Goa and the Riders!

Posted by johnpothala on

Goa is beautiful this time of year, little crowded but still great and the best place we have encountered after travelling the south because of the roads, the cleanliness, that charming tourist destination feel and great seafood.

The trip has started becoming really interesting now as we have encountered Enfield riders. These people are by far some of the coolest people on the planet. A chance encounter with Suhail from Udupi (also the president of United riders Udupi) has made this trip a lot more fun. We now have the opportunity to meet and stay with riders wherever we may roam,  again,  these riders are damn cool people and great fun to hang out with, infact I am actually staying with Girish from Cafe Bullet Goa at this moment. He owns Hotel Rasa near Baga bridge and has done India by bike in 2006.  Now were off to Bombay and will be meeting the Bikerni, this is the lady riders group of India founded by Urvasi, well be getting a chance to meet the group members and I look forward to it!

Oh, I finally get to upload pics as Girish has fast Internet!!! enjoy!

Sunset at Anjuna beach, Goa

Suhail (a great man and President of United riders in Udupi, Karnataka )

Lost while searching for tribals near Ooty( never found them but atleast the bikes didnt fall off the road)

Kallety pass( 36 hairpin bends and awesome fun)

one of the most relaxing rides in the world( water gondolas of Alleppy, Kerala…this is much better than the Venetian in Vegas)

thanks for viewing and the next time internet is in my hands you can be sure there will be a lot more pics!

17 kms from Srilanka

Posted by johnpothala on

Kalmunghda fishing village,Tamil Nadu

This was a ramdom encounter which led us to travel only 20 kms that day but quite possibly the best water ive been in , the fishermen we befriended took us to a small submerged island in the middle of the ocean, some 17 kms from Srilanka, the water was just about 3 inches deep so u could literally sit and play in the middle of the ocean!!!.

 

To get there , take the ECR from Pondicherry and cross Adiramapatanam (theres a railway station here) after crossing 20 kms ask for this village, its not listed on any maps.

 

 

at 6000 feet above sea level

Posted by johnpothala on

The drop in temperature is quite a surprise, but a welcome change from heat faced since the start of this journey. Nestled deep in the Niligiri hills, Ooty is a top holiday destination in India, theres tea plantations , deep forests, swiss style scenery and everything else you can expect of beauty, including a charming little train, no wonder there are so many honeymooners and couples around. Feels a little out of place for us bachelors here but hey; tea , scenery and cool mountain air is essential for us all.

For  travellers touring  South India right now, i’d definitely recommend checking  Ooty and Connoor out, its totally worth it for a short or long stay, theres a lot of seeing and relaxation to be done here. Plus the lodging is cheap (starting at 370 per night)

Riding out of Ooty tomorrow via the  Kallatty check post is going be fun, there are some insane roads out there with nice tight hairpin bends .

The plan is to move on into Bandipur forest (hopefully see some tigers ) and then drive up north via Mangalore- Gokharna-Goa- Bombay- Nashik – Gujurat – Jodhpur-Udaipur-agra-Delhi-Amritsar and then into Kashmir where we should be lost for a few days .

My laptops screen is broken and using local net cafes to upload media is proving to be a tough task beacuse of the aged technology (broken USB ports) and owners who chase me out, afraid that I may pass a virus into their network. Ill keep trying though . Ill upload a couple of pics through my phone to facebook for now.

For  travellers touring  South India right now, do check  Ooty and Connoor out, its totally worth it and the lodging is cheap (starting at 370 per night)

Greetings from Mahabalipuram!

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Now called Mamallapuram, is a holy town along the Tamil Nadu coast. We seem to have reached at an auspicious time as a festival that happens only once every year is going on, so shops are open well after midnight and people are singing and dancing on the beach.Lovely. Overnight stops are being made at small townships outside major cities to save money and also experience the food and night life of unknown places. The people are friendly and the food is clean and tasty. Saving quite a lot too, check out these rates!

 min price for Lodging
Addanki

250
Gudur

300
Hyderabad

900
Mumbai

1500
nagarjuna sagar

Mamallapuram

250

250

 

Its day 5 of the adventure now and we have been through a number of interesting places including Nagarjuna Sagar and are just about to leave for Pondicherry via East coast highway(NH49) in the next 3 hours, it’s been smooth riding so far with just a couple of near death experiences. 4 hours into the trip I almost hit a woman crossing the road in the dark. Good thing I decided to fit  new brake shoes in the bike.

The Enfield is making me popular, people in the villages seem very interested in the price and mileage, one man even convinced me to let him test ride the bike.

Next time ill put up photos and videos from the trip so far ! ( its almost taking an hour to upload media using my galaxy’s GPRS and im in a hurry to go ride the east coast highway!)

Enter Royal Enfield

Posted by johnpothala on

Finally got the Thunderbird, its an insane machine. If there was any product that can make you live the experience of the brand name, this is it. Royal feeling hain man. Its like travelling first class and its quite easy to manouever in city traffic as well. Its a powerful machine that can injure its rider but just keep safety first and enjoy the ride.

I sold my Yamaha FZ on quikr.com and found the Royal enfield on sulekha.com, dealing was quite smooth and reliable. Ive included a small summary of the transactions below.

I am psyched right me and the team are leaving today (4th march) from shamshabad. . The trip will start and stop in hyderabad and have stops all over India touching kanyakumari, Gujurat, Kashmir and west bengal. Please watch this space in the coming week for a proper map layout.

  enfield fz
year 2008 Nov 2010 Oct
kilometers run 4600 20500
engine condition very good very good
sale/buy price 80000 46000
mileage at POS 35-38 38-40

a night without my bike!

Posted by johnpothala on

I am without my bike for the first time ..I just sold my FZ. It was my first bike too, bought it 16 months ago without a clue about how to ride in the first place, I just saw it and fell in love with the design. The 4″ back wheel, the chassis, the exhaust and that similarity to the Ducati monster. It hurts too much to see her go, I  learnt how to ride on that bike in the streets of Tolichowki and made the 1500 km journey to Goa on it  too (would have made a lot more trips if it wasnt for my office). One hell of a ride! will surely miss her.

The Yamaha FZ 16 is a 153cc, single cylinder, 5 speed bike. Its truly an amazing bike to have in city streets and I would highly recommend it to anyone , because of the superb handling, balance and torque. You can be at almost 0 kph and not loose balance on it, quite a gift for the first time rider. The mileage has been consistent and great at 40KMPL(average) . Its also a great tourer and has never given me any engine trouble despite of irregular servicing and rough useage. Infact it feels brand new to this day.

check out http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/fz16/index.html for more details if youre in the market

Im trading it in for a 2008 Royal Enfield Thunderbird (twinspark) , I’ll need a tougher and more powerful bike for this adventure (atleast a 350cc engine was my target) and of course it is a legend. Its also always been a dream to ride a badass bike.

Not that there is anything wrong at all with the fz, infact I know a couple of friends who often undertake no-sleep journeys to Goa on it, but for riding 30 days in the heat and cold , averaging 500-600 kms a day, id personally prefer an Enfield and also I cant afford to keep 2 bikes at this time.

Today was my last ride on my beautiful machine so I had some fun with it before selling…

atleast I learnt something right? …hope you like!

thanks for watching!

A trip from the past …..

Posted by johnpothala on

This trip was made by John and Karthik in Jan-Feb 2011 after
getting bored with their corporate jobs

this was the most amazing journey in our life , which inspired us to travel around India someday.

 

 

.

For the spirit of riding!!

Hope you guys enjoyed our video

Pre-gaming

Posted by johnpothala on

Today is Wednesday, 15th Feb 2012 : the original date of departure for the India By Bike crew (which is actually just me, Karthik and a cameraman), however here I sit, infront of my Laptop, writing this and simultaneously doing as much research as possible on logistics related to documentary publishing, instead of being on a train to beautiful Kanyakumari with our bikes safely in the back. Shit happens…

2 bikes , 2 guys  and 1 wild dream… to travel India from south to north and then back south, a total trip distance of more than 16000Kms. A film crew( aka : 1 cameraman) will be joining us on the adventure to document the journey. The journey should be starting no later than 20th February now, leaving any later will mean riding in the punishing sun till we reach the Himalayas.

Im about to trade my FZ in for a grand Thunderbird before the trip. So that means a lot of work, but getting out on the road with a vehicle that has very few chances of a breakdown is always worth it!

Ill  be posting a layout of the route we plan to take in the following days  ..

thanks for reading!