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**daredemon** · 04-22-2011, 06:38 AM

Hey Animeher,

Just waiting for your entire trip log maan.
I know it will be worth reading. All the best with your waiting with Xbhp.
I think i might know what it might be, but anyways ALL THE BEST!!!

Dude i am so jealous of you. Your better half understands your love for riding and she accompanies you as well.

I can't get my better half to get convinced. But atleast she understands
my passion for riding.

**animeher** · 05-12-2011, 09:44 PM

Guys, I am here

The other thing was not workable due to my inability to allocate fixed time. So here I am, presenting the triplog.

One request to all readers. This travelogue is mainly about the adventure we had on this journey, and not just a trip information. I started writing about it, and the words kept on flowing before I realized it is growing quite big. Therefore, be prepared to read up a lot! if you find something boring or mis-represented, feel free to PM me. If you like it, do share it with friends!

**animeher** · 05-12-2011, 09:52 PM

**daredemon** · 05-13-2011, 06:17 AM

Wow,
Nice writeup of your experience. Waiting for the pics and rest of the log

**JOSH5898** · 05-13-2011, 03:52 PM

very well penned down... awaiting some fantastic pictures just like the write up.

cheers
josh.

**animeher** · 05-14-2011, 11:45 PM

Escaping chaos

While on Rajasthan tour, I had played it safe and booked hotels for each and every stop beforehand. While this greatly helped in avoiding anxiety of finding hotels after a long ride, it put pressure on us to reach the destination no matter what. We once road 470kms a day to reach Udaipur because our hotel was already booked and paid for. Had it not been the case, we would have definitely stayed much earlier, and continued the journey on next day. Learning from this lesson, we didn’t book any hotels on this trip. Not only because this was off season, as all parents were busy preparing for their kids’ final exams, but also we had own transport and could hunt for hotels easily, should the need arise. And this strategy greatly helped us maintain flexibility on the itinerary. Thus booking the hotels was not on the list. But the other things that needed attention were not getting either.

There was no free weekend for us to tidy up things, or to dedicatedly work towards the planning of trip. We had to steal little time each day towards the trip. The days turned into minutes, and went by at full speed. Each night we would say to each other:

‘We should pack soon…’

‘We should be packed by this weekend.’

‘Let’s start at least putting stuff together.’

‘Hell, can we just buy clothes there and throw them away after use?’
‘No.’

While our petty packing was taking its own sweet time, another drama was setting up nicely, and popped up bang in front of us, knocking us cold. On this trip, the big things were playing nicely, and never troubled us. But the small tiny things were in full swing, and each fought nicely and gave us black eye. For example, license, RC book and PUC. Three extremely small things in terms size, and at the same time the most important documents for an interstate motorcycle ride. (Insurance document is another, but it was found easily.)

Just a week prior to the ride, we both cleared our car driving test. The RTO took both of our licenses for appending them for car driving. A day before our train would leave, suddenly a question hit us: I don’t have any identity card anymore. Pan card was missing, License was with RTO. What if a policeman stops and asks for ID? What if the bike is picked up from some No Parking zone in Kerala, and we need at least one of our licenses?! Damn it!

Now, my residential address in Mumbai, and currently we are in Pune. The license was at RTO Mumbai. To add twist to the tale, mine being an old license, it was taking time to prepare and only Nandinee’s license was ready. But something was better that bilkul nothing. After a huge deal of arranging and indefinite number of calls, the license was delivered to Pune by our very own state transport driver, and we rode using Nandinee’s license only!

Next came the RC book. For transporting your bike using Railways, RC book is utmost important. As expected, it chose to hide from us right till the last day. And it being so tiny, finding it in a house full of random stuff is a job perfect for someone testing the limits of their patience. I severely failed in my patience test, and ended up in upending (hey… nice rhyme!) the house. After bearing enough of my drama, Nandinee finally couldn’t take it anymore, and threw me out to search in my office drawers. There it was, that tiny white bastard, hidden deep in some random envelop. That was a major bummer of that day.

Lastly, the PUC certificate. I could bet my tiny savings so far, that I made one hardly a week ago. But that yellow chit refused to come out of its hiding spot. But unlike RC book, it could have alternatives, and I had to make a new one just before submitting the bike to Railways, to avoid any trouble in Kerala. After returning, of course, the old one popped itself out on the desk. Damn these little things bugged us to death.

Our train was on Saturday, leaving at 11.10 PM. We submitted our bike to Pune station luggage office at about 8.30 PM. In Mumbai, there is an unbelievable & unbearable nexus of agents that you have to fight through. Here the job is done by Railway Babus themselves! Rs.300 over and above the bike’s ticket covers the packing and booking of the bike without any hassles. What about loading it in train? – hey, that costs extra!

At 11.00 PM, we were in a Rickshaw cheering up the driver to ride faster, keeping an eye on the watch that suddenly seemed running twice at fast, carrying a number of bags that seemed unearthly for only two persons. The jackets and knee-guards and helmets, while necessary on bike, took a great amount of space when not worn. Until we actually put everything on the bike to start the tour, I couldn’t believe we could carry all this stuff and ride too!

At 11.10 PM, luggage thrown on our seats in the train, my heart beating in its upper range - having to run the length of the platform and back to check the proper loading of bike, and wide smiles on our faces, we left Pune. Riding or no riding, it was the longest tour we have ever taken. Next 15 days were ours. No calls to take, no assignments to complete, no deadlines to meet, just me, Nandinee and Vesta.

**ketan_r15** · 05-15-2011, 12:55 AM

Aah, A beautiful thread after long time. Glued to this thread. Keep it coming. And thanks for sharing your experience with us.

**animeher** · 05-16-2011, 01:28 PM

Thanks Ketan, hope you like the next additions too. There are lots to come

**animeher** · 05-16-2011, 01:34 PM

Vanakkam - Day 1

The train journey was uneventful, as most of my memories consist of sleeping only. The train was kept very clean, with periodic cleaning and spraying of air freshener. After many days, we were left to ourselves, as most of the times the mobile was out of range. I can definitely recommend this train for Pune persons going to Kerala as a good way to travel.

We arrived at Ernakulam Junction at 4.20 AM. Here I faced our main problem that would trouble us for our entire stay in Kerala – language barrier. Kerala is the state with highest literacy rate, however Malyalam language rules here. Especially among the lower service class, communicating in any other language is quite difficult. One has to resort to dumb charades and at sometimes even to paper and pen to draw up objects.

The porters at the station rolled my bike towards the exit and parked it there. I waited a while, and seeing that no further action was being taken, merrily rolled the bike outside of the station by myself. Suddenly a mob of porters came running after me and started hurling some unrecognizable sentences. Finally someone remembered some common words, and communicated that I need to take a signature of police there before taking out the bike, otherwise it would be as if I stole it! Again I rolled the 150 KG Vesta back to station, and huffing and puffing, started looking for that police constable. He proved to be more elusive than God almighty himself. The language barrier was not helping either. Nothing to do there except to sit and wait for the police maharaj. A wild idea popped up, that maybe I should throw a stone at some window, that will get some attention and attendance of the police, but fortunately, sanity prevailed. Later, we found out that one of the senior policemen was leaving by an early morning train, and most of the police force at the station was gone to see him off! I hoped it was a teary good bye, because sure as hell it took its own sweet time. Finally, at 6.30 AM, that police arrived and signed the sacred receipt, and blessed me towards my journey!

The stop of the day was Alapuzha, AKA Aleppy. It is about 55-60 kms from Ernakulam, hardly a 1-1.5 hours ride. That too, we rode at early morning, and thus the roads were empty. The first impression of Kerala was ‘green’. For Rajasthan, that impression was ‘yellow’, yellow golden sands, yellowish white clothes, stone structures, Rajasthan was draped in shades of grand Yellow. Here, green colour was sneaking in every scene, everywhere you look. And this observation was repeated many times in the journey.

At least in the early morning ride, I liked Ernakulam. Beautiful lake face buildings, nice marked roads, a proper city that is not yet as out of its natural touch as Pune – Mumbai. We reached Aleppy soon, and after a brief search, found a reasonable hotel to park ourselves.

Aleppy is a town that is mainly built around two canals. It is very famous for backwater boating. Aleppy is a major port for tourist backwater rides as well as local ferries. When they say Kerala is a tourist state, they actually mean that the state government will milk the tourist to the last drop. Almost for every ride, we found that private operators offered same services at much better prices than government rides, and local shops sold the same stuff as the government shops at 50% discount, if not more. However, the tourist information centers everywhere are quite helpful. We found the hotel by ourselves, but later felt that consulting the Tourist Information Center first before finalizing our hotel would have helped us.

After checking in a ‘Om Shanti Lodge’, we started out to roam the town. Aleppy is a small town really, and with a bike, one can cover it very quickly. There was a saw mill – a wood cutting company operating nearby. The woods sure made some interesting photo sights. I would have loved to understand the process a little better, but language barrier made sure this didn’t happen.

We headed to the tourist center after having a not so good breakfast. We wanted to book some boat ride, and also get some information about the town’s tourist points. There are various back water rides of boats that one can take. There are mainly two types, short ones covering a quick visit to Vembenad lake, and long full day ones taking you from Aleppy to somewhere else. But here too, ‘tourist’ is a losing word. Consider this: Aleppy to Kottayam tourist boat takes full day, includes a meal on board, and costs Rs.800 per person. Same route, local boat takes 2 hours, apparently goes through more beautiful way and costs Rs.24.

We booked a short duration boat, called ‘sunset ride’. It cost us some Rs.300 p.p. A 4 hour boat ride that would ride through scenic backwater, giving you glimpse of the life of people living in nearby villages. Or so they say. But more on that later.

A note for groups: Private boats ferry the same route for 300rs per hour for maximum 5 people. If it is a machine boat, then prefer that option over the government boat one, as it is more compact, perhaps faster, and you will have privacy of your group. Select a boat with a cover for your head; otherwise you will turn up all roasted up in the sun at the end of the ride.

We got ourselves a nice map of Aleppy, and headed to Beach View point. It was unbelievably hot already, and only a nut head can go to beach at that time, that too on motorcycle. We being the ones complied. The small roads twist and turn sharply around canals, and sooner than you know, you are riding besides the sea. Even though it is hot, it sure made a good spot for a quick photo shoot.

There was this View point specially developed by the local authority. It looks outstanding, especially from the point where you get down the gate of the location.

But all is not well, and this is the same canal shot while standing on a bridge on opposite side of the view point.

While roaming around, we noticed there are many coir shops around. We ventured into one really shabby looking one. Turned out it was a front end to a much posh factory. Unluckily, they didn’t have the shipping option to Mumbai or Pune. There could be other companies that may ship to other cities, but we didn’t check. This is one thing that we pushed on to later, and much to our chagrin didn’t find similar shops anywhere else. The prices were good, and anyone going to Aleppy/Ernakulam can have coir product shopping on their list. Only be wary of government shops, they are there to fleece you.

We searched for a good hotel for a while, and settled for an appearance wise acceptable one. When you travel with a lady, meals break as well as nature breaks need to be planned well. There is this level of acceptance which is way above yours, and anything below that level is flatly rejected. When I used to roam alone before marriage, I never remember scouting for hotels for meals was part of any agenda. If the hotel had a stove, it would be good enough for me. Sigh, not anymore! Here we noted that in lunch time, good amount of ladies-only groups would come. Also, many women too were happily having lunch alone. Such sight is rare in the cities I hail from, and it felt good to see the self reliance of Kerala women.

After the lunch constituted by mainly rice and rice products, we dashed to the area ahead of our hotel, to see this side of the Aleppy town. Turned out that there were many hotels just ahead, and are uniformly spread till the area where land meets the lake. There are many Massage clinics, and some looked definitely dicey.

We rushed back to the boat jetty, in order to arrive in time for the ‘Sunset ride’. There were about 10 people already booked for the ride, few being foreigners. When we were told to enter the boat and be seated, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. Without having anyone to tell so, the Indians sat on one side, and foreigners on the other. As if by natural selection, the birds flocked to their respective places!

About the boat ride, well don’t have too high hopes for it. The boat runs at the lowest rpm possible. So a constant dug-dug-dug-dug of diesel engines filled our ears. It was my third visit to Kerala, and this one was after a gap of 6 years. This year, I felt that the back water ride is somehow losing its charm. There are so many boats prodding the backwaters around Aleppy, it is difficult to frame a shot without one creeping in the scene! Add to that a huge infestation of water hyacinth. It was there previously as well, but somehow I felt this time they were more omnipresent than ever. All the diesel boats constantly riding in the water, it’s hard to believe that the waters would be non-polluted. Sure we rode through all the bullet points on the brochure, and sure it was different from our normal life, the magic touch that I used to feel was not felt. Maybe beause I was used to it, or maybe because something was overseen in pursuit of money.

A few pics of the boat ride:

Farming below sea level

We reached back at around 6.30, and rode fast to the beach in hope to catch last rays of sun. Sun was gone before we could point our camera towards it, but the light was wonderful. In photography terms, the time of half hour before sunrise and half hour after sunset is called magic time, because of the quality of light present naturally. Being a Sunny man myself, I haven’t had gotten around first experience many times. But the later is experienced many times, and this day too was no exception.

It was a soothing experience to sit at the beach and chat our hearts out. Mobiles switched off, no deadlines to adhere to, no reporting to anywhere, it was a great cooling down that we looked forward so much towards. We left after it was half dark, in order to be at the right side of safe Vs sorry.

We had dinner at Lonely planet suggested hotel – Hot Kitchen. It’s name is changed now, and they display both the names on the hoarding, understandably to lure the people like us who come looking for old name. It’s a good hotel; one can definitely visit for a meal or two in Aleppy.

Back at hotel, while lying on the bed, reflecting on the events of the day, the day started rolling like a fast forwarded movie on old VHS tape. As for the riding, buses and autos are licenced to kill, just as Pune. One can never be too safe to be alert. The highway is really too crowded, and being a two lane rushed road with no dividers in between, it was no surprise that bikers were among the least priorities of the bigger vehicles’ drivers. The persons we interacted with were nice but came across as aggressive. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made me feel so, but more caution while riding on highway, and more flexibility while interacting with people, were the two lessons for pondering. The night was filled with dreams of riding on motorcycle through the water hyacinth filled canals!

**aargee** · 05-16-2011, 01:43 PM

Watermark, Watermark, Watermark your pictures Animeher. Never knew KL is so beautiful. Is it your lens or the person behind the lens? The sunset pic is simply superb & mind blowing shot & so are most others. Keep going & pls stop the EMI flow

**Only Amit...** · 05-16-2011, 02:04 PM

Amazing thread...another breath taking trip from the mighty couple

Am glued !!!
I wanna get married too

**princesirohi** · 05-16-2011, 02:27 PM

really nice one........

Originally posted by Only Amit... View Post

Amazing thread...another breath taking trip from the mighty couple

Am glued !!!
I wanna get married too

just getting married is not enough............

your wife should be ready to sit for hours as pillion and basically think that biking is fun..................

**satyajitrc** · 05-16-2011, 02:43 PM

Originally posted by princesirohi View Post

really nice one........

just getting married is not enough............

your wife should be ready to sit for hours as pillion and basically think that biking is fun..................

PRINCE,
Well said DUDE!!!

ANIRUDDHA,
Meanwhile I am also planning a weekend Trip with my Wife to a coastal city in West Bengal this month end.
This will be First Tour in my Life & that too with my partner.

But probably I am afraid to put the Travelogue here.
Since this one is exceptionally good with fantastic Photographs.

**princesirohi** · 05-16-2011, 03:00 PM

don't worry mate ..............................just go ahead, if you are worried about your quality of photography, just have a look at my ashtavinayak thread and my pics.

.

and biking is not about posting award winning travalogues and pictures, it is about having fun.

**Only Amit...** · 05-16-2011, 03:12 PM

Originally posted by princesirohi View Post

...and biking is not about posting award winning travalogues and pictures, it is about having fun.

Sorry for OT:
Very well said...Go ahead Satyajit !!!

Originally posted by princesirohi

just getting married is not enough............

your wife should be ready to sit for hours as pillion and basically think that biking is fun..................

Thats the first cliteria otherwise,there is always a option to BRAINWASHH

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Vesta tours and travels: Reboot life - Kerala - Kanyakumari - Kodaikanal Couple tour

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