21/12/2013:-

It was a lazy start for us. I woke up with a ring at the door, the cottage owner, asked me to move Santosh’s bike a bit so that they can take their car out. I went out with my boxer shorts and thin T-Shirt which I was wearing while sleeping. As I stepped out I felt the effects of it. The chillness ran into my nerves and I immediately started shivering. I managed to reach till Anto’s bike and then remembered that I had forgotten the keys. Luckily I didn’t have to move the bike too far. I managed to lift it a bit and helped their car out of the parking. My legs started dancing automatically and I was still holding the bike with all the strength I had. I didn’t want to drop it and again cause more damage to Anto’s bike. All our bikes were also wet because if the early morning due, which made my task just tougher.

As soon as the car left, I ran into the room, and covered myself with as much bed-sheets as possible. Anto woke up while I was still shivering. He asked to check for Tea or coffee and went to get fresh. I was in no mood to get off the bed, and waited until I got a couple of shouts from him.After the tea was served, we checked for things to do and places to visit in Munnar.

We realized that some of the places were already covered while on the way from Thekady. Anaimudi was on the way home, and there was a national park around it. After checking out, we managed to start our bikes in no time, despite the chillness. Thanks to the slope, which helped us ride through it and do a cold start. We had breakfast and took the Udmalpet road. The road was good; however we couldn’t enjoy the ride for some time because of the upcoming traffic. We reached Anaimudi just to find over 200 people standing on the queue to take a safari till the peak. We had less or no option to leave the bags and bike just in the parking lot.

Anaimudi was dropped out because we couldn’t take our bikes to the peak. At-last it’s a ride for our bikes, not for us. We rode across few more tea gardens, and this time most of them were empty without any workers. Seems they had their day off or they were just diverted to other areas of the estate. Whatever it was, it was just a blessing for us, because we were able to take few snaps in and around the tea estates. We rode towards chinnar national park thinking that they might have few safari trips. However they weren’t having many options as we thought.

While we touched the foothills, almost 20-25 enfielders were just starting their day. They were riding towards Munnar which was just a perfect ride for the weekend. We rode on the plains; the roads were just getting smoother and wider. We were running out of ideas on where to visit next. We weren’t having enough places around and most of them which I knew around were temples. I didn’t want to just another temple and get a swollen cheek while returning home.

“Okay enough, we’ll just have a good non-veg biryani and go home!!!!”  Abhi said. And we started our biryani hunting.

“Okay enough, we’ll just manage with a vegetarian meal” It was Abhi again, but after a 30 minute search around the small lanes of Udumelpet.

We had an awesome veggie meal at Anandhaas and were checking on the India-South Africa series. When we came out, few small kids rounded us up and were cheering us. Waving them good-bye we rode towards my home first. We already had a deal that if we had reached Coimbatore before sun-set then the first stop was at my place.

Sun set was couple of hours away and we were already near my home. I had been to my home in bike a couple of times earlier, but after marriage this was the first time. I thought I would get some severe blasting as soon as I was in. However Anto and Abhi saved me from that. Most of my family members including my grandma were waiting for me.

I just read them out the complete story in short. When my aunt started her list of temples saying that we should have visited so many temples on the way, I saw Abhi slightly slipping out from the chair. They decided to leave as soon as possible. Abhi stayed with Anto that night and I agreed to meet them at one of our common friend’s home the next day.

Mom came back from her work and poured her share of advice, but she was happy that I had a very good Darshan at the temples visited.

With an awesome home food, I went to my room and got lost in my dreams. 

22/12/2013:-

                The final day of the trip, we had a long way to go. After my regular duties at home, which I do each time I visit, I started to Ganesh’s home and was riding as slow as possible.

                It was just because my mom kicked me out of the house before Rahukalam, and I had almost 2 hours to reach 15 kms. I had to start before 12 or had to wait for 90 more minutes. I chose the first option and rode very slowly. I enjoyed as much Coimbatore as possible before stopping to get gifts for GP’s Kid (Ganesh Perumal)

                This time I was the first to reach at GP’s place. His brother had returned from US and he was talking about his tiring journey. When he asked about our trip, we had a longer story to tell. Lunch interrupted our story and it was worth to stop the story for it.

                GP’s brother had brought the much awaited “Go-Pro” which was ordered by Anto especially for this trip. After lunch, we were on the road towards Bangalore. It wasn’t the regular national highway; but the one which took had just few kilometers of thick forest, some broken roads, a hill to climb with just 28 hairpin bends.

We rode through, Annur, Puliambatti and Sathyamangalam. Crossing small towns like these are sometimes tougher. These roads are narrow, without any dividers and with almost all interventions to make slow down. Well that was my reason, but Anto and Abhi were still ahead of me cutting through all these crowds.

 We reached the Dhimbam foot hills, from where the 28 hair pin bends started. We were on or bulls perfectly climbing each of the bends. While fully loaded trucks counted each inches and moved like snails, some cars were passing them very swiftly, honking for the entire forest. We stopped at the 27^th hairpin bend and took few snaps. The view from there was just awesome. We felt as if the whole world was just below us. We selected a bus or truck far away on the first few hairpin bends and saw them hiding in the woods and coming up on the next turn. Time passed like that on that spot and we still had close to 200 kms to cover.

With our bikes roaring again, we over took the slow moving trucks and too fast cars. Anto was losing his mobile’s battery and wanted to reach home as soon as possible.

Abhi and I were together for the rest of the ride stopping after every one hour. Anto was still ahead of us and we tried to chase as much as possible and couldn’t. I was sure that Anto had taken a de-tour somewhere.

We discussed on possible options where he could’ve fallen out of the track. We dropped down to Kollegal from where you need to take a right turn, which was abnormally, silent and dark. Anto should have thought that it was some village road and should have proceeded straight. There was no option to call him because his mobile was already dead. We rode towards Bangalore, and since it was already dark we missed out lot of scenic spots on the way.

We were still on the track and rode towards Bangalore. We even stopped just before touching Bangalore city. There were no signs of him and we decided to wait for him at our place. I was worried, that if had taken that straight road near Kollegal, and he would have taken a longer route to Bangalore. Just about 80 kms longer.

                Around 2130hrs we reached home. My wife took our pictures, because our mobiles were running low on battery. We had a small celebration with few photo sessions and went inside, still waiting for Anto. Almost 30 minutes later, the knock at the door relieved our tensions. It was Anto, as expected he took the road straight from kollegal, however very soon he realized it was a wrong route and came back on track.

                Chicken Kabab was awesome, thanks to my wife for that. We started discussing about the most beautiful things and worst things which happened in the trip. Abhi had to return their rented bike and then go to Anto’s place to stay. It was already late and they decided to leave.

                Before saying bye, I took Abhi’s telephone number, which wasn’t with me all these days. Better late than never.

                “ So Machi, next trip Arunachal rite!!!!!!” Abhi shouted while leaving, I said yes and turned to my wife with a tiny smile….Her face turned red and the rest is censored!!!!!