Excited !!!
Wow, its been 8 months I wrote a blog.. Moving on a lot has happened in last 8 months, got married.. set up the house, bought a new car and what not!! Well if you think this is what got me excited, then you gotta b kidding 
neverthless its time to turn back the wheel and get back to some blogging….
Nov 27 ’09 was when we got married and almost 3 months down on Feb 27 ’10 we would be landing in Bali.. She always wanted to check out an unseen place & I love water hence Bali.. We started off with an idea of Egypt, with lot of back and forth & delay of 3 months we zeroed in on Bali and Singapore… Guess I am happy we made it at least :-)
When asked about Bali a lot of travel operators do not have much idea about Bali as it not being the most favored Indian tourist destination. They would end up giving 4-5 nights in one destination as there is not much to do in Bali as per them.. But world of Internet is amazing, I did my wee bit to find out places with good amount of time spent reading Trip Advisor and help from avid travelers like Ashley Woolf. Probably that sense of do it yourself & our first international trip together makes it more exciting in general
Starting up with 2 days in a nice romantic one bedroom villa, moving on to the happening beach of Seminyak for two days and finally some culture and adventure in Mountains of Ubud.. People do snorkelling,canoeing, cycling tours, active volcano trekking and so on apart from clubbing and relaxing at the beach… From there on we would by heading to Singapore for 4 days.. The most awaited attraction being the newly opened ‘Universal Studios’ which is supposed to be super cool apart from the Sentosa island…
As per trip advisor 6 nights are not enough in Bali but guess that’s what we got as of now.. Well its not all hunky dory as of now.. I have taken some big time risks by booking on Tiger Airways + Air Asia airlines as we were getting a substantial amount of fare difference compared to Singapore Airlines.. My fingers are crossed and I am just hoping that the flights are on time…
With just 4 days to go, I am looking forward to time of my life with my gal… & hoping the airlines won’t ditch Keep watching this space for more as I am gonna be writing about the real ‘Balinese’ experiences & even after that as I am back for good !!
Love
Kunal
One Life, Why So Serious …..
I know its been long I blogged last, missed to write about last 2-3 trips as well…well lifes been tipsy turvy as so many things going on at d same time..
btw this is no travellogue, at 2 in the night I just felt like writing something and here I am:)
It was 12:15 in the night, came out from theatre after watching last show of ‘Newyork’ movie. Soon headed to take my motorcycle back from road side parking … While I was taking my bike out, there came the caretaker of the parking who was an amputee ( with only one leg) and stood in front of me.. I obliged & took 5 bucks of coin out to pay him …
He hesitated and said no, pls give it from your right hand.. Lakshmi hain ‘ woh haath se hi dijiye’.. I was like wow, this guy at this hour, in this state can be so positive about life and doing his job so diligently.. gr8
Well I obliged and paid him using my right hand & wished him ‘shubh ratri’ before leaving… His simple smile & never give up attitude touched my heart…
They say Life is the best teacher.. for sure !!
God bless
~ K ~
(K)night Riders: One Thousand kilometers of solitude
Ever thought of a trip where plans are deliberately infinite, more to travel than to arrive anywhere? It’s kind of visiting nowhere with only one purpose ‘to have a good time’. Here the emphasis is more on “good” rather than “time”. In one word I call it ‘vacationing’. Sounds interesting? do read on…
You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. You are a passive observer in case of a car where as on a motorcycle you are completely in contact with it all. You are in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of prescence is overwhelming.
Rewind back to where it all begun… This time round the gang decided to go on a biking extravaganza. All the way to Mulayangiri peak near chikamangalur which is close to 280 kms drive from Bangalore. This peak is the highest (6,317ft) in karnataka and the highest between Nilgiris and the Himalayas. Pardon me for calling it Xtreme Biking, but it turned out to be quite enthralling and hazardous as we covered close to 1000 kms over a weekend on our motorcycles.
It was Vikash who did initial research and identified the spot and the whole biking trip came into existance. The whole plan was to start early friday evening and try to be back on sunday evening. In order to reach Mulayangiri early we decided to start around 6 PM on friday. As usual everyone tried there bit to leave office early on a friday and finally we kickstarted our trip around 9 PM.
As part of the adventure gear we ensured to carry two camping tents. So there we were 10 of us with 6 bikes in all about to kick start our adventurous biking trip. Let me take a moment and introduce the (K)night Riders before boarding on this life changing adventurous journey.
- Durgesh aka Plighted Prisner on the run - bhago bhago shaadi ab dur nahin hainJ
- Vikash aka Deepak chaurasia ( sacked from aaj tak* due to stilled anchoringJ
- Saurabh aka Shayare Azam on the move ( Saurabh bolega- oye biradar, yah to biker bol ya fir shayar bol.. ye combination kuch jachta nahi, kya karein logon ko sach pachta nahin:-) aka Ramu Kaka
- Aprajita aka Gangu Bai jo madhuri dikshit banana chahti hainJ
- Shekhar aka Shake Her aka maa da ladla jo bigad gaya hainJ
- Deepti aka The Snoring diva (do get in touch with deepu to know more about the aftershocks of da trip / char din ki chandani @ mental asylum:-
- Deepak aka Mein lyricst badnaam ( a junior artist as well, recently he was in Page 3 for rocking** at the ROCK ON screen tests)
- Nidhi aka Bole to Lady Don
- Pranjal aka Always Hungry aur kya ( abe ruk, jyada paani bhi mat pee, warna sabko pata chal jayega ki rajasthan se aya hainJ
- Kunal aka me, myself the Ever cautious Biker!
* for those morons who don’t know what is aaj tak, its the best comic news channel of India!!, ** messing up, typoJ
I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the motorcycle, that it is 4:30 early morning. The wind even at 90 kms an hour, is pretty cool.
As if the passing air touches the soul, a thought came by ’is this the ever cautious me, on a motorcyle driving since last 7 hours at this frantic pace, on a journey to nowhere!’, another one knocks in ‘dude, you are vacationing!’ and ends the mind game…
(K)night riders had been to few biking trips before but most of those trips were kind of 100-200 odd kms ones hence this was turning out to be a marathon ride. We were driving at a decent speed enjoying the sereneness of the night. Most of the souls who felt the need for speed were quite rapid through out the night, few luckier ones sharing the saddle enjoyed the mistiness of beautiful scenery on our way.
It felt like the warning in the mirror suddenly got changed to “Objects seen in mirror are disappearing rapidly” J
It was early morning, we reached chikamanagalur and stepped up the gas as we started moving up the mysterious ghaats. It was a great experience cruising through the ghaats together in the dark with lots of fog on the way. Although the whole drive was a bit tiring for first timers like me initially but surrounding natural beauty accompanied by fog and water falls on the way took all the tiredness in a whisker.
It was around 6:30 in the morning we reached mountain top at Mulayangiri and it was freezing cold and suddenly we get to know that Ramu kaka’s bike went out of petrol. Out of sheer luck and good presence of mind they managed to sneak in few liters of petrol and reached mountain top. It was like an instant sigh of relief as we somehow managed to avoid the initial traumas in this adenturous trip.
There is a beautiful temple on mulayangiri mountain top, the people who manage the temple served us hot hot drink (it was neither coffee or tea) which we called as Kawa. Jaise pyase ko paani bhi amrit lagta hai it felt like heavenly drink after the strenuous drive.
So then, was the time for setting things straight, we started setting up the two camping tents that we had brought with us. It was like a classic case of many cooks that spoiled the broth, to cut the long story short while setting up the camp we broke one of them… Holla, we had only one camping tent and there were 10 of us eager to get some heavenly sleep.. he he, it can’t get crazier then this, I am lovin it!!!
Well it was time to perform and sadda badnaam lyricst stood up to the task by convincing the temple caretakers using namma kannada and we got to use the temple hall for the over night stay. Forget ceaser and hail the rocked on guy!!
Luckily Plighted prisoner and I escaped the Great Indian Snoring challenege and slept peacefully in da tent, others had no choice but to bask in the glorious sunshine and the beautiful mountain top as they were not destined for few hours of heavenly sleep. Followed by an endless photo session all of us decided to make a move and head towards most coveted part of the day, lunch aur kyaJ
It was around late afternoon we started the descend journey towards the chikamangalur to refill bike tanks and our empty stomachs. It was a pacy drive as all of us were getting our hands on the mysterious ghaats it felt as we had been there plenty of times before.
After the pet puja we decided to check out the Baba Budangiri range which is 1896 meters above sea level and is known for the famous shrine. Myself and Chaurasia ji were driving at a decent speed together, freaking cold and darkness made us contemplate twice going back, somehow we stuck to the task and reached the summit. The enthralling scenery on the way made the drive more special. Luckily we got hold of hot cup of cofee(s) to curb the breezing cold around. After taking some heavenly rest we started the descend journey and reached back to da adda Mulayangiri mountain top.
It was time to add some lights to the darkness, yeah it was the time for some camp fire. We had plenty of fun gathering the materials and then setting up camp fire in the dark. I still remember Hungry’s shoes caught fire while setting up fire, it was so hillarious that we couldnt stop laughing for long. After the fun & frolic we danced to some of the whackiest numbers and decided to wrap up as we had a hectic day in store called tomorrow!!
It’s sleeping time and holla, they were back with a vengeance ( himesh style:-) of previous night’s Great Indian Snoring challenege. It took some time for us to adjust too the in house remixed tunes. At the same time a constant tusssle (Meri shawl mujhe de do thakur / thakura-in was going on between the poor awaken souls. Pranksters ensured that nobody slept till late, finally I got some sleep with whatever portion of shawl I managed myslef to sneak into…
Aha, after few hours of heavenly sleep saturday night, all of us packed our bags and got ready for the grand finale of d biking extravagnza. Finally around 7:30 am we thanked the temple caretaker and kick started day-2 savouring the scenic beauty of mulayangiri in our hearts forever. Since we wanted to reach Bangalore by sunday night we had to take few decisions whether to check out kemmengundi, z-point or the ferocious hebbe falls. After a beautiful early morning drive for an hour or so we finally reached the diversion and we decided to head towards hebbe falls.
Well amidst all these adventures, sources from Aaj Tak broadcasted the breaking news of a traiangular love story taking placeJ yeah sabse tez for sure:) With lots of fanfare and drama team Aaj tak interviewed the usual suspects and it was for sure quite hillarious pulling their legs:) So who were those purturbed souls ? well it’s an inside story for now, keep tuned to aaj tak till the complete drama unfoldsJ
After the fun filled break we started the upward journey towards Hebbe falls without anticipating the greatest blunder awaiting in store for us:- Well, there is a 15 kms stretch towards hebbe falls where you wont find any vehicles apart from forest jeeps due to the pathetic situation of the route. Nah, not for the over confident (K)night Riders, all of us started the upward journey. The road ( as such we can’t call it a road ) was full of minusculed stones, potholes and the ride was so bumpy that shox (shock absorbers) made no difference to our asses in middle of a humble bikicide:-
* It was far deadlier than the pic below, 14 kms of a horrendous drive felt like a journey to zero gravity zone making us numb through out!!
After quite a while we finally reached the hebbe falls base and parked our mercks there and changed gears for a small trek to hebbe falls. The small trek to hebbe falls was awesome filled with jungle to start with and plenty of smaller water stores on the way which we had to cross to reach the grandeur hebbe falls. Everyone was quite careful and skeptical about not catching up with the best buddy when it comes to trekking, none other then the carnivorous blood sucking leeches:-
After 10 minutes walk we reached the splendid hebbe falls, the force of the water was so fierce that it was a beautiful sight. Everyone was dying to enter the water and without much ado we entered the hebbe falls and engulfed ourselves into the nature’s gift. For next 2 hours we enjoyed ourselves basking in the cool water of hebbe falls, one of the best falls I visited in Karnataka till date.
After playing around with the water we headed back where bikes were parked, as decided before we sent few of us in the jeeps with all the luggage. Bikers started the back journey and somehow managed to reach the base after an hour’s dreadful drive. I still remember this as one of the deadliest drive I had till date, most of us would agree here !!
Before it got too dark we finished our evening meals and started on our way back to chikmangalur. It was quite late when we reached chikamangalur and finished dinner. Out of extreme tiredness and a long 250 odd kms drive ahead we decided bring in a change in the plan to take a break in chikamangalur and start for Bangalore afresh early monday morning.
It was around 8 am we started our journey back to Bangalore, well most of us managed to get a leeway from our managers about the small extension of plan to reach Banglaore in afternoon only.
It was plighted prisoner, gangubai , hungry and the rocked on guy decided to take a full day break and drew leisurely, they also managed to check in the majestic sharavan belgowda temple on the way back. I accompanied by rest of us who had to be in office by noon continued with our journey back to Bangalore. It was around 1 noon we reached a well known place called Bangaluru:- back from nowhere….
It took almost an hour and half to reach home once we entered the city limits, still not out of the seamless drive in last two days it felt as if we were aliens in a wrong territory by mistake!!
Well its almost 20 days after the trip and we still feel like we reached home few hours back. This whole life changing experience is definitely worth experiencing for everyone of us who dare to come out of the security of existence and would like to experience the awesomeness of vacationing.
Four wheels move the body, but Two wheels moved our souls.
Till we meet chao,
~ K ~
Oops we did it again – (K)night Riders 2.0 !!
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you…
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
Bitten by the adventure bug, gang was gungho for another adventurous sojourn. Well it was just two days before we had gone for a night drive to mysore road. As usual I was a little apprehensive in the begining, alas yaha meri kahan koi sunta hain!! Finally most of us joined in apart from the escapist Ballo rani:)
“Heaven on Earth / Unbelievable” are the usual reactions of people after seeing the pictures of Skandagiri for the first time. Mine were no different when I saw them almost a year back in one of those places to check out emails. We too decided to head to this very famous place called Skandagiri , which is 65 kms away from Bangalore. Skandagiri also has a place in history with a small fort on its top built by Tipu Sultan.
It was all planned by Mr soon to be ( hanged till death || married ) guy Durgesh.
We were a huge gang of 18 people so in all 9 bikes.It took little time to make the ends meet as people were coming from different parts of Bangalore. We started towards Skandagiri around 12:00 am from Bangalore on a windy friday night:)
We had to pass through the newly BIAL airport in devanhalli and hence the drive was quite smooth on the 3 lane highway. In all it was another 2 hours drive with few stopages on our way.
Route: Bangalore – Devanahalli – Chikaballapur – Skandagiri. Take a left turn inside the city, follow the narrow road to reach Papagni Matt which is at the foot of Skandagiri.
I was accompanied by Pri- the sinful singer on ma bike. The deadly duo Pri aur me harassed quite a few people on our way with our preposterous yet genuine talents, Saiyad was one of those choosen ones. Why him, well there are reasons for everything.
It was around 2 am we reached near the beautiful Skandagiri mountains. We hired one guide from Kalwarahalli village at the base of Skandagiri. Forest department charges an entry fee of Rs.15 per person.
Skandagiri looked deceptively small and easy to conquer from its base. ‘Two hours,’ we were told, erred souls estimated it to be an hour’s walk:) Our guide took us through the route that first lead to the lateral part of the mountain. But it got steeper as we walked and we slowly started increasing the expected time to reach up:)
It didn’t take more than 15 minutes to realise our capacity (wow, 4 more mins) as we stopped and halted plenty of times on the way. All of us moved on grumbingly for next 2 hours with looking for the summit, but unfortunately most of times it was like a mirage, figment of our imagination.
We were accompanied by some of very talented folks around, for one it was mr galib urf saurabh srivastav, he shared and explained us some of very profound galib shayaris, well it requires quite a bit of mehnat to understand them, nah not for lazy souls like mine:)
It was one of those windy nights and with torch as our helplines we managed to reach the peak around 4 am. It was a complete black out and there came the “World hold on moment” when we reached the pinnacle. It was as if everyting stood still and we could see clouds moving around and it felt like we are on the clound number 9!!
The view from the top was heavenly and it mesmerized all of us, in a split second all the fatigue became extinct!! Well it can’t get better eating theplas – (gujju food) early 5 am in the morning on mountain top (crazy isn’t it) along with some hot tea, aha thats the gourmet way of life and some planning as well:))
After spending some time enjoying the sereneness of the place, we thought of taking some pictures but it was too late by then as appu, pri and saurabh had gone missing with the precious camera!!
There were quite a few nocturnal people around us on mountain top . Few of adventurous souls had managed to bring in tents for over night stay on mountain top with a plan to sneak in few hours of sleep. By the time we decided to start our descend we could see little bit of sunshine and the complete mountain range was visible by then. As expected the descend was quite quick with very few stops we almost made it in an hour’s time on our way back.
After taking a short breather we started on our way back to Bangalore and it was around 8 that we were back in Bangalore. Well most part of the sunday went into relaxation which was very much required after a beautiful yet tiresome night trek.
As it’s said that the secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings, watch out this space for more adventurous beginings, for endings I like fables and they do have happy endings for sure…….
Till we meet chao.
~ K ~
(K)Night Riders 1.0
Nah, this one’s not for the support of team Kolkatta (btw dada rocks bigtime) nor its another SRK love-hat mail. It is about our adventurous long (midnight) drive to mysore road CCD outlet on a week night. By the way its just 70 kms away!! Working day, long drive, & midnight huh? = Madness )
It all begun when all of us decided that we gonna give a big surprise to d bday girl on her birthday. We started thinking about options of doing something unexpected. As her birthday was coming on a weekday and hence options were quite limited , going to a restaurant sounded Cliché to all of us.
After a lot of discussion & brainstorming:) we decided that we all gonna take her to a distant place and celebrate her bday:)) Durgesh/ Ballo came up with this big list of places we can check out and we narrowed down on three of them:
- Nandi Hills – 65 Kms from Bangaluru – famous for beautiful sunrise
- Mysore Road CCD outlet- open 24 x 7 – 70 Kms from Bangaluru
- Some dhaba at Yelahanka – 25-30 Kms from Koramangala
We finally agreed on Mysore CCD. By 17th eve we had arranged the cake, gift and most important our mercs (bikes). Around 12:30 midnight I called up the bday girl to wish her and she was very agitated as nobody from the gang, turned up to wish her:) She had actually prepared a “to kill” list of people who missed to wish her on her bday:)) To her surprise we called her outside her PG and handed over a cute little teddy bear.
Than we convinced her to take us out to a near by restaurant for a treat, unaware of the surprise in store!! Seeing everyone with bikes (especially Jayesh) and wearing jacket she was quite flummoxed:)) As we graduallly moved out on our bikes and started our drive we kept her guessing what place we were heading to:)
It was around 1:00 am we reached Bangalore outskirts. It was quite exiciting riding our bikes in the beautiful night. Then came the beautiful Bangalore- mysore highway , check out below file picture for more.
As if driving at 100 Kms per hour wasn’t fun at 2:00 in the night we stopped by on our way to enjoy the infrastructural beauty of the BMIC flyover and serene night.
Then begun the photo shoot at 2:30 in night at flyover as there was no traffic at that time. It was finally ended by a police jeep that came by and saw us dancing in the middle of the road:))) Luckily they let us go without asking much questions, otherwise raat ko acchi wali class lag jati hum sab ki:))
We rode all the way to the destination CCD at mysore highway around 3:00 AM. Tired & sleepless after the 70 kms drive we were elated seeing the buzzing CCD at 3:00 am Then we wore those cute little bday caps to get into the bday celebration mode.
We had ensured to bring along those magic candles. Magic candles demanded quite a bit of efforts from usually lazy bday girl.
Everyone else was just waiting for the cake to come by. After this long bike ride no one ever felt the need for the bday bumps:) We rested at CCD for some time and satiated our hunger, btw I loved the spinach & cheese sandwich , deadly combination:)
Finally we kick started our journey back towards Bangalore at around 5:00 AM in the morning. This time we could see a little bit more trafic but then we rode consistently at a good speed and cruised in Bangalore around 6:45 Am.
It was another blast of an outing where the fun quota outlasted the anticipation and the unexpectedness of the event made it more special. If there was one fun way to celebrate the bday than this one’s got to be right up there. We reached Koramangala around 7:30 and than reality of life hit us back, it was a wednesday morning and office is on dude!!Luckily I had already informed my manager that I would reach office by 1:00 noon.
We parted our ways back and ended the grandeur bday saga. To sum it all it was quite enthralling experience 140 odd kms drive during night on our mercs.
Long live the Nocturnal species around:))
Till we meet chao.
~ K ~
Give time a break – Peacefull Pondicherry
Lifes been on a fast track offlate and lot of things are happening in life, I sometimes feel like Forest Gump running from one thing to another. Though its a different mater that I dont excel that well as Forest did in the movie and at times I am running without any purpose as well..
Well, back to one usual working friday in office, I was wondering whether I would be able to catch up with the tide and would be able to finish up the tasks assigned in time or not, it being one of early days in my new job.
In the middle of all the friday blues , I suddenly get a call from Ape /Appu and I get to hear that we are heading to a place called Pondicherry tonight for another weekend sojourn:).
My mind shuts down for a split second and starts meandering in all directions, whether to go or not and who all are coming and what not. After sometime I get another call from Ape which started with a please come (6 times) and ended with a 10 minute deadline to say yes or go to hell:)
Well as always ready for another adventurous trip I nodded finally and there we were a gang of 8 mostly unknown folks heading towards a place known for breath taking scenic beaches down south – Pondicherry a union teritorry now and a French colony in past.
All excited & pumped up I packed my stuffs and reached at Ape’s place around 11 in night. Let me introduce the gang first
- Ape / Appu – very sweet & mysterious girl, Miss Prankster – be careful!!
- Jayesh -A shant yet Shana banda, looks can be misleading – the pehla nasha guy:))
- Manindar – A Hindi linguist, by mistake working in Accenture
- Baljeet – laughter queen of the gang and a pakki funjabi.
- Durgesh – yaron ka yaar and manager by birth and co-founder of www.winningaspirations.com
- Neeraj – V. good photographer and an HR professional – I actually wanted to cite Ape’s first responses seeing him , but may be in the right forum:))
- Priyanka – Full of nautanki, overtly bindas individual – kindly get in touch with durgesh to know more about the initial traumas:)
We started our journey around 12 midnight towards pondicherry and I was forced to sit in the first seat and made to be awake whole night accompanied by Jayesh to start with and Ape afterwards . Our trip started with few start up traumas – ask durgesh for more!! and than got filled with lots of fun, laughter, mix bag of poor and fundoo one liners (award goes to priyanka) and non-stop singing (no guesses required:) and some cofee breaks on the way. Been awake the whole night I was dying to get some good sleep but I wasnt destined for that eternal happiness.
We landed in Pondicheery around 8 saturday morning and it was horrifying 43 degress hot. We identified few hotels to stay back and finally with great help from our Financial Administrator Jaaayeesh we managed to find a decent place to stay. We also managed for some cool discount thanks to some Bhaiya Please (5 times only:) from Ape. All tired yet pumped up we managed to get ready around 11 in the morning and started our hunt for some decent food.
We landed in a place called paramount which sucked big time and finally we moved into another restaurant that provided decent ambience but not so good food. After finishing our culinary experiences we kickstarted our tour de pondicherry. It was not so pleasant roaming in the heat yet we decided to get a sneak pick of beautiful rocky beach ( a place to be ) and spent some good time taking pictures.
After that we moved to Sri Aurobindo Ashram and finally facing the heat started for some summer time shopping. Streets of pondicherry were so clean filled with some v.nice architectural houses built during French colonial days. It was all happening apart from the heat that we had to bear.
Luckily girls didn’t shop for long ( samjadar/ guys ko ishara kafi hai:)) and we finally moved out of the street and drove our way to the serene sandy beaches of Pondicherry.
There we were, a km away from the beautiful seashore and than one horrifying mistake by our genious Manjunath (driver) did the trick. hush!!! our car got stuck in middle of heavy sand and there was no way out. Well than begun the rescue operation led by Ape ( angry young woman:) and Manindar to take our car out of the sand. After looking out for help and spending a tiring 1.5 hour we finally decided to hire a tractor to move our car out of the heavy duty sand.
It was a moment of extremes one filled with tiredness and another with excitement in front of the beautiful sea shore. It was all filled with an inner urge to celebrate life & make most of the available time!! We spent close to 2-3 hours tumblng down in the sea and had a gala time in salty water, jumping around , some under water games and dancing to some sizzling dance numbers at the same time!!!
After a fun filled day in Pondi we headed back to the city. Finally it was time for some quality food and we were quite elated having dinner in front of beautiful sea shore at Ajanta.
It was than we moved back to where our day had begun and sat enjoying the serenity and beauty of the sea. We shared some beautiful moments having fun, laughter and frolic in front of the sea. Get in touch with Jayesh to know more about his moments of fame ))
Finally after an eventful day out, there we were back to hotel and one fine moment all of us decided to play truth and dare!!!! , sala deemag kharab ho gaya tha sabka:))) What happened after wards is only history, some of the wildest and naughtiest dares had come our way and luckily few people escaped- no worries sab ka time ata hai priyanka, beta humse bach ke kahan jayegi!!! next time tu pakki gai:)))
Afer an eventful first day and hours of heavenly sleep we finally woke up to hot hot pondi. We checked out of the hotel around 12 in the noon and had lunch and decided to check out Chunnambar. Its a well known back water place in pondicherry. It was around 20 minutes drive from city area .
After reaching Chunnambar we had to take around 20 minutes boat ride to reach the place called paradise beach. As per the name it was like a heaven , far better than the beach that we had been to a day before!! It was like for next 4 hours we were there at the beach playing around, taking some amazing pictures and watching the bay area in the huts on the beach. I could go on and on writing about the fun we had at the sea….
As it all started with a sleepless night on the way back, we had a fun filled drive back to bangalore and reached bangalore around 4 early monday morning. Gosh I have been sleepless for 2 days and I have to reach office around 9:30:)) He he !!! life back on the fast track again…..
To sum it all it ws one of the best trips I had after a long time, away from normal life amidst nature’s beauty, accompanied by some of the whackiest people around:))
No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.
Above statement says it all, as even after 10 days of the trip, we still feel nostalgic about the fun times we had in the trip…
I appreciate your patience and kindness in case you somehow managed to read through such a long blog.. ( 5 times only – appu’s gonna kill me for this:)
You can check out the pics : http://meetkunal.shutterfly.com/action/
Enjoy
~ Kunal ~
White Water Rafting @ Bheemeshwari
It’s been long I wanted to go water rafting, finally that moment arrived when I was able to pull in few of my adventure enthusiastic friends and their friends. We ended up making a big gang of 12 members.
White water rafting involves negotiating and taming fast-flowing torturous rivers in an inflatable rubber raft or a kayak over swirling rapids and crushing waves. Providing a gush of adrenaline rush, white water rafting has recently emerged as one of the most popular adventure sport.
For us the moment of rejuvenation came on 30th September a lazy Sunday when all of us woke up and started towards jungle lodge fishing and nature camp, Bheemeshwari, a place approx 150 kms away from Bangalore.
Jungle Lodge Resort
http://www.junglelodges.com/resort_overview.asp?resort=Bheemeshwari
Meandering through the woody landscape amidst the forests of Karnataka is the Cauvery – the most majestic and sacred river of South India. The river offers both adventure and opportunity for nature lovers. How to get there: Located in Mandya district, it is around 140 kms from Central Bangalore. You go up to Kanakapura on pretty potholed roads and then 16 kms away take a left into Halagur and proceed towards Muttatti. Adjoining Muttatti is the place…
There are multiple ways to enjoy the nature in jungle lodge fishing and nature camp. You can opt for a one day package where in you get to enjoy whole day with activities like Coracle Ride and Joy Fishing, Campfire and Barbecue and Guided trek / nature walk in the wildlife sanctuary. You can also club this with water Rafting facility provided by the Jungle lodge resorts. Since all of us were more interested in Water Rafting activity only we had done the booking via a Adventure Trekking group called as CareIndia (http://www.careindia.in/)
Of course, if you have the time, you may want to opt for the overnight packages too. They cost a little more, but those huts are truly wooded and located right on the banks of the river. Also if you wish you can also opt for the tent houses which are slightly cheaper. It gives you the feeling of a true camp. The cottages and tents are available at additional costs.
We started early on a lazy Sunday morning and made sure to reach there by 9:30 the time that was allocated for our batch by CareIndia team. Water rafting being an exciting and thrilling water sport activity all of us were thrilled and were tense insideJ as no one experienced it before.
Grading of Rivers
Most rivers are graded on a scale of one to six depending on the volume, gradient, and intensity of the rapids-one being the calmest and four considered to be challenging without being excessively dangerous.
Grade I: Small, easy waves with small ripples, clear passages and no obstructions.
Grade II: Mainly clear passages with medium sized waves (less than 1 m); some level of difficulty with basic maneuvering around obstacles required.
Grade III: Rapids with high irregular waves (1-2 m); narrow in places, exposed rocks; small falls. Skilled maneuvering required.
Grade IV: Very difficult rapids with high, powerful, irregular waves; series of obstacles requiring extremely skilled maneuvering. The passage is often difficult to recognize and inspection from the bank is suggested.
Grade V: Very difficult and violent rapids with highly congested routes and channels; violent and fast currents; abrupt turns; Thorough scouting from bank is required. Critical and complex maneuvering is required. Only to be attempted by experienced paddlers. Rescue very difficult.
Grade VI: Very dangerous and suicidal, not recommended for commercial rafting.
Cauvery for Water Rafting
Considering all the factors above Bheemeshwari fits in as a place worth visiting for all novice rafters as Cauvery falls in the range of Grade-II hence the risk involved is almost none. Those who don’t know how to swim can also be part of this activity which makes it a famous destination for all adventure enthusiasts.
In India, the Zanskar and the Indus, both in Ladakh, are graded I – III, while the more southern stretches of the Beas, Chenab, Sutlej and Teesta are graded IV – VI.
So after all this gyan back 2 our journey, so there we were all of us wearing a life (saving) jacket a cool helmet and a raft in our hands, I must say it was very different of an experience for all the techies who are used to sit in front of comp 10-12 hours dailyJ
A few minutes later, we were asked to accompany the water rafting coach. He gave us adequate instructions and off we went. They clubbed 4 boats together 6 member a piece in a boat. We started slowly and steadily.
Mind well it requires a great amount of synchronization from all the members to take the raft ahead in the right direction along with certain amount of bodily stamina. Incidentally ours was the last boat in the groupJ. Gradually we started moving ahead and the journey became more thrilling as speed of water changed and it was faster and due to some rocks on the way it was hell lot of fun as well. Over all we rafted 8 kms together whoa that was awesomeJ
Check out the pictures to experience the thrill yourselfJ http://www.meetkunal.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b35772e445fe
Awesome! Sometimes a few moments of adventure can last a lifetime. Right now as I type my experiences, I would suggest all you go Bheemeshwari once and experience the thrill just for 900 bucks that you can cherish for a lifetime.
So after Mountain climbing and Water Rafting what’s nextJ well I will let you know and keep writing so watch out this space for more.
Wanna know more about Rafting in India check out:
http://www.aquaterra.co.in/faqs.html
http://www.travel-wisely.com/rafting/rafting.htm
Regards
~ Comfortably Numb ~
