Go Goa! - Bikenomads Goa Meet

Finally after the Hampi ride in march, the biker itch got me big time and i landed up in goa riding through few worst roads/rain/ghats/flatroads etc etc. In all we were close to 26 bikers in goa, 11 were from blore. The rest were from Trivandrum, Hyderabad, pune. It was Anniversary meet of our online biking community bikenomads. Blore guys started off in two batches, 7 guys started off on 29th sept 06 and remaining guys on 30th sept 06.

First the stats:
Trip duration: 29th sept 06 (friday) till 2nd Oct 06 (Monday)

Route taken:I was with the riders who started off on 29th sept, we went through udupi as we had to meet trivandrum guys there and from there move on to goa.
The first day route was:Bangalore>Kunigal>Hassan>belur>Charmudighats>ujire>Beltinangadi>Manipal>UdupiHalted at udupi on day1Trip meter reading: 400 kms

Day2: Met up With trivandrum guys after foto shoot in malpe beach.
The route:Udupi>Bhatkal>Marvanthe>Honnavar>Ankola>karwar>Panaji>Bagabeach hotelOur hotel was 30 kms from panaji, near baga beach

Day3: Roamed goa, Did amazing group ride

Day4: Back to bangy, the route taken:Bagabeach Hotel>panaji>Karwar>Honnavar>Jogfalls>Sagar>Shimoga>Arsikere>Tumkur>Bangalore

Total kms done (inclusive of all 4 days) 1444.5 kms

Amount spent of fuel: Rs 2200
Amount spent on food/booze etc : ??? err didn't keep a tab!

This Ride had many firsts for me.My first night ride, that too at speeds which i ride at day time!My first rain ride! I never liked riding in rain as always felt insecure about bike fish tailing if i use brake, then there was the fear of skidding. Thanks to jsr for giving valuable tips about riding in rain and using engine breaking, it worked wonderfully.My longest ride in a day, I think the last day of the ride was longest distance covered in a day record for me, goa - blr.

I didn't keep a tab on my trip meter on last day so i assume the distance may be around 680 kms.

Photos:Pics taken by Me from my Phone cam: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/BikeNomadsGoaRide

Pics taken by Prashanth (Digital Slr Guy): http://picasaweb.google.com/pqrshanth/BNMeetGoa

Pics taken by JSR :
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayansr/BNGoa2006

Pics taken by Vibhu:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vibhu.rishi/BNGoa

Day1: 29th sept 06 Friday:

Riders: Jayan aka JSR : Bullet, Kamlesh:Bullet, Praveen aka cooldude :Bullet, shashi :bullet, Prashanth : Pulsar 150 DTSI, Parvez : Yellow Karizma, Me : Silver Karizma

6 of us decided to meet at shell petrol bunk in NH4 to start off by around 5.15 Am. I woke up early got ready and by 4.15 Am i was done packing. I had already done the checking the bike routine the previous day, but since i took the bike to office, i wanted to check it again, checked front tyre, no probs, back tyre, found some thing shiny, used the key and pulled out the culprit, turns out to be a thin nail! could hear "whizzzz" sound coming from the back tyre, there i had it, my worst nightmare come true, i had a flat tyre that early in the morning, while i was all set to go. Called up other guys, who were still riding, they suggested that i meet Jayan (the most experienced of our group and the one who was carrying puncture kit) waited for them near metro in my splendor, they pass by me as metro sign was not glowing, caught up with them near a bunk, JSR (as jayan is known) suggested that other guys should move on and he would get my flat tyre fixed and we both would catch up with the rest at kunigal, where prashanth had already gone the previous night and was waiting for us to join him. Parvez was not there, the other 3 bulls (kamlesh, praveen, shashi) started off, I led jayan to home, for one hour he and me struggled to remove the rear wheel of my bike, it got jammed near the Stay, Finally we had to give up as even jsr was getting delayed, he told me to get it fixed by a punture guy and i could join them on the way and they will be riding slow. I was so damn pissed about the early morning puncture and was in two minds as to whether i should continue or not. Finally jsr left and it was around 7 am, i was left wondering what to do. Then thankfully one of my relatives came to my rescue, he got a puncture guy who was half asleep from his home and got my flat tyre fixed. I was all set by 8am. Msged the guys that i was starting (2 hours behind them) i got a call from Parvesh, he had woken up late and enquired about me, i told him i was on my way and he was waiting at nelamangala crossing. I reached nelamangala crossing by 9 am due to traffic, met up with parvez and we both set off together, after some 30 kms, he disappeared ahead of me, he was ripping to the core, i stuck to the 80s, i thought i can catch him further ahead, but that was not the case, this dude had taken off like a rocket and was no where to be found, finally i took a pit stop at 125 kms in trip meter, some 30kms frm hassan, through out the way, got sms updates from guys ahead of me, they were always some 40 kms ahead of me. I reached belur by afternoon, the hassan-belur route was amazing, i ripped all the way till i reached belur. There i enquired if they saw a similar looking yellow bike and they locals confirmed that parvesh had passed by some 20 mins back. I took another break there and started off towards charmudi as per sms sent by guys ahead of me, the roads were pathetic, infact there were no roads at all! just huge craters and potholes, It took me 1 hour to cross that 20 kms of potholes, I was tired to the core, took another break, then hit up charmudi ghats, it was heavenly, full of fog and mist and water falls flowing across the mountain on the side of the roads, i stopped at two places to click some pics but kept on riding as i wanted to team up with rest of the gang ahead of me before evening. Finally by evening, i could see the guys waiting for me in a hotel near beltinangadi, i was relieved that i made it in one piece. After a chota break, proceeded towards udupi, it was a wonderful group ride, riding in formation, we took a pit stop at a chai shop, by then my back had gone for a toss due the bag i was carrying with my stuff in it. JSR had a magical spray which worked for me, i was all set for udupi after the spray treatment on my back, we hit manipal by 7pm. Here we were approached by two guys on a splendor, who were excited seeing the bikers and enquired about us. Then we hit udupi by 8 ish and found a decent hotel and crashed after a visit to a nearby friendly bar and restaurant.

Day2 : 30th sept 06 Saturday:
Woke up leasurely as we were supposed to meet trivandrum riders by 10.00. We were all set to leave for the udupi NH crossing, we got a word that trivandrum guys could be delayed as they had a bad stretch and they could meet us only by 1pm. We decided to wait for them till then. We went to malpe beach for a photo shoot, had breakfast in udupi. Parvez's zma was leaking engine oil as he had dropped his bike near charmudi ghats bad road stretch so he and me went to manipal to a herohonda showroom to get it fixed. Surprisingly the HH guys worked on his bike quickly after they heard about us going from blore to goa. We left the show room at 12.45 Pm. The rest of the gang were waiting for us along with trivandrum guys some 25 kms away from udupi. Reached there and teamed up with the gang. Now we were a total of 7 bikers from bangalore and 6 bikers from trivandrum. The line up was of 13 bikes! we rode in a formation, it was sight to behold. We stopped at marvanthe, the picture perfect spot where there is sea on one side and river on another side of the road, took loads of pics and ciggs/tea etc. We rode and again stopped for lunch on way to honnavar, had lunch and pushed off towards honnavar, it rained quite heavily till we reached honnavar, it was a prelude to what was ahead for us. Then it stopped raining. We took a butt break after gokarna crossing, it had gotten dark and goa was still some 3.5 hours away. JSR quickly had a word with all of us and we decided to stick to a group, the first and last guy of the group was decided and guys inbetween had to stick to their positions and they could over take eachother provided the roads were empty. For the first time i was comfortably cruising at night with pathetic stock headlamp, we stuck to the formation and it was an amazing sight to see the bikes go one after another, i was the last but one guy and i could see the "snake" formation whenever we took twisty ghat section roads.After a small butt break in karwar, we rode on, we entered goa by around 10 ish. The roads got narrow as we entered goa, but they were well marked and neat, both sides of the highways were pretty restuarants, it almost looked like a race track in NFS game! We hit panaji and stopped for a butt break. We had 30 more kms to go to reach our hotel. At this time a localite uncle on his karizma stopped by and excitedly enquired about our group, we left prashanth (the only non smoker!) to give him the details and we all smoked peacefully. We moved on and hit baga beach hotel at 11.15 Pm. Found hyd and blr nomads welcoming us outside hotel. After quick intros and talk we all landed up at our rooms, changed and went out to explore goa. Went to a restuarant called kamasutra (!) all bangy nomads got drunk to core, parvesh was incharge of tickling our funny bones and we all had a good time, hit the sack by early morning 5.

Day3. 1st Oct 06 Sunday:
Woke up by 12.30 Pm. Got ready and met all nomads at cafe coffee day outside our hotel. After munching on snacks decided to hit a beach, Kamlesh and parvesh transformed in to goa dudes with cool goa getups. Me with these two along with prashanth, kanish and partha hit upon a beach and it started to rain, few people got in to the beach, few got tattoos made, me and prashanth went exploring the sea shore for babes and found loads of them having fun, took few snaps from my cell as it was raining, none could get out their cameras. Returned to baga beach and found other nomads at a seaside shack, started to sip in some booze, Could see dance party going on in the next shack, enjoyed it from far. Enquired with owner if we could get our bikes to beach, he told there wasn't any problem with it, i went out and got my zma to the sea side shack only to be told by another guy that cops would fine 5k (!) for the bike in the beach act, rode back and parked the bike back in the road. Went back to hotel by 6, nomads had parked our bikes in the formation of BN, heard trivandrum guys had to leave due to some emergency. Took few snaps, then came tshirt distribution and Stickers. Got my BN Tee, wore it proudly, so did every one. We had a breifing from capt Nav about our agenda, all wear BN tees, compulsory boots, gloves and lids. Ride to a bunk near panaji, tank up bikes for people who were leaving the next day (most of bn guys including me) Then we all rode to the bunk near panaji, it was an awesome ride in formation, close to 22 bikes all wearing BN tees and in gear, Vibhu rode pillion with partha and went click happy with his cam capturing the group ride. After filling up at the bunk, we had a looong photo shoot there of all the guys with their bikes and through all cams. JSR's cam was source of amusement to many as we had to sit still for 4 to 5 secs after the light and there was no flash, guys were pulling each other's legs (especially parvesh!) Then we heard that two bangy nomads were on their way to goa, waited for them to join us for the pics and they did. Once again took group pics. Meanwhile two drunk localites in an activa got high seeing us bikers parked there, they tried doing a pillion wheelie and miserably fell. Then they disappeared. One truck wala asked me if there was some shooting going on (!) Then after the last snap was taken, we hit the roads again in formation and landed up in a hotel called "NH 17" the ambiance was goaish, with a singer with guitar and stuff. We had our seating arrangements done, started the dinner and stuff. As time flew by, nomads got in to singing mood, starting to cheer up the singer and singing along, at one point we nomads were singing and clapping and the guy was just playing guitar. Then our HYD nomad kanish, rendered his version of Hotel california song and ended with rounds of applause from us and from others sitting there. He also introduced BN to the people there and explained that we had come from all over india to meet in goa. Then we started to merge songs with biker terms, the chap was singing "bombai say aaya mera dost" song, we inserted the line " raat bhar khao piyo Din ko gaadi chalao!" Then for elvis song "one o clock two o clock three o clock four o clock rock" we inserted the word "ride" for rock and it was hilarious. Finally we left the place with our stomachs full and hearts full and landed back in hotel around mid night. Parvesh and kanish went ahead of me for beach party near baga beach, i tried to follow them and landed up at the wrong place it was 2 ish in the night, pouring heavily and me all alone, forgot to offload my cash at hotel and carried my room key. Then came back in the dark lonely roads with pouring rain. I won't forget that experience of walking alone in pitch dark roads, dogs barking, raining cats and dogs! managed to reach hotel by 3ish. Got readied and packed stuff for returning back to bangy. I was all set by 4, 5.30 am was our deadline to leave, so thought it was not worth while to sleep and continued to ponder over thoughts of goa.

Day 4. 2nd Oct 06 Monday:
Reached parking lot by 5 Am and it was raining cats and dogs, found Hyd nomad partha on his bull all set to go. Told my bye byes and waited for other guys to get ready, hit coffee day and one by one all nomads hit coffee day. After grabbing a bite, we were all set to leave. It was still pouring and we decided to hit the roads and hoped that rains would subside as we went on. 9 guys started off (same seven guys Plus prabul on his fiero and vimal on his bull) at 6.45 Am. We drove in formation, the rains became heavy, roads were full of water, few places had almost river like water flowing across the road, whenever i hit the water the speed would come down, or whenever a car and bus from opposite side used to go past me, the water splashed would hit my helmet and me like some one threw me a punch, soon my boots became water logged, i was drenched to the core, i realised the importance of rain gear then, but it was too late for that. We stopped at a petrol pump and few guys tanked up, rest tried to bring back their hands and legs to senses. Then we continued.We were together till we hit margoa, then we all got lost in the maze of city traffic. Soon i was riding all alone, then i found prabul waiting, he said few more guys were supposed to pass by us, then we got a msg that praveen's bull (cooldude) had a flat tyre.Then prabul went back to check on them, i was still waiting for him at the same place, we informed JSR who was ahead of us over phone and he came back to fix the flat. Me and prabul carried on, the rains showed no mercy, it started to get more severe and i started to get shoulder/neck pain as i was wearing my bag. I slowed down, Prabul waited twice for me to catch up and gave me a pep talk to lift my spirits, they were of no use as rains were drenching me to the core, as we passed on we met prashanth at a bunk, even he had a flat tyre and was getting it fixed. I sent off prabul and waited for prashanth to get his bike fixed and we both hit the roads together in the rain. Few guys were ahead of us and JSR and bull gang were behind us so we went on and on hoping to team up with the gang ahead of us. Prashanth showed amazing stamina in riding in rains, he never slowed down or stopped, he egged me on to continue riding. Finally i gave up at karwar and we both had a chota break there. IT was an amazing view there of the sea so close to beach and then there was sea bird project of our navy, we could see the ships so close from roads! unfortunately we couldn't take any snaps as it was pouring. We had another pitstop near gokarna crossing, by then prashanth lost his cool with me and told me that he would leave me alone if take any further breaks ;-) I assured him that would not be the case and continued with him, we soon hit honnavar by 1 pm. We enquired with shop owners if they had seen a biker group pass by as we couldn't locate prabul and group , they said they saw one big gang on friday ;-) (that was us going towards goa!) Then me and prashanth decided to have lunch and by the time we were finishing, we found the bikers who were "ahead" of us come there. On enquiring we found out that they had taken a butt break near ankola so we had missed them. Soon JSR and bull group joined us and it was happy reunion in honnavar, we took a lengthy break and then started to proceed towards jogfalls ghat roads. One bull had some battery probs, so again JSR and bull gang told us to move on and they would join us. So me and rest of the gang moved on. Prashanth and parvesh were ahead of me, but soon i couldn't keep up with them as the roads were very narrow and twisty, i started to follow a sumo guy, he led me peacefull till ghat section roads in 50 kmph. Prashanth and parvesh were waiting for me again, i told them to carry on as i was not comfy in ghat roads and preferred to be behind a cage. So they went ahead and i got behind an ambassador again. Reached the view point just before jog falls, found prashanth and parvesh waiting there, had a ciggi break, took few snaps there. The roads were too twisty and curvy, rains had subsided to some extent, i was shivering, to complicate things, it was too foggy, i couldn't see anything 10 feet ahead of me. We continued from there and after some 2 kms, the rains finally stopped! Thank god for small mercies, i felt so relived that rains finally stopped and we had passed one hurdle. I was taking ghat section roads slowly, heard a bull thumping away, it was kamlesh, soon he over took me and disappeared from view. Finally i came near the checkpost signalling the end of ghat section. Found all guys waiting there for JSR group and me. We took a small break and JSR bull gang reached there. We moved on towards sagar, it started to get dark, cold. I was shivering again, shoulder and neck started to give trouble again. We reached sagar, took a lengthy break, removed shoes, drained water, took intake of liquids ciggs etc. We left sagar for shimoga, enroute it started to get dark and maintaining the group was becoming a problem, most of the guys were ripping away and slow riders like me and others were left behind. So we stopped before shimoga, i told JSR that we need to figure out a way for not leaving guys behind. JSR suggested a brilliant formation, it was staggered. Few bikes on the left lane one behind the other and one bike on the right lane for every two bikes. Initially it was difficult to maintain the formation with the speeds, but as i got the hang of it, i stuck to it, The lead was kamlesh, i was behind him and JSR was on my right. Then came the worst potholes, some 30 kms of pure hard core potholes, i hit one very badly at 100 + speed, Couldn't help it as very few short stretches were smooth as we started to increase our pace, bam, one pothole appeared and our bikes took a dip in each of them. Few kms on my shoulders and neck were literally falling apart, then we stopped. Jsr tied my bag to his bull, gave me the spray treatment. After this pit stop, i thought how am i going to keep riding in these pot holes, thankfully just few meters after our break, well marked neatly tarred road appear, i was elated! We stuck to the formation and were in 90s comfortably overtaking vehicles, JSR with his bull made errant oncoming vehicles go to their lanes. We went on and on finally bangy was just 200 kms more. We stopped for dinner, a lengthy much deserved dinner. After around 45 mins there we dragged on, it was like around 12.30 Am. We still had lots of kms to munch on, It took me every last bit of energy in my body to keep riding, finally we hit tumkur, i was trailing behind a truck and a car for most of the time, JSR was waiting for me for sometime and then met up all guys near tumkur bypass. Few guys got lost there, finally we regrouped at toll gate entrance. Bid goodbyes and rode on. I was felt like dozing off at many stretches, somehow managed to carry on and reach bangalore. It was 4.15 Am when i finally reached home. It was the lengthiest ride of my life (so far ;-0) in a single day! I was too tired to do anything. Went to room threw my stuff and dozed off. Only to wake up by 8.30 am again and land up in office!

Hampi - The forgotten Empire

Finally i managed to go to hampi last thursday and returned back on sunday. The ride to and fro hampi was a rip fest, managed to cruise in 120 and 110 for long stretches in NH4 and 100 in NH 13.
The details:
People: Me and my friend mouli as my pillion (plus luggage bag) and my nomadic friend pradeep. (he was driving solo)

Bikes: My zma and pradeep's bajajpulsar 150 Dtsi

Total Kms Travelled : 765 kms.

Duration: 4 days, From 30th March 06 Thursday to 2nd April 06 Sunday.

Route taken to Hampi: Bangalore>tumkur>Chitradurga>Hospet>Hampi (NH4 to NH 13)Route taken from hampi: Hampi>Hospet>Chitradurga>tumkur>bangalore (NH13 to NH4)

Total fuel consumed: Rs 1100 /- worth of fuel (21.5 Litres)

Average mileage was around 35

Road conditions: NH4 excellent road with 4 lane till chitradurga. Only few stretches under construction near tumkur and chitradurga. NH13, over all road is good, but lot of truck traffic, so have to be very cautious. Also unexpected road humps along the way, especially near hospet with out any markings or signboards!

Tips about hampi: Hampi is a no liquor zone. So if you are caught with booze, be ready to shell out dough. You need to go to kamalapur to get liquor and have it there. Else get it concealed and have it peacefully in room and later should dispose the liquor bottles, no leaving the bottles in room. Also no bacardi available in the area. Only beer, whitemischief , mcdowells and khoday's stuff. Also very few shops sell goldflake and wills ciggs. So if you are a fag addict like me, you need to carry stock of the cigs from chitradurga.

Pics: I took pics from my cell and my nomadic friend pradeep took pics from a sony digi cam. My cell pics can be accessed at: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/ridetohampi

I tried to get company for the ride, but there were last minute pull outs. So finally i braced myself for driving alone to hampi. But at the nth moment, on wednesday night, i got a call from pradeep saying that he will meet us at nelamangala crossing in NH4 early morning and we can ride to together. I was elated, as this was going to be my first long trip with another biker for company. So went home rather late from office, finishing pending work and managed to pack things for the next big day and catch few winks of sleep.

Day1: 30th March 2006 Thursday
Woke up early and got ready, mouli called up saying that he will come home and drop his luggage and we can pack up and pushoff. We were supposed to meet Pradeep at nelamangala crossing by 8.30 Am. But mouli showed up with his luggage by 7.15 Am. Then parents started doing pooja for the bike and it was 8.15 Am by the time we left my home after packing and last minute checking. Filled up at shell bunk for Rs 600 and headed off towards nelamangala. Traffic was thin and soon we were near nelamangala crossing by 9.30 Am. Since i had not seen pradeep earlier, i had taken down his bike's description (reg number, colour etc) found one guy calmly reading a book sitting on his bike near the crossing, it was pradeep and soon we got introduced. We took quick pics, bought few cigs and we started off by 9.45 Am. The Dream stretch of NH4 started and soon i was throttle happy, zma was taking time to hit 100 initially, later she was always sticking to 100. We thought of having breakfast in tumkur, but couldn't see any decent hotels, we carried on. Soon we found a good hotel somewhere near sira, had our breakfast at 11.30 am. (much to the relief of mouli as he was getting too bugged with the late thingy from morning) We pushed off by 12.15 from there and then on it was 4 laned bliss! The road was ramrod straight for kms together and driving at 120 felt like 80. Mouli was too excited riding pillion at that speeds. He was constantly waving his hands against the wind, was telling that he could feel the g force. It was a dream stretch for me, i maxed out zma and she hit 125 at one point, but was comfortably crusing in 120. Then on we sobered down to 110. We pulled up before chitradurga at a dhaba, waited for pradeep. Then had tea, ciggs and freshened up. We had done 180 kms so far and time was around 1.15 Pm. We left towards hospet. We had to leave NH4 in chitradurga and join NH13 for hospet. Hospet was still 120kms away and we had ample time. NH13 was neatly laid single lane road for some 40 kms from Chitradurga., later on the road was in not so good condition, it was not too bad, it was just that the tar had cracked up at lot of places and the road was uneven. But it was easy maintaining 80 in this road. But there was lot of truck traffic on this road. But didn't get strained driving on this road as even this road was damn straight with minimal curves like NH4. But it was single lane and there was too much truck traffic. We stopped at road side dhaba with hospet still around 75 kms away, Took a long one hour break for lunch and proceeded towards hospet. On the way we found iron ore companies (jindal i suppose) the road was red in colour till we crossed this stretch. Then we could see tungabhadra river, took some snaps here and we were in tungabhadra dam by evening 5.30 pm. Peacefully saw the sunset there, then proceeded to hospet (around 1km from there) then took diversion to hampi (13kms frm hospet) we reached hampi by 7.45 Pm. The ruins lightened up with my headlamp and i was taken aback with the roads passing through the ruins. It was like a mythical city with ruins scattered all the way along the road side in the dark. We reached virupaksha temple road (hampi bazaar ) for a break. Enquired about accomodation. Found out that hippie's island ferry is closed by 6 pm and if we had to stay there, we need to take the bike on the boat to the other side of the river bank. Mouli and me didn't find it feasible, at this juncture we were approached by a guy who promised us to show some good rooms with parking place (my demand was that i needed parking place with good enclosure for our bikes first, then we would settle for any room)Finally we nailed one room and the owner arranged parking in her home passage for our bikes opposite to the hotel. So i was satisfied, the room was decent enuf. The trip meter was showing 345 Kms by end of the day. We unloaded our lugguage there and freshened up and went for dinner. Mouli and pradeep went to buy booze. Later we found out that hampi is no booze zone and one can fined if you are caught with booze bottle in hand. So we concealed it and managed to have it in our rooms with out making much noise and slept a sound sleep.

Day 2: 31st March 2006 Friday
Pradeep being an early bird, woke me up early and mouli was still asleep. Pradeep and me hit the river side, it was peaceful there, we took his bike all the way to the river bank, it was quite a task. We took the boat to the other side of the shore, it is called hippie's island. It has cottages and huts to stay in. Nice ambience. We enquired rent at one place and it was Rs 100 per day! the room was comfy enough with two beds, attached bath etc. We decided against shifting there as it would mean we had to come back to room by 6 pm (no ferries after 6 pm) we came back to the hampi shore. Mouli got ready and pradeep went in search of a guide. We had our breakfast by then. Our guided tour of hampi began at 10 am. We were amazed at the architecture, the scientific marvels like inverted image of virupaksha temple gopura using pinhole camera concept, the musical stone pillars at vittala temple. At the same time we were anguished over the complete lack of care and maintainance of the ruins. Many ruins were left to fend for themselves. People had scribbled their names over the walls of ruins, locals had encroached the land surrounding the ruins and were using it as banana plantation areas. We were pissed off about muslim invaders destroying hampi to the core (guide said that they looted and destroyed temples for 6 months!) The fanatic islamists had spared structures built with islamic architecture (lotus mahal, 10 elephant stables) but destroyed all hindu architecture buildings and temples (vittala temple, krishna temple, the single elephant stable etc) Especially the way they had severed almost all elephant trunks in the scriptures and the heads of all scriptures. Most of the temples don't have idols are the ones having idols are badly scarred and damaged. We finally ended the guided tour by evening 6.30 Pm in virupaksha temple. Then me and mouli decided to visit hippie's island as mouli was too eager to see the cottages (famous for all night long rave parties during full moon nights) i had to take my zma down to the river bank and pratically at one slope i was stuck! i was too scared of loosing balance and i was just holding the brakes and standing there on the slope, finally after much effort, i managed to park zma on the river bank side and we hit the boat to go to the other side of the river bank. We stuck a conversation with an isreali couple on the boat, the guy started by asking about zma, it's make, power, cc etc. I told him and he was asking about me and mouli, where we came from (amazingly he had never heard/been to bangalore!) he was telling us to go to goa and north india too! i told him that we are still exploring south india and we will try to hit north once we have seen places in south. Then we were asking about him and he told that he was an agriculturist in isreal. We asked him how many months break had he taken to come to india. He cooly told us six months! we were so surprised to hear, six months vacation in another country, now that would be akin to hitting a jackpot for us! Then me and mouli explored the hippie's island cottages, one even had a swimming pool and a billards table! we had a cup of tea there and hit the boat to come towards hampi side. Then we met pradeep, he had been to see sunset from a nearby mountain. Then all of us went to mayura hotel (3 kms from hampi) of karnataka tourism, had dinner there, mouli decided to get blown there and he had n number of beers and he was totally blown when we left the hotel. On our way back the roads werepitch dark and we were playing around while riding bikes by switching off bike's headlights and driving in the darkness, that was one scary experience i will never forget! mouli used to get jolted back to his senses whenever i used to switch off the head set and drive. Then we stopped in the middle of the road and parked our bikes by side, in the darkness had a fag, then we pushed off to the room. We assured pradeep that the next day we would start early by 7 am to explore all the places we saw that day in guided tour. It was 1 Am when we reached room and we were too tired for any thing and we had a sound sleep.


Day 3: 1st April 2006 Saturday.
Woke up real late at 10 Am, inspite of pradeep showing up at our room early morning. So we lost lot of morning time, pradeep had setout alone to explore hampi. Then by 11 am we were on our way to hotel to have breakfast, solomon (from hyderabad group) called up and he said that they have reached hampi and are in hampi bazaar. Found 4 guys in 4 bikes looking for me in the bazaar. (solomon was on his black zma, navneet on his legendary splendor, Praveen on his red 180 dtsi pulsar and vinay on his black classic 180 pulsar) Then we proceeded towards our room and got them 2 rooms in same hotel. Once they had dropped off their luggage, pradeep met them and he again went with solomon to get a guide. Once the guide was found, all 4 hyd nomads were put on to guided tour, pradeep retired to his room due to after noon heat after he had finished exploring hampi in the morning, after finishing breakfast, me and mouli set out to explore hampi by 12.30 in the afternoon. Just as we started, we found a familiar looking black fiero with cramster bags and a nervous guy searching for someone. Found the bikenomads.com sticker on the bike and i knew it was Mr gokarna arun on his fiero. Got introduced to him and led him to pradeep's room. After wards me and mouli set out to explore hampi by 1pm, the heat was unbearable and unforgiving just like the previous day but we didn't have much choice so we started off with krishna temple.Took lot of pics there. Then hazararamatemple, more pics, then the ruins. We hit mayura hotel for lunch by 2.30 pm.Then we started towards vittala temple for group pic, i started recording the video of group ride. Then they found a granite quary, we took our bikes there for group pics.After few pics, we proceeded to vittala temple and the hyd guys proceeded to their guided tour there. Praveen and arun left for watching sunset in matanga hills. Me and mouli went towards the river side near the half finished bridge. It was like even the new bridge was jinxed and was in ruins before it could be completed becoz of unesco's objection. We spent quite time there watching people transporting their bikes across the river in the round boats, people crossing over to the other side of the bank. Had a fag, then took lot of pics from atop the bridge. Then we decided to go to vittala temple to see the weekend lighting display. Only on saturdays and sundays vittala temple in illuminated by lights between 7 to 8 pm. Half way through we met the guys on their way back. They told us that the show was not on as the contract was not renew by our great govt for continuing the light show. So disappointed we went back to hampi and had dinner in mayura hotel. Then we parted ways and on our way back we again started switching off our headlights and playing fool with darkness. Started packing our stuff for our ride back to bangalore the next day. Pradeep told us that he would meet us by 7.30 am the next day at our room and we could start off early. The hyderabad guys were planning to leave by 5.30 Am in the morning. The day came to an end after i caught few winks of sleep after tedious process of packing our stuff.

Day 4: 2nd April 2006 Sunday
Thankfully i woke up early and me and mouli were ready by 7.30 am. Pradeep showed up exactly at the said time. We proceeded towards hospet after checking out of the hotel. On our way out of hampi, i was feeling nostalgic, i didn't want to leave this place as i seemed to have grown fond of the ruins. On the other hand mouli wanted to get back to bangalore asap as he had enough of the heat and sun. So i left hampi with a heavy heart, but promised myself that i will return to hampi again as i couldn't explore the place properly. We had breakfast in hospet by 8.30 Am. Pradeep told us that he's having some problem with bike if he hits 80 or 90, so he told us that he would leave early, we were having a fag, so we told him to go ahead and he left and we left after 10 mins. The next 15 kms was horrible ride, there were simply too many trucks and after we hit relatively peaceful stretch we took a break to take some snaps and light up a cig. Then on it was again straight road and we were cruising in 90 and 100. Even after covering 35 kms we couldn't find pradeep, i thought he might have ripped on his way back to bangalore. So we took our own butt breaks and fag breaks all along the way and when we were nearing chitradurga, we found pradeep doing comfortably 100. We bidded goodbye to NH 13 and joined NH 4 in chitradurga. Again took a butt break in Chitradurga by 1.30 Pm. Pradeep passed by us at this point of time. Then we started again towards bangalore. It was again a rip fest on our way back, we were crusing in 100 and 115 comfortably along the 4 laned straight NH 4. We found a benz and octavia comfortably ripping in 140 or 130, we took few more stops for cigs and pics and we had our lunch in kamat hotel near sira at 2.30 Pm. Then we hit bangalore by 4.30 Pm after ripping the last stretch of 4 laned NH4 after tumkur. I dropped mouli home and reached my home by 5 Pm. The trip meter reading was 765 kms at my home. Thus my long awaited hampi ride came to an end .

First Loooong Ride

Finally, i completed my first loooong ride with my friend riding pillion and returned safe and sound, but with lots of close shaves. To sum up the trip, it was an endurance testing ride for me and my zma.

Total kms travelled: 1163 kms.
Total number of days : 4 days (only day time riding, no night riding)
Max kms covered in single day: 413 kms on Last day (Sagar-Sigandur-sagar-Shimoga-Tumkur-Bangalore)
Trip duration: 4 days. 26th jan 2006 thursday to 29th jan 2006 Sunday
Fuel consumed: Rs 1550 /- worth of fuel
Route taken : Bangalore>Kunigal>Hassan>Udupi>Marvanthe>Murudeshw ara>Honnavara>Gokarna>Honnavara>JogFalls>Shimoga>S agar>Sigandur>Sagar>Birur>Gubbi>Tumkur>Bangalore.

Anxious moments: Ranover a pothole on way to gokarna @ 110kmph on Speedo , a ksrtc bus coming down from ghat narrowly missed me when climbing jogfalls ghat, Had to pull over off road twice due to erratic bus drivers coming in opposite lane while they were overtaking other vehicles and not giving way . My new bieffe helmet fell in to a 30 foot steep gorge when i had kept it atop our trekking bag on the bike's seat, a truck passed by and the helmet went tumbling downwards in to gorge, there was no damage to visor, but lots of scratches and deep scars on the lid. Lot of times holy cows, dogs and monkeys crossed my path, but i was careful and slowed down everytime i saw them on the roadside expecting them to cross over.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/WestCoastRideFor4Days