Shifted through the winds that blow, down comes the soft and silent snow….

My 1^st trip abroad to the US , mixed flow of emotions running through my mind excited, anxious, worried and definitely missing my love . I had only a Sunday to rest but the cold breeze outside the hotel was more tempting inviting me to take a walk, smell it and feel the weather. Called up Tushar (my colleague from India)to ask what’s his plan. We discussed a couple of places in and around Folsom and decided to drive to the Lake Tahoe. With GPS in the vehicle it was an easy job finding the route. We headed towards the Southern end of Lake Tahoe. The beauty of US roads  no potholes, not much traffic, take an exit from the city and you are on a Highway. We caught SH80. In no time left Folsom and were in middle of scenic mountains. All I was missing a Bike . We were climbing up & up and I could see the elevation level shooting up on the GPS screen. Soon had glimpse of mountains covered with Ice and my excitement had no bounds. All these days I have seen such views only in movies.  I wanted to get down of the car and feel the Snow in my hands , make Gola and throw here & there.

The traffic rules over there are very stringent & the fine amounts they charge is huge.Soon we found a Vista point(view point) . Jumped off the car immediately, I was thrilled . Like a kid rolled in the snow, amazed by nature’s beauty no words could ever describe my happiness. Captured few snaps .

We reached the south end of Lake Tahoe. A large lake surrounded by mountains covered with snow, a clear blue sky on the top ,cold windy breeze & few shops. It was no less than the beautiful landscapes they show in the movies. Facts & Figures of Lake Tahoe . It’s the 2^nd deepest lake in USA 1645 feet(Crater-Lake being the 1^st .will brief about tat in another blog)known for the clarity of its water formed and shaped during the ice ages. It is about 22 mi (35 km) long and 12 mi (19 km) wide and has 72 mi (116 km) of shoreline and a surface area of 191 square miles (490 km2). Most interesting point about the Tahoe is it never freezes .

We continued further towards the north end of Tahoe. I noticed huge vehicle wheels tied with Iron chain meant to move the ice blocks from the road ,seemed as if it had snowed in the morning. Few bikers passed through us soon followed by few more. I tried capturing them but before I could they were gone. Suddenly the temperature felt by 4-5 degrees followed by cold wind and I could see it snowing. For a moment everything stood still, it was like soft white cottons dropping fresh from the trees and driven by the wind. One of the dreams of my life got fulfilled.

Had 1-2 more stops on the way, got mesmerized by the beauty of Lake-Tahoe. Took  SH50 and headed home with memories to cherish life long.

Recently there were couple of contest happened in XBHP and guess what, oomphians are in the winner list !!!

1st was the photo contest “where you find a little bit of “X” in your everyday life”. Since xbhp is part of lives of many bikers; this is to show the love and incidents around you. We got into top 3 with our group photo. It was during 2nd trip to Coorg during end of 2010. In fact on 2nd Jan of 2011. We will get a cool Xbhp T-shirt for that, Now dont ask how the whole group will wear it; we might keep this each for a week .

Link: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/pit-stop-general-biking-discussion/18422-find-x-contest-winners.html

The 2nd contest was in association with Castrol. Here they asked what does it means to you a trip Leh or in bikers language “getting Lehed”. Here our own Sooty aka Amitav crashed into the winner’s list with his highly emotional words. He is infected with “getting Lehed” virus along with the group and someday it will happen surely. Watch this space.

Here is what he says about getting Lehed.

“Life…Ecstasy…Heaven
Its my dream to get Leh’d and I know I will do it.I can almost feel it calling me.
Sorry!!! Its too difficult to explain those feelings in words.”

Link : http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/coffee-lounge-off-topic-discussion/18613-go-ladakh-castrol-power-1-racing-contest-winners.html

There is something about Kerala which excites me each time I heard its name. Hair pins…ghat sections…greenery I don’t know what exactly is that . I have only seen it in xbhpian’s photos and read about it in travelogues. Planned a few times to ride there but never succeeded…may b due to lack of time, companions and enthusiasm. March Tristate meet gave me a chance…but I had a bigger occasion to attend and reluctantly I skipped the ride. The dreamt of scratching my zeema footpegs on Munnar couldn’t be fulfilled.

Okey Okey Okey…enough talking about failures and dreams, Stop these dark words from the depressed consciousness J

Thursday night back from office…

Ratha: Dude!! Finally the correct offer letter came…Lets booze (This guys offer letter has came 3 times with something wrong in it and we boozed each time )

Me: Man…tomorrow morning I ve a office outing, can’t getup early if I booze

Anyways like every time we found some excuse and boozed up to early morning…phone rang at 8 for office outing but I myself was out of range: D

Friday 12PM:

I could barely see anything…head feels like holding a mountain on top of it…

Ratha in my ears :

Mishra…Denga dakuthila cochin jibaku…mun mana kari deli (Denga…a different species, was asking him for going cochin to attend a marriage and ratha denied)

Me: Bhala kalu…(well done)

Ratha: Se bike re jauchi …600kms 12 hrs appx (He is going in bike)

I struggled n opened my eyes n told: Abe call kare taku…ame b jiba (Dude…call him, we will also go)

Had a quick shower…a massage of navaratna oil, opened the lappy and started searching for the route in google maps.

After nailing n teasing Abhisek(u vil get to know about his craziness latter) a bit, he and his better half were also ready to go for the ride to some unknown destination(Me n Abhi decided that we r not goin to cochin , we will goto somewhere nearby polachi n stop there).

Our engines cranked at 3 and the ride begins…

Me…in my mutated zeema

Abhisujata…in his sporty P200

Debasish…in the mammoth Mach 500

Friday :

After passing the city traffic the engines started roaring and we were in 3 figures soon. I was very familiar to the krishnagiri road…had B’lore Chennai ride atleast 10 times. We had a continuous and boring ride up to 5pm when we realized that deb is not following us anymore. We stopped at the nearby Mac D to fill our dehydrated stomach and let denga come n join us. He had a flat tyre , he fixed and came.

There are issues you will face if you are in a group ride and you are not riding close to fellow riders…but only God can teach etiquettes to morons.

The next stop was near dharmapuri for tender coconut  a smoke. It was already getting dark so me n Abhisek decided that we will stop at Coimbatore and then decide where to go next morning.

Errr…something I should mention, the route from Avinashi to Coimbatore is horrible. Roads are under construction and a big No to ride there during night.

Any way we reached Coimbatore around 10:30, found a hotel near the railway station …had food and decided that we will go to pollachi next morning. Deb continued his ride to cochin…another 200kms L

We covered 370 kms in 7 hrs…good stuff J

Hats off to that gurl who was sitting as a pillion in a pulsar for all those hours…may b it’s the love for the rider or the ride…God knows…I am a newbie in that subject.

Sat day:

We woke up around 7 and enquired the route to pollachi , We badly need some twisties…too tired of going straight in a 4lane highway.

After meeting a friend in Coimbatore, we started the ride. The roads were decent but again straight, as I didn’t have any idea about that place earlier, I was disappointed reaching there.

I was expecting some hills but Grr…why did I travel this much.

Anyway we planned that we will dump our luggage at pollachi and go to alliyar dam and valparai.

We thought of covering all nearby places on that day and ride back to B’lore on Sunday morning.

Instead of a lot of enquiry and exploration, we couldn’t find a hotel in pollachi.

Where to go now…What to do!!! Shall we go n try in valparai…what if there also hotels are full; Clueless man !!!

Four steps to achievement:

Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.

We had one of the above…the last one

We decided to go to Munnar…the return ride will be hectic but who cares

The road to munnar welcomed us with numerous windmills on the road side and the fun began after we crossed udumpettai…some 60 kms of ghat section and twistiiiiiieeessss.

Once we entered Kerala we stopped and realized why exactly this is called the God’s own country.

It was green everywhere, hills terrains all covered with tea garden and the clouds were adding spices to that. I have been to nandi hills, horsley hills, elagiri, yercaud, coorg, ooty, coonoor …a lot of hill stations, but had never been to such kind of a place.

Saddle on my back…fully geared…listening to “walking in the boulevard of broken dreams” and rattling the foot pegs in such a paradise, I can’t put that feeling in words. Its bliss, ecstasy…I was in cloud nine…Its something people can understand if they have been there. The place is breathtakingly beautiful, nice green carpet of tea garden…whispering jungle streams …the windy roads…this place is blessed.

I am missing a little idiot; it was hard to be happy in Bangalore…all the time wearing a smile, fading bit by bit inside, it was suffocating. Pain… Tension… Fatigue…Depression…Anger…Aggression…that Burning sensation, hurting, tearing, Confusing, Unfocused vision, unclear motives…

C’mon dude…few people like relationships to be short n simple…and why the hell I am pulled in to all that in between a ride.

The earplugs say “Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me ‘Till then I walk alone…” and I hit a pothole…Why can’t we go inside someone’s mind and change their conception, my second visit would be the contractor’s cerebrum who made this road and put some better tarmac with proper angle of banking.

After few photo session of the couple n me, we reached Munnar around 3.

With help of a broker found a hotel, dumped our luggages and got a travel plan of 4 days. As we had to come back and join office on Monday we decided to cover as many place as possible in those limited time.

There are 3 routes where u can find all the scenic places. (The whole place is scenic tho!)

Coimbatore route

Matupatti route

Cochin route

As we were already coming from Coimbatore route and covered most of the spots there, we decided to head for the cochin route. After going for 20kms we spotted a water fall, took some snaps and came back to munnar to goto matupatti and top station.

As we started the 11km ride towards matupatti , the intensity of clouds increased and at one point we were sailing in middle of heaven.

By the time we reached matupatti dam it was getting dark. We had nice fresh pineapple there and took few photographs. The lake is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen.

It was already 7 and we were skeptical about going to top station. Having tinted visor was added pain for both of the riders. Anyway we decided to ride for another 20kms to top station.

Struggling through the slushy wet roads, the clouds and darkness we reached top station in 45 mins and realized that it was a bad decision to ride to this place at that point of time. There were no one, we have to ride for another kilometer inside the jungle to find the view point and the few local people present there, seem to be very unhappy with us due to some reason…

Finally we came back to Munnar, did some shopping (remember we had a gurl with us ) and started our hunt for kerala paratha and fish curry.

Donno if food in munnar is pathetic or we choosed the wrong hotel but in entire 24hrs spent in Munnar, we cudn’t find good food even once. The rice was weird, the fishes were not fresh and the parotta was not hot (tired of saying Sudaa illiyaa…ide vendama )

Err… I forgot to mention it started drizzling after we reached Munnar and the climate was so chilled. Me n d couple parked our bikes and took a walk in the rain. It was all happy happy moment J

Despite of not having any partner, the climate …the chilled breeze and the constantly developing back pain tempted me to have few pegs of Rum before sleep. Here comes the worst part, I could found only one wine shop over there and there were 20-25 ppl on the queue.

God…U don’t want me to enjoy…do u L

Sunday :

Sunday morning plan was to travel few places and start for B’lore as soon as Deb joins us from kochi. And that got executed in this way…we roamed and came back to Munnar arnd 11, checked the chain, brake n oil level in our bikes and the curator joined us with half a bottle of single malt in few moments.

Yippieee…cool breeze…clouds and single malt wat n combination !!! ooops, we planned to ride back asap. Hell with the plan, let have a large n relax

Finally we started from Munnar , had food on the way and by the time we reached Coimbatore it started raining heavily. Initially we planned to go by ooty route but it was already 6:30 and we were skeptical about crossing the Bandipur checkgate in time. Any way after worshipping our Kuldevta and putting some maska on him, the rain stopped.

We enquired the route from few locals and decided to take the sathymangalam route. The route can be called decent despite of a few hurdles…the drizzle, insufficient light, the odd potholes after each hairpin , 100/100 headlights of incoming vehicles and a few more.

Few times I also struggled with the vision although I have the brighter Bi-xenon, I was leading tho

Around 9, we had nice n cheap dinner in an road side dhaba and after an hour rain started again.

Inside the forest there was no way out, the wind was blowing us apart n the rain drops were piercing in our faces. Finally we stopped in between and at the very time we switched off our lights and the music player, the place turned in to a haunted one. The wind and the rain were creating scary sounds in between the trees and the darkness was so much that my pole lamps cud bright up the whole place.

Without spending a moment, we started our bikes and luckily found a forest check post in next few kilometers. By that time all our enthu was fully broken. It was 11:30, we were fully wet,tired, it was still raining and B’lore was 200kms away.

This write up is going too long…Cha!!! Ok first tym…happens!!!

Anyway we stopped at a lodge in Chamrajnagar and started for B’lore Monday  morning at 5. after a few hiccups like toeing a broken down machismo and searching for garage, finally we reached B’lore around 11.

Need to fresh up and goto office asap…Gawd!!! the borring life again started

Link to post @ XBHP : http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/18173-weekend-well-spent-gods-own-country.html

Author – Abinash

If Bangalore-Mysore highway is bikers paradise I need to rethink abt my choice…..I would say this is a must for all the road lovers…..700kms -2days….. fabulous roads, sexy curves, dangerous dead ends, Silent jungles, scenic viewpoints, off road Mountain biking along wth this a good camera wth lots of pose & 6 not so gentlemen ….. Chikmagalur offers lot more……OOOmphians escapade Dare 2 dream stretch to excel………

As I vaguely remember, it was towards the end of march 2009 we planned 4 a mega trip….. Tapu took the initiative googled it and we zeroed it down for Chikmagalur. He even went 1 step ahead and arranged the much needed bike. Thanks 2 Jitu Bhai for lending his black beauty 2 us. So now we are 6 people and 3 bikes . Did the much needed bike checkup(a regular practice we follow before any trip) the previous day, fed it till the nose and at 3 AM Asit & me started from Egipura to Rammurthynagar signal(set 2 be the meeting point then).

Took the ring road, passing Yeshwantpur soon we were racing among the big goods truck on NH-4 heading towards Nelamangala. Each of us had a route map (shown above)to avoid any confusion . We turned left at Nelamangala reconfirmed the direction from a teal stall & raced ahead . Roads were newly constructed & were at very fine condition, only thing pulling us back was the chilly wind (quite unexpected at that time of the year).We were almost 100km away from Bangalore when we took our first break followed by poses for a few snaps under a big banyan tree.

Had tea and its time to switch the riders. Almost after a 30 minute drive it was time for Sun rise. We halted on the highway captured some wonderful pictures & marched ahead.

All 3 bikes were racing @> 100Km/hr. Mika & Abhishek(Bagha Chua) were leading the lot followed by Tapu & me then followed by Kiran & Asit. It was a perfect synchronization, the 1^st one giving indication of the speed breakers, pot holes ,turnings ahead & the later passing the same to the follower until a group of puppies along with their mother chose Karizma to attempt a suicide(somebody plz teach dogs the gnd rules 2 cross the road) . We were hardly 25-50mts away when Tapu applied break…shifted gears down…the bike skidded left & right refusing to halt……both the tires trapped in between the powerful brakes…..& finally to make matter worse the mother & co decided to fall back……to our luck the bike stopped couple of feet before the group……all happened in fraction of seconds & all I could remember was the smoke generated by the rear tire……I would say we got saved due to Tapu Babu’s presence of mind and the synchronization rule we followed in all our trips. Kiran and Asit were atleast 100mts away from us which allowed them enough time 2 react and halt else anything could have happened, they could have collided with us, our trip would have ended on a sad note .

We took a small break, reassured ourselves & changed the ground rules to drive in between 70-80 Km/hr and avoid such instances. Soon the bikes started cruising on the black beauty, admiring the amazing landscapes on both sides of the road. There were numerous halts & we posed again & again. Reached Chikmagalur in the noon, had lunch and set out for Mullayyanagiri (the 3^rd highest peak of south India). The road to the hill top is amazingly beautiful, one curve unfolding to another and narrowing down as we moved up. The scent of fresh air reenergizing us. The visibility got thinner and thinner as we moved to the top. The far mountains were covered with fog, But with whatever little I could see through the fog once in a while, it did seem like a beautiful place. Occasional holes in the blanket of moving fog revealed me a hill covered with thick tropical vegetation at its base and a silver-oak plantation near its grassy ridge. It seemed like there was a valley far below hidden in the fog. Not to forget the Shiva temple(jay Bhole Baba) on our way up.

We had an eventful day and retired 2 bed with dreams in eyes of another beautiful day.

Day2

The Road 2 Kemangundi was in the same direction as Mullayyanagiri. Just that we have 2 travel 58 kms more through dense forest, beautiful landscapes, with lush green carpets on both sides of the road. The place 1^st in our list was Habbey Falls. The road to Habbey falls is almost non-motarable & dangerous. People park there personal vehicles at the hill top and use the Commercial terrain vehicles like commander jeeps & Scorpios available for hiring. 1 or 2 trips a day is handy for the drivers for the rest of the day as they charge heavily for 1 trip(may be Rs 1200 per trip) But we had our own plans & we decided to reach there on our own. The drive through the terrain is extremely hostile . Visibility is hardly 100mtrs and the vehicle goes thru almost non-motarable places. Most of the stretch is rocky with slippery stones. We could see the Scorpios struggling.

Finally when you reach Habbey falls, you would realize why people take all this trouble. Its just magnificent, huge and worth all the pain. Water rolls down from a height of 168mts offering a spectacular view .We yelled in joy …..Every bit of the trip was fun & much beyond our expectation…..Chikmagalur had so much to offer………

Due 2 time constraints we skipped the Kalahati falls(122mts)& stepped our for the final frontier Kemangundi peaks. Kemangundi has some breath taking views of the Western Ghats. Valleys full of coffee plantation, orange, jackfruit, it really feels as if you are at a place where the nature is at its best. It was almost dusk when we reached our destination. Full of hunger, we managed to gallop some bread omelets & cold-drinks. We were satisfied and full but Chikmagalur hasn’t finished yet. The view from the Z point was breath taking.

We changed our plan to return back to Chikmagalur town but it was too late. The few cottages available for rent was all full. Dense jungle, no shelter and cold breeze made things worse for us. We decide to return to Chikmagalur through the Jungle. It was a Tiger Sanctuary(Bhadra wildlife sanctuary) & only thing we didn’t want was to meet one of them.

We were happy to reach the town safe and sound around 10:30 PM had our food at a restaurant (thank god for the only good meal of the day) and decided to return back to Bangalore so that we can reach before sunrise and take rest for the whole of Sunday. Had 1 stop in a CCD on our way and by 6 AM we were at Bangalore sleeping cozily at our beds.

Now that 2 years have passed Chikmagalur leaves me nostalgic about the good time we had……..

Please enjoy all the pics below!

So its day of 19th, I was Manmay’s place. I woke up early but did very much mistake then. Forgot to wake up Amitav. So when I called him to reach Marathalli within 15 mins, at 7; he woke up then only!!! Called Chocky and his phone switched off!! Finally me, Amitav and Abinash met around 7.30 AM in front of Innovative theatre. We headed off to Rajarajeswari Nagar to pick Asit. What a long journey that is!!! Abinash forgot the route (sigh)..Finally we started from there just before 9. had breakfast on the route(Mysore road). Thankfully Chocky came and joined us. Lot of bikers had morning ride on same route. And we saw at least 14-15 SBK coming back that day. We were thrilled to hear those roaring machine!!

Anyway we started lazily after that, as we know we are much much late. About the place kanva dam(resorvair), its one of man made architecture. Its 70 Km from Bangalore on Mysore road. Precisely 10 KM from Ramanagara. You have to take right just before the Bridge after Ramanagara town. For more details use google .

Heart break!!! The xbhp team were done returned and we saw them coming back. We missed the Ducatis . Anyway we reach the destination finally and what a place! I am sure at sun rise and dawn time you can have click loads of photos here. I tried few and it came “Ok”. Have a look..

For all uncut pics click here

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UWntjaYJhW4/TQ4psvoq4yI/AAAAAAAAEKs/d8b5R8HoDUg/s800/IMG_1717.JPG

Bloody posers

It was another sudden plan andas usual no one was sure how many will join? So it was finally me(R15), Abhisek(p200), Chocky n Amitav (Karizma). We started around 8.30 AM from BTM layout behind our original schedule of 6.30 AM. You need to take Kanakpura road to visit this place. Its 100km from Bangalore. I had a short stop on Soham’s place and then we are off. Its single road and you find many notorious driving. Be extra careful as it passed through lot of villages and traffic is out of question. Anyway ride was awesome. We reached Mekadatu and unlike others we enjoyed the fish fry as we did nt had enough of food at morning. In total we all 4 had 22 fish fries and 5 omlettes!!

Mekadatu means leap goat. According to local stories here a goat jumped over Kaveri river(the narrow section). Though it look far from true story. Its the river cut across huge rocks and with time it has cut hole in the rock. U can see water running under a rock. You need to take a special bus to reach the place from the main place. For more details please google

Now some pic time. Will upload more once I get my hand on them.