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**nooblet** · 01-14-2014, 10:06 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Originally posted by jeevan.life View Post

The hotel was Sharada international

. I got yummy curd rice there..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Two things you're always ready for...

Ride and Curd Rice

**prakashray412** · 01-15-2014, 12:46 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

What an amazing narration. It felt like I was riding with you.

@nooblet you said it correct @jeevan.life is always ready for RIDE, but didn't know that he is ready for curd rice also

**nooblet** · 01-19-2014, 10:40 AM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Day 3

I woke up at 4:00 am the next day and was ready by 4:30, this was as per plan, Jeevan followed, and we were ready and started vacating the room.

Previous day was an exhausting one and we were hoping for a better ride today. Since we started our ride very late the previous day, we hit a lot of traffic and it added to a lot of our exhaustion along with the heat, so we wanted to avoid that and decided to leave as early as possible, that is by 5:00 am.

So we vacated the room around 5:00 am, finished the formalities, tied our luggage to our bikes, thanks to Snehith for his tips, it was easier for me to tie the Tank bag this time. All done we left the hotel at 5:30 am. It was dark so we were riding at around 45 KMPH to 60 KMPH depending on the roads, we still saw lots of constructions on the roads upto a point, and the frequency of diversions started reducing. Roads were small though smooth, we were having a relaxed ride, Jeevan being a cafeine junky, wanted to have a Tea and the usual smoke. So we pulled over at a tea stop and did the usual.

This time the experience was different, this time we saw lots of pilgrims walking towards the Shabarimala temple. It really staggers me that these guys are going to walk all the way to the holy place. It was great to see them and wonder how are they gonna manage the walk. Anyways lots of respect for these guys. Paid up for the coffee, and started riding again.

Previous day Snehith had suggested Thalassery beach ride, so I and Jeevan had a discussion about this and decided to stop over at Thalassery for the beach ride.

We continued with our ride, nothing much to write about, but since we started early we had a chance to witness the Sun Rise…. watching the Sun bathe the Grey roads Golden Yellow was absoluttely fantsatic...and riding these Golden Yellow roads was almost dream like. At one point there was so much of Golden Yellow, i just couldn’t distinguish colors, it was all yellow, bathed in the most beautiful Golden yellow you could lay your eyes on. Experience it to beleive it

Continue the ride to Thalassery, plan was to reach the Thalassery beach by 7:30, so we did reach aroun 7:15, but we overshot the beach and went in another direction, finding the route and by the time we got back to Thalaseery beach it was almost 8:00...but not 8:00 yet

It was around 7:45, fortunately it wasn’t very hot, it was still cool. Reached the beach, paid the entrance fee and started riding on the beach. While riding on the beach I had a thought…....i was thinking about my family…..….My wife, my sisters, my cousin are driving through bangalore’s rush hour traffic trying to get to office while I was having the time of my life riding on a beach with no traffic, absolutely smooth sand roads, slippery andl smooth

, a thought occured to me and sent them a SMS “I am riding on a beach on my bike

”
Can’t explain the feeling hopefully the pics can help...

One word about reaching the Beach….once you get out of highway, you enter a very very narrow beach side road, which in my words can probable max fit a Maruti Wagon-R. Riding these roads with beach on the one side, and the beach side huts on the other side which are actually inhabited by people living there was a surprise and was one of the best surprises of the trip. Hopefully this video can explain better….

It started getting hot at the beach, so decided to move on, started riding towards our next Destination which was Kochi . Decided to stop over for breakfast, had nice kerala breakfast, it was around 9:00. By the time we had breakfast and left it was around 9:30.

We were to take NH 17, towards Kozhikode and towards Guruvayoor and then Kochi . Since it was NH 17 we were expecting the roads to be good, and this is what everyone told us also, and so we thought we will be making quick ground and should be able to reach Kochi on time. Around this thought, we were sure of reaching Kochi by around 5:00 pm, as it was around 300 KM’s from Thalassery, so we decided to cover more ground and reach Alappuzha as the stop over for that day. We really thought the ride will be smooth……as the roads were supposed to be good, and it was…..

What we didn’t expect was traffic, OH DEAR GOD , it was like driving through bangalore traffic on a Sunday. Never ending traffic. Here’s what we noticed. Small towns are scattered around NH 17 and that too at very short distances, you enter a town wade through the thick traffic, come out of town get some relief from the traffic, and very soon you hit another town and again traffic. It was just not making sense to us at all….HOW ON EARTH CAN A NH HAVE SO MUCH TRAFFFFEEEEEKKKK!!! and on top of it, the HHEEEEAATT, it wasn’t helping at all. It was getting very hot and the traffic was never stopping, we were really wondering if this really is a FCUKING NH.

We were finding it extremely tiring to ride in this traffic.Lets say we enter a city, I knew that i will have to move ahead here only by overtaking the buses, cars, autos et al, and since the traffic from the opposite side also never stopped, it was very difficult to over take. So basically I used to get behind a vehicle, Peep out, Peep Peep Peep until I can see an opening, get onto the opposite lane acclerate, over take the vehicle, squeeze in , get back into the lane and get behind another vehicle. So Peep, Skimper, Squeeze...this was the routine and only way to move ahead. The heat and our riding style had taken it’s toll on us….we were getting very exhausted….

This went On and On and On , I know it sounds like a Duracell battery, but it truly was going On and On and On….only if we had those Duracell batteries up our rear’s for a change to take this On and On and On…

At one point I was too exhausted and wanted Jeevan to pull over, the pot holes, the traffic and the heat were taking it’s toll on me, so caught up with Jeevan and asked him to pull over, to my relief even Jeevan was too exhausted, a shot from one of the places we decided to take a break at….

After an exhaustive ride we stopped over for lunch, and were rethinking if we will be able to make it to Alappuzha as the progress was very slow and the Peep, Skimper, Squeeze routine was just going On and On and On…..., so we re-thought our strategy and we decided to first reach Kochi and then take a call…It was around 2:30 pm when we stopped over for lunch and we were still a good 120 KM’s away from Kochi. We left around 3:00 pm from the restaurant with a new target. Kochi PHURRSSTTT !!! yyyaaarrrrrrrr!!!

So we rode towards Kochi, repeating our routine…..Peep, Skimper, Squeeze, yyyaaaarrrr….
I distinctly remember yelling inside my helmet when ever I rode through an unpaved stretch of the road or on a pot-hole. We continued this for another couple of hours with some short breaks in between. As we continued to ride the heat started subsiding which was good news, but the bad news was the traffic wasn’t and as we reached Ernakulam it started increasing again.

At one point in Ernakulam city, Forunately we were lost. Fortunate??? yes we were….

We started asking around people for route to Kochi, people were pointing us to one road just keep going straight, so we were and at one point, one gentle man showed us another route, reluctantly we took that and kept riding and soon we were not sure, if this was the right place. Finally Jeevan used google maps, which took us out of the Ernakulam narrow residential roads and onto NH 47…..yeah baby!! finally we could breathe, the unrelenting Peep, Skimper Squeeze could be given a break. Looking at the wide open roads, it cheered us to no end….we pulled over at a bakery, had a tea and a smoke, and were just looking at NH 47, which is apparently the Salem-Kanyakumari highway. We both seemed relieved that we can atleast ride comfortably for the next 60 KM’s...we decided to sit down and take a break it was around 4:45 now.

We were having a tea and a smoke at a bakery around NH 47 , the lady who served us tea, walked up to us and she asked us the usual question where are you riding from, why...etc But she added one more question which none of the many people who had asked us so many questions until now had asked. She casually asked don’t you think it’s risky to be riding like this, can’t you just relax , stay home and enjoy. She did have a point...what she said was true, we could have been sitting in our houses watching TV or going to the mall or wathcing a movie in the theater with our families, but instead we two guys were riding through Kerala through the toughest riding conditions we’ve ever been put through and here we are sitting on a footpath at NH 47 and drinking coffee and having a smoke, it just didn;t make any sense... It was really a tough day…..we could laugh at what we were doing, but it just didn’t make any sense to be doing this...I thought about this and had a laugh...but it still didn’t make any sense….

We finished our tea and started towards Kochi and reached there at around 6:00 pm. Reaching Kochi was a huge relief, it was like we had achieved the impossible...trust me at one point we thought we would not be able to make it to Kochi and may have to stop at another town, fortunately we still believe since we got NH 47, we were able to reach Kochi by 6:00 pm, else I truly believe we would have reached Kochi only 7:30 or 8:00, considering it was going to get dark also.
At Kochi we had another tea and smoke and it was around 6:00 pm now and Alappuzha was around 60 KM’s from here, we started discussin the possibility of reaching Alappuzha.
Me : Do you think we can reach Alappuzha
Jeevan : Yes, we can
Me : It’ 6:15 now, give it around 1.5 hrs we should be able to do it.
Jeevan : Yes, it’s better we stop at Alappuzha.

So it was decided we will reach Alappuzha. So we hit the road took the diversion away from NH 47 towards Alappuzha. The Peep, Skimper,Squeeze routine was back, but now it wasnt that bad, and as it was getting darker we really didnt want to do that. We decided to take it slow and easy and we reached Alappuzha around 8:00 pm. As we entered Alappuzha we hit a massive traffic jam, it wasnt moving at all, I was looking around for a way to get out of the traffic and it seemed pointless as the traffic was choked, as there were festivities in the town. The festivities were a feast for the eyes though

We continued on..and the traffic was choked. ...and rode for another 5 min’s when I noticed a Bungalow which had rooms for stay, as per the sign-boards we were about 5 KM’s from Alappuzha, which meant we were in Alappuzha. I turned to Jeevan and told doesnt make sense to ride in this kind of traffic, lets take the room here itself. He agreed

After another tiring ride, we decided not to haggle too much and agreed for the rent. 1100 INR.

We freshened up, visited the nearest restaurant filled our stomach’s, got back to room, and called it a day.

Longest ride until now, riding time was more than 10 hours and we covered around 500 KM’s and not the most fun ride, but yes will be one of the more memorable one’s. Things that happened during this ride are the one’s that you talk most about, laugh most about, because when you really cant take it any more your true nature comes out, like sleeping on a balcony or resting in a petrol bunk, shouting in your helmet when you cant take the roads any more, the sweat dripping from your nose and accidentally getting into your mouth…..these are the moments you talk about, think about , laugh about and most importantly share about it with your friends and family. I guess this is why we ride, and it all makes sense

**saquib3005** · 01-20-2014, 02:32 AM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Man o man
That's amazing write up and pics; mind blowing pics man
Get us more get us more.
Warning Lohith bhai: do share more pics, I know you have took many more but you are posting very less.

**jeevan.life** · 01-20-2014, 10:39 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Ok, few pics from me.

This is how Lohith was in the noon :P

And the video link to the drive in beach

**chaosaddict** · 01-21-2014, 12:52 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

waah waah waah,,,,, byutiphool write-up and picchurres..... And Mr G1, Lohith sleeping is epic!

need to ride, need to ride, need to ride --------------- you guys inspired me to the core, electrified!!

PS - Somebody lend me some monies pilizzz!

**prakashray412** · 01-23-2014, 10:26 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Kya likha hai, ek dum mast (trans: what have you written, amazing :P)

Sent from my Xperia SL using xBhp Connect mobile app

**Sarcastic** · 01-26-2014, 06:03 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Nice writeup there......one thing I gotta ask....how did the Duke hold up for such a ling ride...I mean comfort wise...having eyes on it for a long time...just that stars have'nt aligned yet for me to get one

And sometimes I start to doubt my descision to get it...thus the curiosity..

**Aniruddha Shinde** · 01-26-2014, 09:52 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Even bad roads are looking gud with the way you clicked them..........Man too gud photography.... And rides are looking damn gud, Duke is totaly made for these kind of camera skills. She is the first bike that I prefer to watch in pic than in flesh.. You made her look chick.... Even CBR is lookin Red hot...

**nooblet** · 01-27-2014, 02:58 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Originally posted by Sarcastic View Post

Nice writeup there......one thing I gotta ask....how did the Duke hold up for such a ling ride...I mean comfort wise...having eyes on it for a long time...just that stars have'nt aligned yet for me to get one

And sometimes I start to doubt my descision to get it...thus the curiosity..

Comfort wise, it's quite good, the seat might not be as comfy as the CBR 250, but makes up for it by the seating posture.
The fact that I could ride for more than 500 KM's in a day and on another day rode it for more than 10 hrs is a testament that it can be used for long rides.
Hopefully this helps.

**Sarcastic** · 01-27-2014, 03:24 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Yes it does...Thanks..

**nooblet** · 01-28-2014, 10:11 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Day 4

We guys woke up at 6:00 and were on our way to Kanyakumari by 7:00 am

Also there was something pending for me too from past 3 days. Bought a new tooth brush. Yes I had not brushed my teeth in the past 3 days

Anyways rode to the Alappuzha boat house and took some snaps. Hope the pics can do justice to how beautiful Alappuzha can be.

After taking some photos we decided to ride to Kanyakumari.
We were hoping for a better ride today after the gruelling Day 3 and Day 4. We had pushed ourselves to reach Alappuzha instead of the previously planned stop at Kochi so that we dont strain ourselves before starting on another 500 KM ride to Valaparai from Kanyakumari.

We continued riding hoping for the road conditions to get better, but it did not it was the same, and our hopes of having a comfortable ride were shattered. Our only solace was the views were better and the roads were slightly wider. The wider roads must be a bait for people entering Kerala before they hit the small roads and Kerala traffic in the many Kerala towns and cities.

We continued on riding in the unrelenting heat and finally found a sign that showed the direction to Kanyakumari, we took the road and soon saw that there was very less traffic and lots of trees around and the scenery too had changed.

We were so happy at this point, the cool breeze, the narrow roads with occasional traffic was exactly what the doctor had ordered. As we rode we hit the Kanyakumari city, where the traffic picked up, we knew we were very close to our destination point and continued weaving our bikes in and out of Kanyakumari traffic until we hit the Salem-Kanyakumari highway

. The road was absolutely beautiful and what better way to reach your destination, it was only 1 KM to Kanyakumari-tip of India and this was the best road we had found in the last 3 days.

Anyways once we reached the southern tip, we had a tough time finding a room, as it was Dec 25th and and heavy tourist traffic inflow, we had a tough time finding a room. Finally we found a room, to our surprise this was the cheapest room we got, that too in Kanyakumari on a Holiday.
Room cost 1000 INR and it was good.

Some more photos from the day...

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Some more photos

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Some more photos

Attached Files

**KennyKL01** · 01-28-2014, 10:18 PM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Nicely captured the beauty of God's own country and Kanyakumari... Really a nice Travelogue. Hat's off to you rider !!!

**Vykier** · 01-29-2014, 12:36 AM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Awesome read yaar... and [MENTION=62178]jeevan.life[/MENTION] likes cornering... hmmm... why am I not surprised... CBR man... cornering is G...O...D! what say G1?

Lived through the travels.. nice write up too.

**nooblet** · 01-29-2014, 10:50 AM

Re: Ride of our lives -- until now

Originally posted by KennyKL01 View Post

Nicely captured the beauty of God's own country and Kanyakumari... Really a nice Travelogue. Hat's off to you rider !!!

Thanks Kenny, Kerala is a truly beautiful state.

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Originally posted by Vykier View Post

Awesome read yaar... and @jeevan.life likes cornering... hmmm... why am I not surprised... CBR man... cornering is G...O...D! what say G1?

Lived through the travels.. nice write up too.

Thank [MENTION=52105]Vykier[/MENTION] , [MENTION=62178]jeevan.life[/MENTION] is a cornering nut, am not the best judge of how an individual corners, but jeevan was very happy, in fast ecastatic that his bikes tyres side profile had lost it's tread, which was clearly visible from all those leans he was pulling in Valaparai.

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