Fading Goan memories

It has been quite a while since I have blogged... I am yet to complete the great Goan trip and I am all set to go on another trip to another place. Sigh.

I wish I had taken some time to cronicle the entire Goan trip. Since I am hard pressed for time (or is it too lazy to write) I'll substitute snaps instead.

This is what we did on day 2 in Goa...

We woke up rather early, actually nine-ish. The toilets were scary, We could hear the other going-ons of the neighbouring room's toilets from our toilets and they could hear my farts!!! Poor them.


Our room at Conria


Joe's Santro that we "hired"

Then we set off for Fort Aguda. It means "watering hole" or some such sort in Portugese. The fort overlooks the mouth of the Mandovi river and the Arabian sea. It is a good place for uncles and aunties and their assortment of chokras and chokries to visit.


The mouth of the Mandovi

P was complaining that he hadn't seen old Goa in all his visits. V had never been to Goa and so we set off (after a quick vada pav and the huawei snap) to old Goa to see a made at the St. Francis Basillica. A place only for the devout and artistically inclined. The blue skies made it a perfect time to photograph!


Old Goa

Old Goa is a charming place. Narrow, winding, well maintained roads. Beautiful homes. Lush green patches all over and the Mandovi river cutting across. Sigh. I wish I could live here for ever!

Dona Paula. It is again at the mouth of the Mandovi, the other side off Fort Aguda. It is again a place for all the uncles, aunties and babalog. V took a great snap though!

Miramar Beach. In the heart of Panjim this beach is really really deep. But too many people and too many A, U and B's. Sigh.

Vasco. Like any other Indian city. No trace of Goa. Nothing much to see there either. We did go to the railway station to find out train timings from Canacona.

Food and a forgetable boat ride later we decided to hit Tito's :-) Finally some action. I got stuck in a major traffic jam at 2300 at Baga :-( at Baga!!! It was that crowded. Tito's was swarming with single guys. Plus the music was bad. Regge. It was im-f***ing-possible to enjoy! So back we came to Conria and the remaining bottle of Mamms.

The next day we got up real early and did the ablutions and heard a lot of noise in the adjacent bathrooms and a lot of fart action too!!!
Checked out of Conria. 300 Rs per day, by the beach, during the season.

We returned the car to Joe with just enough fuel to run a few kms :-)
Had breakfast and caught the bus to Canacona. It was a four hour journey. We dumped our luggage at a PCO booth in the Canacona railway station (no terrorist problems here!) and caught an auto to Palolem!!

Palolem! It made the trip to Goa. It was the high point of the entire trip. Clean, empty beaches, crystal clear water and great food! We could do anything here that we wished, but we had only 2 1/2 hours :-(


Palolem!!!

Palolem was a wierd experience. There was this totally hot babe sitting at the table across ours (at the cafe) and she was giving daggers to P and self with a smirk on her face! Man, that was totally wierd! Never felt that uncomfortable before. She was having food with her male companion and she was Indian and she was totally hooaattt...

Finally our trip to Goa was comming to an end and we enter the next phase of our journey to Manipal and Mangalore. That leg is something I need to blog, but not here :-)


Canacona railway station... P and I can be seen as a speck


The setting sun from a moving train on the Konkan Railway


A Manipal sunset


V, P and I at Chapora. This picture was shot with my advanced skills of camera placement and agile limbwork.

Another day. Another trip. Another set of experiences. Life moves on. Sigh. I wish I could freeze the clock!!!

Fading Goan memories

Heavenest Goa

Heaven is regarded as a place where "good" people go, after they die. I do not subscribe to that school of thought. People, good or bad, need not go to heaven only when they die. It is left to them to visit Goa, whenever they want, how many ever times they want.

Goa, like any other Indian state has history. However, unlike the majority of India, Goa was under the imperial rule of the Portugese for over 400 years.

Goa might be small (3702 sq. kms), but it does justice to the adage, small is beautiful.

This blog is not about Goa, it is about V, P and me in Goa and the three days and two nights we spent in Goa.

We left Bangalore City at 2030 on a Konduskar Volvo for Panaji (or Panjim). The tickets were priced at Rs 700.00 each. It was freezing cold in the bus and to make matters worse, "Bewafaa" was playing. We had to endure Akshay Kumar lip-sync-ing, "Ye dil jisepe fida hai, woh bewafaa hai..." It didn't help that the Bus driver fancied himself to be Senna reincarnate. He braked and swerved like there was not tomorrow. Sleep was elusive. The next morning P lost the battle against motion sickness (induced by bad egg curry/gobi fry and a sleepless night). We reached Panjim at 1000 the next morning, not before my sharp eyes spotted a Huawei Customer Care centre. Small world.

Me getting senti about my first employer

On alighting the ice cold bus we were acosted by the local taxi mafia, each wanting to take us to our destination. We pleaded with them that we were not aware of our destination yet. Something that changed after a call to Willie (a.k.a Willfred), the guy who was arranging for our stay at his guest house. After a round of "Your calls", we decided to hire a car and drive around goa for two days. We were shown a Santro, broken tail light, musty interiors, almost dangling bumper and an almost bald right rear tire for Rs 700 a day. I was not so sure, but we decided to take it anyways. The good news was that there was a fair bit of fuel left! Were we lucky or what? Then Joseph (a.k.a Joe) tells us that it is illegal for him to let his car on hire, so in case the cops caught us we were supposed to be Joe's old friends.

Willie's guest house was in Calangute. After a slow ride through the narrow, yet picturesque roads of North Goa we reached Calangute beach and very much near the statue that was to be our randavouz point (with Willie). We spent the next half hour betting on who could be Willie, in the end P won. We saw the rooms that Willie had to offer and selected a room on the 2nd floor of Cornia Guest house. Rs 300 per night. A fan, two beds, a decent toilet/bathroom, and an extra mattress. What else could we ask for?

Lunch was at "Electric Catz" near the beach. The food was either tasty or we were too hungry. I would like to believe in the former! V and P bought some beachwear, that is where we saw the "Heavenest Goa" phrase.

Then we hit the beach. What a dissapointment it was. It looked like the whole of India (and maybe the world) was there. V, as usual wanted to walk the entire beach, P and me wanted none of it, but walked nevertheless. If one were to conduct a demographic survey of the beach it would perhaps return figures like

Indian Aunties and Uncles = 40%
Indian Children = 25%
Non Indian Aunties and Uncles = 30%
Young people = 4.5%
Local Goans and others = 0.5%

Bottom line... Young people avoid this beach. But then we had V with us, so it was ok.

There were some water sports at the beach front, Water Scooter (Rs. 100) and Parasailing (Rs. 800 if alone, Rs 1000 if in tandem)

Vagatore shot from Capora

Next stop was Fort Chapora, near Vagatore Beach. We parked the Santro at the base of the fort and climed up the gravel road (quite slippery). The view from the fort was breathtaking. This fort is also the one of the reasons why I liked Goa on my previous trips to the state. Hardly anyone cares to climb up the fort let alone visit the Vagatore beach, which is surprising. We spent a few moments in solitude up on the fort. Took a few "Dil Chata Hai" type snaps. I felt like I was at peace with the universe. Then I got a message from my boss in Bangalore to call up asap. So I spent some time explaining some work related issues from Chapora (Work from Goa? I'd love too!!!)

A quick visit to the flea market at Anjuna, where they were selling Goa Gil's trance CDs and we headed back to Conria. Spent some time there freshening up and headed to Panjim for dinner at "Delhi Durbar". The food was the best we got in Goa. Then we went to the Miramar beach at around 2130, walked right up to the sea and it was quite a walk. Then we drove back to Conria, opened a bottle of Mamms, the V had smuggled into Goa from Germany. We were too tired to go any place by 0000 so we called it a day (and it (the day) was over even before we wanted it to)

That was the end of day one. day two and three as and when i write them!!! V and P, want to help??

Heavenest Goa

Mysore Rain

The thing I like most about Mysore, is that it is the easiest weekend get-away from Bangalore. Mysore is probably Karnatka's second most important city (after Bangalore). It is 145 kms West off Bangalore. It has an airport, where I doubt a plane has ever landed.

The world knows Mysore as the city of palaces. The Main Palace, Jaganmohan palace, Lalitmahal Palace and God alone knows how many more! The nine day long Dassara celebrations sees the city bursting at its seems, with tourists.

The other places that a tourist might not want to miss are KRS, the zoo, Chamundi hills and the Railway Museum.

So much for the world, to me Mysore means much more. It is the place where I get to sleep all day. It is the place where I have seen Steam Locomotives co-exist with modern Diesel Locos, the place where I've had a million adventures as a kid.

The other features on the Mysore landscape are (This makes up most of Mysore's character I guess)
1) The Race course (The Poonawalla Derby was held today!)
2) The Star of Mysore, A daily evening newspaper thats been around from forever and carries most of the local gossip
3) The world's tallest cactus plant
4) A Bonsai garden (with a 101 year old bonsai)

This week's journy was good for several reasons. I'll list them out.
1) We did the Bangalore-Mysore stretch in 3 hours. This includes a 10 min railway crossing and a 15 minute tea stop.
2) I met Nitesh, Arjun and Lakshmi (All old Manipal pals) at SDM
3) We got back from Mysore in under 3 hours, yet got caught in the rain (last 10 minutes and that too inside Bangalore city!!)
4) My bike touched a new high speed. 115kmph.

The sad part, rains. It rained for 14 hours continuously Saturday night through Sunday morning. The Cauvery river breached its banks at a lot of places damaging homes, crops and a few bridges along the Mys-Blr route.

Mysore Rain

Art of Living - Happy people

Yesterday night Saveen, Aditya and myself me at Garuda at 2215 hrs to discuss today's plans...
Over some overpriced parathas, sugarless juices (mine had sugar hehehe...) and a sad excuse for aloo puri we decided to have no plan, but to meet at 1000 the next day at the same place, Saveen buys a camera and then we head to the Ashram. That done we dispersed for the night.

I woke up at 0945 today, so there goes the plan. Anyways plans never work so its fine. We meet up at Garuda, again, at 1100. Saveen has finalized the deal. He has bought a camera a Sony P200. This is a present for his parents. After withdrawing some cash from the ATM and having breakfast at the coffee day. Yes. Coffee Day. No. Don't say anything!

We set out to the Ashram at 1235 from my granny's home, where we had a small Pee-stop. Then onto that sad road. Kanakpura road is sad.

There are two Engineering colleges on the way. Yellamma Dassappa Insititute of Technology and something else. Too many engg colleges in town!

We reach the Ashram at 1335. We got to see Sri Sri Ravishankar. He is one happy man. Smiling all the time. A skeptic would see a PR coup here, but seriously all those people who follow him, vouch for that permanent smile. In fact all the people there are happy. All smiling. Quite something in this cynical world we live in. We Indians are the 4th happiest population in the world. Is it the Sri Sri's handiwork?

We met Saveen's parents. Both smiling. Both happy to see Saveen. We had lunch with them at the community dining hall. Then saw the Vishalakshi mantap. Quite something. We bought a few books on/authored by the Guruji.

And when we go to take our shoes, which we had to remove before entering the Mantap, Saveen realizes that his shoe's been flicked! Great heart burn. "Why me?", said Saveen. Sigh. Life and its sadistic tricks.

We spent some time trying to trace the lost shoes, then gave up.

It was time to head back. The dark ominous clouds were telling us head back fast. After saying good bye to Saveen's parents and Saveen, Aditya and myself headed back to Bangalore and the its gloomy chaos.

Rain it did, and we did get wet. But we had a nice time (till the shoe incident) at the Ashram. Not everything is white or black, there are shades of grey. So, did we go outside Bangalore? In a way yes and many others no.

Art of Living - Happy people

Hogenekal... the short trip that turned long

What was supposed to be a trip to keep a tradition alive turned out to be a possible trend setting trip.

I filled around 3 litres of fuel at Cauvery and headed out to Brian's house. We planned to leave for Hosur at 9 am. Hosur is only 42 kms from Bangalore. Halfway to Hosur we decided to head out to Krishnagiri, since Hosur was too short a trip! We reached Krishnagiri (48 kms from Hosur) at 1130 am after a couple of stops and a fuel halt for Brian.

It was a return trip from nowhere we decided. We extened the trip to Hogenekal. After some calculations and thought we set on the next 98 kms of our short trip... I filled up somewhere outside Krishangiri. 6 litres. We reached a Tabha, the TN version of a Dhaba, near Dharmapuri at 1315. Hogged on some tasty food. The Tabha reminded us of a certain "Sigma" from Manipal!

We set out at 1400 to Hogenekal. Reached there at 1445. River Cauvery is in full spate! There are massage guys every where trying to fleace the gullible visitor. The place is nothing worth writing about. It just lent a destination to our trip. The sceneary along the road is quite worth the visit, but the well heeled would claim to have seen better!

We set out from Hogenekal at 1515. Had a short break at 1605-1625 at a roadside stall near Dharmapuri and then again at 1805-1830 on the Krishnagiri-Hosur stretch at a Dhaba. Then I filled 2 litres near Hosur and we were on the road again. We reached Brian's home at 1905 and i got home at 1945.

Highlights: Great roads. Good view.
Lessons Learnt: Never overtake a truck while behind a bus. (I almost became history). When in Tamil Nadu never ride without covering up (I got sun burns, them are painful). Always plan the trip. (We ran short of cash) We can do upto 400kms a day on the TB's.


A pooped me at the Tabha... I never realise i looked that tired... didn't feel that way at all...

Hogenekal... the short trip that turned long

week 12

Another weekend approaches... It is time for me to go on my journey... But the eternal question haunts me again... Where?

I have two options.

Option A) Chikmanagalur. A propsed car trip on sat. My only job being that of a driver. My grandfather's brothers and my grandmother's brother want to visit my grandfather's sister. So no music. No 100kmph. No anything else. Just being the good guy. To tell the truth I am pertified. This came up tonight during dinner and I bought time till tomorrow. It'll be like the Jerome K. Jerome book.... yours truly being the dog...

Option B) Go to work on sat, maybe even pretend to go to work. Then on Sunday go on the bike trip (to who knows where). 100kmph haaaa... That would be only Aditya and maybe Brian... Saveen is probably ruled out on Sunday... and this trip was "planned" yesterday...

Guess I'll flip a coin...

24th Sept...
Option A - Didn't work out since the granduncles couldn't decide when to leave!!
Option B - Aditiya is down with exhaustion...

Now what?
I am not giving up the get-out-of-bangalore-every-alternate-weekend tradition. So Hosur it is... just 42 kms from Bangalore. In Tamil Nadu state. Have no clue what to do once i get there. Fuel costs less in TN...
If I do go... (unless it rains tonight...) then this will be the 12th straight alternate weekend i'll be out of the city... i hope to lose count once this becomes a habit...

week 12

Devarayanadurga - Burnt rubber, loose rivet and docile monkeys

The last post's dilema was successfully resolved at 0840 IST on Saturday when Aditya, Saveen and yours truly met at Cauvery Emporium, M.G.Road. We decided on Tumkur. A town located 65 kms from Bangalore on the Thane-Chennai NH-4. Our plan was to have no plan.

First things first. Breakfast. We were hungry and decided to eat at some place on the way. Since we had to go via IISc to reach Tumkur road, I decieded on a Shiv Sagar type hotel near MS Rammiah Institute of Tech (Thanks to Satish for introducing me to the place!). It was masala dosas for all of us and the usual discussion about the national affairs. The conclusion was that we solve problems, but the wrong ones.

From there it was straight on to Yeshwantpur, Peenya and then onto NH-4. Aditya, like last time was lost at the Peenya signal. Saveen and myself suspected that we would see him next at Tumkur! Soon after the Peenya signal we saw some guy on a bike skid and almost crash into the road divider, but no damage done.

I wonder how people can work at Parle-G. All I could think of while passing that factory was biscuits... I guess it was my olefactory sense doing the talking!

A few kilometers on NH-4 and then we approach this structure that looks like a toll booth! I didn't know that the NH-4 stretch to Tumkur was a toll-road! My heart knew no bounds, at the same time I was not sure that bikes would be allowed, thankfully they were and for free. Were we lucky or what?

We halted at the toll booth for some time to take a few snaps, and a few seconds later we spot Aditya, behind us. How and when did that happen? I guess I'll let him do the talking in the comments section. (He was in a minor accident... and we missed him, that was scary..)

Then on we sped forward as a group. Maintaining the highest speed we could, at time determined by the traffic and at other time by the capacity of our bikes. I touched 112kmph for the very first time on my bike! We managed to maintain a steady 100kmph till the end of the toll road. It was the best ride so far. We stopped nearly every five kms, either to soak in the country side atmosphere or for photo ops. Saveen had a way of putting it, “It is like coming from a village to the city, you want to see all of it!”.

There is this diversion into Tumkur city that Saveen didn't know of, so he went straight while Aditya and myself, took the right turn. Literally and figuratively. This road brought us to Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur. We decided to wait there for Saveen and instructed him to that place. While waiting, Aditya bumped into an old classmate, currently persuing MBA at SIT. Small world? Just wait till the next one! Saveen arrives after a prolonged period and we head to the a resturaunt opposite SIT. It was named “Woodlands”. It boasts of an internet cafe, etc, etc... After a round of coffee/tea we decided to head towards Devarayanadurga. As we were leaving we bumped into Nishanth, a 2005 pass out from SIT working at Huawei. He was for a short period in my project, before being put, rather unfortunately to another project. Small world? No. Mini world!

Then, we head out towards Devarayanadurga after a few wrong turns we were back on the right road. We had to pass through Siddaganga Mutt. There were easily more than 2000 young boys studying there and our bikes became an instant attraction. They were looking at our bikes with unbeliving eyes. Royal Enfeild, Plusar and Unicorn could surely use that in their ad campain! It was quite an experience. These boys succumbing to worldly the charms of bikes. Isn't that a story straight out of Tinkle?

The ride up to Devarayanadurga was peppered with impromptu stops by the riders, either to see green fields or to just keep quite and listen to the sound of nature. We could do that on the road. That is how desolate it was. I never ever imagined such roads to exist in Karnataka.

The title: Burnt rubber - My shoe on my silencer. Loose rivet – Saveen's bike's silencer guard. Docile monkeys – The monkeys who aren't half as clever as their brethren at Nandi Hills.

The way back was good too. If anybody claims we have bad roads, I agree. At the same time I claim that we have great roads too. Only, nobody ever sees them. How can they, when they refuse to get out of the city and ride like we did to Devanarayanadurga.

NH-4 is part of a grandoise government plan. If that plan turns out half as good at the toll road, then we will have a kick ass highway. And then, maybe I'll get to write about a Bangalore-Bombay-Delhi-Jammu-Shimla-Calcutta-Madras-Bangalore trip!

It was a great ride to Devanarayanadurga. No people. No trash. Great view. Beautiful roads. High speeds. The hill was good too. There was hardly anybody there. The hill has been maintained very well. There are dustbins every where, and those are as clean as are the surroundings. It has unwittingly escaped commercialization. I wonder for how long?

Devarayanadurga - Burnt rubber, loose rivet and docile monkeys

Murphyed Coramandal

Murphy has something against all humanity... Him and his stupid laws...

We were at the receiving end of that law... It started raining on 7th and it kept raining the whole day, so we decided to postpone the trip. No prizes for guessing. Two days and no rain! I even went to work!

It was a different story that I had a lot of work to do and quite welcomed the postponement of the journey... but what a ride that would have been... I will do it some time.

I have been going out of Bangalore every alternate weekend for the past 10 weeks. To keep up that "tradition" I need to go someplace in the next two days. Since I have all the stuff ready, I just have to decide where... Where should I go?

Murphyed Coramandal

Coramandal Days

I must be crazy! I am planning on a Coramandal trip... Taken two days off from work too... The route is planned as Bangalore-Kolar-Chennai-Pondichery-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore.

The riders so far are Brian and your truly. Both on Enfields... Kiran has tentaively said yes... We plan to be on the road for four days...

I have to buy spares for my bike. I need to get a riding glass, gloves and a jacket... I don't think it would be safe riding without a jacket... Only sixs days to go and I am all excited!

Coramandal Days

Green grass, Blue sky... its a beautiful day...

Well, the title isn't exactly mine. I have heard it some where, can't exactly pinpoint the source. I suspect it is some ad jingle. That is besides the point. Such a place exists. If you live in Bangalore, all you have to do is travel 25kms on NH-7 to find it. Nandi Hills.

Like all trips, this was planned with great care. All in half an hour. Aditya calls me up on Friday night and says, "How about Nandi hills tom?". Thats all. A few phone calls later Saveen is with us. We decide to meet at Cauvery Emporium on Sat at 0900 and head out to the hills.

And that is what we did. The road to Yelhanka is quite crowded and narrow. There is work still being carried out on those roads. Yet where ever it is done, it is done good. That is indeed heartning.

Our first stop was just before Yelhanka for that quick breakfast which took more than 45 mins. We didn't complain. It gave us plenty of time to get up to date with each others' lives. We realised that we did live in interesting times. Not the chinese style!

Stomachs filled we resumed our ride. And what greets us is the most beautiful sight. An IAF landing. The runway at the Yelhanka Air Force Station is just over the fence from NH-7 so it looks as if the plane will touchdown on NH-7. It is a sight worth wating a life time.

Next stop was Devanhalli. That was me. My Enfield can not travel at 120 kmph. It just about does 112kmph and that is quite creepy, so I stick to a more reasonable 85kmph. That meant I lost our guys on a Pulsar and a Honda Unicorn. I finally caught them guys at the diversion to Nandi Hills. 22kms to go. A straight road to the Hill. We took a few snaps and headed the hill way.

What happened next was insane. A group of 20-30 people are blocking our way in the form of a human chain. I thought they were day time muggers. So I revved up and sped at them. That is why I am insane too. They had no choice, they let me go. Saveen passed them a few seconds before me almost wobbled, but no harm done. Aditya was caught, not for long. He too escaped. All this tom foolery to collect money for Ganesh Chaturti. Those people were truly insane.

The rest of the ride was spent soaking in the great view, cool breeze. What took the cake was the lack of human beings on the road. That made the ride even more sweet. We were zipping through the narrow roads on the ghat section at 70kmph. It was great.

We had to climb 1km from the parking lot to the top. That was great fun too. No people. Only love struck couples hoping for privacy that we were not going to give them.

The view from the top was breathtaking. We got philosphical. That is till the monkeys decided to entertain us. Those cheekey monkeys even got me to throw away my ice cream. Saveen had fun with one. Teasing it till it decided to jump!


The way back a few photo ops here and there and then back to Banaglore and the mad mad traffic. Lunch was at 1630 at Ballal residency. We guys enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided to trip again!

Green grass, Blue sky... its a beautiful day...

Good road - bad road

Today's our Independence day. Mera(Hamara) Barath Mahan!!!

The sad part is that the terrorists did strike in J&K. When will it end?

The trip was great... While going to mysore I seldom touched 90kmph... The weather was pleasant and I didn't feel that need for speed.
On the flip side on the way back we got hit by rain just before Srirangapatinam and had to wait for half an hour for it to stop. Then again at Kengeri.. nothing in between... And that is where we kept touching 100kmph every now and then.

The road from Kengeri to Srirangapatnam is still under construction in places. But wherever it is done, it is worth it... We can easily cover that distance (120) in less than an hour once the road is done... Not on my bike... I couldn't/didn't go over 105kmph at any point of time :-( Even at 105 it felt good to handle.

The stretch from Bangalore to Kengeri is at best forgettable. Same for Srirangapatinam to Mysore.. We did the trip in 3.5 hours. Ketan was the pillion.

We saw one dog being run over by a black Bolero near Ramnagaram (Where Sholay was filmed) Then we saw two more dead ones within a few kilometers... Can't say who did it... but three dead dogs... Saw a couple of accidents en route too..

Good road - bad road