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01-15-2010, 02:19 PM
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Keeps on changing
Posts: 473
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Padharo Mhaaro Desh!!! Rajasthan
How to Read this Trip Log: Okay funny right!!!! Anyway its a Narration of Two Guys that is posted in one. So you would find
Day1: And Anup Says So Day1: So Satyen Says So and so on....Dont worry and Dont get confused you may actually understand what both of us were thinking while we rode  Padharo Mhaaro Desh!!! - "Welcome to My Land" is something that a local said when we told them that we are from Mumbai A Ride that was not well planned but well executed, with a lot of twists and turns the ride came to an end, i mean quite literally. Rajasthan: They all say its a beautiful state with a vibrant culture, colour, tradition. Those who say it are 100% correct. Well we will try and pass information on Rajasthan with Route maps/Hotel Info/Road conditions/Places to visit etc. Riders: Satyen Poojari - RTR 160 (Some Limited Edition)....Or was it an RTR???? Anup Abraham - Karizma Tour Dates: 27th December 2009 - 2nd January 2010 Places: Jaisalmer Pokhran Jodhpur Udaipur  So Satyen Says So: 23rd December, my first day of the new trip around the sun…… We are still confused about our plans, we are trying to chalk out a plan and it happens to be one of the eventful days in my life. The Reason: I lost my BlackBerry somewhere close to Khopoli on my ‘commute’ to Pune (and got it back as well after 6 hours)….. All our plans and work were hidden behind the shattered screen of the BlackBerry! What a start to the ‘trip’ 24th-26th December, Some new events Anup has to stay back for Christmas, I just got my new-improved-improvised-RTR so beaming with a grin and planning when and how I would finish my run-in! The R15 needs new clutch plate, and the RTR to rescue, I ride to Malad to get the clutch plates (infact the whole assembly!) The SVC guys promise me to deliver the bike by 10 AM. After assuring Anup about “Yes! Yamaha” and the trip being on, no matter what happens , I secretly pray to God for the bike to be ready! 27th December, Woke up at 8.. rode to the SVC, not sure if it was to kill some KMS on the RTR or the curiosity to check if its open: Tough Luck! After a couple of hours, a dosa and some frantic calls from Anup, time to recheck the SVC. Oh and this by the way was Anup’s first Vasai tour as well I had to ensure that he gets lost somewhere as it was already 10:30 and the bike was not ready yet! So here am I, at the SVC waiting for the bike to be ready. Attempt 1: The gears were too hard Attempt 2: The was some problem in down gearing Attempt 3: Attempt with an additional friction plate (saala R&D ke liye mera hi bike mila), couldn’t close the case! Attempt 4: Test ride of bike and the mechanic not being happy Attempt 5: Test ride of bike and the mechanic being happy but advising me to change the Engine Oil at 1000KMS Somewhere between those attempts, along with my patience, even the Dosa gave up…. So had a quick bite of the Wada Pav! Wow! And tried to crash some time by bottling up water and all! Finally! Its time to roll! (well actually, its about 6 hours delay from the official plan). We leave from Vasai, battling some traffic (read people, vehicle and animals) to get to the highway! Everything going nice and fine and we refuelled at highway, checked air pressure and all set!….. Next stop Surat! Well not really, somewhere beyond virar there is a huge pile up. The nezt 2 hours went to battle the traffic and then finally near -clear roads! Time to rip and ensure you leave the traffic behind.   Somewhere close to Manor we decide to speed up to a near triple digit speed… and Wheee I go!!!! And then a pinging sound and some very evident clutch slipping!! So I take it to one side of the road! Time to call the Yamaha guys….. after a few zillion phone calls, I am told that it must be a heat up issue and I promptly say that the indicator didn’t light up! We are asked to stay there and wait till the bike cools down…..and then resume. So we waited, and having lost A LOT of time so far, decide that we go ahead and have our lunch so as to save some time. In between there I also called another Yamaha Mechanic whom I kinda trust and asked him to come there! We had a quick grub, tried firing up the bike but it didn’t work. Then finally checked the engine oil! Lol actually there WAS NO oil!.... So arriving at a logical conclusion that the oil levels would have been low, I take Anup’s bike till Manor to hunt for a can of engine oil. We thought it would be good for us as it will help us for topping up oil on our way back! To my surprise half a can later the bike is still not showing adequate oil levels, so I pour some more and eventually ran out of oil and the engine NOW showing adequate oil levels. Now I am confused if the piston could drink so much oil as there was no smoking or anything! Or did the Yamaha guys forget to pour oil in their last attempt!!! Dejected Satyen.....and cursing Yamaha Mech for not doing their job well!!!  Ripped open to see whats the problem.....  Finally the Limited Edition to the rescue  Finally my friend from Yamaha arrives on my RTR (lucky I gave my keys to him) he opens up the bike, experiments with the spark plug, the ECU and everything that could cause a failure, then finally says that the piston is seized. The time now is 5:30 and we are 12 Hours behind our schedule and have still covered only 50KMS!!!!!!! One mishap after the other, and Anup reciting me stories about how the Trip to Jaisalmer has always been elusive! And all these freak events, there was only one conclusion…. … FcUk it! We are going ahead! (lol add that to your twist counter if you are counting them) So finally at around 6, I saddle the RTR, gear up, and all ready to roll, and Anup says now…”let ride slow now” .... to be continued And Anup Says So: And blame me for the slow riding Satyen....Damn don't forget i was leading the race there.... anyway coming back to the forum..."Ya the ride did start pretty late and i was almost half asleep by the time the YAM Mechanics tried to start the R15 in vain...Satyen had 2 choice either cancel the ride or ride...he choose the later and he was adamant in reaching Jaisalmer by morning...it sounded too ambitious and good to be true, our road was good and Ahmedabad (Ahd) was the target Manor - Surat we faced no trouble and we were able to complete this stretch in 2.5 hrs flat out riding at speeds over 90 kmph. As the sun bid goodbye we dropped our speeds to a 80kmph trying to meet the timelines we were manics behind the wheels, the frustration of the entire day** was being let out on the road, so much so that there was a truck on the highway not letting me pass him even after repleted blinkers....he was enjoying his truck at 40kmph; a bit of opening and i came next to this truck and gave a punch on the door...yes DSG Gloves are good he got a wake up call and chose to ride on the slower second lane..The traffic at Manor wasn't good enough that God had something else planned for us... Manor - Surat almost a nonstop run, we stopped at Surat for a tea break and had a bit of chips for the now growling stomach...spend about 10-15 minutes and decided that we need to cover additional 250 kms to reach Ahmadabad (Ahd) we were pretty certain that at the speed that we were riding we would reach Ahd by midnight, rest and the next morning we ride to Jaisalmer.... So we were back on the roads again..riding on the beautifully done highway and in another 15 minutes (15-18kms) we got another jolt...damn the traffic was even worse this time around..apparently we managed to get into the traffic and negotiate few trucks and jeeps but once we reached the midway we were so badly stuck that we gave up on our Ahd reaching dreams....we reach Vadodara at 11:30 pm So it was Manor - Surat - 150 kms in 2.5 hrs and Surat - Vadodara - 142 kms in 3hrs I was really tired and it had been a while since i was in the cold winds of the night, we went way inside Vadodara city in search of food, asked a couple of cops who were themselves with the bonfire trying to battle the cold, who suggested that we go closer to the railway station where we might find some stalls on the road, I didn't care one bit and rode to the closest place that we could find food...and we were on the road that lead to the station itself..we managed to find the road side stalls who were planning to shut shop....looking at us, they left the Chinese stall open for us... 1Veg Hakka Noodles 1Egg Hakka Noodles 1Veg Manchuria 4 Goldflake Lights 2 Ltr of Mineral Water burppppppp I guess now i was in no condition to ride....and choose sleep over anything, and we reached a place known as Hotel Swagat we didn't hesitate to get invited and the room charges he said Rs. 800/- for a night and we said "Boss we are really tired and in no mood to bargain and i remember you charged me Rs. 500 the last time i came here" for some reason he believed and we were lucky to get a decent room with good bath facilities at Rs. 500/- One problem..we had some company too....nothing to get excited "Mosquito" millions of them.... anyway who cared as i guess we were tired of the entire day and looking forward for a better tomorrow. End of Day 1 - 27th December 2009 All in all the day was good/bad and ugly **frustration of the entire day**
So Satyen Says So: Chapter: The slow riding .... So finally we are super late, super annoyed and time to burn some more clutch plates and pistons\piston rings :P well actually no.... we decided to burn some rubber instead! I don’t know why but when the odds get impossible, I get these pangs to do them come what may (people on FB knowing about the Goa episode, stop grinning) .... So we were adamant that we will be reaching soon, come what may....! We were not sure where we were going. The only thing running on my head was to get somewhere as close as possible so that we get to spend a day at Jaisalmer. PS: The original plan was 24-Pune to Mumbai 25-Mumbai, spend Christmas with my girl! 26-Mumbai to Mount Abu 27- Mt. Abu to Jaisalmer +1 day at each place if its worth it 28/29/30- Jaisalmer to Mt. Abu 29/30/31- Mt. Abu to home! It was just a Jaisalmer and Mount Abu thingy! But God had something else in store for us. We rode flat out, in decent speeds to reach Surat in about 2.5 hours. Time to actually eat something and some tea to keep us awake and give some warmth (and of course nothing beats the warm feeling of watering some ‘water-deprived-shrubs on the road’) The Tea @ Surat was awesome.... just what we needed.... now comes the question... Where are we heading... staying at Surat, going to Baroda, or going to Ahmadabad... The easy cruise to Surat ensure option 1 was never in play.... and we knew riding to Ahmadabad would be insane in the cold!... and both of use being the insane ones, chose to ride to Ahmadabad  Time to roll..... well not really, CM Modi had organised us a big surprise! The stretch from Surat to Baroda had A LOT of people waiting for us....! Before you get weird thoughts, let me clarify... it was just the stupid traffic.... just that this time it was worse! So we began riding battling the odds and before we reached Baroda\Vadodra\or whatever you want to call, we knew it would be 1) too taxing to go to Ahmadabad and 2) we are risking not getting any food by the time when we reach there! So we decided, lets reach Baroda and have something first and then take a call. Somewhere in that night, I lost Anup thanks to a freak jack arse riding behind me and waving at me to stop. I look at him... and by his looks he looked like a thin freak with ‘gujjubhai-hepp-denims’ and a weird jacket. I look at him and ask WHAT? (and the other two polite words in my head) And he asks, where am I coming from, I politely replied Mumbai... and then he asked where am I heading to and I said Rajasthan. Now my new found friend seems to be a bit too anxious and tries to cut my lane... asking me to stop over. A quick glance and I see him gripping a lathi... and then suddenly reaching for it. With the kind of things we had run into so far, I didn’t want to take chances. So I did what most of the riders who have full faith on their bike and gear would do... . . . . . Slide back, crouch down gear and he is soon a spot on the RVM.... Our guy suddenly gets a bit nasty and he is waving his Lathi and coming closer and shouting ‘pleasantries’ and then I spot his jacket which read “Gujarat Police” ......ROFLMAO! I slow down and pull over and get my lid off and am ready to hit back if he hits me.... and the dude starts feeling my saddle bag and asks why did I run! My answer was a polite question asking them what you would do if someone wearing such clothes chases you with a stick! And we laughed. .... (at least I did) Clearly the answer didn’t go too well, and then I added, I have a friend ahead and so wanted to catch him first before we stop.... and that somehow convinced\confused him and he allowed me to go... Once we reach Baroda, apparently that day was some wedding day or something... everywhere we went we could only see weddings, but no sign of food. We tried hunting for a restaurant but didn’t find any... we asked some cops and they directed us to go towards the railway station...but we were too bored and we saw some thellas and stopped there... had some stuff that we call ‘gutter-chinese’ in Mumbai The food was just what I needed to warm myself.... to be honest I got my answer the place is called Baroda and not Vadodra.... which is perhaps why I was muttering Brrr Brrr Brr-oh-dah! So finally decided that going to Ahmadabad means we would not even get a place to stay in this cold so might as well stay there. Anup worked out and dished his “been-there-done-that” attitude with the hotel guy and he agreed for a 500 Rs tariff with a smile. Little did we know that the smile was not for being happy that he got repeat customers, but the smile was for him knowing that no one who has been in that hotel once would come back there again. To be honest the hotel was pretty decent, had decent facilities but it had (and I can assure continue to have) zillions of Mosquitoes. No wonder the hotel guy was amused thinking someone actually came back! We had a good night sleep... (at least Anup did, while I was busy killing some bugs, he was happily scaring them away with dolby pro surround sound snoring )End of day 1... What an eventful day....at least we were out of Maharashtra Day 2 will continue shortly And Anup Says...Continues: Day 2: 28th December 2009: It was morning already and i felt that i had just shut my eyes, thats what is known as a sound sleep and i guess Satyen will vouch for the sound that i make...i got up by 6:30 am with the sound of my cell phone ringing ans Shruti on the other side trying to wake me up...(i think i might have told her to wake me at 5:00 am, doesnt matter) Vadodara - Ahd - 100kms Ahd - Jaisalmer - 595 kms (Approx) All in all i was aware that i need to ride for atleast 750kms and i was up for it, by the time i woke Mr. Sleepy Satyen the clock said 7:00am and i was in no mood to ride fast as it was darn chilly outside and my meager mesh Jacket would help me....so after getting all fresh we left by 7:30 am from the hotel. (by the way Satyen taught the hotel manager how to use the credit card machine) Well after the Gyaan session we loaded the bikes with our stuff and started riding in the chilly climate of the dawn. As you are aware bikes are not allowed on the Expressway so we had to keep our bikes on NH-8 and keep our speeds limit to a 75 - 80kms. Its a open 2 lane highway without a divider in between. Moreover you would find some truckers with a hangover trying to do their own stunts, Men and Women trying to reach their office on time and we didnt want to get in the way of their daily routine so we rode swiftly without causing any trouble it was only after about 30 kms we took our first break (Pee Break) so we clicked some photographs there here are some..(dont worry the photos will get better) Eagerness to see Desert my first click was probably Sand/Field, my mind was seeing only Desert  So Far Away from you - Dire Straits  Satyen trying his hand at Photography  Finally the bikes  The Karizma  Comeon Satyen we are getting late, stop clicking photos....and get over your bike dude...   and so we started riding and we reached Sardar Patel Ring Road, we took the road which would take us to Mehsana, we reached Mehsana by noon and we were on time as planned. Happy with the performance of the bike we decided to keep her running till we reach Palanpur... Strech between Mehsana - Palanpur are pure bliss you could just keep your trottle on and let your bikes go mad, i could only do a max of 120kmph while Satyen was doing 130+ on his bike, couple of blinks and we reach Palanpur Next stop was Disa and as we were going to near Rajasthan we thought we shouldnt take any chances with the petrol pumps and we were noticing that the frequency of the pumps were also reducing hence without taking any risk we chose to tank up, also got us our mineral water this time 4 bottles. once we were done with it we rode and nearing Disa we took a halt at a Dhaba to have some Lunch, we needed it as it was almost 3 pm and our breakfast was only 2 pkts of BALAJI WAFFERS and 2 TEA CUPS Lunch was Rotis - Dal - Chole - AluMutter - Buttermilk - 2 Four Square - Water... was enough energy to last till Jaisalmer. Road Side Dhabas are generally low cost and the bill had not exceeded Rs.150/- From Disa the highway routemap said Tharad but the locals suggested to take the road to Dhanera to reach Sanchor So instead of doing - Disa - Tarad - Sanchor we decided to do Disa - Dhanera - Sanchor which was approx 40-50kms less we rode and entered the village road that lead to Dhanera, we regret taking that road as it was a narrow road with lot of Potholes/badroads my back was giving up and i knew that i had 250kms more to go to reach Jaisalmer and at 5 pm on these roads was not a good sign for us. We road till we reached Sanchor. the narrow road on Disa - Dhanera route  Satyen on his Limited Edition RTR  From Sanchor - Barmer - Jaisalmer Will Continue..... So Satyen Says So:
Day 2 – One Hard Riding Day (28th December 2009) Round and Round So finally Anup woke up at 6:30 and I was half asleep and half awake for the entire night (for you know why) and he went around thinking that I was still asleep I was actually in that ‘doped’ frame of mind when you don’t know whether you are awake or still sleeping (hey thats a song!) and then finally it was time to let go that comfortable chilling room! We wanted to save some cash and use cards wherever possible... but bad luck the Hotel guy didn’t know how to operate one! So here am I doing my ‘job’ teaching him how the payment system works... well actually just how the Machine is supposed to be operated! Finally al the luggage nicely strapped on the bike and time to roll... we were happy that we can still catch up and reach Jaisalmer (700KMs) today as planned and stick to the ‘original’ plan ( I guess we should stop calling it the original plan, cause nothing happened like we planned) So here we were, strutting comfortably on the NH8, avoiding the express highway (God why!) and take a divider-less two lane road with all kind of people on it! Both of us were eager to see sand and now we went over a dry bridge and both looked at each other if we should stop to capture some pics! Well we didn’t, but we did stop on the next bridge.... ‘We contributed our bit to the nature’ and started clicking snaps of our steeds and everything around! First Pic:  Anup trying to click a pic:  Some wannabe wide angle shots  .  Anup trying to understand what the lines in the map mean  Flora and Fauna:  .  .  Birds!  .  Sandy Farm:  Some wannabe macro+fish eye stuff  .  .  Anup still checking the Map  . Some radiation  Some way to beat radiation:  The HOT not really 160CC bike  Where the water finally 'begins to end'  .  Finally after a good quick pic session, time to roll again.... The place around is so serene that you end up forgetting that you have to cover about 700KMs!! Chapter: Fota Fortcut: Next stop was Mehasana...we played the game of ringa ringa roses at the ring rode and ‘found’ the road to Mehsana! At Mehsana we stopped for some breakfast (read some tea and chips again... and a Yummy local chocolate called as “Kesar Penda”) Mehsana to Palanpur needs superbike.... too bad both of us didn’t have em... so we let the throttle open... Playing a game of Cat and mouse.... varying speeds anywhere from 100 to 130 KMPH... and all it took to catch up the ZMA was a flick of the wrist (THANK YOU JOEL!!!!) Time to correct our Disha... we stopped at a dhaaba at Deesa... super awesome food for 125 Rupees only! - About 7-8 rotis, One Dal fry, One Alu Mutter, 4 glasses of butter milk (3 devoured by yours truly) and some cigarettes       As usual, we were gathering a lot of attention, and people where asking if we were sane or otherwise and our destination and all... and we tried to be polite to all! This is where some local truckers and the dhaabawaalahs suggested a shortcut... Instead of Deesa-Tharad-Sanchor... they suggested Deesa-Dhanera-Sanchor-Barmer.... the entire road would have saved is 60 odd KMs.... since we were a decent time behind our schedule and this was just what we needed, we went ahead! Well... Not really a good idea.... bad roads, plagued with occasional camels (yes! at last!) and locals...although the roads were bad, the scenery around was brilliant... I might be biased in saying that, but the sheer sight of sand as far as you can see comes as a HUGE difference to someone who has been born and brought up around the sea! Some pics on how the roads change: This is Deesa:  And this is obviously not...  .  .   Wanna try this?  Err, the parched block of wood Tip: Never keep your camera out when you go to pee Topography changing!  And so slowly and steadily, we went on and on, to reach Sanchor.... with ofcourse some pictures here and there! a LOT more to be continued... (caught up with Anup) And Anup Says So: Ya right Satyen .....i was not around had been for a short trip....and great to know that we are in this Contest....i need some riding gear man..  Sanchor - Barmer - Jaisalmer: We finally managed to finish the bad stretch that we had taken from Disa to reach Sanchor and we were expecting the same highways as we got in Gujrat less did we realize that we had entered Rajasthan. We fueled up at the first petrol pump that we got and we rode fast. Time was short and distance was long, from Sanchor - Barmer - Jaisalmer the distance was approximatly 200 kms and the clock said 6:00 pm. I was in no mood to be real late as the cold winds creep in the evenings/night. Sanchor to Barmer in those roads you will not find many places that you could have your tea/coffee/water, hence as a precaution ensure that you are loaded with everything (We were) We reached Barmer pretty comfortably by 7:00 pm and we knew that the last 150 kms from Barmer to Jaisalmer had to be done in the dark, with the headlights and the visor not upto the mark i had my doubts of being able to ride ahead, so we came out with a nice ride plan. We both ride next to each other so that we get brilliant light cover. I was to keep on the right and Satyen to my left, hence whenever we had any vehicle coming from ahead, i would break and ride behind Satyen for a while and then come back next to him again. The Vehicular traffic was very minimal and it was a calm and pleasent ride to Jaisalmer. We had just 2 breaks in that 150 kms stretch, both the break was for releasing and intake of water. The 2nd break that we took at clost to 8:30 pm we were in some village which was almost desserted but as we could see some huts we just stopped on the main road to have water, i think that was after a really long time that i saw so many stars clearly in the sky, the silence was actually what we pharse as "Pin Drop Silence". The ride from Sanchor - Barmer - Jaisalmer was a brilliant ride and it was so damn cold in Jaisalmer that once we entered Jaisalmer city, we stopped for a cup of tea and i removed my jacket and my Knee guards and i was just shivering with cold, the hot tea fell on my hand and i still couldnt feel the heat for a while; it definitly must have been somewhere close to 10 - 12 C for a guy from the humid Mumbai city this was cold and really cold... We checked with the locals there and most of them were quoting prices upward of 1000Rs/- (most definitly) it was season time (December end) and we had reached Jaisalmer at 10:00 pm (we were in need), anyway we decided to find some low cost accomodation for us and it was after some hunt for 15 minutes that we barged into an autorickshaw driver who took us to Hotel Genwa - pronounciation (Gen - va) i thought it was Geneva as in the city was a bit hillarious though. We cracked a deal for checkout at 3:00 pm next day (29th December 2009) at 1000Rs. Details of the hotel Hotel Genwa Behind Shiv Temple, Nr. Fort Talaria Para, Jaisalmer Ph: 09460007892/09928854733/09660882347 - Mr. Neema Ram Photographs of the Rooms ( We made the room Shabby but it was Decent enough with Hot Water available and Western Toilets) the size of the washroom was frantically small but the size of the bed was big enough for 5 people to sleep in. Next Morning photo - Gateway to the room  Next morning photo - The Room/Bed  Next morning photo - Parking space within the compound  So once we got settled in the Room part, we decided to go for a small spin in search of good Non - Vegetarian food as both of us were craving for Chicken, got ourselves some Wiskey (setting with locals) and had a good meal and went of to a glorious sleep. Things to Note: In Jaisalmer The hotel Check -in and Check-out times are 10:00 am. Never to trust the locals there in for any hotel bookings/reservations (they get their own cut) Plan your travel wisely and always carry (Lonely Planet -India) Wine Shops close at 8:00pm in Rajasthan hence either carry your own booze or reach your destination before 8 pm (so you think we had a dry night!!!)So Satyen Says So: Our first Desert-Sunset Reaching Sanchor was eventful and we were hoping the ride to Barmer to get better! The roads are awesome if you are the off-roading types and the scene of sands and some vegetation around is super brilliant…. We were seeing a lot of camels and peacocks in their natural habitat, roaming around…. too bad we didn’t have enough time to stop anywhere and click snaps as we had a long way to go….. If you are going there anytime again, it might be a good idea to get your timings proper to cover this stretch in decent daylight… and ofcourse remember to stock water and refreshments cause there are absolutely no options, unless you can eat some cactus and shrubs. We stopped at a place to quickly take a sip of water and move on… there it was… our first sunset at the desert! (the only pic from there is on FB) And there he was … Anup doing (what he continued to do throughout the trip)… changing his glasses cause he couldn’t see anything in the fading lights wearing those dark glasses…. (Well actually that is a lie,, he is kinda blind in the evening… … ADMIT IT ANUP!) … This is one time where the Yellow tinted visors are the best…. They cut the glare in the morning to give you a more subtle view and they cut the occasional glare from the vehicles at night as well. In low lights it kinda illuminates the view, giving you a la-night-vision!) So we went on pretty well within our new-revised-not-really-scheduled-plans! We continued the ride: the idea was to reach barmer before the sun light fades completely and so we maintained good speeds….. By now my RTR felt better, thanks to the decent amount of run in and of course the natural air cooling effect…. So we began our cat and mouse game again…. I was riding pretty much in 90-100s not taking any risks, to kill time I started counting 1 to 6 and at every six I would cover 0.1 KM… lol I did that for a while and it was fun…. Well what more could you do when your iPods ear buds begin to hurt! Time to take the left lane and zoom…. And I sped away so that I can gain some distance and get some time to re adjust the ear buds…. While zooming fast, I saw a cage\car coming closer very fast… almost as if it want to talk to me … It didn’t take a lot ot time to ‘spot’ the red cop light on it… and my mind says… WTF! Not again! And this time they had a reason to ask me to pull over… I was speeding (for them)… But hey they were just trying to catch up! And they moved on… and so did i…. I was now behind them for sometime to catch up with Anup! We reached Barmer at about 7ish and it began to get cold …. And when I say cold take that with truck loads of salt… it was really super cold! Slowly the lights disappeared and we now had to do 150KMs in darkness….Luckily for us this was a couple of nights before the full moon so there was some amount of light… This is where Anup gave me some courage (or did he) he spoke about how darth had to return from Sanchor because he took a wrong road, and hit a pothole and had a bend rim and so went back home…. So near, yet so far! Now I really don’t know why Anup said that, was it just the happiness that we have left Sanchor behind or is that ‘elusiveness’ of the Jaisalmer that he wanted to caution me about… or was it his way to letting me know that he slowly going blind :P Actually the reasons don’t matter, what mattered that the way we have gone so far, and its just a matter of some distance to go now we need to be cautious. So we worked out a ride plan… Riding side by side with each other, throwing good light on the road for each other…. Every time a vehicle came from the other side, the person at left would go back and allow the person behind to come ahead, at every turn whoever spots its first will indicate it to the other. Some where close to Jaisalmer, we took a small break to get some more water and of course *cough* …. The choice of place was simple: there were some huts around there in the otherwise scary desert….. That night is something that we would (at least I would) never forget! … Picture this in your head…. Pitch dark, the moon light bouncing of the desert…….. a gazillion stars in the sky….. Absolute pin drop silence! How I wish I could have been there with some ‘better’ company ! :P Nevertheless when it comes to riding, Anup has kinda become my weapon of choice! When it comes to ‘group’ touring….for the simple reason that we have Bluetooth 5.0 in our head which lets each other know what we are thinking (purely in terms of riding on the road) A few shooting stars later and spotting some UFOs (which were actually the MIGs near Jaisalmer) we knew we were getting closer…. Then from far we see a superbly lit awesome fort……Welcome to Jaisalmer…. ! We stopped to get a better view and some tea… and enquired about places around…and getting a lot of those ‘looks’ and occasional ranting of Jai Maharashtra! It didn’t take a lot of time for use to get ‘duped’ read hooked with an autorickshaw guy and get into a place called Genwa…(Hotel details and room pics with Anup)…. We were reasoning as to why the place is called Genwa… only to realise next day that its actually the name of the owners wife…. ROFLMAO! So I guess it would be rude to say we spend the night in Genwa Jokes apart, time to search some food, we found a decent place which looks yuck! But is super awesome taste wise…. And apparently a popular place to dine! Next day… exploring Jaisalmer! __________________ And Anup Says So: JAISALMER Quote:
And so you are letting out a lot of secrets man!!!! but true i wish if someone can help me in sorting this problem out, but dusk i am almost blind, is it just me or does everyone So Jaisalmer finally, i was very happy and exhausted ..eeer i mean exited!!!! Last night Satyen and i spoke a lot and we slept a bit late i guess by 1am...result we got up late. 9:00 am: Anup:"Oye Satyen!! get up its 9:00 and we need to see Jaisalmer and we got just one day lets rush...there are so many things charted out Sonar Killa first" Satyen: Ya i am trying to get up. 9:30: I try to arrange for a soap for a good shower and hair oil. Got it and i am ready by 10 am. 3 cups of hot tea and i am all set, where is Satyen??? Still taking his own time to get ready..so finally we decided that we breakfast and then Sonar Killa (Jaisalmer Fort) Breakfast had to be filling as not only it is the most important meal of the day probably it might be the only during the day We went to a good joint just behind the fort named German Bakery and Coffee Shop and had some really good Sandwich and Bread Omelet enough to last the entire day. 11:00 am: Finally about time to enter the fort and see what its all about. Let the pics do the talking here We have seen scale models of bikes and cars right..check the scale model of a fort  One Side of the fort and the entrance of the fort  Such beautiful and detailed carving and architecture in those times, its simply breathtaking and marvelous. The photos don't even do 1% justice   Some Sculptures   View of the city from the fort  Satyen has better captures and i am sure you"ll will enjoy the photos that he would post Will be continued (Still at office and its 9:21pm) So Satyen Says So: Jaisalmer.... what a place! I seriously don’t have a lot to say…. To sum up Jaisalmer in one line, it’s a photographers (or rather motographers)If you are into landscape photography, or into fine macro photography or just abstract photography.... the street, the structure and everything around is incredible! With sleepy eyes(purely mine) and the evening blind eyes (*cough*) we saw the view from the hotel..... the place where we would be heading to!  And ofcourse our bikes which will take us there.... now carefully parked at the Hotel veranda  A view from up closer near the market!    Our bikes parked inside, like probably the prince and the kings would park their steeds… err more to come!  Since the fort is huge, we decided to take a ride along its periphery and that only gave more and more options for the shutterbug in us to go crazy!  The Main gate! Notice the performers there!   So we parked the bikes and moved on.... little did we realize that you could take the bike further! but on second thoughts it was probably to leave it here! Have a look at the gate!  We decided that this is probably the apt time to have something before we explore the place! So we snooped around and found a place called German Bakery.... (this is where Anup wrote a 'Hi' from me on the Mumbai G2G thread!) A few sandwitches, some coffee later... time to roll! This was one of the rides where we were pretty focused that we would make the most of the trip and learn and explore the place, rather than doing a quick cross country race   Some smart, handsome, dashing tourist  The wall....  This is where the story ends for now!... moving to a better cyber cafe where the keyboard and the monitor is a bit more pleasing to use! Edit: Didnt find a cafe, went to the Pune G2G instead... paradise! I mean seriously the structure, in that bright golden sandstone is super fabulous! Calling it anything other than magnificent (or its superlative versions) would be an understatement! Last edited by Anup Abraham; 01-30-2010 at 11:19 PM. |
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01-15-2010, 02:23 PM
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#3 (permalink) |
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Sports CommuTOURer
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: On road
Posts: 6,468
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Twist and Turns and their tell tale Trip log coming up soon
Edit: Reserved for Trip log This is where my updates will come and then Anup will paste them on the first post to make it convenient to someone wanting to read and know more... (hope it does) Click below for more Satyen Says... Jaisalmer continued... and Anup continues about Jaisalmer! and I say.. the Plan grows bigger Anup says about Jodhpur And I continue about Jodhpur
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Super CommuTOURer™ - Talk less, Ride more .: Facebook :.|.: iTweet :.|*Do Not Click!*|I follow PowerToTheRider:. #Give thy opinion, write em, dont throw em #Everyone errs, accept it, defending/cribbing about it only makes it worse #Dont defend a manufacturer as if you work for them #Write. Think. If relevant hit submit. If not hit yourself #Be kind in your choice of words, you never know who would make you gulp em ™ Satyen Poojary Last edited by satyenpoojary; 02-19-2010 at 01:42 PM. Reason: Linky |
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01-15-2010, 02:24 PM
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#5 (permalink) |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: New Delhi/ Shillong
Posts: 18,274
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This sure seems interesting. Bring the log and the photographs Anup.
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...in search of that perfect world - My Travel Blog :) |
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01-15-2010, 02:33 PM
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#6 (permalink) |
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HardRider
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: New Mumbai
Posts: 2,009
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Am waiting.. I think my boring day is going to get spiced up...!!
My eyes are bulging out on the xTracker..
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 ..»».. I will rather ride my Bike thinking about God, then sitting in a Temple thinking about my Bike.. »».. Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai June '09 :On xBHP: Ride With me to Leh Blog : Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai : 21 Days, 6500kms. Journey to Heaven..June'09 GreatIndianRide - West India on a 110cc for over a month 2nd, Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai : July'11 (blog coming soon) |
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01-15-2010, 03:09 PM
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#8 (permalink) | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Keeps on changing
Posts: 473
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Quote:
I am not the writing types, hence not going to post more....Satyen shall do the rest.... Rachit, DK, Aryan sorry brother you all probably got to wait... Satyen post the log..i am going for a ride tomorrow and will be back only after the weekend probably
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Anup Abraham |
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01-15-2010, 03:15 PM
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#9 (permalink) | |
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HardRider
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: New Mumbai
Posts: 2,009
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Quote:
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..»».. I will rather ride my Bike thinking about God, then sitting in a Temple thinking about my Bike.. »».. Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai June '09 :On xBHP: Ride With me to Leh Blog : Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai : 21 Days, 6500kms. Journey to Heaven..June'09 GreatIndianRide - West India on a 110cc for over a month 2nd, Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai : July'11 (blog coming soon) |
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01-15-2010, 03:17 PM
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#10 (permalink) | ||||
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Sports CommuTOURer
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: On road
Posts: 6,468
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update 1:
Quote:
Quote:
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We will work up a good log! rest assured, we promised each other about it!
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Super CommuTOURer™ - Talk less, Ride more .: Facebook :.|.: iTweet :.|*Do Not Click!*|I follow PowerToTheRider:. #Give thy opinion, write em, dont throw em #Everyone errs, accept it, defending/cribbing about it only makes it worse #Dont defend a manufacturer as if you work for them #Write. Think. If relevant hit submit. If not hit yourself #Be kind in your choice of words, you never know who would make you gulp em ™ Satyen Poojary |
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