Not a planned ride this. Went to Chandigarh to celebrate Holi with Parvinder, leisurely rode up the hills on the Holi day in the “holi hai!” spirit.

Nine years ago, a guy from Manchester came to India on a three month college internship. And he never went back. Been living in the Himalayas ever since, he is about to relocate to yet another place the next day, this is his last night here in Dhanaulti. He ran a café called Andiji’s Evolving Restaurant here. I ask him why he never went back. Says it never occurred to him in the initial years and now he has a family of 9 dogs that he is sure would die if he left them here. And he doesn’t have enough money to take the dogs back to the old country. He is the guy who put together “Dhanaulti Rock fest”, India’s first real rock music festival so to say (I planned to attend one but never did!), with very little or no sponsorship …even at the cost of running into debt. And he plans to do more once he settles down at his new place.

Interesting persons you come across on the road.

Long since I’d been meaning to do a solo ride. And every time I planned, either someone tagged along, or I chickened out at the last moment and called somebody to join in. Had to commit a sin for this ride though. Some friends, who’d been so very sweet to have waited for me to get a little free, had planned a trip this weekend. The only glitch was that it was a train bound trip. I wanted my two wheels badly. Almost like a kid. And so I ditched them, took my bike and rode away to the hills. Real fast. Just like a kid. Been trying to make it up to them ever since.

Saturday morning, around day break, road out of Delhi, to Meerut. I’ve now ridden on this road so many times that I almost understand its character. The pot holes, endless jams and all no more come as a surprise. They come with the territory. Upto Roorkee was almost eventless, minimal breaks. Took to Dehradun from Roorkee. Took some wrong turn around Dehradun and I was in the middle of the city of Dehradun, caught up in traffic. One Pajero bound gentleman rammed from behind, causing me a minor fall. Somebody’s way of shaking me to say “hello! You took the wrong turn”, I guess. Alright, mistake rectified, got the handlebar and leg guard fixed, took the road out to Mussurrie.

Just around the outskirts of Dehradun , this “plain” boring road transforms into a sexy, curvacious hilly road, all within minutes. Such is the company of hills.

As I keep moving up turn after turn, enjoying the ghats, it keeps getting colder. Around the outskirts of Mussurrie, there is this turn for Dhanaulti. Then some 30 odd kilometers of narrower state roads – green valleys and misty mountains. Tall Devdar trees and lonely roads. Occasional chai dhabas. And then comes a sleepy little town called Dhanaulti. It was some time around 4 pm that I finally made it there. Checked into a cheap little lodge, washed up and out on the misty roads. Nice breeze… surely needed a sweater (which I didn’t have) if I wanted to stroll the night away as planned. Took to a dirt trail up the hill. Kept walking for sometime, tall Devdar trees all around, no human in sight. It was all dark by now, clear starry skies across the thick tall Devdar trees. Such calmness. Sat there for sometime. Came back to the town. Strolling on the empty streets, something unusual off the road caught the eye… this dreadlocked firang throwing all kinds of things in a big fire- chairs, tables, stools and even a sofa! The fire felt nice and so I just sat there at the sidelines of his compound. After some time, when he was done adding almost everything inflammable to the fire, he came up to me. I told him I was sitting there just because the fire felt nice, would take off if he minds it. He said he just came by to say ‘Hi!’ and ask if I would lend some cigarette sticks! Gleefully, I said. We began talking, the fact that I came from Delhi on a motorcycle made him curious. Apparently he was a motorcycle enthusiast himself, had a couple of Royal Enfields and a Java. He got me his home brewed ginger beer, which was awesome I must say.

Took leave from Andiji around 4 am, to the lodge and crashed.

Sunday morning, up by 7 am. So I slept all for a couple of hours and still felt fresh. Ready for a new day! Birds chirping in the valley, nice misty winds – awesome setting to have a cup of tea. Wandered around a little, took to another dirt trail, had omlette toast and tea for breakfast at a hillside dhaba.

Set to leave by noon.

Took a different route this time, through Tehri to Rishikesh, this maximized the time on hills! Was in Modinagar by 6ish. And then there was a laaaang laaaang traffic jam, not less than 7-8 kms of fully packed roads! Could manage to make through the traffic in more than two hours, and at the end of it was a Netaji in an open jeep, with Juloos and all. Apparently, there was general election a couple of days later, and so the Netaji was out to charm the masses. Agreed, hamare pyare innocent netaji could not even in his wildest dreams foresee the chaos he was out to create, what happened to the administration? Were they charmed already? And this (NH58) is one of the only national highways connecting the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal to Delhi.

More power to the people.

Back home in time for dinner.

And now I can appreciate why some people would only ride solo!

Ride Stats:

Route: Delhi- Meerut- Mujaffarnagar-Roorkee-Dehradun-Rishikesh- Mujaffarnagar- Meerut-Delhi.

Distance: 710 kilometers home to home.

Time: Two days

I was gonna be in Chennai for a week for work. Last time I went there, was down with viral fever and PK, a frust friend who works there in the same company had to baby sit me for a week. We thought to make it up this time around. PK has an Enfield Thunderbird and Pondicherry is just around 150 kms from Chennai. 

Chennai is connected to Pondy by ECR (East Coast Road), a very smooth and scenic, divider less highway. The plan was to start out early morning Saturday, get to Pondy before sun reaches 22.754564 degree above horizon and then chill out for two days in the French Riviera of the east. And back to Chennai Sunday night.  So it was not really a bike trip, more of – two friends catching up on old times over a weekend …dariya kinaare. 

Friday night, tanked up the “Haathi” as PK fondly calls it, hit the bed trying to sleep, no sight of sleep, and spent the better part of night talking away. Up by 6 am, on the road by 7. Got out of the Chennai, on to ECR quickly and I asked PK if I could ride. Had never ridden a TB before and PK’s bike wasn’t in the best of shapes so I decided to take it cautiously. Within minutes I found out how awesome this bike is, on top of that this highway is perfect for cruising, just the divider missing. The weather was good, with small patches of drizzle, perfect for riding. Passed Mahabaleshwar, stopped over for morning tea at a road side dhaba…and oh yeah… so PK gets off, and my Jeans gets stuck on the protruding footrest of the bike, and so my leg wouldn’t reach ground because of that. I shouted “PK Pakad, PK Pakad” atleast 10 times but the asshole wouldn’t listen…bike falls down. PK yells at me for the next 10 minutes for not being able to control the bike and then suddenly becomes happy. “Subko bataunga, choohe ne haathi giraa diya.” Alright PK, whatever makes you happy.

pk's TB by the Beach Road, Pondi

Didn’t take many breaks, made to Pondi by 10:30. We planned to check into some place, wash up and start our exploration de Pondicherry. We were lucky to get a mast sea facing room in the Ashram park guest house, an Aurobindo Ashram guest house situated at the end of the beach road (Goubert Avenue as the French would call it). Pondy in itself is a very quiet place and this guest house even quieter; you have to switch the ignition off at the gate and then pull the bike to the ashram parking lot – to describe just how quiet the place is.

Washed up, set out for lunch. Had heard about this place called “Rendezvous” specializing in French cuisine. Got there, everything in the menu seemed delicious, at least by the French names they had. Enjoyed some nice French food (chicken in red wine, fish in white wine for a layman like me:D).

With our bellies full, we set out exploring the town. When the French planned it, they divided the town into two parts – Ville noir, the black village and Ville blanche, the white village. Seems like the French talked straight back then! Around Goubert Avenue (the beach road) is where most of the celebrated French buildings and architecture is situated. Most of the buildings have been converted to government buildings or have something to do with Aurobindo Ashram. But architecturally, they retain their charm. Even today, if you have to demolish a building in the French quarter and build something new, the new building should conform to the existing architecture and there is a government authority which makes that sure, I read somewhere.

Life in this town in lazy and that’s the charm. So we roamed around, sat at the beach, had coffee at the famous “Le Café” situated right at the beach and then roamed around some more, almost like stray dogs (stray Gods eh?). The guest house gates would close at 10:30 pm so we had to get in before that. Reluctantly left the beach and went to this place for dinner I had heard about a lot – “L Orienté”. Awesome ambience and décor this place has and it specializes in the local cuisine- the Creole cuisine. We had some nice Creole food, French style…that is with wine. PK had just bought this nice camera which I was experimenting with the whole time.

The creole chicken curry we ordered was awesome. Done with dinner, still some time to go till 10:30, chilled at the beach some more. Went back to guest house just in time, chatted away late through the night.

Had planned to wake up early morning to watch sun rise above the sea. Managed to wake up just in time but it was very cloudy in the horizon, no spectacular sun rise for us, went back to sleep. An office friend had told about this place called paradise beach about 10 kms from pondy on the way to Cuddalore, had told that the beach there was awesome. Got up and ready by 9 am, had some breakfast at the ashram canteen, off to paradise beach. We got to Cuddalore in search of this paradise beach that no one on the way was aware of. After riding some 30 odd kms in traffic, got to the place somehow, but what the hell! It was a beach on the back waters (I am not sure if you could call it a beach, technically), and people were going from there into the sea on boats. We scolded ourselves and the people who told us to come here, decided we’d go back and sit at the roof top of Le Café all day long.

Pondi Beach

(That the boats were taking people to some beach on an island in the middle of the ocean and it’s that beach which is called the paradise beach, I’d only learn once I am back to office. So was the eagerness to get to Goubert Avenue and Le Café, we didn’t even do a single enquiry from the people present there, started the bike and off to Le Café).

 So by 11 am, we were at Le Café. Next 5 hours were spent just sitting there looking at the sea, occasionally having coffee and/or sandwiches, taking pics. Met two college batch mates at the café; the guys are working in Banglore and had come to Pondy on their bikes with their girls over the weekend. 4 pm, we decided to leave, although the heart wouldn’t let go, we let the better sense prevail. The road being without divider we wanted to make home before dark.

my attempt at capturing a moment

PK started riding this time. 20 kms out of Pondy, cops stopped us. It was 19^th of October 2008; PK, the asshole’s learning license had 17^th of October 2008 as the expiry date. The police man innocently told us: “Saar, no English. My people your state, get tortured. You pay me 300 rs and ride all the way to Chennai, no problem” managed to convince him for Rs 200.

Poetic justice for frustu PK, I rode royally to Chennai, although with multiple stops because of continual rains. Even after making it into the city, we had to stay put for about an hour, so heavy were the rains. At around 9 pm, PK dropped me to the guest house and left for his home.

Nice weekend getaway it was, the company of frustoo pk, the very cruising worthy ECR, the awesome thunderbird, and to top it all- me riding at least 90% of the time (:P), and the laidback French style Goubert avenue by the sea.  Perfect.

this is Kaa, at his glamorous best

So Kaa had been planning for his maiden ride for quite some time now. And I had been the lazy bum tall-oying it all the time. A regular Thursday afternoon in the office, I got a message from the guy – “Come for a ride this weekend or die motherfucker!”

No one messes with Kaa, what was my aukaat. Thought I’d get my bike checked on Friday. And a shortish ride over the weekend. Kaa got his bike serviced and he was not sure how much the bike could take given he didn’t know it that well as yet. So we thought to make it a short affair, something in 300-350 km range from Delhi (againJ).

I thought we could go to Kasauli, I had passed the place couple of times, never been there. So we’d go to Kasauli, gauge the enthu levels of Kaa and his bike and then we can move forward if the majority decides so (me, my bike, kaa, his bike you see).

We decided to meet at IFFCO chowk at 4:30 am Saturday morning and move towards GT Karnal road to NH1. Fixed up 3:30 am alarm, slept off by 1 am.

Day One

Off the bed by 3:40 am, on the road by 4:15. Met up with Kaa at IFFCO chowk, proceeded towards Dhaula Kuan, took the road to Rohini – Azadpur border. Can you believe there was a traffic jam at azadpur border this time in the morning… probably because roads are in a mess because of Metro construction? Anyways, we were out of Delhi by 6 am.

Got a call from Kaa at around 6:30 am. Flat tyre. Went back, got to know there was a puncture repair shop at a petrol pump on the other side of the road. Went there, yes there was a shop. The guy said his gas pump valve had got damaged so no compression, he was busy solving that problem, wasn’t even ready to help us get the wheel out, so that we could get it fixed elsewhere. Left the bullet at the pump, went to a village nearby, there was a puncture repair shop there too but people told that the guy never came before 8:30 am, didn’t even live nearby. Ok, nothing we could do, went back to the petrol pump, there was a chai shop, had some chai, sutta, bakarbaaji. The puncture repair guy was able to restore the compression in his pump in some time. Took the tube out, the valve of the tube had come out. So we got the tube replaced, on the road again by around 8 am. 8:15 am got another message from Kaa. Another flat. Same rear tyre. Wow.  Went back, searched for a puncture repair, and could find one around 2 kms from the puncture spot. The poor guy had to pull the bull again. Same problem, the tube valve had come out, got it replaced. 9 am on the road again.

J

…yes, another flat. Same rear tyre. Can’t be. I had almost given up; this for sure wasn’t just a tube problem. Kaa had to pull the bike for another 2 kms, finally we managed to find a decent mechanic. Briefed him about the happenings. He took the tube out; the valve had again come out. He looked closer, there was a big puncture (read: rip through) on the tube. So there was a big nail in the tyre. It was a regular puncture only last couple of times also, but because of the 2-3 km pulling over flat tube, the valve used to come out. What a duffer we had been. The guy said he’ll get good quality tube from the city and fix up, we asked him to replace the tyre also. It was worn anyways; it had to be changed sooner rather than later. So finally we were on the road by 11:30 am. Positives of the episode –

We are a bit less dumb about flat tyres, and yes …KAA is now a pro at getting the wheel out and fix back in.

On the road finally. I had almost given up after the second flat and more so… the third. But Kaa was all enthu the whole time. So we made it through.

Took bare minimum chai, sutta, khana, bio breaks and made it to Kalka by around 4 pm. NH22 (Chandigarh-Simla) is in a state of mess after the rains this year. Anyways, there are two ways to Kasauli. The main road is from Dharampur, and then there is a short cut from Parvaanoo. We decided to take the road less traveled.

First couple of kilometers is really messy, through the town of Parwanoo. Once out of the town, ohh what a road. A very well maintained road for a state road this one. There are so many flowery bushes around the road; feels like you are riding through a garden in the hills. We pulled over too many times for pics/ sutta/ enjoying the view. Made to the town of Kasauli by 6 pm. This last half an hour ride more than made up for all the tiring in the plains in the morning. (Tiring of Kaa that isJ). Checked into a place, freshened up, and went out for some strolling. Kaa told me this place has got some specialty fruit wines like apple wine and all. We managed to get hold of Apricot wine. I liked the feel of it, and it’s for sure stronger than your regular grape wine. Had some hot yummy chicken curry with Fulkas at a dhaba, came back to the hotel, crashed.

Then the cell phones started ringing. There were multiple bomb blasts in Delhi. What to say. I hope the world is a saner place before I die. Want to ride through Pakistan sometime.

Day Two

We didn’t plan to do much on Sunday. Just the same way back home. So we decided to do leisurely tourist-giri in kasauli and leave by late after noon. Woke up by 7 am, had a cup of tea looking down the valley. Got into our tourist pants and left the hotel. A sleepy Victorian era English hill town, it seems. Much of the town, you are not allowed to get into, army cantonment area but whatever area is open is worth all the hype. We started walking up the hill; saw an arrow leading into woods with “Gilbert Trail” written over it. Decided to follow the trail. It’s a paved trail but very scenic none the less. Ends at a secluded hill top corner. And all this while we’d been craving for a cup of tea. But there were no shops in this part of town …may be rightly… not many took to this side as a result. After enjoying the quiet hill sides for sometime, we gave in to the craving for some food. Came back down, had breakfast, hot coffee, went back to the hotel, checked out around noon. First 25 odd kilometers to Parwanoo was all the ghat roads we’d got, after that the usual bhasad. So we decided to take it slow till Parwanoo.

It was a cloudy day in the hills; visibility was very poor at some stretches. On one sutta/photo break at roadside, Kaa said you don’t get to know when you are in the middle of clouds, can only see’em when they are far. We proceeded for a while and in came the clouds on the road. We were in the middle of clouds and we could see them floating past usJ. Clouds had decided to take on the Kaa challenge, eh! We didn’t require using throttle on this road downhill, in neutral most of the time, ain’t the speeding kind us guys. It started drizzling in sometime, first slowly and we didn’t stop, and then it started pouring. We pulled over at a construction site what looked like a dhaba in the making.

It rained for a couple of hours.

We stayed put, bakaring around. After the rain stopped, we moved. From Parwanoo, to Kalka to NH1. around 4 pm by the watch we were at Zirakpur where you meet NH1, so ample time there. Took a much needed lunch break at a dhaba. By 5, we aere on the road again. This road is a speed rider’s paradise (not me!). Straight smooth stretches of road, my bike was not in ideal condition, wan’t even going beyond 90…in the past I’ve made it past 115 on this road that too with a pillion, just to check for bike’s max speed J

We came across a Pulsar rider with MH 02 plate, Pune I guess. The amount of baggage tha guy had, it looked like he was on a long long ride, sleeping bags, stove and all. We saluted the lonely rider. Took the necessary breaks, in the capital by 9 pm.

Here are the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22833067@N00/sets/72157607328688235/ and http://picasaweb.google.com/k.a.anand/Kusauli

Route Taken: Gurgaon – GT Karnal Road- Ambala-Zirakpur-Kalka-Parwanoo and back the same way.

baadlo ke beech

Refreshing ride, it was. And in Kaa, I have found another motorcycle touring enthusiast, pleasure riding with him, pleasure locating a mechanic for him when his bike breaks down .

Many more rides dost…. the longer ones!

What you folks doing this Gandhi Jayanti weekend?

In the process of switching jobs and a lot of other stuff happening, I went to meet a friend in JNU on a Friday eve. This guy is a religious freak. He told me that he is going to some temple in Haridwar over the weekend and asked me to join him. I thought for some time, “Alright, religious journey for him, weekend ride for me”. Just one condition- you will have to ride pillion all the way through. J The guy agreed.

The plan was to start very early, get to Haridwar ASAP, let him take an hour or two doing whatever makes him happy, get back to road leading to Badrinath, lets see where could we get before dark. And drive back home Sunday. Monsoon had just set its foot in north India, so some interruptions were expected as I didn’t have rain gear.

So I went back home to get my jacket gloves and all, returned to his place by midnight, slept for sometime and got up for the ride at 3:30 am. Took the first road out of NCR, through Ghaziabad to Meerut. Last time I rode this side of UP, a fellow rider had a bad falls in the hills, bad experience, the roads were in a mess. Not anymore. An expressway type road (4 lanes each side, I guess) which was in the initial stage of construction that time (so one had to ride on the supposed service roads), by now, is around 80% constructed. So riding was much more fun.

By 7:30, we were long past Meerut and were around Mujaffarnagar, took a couple of chai/sutta/breakfast breaks, carried on towards Haridwar. By 10 we got into Haridwar city. Fully packed with humans, everyday seems like some religious festival in this town. A bath in the holy river of Ganga totally rejuvenated us. The flow is good this time of the year, and the water chilly. Lack of sleep last night was taken care of. The pillion proceeded towards the temple situated on a hill, I decided to stay put below a gigantic peepal tree around the outskirts of the sacred city. I thought we’d be done with Haridwar by 12, couldn’t wait to ride on the ghats. I kept waiting observing Sadhus, Sadhvis, the great Indian middle class on a family dharm-yatra and firangs. What felt like eternity was around 4 hours! Long live religion.

Finally we Started towards the hills at around 2 pm. Passed Rishikesh and Shivpuri at a snail’s Pace. The hills had already started and the roads were pathetic. All dug up, it was terrible riding on them. Passed the point where a fellow rider had met with a bad skid last time around. I thought to ride for another half an hour and if the road condition doesn’t improve, we’d go back to Rishikesh and may be ride towards Mussurie and beyond. The pillion was adamant that we carry on. He said he’d just ridden this way a couple of months back and that after another 30 kms, the roads were awesome. So we carried on. And he was correct. After around 30 kms from Rishikesh, the road condition changed suddenly. It was all smooth now. So the roads were awesome, the ghat scenery was awesome; it was so cloudy that it was almost dark and we had headlights on. Sometimes it would start drizzling suddenly and we would park some place nice smoking and waiting for rains to stop. Sometimes we’d be riding and we could see heavy rains on the hill in front of us, coming towards us with raw speed. Awesome! I took it slow, letting it all sink in.

We covered around 90 kms from Rishikesh and parked at a lodge in the small town of Devprayag. This is the place where two rivers with distinctly opposite features -Alaknanda and Bhagirathi- meet and form the great Ganga. We freshened up and got down to the sangam-sthal (place where the rivers meet). Bhagirathi is a river with aggressive character. The sheer sight of its intimidating flow can leave you spell bound. On the other hand, Alaknanda is a very calm river. And then they meet to form one of the mightiest rivers of the world. One which is lifeline of human civilization in sub continent. I just sat there and observed the two rivers for a long long time. Then we remembered it’s not Delhi this city. In small hilly towns like this, almost everything shuts down by 9pm. And dinner was much needed. So we went to the main market, had dinner at a dhaba, roamed around a little. Came back to the lodge and crashed.

Day 2

As always, I overslept. Then had a hot cup of tea with the sangam below, the hills in front and clouds covering the hilltops. Got ready and on the road by 8 am. The roads were unexpectedly empty. The setting was exactly the same as the last evening. Dark clouds and all. In an attempt to maximize the time on the hills, we rode it slow .

Sometimes a pack of vehicles would come from behind and go past us. But there was absolutely no traffic from the opposite side. I wondered why.

Around 20 kms from Rishikesh, there was a huge traffic jam. Atleast 2 kms long trail of vehicles. There was a land slide. That’s why.

Being on a bike helped and we rode past cluster of cages and reached up front where the slide had happened. A huge part of land had broken loose in the wee hours of the morning, 2 boulders and 2 bulldozers were busy clearing the road since then. No vehicle on the way up from Rishikesh had passed for hours. We thought of going back up for a while but I had to reach Gurgaon by 6 pm to meet somebody.  So we stayed put waiting for the road to clear up. Overheard one uncle jee saying “Oopar kaheen glacier toot gaya hai, tabhi pahad dhasak raha hai.” .

And yes, every time a boulder used to push a big piece of stone down the slope, crowd used to cheer and clap. J

It took another 2 hours for the road to clear up.

Took a Gnaga-snaan break at Rishikesh to clear up the fatigue that waiting at the slide site had caused. Half an hour of ganga-snan got us the wings that generally a can of Redbull drink is supposed to give.

Then there was the usual routine of riding full throttle on the clear highways, maneuvering through traffic inside the cities.

I decided to make things a little more interesting. Generally I try and ride within my comfort zone and don’t push myself too hard. But then sometimes I do push myself a little to better my riding skills. This was the time I pushed myself a lot. I am not sure if I should do that often. But it was interesting. I enjoyed which otherwise would have been an okay type 5 hour ride back home.

Entered Delhi at a very wrong time, at around 7 pm. Roads were all choked up with traffic. Could not reach my place in Gurgaon earlier than 9-9:30 pm.

A couple of things about this ride:

Bike’s meter cable was broke, so I don’t know how much distance I covered. Must have been something like 700-800 kms home to home. Also no odometer activity meant I don’t know what exact maximum speed I could achieve. Almost like riding a horse, isn’t it.

I didn’t even have a camera so no pictures of the awesome scenes of the ghats.

Also these lazy type weekend rides don’t do it for me anymore. I mean it’s obviously much better than doing any other thing but these short rides don’t make me as happy as they used to about a year ago.

So first, I started riding with 2 riders in charge, taking rider and pillion seats in turn. Those days are history. Now I want longer distances.

They say, “Young bikers decide a place, old bikers just take a direction.”

I am certainly not getting any younger I must say.

Route taken: Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut-Muzaffarnagar-Roorkee-Hardwar-Rishikesh-Devprayag and back.

One such guy, Gautam Singh, an engineering college friend was visiting us. A long weekend was approaching and I had planned a bike ride to Chail (HP) and beyond.

Discussed the idea on BN, no one joined me for the ride but I got all the information I could need about route, roads n all from seasoned bikers. Bajpai, a friend and my flat mate had already been with me on some rides. So there were three of us, two of which riders (me and Bajpai) and just one bike, my Avenger. It took me some days to jugaad another bike. An old colleague and good friend had bought a Karizma around the same time I had my Avenger. Asked him if we could trade his bike for a splender (J) for the weekend. The guy obliged.

The plan was to get on to NH1, take to hills from Kalka, and get to Chail, chill out, return back. This place was not more than 350 kms from Delhi with less than 100 km in hills. So 3 days were too many for this plan from serious touring point of view. They sure were. But the idea here was different; I wanted to show this guy Gautam (hence forth referred to as the bastard), the fun of touring. But without testing his limits.

Day one

Got to Noida by midnight, had to collect the Karizma. Slept for a couple of hours, woke up by 4 am. It was drizzling. Could not get on the road before 7 am. Got to the nearest petrol pump, tanked up. Took to the road through ITO -Azadpur border-Karnal bypass to NH1. Were out of Delhi by 8:30. The weather was awesome, dark cloud clover, drizzling sometimes, forcing us to take breaks.

Took a chai break at Panipat. Lots of flyover building activities going on in these towns of Panipat, Sonipat etc, and NH1 passes through these cities, no by passes. So full of traffic jams. Anyways, soon we were out of all that, on broad, smooth National Highway One leading through Ambala to Chaindigarh. There are some dhabas around Ambala, which are famous for their awesome Panjabi panrathas, we of course had them with hot cups of tea. I had just got my bike serviced last day; there were a couple of nudges here and there. Got them fixed up at a road side mechanic. Oh yes, before I forget, the bastard by now had forced us to take infinite breaks, after almost every 40 mins of ride. The issue was neither Karizma nor Avenger has good pillion seats, so it hurt his delicate ass. He took turns to sit behind both of us; I am sure though it didn’t help him much except by breaking the monotony of pain.

So we reached around Chandigarh by 2 pm. Bypassed Chandigarh, took to Kalka through Pinjor. We were taking lesser breaks now because we wanted to make it to hills ASAP, even at the cost of the bastard loosing his ass.

We got in the thick of hills by 4 in the eve, I guess. I had been on this road (NH22 Chandigarh-Simla) once before. What an experience that was, my first ride in the hills. Took a diversion from NH 22 at Kandaghat for Chail. This is where the serious fun started.

This road is kind of single lane in our “plains’” scheme of things. So if a big vehicle like a truck comes from the opposite side, you need to duck in at the road side for it to pass. And it’s not really smooth too. And I guess that’s why it’s an almost deserted road this time of day (around 5:30 pm). Also the views are breath taking. Riding on this road is ohh_so_fun. A truck carrying cylindrical vessels full of water coming from opposite side, because of broken road, was splashing water all over. We too got splashed, as there was no place for cover.

Took a couple of breaks for taking pics/chai/sutta/the bastard ass. A group of fast bulleteers passed us. A rider waiting for his group gave us a thumps up. We saluted back. Reached Chail at around 7 pm.

Chail is a lazy small hill town. A very small market, some lodges, some hotels on the top of a hill. Not many tourists which makes it a lot of fun. We checked into a hotel, had dinner, roamed around and crashed.

Day Two

Got ready to leave by 8 am (late yet again). It was a sunny day in hills. The plan was to visit the world’s highest cricket stadium situated in Chail, and then explore some hills all day long. Back to Delhi on day 3.

How it shaped up was- got to the cricket stadium. Folks (me included) liked the place and views so much that we just sat there, looking at the valley below, the hill range in front and the awesomeness around, and discussing the meaning of life, world and everything. For more than good 2 hours! I actually had to beg guys to carry on. Finally we took the road out of Chail through Kufri to Simla. Things are great till Kufri. Then the commercialization of hills starts. Kufri is a place full of horse shit. No kidding! Honeymoon couples, families with four kids all come to Kufri and take a horse ride in to the hills.

Managed to pass Kufri maneuvering through the horses somehow without scaring off even a single horse! Road here onwards is good (which means- not so fun). Took a couple of deviations form the road, explored a little.

Majority wanted to get to Chandigarh by evening. Gautam Singh had to meet a friend there and bajpai had to check mark another city on his travel chart by visiting Chandigarh.

So we were in the out skirts of Simla by 1 pm, took a bypass, on NH 22. Took a much needed lunch break at a Panjabi Dhaba. This place served one of the most awesome chicken curries I’ve had in my life so far. Felt sleepy after that heavy lunch. Reached Chandigarh by evening. Did some roaming around, checked into the hotel I had been to last time. Had dinner, zzzz.

Day Three

Overslept. On the road by 9 am. Fricking clear sky outside. We were sure in for some sunny bikingJ. Both the guys proposed we should let the sun set and leave for Delhi in the eve. I was adamant that we leave now. I don’t remember why. May be I had gone insane. No actually, I am sure I had gone insane.

It was a hot hot day. No clouds what so ever. And then there was the bastard ass. It didn’t let us cover even 80 kms at a stretch anytime. So we took a lot of breaks, kept taking electrol with cold water all the way. Were in Gurgaon by 2 pm.

By the way, the bastard enjoyed the trip all in all, more so in hills than in plains. Asked me to get my pillion seat modified. A point there, I agreed.

We had a camera this time, so there are pics, in fact a lot of pics, most of them having Gautam Singh. Here is a link to the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/gautamiitk/GauravMuditAndGautamChailNShimlaTrip

Warning: Some of the pictures contain metaphorical nudity!