[rahulv]

Hi,
this a really old (2003) i posted in www.bikenomads.com.



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I know I can't even write leave application properly. so if you
find it boring or disgusting, feel free to close it (just don't inform
me that you did that). Plus, at times I just use my kind of spellings
(hobby), so take the closest possible meaning if that makes sense.

ok. lets start...

DATE 15th august to 20th august
>From BANGALORE To Munnar

ROUTE:-
Bangalore
hosur
krishnagiri
darmapuri
salem
(all on NH 7)

perandurai
vijaypuri (really tiny place, gotta ask someone
(both on NH 47, coimbatur highway)

Tiruppur
paladam
yedmalapettai
maraiyur
munnar
(all this on tamilnadu/kerala state roads)

15th Aug. morning 6:47 AM- left koramangala. now on hosur road

some 40 km from Bangalore, before hosur, I noticed that I have
forgot to reset trip meter. anyway, better late than never.

8:45 - krishnagiri

I am late. my chart says that I have to be in salem by 10:15.
so increase your speed.

some 30-40 km from krishnagiri, a bus driver forced me out of
the road at 90 KMPH. there was a Toyota qualis ahead of me. this bus was
behind a truck. as soon as the qualis crossed him, bus wala jumped to my
lane for overtaking. I think he did not notice me (I did but that wasn't
important). and in a split of second I was riding at 90KMPH on uneven
and loose sand. hack can't apply breaks and can't puts my buts on the
seat. just closed the throttle and waited for the speed to come down so
that I can think of something else other then balancing the bike. must
be some 100 meter before I could get the bike on the road. stopped there
had cigarette and wondered about what all could have happened. what
happened was the only safe thing which could have happened in the given
case. I think I was lucky.

9:30 Am dharmapuri

still late

10:15 I am in salem. on time. now I can eat something. had
breakfast and then I was on coimbatur highway.
well this road is not among the best. most of it looks good but
suddenly you will hit waves or pot-hole which can shake every bone in
your body or launch you in the air.

12:30 PM Vijay-puri

gotta leave highway now. left turn towards tiruppur. not a bad
road, just about good.
looked refreshing as the whole setup looked relaxed after 300 km
of really demanding high speed highway ride. relax and ride at nice
pace, look around and enjoy looks of rural Tamilnadu.

Tiruppur

had really tough time finding way to paladam in this town.
suggested that you keep a map and compass with you where you can show
someone where you want to go. and to find out where you are going. check
Kilometer marking in your map with milestones. no other way if you can't
read sign-boards in tamil.

from tiruppur to yedmalapettai road is bad. 1.5 or two lane.
and boy... really strong winds. I think its there all the time. every
tree suggests that. plus all the wind-energy plants. those guys must be
crazy to put all those wind-mills if it was not a regular feature. Its
good fun to ride in that kind of strong wind. bike is tilted in on
direction all the time. looks funny when you see some bike coming from
other direction, leaned and still going straight. be careful here, wind
can sometime dis-balance your bike. I got the same feeling every time I
tried to go beyond 70KMPH. YOU CAN NOT THROW CAUTION TO THAT KIND OF
WIND.

crossed paladam did not stop just headed towards yedmalapettai
which was supposed to be last town on the planes. its lunch time but I
am not hungry. plus I am a bit behind schedule. so no lunch break.

passing thought- why tamilnadu loves LUNA so much. every second
thing on the road is a LUNA.

3:00 pm reached yedmalapettai

o yeah. some of these guys call this town yedmalapet and some
call it yedmalapettai. plus don't be surprised anywhere in tamilnadu
when someone says that he hasn't heard of a place called X even when you
are just 5 km from the place(X). just ask the next guy on the road. I
think we can not pronounce the names written in english the way they do.

3:15 left yedmalapet

asked few guys about how to reach munnar. after few confusing
descriptions of the road I found-out that there is a broken bridge on
the way and I might be going back to Bangalore from here. after few km
from yedmalapettai, I stopped at a forest checkpoint at chinnar wild
life century. I asked them if I am on the right track, they said "no,
take a 90 degree turn and enter this wildlife park." too good rest of
the way is through a reserved forest.
some 10-12 km of journey though this kind of road
http://www.pbase.com/image/20505653

then came kerala border and the broken bridge. they had a small
metal bridge for bikes. (this bridge has been rebuilt now) other side of the bridge was kerala forest
department check-point. all my stuff got checked properly, and I like
them for doing that. after the regular entry in the forest department
register entry where coming from, going to, vehicle no, make etc are
recorded, the confused and shocked (that I am coming from Bangalore on
bike) guard allowed me to pass through jungle. boy that was the best
riding experience I have had till date. and I was sure (and now I know I
was right) that its going to get even better. took a small diversion on
the trail made by forest department road. after few KM I saw a elephant foot mark on wet soil. my guess is that he/she took a leak there. so I did not stop any where there. till that point I thought that I am the only one on the road, but sad thing was that there were mahindra commanders commuting between munnar and kerala/tamilnadu border where the bridge is broken. the road is just single lane. but there were only 5-6 such things in entire 80km stretch.

4:30PM

starts raining. clouds were so heavy that it felt like 7 pm at 5PM.
you are inside a jungle. no sign boards on the road. not even sure where
the road has been washed away by rains. excellent!!!
can't cross 30 kmph mark. its sure going to be dark before I reach
munnar. after an hour of rain I realized that just like every other
rain gear I have tried, this one is of no use in heavy rain. stopped
under a tree to smoke. really spooky setting. thought about taking
pictures but not enough guts to take the camera out when its raining(I
stopped at the same spot while coming back and realized that its not the
ideal horror movie shooting place, just the rain and evening light made
it look so)


5:15 PM maraiyur

chinnar wild life century ends here. and bamboo forest starts.
road is good and plain. but the bamboo forest blocks most of the light
and the bamboo rattle gives it real good feel.

few km ahead tea plantation started. still raining. stopped
somewhere for tea. munnar still 14km. 3 hours of riding in the rain and
the 14 km mark looked like 1400 km. somehow managed to reach munnar
around 6:30. searched for a place all drenched. only place I could find
was single bed, no tv nothing and still 400 per day. had light dinner
and went to bed at 8 pm. zzzzzzzz
next morning first thing in the morning I did was search for a
better place, without much fuss, got settled in hotel HillView. 500 per
day.

thats all. can't write any more today. I will try to write about
places to see there tomorrow. if you do like this. please remind me to
write rest of the stuff.

meanwhile enjoy the pictures here

www.pbase.com/rverma/munnar

so long

[Jay]

Hey rahulv, lovely pics. are u a professional photographer by any chance... that far a distance in a bike ???

[satish_appasani]

Rahul. Lovely pics there.

[rahulv]

thanks Jay,

Originally Posted by Jay

are u a professional photographer by any chance... ??

i will take it as a compliment. thanks again

[spdfreak]

Nice writeup rahul. And real good photography..

[ritik123]

Hey Rahul,

good write up and pics. saw ur other albums too at pbase. nice collection. We've been planning to go to Munnar for quite some time now but been postponing it....thinking its too long a drive (by car). went upto to kodai though. u managed on a bike ??. or was it....did I see some pics shot from a car?.

lets have the rest of the story. was the traffic heavy, whats the total kms and cell phone coverage along the way?.

[rahulv]

Originally Posted by ritik123

Hey Rahul,

u managed on a bike ??. or was it....did I see some pics shot from a car?.

i have done two 5 day trips to munnar.
first one on bujaj pulsar and second one in Swift. first trip was is auguest 2003 and second was in july 2005. all the pictures where you can see rain are from second trip.

[rahulv]

Originally Posted by ritik123

lets have the rest of the story. was the traffic heavy, whats the total kms and cell phone coverage along the way?.

i think details from the 2005 trip are going to be more relevant to you.

this is the route that i followed.

bangalore-krishnagiri-salam- avnashi(on salam coimbatur road)-yedmalapet-munnar

munnar-cochin(turned right little before that)-trissur- palakkad-coimbatur-satyamangalam-chamrajnagar-kollegal
-malavalli-kanakpura-bangalore


i did total 1500 km. (bike trip was 1100 km)

no cell phone coverage in munnar (i like that)

traffic between salam-coimbatur and coimbatur-trissur is heavy.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by rahulv

no cell phone coverage in munnar (i like that)

Not anymore. The pristine atmosphere is crackling with radio waves from at least 3 operators.

[pravin_sn]

Nice write-up Rahul. Especially liked it as this is the same format I use for my diary entries for such trips (I've just started on these journeys). I have taken a print and will be using this as a reference for my trip (if and when I make it).
Like ritik123, I too have been holding back bcoz I feel its a looong drive by car.
Nice pics too...Looking fwd to more of your travelogues.

[ramkya1]

Hai Rahul,

Lovely pictures and nostalgic too. We used to do this route way back in 1985 on bikes in dripping rains; that was some mad time.

Steeroid knows what I am talking about, he has driven this route too.

Keep posting them, I love your travelogue and all those pictures.

-- Ramky.

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[Samurai]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Lovely pictures and nostalgic too. We used to do this route way back in 1985 on bikes in dripping rains; that was some mad time.

Underage driving in the rain on the highway? Ooohhooo...

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Underage driving in the rain on the highway? Ooohhooo...

Around 26 years old would be OK for an Indian to drive on these roads in rain I guess, or was there some rule in the 80's I don't know about.. Oooooohhhhooooo...... use your imagination.... haaaaaaaaa

Now let me see if you can figure out my age... if you need clues, just pm me!!!!!

--Ramky

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[Samurai]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Around 26 years old would be OK for an Indian to drive on these roads in rain I guess, or was there some rule in the 80's I don't know about.. Oooooohhhhooooo...... use your imagination.... haaaaaaaaa

Now let me see if you can figure out my age... if you need clues, just pm me!!!!!

Let's see, you are couple of months older than me now and I was definitely 16 years old in 1985. How did you manage to be 26 years old in 1985?

No I can't figure out, you tell me.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Let's see, you are couple of months older than me now and I was definitely 16 years old in 1985. How did you manage to be 26 years old in 1985?

No I can't figure out, you tell me.

Hai,

So we are spooked....... will tell you some day.

Since this forum is all about cars / bikes and experieces... we will leave out personalities?

Love your quote, "The Greatest Victory is the one that is achieved without unsheathing the sword",.... let's keep it unsheathed, let this one ride and let there be peace....

--Ramky

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