Go ....

We got up not so early, got ready at our own pace, had breakfast (including Mangalore buns) at some small eatery right beside the lodge. This was supposed to be a starter breakfast to sustain us till we reached Udupi, as Ajay had this fixation to eat at Mitra Samaj in Udupi. So off we started to Udupi.


We reached in about an hour & went to Ashwin's place. His house was of course locked from many months as his parents had shifted to Yellapur. His cousin & our old batchmate Madan's house was right behind his. So that was our pit-stop in Udupi. The original plan was to dump the luggage there, go to Mitra Samaj, go to Krishna temple, then go to Manipal, go to Downtown, have lunch & beer there, go to endpoint, come back, stay for a little while then leave. But Madan's mom made it pretty clear that we would all be having lunch in the house, so we had to make minor (which became major) changes in our plans. We had a nice lunch. Then even though madan's mom told us that there would be a huge rush in the temple at lunch time & and that we would be better off going after 2'o clock, we decided to check out if we could finish the temple darshana then itself. Madan also accompanied us. On the way to the temple, it was local boy Ashwin's turn to show around the building's as "my school", my this, my that etc. He even showed us the building where he had his Upanayana ceremony, I mean who cares right? (I was much better as a local boy in Mangalore). We should listen to elder's advice is the lesson we learnt when we reached the temple. So we turned back and headed to Manipal.


We directly went to End-Point passing by the huge awesome buildings which is the college/hostel/library/museum & god-knows-what building of KMC, Manipal. Manipal is truly a sophisicated educational paradise. It doesnt matter if they are actually producing world class doctors or not, the facilities & infrastructure are just mind-blowing & the urban-student culture there would give a complex to any true blue urban-Bangalorean. Just as a passing note, Manipal was the place where I did my 1st & 2nd standard of schooling as my dad used to work in KMC, Manipal back then. Manipal wasnt at all like this back then and all I could remember from those days was my school (Madhava Kripa) which obviously I did show to everyone.


Coming back to End-Point, this is a very famous spot in Manipal which is supposed to literally mean as it sounds. It used to be this long stretch of road on a cliff & then the road would end & you would be left with only cliffs around. There is of course no point like a suicide point, coz the cliffs/hills continue all along, so it isnt as if you would reach a point beyond which you cant take a step. But it is beautiful nonetheless. There was this nice resting spot where we just sat (Ajay slept) & let the calmness soak into us. The walls & benches over there were fully filled with graffiti ranging from very-funny to outright-vulgar. However from being a "adda" of sorts for the "anti-social" crowd, End-Point has now become an official spot for people to gather, I guess. A nice spacious park, a cricket stadium & a football stadium (both superbly maintained with lush green lawns) and a jogging track (in the making) at such a location seemed too good to be true. We then went to this Kaka angadi just at the entrance of End-Point where Ravish Kamath (known as Kama in our circles) came to pay us a courtesy visit. We sat there for a while and headed back to Udupi (visit to Downtown got cancelled because of lack of time).


We went to Mitra Samaj directly & planned to visit the temple later. However the waiter told us that the Goli baje would be ready in another 10-15 minutes, so we decided we could as well finish the darshana first. So off we went to the temple, but I guess Shri Krishna was just too busy for us that day. The queue was still extending beyond the doors of the temple, so we did the next best thing that you can do in Udupi for a darshana, we went to 'kanakana kindi' which is this small window outside the temple, supposed to give the devotees a straight-line view to Lord Krishna. Feeling spiritually contented with our darshana, we headed back to Mithra Samaj, plan was to order something else till the Goli baje was ready. From the time we entered Mitra Samaj till we came out, we just kept on ordering plates of Goli baje/vada one after the other. The vada's were piping hot & crispy and what about the goli baje? Dont ask silly questions, I say. I am sure the wait for Ajay from breakfast till now was completely worth it. In the josh of the moment, our Udupi boy Ashwin took out his purse & declared that this was his treat & we graciously accepted his generosity.

We went back to Madan's place, his Dad was also there, got some advice about the roads being the property of the private buses, so we were asked to respect that fact. We started at around 4'o clock from Udupi, with the intention of staying in Murdeshwar for the night. Midway it was already getting dark, so we started contemplating if we should just halt somewhere & visit Murdeshwar in the morning on the way to Gokarna. However on coming to know from some guy at some lodge that there were quite a few lodges in Murdeshwar we decided to go there & search for some cheap place for the night.


On the way to Murdeshwar we passed by Maravanthe beach. Well the beach as such isnt any special, its just that there is this nice highway right alongside the beach (the only beach in Karnataka to have this I suppose). So its kind of a tourist spot for anyone travelling on that road to stop for a while, sit on the rocks & take photos. We did the same, except that it was 7 PM & pitch dark. But a photo was a must, so Ajay got his bike down (as far as he could) near the rocks. I sat on it & asked all of them to sit close together, then raising the acceleator to make the High-beam of the headlights to beam even more I clicked 2-3 photos. It came out ok. Then we realized that taking the bike up wasnt going to be easy. There was no place to even turn around & the slope was a steep one. So me & Ashwin pulled the bike from the back all the way to the top. Bhatta was at the front and he said he was "push"ing the bike from the front, we just shrugged. We reached Murdeshwar at around 8'o clock and after a lot of scanning we found just 2 places having rooms available. One was at around Rs.1500 & the other around Rs.2500. It was way beyond normal rates, but since it was a Saturday the crowds were very huge. Actually on the way to Murdeshwar in Bhatkal, Bhatta had given a call to one of his friend Roshan who lived in Bhatkal. He had told Bhatta that we could come to his place anytime. So we decided to have dinner at Naveen beach resort & then give him a call. I wasnt very keen on riding all the way back to Bhatkal, so I had this plan that we will go back to that 1500 place and bargain for lesser. The resort had an open-air lawn restaurant. Without bothering too much about the families & other people seated there we placed our orders for beer, Bhatta tried to contact Roshan. We finished beer & placed our orders for food, Bhatta was still trying to contact Roshan. We finished food and asked for the bill, Bhatta was now trying to contact Roshan's friend, Roshan's girlfriend and anyone who could contact Roshan. Little did we know that it was Murphy's law at play- 'Battery of mobile phone always goes bust when someone is urgently trying to contact you'. Somehow Bhatta was able to get through & even though it was almost 10.30 PM Roshan said it was perfectly ok for us to come over. None of the others were keen on bargaining in that 1500 place, so off we started to Bhatkal.


Bhatkal is considered a sensitive place with regard to religion in Karnataka because of the huge Muslim population over there. We came across a check-post and we were pretty sure we would be questioned because of out attire/bikes/luggage/time-of-night etc. We were asked to stop and show all documents. I cant recollect the exact conversation we had with the cop (needless to say it was funny). Anyway everything went on smoothly and we carried on to Roshan's place. It was almost 12'o clock by the time we reached his place. Bhatta had to do a bit of sneaking around the house to wake up Roshan from his room window. The fact that his parents allowed us to gate-crash into their place so late in the night was more than enough for us. But what was actually in store for us was totally unexpected.

It was the only house that I saw on that road (maybe the darkness made me miss the others). We had already got booze on the way so we just put our bags inside & decided to settle outside the house. His dad was awake & we were quite scared that he would start cursing us at any moment but to our surprise he actually helped us with the chairs & later after we had all sat without a table, he got one from inside & told us it would be impossible to have drinks without a table!!! I guess we all knew then itself that this would be a long night. No one to get disturbed, no one to disturb us, just we with booze, loads of smoke & the darkness of the night engulfing us from all sides. I can say it was the most relaxing booze I had on this trip (maybe because I was the only one with a curvy cane chair which allowed me to stretch fully). At around 2'o clock we were all pretty high & thats when Roshan decided to get one of his Cuban cigar's !! He even taught us the way to smoke them and how not to smoke it as you would a cigarette (from whatever he had learnt in Canada). Well we chewed more & smoked less, but who cares, we all now have a 'Nike symbol' for "To smoke a Cuban Cigar". Ashwin was the first to give in to sleep, after a little while I gave up trying to doze off on the chair itself & went inside and from the instant I hit the bed it was a total blackout.

27-12-08: Mangalore-Udupi-Manipal-Bhatkal-Murdeshwar-Bhatkal

Go ...

I woke up to the sound of glass shattering on the floor, it doesnt matter how Bhatta managed to find his long hands all the way to the glass & make it fall, all that mattered was that they didnt ask us to pay for it. We had a whole day and just one city to roam around, ok one n a half (considering Suratkal as a half city). Ajay wanted to (I stress wanted to) have breakfast at Janatha Deluxe. So once we were all ready, we first went there for breakfast. But on reaching there, the guard told us that the restaurant was closed, closed as in permanently. I dont know if they were renovating or they had shut it altogether. Anyways I then remembered this episode of 'Highway on my plate' where those 2 guys had visited Mangalore and been to Hotel Ayodhya. I took them there, and we started ordering just about everything we found Manglorish. Its one of those places where no matter how much you eat, the bill doesnt make you feel so.

Ajay felt that there was some problem with his front brakes, so I took them to the only Bajaj showroom I knew. The mechanic-guy over there took a small ride & said that there wasnt any major problem. We then started towards Surathkal through the highway route (which the buses & lorries take to avoid entering the city). ASAI knew that road was wonderful, but now there was major construction going on throughout that entire strech, which meant lots of red muddy dusty roads. Some super-duper flyover was being constructed as part of some super-duper highway from Mangalore to Udupi. That was the first sign I had of the concrete jungle (in terms of roads) that Mangalore was becoming. We reached Suratkal in less than half an hour at around 1 PM.

I didnt know where the Suratkal beach was exactly located and was surprised when I saw that the turn toward the beach was right oppposite to NIT Suratkal. I even heard from Ajay that NIT Suratkal had its own private beach a few kilometres away. Those lucky nerds! We rode upto Suratkal beach, and were sad to see that the lighthouse timings for visitors started from the evening. The beach was deserted and we got down from the cliff and walked along for a while. There was actually no one apart from us, so we decided to get into the water. So we did, played around a little, tried some games with one tennis ball, realized it was boring then finally came out. This was when Ajay had his first casualty, he lost his Jockey while washing the mud off in the sea.
There was this old fishing boat, which looked ideal for a morose black & white film photo. I did a lot of focusing & adjustment & made sure that I could fit in somewhere in the photo. Ajay was anyway looking at the sea, with his butt faced towards the camera,I asked Bhatta who was at the far end to look right, Ashwin who would be behind me to look left & I would be the frontmost & would look to the right. I clicked on the self timer & ran to my position, turned left (not right) & "click" the camera went.
We stopped for lunch at some place on the way back to Mangalore. The waiter was pretty pissed that we had come so late for lunch, after giving us the menu & waiting for us to place orders he told us that only meals & pulav were available. We ate whatever was available and because of the condescending attitude of the waiter didnt leave him any tip (Suttu will be proud of us).
We paid a visit to Panambur beach on the way back, just sat there for some time, had tea and thats it. I was surprised to see a 'baywatch' kinda guard-post right in the center of the beach. We did see a couple behind an umbrella which was more funny & corny rather than exciting or voyeuristic.

We went back to our lodge, freshened up & left to Kudroli temple. This is a really huge temple & I used to always enjoy walking around the vast open spaces surrounding this temple when my parents used to get me here. It had become even posher than what it was, full golden colored structures & pillars were erected everywhere, a new building had come up on the right side, the pond had been completely decorated with Shiva & Parvathi idols. This was the visit which made me realize that the actual name of this temple was Shri Gokarnatha Kshethra temple.
We then left to go to Pabba's. It was the same as before, less space huge crowds. I asked the guy at the counter if we could give our names somewhere like in a waiting list, but there was none (guess the professionalism of Bangalore has got too much into me). So people had to basically walk around & check who were the most likely to finish soon & stand somewhere nearby without obviously letting those people know their real intention. Since people were actually doing it, we walked out to Saibeen complex, bought a pair of Duracell batteries for Ajay's digital camera which had somehow managed to switch ON using a pair of new Everyday batteries to give the message "Battery low, please change batteries". After wasting some more time we came out of the complex, I insisted that I had to (like had to had to) go to Pabba's if I came to Mangalore, so we decided to try our luck again & luckily we readily got a table. I had Tiramisu and I can safely say that it beat Chocolate Dad to no.1 slot, hands down.

Ajay then took us to this place for dinner, some rooftop bar & restaurant (Surabhi if I am not mistaken) right beside the only mall in Mangalore. A very elegant looking decent place. I had no clue about such places in Mangalore, coz I was still young & innocent back then & secondly these kind of places were never in my circle of places. We finished the dinner with Neer dosa, so guess we didnt leave anything undone in Mangalore.

26/12/08 : Mangalore-Suratkal-Mangalore

Go ..

Ajay knew about this Dubare elephant camp near Kushalnagar and after making the necessary enquiries we decided to give this place a visit in the morning before starting to Mangalore. So off we went. On Ajay's insistence that the idli & upma at the camp itself was damn tasty we didnt have breakfast anywhere else. We reached the camp & an entire bus of school kids conquered the only hotel over there & the guy at the counter told us that nothing was available. So we decided to take the boat and go to the other side of the lake/river (basically the water which was separating the side we were in from the side the elephants were in). Now they actually do White-River rafting at this place when the water is enough, but now water was so low that people could walk around from one side to the other (well atleast one guy who seemed to know the exact location of the rocks underneath did it). We were approached by a guy who asked us if we wanted to do 'Still-Water Rafting' .. "rafting in still water??" we asked .. basically rowing in the water and if interested jump into the water (with lifejackets obviously). I was actually interested in the idea but thank god common sense prevailed on others and they ensured that we didnt waste our time & money on that.

On the other side we were greeted by a row of elephants just lazing in the water (acting dead almost) and a group of excited rich people (foreigners mostly) scrubbing the elephants with soap & brushes. All of them had paid to get themselves dirty and clean the elephants. Apart from having a good laugh over that there really wasnt much to do there. Elephant rides, we were told, started at 10.30AM and it was still 10 AM or so. The place anyway looked boring for a elephant ride. A wild tusker was prisoned behind a huge jail of wooden logs and as soon as lot of people gathered near it the officers started shooing people away saying that the elephant would get wild, just to make it seem dangerous. So we waited for our boat and went back. Thankfully the hotel was empty, but the food was bad.

We returned back to our room and set on our journey to Mangalore via the Madikeri ghats. Some stretches of roads in the ghats were uneven and they were a major pain for our arse's, but the stretches which were good made the ride in the ghats even more pleasurable. On one of those good curvy roads we three were riding with such uniformity (Ajay in the lead, Ashwin in the middle and me in the last) and common speed that I felt even a mosquito would have to wait for us three to pass by before it could cross.

We stopped for lunch at a totally cheap roadside place (intentionally) and after sitting down realized that it was a bad idea. But anyway we were not the one's to give up so easily, so we ordered the most decent clean items we could find -- kerala parota with some Veg curry. We reached Mangalore at around 6'o clock in the evening. Mangalore is the city I grew up in and I am totally familiar with all its roads (it also helps that the place is so small that you take three left turns and you will end up back in the center of the city). But then how would I know about the lodges there, I never was in a situation where I had to live in one. Thankfully Ajay used his PUC-CET coaching time experience to good use and suggested Hindustan lodge opposite to Poonja International. At 550 bucks for a night, it was damn good. I also ensured that they have a look at my school (Milagres High School, for those of you who might be interested) on the way to the lodge.



We freshened up and I took them to Ideal ice cream parlour. I was expecting a major crowd there as it was the 25th, but I guess people in Mangalore wanted to spend Christmas at home. I had a Chocolate Dad and suggested some popular one's for others. In the josh of the moment I even paid the bill myself saying it was a treat from my side. They of course were shameless enough not to even bother stopping me.


We then set towards the most happening pub in Mangalore- Liquid Lounge
Being Christmas night, it was crowded and we didnt get any seat. We however found a couple of our Mangalorean RV hostel batchmates chilling around, we greeted them, but we didnt want to join them and make it odd, both for them and ourselves. Ashwin however sat with them for a short time and probably boasted about our adventurous bike trip. The rest of us just ordered a beer and stood at the counter, waiting for a table to get empty.
Luckily even before we finished our beer we got a table and we slowly started to settle. It was getting kinda uncomfy. I have been to lots of pubs in Bangalore, but I wouldnt consider myself who enjoys going to such places. First of all I am not much aware about the kind of music played in such places and after a lot of trying I have realized that I am naturally tuned not to like such kind of music. Also I hate blowing money on tons of beer all of which is going to bloat your stomach and nothing else. However I do have good times sometimes with friends around. Even the others arent like some pro rock fans, but they are better informed than me and follow rock more closely. Maybe because it was the first time in a pub in another city even they were feeling a bit odd and we were actually thinking of walking out even though it was jst 10PM or so. We had decided that after we finished our mugs we would leave, thats when Ajay & Bhatta said that they wished the DJ play AC-DC. I couldnt even see the DJ & Ajay pointed me to a room in a corner right beside the restrooms and mentioned about a board above the DJ which said "No requests please". That's when
Me: Which song do you guys want?
Ajay & Bhatta: Any song by AC-DC ..
Me: Give me a name
Ajay & Bhatta (look at each other and in unison chorus): Highway to Hell
Me: ok
I got up & went to to the restroom, had a leak, washed my hands, wet my hair but it was worse than ever (long hair doesnt suit me). I came out, saw the DJ and the board above his head
Me: Hey .. (placing my hands around his ear) I know you say no requests but please play AC-DC Highway to Hell, if you can
DJ: I will try later
Me: Thanks
I went back and told them not to expect anything. All of them were in low spirits and were just looking here & there having beer. Thats when the song whichever was playing ended and the guitar sounds which started our night started .. the beat of the drums started .. vocals started .. and I joined in the others from the only part I knew ".. I'm on the higway to hell". From this point on there was no stopping us. Luckily for us all the songs that were played from then on were known to us (trust me, that is the best thing that can happen in a pub). So we were crooning at the top of our voices to all the songs and I sure hope that the people around were impressed by our rock knowledge more than they were troubled by our voices being louder than the actual song. In any case, we didnt care then and neither would we care ... ever. Some of the songs I remember were Pink Floyd's Coming back to life, Ozzy's I'm a dreamer and a few more which the others knew better than me. But the final point is that we ended up staying at that place till the shutters were put down, which is is the sign of a good customer.
Then I took them through these stairs which was my standard route from school back to home, showed them my old apartments (RNE) and we walked along the road beside Tagore park (in which I had played as a kid), reached KMC .. clicked a photo and just before we reached the lodge saw this omlette-gaadi shop the smell of which was too much to resist, so we all had omlette/bread-omlette.
After reaching the room, Ajay & Ashwin were too tired and fell on the beds immediately. Ajay fell asleep instantly. There were these two huge chairs & a glass teapoy (commonly known as teee paaayi) and nice whisky glasses. That's when Bhatta suggested that me & him drink like "proper uncles". (This was the booze we had bought at Hunsur and couldnt finish at Kushalnagar, if you can remember). I quickly emptied the chairs of all the thrown clothes, cleaned the teapoy, got the glasses ready, gave Bhatta his Old monk bottle, took my Royal Stag, made myself a large (Its my life should make it large right) and started
Me: So Bhatta, how'z life?
This is when Ashwin fell asleep. Since the rest of the conversation took place between me & Bhatta, I will let it remain there, suffice to say that even though it was a long nice conversation we finished talking before we could finish drinking.

25/12/08: Kushalnagar-Madikeri-Mangalore

Go .

Early in the morning of 24th December 2008, Bhatta & Ajay had already woken up and were busy running around the house making noise and trying to get me & Ashwin to wake up. Now there is no use of getting up early and doing nothing but only waiting for the others to get up. But who cares right, their only aim was to prove to themselves that they could wake up early. After all of our heavy morning inertia got over, we managed to get fully ready by around 7'o clock, and that is when the most luckiest thing of the trip happened to Ashwin --- he lost his lucky charm, his thumb ring.

We started to our first destination, Shivalli MTR on Mysore Road near Maddur. That was the basis of this whole trip, the destination after next was never known. We werent a bunch of guys who were trying to discover new places, our biking expedition was nowhere near being a tough one or something to be boasted about. We werent trying to break new grounds, we didnt expect that we would become revolutionaries after this (a la Che Guevera types), we werent looking to change ourselves in any way but yet deep inside each one of us had this fire burning which to a certain extent we hope would be doused by this trip. A fire related to our age, our jobs, our lives, our girls or our no-girls and many more such things. I had so many unanswered questions and what I was looking forward to on this trip was not the answers but more clarity on the questions themselves.

We reached MTR, had nice breakfast, set to Mysore, I took them through all the main thorough fares of Mysore (Mysore being my native). Photo stop in front of Mysore palace, a quick view of our apartment in Mysore, a grape juice at the famous grape juice centre and we were on our way to Nagarhole via Hunsur.

The lady in the forest office (Wildlife divison to be precise) at Hunsur was very cordial and nice according to Ajay and Ashwin (since they were the one's who went inside). She got us some dormitory booked at a place (which was by far the only advance reservation we ever made on this trip).
On the way, we decided to pick up booze and there we were hounded by the locals offering us to take us by car till our place and also to the safari since two-wheelers werent allowed. We declined the offer, and went by bikes all the way till the entry gate, this stretch of road was very beautiful, and the guard at the gate tells us what we already knew --- two wheelers werent allowed inside (forest area you know, full of man-eaters lions tigers ). But the worst part was that there was no office or a proper compound to park our bikes, just some shabby building and lots of open forests. He also badly scolded a driver of another car for having a quarter of liquor and almost made him turn around for the 'sin'. Considering that our bikes could be trampled by elephants (incident narrated by the guard himself) and that we had a bag full of booze, we turned around and headed back to Hunsur, then turned around again and headed back to the gate, clicked two photos and headed back to Hunsur. Ajay was particularly sad about this since he had committed himself (verbally) to that forest office lady and considered his moral reponsibility and we let him take the blame for it, its always better to have one person whom the blame can be put on when such a situation arrives. So the only reservation that we had didnt work out.

We went for lunch to Hotel Suvarna Palace and decided to halt for the night at Kushalnagar based on the advice given by some nice guy who gave us many details about all the lodges in Kushalnagar. He was in fact a waiter in a hotel in Kushalnagar and it seems had come to work here on a month's leave by lying to his boss!!! Just in case we took his reference we were specifically told not to mention that he was working in Hunsur. God bless his soul. He would time & again come to our table and give us more & more information. This prompted me to ask the others if there was something like free information. They felt I might actually hurt his sentiments by offering him money for his "free info" but in the end I did hand over Rs.20 and after the usual "beda bidi saar .." "illa parvagilla thogoli ..." "illa bedaa saar .." "illa parvagilla itkoli .." he accepted it. This incident proved my theory of 'just like there is no free food there is no free inforamtion as well'.

We first went to the tibetan monastery (also called Golden Temple) at Bylakuppe. It was the first time I saw such kind of structures, huge empty halls and huge statues. There was of course detailed literature about the statues and the paintings behind them, but I left Bhatta to read all that. As soon as we entered Kushalnagar, without doing much enquiries we decided to settle in a lodge (Iceberg something) at 800 per night which proved to be the most expensive lodging of the whole trip.
Since I considered all of the others to be very irresponsible with money and lazy enough to keep tab of accounts I took the onus on myself at the start of the trip itself to collect money from everybody and maintain a common pool which would be from where all our expenditures would take place. In the lodge I was giving unnecessary gyaan on some unnecessary topic (cant remember the context) and that is when
Bhatta: See that was free information
Me: Look Bhatta, my information is priceless, there are some things money cant buy ...
Ajay (interrupts before I could complete) : For everything else there's Anup
This line literally became the basis for all the things we spent on this trip.

It was late evening and we were told some cultural event was happening in Veerabhoomi less than 5kms from where we were. We went to that place, there was a nice stage setting and folk programmes going on with a sitting place for audience and also tables for diners. But the tables were preferably alloted to the people staying in the cottages, so we just sat for the programme, I dozed off during the stand-up comedians show, but the dance cum song cum story (musical types) I did watch, the girls were kind of pretty. We returned back to our place and went to this place called Top In Town (makes for a very bad abbreviation) for dinner, came back to the room and having nothing better to do dozed off after finishing the booze of course.

24/12/08: Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Kushalnagar

Ready ... Get set ....

Sometime in mid-November 2008

Me: Come on da ... going in a car will be so much fun ... you can all just sit and have beer in the backseat while I drive ... you guys anyway dont know driving ... what else do you need ... i am the one who will lose sleep and drive ... so I should be the one having a problem with this idea not you guys ...

Bhatta: Yesterday at Hebbal signal, these two guys in shorts came riding in a full dusty bike right beside me and asked me the way to Hyderabad ... i told them the way and asked them where they were coming from, they said they were going from Mumbai to Hyderabad to eat Hyderabad Biryani !!! Now thats cool man ... we should do something like that ...

Thats when I agreed that this trip had to include our bikes.



Sometime in early-December 2008

Me: Whats going on people ?? who's done the reservations ?? where all are we going ?? Are your bike's ready ?? Are you guys serious or not??

Ajay: Dont worry dude, just get your bike ready and come to our house on 23rd night.

Thats when I agreed that the plan for this trip was to have no plan. No plans,no reservations.



The weekend before 24th December 2008

Me, Ajay and Ashwin, the three riders, gave our bikes for servicing and went shopping to commercial street to buy "lucky charms" for our trip. Leather gloves, leather jackets, chains .. not the bike ones .. neck chains, bracelets, rings ,studs ... phew .. it was a long sunny afternoon ... it was only after coming out of Commercial St that we realized that we had bought nothing. After loafing around some .. no lot more around MG, Brigade and Residency I & Ashwin actually bought our lucky charms. I got a black-wire chain with a Taurus printed on a metal strip (the other side of the metal strip had something in Chinese which I assumed to be lucky) and Ashwin bought a thumb ring with some random design. Yeah baby, we were ready to roll.
I also checked in many camera shops for a Black & White film roll for my Dad's old Minolta SLR camera. Its only then that I realized how rare a Black & White film had actually become. I called up a place on Brigade road which I had heard as one of the best places in Bangalore for all things related to cameras and photos. She told me there was only one roll left with them, and I gave her my name and rushed to that place and bought it. Now I am no pro in taking photos using SLR's (not DSLR's) and i have no idea what are the different factors to be taken into account when clicking pictures on a Black & white film. I just wanted to have photos in Black & White on film for this trip and thats it.

The day before 24th December 2008
The only thing left was a small little sweet pillow for a similiar sounding bum of mine. This I knew was a must based on my previous biking trips. I was always thinking of a folded turkish towel but one of my friends suggested a pillow. I managed to find a shop and got a nice fluffy pillow (a word of advice for whoever might do the same thing, dont be a kanjoos, buy a pillow cover too).

I then left to Marathahalli in the early night so that we could start on our journey the next morning towards discovering ourselves by getting totally lost.