Shanti Kunj - A Perfect Team Outing

It has been 7 months since I joined UXC India aka White Labelled. A small company taken over by Australian giant UXC Oxygen. Still it's Bangalore office has only 45 people. There were talks about team outing from past 4-5 months, and it happened last weekend, 13th-14th March. I postponed my leaves for a week to attend it. Going to a nice resort for night stay, that too on company's expenses, who would miss that! ;-)

The plan was to start early and reach the Shanti Kunj Resort by 12 pm. The bus was suppose to reach at 4:45 am at Marathahalli. But, as I expected, it reached at 5:45 am. We were around 20 people when we boarded the bus. Soon we picked up rest of the people and we hit the NH-48 at around 7:30 am. I was familiar with this highway as I rode on it from Bangalore to Mangalore in last December. Straight 4 lane road with very less traffic. We played dumb charades on the way, it was fun!

We reach at 1 pm. Got freshen up, went for lunch, okayish! Then we were asked to hop on a pickup truck to go to the river bank for a swim. We were excited when we climbed up on the truck. But soon this excitement turned into fear! This fucking truck's carrier was shaking the whole way, as if it will detach from the main body. All were standing on the carrier. They took us in the mountains through a rocky road. Even with one flat tyre, this truck was able to reach destination. Some were shouting "duck! duck! duck!" when a low branch of a tree was approaching. Ajit was shouting "Bolo kya karengeee..." in every 2 minutes. Which in no time became pain in the ass and he got a logical response from Gaurav "Sala niche dhakel denge tumko" (I will throw you out of the truck).

After that horrifying ride, we reached the river bank. We played some team activities there. I will skip the details as it may bore you down to death. I'm not saying that the activity was boring, it was fun! [Have to be diplomatic sometimes ;-)]. Then we went for a swim. It was relaxing! With the life jackets, we floated here and there, enjoyed the sound of river. No one was willing to come out. But we had to! I wasn't wearing my spectacles, so one off my senses was of no use at that time. All I could do, was to listen to a voice which was commanding us to come out of the water. I remembered watching Mahabharata/Ramayana when I was a kid. In one of the episode there was a voice coming from the sky, threatening the people of the earth. On your TV screen you will see only clouds and thunders. Soon after the announcement, the innocent people on earth start running in all directions, to save their lives! I though if we don't listen to this voice, we might also face the same fate! That's how we came out of the river. We took the terrifying truck ride back to the resort.

Already exhausted by the swim, we came back to resort for the next thing, The Rain Dance. In the middle of Coffee plantation, there was this dance floor, big enough to accommodate 100 people at a time. Soon the artificial rain started. They mounted 3 big hoses which were used to sprinkle water in the farm as well as for the rain dance. Almost everyone came to the dance floor. Dudes took off their shirts. No one was worried about "what people will say about my belly". You rarely see that "I just don't give a fuck" attitude! Ajit, gaon ka chora, was unstoppable! I wish Sunny Leone was there to see him dance. She would've gone crazy! And Vijay was out of the world. I would say, people will happily empty their pockets to watch him dance! I brought my sports came and shot some videos. It was fun! We danced for at least 2 hours.

After spending almost 3-4 hours in water and doing so much physical work, our "not used to these kinda stuff" body was craving for a drink. After freshening up, we went to the Camp Fire. It was around 8 pm. People were quite, calm and relaxed. The voice - "Why are you guys so quite?" No one knew at that time, but it was the silence before the storm!

The waiters started serving beer and whisky. The "quite" crowd was now turned into "abhi to party shuru hui hai" crowd. Alcohol started doing it's job! People asked me for playing guitar. I was also waiting for it! We sang many hindi songs, Give me some sunshine, Papa kehte hain, Paani da rang, Mera mann, Tera hone laga hoon, and many more. I was lost in playing guitar and singing with the buddies around me. After some time I observed that there are not much people left. Only 10-12 guys. I checked the time, 9:45 pm, ahhh.. we still have lot of time.

Then we heard the most depressing 2 words of the world, "Daaru Khatam!" (booze is over). But it was followed by some more words, "only Vodka is left". As no choice was left, some started drinking Vodka. In no time, we all were involved in a team building activity. It's called "Take Him To His Bed". No one had any idea that in next 2 hours we were about to witness so many things that we will remember for a long time. Yeah, it took 2 hours for 8 dudes to take 1 guy back to his bed. We can explain if you are not convinced. :-)

After the non-official team building activity, we had dinner and went back to our rooms to get some sleep.

Next morning I woke up at around 7:30 am. I came out of the room at around 8 after freshening up. I saw Nikhil and others, they asked me if I want to join them for the trek. I took my cam and joined them. It was a good 2 hours trek. Initially we went into the mountains along with a small stream. After an hour or so, we reached the river bank and then we followed the river back to the resort. I shot some selfie videos. We also found a snake near the river. Exactly at the same spot  where we were swimming the previous day.

By the time we reached resort, it was already 10:15 am. I was thirsty and hungry. We had breakfast and then we had to checkout from the resort. There was some time so I played couple of songs on guitar.

We boarded the bus and started at around 12 pm. On the way back, there were lot of things to talk! Specially about the late night team building activity. We shared our experienced and laughed our asses off! We entered Bangalore at around 7:30 pm and reached Marathahalli at 9 pm, perfecto! When Goutham and I were walking back to our flat, Goutham said, "It feels like we are coming back after 4-5 days. We have seen a lot of things in last two days". I nodded with a smile. :-)

Into the "God's Own Country" - Solo bike ride to Kerela

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:

1. 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! :)
2. SJ4000 Sports Camera. Rs. 8000. It is like GoPro.
3. 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!
4. Smart Phone Holder Rs. 300 from Amazon. It is used to mount your phone in handle, so that you can use navigation easily.
5. 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.

1. Laptop (to store photos and videos) 
2. Smartphones -2
3. Power bank
4. Sports Camera
5. Sleeping bag
6. Saddle bag
7. 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

Kudremukh Trek with Get Beyond Limits!

Bangalore's Calling : One day bike ride from Hyderabad to Bangalore

A Rush Of Blood To The Head

What is the best way to take your bike from one city to another? Simple.. ride it! And that's what I did! I got relocated to Bangalore from Hyderabad. On 5th Oct 2014, I did this 650 km solo ride on NH-7. It was amazing to see Hyderabad getting smaller through my rear view mirrors. And the excitement of opportunities to explore new places from Bangalore was all rushing in my head. What I understood from this ride is you can do anything if you are little crazy and stubborn.

My Mom and My Ride

I woke up early that day. Most of my stuff was already packed. My mom woke up even before me to cook breakfast and lunch for me. Ohhh... lovely moms! They are the most beautiful people in this world! I mounted my saddle bag and took blessings from my mom. I could see love and fear flowing out at the same time from her eyes. She was worried! I know that she will pray for the rest of the day for my safe ride.

I started at around 6:50 am. Within half an hour I reached Gachibowli, the outskirts of Cyberabad. I could see my previous employer, Accenture's office from there. I stopped for a while to have a last look. Lots of memories! A lady who was on a morning walk saw me and asked, "Are you one of those who go from place to place on bikes?". I nodded with a smile. Then there were some more questions which I answered nicely. She wished me good luck. Yeah, I need that today!

Reached outskirts of Hyderabad

NH7 : 6 lane road with proper dividers, as smooth as a baby's butt! (Of course for vehicles, not humans!). 100 km/h looked like 40 km/h. Speed is so relative! But I have to say, this stretch of NH7 is too damn boring. There is nothing much to see. I was getting sleepy again and again. I have to take small breaks in every 50 km or so.

The day became very hot after 10 am. There wasn't any tree on the road sides to sit and relax. Bus stops were the only options. While I was relaxing at of them, I saw two cops on the other side of road. Suddenly one of them crossed the road and started approaching towards me. I thought he would ask me papers. But he came just because he was curious. The day was very hot and there were no one else around. He sat besides me and started talking to me. It was like 'question n answer' round. He asked me why you ride so long and all other usual questions which comes in normal peoples mind

when they see someone like me. I patiently answered all of them. Then I asked, what the hell they were doing on such a hot day. He told that they were deployed to check trucks. In 30 min, they didn't stopped a single one! Soon the other one joined us and two of their friends, also cops, came and started listening to our conversation. I thought that I should leave now. I kick stared my bull and waved at them. I could see the look on their face, " bye bye you crazy lad!"

I had lunch at one of the bus stop. I called my mom, she was even more worried! She asked me to drive save and slow. I have to keep that in mind, I reiterated.

At around 2:30 pm, I reached Anantapur, still 200 km away from Bangalore. It started raining and I thanked God for it! My shirt was soaked in sweat. The rain and cool breeze was like a gift. I stopped for tea and again started my journey.

I reached Bangalore Airport at around 6 pm. My flat was still 35 km away and I didn't know the route. My phone was dead so I have to depend on people. At one point I took a wrong turn and because of that I wasted around 20 min. Still I reached at 7:10 pm. The ride was over. I called my mom. She congratulated me and asked me to rest. My friends were happy to see me and my Royal Enfield. The Blacmock is here to roar on Bangalore roads!

Cheers!

Some important info:

Road Condition -  Excellent

Time taken - 11 to 12 hours

Suggestion -  If you are riding on this road (specially alone) then keep lots of water with glucose/gatorade. Keep energy bars and chocolates. You won't get any shop for many kilometres. There are very less tea stalls, dhabas and mechanic shops on this road. Be prepared for punctures (take hand pump) or any other breakdown (keep spares with you).

Some more photos of that day

Starting my journey

Crossing Krishna River

Roof of one of the Bus Stop

Relaxing at Bus Stop

Rain in Anantpur

200 km away from Bangalore

With Vibhor. Reached Viceroy Boulevard.

Odometer after reaching Bangalore

Freedom Ride - Bike trip to Lonar, Ajanta, Ellora and Aurangabad

Distance - 1583 km
Bike - Royal Enfield Classic 350cc (2014 model)
Riders - Vivek (RE) and Fahad (Bajaj Avenger)
Route - Hyderabad - Lonar - Ellora - Ajanta - Daulatabad - Aurangabad - Aundha Nagnath - Hyderabad


Preparation
The planning started from when we received Leave Schedule for FY 2014-15. We saw that there is a long weekend in August as Independence Day is falling on a Friday. Then itself we decided that "We have to do something on this weekend". I booked my RE on 4th October 2013, and I received it after 8 long months, on 9th June 2014. I was very excited to own the bike I used to dream about. I completed first 2 servicing milestones (500km and 3000 km) within 2 months so that my bike ready for the long ride.

When August came, my bike and I were ready for a long ride. I was very busy in the last few months and didn't travel at all. I get restless without travelling. Just wanted to go somewhere. But to go on a tour, most important thing you need is money. After paying my huge credit card and other bills, my "salary" account balance was in 3 digit, on 2nd of August. I borrowed some money from my mom, she never says "no"! :-)

Coming to riding accessories, I bought RE jacket at the time I got my bike (Rs.6999). I already had a decent helmet, which I got customized a bit for the ride. Bought Army boots (just Rs.850) and borrowed gloves from Sreejith Sir. Fahad gave me his spare knee guards. So, I had all the necessary safety gears for the ride.

We planned for a 3 day trip: August 15th to 17th. Our plan was to visit Lonar and Ellora Caves, and come back. 19th August was again a public holiday (Telangana Bandh). So, if we could get 1 day leave i.e. 18th, we'll have 5 days!! But it was difficult and risky, because both of us were serving notice period. We kept that option in mind and started our journey.

Day 1

• From Hyderabad to Lonar Crater : 502 km
• Route: Hyderabad - Nizamabad - Nanded (Bypass) -Hingoli - Risod - Lonar
• Started @ 5:30 am, Reached @ 6:00 pm

We started at 5:30 am in the morning. Idea was to cover as much distance as possible before the day gets hot. Asian Highway 43 is superb! We had to go to Nizamabad on AH43/NH7. We stopped for a while for some photographs.

We stopped at a lake in Nizamabad for a while to take some rest. It was around 9 am. We had some biscuits as our stomach was craving for food. We started again. There was some road construction going on near Navipet. So, we had to take an internal village road. That took around 1 hour extra. But the fields were awesome to see. Lush green fields were very pleasing.

We, crossed Godavari at around 10 am. There is famous temple near this place called Basara. It's a temple of Hindu goddess Saraswati. I didn't know that we'll be going through Barara, but seeing the sign boards after crossing the bridge I came to know.

Road from Navipet to Bhainsa is good. it didn't take much time to reach Bhainsa. We thought that we will reach Nanded and have lunch over there. There is a state highway between Bhainsa and Nanded, which is well maintained. It was amazing ride. Fields and trees along with the road, not much traffic.

We reached Nanded at around 12:30 pm. Found a decent veg restaurant and ordered thalis. This was the first meal we were having that day. Thali was just Rs.70 and it had 3 parathas, some rice, dal and 2 curries. Curries weren't good though, but parathas were like home, delicious! Then we had coffee and started our jouney again at around 1:15 pm. We came around 310 km away from home and Lonar was still around 180 km away.

The roads became narrow and full of pits as we left the state highway. We headed towards Hingoli. Once in a while we used to get good roads. We took some pit stops for rest. But we wanted to reach Lonar before sunset, so we were keeping track of time. I think we reached Hingoli at around 3 pm. We continued towards Risod. Road was worst we had that day. But the green field on both sides were compensating with the bad roads. The view of villages passing by was amazing.

Road was comparatively better from Risod to Lonar. We were very excited to reach Lonar asap. We stopped around 30 km away from Lonar to get the view of beautiful fields.

We helped 3 guys on a bike who were out of gas by giving some fuel from our tank. They thanked us and we started again. We didn't stop until Lonar. The final few kilometers were amazing. Specially the low light and greenery. There is a small village near the crater. We struggled a while to reach the crater, but local people helped us to find the way. As soon as we reached the crater, at around 6:15 pm, all our tiredness was gone. It was amazing! We rode around 500 km and for 13 hours, but it was totally worth it.

We decided to sit near the crater and watch this trick of universe. A meteor fell here around 55000 years ago, and over the time, this alkaline lake is formed. We met a guy who was kind of a guide, working in MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation). Got lot of useful information about the place which I'll tell you later.

Sitting at the edge of the crater, soothing breeze hitting us vaporizing our sweat, we were just looking at the crater, admiring it. Whenever I come to such place, universe' miracle, I think "how tiny we are". Our lifetime period, our circle of influence, it's nothing when you compare with universe. Then you realize, "life is short", very short, make the most of it :-)

After sunset, we started our bikes to find a place to stay. That guy told us that MTDC rooms are full. We expected that as it was a long weekend. 15 August falling on Friday, best coincidence for explorers! He said that there is a Krishna Lodge in the village, were you can good rooms. It took around 15-20 min to find the place. Room was decent for 2 guys and @ Rs.300 only. In a big city you have to pay at least 600 bucks for such room. We freshed up, and went to have dinner. It was already 9 pm and most of the "Bhojanalayas" were closed. But we were lucky that Sharma Bhojanalaya was open. We had delicious "ghar jaisa parathas", mix veg curry and paneer ki sabji. Food was very good, like home! And the rate was very reasonable, around Rs.120 per head. We went back to our room and went to bed after seeing some pics of that day. Plan was to wake up early next morning and trek inside and around the crater.

Useful Information About Lonar: What you can do here!

• Nature lovers: If you are a nature lover then u MUST visit Lonar. It is really amazing!
• Camping: You can camp in night. So must bring your tents. If you are coming in a group then you can camp, set up a bonfire and go for a night trek also.
• Watch towers: There are 3 watch towers around the crater. From where you get a pretty good view of the crater.
• Trek around the lake: Trek inside the crater! It is so amazing! You can hear different kind of birds (specially peacock) chirruping. You'll see many langoors and even wild boars. The trek becomes difficult when you go farther in the jungle because very less people go there. So, be careful. We heard from a guide that localities have also seen leopard in the jungle. We took big sticks with us to protect ourselves in case a wild animal attacks us.
• Photography: There are 16 ancient temples inside the crater. Most of them are ruins now but still a must watch. Photographers will love this place.
• Temples: As I told, 16 temples! One of them is still in good condition and many people visit it. That's why the tracks are clean and you can easily reach there. It's a temple of goddess Durga (I hope I'm correct, don't remember exactly).
• Accommodation: You can stay at MTDC. They provide AC and non-AC rooms and dorms also. But book online as there is no guaranty that you'll get rooms after reaching there. Otherwise you can stay in Krishna Lodge which is in the village. Rooms start from Rs.300. Good service.
• Food: You get home-like Maharashtrian food in Lonar at reasonable price. I liked it!

For more photos check my facebook album: Freedom Ride

Day 2

• From Lonar to Ellora : 195 km
• Route: Lonar - Sultanpur - Jalna - Aurangabad - Daulatabad - Ellora
• Started @ 11:00 am, Reached @ 4:00 pm

Day 3

• From Ellora to Ajanta and back : 259 km
• Route: Ellora - Phulambri - Sillod - Ajanta
• Started from Ellora @ 9:30 am, Reached Ajanta @ 1:00 pm
• Started from Ajanta @ 6:00 pm, Reached Ellora @ 10:00 pm

Day 4

• From Ellora to Aundha Nagnath : 251 km
• Route: Ellora - Daulatabad Fort - Bibi-ka-makabra - Jalna - Aundha Nagnath
• Started from Bibi-ka-makabra @ 2 pm, Reached Aundha: 9:00 pm

Day 5

• From Aundha Nagnath to Hyderabad : 376 km
• Route: Aundha - Nanded -Bhainsa - Nizamabad - Hyderabad
• Started @ 7:30 am, Reached @ 4:00 pm

Suryalanka - The Unexplored Beach

Suryalanka is a beach around 400 km away from Hyderabad. It is in state Andhra Pradesh and the nearest railway station is Bapatla

Bike trip to Srisailam

I love to travel and explore new places. I often go to new places with my friends for fun and adventure. So we decided go to Srisailam which is a holy place about 250 km from Hyderabad. This place is famous for the temple of Lord Shiva. You can find the details about the place on net so I am not going in detail about that. Here I am giving the fun we had during the road trip on our bikes.

Hyderabad to Srisailam (Saturday, December 18, 2010)

We started at about 9am from Hyderabad. We were six people (Me, Ashish, Aditya, Pankaj, Prateek and Rahul) with three bikes. We all are good friends from last few years. We took some necessary stuffs considering the weather and time required for whole trip. We took the road map in our cellphones and had an idea about the road we have to follow.

It took about an hour to reach Shamshabad Airport which is about 50 km from the city. There we filled the tanks with 6 liter petrol in each bike. From the airport, Srisailam is exactly 196 km. The road was nice for driving. After 20 km from Airport, the 6 lane highway transformed into 2 lane road. But it was nice road and we didn't faced any problem because of very less traffic. The road was full of trees on both side and we enjoyed our rides.

Srisailam Highway

We reached Kundukur, a small village at about 11.35 am. This place was about 25 km from Shamshabad.

At 11.51 am we were in Kadthal, 9 km from Kundukur.

At 12.30 we reached Amangal, 16 km from Kadthal, Srisailam is about 150 km from Amangal.

At about 1 pm we took a break to give some rest to bikes and ourselves. We clicked some photographs meanwhile.

On the highway about 120km from Srisailam at 1.33 pm

At 2.05 pm we reached Dindi. This place is about 100 km from Srisailam. We all were hungry so we went to a small hotel for lunch. After lunch we started again. After few minutes we found a lake called Dindi Reservoir. There was a small dam on the lake and some people were fishing there.

Dindi Reservoir

After clicking some photos at Dindi, we resumed our journey. Srisailam was still 100 km away. After sometimes the landscape around us started changing. We were able to see the mountains of the Nallamala Forest. We were entering the forest.

After some kilometers we entered into the forest. There was a check-post  with some police officials. One can enter only between 6 am to 9 pm. We went through at about 3.30 pm. Suddenly we observed fall in temperature as the greenery around us increased. We had jackets to keep us warm. 

At about 4.20 pm we were at a village which is about 50 km before Srisailam. There is a waterfall which could be reached by following a road through the village. It was a dirty road. The village was really a "village". No electricity...nothing. Only poor people, mostly farmers, live there.

There were farmlands on both sides of the 8km of dirty road. During initial few kilometers we saw some houses. After that there was nothing. The dust on the road spoiled our cloths. They were looking yellowish.

Farms on the sides of road.

Road to the waterfall

It took 20 min to reach there. Then we saw a board with the name of the waterfall. It was "Mallelatheertam Waterfalls", definitely tough to pronounce.

There are some steps inside a valley to reach the waterfall. The moment we saw the waterfall, we forgot all the pain we took to reach there. It was literally beautiful. The whole place was surrounded by mountains. We were running towards it to get a closer look.

The water was so cold. But we couldn't stop ourselves to get wet. We enjoyed the water falling from a height of about 250 ft. We were dancing and yelling like crazy people. Had really good time.

Srisailam was still 60 km away.  We decided that we won't stop in middle. It was 5.45 pm and soon it was dark. We covered first 30km quickly coz road was good and straight. But later part was really tuff. Roads were curvy which reduced our speed. Finally we reached Srisailam at 7.30 pm.

At Srisailam

We were exhausted. We booked rooms in a lodge for the night. We had dinner went to bed to get some sleep.

Next morning we woke up early for darshan. We were in the queue at 6.15 am. The temple was big. Pilgrims were chanting "Om Namah Shivay" and other slogans. We got darshan of Lord Shiva within an hour. Then we had breakfast of idli and dosa.