Some more moonlight...

 

Moonlight.... :)

 

Back to Riding...

Another Sunday - some more confusion & indecision and I was on my way to ride my Thunderbird -- off to -- dont know
-- but ended up riding to Karwar.
I had almost surrendered to the fact that I would no longer be doing any riding after I sold off my Machismo. And it
has been 2 yrs since I did that. A dream would always wake me up -- that is me riding to Leh. And this dream led me
to contemplate getting another Bullet. Yea it took some convincing & bitterness from my dad & mom to have them say
'YES' to my plans of riding. Flashback - They dont know how I got them cheated into buying me a Bullet while I was
still a student and had a serious knee injury. After I got my plaster off the left leg, the first thing I was told
was U cant ride a Bike and a serious NO to anything like a Bullet. got that Doc to shut up and say nothin to my
folks. And yea within 6 months of that I was throttling a 350cc beast. Yea thats me when I set my mind on something
atleast when it comes to having non living entities........
And on Sunday I had company...Yea see below....;)

 

Thats her Superman...

 

Movin on to riding.. We started off from Margao and in no time we were crusing along the Karmal ghat and into Canacona- but with numb bums. Not used to riding, we 3 were suffering from Numb-bum syndrome. Blood wasnt flowing back there, some water and short break put things into the rear perspective. It was certain that if we had to settle ourselves at Palolem we would have been there the whole day guzzling some semi alcoholics till we fall apart and I wasnt keen on doing that. A little push on moving onto riding somemore got Doc onto his saddle and we were off riding through the mountians into Poiguinim and then Polem and finally the straight stretch of road to Karwar which has been as inviting as it could get for couple of decades.

We took a small break at the karwar bridge to get the rear upfront and then decided to move onto Amruth for some snacks. Coupla beer, peanuts, Fish, Squids, Mussels .......... Ahhhhhh that felt awesome. A subtle lightness in the veins got me to enjoy the ride even better. Now we were heading straight into the Palolem...Cafe Del Mar. Some more of those strange looking, nice smelling liquids. And we were soothing nerves. After an hour we decide to ride back to Margao. Well all big things have a small beginning. I have set my mind onto riding. Given the time & physical fitness i dont know how far would I go. But hearts are set on Leh. Lets see what
time brings in.

Apun ka Thunderbird...

 

Nirvana @ Palolem

 

The Riders on the Storm....

 

River Crossing at Tarir @ Mashem -- yea thats Parags place

 

2007

Yes.. I am back. New Year and renewed but the same hopes. Let me tell you about our entry into this new year. It turned out unusal, that it went almost to a large extent as per the plans laid down. A different story that it did not which Only Parag and Anup know about. :D

The destination for THE PARTY - No it wasnt Baga or Anjuna. We all know in here that it sucks to be there on 31st Decemeber any year. We decided on PALOLEM. Yea its the trippers paradise in Goa especially the Israelis who take off from their compulsory army service. But this year they were away tripping elsewhere - thanks to the team of left overs of Osama and his company and some of our not so patriotic Indian who always hatch a threat. Yea I m talking about terrorism threats Goa had during the new years eve - largely due to the Israeli young crowd who parties here.But all went on well.

Ahh I m missing something. We had guests this year. MR & MRS Prashant & Anna Pai( pronounced as pie) and Mr. Louie & Fabian... yea all the way from France. For all those who dont know Mr PIE is also called 'Ganjes' or 'Ganja' - not the marijuana ganja - this is the hair depleted Ganja.

Amidst all the classical singing and the favorite remix of 'Gand mein danda rey' we reached Palolem. Parking was mile away from the beach and looking at the vehicles it didnt seem that bad. We arrived at the beach - yea it was ok kinds crowd. We settle at Cafe Cuba - yea supposedly listed on Lonely Planet. But we were in for some undesirable treatment. Food menu - limited food supplies - only chicken from BBQ or tandoor - tiger prawns -- 300 bucks a fuckin piece. some nan bread. and 15 minutes waiting period for taking the orders - thats all. and thats CAFE CUBA - supposedly all was reserved for their regular firang
guests. SUCKS.

WHile all of them were seated I wasnt comfortable paying money for this crap and walked around to look for better place. Cafe Delmar was packed. All tables reserved. Another couple of places and limited food supply. Finally I pick on a nice looking shack - dont remember the name. I immediately rang the bells and got our Public moving out of CUBA and into India - we settled at the second place. 15 minutes into the waiting and no menu cards and no one to take our orders -- guess we were still in CUBA. Bloody helluva castroted place.

I was off hunting again - Yes for another place to settle in. And we were there at Rendezvous. Heard it was a nice place and indeed it was better than the rest. More of an Indian place. Sitting was on the floor.. Damn comfortable. The waiter was a nice chap - but TIME is what he asked for, as there were a lot of orders in the line. I decided to move up in the line of orders.I handed over a 100 bucks to him and there it was free flow of food.

And then --- hmmmm yea we finished our dinner before we rolled into 2007. (**Anup stop smiling**)As we got moved past a second off 00 Hrs... there was a feeling of moving on. FIREWORKS and FIREWORKS and more FiReWoRkS.............................*******************************

NOW we wanted to hit some Rave Floor. Parag had found someone who could get us an entry into Dancing Shiva. A small place at the end of Palolem. This place was rocking. Amazingggggggggg Trance and thats exactly what we were hungry for. Oh boy - i went out on a complete hysterical semi-charmed kind of flow. It felt awesome. This was the best trance I ve ever heard till date. The music and its pitch was just enough to make me high. And indeed I was.. My feet were grounded but mind and body wasnt.. I was flying up -- And thats it. Sometimes somethings end up abruptly. Dont ask why. Somethings in life are meant to be
that way. But If this was Afghanistan I would have torn Anup apart. Now ask him Why?

2006

The year has come to an end. Yes, it was fast.. as usual. A lot has changed over a year... putting it in CCD perspective A lot can happen over a year... Well resolutions have never been a part of my vocab.. so none for the year ahead or for the year gone by. What is born with another year is the infinite hope.. hope for whatever I could dream. Hope to ride to Leh, Hope to pay off my debts, hope to make more money...
Well existence is not concernced about year 2006 coming to an end. The earth keeps revolving, rotates and the days, seasons pass by...nothing stops. By the time we are out of our New years celebrations... another day would have passed off..and then another 31st.
The blog shall stay as long as the hope survives..... for all those who drop by the blog Wish you a very warm, peacefull and happy new year 2007...
I guess I should sign off saying.. see you all next year..:)

This is a log overdue update. Praggybhai decides to make it overnight. This time Praggybhai outsources Loss-gistics operations to Saurabh-bhai. Saurabh-bhai is our dude from Mashem. Mashem is where Parag has his ancestral home.
I land into some taxi drivers job the day AP duo decide to go fishing at camping site. Camping site is Watoorem. Yea thats south of Goa. Totally virgin. Small stretch of about 1000 sq mtrs. marked with rocks, pebbles and some sand.We love to call it secret beach.
By 8 pm I am done with the days drivers job. I take up to the camping site. About 55 kms from Margao. I get to know Anup has managed to catch some fish and Parag has barely manaaged to get a catch. Rest all fish have escaped from the fishing line while they were being pulled on-shore. I believe them. I make sure I can have some fish once I am there and I am off driving to Mashem.
The loss-gistics plans went beserk as Saurabh who is on holiday in Goa decides to charge up his nerves with some IB.We got fish but no pan to fry. We get the pan and there is no oil. We got fish curry rice and paper plates. We got light but few candles. The lantern plans drowned in the third peg of IB that Saurabh had afternoon. And then we had GULIT ( not misspelt GUILT). Gulit is the one and the only one who can take us to WAGAH GOLI. Yea translated it means Tigers Cave. And for the stock we had 2 bottles of whisky, one smirnoff and some carbonates.
The party was on while I arrived in pitch darkness. We had the music. Traditional GUMAT and another something.. cant remember the name. Our guys from Paiguinim and Mashem were just too much for the evening. We had the Maestro Vikas who set the night on acoustic fire and groovy trance.
By now I could smell the Rechado Bangda( Mackeral ).. The fish curry was steaming, the moon was up in the sky.. and we were rolling. By 1 am I was in my jacket and woollen cap. the temperature must have been 15 or may be less. An awesome experience to remember.
My thanks to a few guys I can remember .. Nitu, Prashant,Kunal,Vikas, Anup, Darshan, Nilesh-the solo musician, Felix - the Chef, GULIT and our dude Parag.
Check out a few pics below for the place...

Sunrise at Watoorem..

 

Watoorem

 

Watoorem..

 

The Camp...

 

My bedroom @ the camping site...

 

Thats the Gumat...

 

The Music Company..

 

Sunday Blues

Yea I love to call this Sunday Blues.

Our planning goes a long way in making our sundays and holidays.. This sunday we were out heading for ..hmmm
Dandeli.. The planning department (both route planning and loss-gistics supply) Mr Parag did his little bit of home
work and we were out heading to Karwar, from there, we turn into the road that leads to Dandeli. It was supposed to
be 35 kms.. but it wasnt. All we knew was Dandeli was about 40 or 55 or 60 or 70 kms, even now while I write this I
am not sure how far Dandeli is from karwar. We were on dirt track, my nerves feeling the rush of the WRC and I was
driving a super-turbo charged TATA engine. What a frill to spew some dust and manage the ground clearance at the
same. Anup was wishing he had his jeep.. ahh god bless us. Just after doing some 20 kms we realised Dandeli wasnt 35
kms away...
We turned back...my car heaved a sigh of relief....
NOw what? We decided to head back to Karwar for lunch and some Shandy. Lunch was at Bhadra, the place was packed
with all tourists heading straight into Goa. For those who dont know Bhadra.. its a hotel just off Karwar bridge
known for its pepper chiken, chiken 65 and anything that you may like.....
Lunch was done and we were off to Devbaug. Marketed as an island off Karwar ..Bull shit.. we were conned into a boat
ride.. for 200 bucks each.. we had an hour at the beach. But it was worth the learning. I always knew Devbaug as an
Island. Yea thats about the day.. rest all in the pictures below.. we had some fun at the island.. it is much of a
family place.. not much partying can happen unless you got a big group...

 

 

SAP

For all those who havent seen the SAP team.. here it is.. 

 

Karwar coastline as you see it from Devbaug..

 

Just love this pic.... 

Guerilla Warfare ... Believe me it was a tough fight..

 

Following foot steps of Paragbhai....

 

At Devbaug