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A visit to the Tibetan Golden Monastery and Kaveri Nisargadhama at Kushalnagara, Coorg, Karnataka on Saturday.
Yeah.... That's what it was, my second long ride on my 4 month old RTR180 aka White Beast. I previously did a Bangalore-Mysore-Chamundi Hills-Ranganthittu-Bangalore semi-solo :P ride covering a distance of 390 kms in 12 hrs. That was my first long ride and hence got super confident that i can do more!
It all started in my mind when I went on a tour of Madikeri along with my friends back in January in a car. We reached Kushalanagar late and hence couldn't visit the Monastery. It had been many years since I saw the Golden Buddha and I was awestruck when i visited the last time. I just had to see it again! I decided, this time, Kushalnagar needs a visit on a bike. I called up couple of friends but there were busy. So got a reason to do a solo ride. But again I was skeptic and confused whether to really attempt it or not. Finally, not giving it much of a thought, got mentally prepared. As it was a last minute decision of mine, I didn't post it here. I get a call from my friend Abhisek at 11PM saying he wants to join too. I was more than happy. So briefed him about the necessary stuff to get and informed him that we would meet at Jayanagar Central at 5 AM !
I couldnt sleep properly coz of the excitement and woke up at 4 AM and got ready. Abhishek called up and informed that his roommate Anoop would be joining too as his pillion/backup rider. We finally started at 5:30 and took the NICE road (irritatingly bumpy stretch
). We took a long chai break at Bidadi and ate Masala dosa (which arrived after a lot of waiting) and Idli-vada at "Lotus" Adigas at Maddur. Anoop desperately wanted some snaps and so we stopped at a nice green farmlands by the road and clicked some clicks.
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We reached Mysore at around 9:30 and took the Ring Road to reach the Hunsur road. The Mys ring road is under construction and has bad patches every few metres. Once that's overtook, the roads eases to become a small yet smooth one all the way! After riding for around 40 more kms from Mys, we took a small back-stretch break as Abhishek and Anoop weren't used for long continuous riding!
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Once our backs were straight, we started again and reached Kushalnagar at around 11:15. We parked our bikes and searched for a tap badly needed face wash. But found none. Finally had to manage with a water hose that a gardener was using .:P
Some pics of the Monastery...
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All freshened up, we enter the monastery and the 3 huge golden statues welcome us with their beauty ! I'm all praise for it every time i see them...They appear so peaceful! If only there weren't so many people in the monastery destroying the peace
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.
We sat there for around 30 minutes and I clicked a lot of photos as always. Now the stomachs started sounding and it was time for our lunch. As soon as we stepped out, the fresh ripe yellow Jackfruits. which happens to be my fav, tempted me and I just had to buy pieces
. We inquired with the guy and he said the food aint so great and is spice-less at the restaurants nearby and advised us to have lunch at the Kushalnagar town itself. And so we did. The food was tasty. Once our stomachs filled, we were back onto the bikes and on the way to Kaveri Nisargadhama. I had missed this on too during my other visits to coorg. Again the roads were inviting and I went all throttle-out on my Apache.
.
.
The Nisargadhama was filled with people (May being a Vacation time). But the view from the Hanging bridge was a delight! A narrow stream of water surrounded by lush green trees.
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.
.
Once inside, The bamboo trees and the tree house were really pleasant. Me and Anoop did not even want to get down from the tree house !
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.
.
.
I had read that it was an island formed by the river. I was rather surprised by the size of the "island" :P. We decided to walk around the "island" and came across some cute deers and the one-tuskered elephant !
.
.
.
Next we came across the place where the river is very shallow so that u can literally sit on the river bed ! But we couldn't get into it since we did not get spare clothes(damn!!) and also the thought of 220-odd kms of return ride make us skip the idea of a bath! So there was just some posing done. Since there were no "birds" in sight, we did not spend much time by the river-side and started our walk back to our bikes.
.
.
.
.
We started our return ride at 2 PM and aimed at reaching Bangalore before dusk as both did want to ride in the dark when tired! We stopped for a tea break only after reaching the Mysore-Bangalore road. Once done, we decided to ride non-stop to Bangalore. We reached the NICE road by 6 PM, entered the Bannerghata Road and took me 1 Hour of pain to reach my room.
Once I reached my room, saw the Trip meter and it showed 512 kms. A wide grin came across my face. It was the longest I had ridden in a day...512kms in 13 hrs... My(our) small achievement... One thing occurred to my mind.... "Am I ready to do a SaddleSore??" and the answer was "Naaaahhhh.... not yet!" 
Yeah.... That's what it was, my second long ride on my 4 month old RTR180 aka White Beast. I previously did a Bangalore-Mysore-Chamundi Hills-Ranganthittu-Bangalore semi-solo :P ride covering a distance of 390 kms in 12 hrs. That was my first long ride and hence got super confident that i can do more!
It all started in my mind when I went on a tour of Madikeri along with my friends back in January in a car. We reached Kushalanagar late and hence couldn't visit the Monastery. It had been many years since I saw the Golden Buddha and I was awestruck when i visited the last time. I just had to see it again! I decided, this time, Kushalnagar needs a visit on a bike. I called up couple of friends but there were busy. So got a reason to do a solo ride. But again I was skeptic and confused whether to really attempt it or not. Finally, not giving it much of a thought, got mentally prepared. As it was a last minute decision of mine, I didn't post it here. I get a call from my friend Abhisek at 11PM saying he wants to join too. I was more than happy. So briefed him about the necessary stuff to get and informed him that we would meet at Jayanagar Central at 5 AM !
I couldnt sleep properly coz of the excitement and woke up at 4 AM and got ready. Abhishek called up and informed that his roommate Anoop would be joining too as his pillion/backup rider. We finally started at 5:30 and took the NICE road (irritatingly bumpy stretch
). We took a long chai break at Bidadi and ate Masala dosa (which arrived after a lot of waiting) and Idli-vada at "Lotus" Adigas at Maddur. Anoop desperately wanted some snaps and so we stopped at a nice green farmlands by the road and clicked some clicks..
.
.
.
We reached Mysore at around 9:30 and took the Ring Road to reach the Hunsur road. The Mys ring road is under construction and has bad patches every few metres. Once that's overtook, the roads eases to become a small yet smooth one all the way! After riding for around 40 more kms from Mys, we took a small back-stretch break as Abhishek and Anoop weren't used for long continuous riding!
.
.
.
Once our backs were straight, we started again and reached Kushalnagar at around 11:15. We parked our bikes and searched for a tap badly needed face wash. But found none. Finally had to manage with a water hose that a gardener was using .:P
Some pics of the Monastery...
.
.
All freshened up, we enter the monastery and the 3 huge golden statues welcome us with their beauty ! I'm all praise for it every time i see them...They appear so peaceful! If only there weren't so many people in the monastery destroying the peace
.
.
.
.
.
We sat there for around 30 minutes and I clicked a lot of photos as always. Now the stomachs started sounding and it was time for our lunch. As soon as we stepped out, the fresh ripe yellow Jackfruits. which happens to be my fav, tempted me and I just had to buy pieces
. We inquired with the guy and he said the food aint so great and is spice-less at the restaurants nearby and advised us to have lunch at the Kushalnagar town itself. And so we did. The food was tasty. Once our stomachs filled, we were back onto the bikes and on the way to Kaveri Nisargadhama. I had missed this on too during my other visits to coorg. Again the roads were inviting and I went all throttle-out on my Apache..
.
The Nisargadhama was filled with people (May being a Vacation time). But the view from the Hanging bridge was a delight! A narrow stream of water surrounded by lush green trees.
.
.
.
Once inside, The bamboo trees and the tree house were really pleasant. Me and Anoop did not even want to get down from the tree house
!.
.
.
.
I had read that it was an island formed by the river. I was rather surprised by the size of the "island" :P. We decided to walk around the "island" and came across some cute deers and the one-tuskered elephant !
.
.
.
Next we came across the place where the river is very shallow so that u can literally sit on the river bed ! But we couldn't get into it since we did not get spare clothes(damn!!) and also the thought of 220-odd kms of return ride make us skip the idea of a bath! So there was just some posing done. Since there were no "birds" in sight, we did not spend much time by the river-side and started our walk back to our bikes.
.
.
.
.
We started our return ride at 2 PM and aimed at reaching Bangalore before dusk as both did want to ride in the dark when tired! We stopped for a tea break only after reaching the Mysore-Bangalore road. Once done, we decided to ride non-stop to Bangalore. We reached the NICE road by 6 PM, entered the Bannerghata Road and took me 1 Hour of pain to reach my room.
Once I reached my room, saw the Trip meter and it showed 512 kms. A wide grin came across my face
. It was the longest I had ridden in a day...512kms in 13 hrs... My(our) small achievement... One thing occurred to my mind.... "Am I ready to do a SaddleSore??" and the answer was "Naaaahhhh.... not yet!"
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