24hrs submerged in Twists!!

June 21^st 2013.. Friday… last working day in office for my US trip 2013 in Merrimack NH. Best time to clear off loads of tasks on your checklist J.

Twist 1: Previous night, like any other, I thought, I shall sleep early and go to office early to clear off all tasks.. taka taka taka!! … What happens? I end up going to office 1 hr. late. So now its 1 hr. less.

Twist 2: My previous team mates had previously decided to take me out for lunch. Enthu was super high, everyone told they’ll join for lunch. Sounded awesome. I had planned for this and skipped my breakfast :).  In office now. Normally I go to cafeteria with Mohan (The Nepal King) for coffee after our morning meetings. Winding up all meetings, and my team asks me to work in the team room whole day. What?? Yes..Entire team should sit in the team room and work together. Video conference was rolling full day to keep the team in other site also to be involved. They started this new style of working. Poor chap Mohan is waiting for our regular coffee meet. I somehow bargain a break and come out. Coffee break done!!

Twist 3: Walking back to team room and I meet few of my old team mates. Today I have an important meeting; can we skip lunch today and go for ice cream at 2 pm? Oooops…  I end up preparing Maggie for my lunch. J.

While all folks are busy in meeting, I decided to clear of my payments to enterprise car rental guys. So I inform these guys that I’ll be back in 20 mins. (Well 20 mins for a desi is never 20 mins .. lol). I head out to the nearby enterprise store in Nashua from where i had rented my car..

Twist 4: 12:45pm..Hey Nathan, how are you…. Doing good.. How are you!! We both greet each other. Am here to clear of my payments towards you guys, can you let me know how much I need to pay you guys more? Sure says Nathan. He takes my car keys, looks at the number and starts playing harmonium on his computers keyboard: P. 233$ is the pending amount sir he says. Ok.. Here is my card take it!! J. Nathan takes my card and swipes it on his system. Oops…“for some reason the card seems not to be working.. lemme try once again”.. He swipes again and same result. “Do you have enough balance in this card sir”… I say.. Oh yeah definitely should be there. He repeats the same word.. for some reason the card seems not to be working.. Do you have any other card with you? …  NO!! J

Twist 5: ok, lemme do this, I’ll come back tomorrow morning and swipe it again, I say. Nathan says sorry sir, once the card goes through an invalid swipe; it is blocked for 24 hrs in our enterprise systems. Aaaaaaah!!!  

Why Aaaaaaah?? Two reasons, 1) since it was Saturday next day I had plans to roam around , hence did not want to waste time being in Nashua  2) Enterprise are open only half a day on Saturday till noon and they are closed on Sunday. Now what does that mean? I can’t go on Saturday and Sunday and also not on Monday, because my flight back home was on Sunday evening.

Twist 6: I had some 200$ cash in my pocket, still 33$ short. So I decided to withdraw some 40$ and clear it off by paying him cash. Nathan says.. “Sorry sir we don’t accept cash”. Again aaaaaaah!!! J. Ok now what do I do? Nathan says that he accepts money orders. What? Now where do I get a money order from? There is a 7-11 store opposite and they would give you a money order. Ok now I decide to go there and make one. Keep in mind that the 20 mins permission I took is already over J dint I tell you 20 mins is never 20mins lol..

Twist 7: in 7-11 store and the owner looked like a desi. So, some confidence that he would not cheat. Hey I need a money order for 233$. Sure. It’ll charge you 2.5$. That should be fine I say and give my card. Our desi owner with a big smile on his face says “sorry sir we do not accept cards.. Only cash” aaaaaaaah…. Awesome!! J

Twist 8: Hmmmm ok I’ll give you cash… remember I had some 33$ less with me?  So asked him about nearest ATM.. Thankfully ATM was nearby.  As I approach near to ATM, I realize that I do not know my ATM pin number.. aaaaaaahh hahahhahha J.. and even best part is, I used to carry that envelope which has the pin number daily with me, except on this day.!! J Super... Almost a check mate stage.

Now what, should I call someone from office asking for money? Everyone are jam packed busy at office, no one would come this far and also give money J

Idea, I had my old BoA card which had exactly 50$ remaining. And fortunately remembered its PIN.. chakaa chak I withdraw money, make the money order rush to Enterprise give him the money order. Matter solved!! 45 mins up J.

Twist 9: back to office after almost an hr.. Straight into team room, my team was ok, they bothered less as they were busy fixing their own problems. J …after sometime I come out of team room again.. Why? For ice cream treat!! .  We all go to the ice cream counter, all smiles and laughs just to see the store closed Hahahahahahah  J .. The store closes by 2PM.  We all knew it, but somehow forgot J. We all end up having coffee from the café!! J. From lunch to ice cream to coffee J

Twist 10: Back to seat, winding up things, 3 weeks and office, I start meeting everyone for one last time. Its past 5 most of them had left. I too packed my bag, cleared off my shelf, rolled over my jacket, all set except one thing. Office laptop J. Whom should I give it back to? The lady, who gave me this laptop here, had already left office.. aaaaaaaah!!

Twist 11: Let me hand over the laptop to Mohan and will ask him to give to that lady.  I go Mohan’s desk just to see him missing from his desk. Where’s he?  Friday evening and he has already left for the day J.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaah again!! J

Twist 12: I carry the laptop with me to room. That day evening I was invited for dinner at Mohan’s place. Chaka chak, I get ready and reach Mohan’s place by 8PM in Concord some 40 miles North. I have super duper dumplings at his home, met my old friend too at his place. 10PM, I start back. I come some distance only to find out that I have not handed over the laptop to him.. lol.. What a day isn’t it!! J

I reach my room at 11 and then head on to Wal-Mart with my friend for last minute shopping .finish up everything and come back to room b 2AM Saturday. Started packing. I did not want to sleep that day night. What to do? Chaloo to Hampton beach some 60 miles away, for Sunrise. Yes.. If not now, donno when. Pick up the car keys, passport, charger, jacket and vroooom!! Picked up a coffee on the way and drove till Hampton. Reached Hampton beach by 4AM.

Twist 13: parked my car and got down. It is very cold outside.. All the coffee and water I had while driving till here had an effectJ. Started searching for restrooms.. I see one and just rushed towards it just to see a note “operating hrs. from 7.30Am – 10Pm” lol … I asked a security guy and he asks me to go to route 1A, which is almost 6 miles back.

Twist 14: All fine and back to beach now!! J 4.30Am and I start to see some pink streaks of sun rays.. Feeling happy that I will be seeing one of my best sunrises over Atlantic ocean.as per google expected time on sunrise was at 5:05Am. At 4:45Am, my good luck continued, instead of sunrise, I saw cloud rush J covering the sunrise scene!! J. Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Twist 15: ok now is something left here? I take the pictures of sand sculptures there on the beach, head on the Dunkin for brk fast and have it.. 6,30Am I start back to room with a coffee from Dunkin. Expected arrival time on m nexus 4 with 4G speed data was 7:30Am. And yes at 11Am it was a trip to Boston with other folks.

Twist 16: FM radio on the highway back was bad, hence I decided to listen to some desi songs via YouTube. I was getting 4G speed all my stay of 3 weeks in US. Just until this moment!! My 4G plan expired and started getting 2G. The super-fast buffering drove me into sleep mode :). And I did!.. Pulled over into a nearby exit.. Saw a McDonald’s restaurant and parked my car and thats it. The last thing I remember is rolling the windows up and ignition off. Thusssssssss…  Slept almost for 2 hrs in car J … dint realize at all J.

Get up, reset the gps, finish up the hot coffee which had turned cold J and drive back recollecting all the above twists in past 24 hrs!! J

Moral of da story:  Whatever happens, it’s all for a beautiful story!! J.. Love your life!!!

Eventful Saturday 2012.07.28

After a early Heavy lunch on afternoon....started watching a movie and I just sink into sleep while watching it..
Not only me.. everyone in my room (Mitti, Prashant, Balu and Praveen)..
I Get up in the evening and close to 5..prepare tea and start pushing everyone for the Lowell Folk Festival (http://www.lowellfolkfestival.org/).
Only 2 (Balu and Prashant) were ready for it as other 2 (Mitti and Praveen) had to attend a dinner..
At 7PM we 3 start to Lowell.. 7.30 we reach there and the fun starts right away..
Drizzling rain.. finding a place to park. .. round and round in Lowell downtown..
After 20-25 minutes I get a parking place on some street in Lowell downtown.. feel happy that finally got a place.. parked the car and hit the Dutton street event directly..
First event was a Spanish concert..  enjoyed the nice smooth music for half hr in that drizzling rain… that event place also had some food stalls ,, pakka like desi estlye J
8.15 the event comes to end.. before I left from home, I had noted down the events scheduled for that day .. this was the last event in Dutton st.. however the French st had music upto 11.
So we decided we’l go there..
We walk through the Merrimack Street…  this one was filled music bands throughout… nice music.. traffic was blocked into these roads… people dancing on roads in the drizzle … it was an awesome feeling.. a perfect “Live free or die” scene..
On the way we hit Dunkin have coffee relax for few minutes..
We see a small room on Merrimack street were 3 of them were playing rock music.. went inside and enjoyed nice music for 20 minutes..
Come out on to the street.. loud nice music was still on…  we continue to walk towards French st and finally get there about 10PM.
Wonderful music feat we had there.. 5 people.. 2 violins, 1 guitar, 2 flute …just awesome…. The crowd was really good,.. even in rain not many moved out from the event..dancing for some lovely music…
10.40PM: ok.. now what next.. let’s go to Papa Jones for dinner and then head home..
Now walking towards my car… not sure where it was.. I just remember that it was near some gasoline store,,..
Exactly now in Lowell downtown.. I start to hear some heavy music…. We just hit that road.. and we see some metal music being played .. open air.. un-fortunately the rain stops.. .. we go inside and enjoy the heavy metal music for close to an hr..or so..
11:45 we are out of that place.. and start walking towards the car.. searched for few roads.. we took a wrong road.. but finally see that gasoline place..
There was a small thought running in my mind, if car would be there or no.. was waiting to reach the cross-section so that I could see my car from far… reached and was happy to see the car…
While walking back we all 3 were talking about how awesome that night was.. we’ll never ever get to see such things in Bangalore etc etc..
12.00AM: (Sunday morning) I reach the car.. and that’s it … a shock.. someone broke the passenger window glass heavily.. stole away my GPS.. they’ve pulled out all the papers in my dashboard… chips packet.. made a sooper mess inside.. Interesting they also stole a Oreo biscuit packet I had in my car.. (may be he was hungry too :P)
Now what to do?? Should I call 911 or enterprise (car rental fela).. donno..
Gave a thought.. discussed.. and called 911 … first time.. told them the situation.. they told an officer will be there soon.. ..
Mean while I called up enterprise to let them know about the issues.. I was on the call for 45 minutes… they kept me on hold for such a long time..and finally they say I need to have a police complaint number..
Within this 45 minutes,, Balu calls up 911 again. Because even after half hr no officer came near us. The officer who picked up his called gave us a local Lowell police office number..
He calls them and tells the issue.. they tell him some one will come.. but no one came.. i was still on call with enterprise.. running out of battery on my iphone too..
15 mins later again Balu calls up Lowell police.. again no action..
1.15 AM  : I call up the Lowell police and tell them about the issue.. they noted down the location and tell me to watch for officers near me..
this Dummer street is like a perpendicular street joining 2 main roads.. all the police vehicles were moving in those main streets, but not coming into this Dummer street..
Balu goes to the junction to catch any officer.. on his way he sees a cop car and pulls him aside..tells him the issue and gets him near my car..
Officer comes, sees the car, asks my license.. (I got my license on Friday.. lucky ) notes down and starts walking away.. I was thinking,. That’s all??
Then I ask him for the complaint number.. he calls up the command centre.. get the numbers.. writes down the number on a small piece of paper ..
We see a CC camera nearby and tell him about that.. he walks to that camera looks at it and tells us, it’s not a camera it’s a sensor..  awesome.. :P.. he tells me to come to police station on Monday to Friday 9-5 to collect the complaint letter.. and tats it he just walks away..
1.50AM: Everyone dam hungry… I knew ihop restaurant would be open 24 hrs....we sit in car and I call up enterprise to update them the police complaint number.. I am in queue.. waited for 5mins still on queue..  start back home,.. no gps now.. awesome again..
Balu turns on the maps and drive towards ihop….. 30mins over and am still on queue.. I cut the call..
We take a long route to ihop..reach there by 2.40 or so.. Have dinner there..
3.40AM: I drop off Balu in exit8… then drop Prashant by 4 AM to residence inn
4.30AM: I reach home.. try calling enterprise once again… still on queue…. for the next 1 hr I log on to fb..chat with friends back in India .. kept alarm for a 8AM cricket match
5.30AM: Sink  to sleep J..
Ends an eventful Saturday night..

Lessons learnt: don’t park in Dummer street J

Elections 2013

Sketches!!

Bums on Bike to land of Sun and Sand along the Coast!!

From Bangalore third time to Goa… first time it was direct train… second time it was train till Londa and bus from there..

this time. As usual.. its gotto be different.. YES!!!!... Get the bums on bikes baaaabay!!!

Well… do I have a bike?? Naaaaah….courtesy : Shri Shri Shri His holiness The “Thief” :P

It all started off with 11 of us in the list to hit the road.... holly !! wat a number…. Dates were fixed before a month…the first eMail starts … subject “Baaike trip to Gooooaaaa”..

Well.. as always.. there are these beautiful managers who also want to be a part of our trip.. how?? Just by not approving vacation: P… as a result our dudes start dropping off one by one…L

Some felt its was really a long drive for their backs to handle.. hence few more drop outs.. L

Okay.. now how many left?.. Damn.. lets count?? … ..

I sooo badly wanted to do a bike trip ..the last I did was in 2010 to Pondicherry.. so as the case with Rayudu ..…. This fela got intensely inspired from our Pondy trip and bought a new bike so that he can be on bike trips more often.. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for his bike he never had a long trip  J ..yes… shit happens… J

what about Ravindra (Chimps) ??? Waiting for his confirmation… waiting waiting.. like loading loading .. :P ….finally yes,… 2 days before the trip.. we get a scream “YES!!!”….

cool… now..whats the headcount.. un…. dos …tres… tats it?? Craaap… daamn…  never mind..

One bike is ready… we need another.. who has? No one.. L ..

When the planning time was going on.. one of our common dost.. Mr..Raj (ford.bel@figo.raj J) offered to give his bike.. what an offer.. I like it.. I like it,.!!!.. 2 days before the trip..I take his bike… 2^nd bike : present  sir.. J

we park these 2 bikes at service station and get ready for The Kickass trip…

March 8, 2013

Whats planned? –just 2 things… when do we leave and where do we stay....more than enough…

Leave: applied but not approved :P..….Bike: Serviced……  Petrol: full tank..….Wallet: half empty :P…..route map: kind off …. what else : waiting to leave office :P

Finish off office work araamse…. Leave office  by 8…. Buy biscuits and chocolates… reach home…. Pack bags….

9:30PM, Yelahanka: 2 bikes and 2 idiots..assembly in front of Shivanna.. (Shiva temple)…yeah need his best wishes and from our nervous parents!! ..we take few pics… upload on fb.. and thus… Ignitionn ON!!!…vroom vroom (sumne scope J)!!!!

9:50PM, Gangamma Circle: First break.. alredy?? How.. yeah… there is a famous Bengali sweets shop… Kuch meetha ho jaaaye? Yes please.. Badam milk.. gotak… J

10:30PM, Nelamangala:  btw..what happened to Chimps.??? Where is he??..dont worry.. his stop is here.. waiting for him on main road.. Meanwhile.. first signs of junction pops up.. rayudu gets headache and bites in a tablet with a cup of chaaya (Tea)… damn.. normally its me, who gets headache on Day 1 of any trip… J … tables turned for this trip I guess..

The Chimpi the arrives.. his bro drops him till there… we pick him up and start again…

Confusion estarts… J .. Chimpi was not aware of the route we planned..thats why at Kunigal cross, he goes straight instead of left.. J.. well wait…did I tell you about the route where are we taking.. hahahahha.. here it is.. Bangalore à Mangalore àKarwar à Panjim. Yeah guys carry on with you laugh… 9 days off..what do we do.. spend as much time as possible on road..thats why this route.. “we are not going to Goa for Chandrayan 2 project J… so no rush…maintain 60 speed.. enough”  This was the rule we set ourselves up.!!

Back on right route… towards Kunigal…

11PM, Kunigal toll: mini bomb… yeah.. we stop at the toll to take some snaps.. unfortunately Chimpi’s helmet falls down and there is a crack on his wiser L… he says.. its fine.. not a big deal…

Btw.. Did we have dinner?? Shucks… we forgot to have..excitement!! … we start search for a place to eat on highway…

11:45PM Kunigal, we find a place Sri Venkateshwara Bhavana… park the bikes and take 3 plates of Idly… it would have been good, if it was hot, or at least if sambar would have been hot.. J

9 March 2013,

1:45AM, CR Patna: Journey continues… we take a small water brk in CR patna.. crack some jokes about that place..  J… winterfresh chewing gum comes out!!

3AM, Hassan bypass: Road was too good till we reached this bypass.. fog is out there a bit… and a bit more cold now. Bypass road is horrific… single lane.. under total repair.. hard work to drive on bike.. we stop for a tea break at a hotel. Tea here is very cheap.. 15rs/cup.. hahahhha… J “2/3 tea kodi saaku.. naavu jaasti kudiyalla” (give us 2 cups..tats enough for 3 of us).

2 yrs back when I was on Shiradi ghat road.. it was a total scratched up road.. Hence, when we stopped at Hassan, we were thinking about resting in saklespur for 2 hrs, until the Sun comes out, so that we can drive the ghat section during day time.

4:15AM, Sakleshpur : We park our bikes in front of KSRTC bus stand have chaaya and attend the all-important natures calls J. We see a batch of youngsters talking in English. We take out our giant Karnataka map and start looking through the routes .. (show off in front of them :P).

We see a taxi driver outside the bus stand and ask him about the road condition of Shiradi ghat section. He says.. compared to 2 yrs back.. the road is now much better.. and traffic will also be less now. Listening to that, our plan to take rest here is dropped J.. 5AM: we start onward journey from here.

Shiradi ghat.. one of the tougher ghats to drive.. its pitch dark out there…no median lines on the road.. fog is getting denser and visibility is reducing by the meter we move ahead..traffic picking up.... conditions getting tougher.. but incredibly thrilling.. high beam low beam.. none of them helping much in improving our visibility.. one heck of a section to drive… I was driving first with Chimps sitting behind me.. and Rayudu blindly following the path I take J…

5:45AM: still pitch dark… we take a break on the side of these intense ghats..just wanted to give the bikes a small break..almost half an hr of brest for bikes and bums :P… we take out biscuits.. melted dairy milk chocolate.. water.. sluuurpp…

6:30AM: the lazy sun just about to wake up J … we stop at a place for some clicks… within minutes we see 2 tipper lorrys coming towards us and asking us to clear off the bikes parked.. what happened? Previous day evening one bus fell off the road into the valley… no major causalities confirmed the tipper lorry driver..we could see the fallen bus in the valley… we soon clear of that place.. go ahead for another 10 mins and continue the clicks there.. J

All the way from Sakleshpur, we see people walking on the roads towards mangalore.. we had no idea from where they were coming and where to…  at one place we asked a person who was walking… he mentioned that he was walking to Dharmasthala and was coming from CR Patna…how many days would they have taken?? 

7:15AM: stop for breakfast…we find this Malnad Dosa Hut on our way… the place looked very good.. there was no one out ther… was wondering if they are open or not… fortunately they are ready to serve J… throw the bags, helmets, jackets aside…mobile to charging (iphone’s battery rocks L)…face wash… all done…  “en beeku sir” .. 2 onion dosa and 1 neer dosa..

8:00AM: enough of eating.. get back to road… J … after seeing so many people walking to Dharmasthala.. rayudu also wants to go there.. ok.. take the upcoming deviation… this route is a bit narrow and more ups and downs… but has a newly laid tar.. so was not so tough to drive..  the moment we are on the route to Dharmasthala the number of people walking on the roads increase… there are special vans on the route who serve food for those who are walking..

8:45AM Dharmasthala, Belthangady : Om Namah Shivaaya…the crowd picking up .. courtesy weekend  + next day was Shivaratri … we take some pics outside the temple… pray from outside itself.. one more kaapi (coffee) brk  in Belthangady… and chalo Mangalore via Bantwal..

11:00AM, Mangalore outskirts…the weather is completely different now.. from super sun to super cloudy…Mangalooruu you beauty!!... .lets stop for lunch in Mangalore… couple of months back when I had been to Mangalore to meet my sis (Banda J), she took me to a very good 3 star restaurant Ocean Peal and to the famous Pabbas ice cream store... lets go there guys…

11:45AM, Mangalore: reach Ocean pearl.. 3 meals..moto was to take as much rest as possible in that restaurant …eat slowly ..relax relax J.. ofcourse hunger wins the race…J

1PM: we go to Pabbas for ice cream… damn u go to mangalore and u cant miss going to this place..3 big ones ordered.. sluuuuuuurpp …

Meanwhile I call up my fried Mohit who is from Katapady.. US fela has come for vacation…he tells me the route.. and we start… too hot.. too humid and a bit sleepy… J ..We pass through NITK Suratkal.. Padubidri and Kaapu..

3:15PM: just before we reach Katapady, Mohit is standing on the highway waiting for us.. he takes us to his home… I’ll use his style of words now.. J .” I appreciate him and his family for taking care of us so well.. snacks.. chaaya… “… we bid send off to him as he was leaving to amrika that evening..

3:45PM: back on road.. where to? What next ..? “Lets go to Kundapur and decide J “

5:00PM, Kundapur:  what next?/ we ask a person there .. how far is Maravante? .. 10kms he says.. “ ok lets go to maravante and decide”

5:30PM, Maravante: what a place … backwaters on right side.. and Arabian sea on ur left… spectacular sight… and we were there at the right time… nice cool breeze.. click click J… “Lets go to Bhatkal and decide J”..well this is what happens when there is no planning.. J and I love it!! All on the fly decisions J

7PM, Bhatkal:  ok lets stay at a place take rest for that night and march on next day.. since next day was shivaratri I thought the rooms in murudeshwara would not be available.. and hence decided that we’l stay in bhatkal... we enquire couple of places.. ok ok rooms for high class rates…… I was surprised to see the rooms available in Bhtakal…. Disappointed with the rooms.. yet again… “lets go to Murudeshwara and decide J”…

8:30PM, Murudeshwara: we find this RNS highway hotel… enter into a nice dormitory… take it take it!!!.. checked in,… take bath… come out for dinner..  we go near Murudeshwara beach… eat chapatti and curd rice at Naveen beach restaurant on the beach!! ..

10PM, Murudeshwara: back to room …odometer reading is 570kms..   ok boys.. lets get up at 4Am tomorrow and continue our jouney.. 250 kms to go till Anjuna,Goa…we take out the magic stick – Volini spray (pain relief)…matter of seconds.. damaaaar… zzzzzzz…zzzzzz… End of 24hrs of Drive!!!

Day 2: 10 March 2013,

7.00AM: Finally wake up.. after so many unsuccessful alarms from 4AM  J.. finish all international calls.. get ready…. Check out the room and go to temple again..  yes.. for his best wishes J

8:00AM, Murudehswara: Day 2 drive begins.. again totally unplanned…lets have breakfast in Honnavara… where..lets see.. honnavara is about to come… it came.. it went…J  where is the breakfast?? 

9:15AM, No mans land J: we reach a junction on highway, here we find a big board proudly showing the direction towards Sirsi !!. .very very important junction… Remember the fela who gave me his bike? Yeah that fela and his friend Rama (my classmate in college) both are from Siri.. so we took few pics at this junction only for them…J..

Just after we cross this junction, we see a “tourist hotel”… no matter what.. lets go in… this one is a typical highway hotel for all truck chauffeurs J…neat, spacious, and bright hahahahhaa J…..3 dose’s gotak!! J.. Outside this hotel, there was one cow which was behind us where ever we go,… Holly cow!! J.. Time now.. 10:00AM.

10:30AM, Gokarna:  we decided to go to Gokarna town only after seeing the direction board J (Only on the fly)..was tough to find a parking place for bikes.. as it was a Shivanna’s Fest (Jaatre) going on there.. Parked the bikes in Bus Stand (yes shit happens J)… Walked towards the temple.. soo many people.. as it was ShivaDay  and that day night was ShivaRatri J…Saluted Mr. Bond (God) from outside.. had a cool drink … much needed to handle the extreme heat.. Get the bikes back towards karwar..@11.20AM

1:00PM, Karwar: welcome to the coastal town Karwar..we passed through some beautiful ghat roads…stop at a super place on higway from where you can see the karwar beach.. Here rayudu tells that he wants to go to Tilmatti beach. Wokay.. lets ask people where is this beach… He asks few of them and they say its just around the corner..ok..lets have lunch and then go to beach ..relax and then head on to Goa..we are just 130kms away..

Almost drove for 30 minutes..passed through Karwar marine museum .... dude where do we eat?? We crossed the town of Karwar.. not so attractive restaurants on the highway… hunger running on us… we decide to go to some awesome hotel J… Lunch done with Coccum rasam J

2:15PM, Border: a gate welcomes us… Melcowww (Welcome) to Goaaaa….. I was worried about police catching us and asking questions… yeah you guessed it right,… documents praaablem J... my bike did not have road tax for this year.. and rayudu did not have emission certificate. J “Tim lak lak te….tim lak lak … J”.

Btw where is Thilmatti beach?? Did we miss it?/.. we stop at a place just after the border and ask few there.. they tell that the beach is back in Karnataka J..damn!!!.. here we meet an interesting fela..talking in north Karnataka accent,… I ask him how is the route to Ramnagar from there… he starts talking Simple and Sweeet words about the roads and the MLA’s J hahahahha … shucks.. I should have recorded it!!

Back riding.. passing through fabulous ghat roads…cool weather.. aaaaaah… everyone loved it!! Impressive impressive Goan roads..

4:30PM, Madgoan, break for a Goa’n style chaaya …  relax for some more time near a bridge.. … shucks just  50kms to go L and J.. all the way Chimpi was carrying a huuuuuge luggage… it was time we bid a salute to it!! .. His super light jacket!! Lol…  we keep all out bags and his jacket next to each other and click it!! J .. ok boys.. no more stopages till Anjuna said Rayudu.. hahahahha..is it possible?? Lol…. And his bike comes to reserve….

5:30PM, Panjim: On our way almost near Panjim, we see hundreds of them watching a football match.. and ofcourse we added to those hundreds who were watching J … My bike falls to reserve….

6:30PM, Mapusa:  fill up 200rs petrol for both bikes each… 58rs/litre .. 19rs less than Bangalore.. holly awesome!! J…

7:15PM, Anjuna: Touchdown Anjuna centre!!! And that’s it ..the land of Sun and Sand!! Welcome home!! J.. 850Kms in 46hrs …#wad a drive!!

After 4 fantastic days in and around nature GOA!!! keep guessing as to what happened in Goa!! :)

Return Journey!!

March 14, 2013

10:15AM, Anjuna:  Start our journey… Route chosen? Yes… Panjim à Ponda à HubliàBangalore. Well we stayed in Goa for 4 days… did we buy anything?/ naaaah… ok.. a small request from my mom to get Cashews.. wokay…. I ask Audrey’s mom  (the owner of the place where we stayed) where do we get good cashews… buy it in Maaaaapssa she says...  (ist not Maapusa…. Goan accent its Maaaaapssa ).. 

10:45AM, Maaaaapssa: ok.. where in Maaapsa?? Start searching... searching… as usual my eyes does a good job of not finding a store J.. we ask a local person.. and he asks us to go to main center.. we go.. we see it ..we go it.. we select it.. we buy it…. Matter over!! J.. Luggage ++ L

11:30AM, Ponda: Time to fill up our bikes… Fulll taaaank!!! J… yes.. get an advantage of 19 bucks/L. All our brains opened up calculators.. how much did we save how much??? Lol…  Must appreciate this..Goan roads are simply terrific.. they might not be wider… but super smooth!!

11:45AM, Outskirts Ponda:  Well I know everyone of you will be surprised to see that our bikes performed awesomely with no issues… isn’t it!! Even we felt that… but now .. hold on!! .. here comes a issue.. so called ‘Samasye!!’ J.. rayudu’s bike kind of underperforming.. (N rating hahaha J).. rayudu and chimps doubting that it could be carburetor issue.. what is carburetor was my question J…  we decide to consult a Doctor (bike mechanic J)… reach Ponda.. and hit a Clinic… before we could explain the doctor about the issue.. he told its spark plug problem.. directly removes the plug and shows us the dust collected there.. he replaces it.. chimpi test drives it.. all iz well…12:30PM J

1:15PM, Anmod Ghats: this Ghat section is even more classic than the Karwar ghat,..snake like roads super… scenery classy.. drive thumping, feeling majestic.. !!  Clicks and rest at few places… where ever we stopped.. only one thought… we gotto come back to this roads during rainy season!! Yeah… we will for sure!!...

2:00PM, Border: “Thanks Visit Again”… J …STD to local J… do you remember how the roads where in Goa? For the next 3-4 kms just keep that aside J .. bum bump bumpeee J .. this is all forest zone… so it was cool even though sun was striking..

3:00PM, Ramnagar: Lunch time..bajji paav, bindu soda J.. just few kms from this place towards Belgaum is Londa railway station.... well why now Londa.? Which is not on our route?.... last time when we came to Goa.. there was a big junction formed at Londa hahahhaha J.. so just had been there to revisit those memories!! J..4:00PM now… Lets hit hubli by 6PM.. I wasn’t aware of the route b/w Ramnagar till Hubli..this stretch was horrific last time when I came..now  lets take chance..(donno how J)

To our surprise.. this road turned out to be fantastic… newly laid roads…hint: election time J… so damn lucky we are… smooth drive… just few bad patches where they are planning to construct over bridge the railway tracks…once section of the road where railway track just kisses the main road… loved this section…

5:30PM, outskirts Hubli: dehydrated to some extent….we stop at a dhaba for a water break…somehitng different here..  this dhaba had 4 cctv cameras .. why? Doonoo J… here we meet a fela working here… he starts talking about himself.. his achievements.. about places..etc etc… interesting !!....we ask the route to bypass.. bypass is just few minutes from that dhaba he says...

6:00PM, on Hubli Bypass: ohhooo.. awesome de road!!!... just drive it!!...nothing to look around…

6:40PM: hit Bangalore Poona Highway..ultra awesome 6 lane.. Dedicated highway…kickasss!! The lazy sun already has ended his days play… gone down!! J.. ok now what do we do? “Lets go Haveri and decide J”..

8:30PM, Haveri: Downtown Haveri… ok now dinner? Where? Lets call up Santhu, my colleague .. “dude tell me a good place to eat”… he says something… i miss it.. J… so .. Destination: road side idly vade sambaar!! J

9:15PM: Back on highway… from here on its just drive drive and drive… we almost took some 7-8 breaks… almost once for every 40kms,.. tiered bikes J .. stop at every toll booth.. learn some German from rayudu.. J ..

15 Mar, 2013

3:00AM, Hebbal Toll gate: Rayudu who was feeling sleepy from past half hr.. takes a power nap J on a small becnh near a Tea stall .. chimpi and for me.. no sleep getting.. L..

04:00AM, outskirts Hiryur: as usual taking rest on the highway.. poor bums J… its pitch dark and trafiic is picking up.. 5mins later Police sees us stading on the highway and comes near us. Starts asking us what are you doing.. where are you going .. why are you driving at this time.. etc etc.. no issues here… J easily handled..

6:00AM, Sira: Sleep da starts… almost fell asleep while driving.. holly.. pulled the bike aside.. took rest.. nothing works… Tea.. no use…. “Suri.. are u ok?” asks Rayudu.. I say Yes… even then break again,.. :P lol this happened twice .. J.. at one place near Tumkur.. we have kaapi… things look better.. sun beating down.. tiered bums and bodies.. march on…!!!

8:45AM, Nelamanagla: drop off chimpi on highway… tata bye bye… yo yo yo…30 kms more to reach home…  stop at that Bengali sweet shop in gangama circle for the signature badam milk…

10:00AM, Yelahanka: Ground zero!!!.. 1720kms!!! Yes yes yes!! We did it!! Take few pics of the odometer.. thusssssss we end the eventful, funfilled ride along the coast tille Goa!!…. #wad da drive!! J…

We thank you Volini (pain relief spray), Photoban (sun cream), Shell and HP (Petrol), Kishore kumar, Sonu Nigam and many more  for being a part of our trip!! J hahahaha.. J….

Link to pics: https://plus.google.com/photos/109110559369526235759/albums/5855827656880967025?banner=pwa