Re: Tour De' South

oh...so cool

Re: Tour De' South

I guess this is where I come in

Re: Tour De' South

Day 3 – Chennai – Pondicherry
Agenda for the day was to ride to Pondicherry and also check out Mahabalipuram (Heritage site) on the way using the ECR (East Coast road) and what a beautiful road this is travelling all the way to Kanyakumari along the coast. Sagar Banerjee did not turn up but thanks to our good graces, Ezil (pronounced as Ellil) Kannan came to our rescue. This college going biking enthusiast owns a R-15 V.2 and a character that can only be defined as mature for his age. This guy rides very well and he leads us out of the concrete maze of Chennai and onto the ECR. Ezil was to ride with us till Mahabalipuram and back to Chennai but as we progressed, he was smitten by the weather and post Mahabalipuram, it was easy to convince him to accompany us till Pondicherry. The beauty of the ECR was only accentuated by the light drizzle and overcast skies. According to Ezil, this was the best riding weather they have had in a long time and this truly was one of the best days of the ride with the moist air and beautiful tarmac beneath our steeds.


Our steeds resting at Mahabalipuram CCD




Entrance leading to the temple








Pojharr


I guess this is Odiyur lake along ECR post mahabalipuram

The beautiful ECR

Smooth Tarmac of ECR


The Bridge across Buckingham Canal (Guesstimate)



Buckingham canal

PONDICHERRY

After this brilliant ride down to Pondicherry, we finally located the New Auro Ashram on Rue De Blah Blah Street (Most street names are French and difficult to remember as opposed to Sri Sri Baba I-Fool-public Road that we are used)right of the main Pondicherry beach front. All set with a spick and span room for 3 for 600 odd bucks. All of us cleaned up, changed and set out on foot to explore the streets of Pondi. This place has a different feel to it. Nothing makes you feel like you are in india. The houses, the food menu, the people around and just the rustic appeal of the entire town. The beach front road is closed for Vehichles from 7 in the evening to 6 a.m. in the morning. We could walk freely and enjoy the light drizzle and the soothing breeze. Found a nice quite bar and ordered some continental food and beverages to wash it all down. Then off we went to our lodging and crashed for the night. Ezil left around 6 a.m. the next morning to Chennai and I would like to point out again that he is an excellent rider and a great companion. Mr. Cool as a Qcumber bid good bye and left Abhijeet and I to pack up our bags and head to our next destination and Abhijeet’s most Favourite place in this entire trip – Rameshwaram & Dhanuskodi.

Some Pics from pondi.


Destination Pondicherry

A wall outside an Art school

No-Clue-what-this-is Memorial

Abhijeet on the left & Ezil on the right

Map of Pondi




Gandhi Statue @ beachfront

Entering / Exiting Pondicherry
Coming Up
Day 4 – Pondicherry – Vailankanni – Rameshwaram

Re: Tour De' South

When I first met you guys that saturday night, I was wondering how I am going to even interact(since I didn't know hindi ), but then I understood, who needs a language when we all belong to the same brotherhood. Though we had known each other for just one day, that day's ride has made us very close. We were almost total strangers who became very good friends. I enjoyed riding with you guys and should I mention the weather oh god! Ping me if you are riding south again, I am most eager to join you

Here's some of the pics I got

That's me trying Aloo parathas for the first time , it was very good

Abhijeet and JayD on ECR


Me and my machine - PC - Abhijeet


Entering Pondi - PC - Abhijeet

The Rock Beach

Re: Tour De' South

Where are the pictures we posed for? Remember coying the Tamil film posters poses for some of our pics [MENTION=63283]ABHI-Red Devil[/MENTION].

Re: Tour De' South

I think Abhijeet has those pics in his dslr.

Re: Tour De' South

Day 4 – Pondicherry – Vailankanni – Rameshwaram

Pondicherry gave our steeds and our tired muscles some much needed break. Our souls rejuvenated, minds fresh we were ready to go. To sum it up, our behinds were ready to take the saddles once again. With slight drizzle and a brilliant climate, we were headed to towards the destination that Abhijeet was dreaming about for months - Dhanuskodi. Day 4 begins……

We took the ECR and what a road it was; just beautiful.



The plan was simple, keep cruising and hit Dhanuskodi, try to get permission for taking our bikes all the way to Ghost town and camp there. While en-route, my dad called and said that “isn’t Vailankanni Church on the way?” The idea was planted, route modified and we headed towards the next milestone and I am thankful to my dad for suggesting a visit to this beautiful monument.









Abhijeet Posing as usual






These are not just locks and threads but these are peoples dreams, hopes and prayers. If your wish is granted, you have to return to unlock the lock.

We also stopped over at Karaikal Port before we reached Vailankanni.


After Vailankanni it was a cool ride all the way towards Rameshwaram and Dhanuskodi. We were close to our destination and before we knew it, we were on the Pamban Bridge and the view left us both awestruck. The blue water, fishing trawlers parked on the shore and that train passing over the rail bridge right next to this road bridge all added to the beauty of this place.










Pics taken on our return journey the next morning







We did not wait for long as we were returning via the same route and decided to stop on our return journey as right now; Dhanuskodi lured us with a promise of an experience of a lifetime. Who wouldn’t be excited to stay in a place which is surrounded by water, was destroyed in a cyclone and tourist call it “Ghost town”. By the time we reached Dhanuskodi, we received an update from our friend Sanket Mahure about a thunder storm heading our way. This made us drop our plans of camping at Dhanushkodi and instead we decided to stay at a nice cozy hotel and that was an excellent decision coz it rained all night long with thunder and lightning accompanied by strong wind gusts. With a heavy heart and a promise to Visit again just to see Dhanuskodi, we end our long day.

Re: Tour De' South

Day 5 – Rameshwaram – Dhanushkodi – Rameshwaram – Kanyakumari

With the rain still pouring, I went back to sleep at about 7 in the morning just to wake up and hour later to see that the intensity of the rain had reduced to a certain extent. We were happy that we skipped our plan to stay through the night at Dhanuskodi but were equally sad because we would not be able to visit the destination that both of us were really excited about. As I sat outside the hotel on the door steps waiting for the rains to stop, the hotel manager walked up to and inquired about our plans. When he found out that we wanted to go to Dhanuskodi, he said "wayt onna minutea" and murmured something on a phone call and asked if I would still be interested in visiting Dhanuskodi. Without skipping a moment, I yelled ‘yes’. I informed Abhijeet and as expected he was ready. We did pay for this favor but it was reasonable, INR 1100. Yes reasonable; because we would have had to shell out much more to come back all the way from Mumbai just to visit this place. Now that I have visited Dhanuskodi, I would not have been disappointed had I come back just for this place. Dressed in a lungi and Short sleeve shirt, our Knight in a rusted piece of junk arrives to pick us up. We happily hop in to ride towards Dhanuskodi and we are blown away with what we see.








Church




The Ghost town




Abhijeet

The tracs used by jeeps.




The railway Signal


Me





Railway Station

Tracks


A place that once flourished and existed as a small town now stands broken and withered waiting for time to wipe it off completely off the face of this earth. I had never experienced such peace and tranquility. We returned to the hotel, packed our bags and headed towards the southern-most point in India and also our turn around point – Kanyakumari.

Thanks to the rains and our Visit to Dhanuskodi, we left Rameshwaram for Kanyakumari at about 12.30 in the afternoon assuming that the roads would be good as they were excellent so far. As started our journey for the day, reality hit us, our luck had run out. Road condition went from bad to worse to non-existent in some places. Our bikes and our behinds were taking a battering and it continued for some time. Well, continued all through our journey for the day. As the sun went down, matters got worse. My bike was making a funny noise every time it hit a bump but I could not figure out what it was. Sometime later upon close inspection, realized that the pipe holding the saree guard and tire hugger had broken into two causing the saree guard to hit the rims and the tire hugger was constantly eroding due to the friction with the rear tire. I pulled the rod out just enough to stop the saree guard from hitting the rim and just to get enough clearance between the hugger and tire. This worked and we continued, as the sun set, matters got worse; Abhijeets bike had a blown headlight bulb. Now that’s got to add some spice to all the action. For a guy who had a crash on the first day, afraid of riding in the dark and new to biking, this was a test of his endurance and patience. Our pace dropped down to about 40 km/h with nothing but my bikes headlight guiding Abhijeet. We finally manage to spot a mechanic after riding in the dark for a few hours with big insects on a suicide mission crashing on our helmet visors. This mechanic only had a 35 W bulb in stock and we agreed to buy it and get it fixed. The mask was removed and bulb replaced but then he wasn’t able to get the headlight mask back on the bike. After lot of trial and error, he managed to fix the headlight. I got the rear hugger removed and threw it away and off we went. We could see Kanyakumari’s lights in the distance. We had had enough of the bad roads and just wanted to reach our hotel room and crash for the night. It was pitch dark, no soul around and I realized that Abhijeet was missing from my RVM. I stop instantly and within a minute I spot Abhijeet with another fellow on a Karizma. We met our to be friend Mr. Nidhin Chandran who was more than happy to see us as he is also an enthusiast and and worked at a local Nuclear plant as an engineer. He led the way and showed us to our hotel. I suggested that he wait and have dinner with us and he agreed; he even paid for the dinner. After this he took us to the point where a cop stop used from going any further and after finding out that we had come all the way from Mumbai, he let us go. We could not see anything, Nidhin pointed in a direction and told us that he was pointing at the Swami Vivekanand Memorial and Thiruvallur statue. He clicked a long exposure shot and only then we could see what he was pointing at. We separated for the night with a plan of meeting early morning to see the sunrise.

Re: Tour De' South

Awesome T'log with great narration, excellent humour and equally good photography...specially the pics of the Ghost Town are really show stoppers!!!

Re: Tour De' South

Thank you [MENTION=51711]RBhagawati[/MENTION].

Re: Tour De' South

Awesome log buddy & more awesome your sense of humour:thumbup:
Pour in more!!

*Drop a Gear & Disappear*

Re: Tour De' South

Superb:thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I8262 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Tour De' South

Some Clicks on our way to Chennai from Bangalore...

The weather and roads were just awesome... For a Mumbaikar like us, Dark tar roads with no pot holes or even scratch were like the roads that led to heaven...
They were so B-E-A-U-TIFUL that one could just bend down kiss them...

Somewhere near Krishnagiri...

Re: Tour De' South

Quite a trip so far. You are making me more eager now. Well written and amazing photographs. Let it keep pouring in. Now i cant wait for June for the trip i have planned... OH GOD!!!!!

Re: Tour De' South

Meeting Ezil Kanan (The Golden Bouy) was just fantastic. Great guy and heaps of knowledge about biking at this age...
Ezil helped us big time in getting out of Chennai in the peak hours...And once we left Chennai the Climate & The road was like sync together...

The ECR is very beautiful...























Mr. Mukesh who helped us to get the cheapest accommodation possible...





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