[oxyzen]

Wow.
What can I say. The write up is amazing, magnificent, mind blowing!
This thread deserves a 5 star.

[gtonsing]

Nice Write-up. I missed the show due to family reasons. But you have re-kindled memories of my trips to Hampi. What an amazing place. Nicely captured. Across the river (other side of Hampi) is the hanuman temple. Too many monkeys for my personal taste but the view from the top is great.
The central pond/water body with its aquaducts are great as well.

[nileshch]

Superb photos! Especially enjoyed the panos, they are my favourites. Thoroughly enjoyed reading the travelogue too. And trips with friends are something to cherish! The long drives, late night chats, the jam sessions, the collective head banging!! Wah! Wah!

[noopster]

Posting the long awaited Metallica concert pics. As explained before, most of my gang did not take cameras in. Whatever pics I have are courtesy the extended group, notably Sourav B and Bibhash D. All credit and coprights to them.













Return trip description and pics to follow...I have not been able to work on this thanks to work, NH7 and illness, not necessarily in that order!

[nanduchitnis]

Noopster thanks for taking me back to Hampi ! Been there twice on a mo bike and never tire visiting again.

You have amazing story telling skills and the pics to go along with the narrative. I wish I had the patience and those skills.

It is time we did a long drive together with fellow T Bhpians of Pune.

Rgds

Captain Nandu Chitnis

[noopster]

Thanks all for the nice comments. Cap'n we surely should do a drive in these lovely winter months (well, weeks anyway!)

Return trip was uneventful and more enjoyable since we were riding as a group, with the bikers along, for the first time on the trip. We left Bangalore around 1 pm on Monday (got delayed since a friend who was in for the return leg only arrived late). Had lunch at some nondescript dhaba near Tumkur and then pretty much zoomed all the way to Hubli.

As dusk set in, the bikers told us to ride close up since they needed the additional visibility. For a golden stretch of about 200 km into Hubli we rode in formation: Wagon R leading, 2 bikes abreast and Vento bringing up the rear. The amazing thing is that nobody overtook us once. No videos or pics could capture the sheer exhilaration of that stretch of the journey. Moment of the trip for me!

Parked overnight at Ayodhya Hotel in central Hubli, near the bus stand. Ate next door at a famous khanawali- good old fashioned North Karnataka mealsu to replenish the calories we'd lost that day!

Next morning left after breakfast at Ayodhya's rather good Udupi restaurant and drove back along NH4 back home. By the time we hugged each other bye and dropped the last of the guys off, it was about 4.30 pm. Reached home, read the papers, waited till the missus and junior got home and then dined and fell into the longest, most dreamless sleep I have in recent memory!

Took some nice pics on the way back- these are the pick of the lot.















































At journey's end, grimy from the road but cleansed inside. New friendships forged and existing ones reinforced. The thrill of seeing every last detail of the planning fructify beautifully into the smoothest of executions. The realisation that our returning safe and sound and without incident was not just happenstance but perhaps something quite beyond our comprehension- dare I say God?

The concert by itself was worth the trip but the trip itself was something none of us had ever experienced before. Something to tell the grandkids. A little bittersweet because it is probably the last time this bunch will ever do anything so meaningful together: life beckons, after all!

Thank you for staying with us till the very end. Hope you enjoyed this travelogue as much as I enjoyed writing it. This final picture then, that just about to me captures the spirit of the Metallica roadtrip.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Finally the concert pics are here! .
Thanks for sharing those. Makes me feel less guilty for not making it!

The return leg of any such journey is always non descript. Each and every journey that I've undertaken, the return seems to end too soon.

Some lovely snaps there. Man, you look like you havent slept for a week or so. No wonder, that day you seemed to be hit by the worst jet lag of sorts.

Some lovely memories to stay, I suppose.

[kaushik_s]

Fantastic writing and what a roadtrip you guys had. These are the kind of stuff which you can even tell your grand-children too . I'm feeling so sad now that being in Bangalore itself I gave the show a miss.