[hemanth.anand]

WHEN

It was many days since we went out for a trip for varied reasons.
My wife wanted to go out somewhere just to get out of the stereotypical life and recharge.
The “memories” function of Facebook was also frequently throwing out memories from previous trips.
The fact that my wife was not part of those trips didn’t help me either
We spotted a long weekend in August (Independence day) and decided that we will go out during that weekend.
It was the First week of July and we still had some time left and we were in with a good chance of getting an accommodation.

WHERE TO

So with the date fixed, it was then time to decide on the place to visit.
My wife wanted to see Mysuru and places around it but it was too main stream and we knew that it would be way too crowded.
Munnar, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Pondicherry, Yercaud, Bandipur and many others were shortlisted and then removed for various reasons.
My wife wanted to see the Muzhappilangad beach since she had seen very nice photos of my car driving on the beach.
I didn’t mind it since the resort/home stay we had stayed in was a small yet nice cozy; one with not many people.

So I called up the home stay owner and asked for the tariff details. Unfortunately for us, he replied back to me that his facility was completely booked for that weekend.
He also told that it was booked by another group from Bangalore itself. “Damn! People in Bangalore are much faster” I thought, “They have planned much earlier that I thought”

However, this owner of the home stay told me that his brother has opened a new home stay on the Valiyaparamba beach near Payannur.
He sent me the link to their website. I opened it and was really happy with it. It was an old home converted to a home stay.
But the best thing was it was on a thin piece of land with the beach at a distance of hardly 50 steps on one side and backwaters at a distance of hardly 50 steps on another side.
The tariffs were reasonable too and I immediately confirmed two rooms.

WITH WHOM

That done, I asked a few friends if anyone would accompany us.
Since all my friends now have kids, we thought it would be good company for my daughter too.
I put this across in a family Whatsapp group and everyone had planned something or the other expect BHPian friend avinashsg
He agreed instantly and told me that all the planning would be left to me and he’ll just come with his family.
His wife and my wife also get along very well since they were once colleagues at Mindtree Ltd.
This is also a reason for the title of this thread as in that company they call their employees as ‘Minds’

DRIVE WHAT?

With 4 adults and two kids, It was easily decided that we will take avinashsg’s Safari for this trip.
The main reasons being that the Safari is big and that mine is a petrol car

CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT

After 2 weeks, we were casually discussing this in a family Whatsapp group and two other ladies asked their husbands why they were not going?
Now the husbands didn’t have any other option but to join us. So they asked me to book two more rooms for them.

One of them was BHPian pumpy_raj who was a part of my East-West drive.
I called up the home stay owner and asked him if there was any availability. He told that he was left with only one additional room.
He suggested that if it was ok for us, with extra beds, 4 couples and 4 kids can sleep in 3 rooms. Most other times anyway, we will be outside the rooms.
We discussed this with our better halves and they agreed. So I confirmed a total of 3 rooms.

As far as pumpy_raj was concerned, his wife could not come with us.
She is a school teacher and there was an Independence day event that she couldn’t miss.
So it was only his son who would be comng along with him.
So with a total of 7 adults and 4 Kids, it was clear that we needed another car.
As options, we had pumpy_raj’s Petrol Ritz and a Diesel Punto. So, we decided that we will go in the Safari and the Diesel Punto

CRAZY TWIST

Then it was a long wait of 4 weeks before the actual trip.
One day, I was discussing this booking with a colleague of mine and he too liked the home-stay.
He immediately booked it for the next weekend and visited and came back with good reviews.
This made the wait seem even more longer.

Everyday avinashsg and I would talk and feel that the actual trip is too far away and we didn’t have anything much to do.
It was an idle period. They say that an idle mind is a Devil’s workshop
I was thinking what we could do to do something special in an otherwise simple trip of just driving on two days and relaxing one day in the home-stay.

3 weeks before the trip, I got this crazy idea of taking a Vespa for this trip.
Previously we had once planned a trip to Goa in the Vespa and had to cancel it because of opposition from families.
I discussed this idea with avinashsg and as expected, he agreed to it instantly. pumpy_raj too agreed immediately.
The other guy Anil told us that we had gone nuts and told us not to include him in this plan.
Based on our previous experiences, we decide to keep this plan a secret and that it should only be known on the day of travel.
Because of this change, we now decided to take Anil’s Diesel Punto and My Petrol Punto along with a Vespa.
It was decided three of us will share the driving duties of one car and a Vespa.

Then came the question of which Vespa to take, of the three options we had.

1. My Wife’s Black S125. It was ruled out because it has already run 18000 kms in 2 years.
2. avinashsg’s wife’s Black S125 which has run 5000Kms in 1 year
3. My sister’s White VX125 which had run only 1600Kms.

We decided to take my sister’s White Vespa based on two reasons. One was that it had hardly run and is almost new.
Another reason was that it is white with red ‘Abarth’ stripes and a perfect match for our cars
Apart from the four of us, only my sister was told about this plan and she told us to be careful and agreed to give us the keys.

RIDING GEAR

All the necessary things required for the 2 wheeler were arranged by avinashsg. We had the following items with us:

1. SJCAM action camera mounted on his helmet
2. Duckback raingear free size
3. Cramster riding jacket for him and Mototech riding Jacket for me
4. Cramster Riding gloves
5. Basic tool kit
6. Sena Bluetooth
7. A couple of bungee cords to setup a luggage as backrest

This was too much as per some people but we thought this was just a basic kit

ROUTE AND TIME PLAN

The route we decided to take was Bengaluru-Ramanagara-Mysuru-Hunsur-Gonikoppa-Iritty-Irikkur-Sreekandapuram-Talliparamba-Payannur-Thrikaripur-Valiyaparamba Beach

Although we knew that Mysuru road would see a lot of traffic during the long weekend, we decided to take it since we were families with kids; there are lots of snack stops if we need to take any.


The planned route

The plan was to hit the Highway as early as possible. With kids, we decided on 5:45AM with every one of us knowing that it will be 6AM.
The plan was that avinashsg and pumpy_raj would arrive at my home in the Safari and the Punto, transfer the luggage in the Safari to my Punto and head out in 2 Puntos and a Vespa.

One day before the drive, I had taken my car to the Shell fuel station for petrol, but had not filled petrol.
This is because Shell has this bad strategy (Aggressive as they might want to call it) to push premium petrol by saying that they don’t have normal petrol.
I hate this strategy of theirs and every time they say that, I tell that it is really bad and come out angry and without filling any fuel.

[hemanth.anand]

Day 1: Saturday, 13th August 2016

Finally the day of travel had come. In this group of friends, I’m known to delay things.
But on the day, I was ready by 5:45 AM and it was a pleasant surprise to others.
Since everyone expected me to delay the departure, in the end others were not ready at that time.
By the time they arrived at my home, it was 6:15AM.

It was only here that our wives came to know about the Vespa but they couldn't do anything at this last moment.
They told that they had this intuition that we will do something crazy.

By the time we could leave home, it was 6:30AM. avinashsg took the Vespa and I drove my Punto.

As we still had to fill petrol, it consumed some more time and by the time we joined Mysore road, it was 7:00AM

As expected, the traffic was not less but it was not too bad either.
There was a traffic jam at Ramanagara signal because of a broken down truck.
There was another traffic junction at Channapattana because the Traffic signal was still not switched on.

Our initial plan was to stop at Srirangapattana for Breakfast. But due to the delayed start and the above two traffic jams, we stopped for breakfast at Shivalli Restaurant at 8:15AM.
As we filled our stomachs, the kids also got some time to run around.
Because of the Traffic, the Vespa reached 10 minutes earlier even with many photo stops.

After an hour, we had finished our breakfast and resumed our journey. Before that, we took a photo of the three vehicles together.


Italian Machines


Three italians


Siblings

Our next stop was at Srirangapattana where we leave Mysuru road and divert towards Eilwala on Hunsur Road.
The traffic by now had eased out a bit and the cars could move faster. Also avinashsg is a sedate rider.
So, when we reached our stop that we had decided, Vespa was behind by 10minutes.

This is where we exchanged seats and I took the Vespa. avinashsg had driven the scooter close to 150Kms.
The Srirangapattana to Eilwala via KRS road is good in most parts. After the KRS cross, a small stretch is made of concrete too.
Except some rough patches, there was nothing much to worry about.


Common sight after Eilwala

Because of the median-less yet good roads, I was always ahead of the two cars.
The cars also stopped for a tender coconut break somewhere near Hunsur which I was unaware of.
This made the gap between the vehicles even bigger.
In fact I had even stopped for a couple of photos, and 2 more times to message them about my location, and once to refill Petrol at Gonikoppa.
I also missed the Bittangala turn after Gonikoppa and took the longer route via Virajpaet.
Even after all these, I was in front of the two cars by a 10minute margin at least.


Time pass photo in one of the pit stops

After Virajpet, it started to rain heavily. I stopped and wore the Duckback rain gear.
It was here that I realised that my phone battery was in single digit percentage and that the Powerbank was in the car.
I informed them about this and told them that we will meet at Iritty and I continued ahead.

The rain, the winding roads, the smooth tarmac, the black road snaking through the green vegetation, the White Vespa was all a wonderful combination.
I was soaking in the beauty of it all and enjoying the ride.
Once in a while I used to cruise alongside the many Royal Enfield Bike groups.
When there were no Enfields, I was singing songs loudly.
Songs of Kishore Kumar to SPB to Aashiqui2; Basically, all the songs that I could remember


Bliss

For most of the ride, I had the company of another KTM Duke 390 rider riding alone.
We both were riding rather slowly; sometimes I was ahead and some other times he was in front of me.

Somewhere near Maakkoottam, In the midst of a curve, I felt the scooter shaking and losing balance.
The vehicle started wobbling and It felt like a puncture in the rear tyre-One thing that we had feared.
I stopped immediately. Since I was really slow and the scooter was also pretty upright, I could stop it without a fall.
I got down and checked the tyre. To my shock, there was no puncture but the tyre had just come off the wheel

When I stopped, the Duke guy also stopped and asked me what had happened. I told him and even he couldn’t believe.
I checked my phone and my phone was dead. So I requested him for his mobile phone to call my friends. He obliged.
By the time the call could connect, they arrived.
Nobody could believe it. They once again checked the tyre and there was indeed no puncture.
Now that the cars had arrived, the Duke guy left and I thanked him for stopping and helping me.

It was 2PM by this time and the kids were getting hungry. So we asked pumpy_raj to take all 4 kids and the 3 ladies to the next restaurant (we knew that it is close by at Vallithode).
We told him that avinashsg, Anil and I would join them soon after getting this issue sorted out.

Initially we thought we will get some person from the next available tyre repair shop and get it repaired.
But later we checked if we can remove the tyre ourselves which would save us more time.
We checked the fitment and we could remove it very easily by just removing 3 bolts.


Removing the bolts


The tyre being removed

Anil and I stayed near the vehicle while avinashsg took the tyre in my car.


What a beautiful location to loose a tyre

By this time, I took the powerbank from my car and put my phone for charging.
Instead of charging, the phone went into a strange factory mode and with a Big Android logo.
There was a huge warning message that the phone is downloading something and not to switch off the phone.
Since there was no data network, it couldn’t download and hence it couldn’t start. So I decided to restart the device.
The device restarted, But now it was not charging. When I shook the cable of the powerbank, it charged. I kept it in the same position and left it.
Shockingly Anil’s phone switched off automatically and when we restarted, it took ages but didn’t start. His phone’s battery was almost full!
When I initially stopped here, there were lots of monkeys. But when the phones switched off, suddenly all monkeys ran inside the forest.
This entire experience was like it was straight out of some horror movie
We were joking about this and preparing ourselves for a long wait.

But fortunately avinashsg came back within 10 mins as he had found a shop close-by.
The tyre repair guy had just put back the tyre and inflated it. He didn’t even ask for any labour but avinashsg gave him 30rupees It seems. We fixed the tyre


Fixing the tyre back

I resumed the ride while Anil and avinashsg followed me. I was more careful this time.


By the time we reached Vallithode, others had finished lunch. We also quickly finished our lunch and resumed.
The plan was for pumpy_raj to take over the Vespa from here on.
But his son was not ready to leave him and there were no kids’ helmets. So I continued to ride.

After an hour or so, the scooter crossed the 2000Kms mark.


1999.9


2000.0

We didn’t stop after this even thought there was heavy showers-thanks to the rain gear. The 90Kms distance took close to 3 hours and we reached the home-stay at 6PM.


Valiyaparamba Backwaters

Again due to the narrow roads of Kerala, The Scooter reached 10 minutes earlier than the cars.
When I looked at the ODO, I saw that it had clocked 410Kms shared between avinashsg(144Kms) and Me(266Kms).
I had a sore back but after a 10 minute rest, it was ok.

We settled in our rooms and the owner and other guests were shocked to see a Scooter all the way from Bangalore!

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing on the beach before dark and inside the resort after dark.
The dinner was spent chatting about the drive and plans for the next day.

I had planned a visit to the snake park, drive-in beach at Muzhappilangad and a visit to St. Angelo fort in Kannur.
We had planned only for the ladies and kids as we all had visited those places earlier too.
But when the ladies told they would just want to relax and play in the beach we were pleasantly surprised.
It was just a good night’s sleep after that.

[hemanth.anand]

Day 2: Sunday, 14th August 2016

We got up at 8 and finished our breakfast which was traditional local cuisine dishes- Puttu Kadala and Vellayappam


Puttu Kadala

After that, we took the kids to the beach and it was play time. Till around 1PM, we played in the beach.
I built a sand castle with my daughter, made sand cakes. It was a visit to our childhood for us adults.


Dad Daughter builders inc.


A sand castle of a kid


Sand cakes


Jump!


My two ladies


Alone

I then buried myself till the head much to the amusement of the kids.


Grave diggers!


Kick....The Ball!

A time lapse video of the whole burying exercise is recorded as below

http://youtu.be/v3cPgZ-uVZ4

Seeing just my head, out of the sand, my daughter came running to me and said, “Don’t worry papa, I’ll dig you out”. Those were some priceless moments.


“Don’t worry papa, I’ll dig you out”

After this we had a relaxing lunch and a small nap on the many hammocks.


Relaaaaaaax!


ZZzzzzzzzzz

By 2PM, the ladies felt that they had to go out somewhere. We told that it’s now too late and Kerala roads are too slow to go out now.
But they had to visit some place at-least having come so far!
We suggested taking the backwater boat ride which would be arranged by the home-stay itself. But they found that to be a boring idea.
So finally it was decided to go to Bekal fort which is 40Kms(1.5hours) away.
The home stay owner told that the entry to it would close by 4:30 ad we had to leave ASAP.

We left at 3PM and reached at 4:50 because of a closed railway track enroute.
Fortuately for us, we found out that the fort entry would be open till 5:30PM. We spent a good 1 hour inside the fort.


B&W


Centipede???


Millipede


Curled


Best friend


Big Boys


Curious Boys!


Porch


Not afraid to walk alone

After coming out, we kept the kids occupied with some snacks, ice cream and bubble chase in the empty parking lot


Yummy!


In a bubble...


Reflections!

Later, the security guard came and asked us to leave so that he could close the parking lot gate.
On the way back, my Car crossed the 80K Kms during the return journey.


80000 Smiles!

By the time we returned back to our home-stay, it was 8PM and just in time for dinner.
Everyone decided that we have to start the next day soon after breakfast.
After a satisfying dinner, by 11PM, we slept.

[hemanth.anand]

Day 3: Monday, 15th August 2016
I got up early and took a small morning walk and some photos


Morning walk!


Waiting for someone!


After a day's rest, ready for the return journey


This is where we stayed


Side-on


Penetrate


Enter


Note the URL.


Good morning it was.

Everyone else got up by 7AM. We packed our bags, finished breakfast by 8:30AM and were ready to leave.
We settled the bill and by 9AM, when the skies opened, we started our journey back home.
The owner wanted a group photo of us and after that, we began the return drive. avinashsg took the Vespa.
Before hitting the highway we had three more small stops for some photos


Typical coastal scene


From down under


Triplets


Star attraction


With all gear now


Sea level


Live to Ride


Live to Drive


Some company

We refilled all the vehicles with fuel at Payannur.
The Vespa used to go ahead, and then take some rest or stop for some photos till we catch up.


Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

A brief stop at the place where the tyre had come off the wheel and after that it was a non stop ride till Gonikoppa.


A snap where the tyre had come off during the onward journey

By 2:30PM, we reached Gonikoppa where we stopped for lunch.
By 3:30 PM, we resumed our journey but now, for the first time BHPian pumpy_raj took the Vespa.
It was a non-stop ride till 4:45PM when we reached Mysore-Bangalore Road near Srirangapattana.
He reached earlier than the cars with enough time left for him to drink a tender coconut.

From here it was a nightmarish traffic. It never looked like a highway and as expected, it felt more like city traffic.
By 6:30PM, when it became dark, we reached Shivalli restaurant just before Channapattana where we stopped for a snack.
The kids who were confined to the car also got some time and space to play.

At 7PM we started again and avinashsg took over the scooter from pumpy_raj. He refilled the scooter with petrol.

The traffic was so bad that even the scooter couldn’t go ahead of us. It was 9PM when we reached the NECE road toll gate on Mysore road.

Due to some minister behind us, the toll gate guys left the scooter for free.
I was giving the toll in all coins that had accumulated. He asked me to hurry up and give whatever amount is left and sent me
We reached home by 9:30PM. The scooter had clocked another 402Kms and a total of 812Kms!

The long weekend was finally over and our small dream of taking the Vespa on a long drive was realized.

The next two days was spent in accumulating photos and calculating expenses among others.
In total we had spent 47K for the three days including everything!

Below is how the Vespa was shared between the three BHPians


Sharing is fun!


Kitna Deti hain?

When I tabulated the ODO reading, I saw that both the puntos had covered 820Kms. However, the Vespa's ODO showed a reading of 812Kms.
This couldn't be true because the Vespa had not come to the Bekal fort trip which was a 90Kms round trip.
I then measured on Google too to confirm. There was indeed an error in the ODO reading. It was not a minor error but more than 18%
Here's the calculation.


Error

TO SUM IT UP

There was a slogan competition in our office for the Independence day and we had to write a slogan on the theme What does freedom mean to you?
This trip provided us with quite a few answers to that question.

Freedom is riding alone in the rain singing loudly

Freedom is playing like a kid with kids

Freedom is getting recharged

Freedom is spending time with family and friends

Freedom is getting wet without worrying about our clothes

Freedom is sipping a beverage sitting by the beach

Freedom is counting waves without worrying about time

[SDP]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[blackwasp]

Wow Hemanth! Rated 5 star. I wonder how the tire of Vespa came out. It was nice to have 2 other backup Italian Vehicles.


I think this is a good way to travel on a Vespa. You neither get tired since drivers are swapped and you have back up ready.

I'd like to know if the Vespa was able to sustain highway speed continuously or you felt that she was being strained.

[divyankar]

Wow. Awesome travelogue with beautiful pictures.
Vespa tire episode was a shocker and concerning too as i am planning to buy one.
It was a relief that you were driving slow.
Also could you please share the room tariff and the website of the home-stay.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Wow Hemanth! Rated 5 star.

Thanks

I wonder how the tire of Vespa came out.

I'm still not able to understand why and how!
Strangely, we had discussed about what we can do if the tyre is punctured.
We even thought of taking a spare wheel from other Vespas that we had at our homes.
But we thought that since we will not go too far away from Civilization and since we have backup cars, we need not take a spare wheel.

It was nice to have 2 other backup Italian Vehicles. I think this is a good way to travel on a Vespa. You neither get tired since drivers are swapped and you have back up ready.

Previously we had been on a 250Kms round trip on this same Vespa and another S125.
We had understood the vehicle's and our capabilities. We knew that we have to stop now and then to give some rest to our backs.
With this idea, we always had planned to take one car at least so as to swap between driving and riding and also so that the car acts as a backup

I'd like to know if the Vespa was able to sustain highway speed continuously or you felt that she was being strained.

For the distances we covered and for the time in between stops, there was absolutely no strain at all.
The longest continuous ride without any stop whatsoever was during the return leg from Gonikoppa to Srirangapattana.
During this stretch, the scooter cruised at 80Kmph most of the times and even reached triple digit speeds.
After that, pumpy_raj told me that he was surprised how easily this scooter rides.

Originally Posted by divyankar

Wow. Awesome travelogue with beautiful pictures.
Vespa tire episode was a shocker and concerning too as i am planning to buy one.
It was a relief that you were driving slow.

Although I don't understand how something like this could happen, I'm sure its a rare event. That shouldn't be a deal breaker for you

Also could you please share the room tariff and the website of the home-stay.

The website is in the last post (painted on the boat)
We paid 3500 per night for the AC room including breakfast.

[avinashsg]

As always.....
Thanks to hemanth.anand for the plan.
If not for the plan, we never would have ventured out and got the satisfaction of riding out a Vespa and enjoying on the private beach.

This trip answered many questions that were raised when I bought my Vespa like:
1. Why is it 1 lac?
2. Costlier that a bike. Not worth it!
3. Its just the looks without any practical use!
4. Rather buy a 150cc bike than investing in wrong scooter!

Happily I can say to all the folks who had doubts....

IN YOUR FACE.

1. The scooter is worth every penny.
2. If not better that a bike, its nothing less than any bike of equivalent capacity.
3. Amazing looks and practical for every use.

Happy to have invested in the beauty.

[Rajeevraj]

Great report Hemanth. Thanks for sharing. The Vespa idea was totally wacky. We typically go out with my brother in law and family, He has an Enfield 500 and I have a Pulsar 200NS. We have debated a few times that we should take a car and one of the bikes on our trips, then we laugh it off as a crazy idea.

Your report has rekindled that thought

[rselva]

@hemanth.anand
Love the family time vibe and the sheer audacity of taking a Vespa for a 687 KM ride ! However I am struck by the absence of helmet- cam footage. Didn't it work as expected?

[Waspune]

Brilliant travelogue Hemant. Its always great to see the Italian beauties traveling together. I was a little shocked to read about the Vespa debacle. Why did it happen at the first place? Did you get the Vespa checked once before the drive?

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Great report Hemanth. Thanks for sharing. The Vespa idea was totally wacky. We typically go out with my brother in law and family, He has an Enfield 500 and I have a Pulsar 200NS. We have debated a few times that we should take a car and one of the bikes on our trips, then we laugh it off as a crazy idea.

Your report has rekindled that thought

Thankyou Rajeevraj,
Enfield 500 and a Pulsar 200NS can take you anywhere. Stop the debates and hit the road

Originally Posted by rselva

@hemanth.anand
Love the family time vibe and the sheer audacity of taking a Vespa for a 687 KM ride ! However I am struck by the absence of helmet- cam footage. Didn't it work as expected?

Thanks rselva.
This vehicle can go farther than people think. Its only people's thoughts that limit it.

Camera footage is available and has worked well. But just putting up the video as it was recorded will be boring to watch and avinashsg has been a bit lazy to compile the videos and make a nice and interesting one out of it

Originally Posted by Waspune

Brilliant travelogue Hemant. Its always great to see the Italian beauties traveling together. I was a little shocked to read about the Vespa debacle. Why did it happen at the first place? Did you get the Vespa checked once before the drive?

Thanks Waspune,
After the previous regular service, the vehicle had hardly run 100kms, so we didn't get it checked.

[redcruiser]

very well written. Well the KTM guy proved to be your road buddy. The description about android thing speaks of the details that you were able recollect and jot it down. Some of these descriptions is what makes a good travelogues.
Well the Vespa idea was crazy one though but you had back up cars and spare wheel which made it a well planned idea.

[haria]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I got down and checked the tyre. To my shock, there was no puncture but the tyre had just come off the wheel

Yikes! This is straight out of a nightmare! . You can thank your lucky stars that a serious accident was averted. Did you manage to find out why this happened ? Very very scary!

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

The scooter had clocked another 402Kms and a total of 812Kms!

Wow! that's awesome! 812 km in a scooter! I find it pretty painful to go even 80km in my bike - thanks to my niggling back. It must have been fantabulous riding in the rain.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Freedom is riding alone in the rain singing loudly

Freedom is playing like a kid with kids

Freedom is getting recharged

Freedom is spending time with family and friends

Freedom is getting wet without worrying about our clothes

Freedom is sipping a beverage sitting by the beach

Freedom is counting waves without worrying about time

Very nice quote and a Lovely travelogue.