To Chennai!!!

        Time: 6:55 am, 13-apr-2006
        Venue: Road-side hotel just outside KrishnaGiri, Tamil Nadu
        Who??: yer humble self
        Thought: Is this real???

It all began on 12-Apr-06 round about 4pm. After a strenous design meeting, I checked my mails for the first time that day in about 4hrs. **pop** An email. The content read:
"Further to the sad demise of Dr.Rajkumar today afternoon(12.4.06), there could be some unrest in the city. Therefore we are advancing the closure of office hours today by 1hour. **blah blah** Incase the State Government declares a Holiday tomorrow(13.4.2006) we would remain closed."

Oops!! Sad demise, indeed. But a good timing!!! 14.4.06 being Good Friday we have holiday and it was obvious even to a kinder garden kid that 13.4.06 will be a govt holiday. This when transalated into employees english it means 4 freaking days of holidays!! :-) The most obvious choice to occupy the next 4 free days was to GO HOME!!! :-D Obvious isn't?

Now comes the best part. The most non-obvious part. I wanted always to ride down to my home town. Yep ye read it correctly it is ride down on my most-trusted two-wheeler, Pulsar 150. I have done quite a few rides in the range of 150Km to 220Km away from Bangalore but this is gonna be my first 300+ travel. For unimaginable non-indians (if any reads my blog), in India given the road conditions & traffic even a 40Km ride is a torture. But I always enjoyed riding by mobike. So I took decision @ 9pm on 12.4.06. Called up by classmate to find the route-map and my colleague to find the right time to cross bangalore. And he confirmed my thoughts of leaving bangalore before sunrise. And one of his bro-in-law also wanted to join me as pillion. So now it was two of us.

So the next day (13.4.06) @ 5:05 we left home & Bangalore on my most trusted pulsar. We took the Hosur route to Chennai. For those who are not aware, there is one other route that connect Bangalore & Chennai, which is via Chittor, Andra Pradesh. It would mean touching 3 states & I am not sure of the roads either. Hosur is just 40Km from my home. And few km aft Hosur we witnessed a wonderful sunrise. Nice isn't it? Later we reached outskirts of Krishnagiri @ 6:45, which was 101km from home. And here we had to take the historic left turn towards my hometown. Almost immediately aft the turn we stopped for breakfast. And thats when I was thinking "Is this real??? Is this real that I am taking my dream travel? My dream travel to Chennai from Bangalore about 350km apart? Wow! Complely unbelievable."

We left by 7:22 our breakfast centre & proceed further. The first town we crossed aft breakfast was Tirapatur @ 7:47 - 130km from home. Then PuthuKoil @ 8:02 - 148km. Then we faced a road block near Vaniyampadi @ 8:10 - 154km. We did not have any choice but to enter the town. Pretty interesting town. The pseudo-highway cuts thro the town & the town is unaffected by the zooming traffic!!! When I entered Vaniyampadi is when I realized the highway we travelled is the best that is leading out of Bangalore. Entire stretch is a 6 lane & has the median filled with some nice flowersbed. Something till date I have not seen in all the other highways leading out of B'lore. More over, these roads were very well maintained. No potholes. No loose sand. No crushed animals. No nothing just plain sexy road. If you had travelled ever on a highway in India you would understand that this is a near impossible scenario!!!

The stretch also had some amazing scenaries but all I had was my mobile to click. May be before the next time I will purchase a good digi cam. I am planning for a digi SLR but it would take a lot of time. So might temporarily settle for a small, may be, 6 megapixel cam. Dont want to miss such nice opportunity to capture the lovely nature around me. There were so many nice scenic places like a nice temple on top of a small hillock, nice tank-bund with birds fishing, the road curving into the hills and so many more. But no cam to click! :-( **psst... if ye wanna gift me one 1 shal give out my contact info ;-)**

Our next phase of travel was:
         1. Ambur @ 8:25 - 170km
            Halt for 25 mins
         2. Poigai @ 9:36 - 215km
         3. Poondy @ 10:13 - 260km
         4. Ramapuram @ 10:16 - 264km
         5.Kancheepuram @ 10:46 - 296km
            Halt for 14 mins
         6. SriPerambathur @ 11:25 - 324km
         7.Poonamalle @ 11:50 - 344km
         8.Porur @ 12:04 - 352km
         9.Home @ 12:24 - 362km

Reached HOME, SWEET HOME!!!

My Parents were not expecting me. I gave them an amazing surprise. My Mom was completely dumbfounded that she did not even react. I knew she was extremely angry for taking the risk (??) of riding down the highway & such a long distance. But she did not react fearing some crazy remarks from me. My Dad was not in town, unfortunately. He would have loved me (more) for this travel alone. He has done this travel atleast 2 dozen times during a time when the fastest two-wheeler had only 3 gears & one may have to search for roads!!!

The return journey also was a lovely time. I started on 17.4.06 early morn & reached b'lore by aft. In fact, I went to ofc also!!! :-) I clicked some snaps with my VGA mobile cam. And here are they with my travel route:
         1. Home @ 5:13 - 0km
         2. Sriperambathur @ 6:17 - 48km
         3. Ranipettai @ 7:24 - 105km
         4.Vellore District @ 7:55 - 132km
            Halt & Breakfast for 26 mins
         5. Vaiyampadi @ 9:23 - 210km
         6. Jollerpettai @ 9:45 - 223km
            Halt for 37 mins
Forgot to record the remaining details.... :-(
         7.Home @ 13:40 - 362km

This travel was a good event for me. First, I learned that I enjoyed long hours of bike riding. Secondly, I realized the troubles in my bike & repaired them too. Now my mobike is all ready to rock the entire stage with more power & more pickup. :-)

I am working a trip to Pondy, Tamil Nadu or to Goa sometime next month. :-D If I make this travel will update the blog for sure. Nebody wanna join me??