Meet me at the Base Camp at 6:00 am sharp on Saturday, 20th July ‘13. “But…. Okay, we’ll be there.”
The World through my Windshield
Keep your eyes on the road, Your hands upon the wheel. You gotta roll, roll, roll, You gotta thrill my soul. Well, I woke up this morning, And, I got myself a beer. The future's uncertain, And the end is always near.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Monsoon Drive with Team HVK (Jul '13)
Meet me at the Base Camp at 6:00 am sharp on Saturday, 20th July ‘13. “But…. Okay, we’ll be there.”
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Exploring the NH-17 (Jan ’06) : Part-2 (Mangalore to Sawantwadi)
I believe, that the coast of
As we sped along northwards from Mangalore, we came across several such beaches which were but a stones throw away from the highway itself, and yet did not bear even the stray squatter… Kshitija, who always carries a swim suit in her luggage regardless of where she travels, was very keen on stepping out for a swim… but in all honesty the total desolation on those beaches had me chickening out from the idea… I know it doesn’t sound very brave at all, but I was not at all comfortable parking the car by the road and wading about in swimsuits on such a beach, especially when we didn’t have any others in our group… now, that’s really something that has to change if tourism (domestic or foreign) is to be promoted in these parts… even the presence of a lone lifeguard on a watch tower or a police patrol van or station would help people feel safe… or would it..?
We made a non-scheduled halt at Murudeshwar, only because the huge Shiva statue there caught our eye… we wondered what it was, and decided to check it out… the size of the statue is indeed overwhelming, as are most of the other modern sculptures there… also the shore view from atop the temple is even more stupendous… with all her desire to swim, here was a sparkling beach with wide shores and white sands right in front of us, and yet Kshitija decided not too… this beach was bursting at its seams with picnic-ers, water skier, the works..! it was quite a surprise to see this, and it just highlighted my own ignorance (and the Karnataka Governments lack of tourism promotion) regarding popular beaches beyond
The Karwar beach hugs the highway as you pass it… but this time we decided to move on without stopping to explore further…
South Goa is just amazing, and the high speed drive through its forests & foliage is something I especially love… you soon start to see familiar sights - Tourists on rented Rajdoots, Shops selling sarongs, scarves & sunglasses and Beer boards tempting you to stop for an Arlem or a Kingfisher… we stopped at Margao and ate at one of my favourite eateries there - Longuinhos… chilled beer, pork vindaloo, fried fish and lots of other stuff that I cant now remember… I love this place for its old world feel; complete with wobbly wooden furniture and inept service… but it serves an authentic fare of Goan food including balchaos, xacutis, sorpotels & bebincas…
Satiated, we then drove down to Anjuna, and parked our selves in one of its many bayside shanties… Kshitija finally got to do her swimming, and I got to do what I desired most – beer lounging … we stayed there until sun-down, got ourselves fleeced at the flea market and then headed out to our final destination for the night – Hotel Konkan Crown at Sawantwadi…
Dad’s been associated with the KC group for a while now, and at that time was himself spending about 6 months a year in Sawantwadi… he had been raving about this place, and now indeed was our chance to visit, although Dad wasn’t there then…
It’s funny, but Sawantwadi railway station (close to where this hotel is located) is not in Sawantwadi at all… it is about 6-8 kms away from the main township, and you even have to cross a narrow ghat to get there… but after a long day out in the sun, the hotel was invitingly luxurious… however the food and the restaurant service weren’t quite up to the mark (but Dad says that that too has improved since)… we both had a couple of drinks, sampled a few malwani dishes, and having placed a request to be woken up at 5 am the next morning, we finally crashed into our four poster…
At that moment, life couldn’t indeed have been better…
Monday, May 18, 2009
Exploring the NH-17 (Jan ’06) : Part 1 (Cochin to Mangalore)
This to-date remains of my most memorable drives… me and kshitija in our Tavera running through the entire stretch of the NH-17 highway from its tip (at Edapally) to toe (at Panvel)… a comfortable and leisurely drive spanning 3 days, while coming back from Rajesh’s wedding, having packed off my daughter with my Mom by flight from Cochin…
Having been immersed headlong into parenting for a year and a half, we were desperately waiting for a getaway of this nature, sans a kid to tow… so having seen Mom & Samay off at the airport (and ensuring that they did indeed board the flight!) we started out on this exploration, armed with jackfruit chips, tapioca wafers, mineral water and red bulls…
First halt, a small ramshackle restaurant just after Calicut for a ‘lunch meal’ accompanied by some tasty, but unpronounceable, fried fish… the striking feature about kerala is that even in the shantiest of food joints the standard of quality & hygiene is exceedingly high… you will always find clean tables & utensils, the warm water that they serve will carry the rich flavour & aroma of one of the many ingredients that they boil it with, all non-veg meals will be served along with a waste plate (an oval stainless steel utensil in which you are forced to dump your chicken bones & fish spines; thus preventing you from plastering them over or chucking them under the table), the chips will be fresh, the meals will be hot and the wash basins clean… just as long as you do not look up to see the paunchy moustached Mammootty on the opposite table slurp his sambar or payassam from elbow to fingernail, all is as well as can be…
The drive through Kannur and north kerala is not very exciting, as the roads are wider, the thoroughfare is slightly more and has less of a rustic feel… as someone once told me, the main source of revenue in Kerala is Money Order, and this is well evident in the large grossly ornated banglows you see all along the way… the dear old son toiling away in an oil rig or the more educated one working in an auto showroom there, does not mind his prodigal father proudly advertising this to one and all, in all forms of impressionist architecture…
There were two lovely stretches before we reached Mangalore though… The NH-17 passes right through Thalassery, a small beautiful city on the same
The second unforgettable stretch is between Kasargod & Mangalore… I wanted to see if I could hug the coastline as far as possible, even if it meant abandoning the NH-17 for a while… I found one such opportunity right here… the NH-17 diverges to the right, while a narrower road turns to the left, running parallel to the shore… and it was amazing to discover that as the road went up and down the hills with the shoreline right below, as some places the dip was exaggerated to more than a 40 degree incline… the car would cruise down a steep incline only to start on another climb immediately, all of this on a straight road with not a single vehicle along the entire stretch… it was truly an experience that will stay with me for a long time…
We reached Mangalore by evening and halted for the night there… at night we went out for a cosy dinner and drinks… needless to say, as during this entire journey, we once again feasted, with fish being the main ingredient on our plate…
We decided to retire to bed early, as we had a long day chalked ahead as well…
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Bombay to Cochin (Jan ’06) : Driving to the Marriage
My maternal cousin, decided to get married in Kerala… as Mom, by virtue of having served a government airline for 35 years, is able to get free air tickets for the entire family there was indeed no hesitation from any of us about traveling to the wedding… Kshitija & Samay (who was only a year & half then) were flying with Mom…
I on the other hand decided to drive down those 1400 kms by myself in my Chevy Tavera… The idea must have sounded interesting, I believe, because Pisan (Rajesh’s Chinese bro-in-law) and 2 other members of his family decided to join me from Pune… I drove down to Pune the previous night, ate at their self-owned restaurant at
We started out well before dawn the next morning… I chose to drive right upto Hubli (through Satara, Kolhapur, Belgaum & Dharwad) via the then newly constructed NH-4 expressway… in retrospect, this is indeed the best route I could have chosen as I made excellent time all through… my Tavera used to purr like a baby even when I touched speeds of 150+ on that road… I however dislike the monotony of expressways… far too much concrete and way little greenery…
The road from Hubli to Mangalore (to join the NH-17) is quite lovely… I remember one stretch of about 70 odd kms which is completely a ghat… my co-passengers however were beginning to feel the strain of the journey by now, which after about 10 hours and 600 kms on the road was none to surprising…
Back on to NH-17, we almost start traveling parallel to the shoreline… I remember stopping at one spot, opening up a Red Bull, climbing on to the bonnet of my car and watching the sun as it hastened its descent… I wanted to reach upto Mangalore, but an election rally held us up for almost 1 hour just before Udipi… I finally gave in to the demands of my compatriots, and parked for the night at a hotel in Udipi… 3 large pegs of Rum and a biryani later, I was already fast asleep…
We began early again the next day, after an authentic South Indian breakfast at Shree Krishna lodge… as we headed out of this holy town, driving through the mist and watching the sun rise over the paddy fields was transcendental enough for me…
The road from Mangalore to Kodungalur, is very typical of NH-17 and keeps winding all through, as though it had indeed be designed by an engineer who had had one bottle too many… The roads tend to get narrower as one enters further south into Kerala… I had expected to reach by mid afternoon, but a hour & half traffic jam just before
And to top it up I accidentally skipped the NH-17 beyond Ponnani and landed up in Thichur instead of Kodungalur… Rajesh’s house is about 6 kms off the main highway… but locating this was indeed the toughest part… bemused villagers would find a large Silver Tavera roll up beside them, one head pop out of each of its windows, of which 2 of us were Chinese (obviously not me!) and one of us was an Iranian (not me again!)… none of us knew their language, and they sure as hell didn’t understand our’s either… we kept asking for a white house (with a plate on its front gate) with a school teacher residing next to it… this was the only description that Pisan knew; he being the only one to have visited here before… come to think of it, it was ridiculous to expect to reach the place with something as flimsy as that for a landmark… the only other instruction we had received was to take the road heading towards ‘Mala’…
The 99% literacy of the State does not however permit any of its inhabitants to admit that they would not be able to guide us… so whether they knew the place or not, each person we asked would confidently point in some arbitrary direction and say “moonnu kilometer”… “Moonnu” being “Three”, we traversed the length & breadth of the whole bloody town in 3 kms stretches in every possible direction..! people wouldn’t tell us where the road to Mala was, but would certainly point out that we were pronouncing it incorrectly (the ‘L’ has to be pronounced with a sharp upward roll and click of the tongue!)…
I think we finally found the place, more out of accident than device… so after almost 28 hours of single-hand driving across 1500 kms (the last 100 having been covered within the periphery of a 10 km area) I eventually did arrive for the marriage…
Friday, May 15, 2009
Bombay to Goa (Sep ’07) : The Stay
But while in Goa, we did what we almost always do (me are Taral are totally like minded when it comes to this, and I would be speaking as much for him as for myself in this entire blog)… although each day would be a different exploration, a typical day went something like this :
1. Wake up in the morning
Now that’s the single most difficult thing to do in
2. Take a cold shower #1
An utmost must, to help you shake off your sleep, tiredness and hangover all at once… you will need another one later in the day… but we’ll come to that later…
3. Drink Feni
It helps if the hotel / resort that you are staying in, has a bar that opens early (they’ve had a late night too, you see)… as you deposit the room keys at the counter and walk towards the car park, have a quick 30 ml shot of Cashew Feni (only because I prefer Cashew to Palm)… it zooms up your arteries and clears up not only your foggy head, but indeed the entire day ahead…
3. Breakfast at Brito’s
No matter what part of Goa we reside in, we like having our breakfast at Baga Brito’s… pick a good table, one which permits maximum viewing of the sea, the sands and the sun bathers… order for a Feni & Coke, which will give you company until your steaming hot Pork Vindaloo and Pau arrives… get comfortable in your chair (which you will anyway after the 2nd Feni is downed) and prepare for a long and lazy devouring… Tip : do not get yourself a tattoo there, unless you are bloody sure that it wont erupt into a flaming rash later (as Taral himself discovered)
4. Drive
Personally I prefer to explore the roads in Goa rather than the beaches or the churches… so after the 3 hour breakfast I like to head out for a nice long drive… staying at Panjim or Mapsa, you have only two directions to head to : either South towards Palolim to explore virgin sands and not-so-virgin ‘foreigners’; or East towards Dudhsagar Falls to explore virgin jungles and more unabashed nudity… on this particular trip we headed to Palolim… Tip 1 : most petrol pumps where you stop to fuel will have 1 or 2 girls standing by watching you closely. They are not trying to sell you a credit card. Their boyfriend who approaches you will assure you that they can provide an excellent ‘massage’. Tip 2 : If you are indeed experiencing a back pain, take an Ibuprofen instead.
5. Lunch at some nondescript eatery
There are several such places, where you get great fish and meals for practically nothing… we have our own favorite spots, some of which are so small that they are but a blink-and-a-miss esp. if you are driving at speeds of 100+… Order all kinds of fried fish, even if you haven’t heard their names before… Fish curry, rice and beer to accompany… Tip : avoid pork meat at these places, if you do not wish to spend the next few days only exploring toilets, restrooms and bushes around
6. Hang out at a Beach
Find an un-crowded beach, buy some more beer and laze around on the lounge chairs to watch skimpy silhouettes against the dipping sun… relax, mediate, feast your eyes, guzzle the beer…
7. Swim
Oh, not in the damned sea… back in the swimming pool after having driven back to your resort… why..? because the sea does not have an embankment on which you can park your glass of Feni, does it..? duh..!
8. Take a cold shower #2
Now’s when you need to take your second cold shower… helps shake off the sleep and tiredness (you are not hungover anymore; you cant be as you’ve never stopped drinking in the first place!)… change into decent clothes and head down to your resort’s restaurant…
9. Drink
Ah… finally you can relax and get down to some serious drinking… I prefer to continue with my Feni & Coke and call for some nice accompaniments such as Squid Rings (kalamari) and Fried Surmai… socialize with the other fellow residents of your resort… this time around, we watched ongoing cricket matches, screamed at every run scored or wicket taken, mingled with all the stewards and bearers, invited the resort manager over to our table for a drink himself and generally had a whale of a time…
10. Dinner
We like to move around and try a different dining place each time… on one of the nights we visited a newly opened biryani restaurant… the biryani wasn’t as great as it sounded, but we shared the table (out of choice, not compulsion) with 3 very interesting guys… we found out later that they were actually off-duty policemen… we had such a great time with them and they took us to Vagatore beach at around 1 am… we sat there for a couple of hours, sharing stories and watching the shimmering moon & the waves from atop the cliff… a police van that came by later for routine patrolling even went back and got us all some more beers & cigarettes since our stock was running dry… that night was truly the highlight of our stay there…
11. Explore
After dinner head straight out to explore the night life… during this trip we found a lovely jazz bar by the bay… a bunch of very talented musicians, an excellent expression of guitar strings and a plump little girl who truly won our hearts with her amazing voice… we would sit there, with our draught beer mugs in front of us, and cheer her every nuance and nod our heads in appreciation as the chords continued to tantalize…
12. Sleep
Eventually… cause you must… cause the sun is threatening to rise again… cause you have another exciting day lined up ahead of you… Tip : stay in a resort that is easy to find, or carry it’s address & phone number in your back pocket… for if you don’t, you too may end up driving around back and forth for over an hour, hunting for the vanishing castle at bloody 4 am in the goddamn morning!
Bombay to Goa (Sep ’07) : The Road Trip
Both me and Taral just could not resist the temptation of this 550 km ever-winding drive yet again… and with the monsoons still on, the road trip was already set up to be a sure winner…
Every trip begins with a trigger, and this time it was Satyapal’s (Taral’s cousin from Rajkot) corporate vacation package… with accommodation being paid for, all we now needed was someone to fuel up the tank and sponsor the food & booze… having thus roped in Manoj and his VISA, we were ready to roll..!
we had initially decided to drive my partner’s Indigo (diesel) to cut back on fuel costs, but since we were not paying anymore we didn’t give a damn about that and thankfully ended up driving out with Taral’s Verna…
two guys, two passengers cum sponsors, one car, Taral’s cartload of Old monks & Kingfishers, one amazing road and lots & lots of rain…
(when I drive on highways, I do not touch the booze… Taral in the passenger seat however compensates for both of us…)
Took the NH-17 all the way through… although it lacks the thorough rustic, unused charm of the narrower state highways, the rains did bring it alive this time… it came down in sheets as we traveled, and we soon realized that we would indeed have to replace our slightly worn-out wind shield wipers…
the sponsors, I believe, preferred to be safe rather than sorry, and therefore dug deeper into their wallets…
First halt, Lote-Parshuram (just before Chiplun) to replenish Taral’s depleted stock of beer… second stop, Ratnagiri, for feasting on some wonderful fish and rice… and of course more rum for their indestructible livers…
From here on the drive tends to get monotonous and we come by more frequent signs of human existence, than what I personally prefer… the guys caught up with their siestas, and I was alone with myself for the first time in the entire journey… it was nearing evening by the time we reached Sawantwadi, and here’s where the road gains a new lease of life once more… a small winding ghat, dense over-growth and small trickling waterfalls caused by the incessant rain…
Once the road crosses over into Goa, the first 15 kms are just amazing as there isn’t a live soul around along the entire stretch… navigating across this road just beyond the twilight hours, as we did, always gives me a few goose bumps for some unknown reason…
Finally into the vibrant city, we struggle to locate the elusive resort that would be providing us the roof over our heads… after many a “stop-lets-ask-that-bastard” routine, we finally reach the place… I resign the car keys, abandon my abstinence and eventually drown my weariness in a dark ambrosia topped up with coke & soda…
Purpose? To not have any.
i am deeply passionate about road trips and cross-country driving...
i love winding roads, falling rain, the wind in my face & the blur of green across my window... i like to drive without aim or destination... i prefer the concept of movement rather than speed...
i love to drive away from the rising sun and head slowly to meet him again as he too decides to wind up for the day...
i break no records, do not participate in rallies or events and compete with no one including myself...
for me a road trip is never a composite event... it is a collection of singular moments which can never truly be captured on any lens or memory... it has to be lived and experienced just there and then; the bend of the road taking you forth to a newer one...
this blog is therefore not an attempt to relive or revive a faded memory... it is merely the diary of yet another wanderer...