Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Catching up with Снегурочка & сварливый человек , encounter with Mr.D'souza

Well it was as usual, a warm bear hug, genuine and happy.

I liked the expressions of his face though, and my Снегурочка happy and cheerful as usual . it always is a nice feeling when you meet old friends , well literally old friends .

I had the much deserved break after some serious biking and it felt great to have both Andy & Elena for company.
It was the ideal break without a care in the world , swimming in the beach, smoking Loco, having little conversation & arguments and taking my vengeance on them with my " Magical " cooking skills, i have to say a vacation cant be better than this .

The roads in Goa are really pretty good , long & winding stretched here and there gives you as nice feel especially if you are in the off tourist areas or driving at off tourist times .

An afternoon siesta with a heavy fish curry Thali lunch backing us up was a welcome break from all the junk food i had been eating during my travel , and old panjim’s lazy looking streets were a delight to walk off the afternoon heat.

All of us were walking together on the old roads of uptown panjim when on the way we came across a waft of music , and we were drawn closer to the tune of a violin .
As we just drift by windering as to where is this mellow tone coming from we notice that Снегурочка disappears, god knows where ? just to emerge out of Mr.D'Silva's house reckoning me and Andy to follow suit .

The house was quiet old and gave fodder to me and Andy for our animated discussions about old houses in goa .
An old gentleman dressed in impeccable formals what a sight, Big spectacles and aged beautiful eyes , as we walked into his study i felt that i am entering a place where time must move very slowly.

His was a wonderful story , Born in Macau or i think it was Singapore , he worked 20 odd years in Brazil as a professor of fine arts, He claimed to have a lineage in the Goan Portuguese aristocracy , and his " Great " grandfather was the First chief justice of old Portuguese Goa .

His violin was magical, turning out tunes that were so bare and so strong that it was no wonder it touched me, as if calling out to an emotion hidden deep inside , soaking this is we move on & bid him adieu with smiles on our faces brought out by a bliss of music.

Nice little place, i wanted to visit old Goa and do some serious photography of the old houses & that architecture , but maybe some other time .

Well I am lazing around a bit here now, drifting lazily , drunk and happy , will write more about all this sometime later

See ya .

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Magical byndoor and the secret beach .

Well what a wonderful place this is , i dont want to speak about it and spoil the magic . This blog entry is about 28 hours late but was soaking in so much of the coastal country side , i forgot about it . Beach next to the hill , a old temple , starry skies ....! We bid goodebye to this wonderful place in the middle of the jungle and drifted through the coast , the roads get a bit worse once you reach uttara kannada district .

Bhatkal : unique in its own way , we then started driving again after filling up our tanks . On a impulse as i was driving i felt the gentle breeze hit my face and turned my bike to the left on a narrow road .

A lone fisherman's house , fish set out to dry , and a marshy pool with a invitation to a secret beach , so lonely , so desolate , with nobody except a lone fishing boat , this was the ideal beach .

This is where we thought it would be nice and kool to drive our bikes on the shoreline , i wanted to drive in the wet sand . And i was reminded of the attempt me and vicky tried on our visit to goa . That was some trip .

Well the outcome was the same , we couldnt go out for long , we could have done it if we had deflated our tiers , but we had no foot pump .
Anyway we drove back to gokarna pretty hurriedly and finished our visit to om beach , i didnt visit it again , no thing great in it . Did enjoy the drive up till there .

Then it was a mad rush to goa , hassle by the goan cops at the border and a stop at the famous " swiss resturant " enroute to galibaugh beach .

Thats it for now , enjoying a wonderful beach and great roads . Sadly saw army deployed all around and the country in general being cautious .
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Friday, December 26, 2008

Totally free , feel's like i am back where i belong .

Magundi , a rustic old cottage of the british era .

Its sole purpose was to keep the bridge company, Built as the last frontiers of the then civilization .

But then with these thoughts in our head i hit the road on a wonderful misty morning ,Magical winding ghats at elevation of 1000 meters my expectations from kemmangundi trip was high for that range and must say i wasnt let down .

Kudremukha was what it is " A ghost town" , empty eyes and lethargy and ruins, Just hope it doesnt become a tourist joint ,Sadly didnt stay there for long ,as it reminded me of a government controlled camp .

Even Lakya Dam was a big disappointment as it was almost dry .

But the drive from there was just amazing, tough not as challenging as the subramanya ghat, it was mellow and smooth , so smooth in fact that we literally glided on the tarmac Boobla and amish with verma and astitva were joyous .



I think they did close to about 13 kms with their engines off but i just did 9kms as i was literally flying on 2 wheels , High on the mountain air with so much green , For some wonderful reason i switched off the ipod playing remo and just let go of myself i mean the music was there but i couldnt here , all i did hear was the swish sound made by the wheel as if to remind me that they were still there .

For a moment on that road i forgot who. I was , silence was all that was inside and outside i closed my eyes in moist cool wind , i just let go of myself , just let go .

Opened them in a moment, the stable bull was going straight like a arrow , wasnt this moment what i yearned for ? I was doing an average of 45 degree turns at 45 kmph with my engine off , well almost .!

And the best part was that there was no traffic ! nil , none .i almost touched 65 KMPH like this , well then came the power turns where the bike was ripping the roads at 70 in the ghats .

Then came the slow 30 kmph hairpin bends . It was pure bliss i say ,the tarmac was just about inches from my outstretched hand , but as all good things come to an end so was this stretch of pleasant road .



Then there was a dash on the highway to make it to byndoor at the least possible time to catch up on a good sunset but all we did make was of a sunset in marwante with the beach cut through by a highway .


At last by 7PM we found our way through to the guest house driving on gravel and sand on a dark moonless night .

Oh and what a magical night it was the stars , the sea , and the place , wow .
All in all was happy about today , for today i had truly become a wind rider .

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Thursday, December 25, 2008

Fw: The fall of ego's , but not self denial .


Well we did make it upto bale honnur , well almost . Amish & sid skidded from their bikes , skin scraped , 2 hours lost . A little first aid and the kids are back on their bikes . Had wonderful food , a nice camp fire , a small drink . And to beat it all a nice government guest house . Now we are in kalasa passed through some amazing roads . More about it later .

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The road , and the first night stay .

Well well , we did make it up to hassan in one piece . Killer traffic and numbing cold what else could one ask for . Found a " decent " hotel and had a lot of chicken . Now on the way it was cold so was wearing my skull bandana , when i stopped to ask directions from a kid and he almost jumped out of his skin , screaming " aiee ghost , ghost " the power going out didnt make things better either . It was comical how the kid ran for his life . Anyway the long roads was a bit of challenge , clocked a constant of 70 kmph , and was one hour ahead of the pulsar's . Missing my girl on this nice empty roads . Oh almost forgot merry christmas ppl . Now off to balehonnuru .
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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

At last , real blog on wheels

Well here we are T-5 hours to departure , one of the pulsars is still not ready . Some work in office still pending . We are counting minutes for the departure . I am toying with asti's blackberry . Just waiting to get out onto the road and hum " here i am ... On the road again ". Bye for now .
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