Random thoughts after our Bali visit

Some scattered thoughts from our recent visit to Bali, Indonesia:

Pura Tirta Empul in Bali

• While I don’t hate my job, it probably is very stressful. I am not consciously aware of the stress, but my constant ailments pretty much disappeared during the trip, even when I had stopped taking the regular medicines.
• One of the best things that happened during this trip was bonding with my (8 years old) son. I never thought I’d be able to connect with him at a different level, but this trip made that possible. This is itself reason enough to keep travelling with my children.
• A day is 8 to 10 hours long. Be it work or leisure, it should be just that length. Adults in the party (my wife and I) were okay to stretch the days to 12 hours, but the children needed their “me” time. They had to put their feet up and watch their YouTube videos or run around playing in the hotel room before they’d go to bed. I need to remember this next time and limit the number of activities we pack into each day.
• I have always found flight travel awful. Dragging 3 sleep deprived and dehydrated children through airport gates and immigration reaffirmed my dislike for flying.

Random thoughts from a road trip to north NSW

I travel primarily for one reason: travelling lets me look into myself.  Some random thoughts from a recent 3 days long road trip:

• I have always wanted to die in a road accident.  During this trip I could think of a (possibly stupid) reason.  Wide open roads are like gods: admirable, having a character, and fear-inspiring.  Dying in a road accident is, in a way, like surrendering to the roads.
• Travelling in a car is a lot more tiring than travelling on a bike.
• Being on the road alone makes me happy.  Third day of the trip was the happiest because I drove for about 750km.  Time spent on “touristy things” don’t add up to so much.
• I really, really, really want to do a 6 to 8 weeks trip covering the full length of Australia Highway 1.
• During the trip, I easily slept for 8 hours every night.  That’s the “normal” amount of sleep I used to get.  But increased computer time has shrunk it to 6 hours on average, which makes me :(

PS: I took some sloppy pictures too.

Some tips for long motorcycle rides

It's been a while since I am back from Pilgrimage 2010, and since then I have been wanting to write down some tips that I found to be useful.  Some of them, I learned from my friends; some of them I learned myself.

• Add bike maintenance to your plan.  If your ride is long enough to require bike maintenance, factor that into your plan.  After reaching Manali, both our bikes needed some maintenance to be done.  Like, cleaning and lubricating the chain, changing the engine oil, etc.  Luckily we had allocated one day at Manali for resting.  We used that day for getting the bikes done up.
• Pack in small small plastic bags.  I had kept all my shirts and inner wears in one plastic bag, my jeans, track pants, etc. in another bag, chargers and other electronics in another bag, and so on.  This way they have a good internal arrangement, and they won't get wet if it rains.  Our saddle bags are supposedly water-proof, but without the plastic bags it would have been a really bad scene.
• Take only what you really need.  For a 3 weeks bike ride I carried 5 t-shirts and 1 pair of jeans.  When a close friend advised us to carry one pair of jeans it seemed ridiculous at first.  But if we are going to be wearing our riding gears all day long, what's the point of carrying regular clothes?
• Don't carry tools that you don't know how to use.  Or tools that you can find at a mechanic's.  This is pretty much the same as the previous one.  We found a "list of tools to carry" online and we bought them all enthusiastically.  Including a heavy foot pump!  After a good friend's advice we decided not to carry the pump and several other tools and spares we had.  It turned out that we didn't need any of those tools.
• Add buffer days to your plan.  Keeping a reasonable number of days as buffer would be useful if something unplanned comes up.  If everything goes well, you can always think of something to do in those extra days.  (I had two spare days after the trip.  I visited Taj Mahal in one day, and returned early and rested in the other spare day.)
• Remember it's a vacation.  This may not be applicable to everyone, but I like this one enough to add to the list :)  Our 3rd day in Leh, we woke up at 8 in the morning.  Both I and my brother were tired.  I had said the previous day that we should either go to Hunder next day or do white water rafting.  But we were too tired to anything, so we decided to sleep more and relax rather than forcing ourselves to go visit places.  I mean, if we don't allow ourselves to relax and rest, what's the point of taking a vacation?!

Pilgrimage 2010: Manali-Leh highway

People we met casually asked us what our plans were like.  Everyone was surprised that we are taking the Manali route while returning from Leh too.  (There are two routes to Leh from Delhi: one via Srinagar and another via Manali.  Manali route is harder and more scenic than the Srinagar route.  People usually enter Leh through one route and leave by other.)  "You want to do that route again?", "You would save time if you go via Srinagar", "Don't you want to see Kargil/Tiger Hills/Dal Lake/etc." were the typical reactions of people.

On our way to Leh from Manali we had faced a lot of difficulties.  It was raining in Pang, a place where it usually never rains because of its high altitude.  We had to stop at Pang for a night and because of the altitude neither of us could sleep well.  I even experienced a very mild AMS.  Because of the mild AMS, I had to walk out of our tent in rain to throw up.  (I still remember some local lady telling me Kahaan jaate ho?  Gir jaaoge! meaning "Where are you going?  You will fall!")

The next day's ride was even worse.  Around 11 in the morning Saravanan signals me to stop.  We both stop and he says both his hands are completely unresponsive.  "Take your helmet off and breath well", I tell him.  But his fingers just wouldn't let him do anything.  I take his gloves off, help him take the helmet off.  We both eat something we had, and drink some water.  We keep our hands on the hot engines and the exhausts of the bikes.  We did this all while it was raining!  After a few minutes Saravanan feels a little better and I tell him that we'd ride to some place where we get food.  A place where we can sit and relax without getting wet.  We stopped at the first tea shop we saw and ate hot Maggi, drank tea before we continued.

After all this, we both didn't want another Pang in that trip.  That's one reason why we didn't spend the night in Pangong lake -- "no high altitude nights any more", we had decided though neither of us had explicitly said that.  This made both of us hesitate a little to take the same route back.  For various reasons I firmly decided that we will take the same route, and Saravanan agreed too, albeit with hesitation.  (I kept telling myself this quote from The Matrix: "The real test for any choice is having to make the same choice again, knowing full well what it might cost.")

It didn't rain on our way back.  That made the ride a lot easier.  We had been expecting the worst experience of our life, but the reality was way different.  We saw how good those roads were.  (All this while "There are no roads at all" was our impression about that route!)  Because we wanted to reach Manali as early as possible I had decided that I won't stop to take pictures.  So my focus was only on the roads.  And on the sceneries around.  This time I saw everything in a new light.  I saw the beauty and breathtaking views of the terrains, as if I was seeing them for the first time.  It was a much pleasant experience riding back.

Yesterday evening Saravanan told me: "Riding back on the same route was probably one of the best decisions we made."  We would have missed such a beauty if we had taken the Srinagar route, and worse, the image of Manali-Leh route in our minds would have been of a "roadless difficult terrain that's beautiful here and there".  But in reality, that route is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life.  I'm glad I didn't fall for the Srinagar route's "new terrain" bait :-)

See Pilgrimage 2010 for some background on what "Pilgrimage 2010" is.

Pilgrimage 2010: tents

You find tents everywhere.  Hotels, restaurants, living place for people, and whatnot.  One thing I really like about the tents is that they’re so temporary.  The tent probably didn’t exist a couple months back.  In a few months, when the people leave that place (migrating to someplace where winter isn’t too harsh), the tent will go with them too.  Everything inside the tent, the tent itself with all its supporting polls would be loaded in a pick up and within days you won’t find a trace that there was a restaurant that fed so many passersby.  This impermenance is intriguing and I kinda like it.  In a way I want my life to be like that too.

See Pilgrimage 2010 for some background on what "Pilgrimage 2010" is.

Pilgrimage 2010: tidbits

• Packing for a 21-day trip is way different from packing for a 2-day trip.
• India is vast.  It took us 10 days of riding (plus one day of rest) to reach Leh from Hyderabad.  We felt like tiny ants climbing their fastest on a tall mountain.
• Maharashtra is beautiful.
• Monsoons are probably the best time to ride in India.  As long as you have proper rain gear.
• Nexus One is a pretty good phone to carry while traveling.
• I love Vodafone.  (I like the name Hutch though.)  It just works wherever I go.  When other two phones we carried (BSNL and AirTel) were completely dead in Kashmir, my Vodafone worked just fine.
• One way traffic is boring.  I'd choose old two-way highways any day.
• It's amazing how well one can drive while sleeping.
• I have wanted to be a cab driver for a while.  Now I think I'd rather be a truck driver.
• I like trucks for their enormous size and beauty.
• I like roads; I find them beautiful.
• Traveling aimlessly and having time to spare lets you think free.  We should note that Pirsig wrote both his books while he was traveling.
• On some national highway it was written that a good driver is seldom hurt.  I agree.

Pilgrimage 2010

I have always wanted to do this.  Take a map of India, draw a long line on it, and say "I am going to travel this route."  17th of July, I started on one such trip.  I covered 4842km on my bike (plus about 2200km using public transport, which is not of much importance).

On the bike, I covered about 13 national highways and more than 20 state highways.  I would have approximately burned 105 to 110 litres of petrol.  Here's the rough route map of my travel, excluding public transport.  (Click on the picture to see it in the original size, or see the route on Google Maps.)  With me was my brother Saravanan, who took his bike from my native place Kovilpatti.  His trip is 1100km longer than mine.

I couldn't believe myself when we started on 17th morning.  We kept riding.  As days went by we saw new terrains and new people.  Yet it was all only like a dream; I couldn't believe it was really happening.  Now, everything is over and I shall be at work tomorrow doing whatever I usually do; yet it still feels like a dream.

PS: Pictures I took during this trip are available as a Picasa web album.

Road trip to Hampi

I, along with my brother, rode down to Hampi over the past weekend.  Surprisingly, I could not find driving directions from Hyderabad to Hampi on Google Maps!  On travel forums also, I could only find very old posts (all posts were more than 2 years old).  Hence here's the log of what I did to get to Hampi by road.

There are two routes to Hampi, as mentioned in this Team-BHP discussion.  First route is Hyderabad -> Mahboobnagar -> Raichur -> Sindhanur -> Gangawati -> Hampi.  Apart from the first 80km from Hyderabad, throughout this route we have only state highways (i.e. no national highways).  Second route is Hyderabad -> Gooty -> Guntakal -> Bellary -> Hospet -> Hampi.  Most of this route is through national highways.

Of these two, I chose the first route (via Raichur).  Although I usually prefer national highways, this time I chose state highways because a lot of people say that the roads near Bellary are very very bad.  And, I really liked the route I chose.  Yes, there were speed bumps on the road; there were villages on the road; there were cattle crossing the road; villagers just didn't expect us to be passing by at a high speed.  Those are all negative sides of this route.  However, the roads were very good between Hyderabad and Gangawati: we could cruise between 75 and 85kmph on our Unicorn.  I liked the roads because they were not deserted like our new highways.  I could see a lot of agriculture lands on the sides.  Plus, I am a fan of two-way roads, and for me the new highways are boring after a while.

Google Maps has directions only till Gangawati.  After Gangawati, you should ask the locals for directions.  However, while returning, Google Maps gave us directions!  All I had to do was find directions from "My Location" to Hyderabad, and it gave me the directions.

Pictures from the trip can be found in my Picasa album.

A few tidbits:

• Being a pillion rider on a long bike ride is not easy.  This is my first bike ride where I've shared the pillion seat; it wasn't as fun/easy as the rider seat :)
• When you're on the pillion, you cannot understand why the rider does certain things.  Just trust the rider and be confident.
• Saw a snake crossing the road in Hampi.  This was the first time I saw a live snake very close (not counting zoos, of course).
• Summer has already started in South India.  The moment bike stops the mind starts to think, "when am I getting rid of the gears?"
• My helmet is better much beyond what I had thought!  It blocks a lot of air and I was able to ride on the highways without wearing any glasses.  (I wasn't using the helmet's visor either.)

A crazy trip to Mahabalipuram

They say one has to go mad now and then to remain sane. I guess it was my time to go mad when I decided to leave for an unplanned vacation. We (me and a few friends) kept planning and replanning all the time. Bike trip to Hampi, car trip to Hampi, bike trip to Chennai are few of the plans. At some point I realised that we are not really doing anything apart from planning.

I am kind of weird, and I need a lot of personal space. The most irritating thing for me on a weekend morning is my mom asking me "what do you want to have for breakfast?" Almost every morning my mind is kind of restless and it's at its most vulnerable to get pissed off. When I am alone I don't plan my weekends. I can just sit at home doing nothing, and that is very refreshing. I'm fully charged to work on Mondays. Since my mom is with me now, I kind of feel like not having my own personal space. I have to eat at regular intervals and it just feels like just another day. If I am going out I have to know beforehand where all I am going and when I am returning. I can't take the bike and roam around the city aimlessly.

Weekend suffocation and constant planning and re-planning drove me nuts and I said "I am going somewhere somehow. No one is in the plan, it's just me." I didn't tell anyone about my plans, even my close friends didn't know. I left for Mahabalipuram and spent a couple days there, alone. I knew there wasn't enough things to do for two days, but who cares? I sat on the rocks and read Nakulan's Ninaivu Paadhai novel. Loved the beach and also the cucumber, mango, and watermelon sold in the beach. I have uploaded photos, if you are interested.

If you go to Mahabalipuram, try Moonrakers restaurant there. That was the only restaurant with people eating on Thursday night, and their food is okay. Other restaurants, well, with space for 40 people to dine and literally no one eating, I didn't have enough courage to try out :)

Throughout the trip, one thought was constant in my mind -- "I need a car." I hate to wait for buses. I was even thinking "it would have been much easier if I had taken my bike here." Sooner or later I'm buying a car that suits the taste of the traveler in me :)

Side story: This astrologer woman asked me "Do you have father, mother, family, and all?" I guess I look pathetic when I am sitting alone thinking of something. Similar thing happened a few years ago in Villupuram bus stand. I was waiting for my bus and this beggar woman asked me if I had eaten and I had enough money to go back home.

Weekend trips are fun

"Man proposes, God disposes" is one of my favourite proverbs.  A few weeks back I was planning to go on a bike trip with some friends.  No matter how many rides I do, I always want to go for one more.  But a friend was planning to go to Pondicherry on the same dates.  After a lot of thinking I decided to go to Pondy (Pondy trip photos).  I traveled by train.  Slept in the middle berth.  Fought with mosquitoes all night in Pondicherry.  Even after all this I found myself happy at the end of the trip.  Pondy was pretty.  People I was with were fun.  I think the bike ride wouldn't have been as much fun.

For Independence Day (Aug 15, 2008) I was planning to go with my friend Chenthil on a bike ride to Dhanushkodi.  In total that trip would have come to about 2500km.  I was so eagerly waiting for the day.  But the plans changed slowly and we ended up not going anywhere (except for my ride to Bangalore and back to Hyderabad).  I was in Bangalore for two days doing nothing.  Well, not really doing "nothing".  I spent a good 10 hours with a close friend of mine after a long time.  I went to Forum for shopping.  I rode my Unicorn around for two days.  Although it didn't happen as I wanted it to happen, I was happy.  On the way back I stopped at a beautiful lake near Penukonda.  The road was beautiful and not so crowded.  The weather was pleasant too -- I couldn't see sun at all, and it didn't rain either.  This also turned out to be a nice trip (photos here).

Now I am busy planning the next trip :)

My First Serious Road Trip

I can think of it as my First Serious Road Trip. I started on Wednesday from Hyderabad and came back just a few hours back (today is Sunday). I have done a few other trips before this. But I have always wanted the trip to not end when we return. This trip is an exception -- I was not too sad that the trip ended soon.

I left Hyderabad and rode my Unicorn to Bangalore. I met a couple friends and spent the night at Chenthil's place. Next morning, we rode over to Wayanad from Bangalore: me on Chenthil's Justforkix, Chenthil on his 650, and Poo on his Maximus (a Thunderbird). That was my very first time on a Royal Enfield. Like I expected, the bike was brilliant: it was a pleasure to ride. A few tiny problems here and there on Justforkix and the 650 made the day more interesting :-)

I met most of Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club people. I must say it was very much fun staying with them. Everybody in the gang was "somebody" and they had something interesting to say or show. For example, Sam drove a Maruti Esteem at real high speeds in the roads around Wayanad. I was just amazed by the way he handled the car. He got a new nickname which was a hilarious event. To cut short the story, a lot of interesting things happened and I enjoyed being with them.

Me and Chenthil rode back to Bangalore on Saturday. We were keeping good speed (good speed according to my standards -- Chenthil was riding slow on his 650 so that I could follow him easily). Suddenly Chenthil stopped his bike and told me that it was going to rain. We wore our rain wear and got ready to face the rain. Within a couple second after we started to ride back, rain started pouring. I was surprised how Chenthil figured that out and happy that I was ready for the rain. We kept riding in the rain albeit slowly. This is the first time in my life to drive this far in rain. Thanks to my jacket and helmet I didn't get drenched. We reached Bangalore in daylight and everything went alright.

I didn't want to miss the opportunity to taste my favourite Corner House ice cream. I went out and picked up ice creams and food for the night. Started sleeping happily at around 11pm. By that time I didn't know the next day would be more eventful and interesting :)

I left Chenthil's house at 5.25 in the morning. It took a good 40km ride to reach NH7. After driving for about 70km in NH7 I fell off the bike[*] and managed to break the front brake. Somebody helped me lift the bike. Thanks to my riding gear there was not even a bruise in my body. Front brake had failed completely -- it didn't respond at all. I drove slowly to a nearby village and asked a mechanic to help. After looking at the brake he said there was no brake fluid in the brake and refilling it would fix the brake. I remembered brake fluid dripping off after the fall. He told me that I can get it fixed only in Penukonda (which was about 40km from there).

In Penukonda, another mechanic examined the brake and tried to fix it with all the tricks he knew. The brake was adamant and refused to work. After spending about 30 minutes he gave up and asked me to try changing the brake pads (which cannot be the problem as the brake pads are only a couple days old). I had to drive the bike till Hyderabad with only the rear brake. To compensate I learned a few braking tricks.

After writing them down those tricks look very simple -- but I learned them all after making small and big mistakes on the road. No need to say, I had my life on stake when I first learned those tricks. (Gear braking was the hardest: I didn't correctly release the clutch for the first two times. Oh boy, I was scared to death when my bike was running fast behind a lorry going at 40kmph.) Slowly I got used to those tricks and started riding fast. In less than an hour I was proficient enough to overtake (which includes slowing down and getting behind the lorry if suddenly a bus appears from the opposite side).

I never wanted to call this an adventure trip: but the last day was indeed kinda adventure (at least in my definitions). So that's about it -- the trip was a lot of fun, and I want to do more of it :-)

* Why did I fall down? My Unicorn has a very good front brake -- it's one of the safest disk brakes I have used. Since it's safe to hold it, I apply slight pressure on the front brake even when I just have to slow down. On Justforkix (a Thunderbird) I did something similar subconsciously and I was on the ground the next moment :(

Sequoia National Park

4 highways 13.5 hours 840 km I went for a ride today. Yeah, I was a bit concerned about driving long. But that was last week. Today morning I woke up early and by the time I headed towards highway US-101 S, it was about 7.30am. The ride was long. But I enjoyed it. It was awesome to drive on the freeways. My car never felt tired; it just kept going. I averaged around 80mph and reached up to 90mph. The roads were very scenic. I could see a lot of green fields and mountains and lakes on the roadside. Driving on the hills was a very new experience for me. With a lot of hairpin bends and sharp turns, it was very challenging. Every 10 minutes I kept thinking "maybe I can stop here and take some photos." The mountain was very beautiful. As the car climbed up, I started seeing some white things on the road side. As usual, I thought of stopping the car to see if that really was ice. But I kept driving in the interest of time. In a few minutes I started seeing ice on both the sides of the road. You never know how happy and thrilled I was -- I was seeing snow! (It rarely rains in the place where I lived the first 22 years of my life; it's a really hot place.) On the top, I saw General Sherman the largest living tree on the planet. It was completely surrounded by ice. I had to walk on the ice to see the tree. It was not very crowded, so I could get near the tree. I touched it, like a kid touching an elephant's leg. It was huge and I felt like lying on it's feet and surrendering to it. I had to return soon, since I hadn't planned to spend the night in the park. So I left the park immediately after visiting General Sherman. Driving downhill was a challenge and I loved it. Again, I thought of stopping in a few places, but didn't stop as I wanted to reach my hotel before it becomes dark. At one instance, I could imagine how Robert Frost would have felt when he wrote "miles to go before I sleep". Driving back in the night was not as hard as I had imagined. Driving a bike on the highways in India during nights is almost suicidal. With all the cars and vans and buses coming with their high beams on, driving a bike is almost impossible. But in the US, even in the freeways we are not supposed to use high beams. That alone made the ride so much easier. I got back in time. And you know what was the best part of the ride? I didn't lose my way -- not even once :-) PS: I have uploaded some photos, if you are interested.

Me, Mountain View, and a Honda Civic

Suddenly, I started writing more (in Jan and Feb 2008 I wrote unusually large number of posts). Suddenly I stopped writing (this is the first post in March). I got a little busy with work, so I couldn't spare enough time on writing, although I had things to say. Now it's 2.35am. I want to finish this post before I sleep. I am right now in Mountain View, where the famous Googleplex is. Although this is not my first visit to Mountain View, this visit is special for me. This is the first time I am traveling alone (to a foreign country). This is the first time I am flying by Lufthansa. This is the first time I am driving in the US. Since I have so much to say, this post will be long and maybe boring. Ok, I have warned you :P During my last trips, I felt constrained since I didn't know driving. I had to depend on my friends to go out. They are good; they took me to wherever I wanted to go. But dependency is a dependency, and I don't generally like to depend on others. I decided to learn driving and get a license. When I went home for Diwali last year, I joined a driving school and practiced driving for a week. Then I went for the "test" and got a license. Like everyone who has got a driving license can guess, driving school classes did not make me a good or at least an average driver. I arrived at Mountain View on March 8th. Since I have a driving license now, I went to Hertz to rent a car. The guy in Hertz explained the options and the procedure. He said the 2-door Honda Civic that he had was the cheapest I could get. I loved the car at the first sight. Gladly I took the key and drove to my hotel. The car was awesome. I got good control in the first ride itself. I think the car has to do more with this than my ability to drive. I took driving directions from Google Maps and went to our office. On the way, I was lost. I didn't know which left turn the map was talking about. I drove back, took a U turn, and tried a different left. I was lost again. Frustrated, I went back to the hotel. Saw the map in the computer again and found the mistake I was making. I drove back again and boy, I reached the office :-) Once I drove to Saravna Bhavan in Sunnyvale for dinner. In three days I became so comfortable and confident driving it. Yesterday (Saturday) morning I woke up. I didn't have much to do. And my new kid was inviting me for a ride. I felt like driving on the freeway is the only way to save my soul. After looking at a few destinations, I decided to drive to Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. I chose Oakland mainly for the distance. 40 miles was a reasonable goal. I can leave after 11am and return before it's night. Also, I can spend reasonable amout of time on the freeways. Driving on the freeway was the most important reason for this trip. I was lost in the freeway two times. I missed an exit. In the process of getting back to the same freeway, I was lost again. I would have spent about 1 to 1.5 hours roaming around here and there trying to figure out how to get to the missed exit. Somehow I figured out the trick and soon I was back on the right freeway! The park was good; but it was not great. I lost an accessory of my new camera. Since there was no shop or anything in the park I starved till 4.30pm. On the way back, I stopped in a village called Montclair for lunch. Riding back was very easy. With my newly learned Freeway Skills, I reached the hotel without getting lost anywhere. I took some photos too, with my new camera. I am thinking of driving to Yosemite next week (which is about 190 miles away) . I know, it's quite far; I might change the plans. I want to spend some time in the destination, although riding is the most important part. With 380 miles to cover in a day, I don't think I will have time to spend there. Driving on nights in freeways is kinda scary. Who knows, I might get courageous next week. I will add another post if I do something interesting enough to be shared. In any case I will upload the photos. If you are interested, get it from my shared items or Picasa. Bye now!