Highlights:
Started at 6:30 am on 20th Dec and came back at 3:30 pm on 27th Dec 2014- 8 days!
Route: Bangalore - Mangalore - Bekal Fort - Kozhikode - Kochi - Valparai - Munnar - Bangalore
Total Distance : 1963 km (Odometer reading : 9638 - 7675)
How did it happen?
This is the answer to the questions people asked me in past few days... WHY? Why riding alone? Don't you have friends? Don't have a girlfriend? Why don't you get married? Blah blah blah...
So this is how it happened...
I took a week off from work as my parents were planning to come to Bangalore for vacation. We planned go to Kerela or Hampi. But because of some important work (seriously, my dad is serving in Indian Air Force, and things get serious sometimes) they have to cancel it!
So, I had 9 days with me, and nothing to do. None of my friend were free at that time. One day, it just clicked in my mind that "why not to go somewhere alone!". I always wanted to do it, but never got an opportunity. Let's do it!
I started planning about the trip. Route, stuff I need to buy, accommodation, "expenses" etc. I thought Kerela would be the best, as I love places close to natural, and I have ample time. I decided to explore the coastal region of Kerala, starting from Mangalore till Kanyalumari and then back. (I didn't took that route btw. Will tell you why!)
I bought following stuff before starting the ride:
Enough of boring details... let me tell you about the ride now :-D
I would like to breakdown my trip into 5 chapters. Here are they:
Chapter-1 : Reaching Kerela
Chapter-2 : The Coastal Kerela
Chapter-3 : Fort Kochi
Chapter-4 : The God's Own Country
Chapter-5 : Back to Bangalore
Chapter-1 : Reaching Kerela
Day-1
From Bangalore to Mangalore
Started at: 6:30 am, reached at: 4:00 pm
The scheduled alarm tried to wake me up at 4:30 am. I usually don't wake up at once. But today was different. There was a smile on my face crying out loud, "this is it!". I packed the remaining stuff and mounted everything on my thumper. At 6:30 am I started my machine. Jasveen and Vibhor joined me. They planned to ride 60-70 km with me to bid goodbye to me. It made me happy! After riding for an hour or so, we stopped for tea. We were already at NH-75. After tea they head back and I resumed my journey.
The road is awesome for first 200 km. It is mostly 4 or 6 lane road with divider. One can ride at 100 - 110 kmph easily. After 200 km, the road enters Western Ghats. It becomes 2 lane road with no divider. There were many trucks carrying oil tankers. They make the road risky for riding. But forest and cool breeze makes you feel better. After riding around 150 km on ghat roads, I was out of western ghats. I could feel the humidity in air as I was coming nearer the Arabian Sea.
I reached Mangalore at around 4 pm. As soon as I entered in the city, I started asking auto-rickshow guys about where can I find lodge at cheap rate. I wandered for 30-40 min, saw couple of places but none suited my needs. Then finally a autowala bhaiya saw my misery and escorted me to Ganesh Lodge, which is cheap, has parking space and it is in the middle of the city. I thanked that guy, took the room and dumped all my stuff in the room. It was 5 o'clock. I took a shower and started to go to Panambur Beach, supposedly the best beach in Mangalore, as stated by Mangalorians. I was in a hurry to catch sunset. I don't know why I like watching sunrise/sunset so much! After struggling for the way to beach for almost half an hour, I finally reached the beach. It was very crowded, but still the sunset was beautiful. I walked on the shore past sunset. The distant ships' lights twinkle at the horizon. They of different colors, red, blue, green etc. It looked amazing. After spending some time at the beach, I went back to the room. It was around 8 pm and I still had some stamina left to walk around the city. I was tired and needed a drink. So I searched for a good place nearby in Zomato. I found Liquid Lounge, which was at a walk-able distance. Loud Rock music, good crowd, many hot girls! But that place was small and over crowded. I had an Old Monk large, listened the music for a while, starred at some girls and came back to my room. I was very tired and little rum in the belly made me sleep like a log. But one thing was going in my mind, I'm gonna be in Kerela tomorrow!
Day-2
Mangalore - Kappil Beach - Bekal Fort -
I was up early and started early that day. I checked out from the hotel at aroun 6:15am and started riding at 6:30 am approx. The plan was to head south on the coastal road, and reach Kozhikode by night.
At around 8am, I entered Kerela. I felt amazing at that time. I said to myself... "and the journey begins...".
Chapter-2 : The Costal Kerela
Still Day-2
"Kerela, I am in Kerela, this is happening, I am riding on Kerela road", my head was flooded with these thoughts. I was happy. There was a smile not visible to anyone inside that helmet. I was lost in myself and the roads. For a while I didn't even noticed the view. After sometime I realised that the surrounding is more greener than before. I could see people in lungi. After riding for 40-45 min I saw CCD. I am not a regular CCD goer but at that time... "mann kar gaya". I stopped by and had some coffee. I liked the cloudy weather and I hoped for the same for rest of the day.
I resumed my journey after coffee. After an hour or so, I saw a sign board saying "Kappil Beach". This was the 1st beach I encountered after entering Kerala. I took the road which was going to take me to Kappil Beach. There were many bungalows on the road. Some of them were awesome and they were looking like beach house were people come during vacations. I wished I have a beach house like that in future.
After hardly 2 km, I reached the beach. I was awesome! No one at all...literally no one. Only me, my bike, the beach and Arabian Sea. The look of the beach was like the music video of Coldplay's "Yellow". I sat at the beach for some time. I enjoyed being alone there. The mischievous part of my brain told me to shoot some videos at the beach with my new sports camera. I tried doing some crazy stuff....may be I will post that video sometime :-)
I started from there at around 11 am. My next destination was Bekal Fort. On the way to Bekal Fort, I saw a ground where a football match was going on. The players were in Jerseys of there clubs. It looked like a well organized setup! I was curious about it so I parked my bike and went to the audience. It was a tournament between the local football clubs! All the clubs has their own jerseys. The field was prepared well for the match. They even had referries! We have people who play something other than cricket! It was nice to see that! They asked some common questions about my ride. I politely answered them and started my journey again.
Bekal fort was just 10 min away. As there was not paid parking, I went to Nirvana resort just next to the Fort. One old guy and one young were talking near the gate. I told that I will park my vehicle inside, visit the fort and then come back for a cup of tea. They were friendly and agreed. The old guy was a lively person. He asked me about my trip and was happy to know about it. He was the one who asked me - "why don't you get married?" I laughed and said that next time I will come with my wife.
I took my camera and other expensive stuff and went to the fort. It was very different from the forts I have seen in the past. But one thing was common, a temple! You will find it the moment you will enter in the fort. There were no palace or big halls where king used to live. This fort was build for the army to be deployed there. Because of sea view, it was easy to attack the enemies ships from the fort, without even going into the sea. I roamed around the fort and clicked couple of pics. The view of the beach and sea was amazing for the top of the fort. I met some school kids who were very excited to see me. They saw me on my bike and recognized me at the fort. They all were speaking english, good enough. Another difference from other states.. literacy rate!
One hour is more than enough to visit Bekal fort. Specially on a hot day! I think that it will be good place to chill out in evening. But surely not at the time when your shadow is shortest. I was back to Nirvana Resort at 12 noon. Ordered a cup of tea and enjoyed it. Talked with the old guy for some more time and then I started again.
Next destination - "Muzhuppilangad Drive-in Beach" that's a fucking crazy name! I asked Roban bhai at least a dozen times to repeat the name. That's to Google that even it you just type "Drive-in beach" it pops up this one. I was very excited about this beach from the beginning of my trip. All credit goes to Roban bhai. He told me about this beach and some interesting fact about it, like it's the longest drive-in beach in Asia! I reached there at around 4:30 pm. "Woooowwwww" - the moment I entered the beach! It's almost 5-6 km long beach which is in banana shape when you will see from one side. You enter near to the right end of the beach, so I took left and drove till the end. There were some rocks around 3-4 km from and I thought that it's the last point. But when I reached there the, it was just a mid point! There was more place to drive. When you will go further, you will find a backwater merging to the ocean. And on the other side, there is again a continuation of the beach.
I mounted my Sports Camera and started shooting videos.. I went from on corner to the other while taking videos. Some waved hands, some smiled and some gave me weird looks. It was fun! I decided to stay there till sunset. 2 friends come to me and started chating with me.. And one of them asked me the most hillarious question - "Aapko government paisa deti hai kya ghoomne ke liye?" (Do you get money from Government for these ride?) I couldn't stop laughing. One of them was engineer grad just came out of college, and the other one was not even in a college, a 12th passout.
As I was chilling out at the beach, I observed people around me. I saw a group of 4 dudes walking on the beach. I started looking at their look from top to bottom. Nice hair style, short hair but sharp one. Clean shaved with sharp moushtash, shades, praty shirts, and then "lungi". Google it if you don't know what it is. I was that everyone was wearing lungis. Only a few were not and I think they were tourists, not localits. Then I saw a car stuck in the sand. These adventurous guys took there cars closer to the sea and stopped there for clicks. The waves cut down the sand below the tires and the car got stuck. Soon there were some dudes who came for help. It was there busniess - to take out cars stuck on the beach. After negotiating about the chargesm the started the work. They placed a big rock below the tyres, by lifing the car. They had a good techinque. The car was out within 5 min. It must be a ususal event on that beach, i thought.
After sunset, I started the Blacmonk and coutinued my journey. I wanted to reach Kozhikode by night.
Expenses:
Petrol:
Day 0 : Bangalore : 1200
Day 2 : Mangalore: 600
Day 3 : Mahe: 650
500 by reward Points ...i guess in Kochi
Day 7 : Munnar : 500
Day 8 : 600 + 300 = 900
total : 4350
Accomodation
Mangalore : 325
Kozhikode: 300
Kochi : 900 (2 days)
Arthapally waterfalls : 500
Munnar : 300 (2 days)
Total : 2325
Food: 3 to 4k
Total : Around 11k
Started at 6:30 am on 20th Dec and came back at 3:30 pm on 27th Dec 2014- 8 days!
Route: Bangalore - Mangalore - Bekal Fort - Kozhikode - Kochi - Valparai - Munnar - Bangalore
Total Distance : 1963 km (Odometer reading : 9638 - 7675)
How did it happen?
This is the answer to the questions people asked me in past few days... WHY? Why riding alone? Don't you have friends? Don't have a girlfriend? Why don't you get married? Blah blah blah...
So this is how it happened...
I took a week off from work as my parents were planning to come to Bangalore for vacation. We planned go to Kerela or Hampi. But because of some important work (seriously, my dad is serving in Indian Air Force, and things get serious sometimes) they have to cancel it!
So, I had 9 days with me, and nothing to do. None of my friend were free at that time. One day, it just clicked in my mind that "why not to go somewhere alone!". I always wanted to do it, but never got an opportunity. Let's do it!
I started planning about the trip. Route, stuff I need to buy, accommodation, "expenses" etc. I thought Kerela would be the best, as I love places close to natural, and I have ample time. I decided to explore the coastal region of Kerala, starting from Mangalore till Kanyalumari and then back. (I didn't took that route btw. Will tell you why!)
I bought following stuff before starting the ride:
- Quechua T2 Tent. Rs 1699. I thought it will be useful in case I get an opportunity to pitch it on a beach. But after talking to Roban (more about him later) I dropped it. He said that in Kerela you are not allowed to pitch a tent on any beach, so it's useless. But I always wanted to buy one. Will use it someday...soon! :)
- SJ4000 Sports Camera. Rs. 8000. It is like GoPro.
- Mi Power Bank. Rs.999. It was not delivered on time :( So borrowed a Power Bank from Nilay, which is complex gadget. I still don't know how to operate that piece of shit!
- Smart Phone Holder Rs. 300 from Amazon. It is used to mount your phone in handle, so that you can use navigation easily.
- Bungee Cords. Rs. 350 from Decathlon. For mounting laptop bag on pillion seat.
So, I spent around 11k for this trip, before even kicking off. But the good thing was that I already had a lot of stuff like sleeping bag, saddle bag etc. And these stuff are like one time investment.
Just in case you are interested, following were the things I carried to the trip. And you should also carry them if you are travelling alone.
- Laptop (to store photos and videos)
- Smartphones -2
- Power bank
- Sports Camera
- Sleeping bag
- Saddle bag
- Bungee cords
Enough of boring details... let me tell you about the ride now :-D
I would like to breakdown my trip into 5 chapters. Here are they:
Chapter-1 : Reaching Kerela
Chapter-2 : The Coastal Kerela
Chapter-3 : Fort Kochi
Chapter-4 : The God's Own Country
Chapter-5 : Back to Bangalore
Chapter-1 : Reaching Kerela
Day-1
From Bangalore to Mangalore
Started at: 6:30 am, reached at: 4:00 pm
The scheduled alarm tried to wake me up at 4:30 am. I usually don't wake up at once. But today was different. There was a smile on my face crying out loud, "this is it!". I packed the remaining stuff and mounted everything on my thumper. At 6:30 am I started my machine. Jasveen and Vibhor joined me. They planned to ride 60-70 km with me to bid goodbye to me. It made me happy! After riding for an hour or so, we stopped for tea. We were already at NH-75. After tea they head back and I resumed my journey.
The road is awesome for first 200 km. It is mostly 4 or 6 lane road with divider. One can ride at 100 - 110 kmph easily. After 200 km, the road enters Western Ghats. It becomes 2 lane road with no divider. There were many trucks carrying oil tankers. They make the road risky for riding. But forest and cool breeze makes you feel better. After riding around 150 km on ghat roads, I was out of western ghats. I could feel the humidity in air as I was coming nearer the Arabian Sea.
I reached Mangalore at around 4 pm. As soon as I entered in the city, I started asking auto-rickshow guys about where can I find lodge at cheap rate. I wandered for 30-40 min, saw couple of places but none suited my needs. Then finally a autowala bhaiya saw my misery and escorted me to Ganesh Lodge, which is cheap, has parking space and it is in the middle of the city. I thanked that guy, took the room and dumped all my stuff in the room. It was 5 o'clock. I took a shower and started to go to Panambur Beach, supposedly the best beach in Mangalore, as stated by Mangalorians. I was in a hurry to catch sunset. I don't know why I like watching sunrise/sunset so much! After struggling for the way to beach for almost half an hour, I finally reached the beach. It was very crowded, but still the sunset was beautiful. I walked on the shore past sunset. The distant ships' lights twinkle at the horizon. They of different colors, red, blue, green etc. It looked amazing. After spending some time at the beach, I went back to the room. It was around 8 pm and I still had some stamina left to walk around the city. I was tired and needed a drink. So I searched for a good place nearby in Zomato. I found Liquid Lounge, which was at a walk-able distance. Loud Rock music, good crowd, many hot girls! But that place was small and over crowded. I had an Old Monk large, listened the music for a while, starred at some girls and came back to my room. I was very tired and little rum in the belly made me sleep like a log. But one thing was going in my mind, I'm gonna be in Kerela tomorrow!
Day-2
Mangalore - Kappil Beach - Bekal Fort -
I was up early and started early that day. I checked out from the hotel at aroun 6:15am and started riding at 6:30 am approx. The plan was to head south on the coastal road, and reach Kozhikode by night.
At around 8am, I entered Kerela. I felt amazing at that time. I said to myself... "and the journey begins...".
Chapter-2 : The Costal Kerela
Still Day-2
"Kerela, I am in Kerela, this is happening, I am riding on Kerela road", my head was flooded with these thoughts. I was happy. There was a smile not visible to anyone inside that helmet. I was lost in myself and the roads. For a while I didn't even noticed the view. After sometime I realised that the surrounding is more greener than before. I could see people in lungi. After riding for 40-45 min I saw CCD. I am not a regular CCD goer but at that time... "mann kar gaya". I stopped by and had some coffee. I liked the cloudy weather and I hoped for the same for rest of the day.
I resumed my journey after coffee. After an hour or so, I saw a sign board saying "Kappil Beach". This was the 1st beach I encountered after entering Kerala. I took the road which was going to take me to Kappil Beach. There were many bungalows on the road. Some of them were awesome and they were looking like beach house were people come during vacations. I wished I have a beach house like that in future.
After hardly 2 km, I reached the beach. I was awesome! No one at all...literally no one. Only me, my bike, the beach and Arabian Sea. The look of the beach was like the music video of Coldplay's "Yellow". I sat at the beach for some time. I enjoyed being alone there. The mischievous part of my brain told me to shoot some videos at the beach with my new sports camera. I tried doing some crazy stuff....may be I will post that video sometime :-)
I started from there at around 11 am. My next destination was Bekal Fort. On the way to Bekal Fort, I saw a ground where a football match was going on. The players were in Jerseys of there clubs. It looked like a well organized setup! I was curious about it so I parked my bike and went to the audience. It was a tournament between the local football clubs! All the clubs has their own jerseys. The field was prepared well for the match. They even had referries! We have people who play something other than cricket! It was nice to see that! They asked some common questions about my ride. I politely answered them and started my journey again.
Bekal fort was just 10 min away. As there was not paid parking, I went to Nirvana resort just next to the Fort. One old guy and one young were talking near the gate. I told that I will park my vehicle inside, visit the fort and then come back for a cup of tea. They were friendly and agreed. The old guy was a lively person. He asked me about my trip and was happy to know about it. He was the one who asked me - "why don't you get married?" I laughed and said that next time I will come with my wife.
I took my camera and other expensive stuff and went to the fort. It was very different from the forts I have seen in the past. But one thing was common, a temple! You will find it the moment you will enter in the fort. There were no palace or big halls where king used to live. This fort was build for the army to be deployed there. Because of sea view, it was easy to attack the enemies ships from the fort, without even going into the sea. I roamed around the fort and clicked couple of pics. The view of the beach and sea was amazing for the top of the fort. I met some school kids who were very excited to see me. They saw me on my bike and recognized me at the fort. They all were speaking english, good enough. Another difference from other states.. literacy rate!
One hour is more than enough to visit Bekal fort. Specially on a hot day! I think that it will be good place to chill out in evening. But surely not at the time when your shadow is shortest. I was back to Nirvana Resort at 12 noon. Ordered a cup of tea and enjoyed it. Talked with the old guy for some more time and then I started again.
Next destination - "Muzhuppilangad Drive-in Beach" that's a fucking crazy name! I asked Roban bhai at least a dozen times to repeat the name. That's to Google that even it you just type "Drive-in beach" it pops up this one. I was very excited about this beach from the beginning of my trip. All credit goes to Roban bhai. He told me about this beach and some interesting fact about it, like it's the longest drive-in beach in Asia! I reached there at around 4:30 pm. "Woooowwwww" - the moment I entered the beach! It's almost 5-6 km long beach which is in banana shape when you will see from one side. You enter near to the right end of the beach, so I took left and drove till the end. There were some rocks around 3-4 km from and I thought that it's the last point. But when I reached there the, it was just a mid point! There was more place to drive. When you will go further, you will find a backwater merging to the ocean. And on the other side, there is again a continuation of the beach.
I mounted my Sports Camera and started shooting videos.. I went from on corner to the other while taking videos. Some waved hands, some smiled and some gave me weird looks. It was fun! I decided to stay there till sunset. 2 friends come to me and started chating with me.. And one of them asked me the most hillarious question - "Aapko government paisa deti hai kya ghoomne ke liye?" (Do you get money from Government for these ride?) I couldn't stop laughing. One of them was engineer grad just came out of college, and the other one was not even in a college, a 12th passout.
As I was chilling out at the beach, I observed people around me. I saw a group of 4 dudes walking on the beach. I started looking at their look from top to bottom. Nice hair style, short hair but sharp one. Clean shaved with sharp moushtash, shades, praty shirts, and then "lungi". Google it if you don't know what it is. I was that everyone was wearing lungis. Only a few were not and I think they were tourists, not localits. Then I saw a car stuck in the sand. These adventurous guys took there cars closer to the sea and stopped there for clicks. The waves cut down the sand below the tires and the car got stuck. Soon there were some dudes who came for help. It was there busniess - to take out cars stuck on the beach. After negotiating about the chargesm the started the work. They placed a big rock below the tyres, by lifing the car. They had a good techinque. The car was out within 5 min. It must be a ususal event on that beach, i thought.
After sunset, I started the Blacmonk and coutinued my journey. I wanted to reach Kozhikode by night.
Expenses:
Petrol:
Day 0 : Bangalore : 1200
Day 2 : Mangalore: 600
Day 3 : Mahe: 650
500 by reward Points ...i guess in Kochi
Day 7 : Munnar : 500
Day 8 : 600 + 300 = 900
total : 4350
Accomodation
Mangalore : 325
Kozhikode: 300
Kochi : 900 (2 days)
Arthapally waterfalls : 500
Munnar : 300 (2 days)
Total : 2325
Food: 3 to 4k
Total : Around 11k
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