Diary of a motorcycle

Hello everyone, I am new to this world and am still learning its maneuvers and honking and gliding between the traffic and many more such adventure tricks. My life started a month ago with this cool kinda guy. He never rode me anywhere else apart from home to office and back until the day I got some numbers on my bum. The next day, he rode me all through the city painting his face like a clown. It looked like everyone on the street was in same mood flying colours through the air, but he made sure I was safe from all those colourful hazards. "I like him!"

That day I heard him say to someone that we were going on a bike trip to Daman and may be Rann of Kutch if everything goes well. I don't know much about those places, but this should be fun, and I was excited - "Yay, my first road trip!" What more can a bike dream of! Servicing - check, shiny teflon coating on my body - check, petrol tank full - check - "Yup, I am ready to roll!" The next morning, Rocky came wearing bandana, helmet, goggles, jacket, gloves, boots and what not. “Man, I envy him. So many accessories for the trip and just a fancy key chain for me!”

He started my engine and we started our trip but wait . . . “Hey, hey, hey! Mumbai is on the opposite direction! Where are we going? I think he might have to buy something for the journey.” We have been on the highway for last 2 hours and I don’t think he is going to turn towards Mumbai ever. “Am I stuck with an idiot or something?” Although I am enjoying the wind on my shield and my tires burning on the highway, it does not feel like a fun trip. I am in complete blind for what our destination is. We are just driving endlessly on the Pune-Bangalore highway. “Maybe we are going to Bangalore!” My realization of the destination was short lived when we took a sudden right turn from Karad. “You just can’t have any expectations from this guy!”

Now we have left the highway and are going through narrow roads in remote villages. He was not slowing down even on those kachcha-pakka roads. I was having butterflies in my engine on those sudden twists and turns with chicken and dogs running loose aimlessly on the road. Suddenly, I came to a halt. “OMG, there is no road ahead!” He checked for an alternate route on the map but there was none. He felt sorry for me but started to go ahead. “Hey mister, I am not going on this disastrous, broken path full of rocks and stones . . . Ouch Ouch ouch OUCH!!!” Well, that continued for a long 2-3 kilometers. Let me tell you all something – he might have travelled on far worse paths while travelling to Hyderabad, but this was no fun for me either. I felt pity for that old pulsar of his. I can’t imagine what that poor old thing might have felt with two of the mankind riding over it for 70 long torturous kilometers. After riding for an hour or two through those villages, we finally hit the main road again. I think I know where we are heading as we are riding on the Kolhapur-Ratnagiri highway.

The sun is on our heads now but moving in the shade of tall trees on both sides of the road protected us for quite a long time. A little while later, ghat section started and I had some beautiful views of the villages from the top. “I am loving it. This trip is going great!” An hour later, we finally reached Ratnagiri and had a little rest in our hotel. In the evening, we went to the Gateway of Ratnagiri on the Mandavi beach. He spent an hour on the beach and another half exploring the main market which was on the way to our hotel. Finally, we called it a day and retired. “Hey! Where are you going, leaving me unlocked? I just can’t believe how careless this person is!”

I could not sleep for the whole night, worried dead of what might happen if someone else comes to know that I am unlocked. He realized his mistake in the morning but fortunately, I had been safe. My only solace was the police jeep parked next to me who kept telling me to keep calm and not to worry due to its presence. We started off with no destination in mind. Rocky just wanted to see the harbor and we rode wherever the paths led us. We reached the harbor soon and turned towards a narrow trail with sea on one side and coconut trees on the other for as far as I could see. It was a lovely path to ride on until we reached some village and started to get nasty stares. We thought it was time to turn back. Next, we went to the Ratnadurg fort. The view of sea from the heights of the fort was cool when Rocky spotted a harbor he had to go at any cost. “This person is obsessed with things I understand very little.”

This harbor of his might be a new one as it was not showing on the maps. Rocky was driving based on his intuition and with the proximity to the fort. We drove through some fishermen’s village and we both had to stop our breaths for a while. He was able to find the harbor within some time. “Yaay, here we come. O O not again, there is no road ahead. You can go alone if you want to. Please please please, I don’t want to go!” None of my pleads were heard this time too and we reached his deserted harbor. Though the view was beautiful, the solitude rather desertion of the place did not appeal to my taste. Then, we returned to our hotel and rested for a while. In the evening we went to Bhatye beach and he enjoyed the beach, the crowd and sea-side delicacies. It was time to retire as tomorrow was a big day.

The next morning, we rode to Ganpatipule. The weather was pleasant and the roads empty. The ghats had a lovely view and Rocky stopped at a couple of points from the top of ghats to take my photo with the sea in the background. “I have started to like this guy. He has been taking only my photos during the whole journey.” Rocky visited the Ganpatipule temple and did quad-biking on the sea-shore. It was quite a clean and calm beach. For our return journey, Rocky had already made a mental note of couple of points where we could ride till the shore. We rode till the sea side at Aare view point. At Aare Ware beach, he went for a walk along the shore. This was a very long empty beach with crystal clear water. Finally, he decided to return but, on the way, saw a hoarding of Harsha Scuba Diving and I was turned towards the diving site. “This guy is very impulsive for adventure.”

He left me in the sun for doing scuba diving and I decided to make the most of it. I stretched my tires and had a great sun bath, lying on the shore, waiting for my idiot companion to return from having a fun dive. I later realized it was a good decision on his part that he didn’t take me for diving as god knows what might have happened if water went inside my lungs, sorry engine. I take my words back. He might not be that idiot after all. We returned to our hotel in the evening. “This trip is going great. I am loving it!”

Next morning, we started off before dawn bidding goodbye to Ratnagiri. For an hour, the decision felt like a wrong one as the dense fog made visibility low and difficult to ride. With the sun, we came back to the highway on our way to Bangalore. The long endless stretch of highway, the wind on my face, light sun, vast fields on both sides of the road – all of these felt like a dream run. It felt awesome till noon when the sun started to compete and my whole viewpoint changed. It started to look like long endless stretch of road, large barren lands on both sides, sun glaring at its peak and no dhabas or petrol pumps on the highway making it boring and tiresome.

On the way, we were stopped by few people in white dress in some fancy vehicle with a red siren for speeding. Rocky initially tried to convince them otherwise but gave up after a little while. They were asking for some fine from him, but Rocky told he did not want any red mark on my character yet as I was a new bike. “I think I am falling in love with this guy!” One uncle with a big belly sitting inside the red siren vehicle laughed and let us go. By the evening, I covered 750 long kilometers to Bangalore and I was exhausted. We somehow reached Rocky’s brother’s place after lots of mis-directions by Google aunty. “Ab aur koi adventure nahi chahiye babaji. Boring bana do ji iss trip ko!” I was famished to my core to even think of anything. All of us decided to rest and make further plans after that. I had just one thought before I went into the land of dreams –

Together we ride, together we rise

      Together we conquer the whole highway . . .

P.S. I am not sharing my pics from the trip here coz I don’t want any human interference in my private life. I have shared them on RoadBook (like your FaceBook) with my bike friends. I think I am taking after Rocky, ie, I am not getting the right feeling and mood to write the rest of the trip. May be someday! “Tab tak ke liye main aapse vida chahunga deviyon aur sajjano. Aap log padhte rahiye ye adbhut blog jiska naam hai rakeshmoody.blogspot.com. aadab, shabba khair, shubh ratri . . . “

A solo ride to Pondicherry

For the last 2 years, we were planning and postponing the road trip from Chennai to Pondicherry on the famous East Coast Road which runs parallel to the sea coast. This year, we had finalized but I cancelled in August. Suddenly one day an idea struck me to go alone and it struck me too hard to resist. I didn't tell anyone and booked the flight to Chennai and rented an avenger. Sorry Vivek, Gaurav and Rahul for leaving you out on this trip. One day, I told Gaurav by mistake and I had to literally beg him to let me go alone this time.

So on 3rd September 2016, I left from office, parked my bike at the airport and flew off to say Vanakkam Chennai. I received a setback when I got to know that the avenger I had booked met with an accident and was not available and had to settle with the next best alternative, Yamaha FZ. The best thing about this bike was the colour, my favorite, Red. Finally, I was taking a bike on a long ride after one looooong year after Leh. Hello ECR, here I come!

I installed the newly bought mobile mount on my wrist and started recording my journey. The climate was a little on the hot side that day but only after 10-15 minutes on the ECR, I felt a cool breeze on my face lifting my spirit. Beach was in the vicinity and could catch its glimpses from the road in regular intervals. At one place, I saw that little off-roading could lead the bike to the shore. I made a mental note to do this while returning as I wanted to reach Pondicherry first. Finally, after 3 hours of riding in the sun and getting all tanned before even reaching Pondicherry, I took a stop at Serenity beach on the way. It was calm and beautiful as the name suggests. 20 minutes of more riding and I was at my hotel, thanks to Bing maps.

I had my lunch and took a much needed short nap of 2 hours. After waking up, I went straight to the rocky beach near my hotel. The french architecture could be seen all over the place. The beach was too crowded but still the air was quiet and soothing. I walked across the whole beach seeing all the monuments on the way - French war memorial, Gandhi statue, old light house and Kargil war memorial. The only cafe on the beach, Le Cafe, was bustling with customers where I could not get a seat even after waiting 15 minutes. As the evening progressed, I started roaming towards the city to have some food and some music pulled me towards it. There was a live performance going on at a restaurant and I immediately went inside. Although the singer was singing mostly regional songs which I didn't understand a bit, the ambience and mushrooms were delightful. After my stomach was full, I spent few more hours on the beach, listening to the waves colliding on the rocks before calling it a day.

Next morning, I had a long list of places to visit. Being on the east coast, I had planned to see sunrise on the beach but the sun played spoil sport and even after waiting from 6-8am, I only got disappointment. After an awesome complementary breakfast at my hotel, I started my journey to cover the city. My first stop was Basilica of Sacred Heart of Jesus near to my hotel. Next, I just rode where roads led me (while keeping the count of lefts and right I was turning) and reached Uppalam Harbour beach. It was beautiful but the sight at the other end was even better. Right across the ocean, there was a beautiful harbor but no way to reach there. I started the maps and saw an alternate route of 20km to reach there. 

While finding the Veerampattinam harbor, I reached the most beautiful Paradise beach. This had very few people and a long coastline as far as I could see. People love to become photographers these days. You give them your phone to click one photo and they will click 3-4 in different poses. I finally found my Veerampattinam beach after a lot of struggle with Bing maps and help of a few local residents. The harbor I was finding was near by. It was simply amazing and had a better view as seen from the other end of the ocean, worth all the trouble I went through to find this. It was a pretty secluded beach with only a couple of kids playing in some distance. There were big tetrapod stones( just like on the marine drive) kept over one another to form a long stretch of harbor. I tried climbing over these to get a glimpse of the ocean from its top. "Khudi Ko kar buland itna, chadha main jaise taise, aur fir khud se hi bola, bhaisaab ab uturunga kaise?" On reaching the top, the view was marvelous but now it seemed like big gaps between these rocks and a slight fear ran of how I would get down. Now, even the kids I had seen earlier were not present there that I could call for help. I called Souvik and we laughed together - "Ye idhar udhar chadhne ki aadat nahi jaegi". After sitting and relaxing there for some time, I somehow managed to get down without falling in between those rocks.

It had been a tiring long day and on reaching my hotel, I took a shower and slept the whole evening. On waking up, I strolled along the near by market but could not find anything interesting to buy when I accidently bumped into Akshay Kanoria. We had lived in the same house in Kota, had kept in touch after that but it was a nice surprise catching up there in Pondicherry. On riding back to the rocky beach, I saw a long line at cafe Xtasi and found they specialized in wood fried pizza. I stopped there to try it and had to wait an hour in queue before ordering a medium size exotic pizza. The minute my pizza made an entry, the smell made me forget the wait. The pizza really looked exotic (full of mushrooms) and it was deliciously mindblowing. Then I spent a couple of hours at the rocky beach. Traveling the whole day, I didn't miss anyone but sitting alone on the beach made me feel lonely and yes, as you had warned, I did miss you Gaurav. As the night progressed, there were fewer people on the beach and a couple sitting next to me started kissing. Soon, they were center of attraction of everyone passing by. Couple of minutes later, few policemen came and took them away. I started back towards my hotel when a light shower started to fall.

Next morning, I checked out from my hotel and started my journey back to Chennai. On my way back, I remembered the place where I had to drift down from the road to the beach. It was risky but there was no one to change my mind. So, I did it and am glad I did that. Riding the bike alongside the waves is certainly a good memory. I stopped at Mahabalipuram in between and visited the light house and Mahishamardini mandapa, a large cave and temple carved out of a single stone. Mahabalipuram had a very crowded beach where I rode a horse and tried my hands at balloon shooting after a very long time. Finally, I reached Chennai but it was already late for my flight. I took an auto which got stuck on traffic. Then, on his suggestion, I took the local train and reached airport just in time for my flight. Mission accomplished - riding on the East Coast road and a solo trip. Let me sleep over this new feat in my flight back to Pune. 

Sleeping me : Everest, you are still a distant dream!

Leh Calling !

Jullay! Hello! If Kashmir is the heaven on Earth then Leh is unarguably the paradise for bikers. Every biker on this planet dreams of driving on the beautiful terrain of Ladakh at least once in his lifetime. I am no different at this. It was October 2014, we were discussing about Leh and Gaurav told that we don't know where we all might be next year, who might get married and not be able to go. So, this is the final chance we have and we made a deal that whatever happens, we will complete our bike trip to Leh next year. At the start of the biking season in June 2015, only 4 of us were left to go (and lets not discuss about how our friends ditched us at the end as always) so, we joined 'Ride of my Life' group for our trip. I had read about Gaurav Jani, the founder of this group and his passion towards biking and Leh attracted me to join him for my adventure.

On 3rd August, we reached Manali, met the ROML team and our fellow bikers. That day we were introduced to each other, briefed about the next 10 days and were provided our Royal Enfield 500cc bikes for roaming/shopping around Manali. The view of the valley from our hotel, the first look of our bikes, the roaring of all the 16 Enfields at a time, the excitement and happiness on our faces - I knew I was going to love and cherish this trip forever. We were about to reach Ladakh or the land of high passes and to drive an Enfield on some of the highest passes of the world was like a dream come true.

Next day, we were taken for a test ride around Manali to get to know what shall we expect in the coming days and get accustomed to our bikes. We started early morning, the weather was good, the roads were narrow but fine, sometimes the gravel was loose but we were still managing well until there came wet mud on the road and all the hell broke loose. Our bikes started skidding; sometimes we got stuck in the middle of one feet mud lying over the whole road. Once I put my feet down to balance the bike, my shoes got stuck in the mud and damn those heavy Woodland shoes, I had a high time just lifting my feet up. Some riders couldn't handle and even fell down. Every step in the mud felt like crossing a mile. At the end of just 70-80km of the total trip, we all were exhausted with the worst driving terrain experience ever. Whether it was the worst road ever or not, now we were mentally prepared for whatever might come in our way to Leh.

Day 3 - August 5 - We started early in the morning from Manali with our road captains Manish and Sachin. Soon, we reached Rohtang pass and it was one of the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen. Though we were only able to have glimpses of the valley due to the heavy fog, it was an awesome start to our closeness with the Himalayas. We stopped at the top of Rohtang pass for photo break as fog had cleared with the sun and the view was amazing. We easily reached our destination Keylong in the evening. We were warmly greeted with Jullay by the hotel staff. We left our bags in the hotel and explored this small town on foot, even tried momos and 'thukpa' there which was not a very good experience.

Next morning, my brother was down due to the thukpa effect and had to rest in the carriage vehicle for the day. We were told that we might face a few water streams today. The first stream we encountered was over 1 foot deep with water flowing at a high speed from the mountain with valley on the other side. Although water at freezing temperature entered our boots, we all crossed it safe and sound. We faced 2-3 more water streams on the day but managed to cross all with ease. We came across Baralacha pass on this day and the snow covered peaks in the background made the view mesmerizing. I guess that's why we call it 'The majestic Himalayas' coz you are spell bound by the beauty of the mountain ranges and the valley. We reached Sarchu after lunch where the Swiss tents were waiting for us.

Sarchu camp was at a height of around 15000 ft and some of us were feeling altitude sickness here. Souvik and I took a stroll to see the surroundings and it started to rain. We made a dash to our tents and Imran bhai stopped us saying it is better to get drenched than wasting our energy and we should save our breadth at this altitude. In the evening, I even went down the valley to the river and then climbing that mere 100 ft at that altitude felt very exhaustive. This was our first day in Kashmir and our phones had only one use left now – clicking pics. We also got the terrible news that there was a cloud-burst before Leh, the roads were washed away and we might have to cut short the trip and return back to Manali. We had to wait till the morning to get this confirmation but I was confident of going forward: “Nothing will spoil my Sunday”. We might be in tents but the stay was warm and cozy and food was delicious. May be that’s the beauty of travelling – you tend to love almost everything that comes in your way. Even the night sky was so clear at Sarchu which we don’t see in cities; the only problem was it was too cold to be outside our tents in the night.

Next Morning, we decided to move towards Leh and would see if the roads clear by the time we reach there. My bro was fine now after a day’s rest and he was ready to drive. We encountered Gata loops early in the morning, a succession of 21 loops in the valley which immediately elevated us from around 15000 ft to 17000 ft. We crossed Nakeela and Lachungla to reach a path where there were trucks with supplies from both sides and the roads had only space for one vehicle but hats off to everyone’s coordination. Then we reached Moore plains which is a beautiful area between the valleys. High mountains on both side and the absolutely straight roads for the entire distance our eyes could see – it was a lovely view and a speed ride. My bike even crossed 120kph and I enjoyed it to my core. Next we reached Tanglang la which was the third highest pass of our trip at 17582 ft. After riding 60-70 km more, we were on the checkpost before Leh and we got the news that the roads were cleared and we would reach Leh. While crossing Thiksey, we saw loads of mud dumped on either side of road which might have been washed out from the mountains by the cloudburst and blocked the roads but it had been cleared and we got our passage. Finally, we reached our hotel Leh-Chen where we had a nice steam bath and the much needed rest after our 250 km ride of the day.

Day 6 – August 8 – Rest day. We were given a day’s rest in Leh which was necessary as some people in the group were having health issues from Sarchu. After a good and long sleep, we moved out of the hotel to visit the Leh city. We went to the Leh Palace which was not as lavish or big as we see the palaces in Rajasthan but considering the altitude where we were, it was a unique architecture in itself. The view of the whole Leh city and the surrounding mountains was amazing from the palace. Then we strolled around the streets of the city and did some shopping. In the evening, we went to the Sanchi stoop which was near to our hotel. The setting sun made the Leh Palace glow and the 360 degree view of Leh was mesmerizing. Finally, we were ready for the big day.

Day 7 – August 9 – Sunday – The big day had arrived. We had to ride to the top of the highest motorable path to reach Khardung la at 18380 ft and the best thing was it was my birthday. This was one of our reasons to choose Ride of My Life group to celebrate my birthday in a memorable way, at the top of the highest motorable road. We had bought the cake the earlier day to be cut at Khardung la top. We were given local Leh bikes in the morning as bikes from other regions were not permitted in Ladakh for tourism and these were no match to the bikes which we had driven from Manali to Leh. We set out from the hotel and the roads were a disaster. Sorry, did I say roads. There were absolutely no roads after the checkpost for Khardung la, just rocks and gravel which made it too difficult to handle the bike throughout to the top. Finally, we reached our destination Khardung la which has its own importance as the roads connect to the Siachen glacier. I celebrated my birthday at Khardung la top and everyone took loads of photos. Finally, we decided to move back from there before altitude sickness could take its toll. We reached Thiksey in the evening, a small town 30 km from Leh, where we had our second encounter with the swiss tents.

We all were pretty exhausted from the rough terrain we had traversed in the day but our spirits were still high. The tents were comfortable and had all the basic amenities. After dinner, we made a bonfire and everyone gathered around it. We played ‘Antakshari’ for quite a long time; my brother showed his poetry book and shared some of his poetry. We cracked jokes, pulled each other’s legs and shared some of our experiences. Finally, when there was no wood left, we decided to retire for the day.

Next morning, we headed towards Pangong Lake. On the way, we crossed the second highest pass of our journey, Chang la at 17688 ft. We also crossed an army base on our way which reminded us of the dedication of the Indian army to serve the country at any place, altitude and climate. The roads were mostly good today and we had a smooth ride. We knew that there were few wooden cottages and more swiss tents at Pangong and we were pretty much done with the tents and no longer wanted them. So, we rushed ahead to reach first at our camp site where Manish told us that cottages would be occupied by the couples and rest of us would take the tents. Now we were thinking why the hell did we drove crazily to reach early. Anyways, we kept our bags in the tents and rode towards the spot of the lake where the shooting of ‘3 Idiots’ had been done. The view surrounding the lake was mesmerizing. We could see the sunlight throwing all its beauty over the mountains and every peak was a shade different. The rainbow in the distance was like our childhood painting where we used to draw the rainbow spread above the mountains. The water of the lake was crystal clear and the breeze was making waves in the lake. It was too calm and soothing and our hearts were overwhelmed with the beauty of nature. We even rode our bikes to the lake side which was tough in the sand. After spending some peaceful time near the lake, we decided to head back to the camp before sun would leave us and descend behind the mountains. There was again a bonfire in the night but with fewer people than yesterday.

The following morning, we started our journey back to Leh. Continuous bike ride for the last 8 days was showing its effect and we were getting a little restless to end our journey. This was our final ride before leaving Leh. Gaurav had some pain in his hands and hence, Souvik rode with me on the last day. Now, I realized that riding solo was a lot easier. Hats-off to all the riders with pillion on this tough track. On reaching back to Leh-Chen hotel, everyone started their packing for the return. The time had come for the adventure to end and go back to our normal routine life. Thanks to the Ride of My Life team - Sachin, Manish, Imran, Dorjee and all the fellow riders, I had a great riding experience in Ladakh. The adventure seeking person inside me was satisfied but had a yearning to ride once more. Let’s see what’s in the store of our future – Be it trek to Everest Base camp or Europe backpacking tour. A New Year has come; May it bring new hopes and adventures. Till then, Jullay!