Thread approved

The teaser looks good, waiting for more details.

Pics are processed very dark; could've been little lighter

Thanks for the approval , will be posting details soon in parts since my college has begun and cant write it all up in a single post !!

Point taken bro, but again i wanted it to be a little dark to get that cloudy atmosphere !!!!

Krish. Looks like a nice start to a life long passion & waiting for more pics!

I can fully understand the 'convincing the parents part'. At your stage of life, I had 2 problems- The big one convincing my parents and the small one well.....I didn't have & couldn't afford a bike

Wish you many more trips and ride safe.

Thaks sir, glad you liked it,i too hope that i can do many more trips in the future.
I have read your trip logs its been really great to read !!
Ill be posting the next part of the log soon.

Biking and photography seem to go hand in hand!

Congrats on your trip and the many more that'll come.. Ride safe and comfortably and you'll enjoy every bit of it..

These are memories you'll cherish throughout your life (big words coming from a 21yo )

Truely said bro.

Thanks bro, really appreciate it..!

As said in the above posts. With much convincing,explanation,promises and sacrifices i had got the green signal to proceed for the trip. So now started the planning phase. I had many questions in my mind on how to plan the trip, having never attempted a solo trip before i had to pretty much start from scratch.

Having read a lot of threads about touring from here it did make my job easy. So now that permission was granted and with the confidence that all i need can be found from Xbhp i went on to decide a place to travel to,Alappuzha was chosen as it was a beautiful place,have wanted to visit for some time and my uncle worked there,so had a place to stay over for the day. So it all added up and i chose alappuzha for my trip.

Now that the place was fixed i had to make myself to be aware of the route to get there. For which Google maps came to the rescue. Just typed in the starting point and destination and i chose the most appropriate from the 3 proposed route.
The route that i chose was Pattambi-Alappuzha(via Kunnamkulam,Trichur)



2 more days left for the trip, now that the route was fixed,had to take care of the rest of the jobs like preparing the bike and packing my stuffs for the trip.Now for getting the bike ready, almost all was done in the recent service,now all i had to do was wash the bike,fill the tank,check the tyre pressure and chain free play and it would be up and ready for the ride. I was also very much helped by my fellow Xbhp members with important tips and suggestions which really did help me have a wonderful trip.

Now the part of packing for the trip, it is very important that we must have an complete idea of what we are going to do all throughout the trip and plan accordingly, we must be careful not to over pack for the trip as it might become a burden for us during the trip and might as well spoil the trip. Also make it a point to charge your cameras,phones to full battery before you leave for the trip and to keep the charger with you just in case it drains out earlier than you need it to.So here is the list of the items i had packed
1.Phone-charged and topped up
2.Camera-charged
3.Plastic covers-(lots of them,just in case)
4.Rain coat
5.Riding jacket
6.2 pairs of dress
7.Gloves
At first i had over packed but then changed my mind and packed efficiently ! I believe it made my trip better.

Now the wait was on 2 days. I was just not having anything enough interesting else to do,just was literally excited about going on the trip, i used to go to the garage and check out the bike just for wasing my nerve,and took some photos too.hehe... That night i was quite sleep deprived, was anticipating different conditions,it hadnt rained for 3 days at a row and that night it started raining , so was a bit tensed. It rained till morning, parents were slowly trying to change my decision talking about the rains, i stood firm in my stance and said that it was not possible to change the trip now.Somehow managed to pass that day on, but it was very slow.

The two bikes: Pulsar 220 & Yamaha Crux-R




Now only one night was remaining and then i would be on the road travelling for 2 days, that thought made me very happy. Somewhere deep down i started to realize that i am a tourer by heart, at least that's what i think though i have very few tours under my belt,this is only my 2nd,but hey isn't this how you get started.And as i went to bed was all excited, and just as i expected was sleepless. So after short naps of about one hour duration i would again wake up, finally at 2am logged on the internet and updated my status in facebook and just surfed the net for sometime and by 3.30am went to sleep again.

The alarm rang at 4.30am. Boy oh boy it was for the first time in the world sweet to hear. I instantly woke up,washed my face,brushed ,bathed and changed dress and got ready. Then i heck my watch, "Oh Shit,its just 5.10. Still have 50mins to kill before i go." So i reachecked my bag,made sure i had all the papers,liscense and stuff. And drank a cup of coffee just to keep the sleep off.And it worked. At about 5.45 got out of the house,my parents follwoed me and gave me a lots of last minute advises , i acknowldged it all and got ready to start my trip.

My first pic of the trip was just as soon as i turned the ignition key.Then i just let the engine idle for about 2-3 minutes and i started my journey.
Here is the first pic of the journey




So I took the bike outside my house compound and made my first stop was about 200m from my house, stopped at the temple to get the blessings from GOD and took a pic from in front of the temple,you can see that im very excited as i have just started my journey and covered 200meters and have already clicked some pics.

At the temple :



Then i went on to start my travel. I had decided to take my time and go slow as the estimated time to reach Alappuzha was about 3.5 hours and i dint mind even if it was going to take me 4-5 hours.I was in no hurry. And i also wanted to have a lot of photos to take,lots of ideas in my mind. So i went on and traveled about 7kms and made an stop at the Pattambi bridge, where the Bharathapuzha runs along. Clicked a few picture from there and set on,made a mental note that my next stop will be at Kunnamkulam.

The Bharathapuzha flowing beneath Pattambi bridge








And i carried on and as i was riding i could see dark clouds making their presence more dominant in the sky, i prepared my mind to ride in the rains and rode along expecting it to pour down any moment. And after 20-25kms and 45 min later i took an break for myself. This time as i planned stopped at Kunnamkulam at a place just entering the Trichur highway.

Kunnamkulam-Trichur Highway



After about 10 min break i continued just before reaching Trichur stopped at an beautiful place for some snaps and continued. From there on i continued riding for about an hour and stopped only after entering and reaching a few kilometers into the Cochin highway

The Highway



From the other side:



Resting the Machine



KSRTC



Dark



The mean machine:



After a few snaps and 10min later i set on again. This time i decided to increase the time to the next stop and rode on, as i mentioned earlier the dark clouds was still looming ahead of me but it dint rain, i guess the rain Gods were with me today. The riding was just beautiful, I totally fell in love with my machine all over again, now i can say with full confidence , this machine is made for the highways. The ride was stable and showed nice performance and i was averaging a speed of about 80-90 with occasional 3 digit speeds being registered, i was also cautious as the Interceptor people can be hiding anywhere along these roads to catch unsuspecting people,but today even they seemed to have taken a day off. It just made my day. I was cruising along effortlessly,but then my shoulder began to ache slightly, i soon found out that the reason was that my bag was strapped on too tight on my shoulder and the whole weight of the bag was being carried by me and my riding stance was a bit aggressive,so i loosened up the straps a bit and adjusted in such a way that the weight of the bag was falling on the back seat. And then i continued on. Now the shoulder ache vanished. Made a mental note to always keep that in mind for the future trips.Then made a short break at Chalakudy to call my parents to update them on my status and traveled on

My next stop was at Aluva. I crossed the bridge and stopped my bike a little further and walked back to the bridge to enjoy the view and take a snap.After that was done i continued. It had started raining a little as i was nearing Aluva but it dint dampen my spirit, i kept on riding, the only issue i faced was the mud and water being sprayed from the tires of the trucks and other vehicles in front.But i had an extra cloth kept in hand just for this purpose,so that problem was resolved.

A veiw from Aluva Bridge:



The Aluva bridge:



My machine:



I would like to share an another thing too. I got a lot of stares from a lot of people both on and off the road. Might be because of the machine,me all loaded up, but i just loved the feeling,it just added up to the pleasure of riding. Just made me keep going on. So far the trip has been a pleasure as the ride was performing very well and the roads were super smooth, wonderful climate and i had also got very nice snaps. But the journey is yet to finish, lots of miles more before I reach Alappuzha.

Remaining of the log will be continued in my next post. Hope you guys enjoyed reading and reliving the journey till now with me. Hope you guys liked the pics too. Feel free to give your feedback and opinion on both the trip and the pics.Watch this space for more..

Really good pics there!

Keep 'em coming!

Sure bro, need to prepare the rest of the log. Will update soon. Hope the write up is not boring !!

Nice one

Thanks bro !

After stopping at Aluva i continued further on until i reached Edapally, that's where i had to take a detour to carry on NH-47 without entering into Cochin. Passed by Oberon mall, but it had not opened so early in the morning. But then after a few kilometers my stomach started making a louder noise than the bike. So i decided to do something about it.

I looked around and found an hotel named Empire Plaza, seemed to be a nice place, so got in there and ordered some food. And waited for sometime till it arrived. Well the food was not so great as i expected but had to make do with it as i had to carry on. Called my parents and uncle and updated them about my whereabouts. And paid the bill, but then decided that ill take some rest before continuing on. Chatted with my dear friends for sometime and spent about some 15-20 min there taking a few pics.

Me :



The Cruze and 220 :



I love my ride,even if its dirty:



The roads passing by is very much super smooth roads, i must confess that it was hard not to rev the bike crazily down the highway in those roads. So thinking just that I started to rip and just as i got to 60-70 and shifted to 3rd gear, i saw an interceptor there waiting to take a pic of me with my speed and fine me, just got lucky i must say. If i hadn't stopped by that hotel its 100% sure that i would have been crossing at 3 digit speeds through that road. Many vehicles that had been caught had been lined up besides the interceptor. After seeing that i thanked my stomach for saving me from that fine i certainly would have got if i hadn't stopped for breakfast.

Its from this point that the familiar territory ends, the places ahead were totally strange to me, and it was also getting a bit too long so i decided that i wont make any more unnecessary stops and decided to ride. From there on the ride was event less but were fun as the roads were a pleasure to ride on, was constantly breaking into 3 digit speeds but then easing up a bit thinking about the interceptors that might be just round the corner.

I had to pass 2-3 more bridges before getting to a place called Aroor. So just before the bridge starts i would park my bike,walk along the bridge ,take a few snaps and walk back to my bike and carry on. Here are a few pics till i reach Aroor.

At a signal :



Trip meter reading :



Somewhere :





Highway:



You are here:





Resting:



The above picture was the last i clicked till reaching Alappuzha. I had some 50+ kms more to travel. So called my parents , updated my status to them and hopped back on and enjoyed the rest of the ride. I keep repeating this, the roads were a treat. The roads nearing to Alappuzha were beautiful with big trees lining on both sides of the roads and it was very little rush at that time too,so made it even better.

So after some time i entered into Alappuzha. Lovely place i must say. So it was almost 12.30 ,so i payed more attention to go to the workplace of my uncle, he is working at Mathrubhumi newspaper office at Alappuzha.
And the office was very close to the boating area. in fact just a 2min walk distance. So i reached the office after doing 3-4 rounds inside the city premises and met my uncle, rested for a while in his office and we had lunch together, but i couldn't eat much. My tummy felt full.
Another thing i would like to add was this strange energy i felt when i successfully completed the trip on reaching Alappuzha, i was aware that the trip was only half done, but it had a strange fulfilling effect in me.

Now that lunch was served, we started discussing about how i was to spend the rest of the day there. So at Alappuzha the main attractions are Boating and the Alappey beach. So decided to go for boating and then after pay an evening visit to the beach.

But to my disappointment the tourist service of boating was not present on that time, not sure about the reason. And an houseboat was out of the question. Its about 10k for the cheapest one. So i was pretty much disappointed as the main attraction was boating and that service was not available. So went to the boat jetty and got on the transport boat(used for commuting,public transport), it was going to be a nearly 4 hours boat travel, costing me about 14rs(yeah,its very cheap), the bright side was that i would be able to see most part of Kuttanad and Nedumudi, the down side was that i was alone and might get pretty much bored too.

So the boating started,
The first 10min was the toughest, the water was all dirty and littered with rotten vegetables and wastes, it smelled so bad and almost got an headache cause of this, so the starting of the boating trip was bad enough, i thought what would happen for the rest 4 hours i had to spend on the boat. But then after sometime. The it all got cleared, we entered into the open water and boy was it not refreshing, the weather was perfect, it was windy and slightly overcast , giving that cool monsoon feel and the smell of the wind and water was very refreshing. And i started clicking pictures, then i noticed that about 1-2 kms from the starting point there was a resort on this island. It was a good sight,building that place must have been a challenge. But it was beautifully done,but i dint take any photos of that resort.

Alappuzha :



Earning his bread:



Wonder what he was thinking :



Somewhere along kuttanad :



The boating trip was great actually, i was glad that i took the public transport boat, that way i got to see the life of the people at such remote areas, i was amazed by the simple life they led, it made us look like we were living our life in a rush. It was so calm there, but the poverty was also pretty much being shown, made me feel sad, thoughts like these consumed a lot of time on the trip, in between i did get bored, but then i recovered and got back to enjoying the time i had. The head ache i got while starting the trip had vanished. So after 2 hours of boating reached the last stop of the trip.

2 paths diverging :



Nice veiw :



Beautiful weather:



Houseboat, coming through !! :



Myself:



I was bored :



Reading:



Love this :



Electricity , cant live without them :




Since i had to return in the same boat, i just stayed back in there and in 5 min time we set on the return journey, this time it was fun. The timing was parallel to the time the schools had dispersed and the boat was full of students,all between kindergarten to 8th. It was great fun watching them fight, play and talking to each other. I even made a few friends from there, talking to them was the best part. They were very curious , they asked me where i was from and did i come to see someone and stuffs like that.It was fun. Dint manage to click any pictures with them because it was tough to manage the camera with the boat being full and very little room left. So the rest of the journey went past very fast spending time with the kids.

After the boat journey, i went back to my uncles office and we went to the beach together, was pretty much tired by then, dint click much pics. Just enjoyed my time there and we returned to have dinner. Had some dinner at a nice restaurant , the food was good and spicy,loved it that way. Went back to the room and freshened up and lied down and started texting my friends giving them a short log of the trip, but that was when the fatigue got the better of me, somewhere along the texting i fell asleep.

The next thing i knew was that it was 5.30 am in the morning. The weather was just as same as yesterday. I am blessed again i said in my mind, it was perfect weather for a bike travel. So before leaving went again to the beach and paid a visit to the temple nearby and then set back on the return journey. But then the weather started changing slowly, so reduced my stops to minimum and put the camera in my bag and just enjoyed my ride back. On the way back somewhere near Cochin found an double Decker KSRTC bus, it was the first i had seen in Kerala, took a snap of it and then continued on my way back. And within 4 hours of travel i reached back at home for lunch.
It was a wonderful trip and a great experience. At last thanked God for making this trip possible after a lot of struggle and i did reach back safe and sound and my parents were happy too.

So thats it to my trip log. Hope you guys liked it. Do give your feedback !! would really appreciate it !

Ride Safe
Cheers
Krishna