That trip on bike

The route plan

The trip to Kerala on bikes. 370 odd kilometers, 2 bikes, 2 bikers, rains, sun, dust and mud. I wonder when I would go on the next bike trip. It was quite tiring, you know, sitting and riding the not so smooth terrains. You normally won't find a shelter to hide from the rains while you are passing through a jungle at odd hours.

That was last year. But the memories are still fresh. I want to go on another trip. And this time too, on a bike. Before I grow too old, and lose the thrill and stamina in me. Although I am working out these days, and so is my partner.

What say partner? Should we plan the next one?

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Beaches and Trees

I had mentioned about my trip to Kerala some posts ago. A lot happened actually, and I don't find enough time to write about everything. Well, that's really an excuse, but when I sit down to write a blog, I run out of thoughts very quickly. Errr...what was I going to write?? Oh yeah...Let's see.

We did a lot of biking, 4 guys and 2 bikes. We had big hopes from Lt. Parida (not late, lieutenant, :) ) that he would be arranging at-least some 150cc bikes. But, we had to manage with one Discover, and one errr... ____________, Please someone fill it up (Samiran, Parida, Kunal). We didn't have problems with any of the bikes, fortunately, though we (Me and Parida) who were on one bike, survived a small accident, or rather a fall. The only thing hurt in all this was Lt. Parida's bike. See the photo. Can you see the scratches? Sorry Lt. Parida.

The same day, when we were wandering inside the campus, we saw a big Anaconda (not as big as the one on TV) crossing the road. It had probably just had it's dinner. Inside the campus, there were signs at places saying, "Go slow, animals cross roads here". At first I had laughed. When we had crossed the crawling thing, a truck came from the other side. We returned back to see if it was still there, but couldn't find any signs of it. It was already dark, we wanted to take a picture of it, but decided not to search for it now.

Then there were beaches, and coconut tress (reminder, we were in Kerala). We smoked on the beaches, threw some stones into the waters, (Kunal got a record number of 7 jumps), we drank at night, and played cards. :) :)

All these days, approx 4 days, I hadn't checked my mail once. I had my laptop, and I was also carrying my Reliance data card, all prepared to upload photos as and when they were being taken, but to my horror, there were no mobile network signals other than BSNL. We couldn't even use our cell phones (sometimes took photos with it). :(

We took a lot of photos, lots and lots....




We went up a light house, "No Problem". Wasn't a big one, but I had never been up a lighthouse ever. And as soon as we entered the building, Mr. Samiran had a question ready for us, for which, even he didn't have an answer? "Why aren't there any lifts in Lighthouses?" As if, he had been to all the light-houses of the world, and had made his amazing and non-existent discovery/theory.


While we were walking on the beaches (don't remember the name), something bit me on my foot. I though I would have stepped on some stone. But the pain didn't go away after I moved. When I looked down, I almost fainted. A strange creature was holding onto my left toe. "Illlo Bopalo", I shouted, and hit that thing with Lt. Parida's helmet. After 2 blows and lot's of shouting, it let go of my toe. The other's were enjoying this scene, quitely from a distance. Only Kunal came running towards me, I was bleeding. This is what he did after that.

Damn it, he came running with his camera, to take a picture. Huh, Can you see the blood on it's teeth?


They didn't even care to take me to a hospital. Not even a tetanus, what I had in mind was an anti-venom. Though, none of us knew what creature it was (poisonous/not).

While returning, Parida said, since you were bitten, let me drive. I said I was okay and I was in a condition to drive. But how could I ignore Lieutenant Parida's orders!!!! I finally gave in.

Old Year Celebrations - Contd....

So, we reached Lt. Ritesh's room at around 12:00 noon. The first thing I had in mind was to take a bath. Payyanur was hot, at-least by my standards. Samiran dubbed it as pleasant and comfortable while I was sweating away.

Now we were hungry. So , we proceeded towards the mess, the Navy Mess. Lt. Ritesh, as usual, had to wear formals. Hahah, and I was forced to wear shoes. :( On the way, we noticed the bar. The mere sight of it drove away all the hunger. It was ROYALE. Really, it was a great experience. We didn't spend much time in the bar, since the mess would be closing soon, Ritesh had warned us. After we finished our drinks, we headed towards the mess for our lunch, finally. Oh, I didn't mention that we didn't have the time to get something to eat before that, since last night's dinner.

Nothing much to say about the food. It was okay. After that, Ritesh wanted to take us around the campus. Though I was feeling tired and sleepy, I thought we should have a look around INS Zamorin. May be this would be a chance of a lifetime. We clicked some photos. Near the flags, in-front of a helicopter. We had saved the MIG for Kunal. :)

Well, we couldn't manage to get a Digicam. So, till Kunal arrived, we had to use our cell phones.

During all this, we were getting constant updates from Kunal. "I am here", "I reached this place", "How far is it from here", "It's very hot". :)

To be continued.... Kunal's arrival....

Old year celebrations

Don't worry, I will also celebrate the new year. But for the year that was ending, we had lot's of things to celebrate about. Samiran and 1 packed our bags to started off for Payyanur, Kerala.

Our destination: INS Zamorin
Our contact : Lt. Ritesh Kumar Parida

Well, as every Bangalorean knows well, friday evening is the worst time to travel to Majestic(Bangalore's Bus Terminus) or the Airport. It always seems like Bangalore is being evacuated. What I had heard from Samiran, was today, there were around 1200 buses scheduled to take people out of Bangalore.

We had a bus ticket, and it was a private one. We had made sure that we didn't get the back seat, since we knew that the road to Payyanur was full of pot-holes, so big, that they could have been called wells. But, when we entered the bus, and started searching for our seat number, we realized that it was going to be the worst bus journey ever. Backseat, and 6 people jammed up. There was a couple among the six. To make matters worse, the girl was fat, and so was Samiran. The girl took up more than 1/6th of the space, but since she was with her boyfriend, we couldn't have done anything. We were heading towards Kerala, and had no plans of being admitted into a government hospital, and miss the Christmas and the New Year celebrations.

We managed to sleep in a posture that was not even close to sitting. But it was fun, and we laughed all the way. Samiran's head hit the roof twice, and mine, once. We had a train to catch next morning from Mangalore at 9:00 am. And this bus was supposed to reach there at 6:00 am. But, due to the mass movement of the public, it was late by 3 hours. We thought we missed the train. But thanks to Indian Railways, the train was late by an hour and we reached Payyanur in another 1:30 hours.

To reach Payyanur, it took us almost 12 hours, which was way beyond our calculations. Well, here comes the best part. Kunal, who made up his last minute plans, decided to celebrate with us and Lt. Ritesh. I guess, I wouldn't do justice to him, if I were to describe anything about his trip. I would be stealing away his content for one more blog, now that the competition is neck to neck. And of-course, we will get to hear "Right from the Horse's Mouth" :)....  To make it short, he reached Payyanur after a 48 hour journey from Gurgaon, via Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore etc.

When we finally reached Payyanur, we were welcomed by Lt. Ritesh Kumar Parida, in a black sorts, shoes, and a t-shirt. At the sight of him, Samiran and I couldn't control our laughter. He hadn't changed a bit.

There is more to mention about this trip. To be continued....