Saturday, December 19, 2009

Suffering from blackberry fever already!!!!

Well yesterday I just ordered my first smartphone since my N73....an unlocked blackberry 8830 from ebay for 10k bucks..It will be shipped on monday and it would reach me this week.Am already eagarly awaiting it arrival.

Meanwhile the blackberry fever has caught up with me.Am desperately looking out for best blackberry plans.I am using BPL mobile for past 6 years and am not changing my cellnumber for obvious reasons.With mobile number portability postponed to April 2010 ill still have to put up with Loop mobile.Might go in for a second connection from Airtel just to explore my blackberry potential.Spent the whole day yesterday reading abt how cool my new cellphone is.

I currently used Nokia 5030 which I had got for 2k and for past 6 months it was an object of mockery amongst friends,office colleagues and even my boss not to mention the poort reception quality.

Well thats it from me until my new cellphone arrives.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Kille Raigad and back

I was desperate to get back on the road.Had called up rest of the guys but every one was tied up,but Vishal agreed.Destination wasnt decided,but it was supposed to be a one day ride.

We agreed to meet up at 5:00@Center One mall.Got up at 4:00 and left home by 4:30 am.Reached center one at 5:10 am and Vishal was already waiting for me for half and hour now,but he announced he had to get back home due to some personal reasons.Once again I had to ride solo.Destination was still not decided maybe it was mahabaleshwar,maybe somewhere else.Decided to take NH-17.
Took palm beach road, there JNPT road and was at panvel in no time.Was still pretty dark and I found myself riding on NH-17.After a while it started getting brighter and of course I could enjoy the beautiful scenery.


Soon the sun came out and boy it was beautiful.


A few kms more and the fog started


fog eclipsed the sun and it started looking like the moon.


well the destination was still not decided I was pondering over harishareshwar to spot dolphins or maybe mahabaleshwar

more coming up......................




Friday, November 13, 2009

In search of valley of flowers(Kaas,Satara)

Riders:
Me,Razorblades,Winzee,Ambidexterous and pulsarider and ChiragV(Till lonavala).

We had decide to meetup very early in the morning.
Had called up everyone 5:00 am and everyone was awake before.Good so there would be no late comers.Started early and reched powai at 5:45.
Winzee was already there.Five minutes later ambidexterous calls up and informs he would be little late as he has lost his keys.Meanwhile Razorblades shows up and we were joined a while later by ChiragV.
Ambidexterous shows up after 10 minute.A round of introduction later we are all set to ride.

Half a kilometer into the ride I slam my brakes.Front disk locks and bike starts fishtailing like crazy and I go skidding into the gravel.My brake settings are incorrect since its straight out of a mechanics place.Good I realised it on a small road then on a highway.Fell downPick up my bike mostly by myself,ambidexetous giving me a hand.Though I have done it often picking up bike at almost 6:00 in morning with me half alsleep and the sudden jerk I gave caused me a sprain in the back and I had to ride with a hurting back for rest of the day

Met up vaibhav at 6:15 ish at center one in Vashi and I adjusted my brakes while rest of the gang was chit chatting.Filled up near dattas while rest of gang had sutta etc.
Sunday morning so there were tons of bikers there.Spotted a R1 flying past on the road and Gopi and Winzee said they spotted a face inside the helmet and it seemed like a chic was riding it
Rode to RKs in lonavala and stopped there for breakfast.......




From left to right:
Pulsarider(Vaibhav),ChiragV,Gopi(Razorblades),Winz ee,Ambidexetous




Had called up Roamer and he was already ahead of us(They had taken the mumbai-pune expressway).......so rather than randevous point at dehu road they had already passed lonavala and we decided to meet in satara.

Dehu Road to satara:
Alrite so finished all this yummy idli-vada sambar and rode to dehu road and from there to sataraWell there isnt
much to write abt this except we rode slow at times..add to it there was some traffic.
Took a couple of stops in between.We finally stopped abt 40 kms from satara where
we met a uncle riding his pulsar from mumbai.He showed us his new seat and expalined that difference is like a seat in volvo bus and ordinary bus
Met another local and we inquired abt our destination
Local:What is there in kass?
Us:flowers
Local:Flowers are all gone.If you want to see flowers you should go to himalayas
Local:You should see badrinath,kedarnath there(maybe wanted to say I have been there)and there are flowers at one place.
Us:Tell us the directions to kass and we will check out
Local gives directions

Bad attitude locals in central and south India have at times.Why the fck was he marketing himalayas when we
had come to his home town?
Just a flashback to my hampi ride I can recollect the cop who we bumped into bang outside the ruins asking me and Navin ,
"What have you come to see here?"."What have you come to visit here????This place ofcourse".
Indian youngsters visiting "Hampi ruins" didnt seem convincing reason.
You should learn a thing or two from people in Rajasthan :P

Call up roamer and learn that he has already reached satara and are planning to leave for Kas.

Reach satara and take old pune satara highway and I was sweeping following ambidexterous and others rode ahead
in the traffic and we got split.Called up Vaibhav and informed that we were waiting at Rajawadi chowk.Well we waited
this guys didnt show up.Suddenly glances on across the chowk and spotted them.Apparently some thulli(Lady thulla) was
speaking to the guys.I crossed the street and joined them.
Razor and Winzee were quite and apparently had no clue of ongoings or what they were charged for(i am sure they still hav no clue)
,with vaibhav and me the only person who understood marathi

I dont see any one way or dividers.
Apparently for a city where all the bikers were helmetless,three people ride on one bike,these guys were being charged
for riding on the wrong side of the lane.Well there was no divider either...... Apparenly a street lamp serves as a
divider and anyone who exits the road on the wrong side of the lamp is fined for riding on the wrong side.

Vaibhav's pocket got a lighter by 100 bucks and the righteous cop stopped us and asked us to collect
the reciept(Must be a fake one)

It was getting late(Must be 1:30 or something)We then rode to Kass which was only 25 kilometers now

some pics........................

'the secret levitation lessons' that we practised:P







Dam close to our destination




.........................more later




....more later

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Dhabosa Ride

I got some backlog I gotta finish so posting some of the old rides:

This ride happened a year ago with Vishal Joshi(Fiero) and Vinod Mehtar(P180)

It was a lazy 400 kms ride.

Took the NH-3 which I somehow hate very much and took a diversion towards Jawahar at Kasara.
Its a small road which does thru all the little hamlets and all..

this is the board where you gotta take turn:


there were some mouthwatering twisties that followed:)

We reached Jawahar Lake and stopped to click some pics






Dhabosa waterfall is short distance from jawahar:





We reached waterfall.For a supposedly 300 foot waterfall I was disappointed to find there wasnt much of water:




We decided to climb down to the base of the fall.The walk is a wee bit steep.Me and Vishal in yellow jacket:







After spending some time at the base of the fall.Didnt have any spare clothes to dive into the pics.So I happily clicked pics from the shore.





Climbed up back to the road.The climb back was exhausting(Maybe Im getting old :D)

Had a nice lunch of bhakri(Local bread /form of roti) and dal fry.




Rode back from NH-8 via charoti and back to mumbai


mumbai-kasara ghat(NH-3)-jawahar-dhabosa-jawahar-charoti(NH-8)-Mumbai

Distance:400 kms

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Mumbai-Leh-09 solo (Part 2)

Read first part of the story here :)

http://whereeaglesdare2007.blogspot.com/2009/10/leh-solo-09.html

Leh-diskit:

Started early and went to see my new friends.They were painstakingly washing thier bikes.I joined them
and gave my bike a much deserved bath



Started for nubra






Road from south pullu to north pullu was entirely screwed up.



A mandatory poser shot for bikes worlds 'highest' road



Got down at nubra valley and marvelled at beautiful vistas over there.






Reached diskit..........stayed in a house with a beautiful garden



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iskit-nubra-panamik-leh

after clicking some macros which were out of focus we proceeded to see nubra desert










Syok river





went to panamik.....i was expecting some gyser types hot water fountain....we saw a water flowing from a small hole.....sulphur deposit made sides look yellow and it looked more or less like dirty sh**h**e.I am sorry for the description........I had never seen hot water springs was expecting something I had seen in discovery channel......couldnt help being dissapointedI clicked photos of it and deleted it coz closeup shots of the same looked like what was described earlier.








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Leh-Pangong-Tso:

Started riding towards pangong.Road was awesome spare top five kms on either side of chang -la.Reached pangong in jiffy.Eagarness and excitement of rest of the team on reaching pangong and seeing it for the first time was worth remembering

Pagal nallah now is almost non-existent and there is a bridge construction going there,so it would be gone next year




Checked into barracks at lukang.Was charged at 350 bucks for barracks.Last time I was quoted 1000 bucks and 400 bucks for tent.I guess the price varies according to season.Last time was august or maybe some one made a real 'chaman' of me back then.

Explored the lake.We had skipped lunched and enjoyed some french fries made by the aunty and her son.















We to Pulsies:Are you ready to take on marsimik-la tommorow morning??
Pulsars (Glowing their pilot lamps):"No fear".
I love this "No fear" pic,wish it was much sharper.
|
V




Went back and we ate more oily french fries.....

After dinner we we went to click some night shots:

Eeirie.........Notice how only leg is visible








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The D-Day:Pangong- M-la- Leh:

We had no trouble waking up early.Everyone was charged up to take on toughest pass around...


Did take some early morning shots of pangong-tso:









Were greeting by a frozen mini-nallah.



Not knowing what lied ahead we rode on....
initially it wasnt much and we thought it was just an overrated pass:





















At times the gradient got steep ,we got stuck in loose soil at times some of the bikes had pushed,dragged at time



Finally we made it top.....




BAL P200/P220 lineup with various colors



__________________






time for some pojing:
Pranay:











The stylebhai poje









Returned to Leh and all of us had a gr8 dinner.Tommorow Praful,Pranay and Veda would go back from manali route and I would do some time pass in leh and head back via srinagar the day after.

Group pic:

left to right:
Pranoy,Veda,Me and Praful:




A group photo at K-top



My short trip log doesnt give you an idea of gr8 and memorable time I had with these guys for four days.....








Leh-Kargil:

Did a easy leasure ride to Kargil.Plan was to reach drass and visit the war memorial on the way. But drass had no nice places to stay apart from tourism bungalow many places to eat were shabby looking more of a truckie stop then a proper city.

























I need photostat of my vehicle documents to courier it the next day and I would prefer doing it at a shop inbetween.When I saw decent looking hotel at Kargil I found myself riding inside gates.The cost was exorbitant at 800 bucks a day....hahaha .....this is not delhi u are charging so much I wanted to say..........argued that I had to stop only for night and would be leaving at 5 am.....the owner told me people arrive at night and stay for only two hours but pay the same....i didnt argue....place had decent parking,hot water,clean toilets ,TV with english movie channels to keep me entertained till next day.





Hotel was apparently one of the good ones with lot of gora goris,some desi travellers and plenty desi families on vacation(chitchatting abt kargil war and leh vacation spot)I was happy I didnt alone have to stay in hellish "Hill View" hotel at drass.


Hotels name was "Hotel Siachen" and its on right hand side on the highway near taxi stand at Kargil if you are driving to srinagar.Kargil is a curious town again with plenty of salons and photostudios.Wonder how does economy of place work if most of the people do the same work


There was a restaurant but no room service and I didnt have to step out of hotel.Bought shampoo sachet had a hot water bath,had a early dinner,settled into bed in front of TV bought some haldiram namkeen and cold drinks to finish off my contingeny himalayan surival kit



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kargil-srinagar:

Reached drass and was at the war memorial site:

Names of heros at kargil:




































--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





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Rode off to Kargil.Zozilla was in bad shape as the praful and company had said.I had two days to spare.Planned to stop at sonmarg,but heck there cellphone want working.I had just 80-90 kms to go to finish off my marathon ride so I carried on till srinagar.
Checked into hotel new Muskhaan next to nathu sweets on boulevard road as my new friends had recommended for 600 bucks.The hotel one floor below was 1500 bucks with the same view and same room types

Spent couple of days packing my bike home,resting and on 4th october caught a flight back to mumbai.

Tololing range in the backdrop ...



Tiger hills(Straight and Pointed mountain on right hand side of the road) where a pitched battle of control was faught by Indian army in 1999







Sonmarg









_______________________THE END___________________________





List of goodies I carried:

FOR BIKE
4 set of spare keys......i tend to lose them easily
smart card
PUC
insurance
tax reciept
10 amp fuse*2
some jumper wires
tubless repair kit
engine oil(Stopped using motul)
funnel
90 number truck oil in small bottle for lubing chain
clutch cable
clutch lever
used clutch plates(for m-top)...planning to replace them and carry old ones for emergency
brake lever
chain lock
NGK spark plug*1
small plastic tube to suck fuel out of other bikes or trucks
fix spanners 8 to 22
ring spanner(available one)12-13,14-15,20-22
two good pliers
screw driver set
washers
battery plugs
electric tape
bungee cords
allan keys 4 mm and 5 mm
footpump
tube for rear tyre???michellin...unsure now


--------------------------------------------------------

PHOTOGRAPHY
camera
lenses(18-55mm & 70-300mm)
lens filters& neck strap
battery charger
tripod
gorilla pod
spare SD cards 8+2 GB


TRAVEL
watch
led headlamp
cellphone
mapbook
photocopied parts of LP India


MEDICINES
old monk(to be bought at dalhousie/manali) in case of hypothermia
personal medicines
first aid box
norflox-TZ
flaygl
crocin
avil 25
mox-500(15 tablets)
electral packets
glucon-D box
chocalates+glucose biscuits(to be bought locally)+roasted chic peas(I have switched from dry fruits to chic peas...recession)
brufen(I dont take these tablets but they help during swellings after falls)
diamox(to be bought at manali/dalhousie)

PERSONAL STUFF
cash money for trip+return shipping+cards incase of emergency
pepper spray(if I get hold of one)
few undies
pan card/employer id card...pesky id checks in shrinagar
driving license
airticket printout
1 tissue roll
2-3 sweat shirts
I tee(will wear)
2 track pants+1 jeans(wear)
1 towel
shaving kit(to look good while posing)
spare shoes
deo spray(if you have space)
couple of pair of socks
one pair of shoes+ one pair of riding shoes(will wear)
tooth brush+tooth paste
sunscreen(if I can find one lying around in house)
2-3 baraclavas...they start stinking if u keep wearing the same
muffler
hippo waist pouch
riding jacket
inner liner for jacket
gloves+winter gloves
woolean cap
knee guards
pen+small book
helmet
woollen lowers to be worn under jeans
religious stuff & charms

Added later on:
swiss army knife
climbing rope
caribineer
4 boxes of matches
candles
cold cream