Six of us, on five bikes, had all the pleasure.
So here is the first hand account for an adernaline high.
Sathish, the dude on his Pulsar 150cc.
Ashish Chamoli, the veteran on his Avenger,
Ashustosh and Gurinder, the Royal Enfield bearers,
Yogesh, the pillion getting a run-in
and the novice, yours truly, out to 'Avenge'...................... ......and the blood rush began.
It all began with me acquiring an almost new Avenger from a firang, and I suddenly rediscovered a part in me that was all lost in the race for higher packages. And there I was threatening all sorts of people for accompanying me on a trip. On one of these threatening sessions, I met Ashish, Chams to the rest of the mankind. He agreed to accompany and arranged a reluctant gang too.
I was soon to find out what seperates the world of bikers from the rest of their brethren.
It was decided that all of us meet at the MG Road HP bunk at 7pm sharp. Of the five, originally on, only three of us, the dude, Chams, n urs truly, made it there at sharp 8pm and the rain decided to join us from there on, to fillin for the rest. So in maddening traffic, horns blaring, rain playing spoilsport and moon playing hide seek in the clouds......three bikes and their bikers set off. We stopped at Shell to quench the bellies of our dream machines and waited fruitlessly for rain Gods to have mercy.
Alas, there was none and off we went again. Chams leading the way, with nothing in sight, the speedo constantly touching the ton and urs truly fearing for his life. Suddenly all the despair of my beloved not with me vanished. It was my bloody life at stake!!! Poor Sathish, scared of being left high n dry in wake of a bike failure, religiously followed the belligerent Chams. This Chams must have been an Aussie in his previous life.
Finally, we stopped at the Biryani house near Kamath, drenched to the bone, for some biryani. Poor me a veggy by choice (pyaar ke liye sab chod diya ;-) ), had the good old daal chawal as Chams and our dude finished plates of chicken curry in no time and lo we were back on the road. The rain finally stopped and so did Chams passion for speeeeeeeed. I guess he is a filmy sort of a fellow (Remember all those 'aag lage tan man mein jab paani barse hai' songs). Suddenly the roads were empty (it was 11:30 in the nite) and dry and the Avenger rose like pheonix from sleep (may be it was to do with the all pure Shell petrol burning in its belly) and we did the rest 100kms in 90 mins flat.
As the clock rung in 1, we entered Mysore and so did the rains. So all three of us, singing feeling wet wet, roamed around the deserted Mysore streets looking for a certain ?@#@@&%%? road.
Finally, we checked-in at Anshu's den @1:30 and by 2:00am, I had made the supreme sacrifice of my mattress for Chams' cushions. So I was on cushions, the dude on the Sofa and Chams comfy on a huge mattress. I must confess at least now that I had a hard time falling sleep on those cushions.
With practically no sleep and some 150kms under my belly and no sweet talk from wifey, I was up at 7:00. And only then did I find what sort of stuff these bikers are made up of. It so happened, that Ashu who had slogged till 2 in the night to finish off some work at office, Gurinder paahji who had waited for the rain to stop till 2:30 and had managed to get up at 4(!!!!), had started for Mysore at 5 am to catch up with us.........I cant think of myself ever doing that. N this is when Yogi joined in.......riding pillion on the TB, he was to get his run-in.
So after a quick breakfast and Guri's quick burst, all the bikes were lined towards Gundaplet, throttling towards Ooty. The road was great, the Sun merciless and our baked bodies did good work of the distance on the all hot bikes and by 12:30 we were ready to take on the 'mights' of the hair pins.
The all famed hair pins were in fact gr8 fun. Fun, coz I saw so many vehicles rolling back instead of going upwards, ha hah ha. I wonder what will they do on steeper inclines of Himachal, Uttranchal!!!! But my beauty from Bajaj, did it in style, whereas Ashu's famed TB had to stop twice gasping for breath (chi chi chi........that too with a 350cc belly).
Finally after waving at all the monkeys on the way, we were in ooty and the rains..........ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh again wet wet wet. The first thing we did was to buy rain jackets. Chams figured out that he had been carrying one all the time (I told u na these bikers are a different race all together!!!). So with rain suddenly starting to pour in buckets rather than in droplets, the two sardarjis had a quick Gujrati thali each while the rest again devoured some chickens.
With all the things bathed in freshness, Ooty looked all the more green and suddenly so more inviting and off we went looking for a certain Hotel Riga in Wellington. I was very keen on this Riga place, having read the gr8 lonelyAztec's blog on IndiaMike, and was adamant on staying there. Whereas Guri wanted to stay away from the crowded Ooty. N the rest of the fellows cudnt budge the determination of the two SARDARS and had to drop in with us!!!!
Now I must tell u how right LonelyAztec was,
this place Wellington is entirely different from Ooty. It still is quiet with absolutely no shops n commercialisation. It is so sleepy and fresh. Hotel Riga sat on top of a hill overlooking the typical small town railway station and what cud be better than the gates closed for the toy train to arrive. And lo behold I had the great darshan of the chaiya chaiya train (run on some bio diesel).
The hotel had another surprise, the receptionist awakened me to the fact that it was tourist season and the rates and gone to 1500 per room. N then began the hour long bargaining session, we bargained and they reasoned, and finally the 2 rooms were ours @1100 per room with an exxxxtra mattress thrown in each.
After some refreshing rest while pulling each other's legs, we finally hit the bazaar for some food and booze. I had the most memorable Kerala Parontha and Omellette in the restaurantless Coonoor market. This shack was right in front of the bus stand, a shady place but the service and food good.
I liked it but, Guri decided not to enter the smelly place and instead shared a table with another 'gay' (strictly means happy) tamil friend at another restaurant. After having filled our tummies to the hilt and no luck with booze, we returned to our hotel only to find that the bar there doesnt serve liqour but they said u can get ur own and drink in the bar!!!!!!
Well nite was chilly for a blanket and I got up more than once to check when the sun wud be out.
N when the sun came and temperatures became normal, it was again time to hit the road. After lots of photographs in the Hotel garden, the bikes smoked the air again. We went straight to ooty, had breakfast at a roadside shack and hit the botanical garden straight away. My recommendation is, if you are not a botany student and dont like seeing crowds, dont waste your time here.
Courtesy 3 hours wasted at the garden, we had no time for anything else and so it was time to start the descend again. So back to bikes.
We started back for Bangalore around 12 and courtesy an early start, this time the ride was leisurely, interrupted every now and then with delicious coffees. I forgot to mention the coffee was awesome through out the trip. U stop at any place and u can be assured that the orange tea and coffee wud b gr8. Enjoying monkeys playing and elephants strolling, we reached Mysore at 3:30pm.
The next 1 hour we spent waiting for biryanis at I dont know which restaurant. I hope Ashu wud put in place's name.
The biryanis were ok and the service......pathetic.
Finally we hit the road (again in rain)
at 5:45pm and once out of Mysore, Sardarji did a Mr. India. The guy just vanished. Havent seen him since then. I later heard about all his daredevils and discussed it with my good friend Venky. He told me that boys always ride fast and men always want to enjoy. That certainly clarifies things. I guess at 29, I am a man and he a boy. And being a man means a lot of responsibilities (read EMIs, wife and kids), and driving slow!!!!!
We broke the journey again a number of times and finally stopped at Chadigar Panjabi Dhabba (no there is no spelling mistake!!!) for coffee and final ok tatas. That was the last time I saw the rest on this trip. The man finally entered home at 9:30pm.
The odo read 588km and I was looking forward to another trip. Nooooo I was never tired.
I will do the trip again with my best friend, my great companion, my soul mate and my beloved and smell the freshness in the air again, and enjoy the smile in her eyes (which I missed so much on this trip.).
LU motu.
More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29172863@N00/sets/72157600113007591/
