradurga, reaching which again on the smooth 6 lane roads, looking at the amazing colors worn by the morning sky was a breeze. If you are going on this road, a must take pic is of the wind mills lined up. So did we, a stop to capture these beautiful windmills was mandatory any way .



Now we were deciding on place to have breakfast. Both of us were hungry, and we decided to eat at a place which we find on the way ahead. We found a Kamath restaurant which unfortunately was closed. In the line up of never ending dhabas on the way, we finally found a decent looking place, had out tummy full of idlies and omelets. We had to take a diversion after Ranibennur and we took the state highway towards Sirsi. This was a single lane road with some bad potholed stretches. Even with the bad roads, the ride was amazing getting in and out of forests. Going into shade from burning hot sun who apparently wanted to see us sweat it out to reach our destination, abruptly braking for the pothole that seemed to appear from thin air, soaking in all the beauty nature had to offer, we continued riding only to stop at a beautiful lake.






It was mid noon and we were sweating like crazy and being fully geared up did not help. We continued our journey and stopped for lunch by 2pm. Now Lohith was getting ideas. Ideas of going to Jog falls (Its only 60 kms from here dude), lets go to Yana and stuff like that. May be the heat was acting up on him giving him some ideas . I shot down the idea of Jog as at this point of time, even my bathroom tap can beat the falls in the amount of water competition . I was considering Yana at the back of my mind, but the road condition got me worried on getting late to Gokarna. I said no to both the ideas which made him feel sad I guess.
We headed out back in the scorching heat towards Gokarna. Now on the way I saw the diversion towards Yana. I stopped and asked Lohith if he wants to go see Yana and from the look on his face I could see that the answer was a big yes. With fuel levels low, we had to find a source of petrol within say 120 Kms, but on the way to Yana, I saw a board which said you will reach Gokarna in 70kms if you go straight .  One stone, 2 birds and we trotted happily in the dense forest filled roads, enjoying the peace and pin drop silence which only would be broken by chirping birds. The roads were curvy and we had fun till we reached a point where the roads just disappeared. For the next few kms, it was a motocross circuit and we had fun. The icing on the cake was the cheer from school kids (actually there were like thousands of them on educational trip) when ever they saw us.


We reached the parking spot from where the trek to Yana rocks begin. Now one gentleman showed us a side entry and suggested to take the bikes down  and would we miss an off roading chance? Never, and so we decided to ride it out to the bottom. The roads were full of rocks and in the hoards of walking people, few cheering, few laughing at our madness, we reached a point where Lohith asked me to stop. He felt that the slope was turning steeper and it will be difficult on the way back. I was reluctant to turn back, but we stick together in a group and respect each others thoughts. So we turned back and headed to the gate again.





From here Gokarna was 40Kms and it was around 4:30. So hoping for good roads, we set off. We were greeted by the most amazing roads we had seen after leaving the highway after Ranibennur. I was happy, leaned in into a smooth wide corner and poof, road disappears! Its all gravel and unpaved rocks which I could see as far as my vision goes. I was not happy, it was a ghat section completely unpaved and we had to really concentrate not slip and break our bones in the gravel. After what seemed to be an eternity, some patches of roads appeared and we found ourselves looking at the most amazing view of the day.





From here the roads were good and we made to the base of the hills in good time. Few snaps were clicked, few kids were spoken to and yeah, Lohith was asked not to click his photo by one of the kids in almost a threatening manner





We made to our destination Gokarna by 6:30 and we had to find a place to stay. Since it was vacation time, we had a tough time going from resort to resort and finally ended up finding a place in out 5th attempt. The rooms were good and the price quoted was 1200 which was ok for a sea facing room. Freshened up and found a place to eat. Nothing can beat food and a bottle of chilled beer when it comes to ending a day which was full of action, both on road and off road. It was time to hit bed looking up to a fun filled tomorrow waiting to hit the serene beaches of Gokarna to see the rising sun and head out towards our next destination, Bekal.

Day 2 log is here
Day 3 log is here
Day 4 log is here