Review on Couch

So it’s time i treat my neighbors for putting up with me and my dog for a year. So i call up ayan and sharmista and tell them and say ok dudes lets go to couch. Before that i called the manager at couch and asked him to reserve a table for three at 21:30 Military time ;)
Battling through the Bangalore traffic, we get to to the lounge bar. The bar offers valet parking and the valets are very courteous and honest (yes you can leave your laptops in the car)

We go to the first floor and not so much action happening. I love action.. So we go to the second floor. The women are very receptive and i am all smiles - happening place!

Thirsty and with shivering hands i order for a tap of beer (they serve kingfisher). The beer is pretty aerated - not like the diluted beer of Pecos.

Sharmista orders for bull frog which is a vodka based drink. Supposed to have triple sec but this one did not have it. But it was good none the less - quantity was that of a beer mug.

Ayaan orders for a whiskey based cocktail in the menu but the barman does not know how to make it. so he gets another cocktail with whiskey and ice...good luck dude.

The music is loud and there are 6 punjabi ladies screaming at the top of their lungs. The music is predominantly the shit that the new age DJ's place but then they play rock too and finally punjabi munda bhangra songs. It was this bhangra song that helped me identify sardarnis from the other women :) These ladies went nutz and were dancing like Baratis - WOW!

the last order is at 10:45 PM so those of you who want to drink to the wee hours of the morning go to i-bar, tavern or sankey tank (call me if the cops there harass you.. i have videos of them).

Wallet Factor:
250 bucks per cocktail
450 bucks for a royal tandoori platter

Valet Parking: Yes
Crowd - Amazing
Management: Sweet - Amazing service. Promptly tosses you out at 11 PM. Cop Problems (they call us pest problem)
Quality of beer: great


Total damage - 1100 for three !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My cheapest treat so far (or ayan and sharmista were toppers of the guests with the worst appetite list - whatever !)

Couch is on MG Road, Bangalore

Right above Corporation bank ATM

114/1 MG Road, Sai Complex, Above Corporation Bank MG Road - 560001

Phone: +91.80.41512898

[Chak De Goa !] Day #4

November 4th 2007

I wake up early, rajesh is not joining me this time. He has an additional holiday sanctioned by his boss. My partner is leaving to gokarna and riding on the west coast of india. It’s a SOLO ride baby. I load my bike, and head to panjim thru the old goa route. Its 6:30 when I leave anjuna beach. I stop at old goa and head for the BOM jesus church for a photo session. I then race back to Bangalore

The route I took was:
Anjuna beach-mapusa-panjim-(NH 4A)-oldgoa-ponda-londa-dandeli

The road to dharwad from londa was bad so I took the dandeli road. The road was bad too and I was at a good speed. This is why disaster struck me. I treated the bike like shit and he hit back. The chain guard link broke and the chain was loose. It took me about 60 minutes to fix it. The pain was severe… I sometimes feel why do mechanics get paid so less.

I want prepared… For the chain guard, I did not have the size 12 spanner so I tried a size 13 spanner with the support of a mighty rupee coin – no luck yet. By the time it was fixed it was 1 PM. Bangalore is 520 kilometers from dandeli. I was like oh shit I will enter Bangalore at 11 PM and get killed by drunk bangaloreans exiting the pubs.

It was a relief to see the dharward highway after so much of pain in my bum caused by the bad roads. I stop by the sunflower farm for some pictures and race back to Bangalore. This is where I would test my bike for its ultimate speed.

The route I take was Hubli-(NH 4)-Haveri-RaniBennur

Its 5:30 PM by the time I leave rani-bennur – my stop for a light lunch so that I don’t sleep riding.

I cleaned my visor of my state-of-art helmet with waxpol. The vision from the visor was crystal clear. And I dashed to Bangalore.

Harihar-Davangere-Chitradurga-tumkur-bangalore – I don’t know what these places looked like.

My target was a White colored tavera and I kept losing him – catching him – losing him. This car kept me entertained and I dashed into Bangalore. Had my dinner at peenya – and I was at my home in HSR layout at 11:00 PM. Bang on target.

So there ends my fun oriented goa trip….. do watch rajesh’s blog at http://ragingbull500.blogspot.com for his story !

The pics are are online @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/100kph/sets/72157601933364651/

Total Distance - 1420 KM

[Chak De Goa !] Day #3

November 3rd 2007

I wake up early and head for some photography exploits. I see drunks sleeping all over the beach, in a lost-it-all mood. There’s always a good side to this - people who wake up early.

I meet up with an English lady. We talk a bit while I wait for rajesh to get up from his slumber. There’s a girl who is into yoga and I must say she was a great object to photograph!

Packs of single men waiting for their prey to pass by. I would say palolem is prelude to what a final retired life should be.

I load my bike, say bye to friends I just made. Rajesh’s 500cc bike is a pain to start while my bike started in the first kick. A visibly tired rajesh and me head to anjuna beach northwards.

My partner needs to get to the nearest royal enfield brand store to fix his bike. I get to Sai Poorna Resort on anjuna beach. Here I haggle over the prices for a room (he asked for 500cc) and I go elsewhere to check. However since I could not find a better accommodation, I went back to the sai poorna resort. The rates are now 700 bucks. Some kind of demand-supply scenario.

Right next to andy’s tattoo studio is a cool goan restaurant with some Bangalore girls. I call them Bangalore girls because their attitude is typical to the dark-straight haired-bit plump constantly playing hard (infact never) to get native Bangalore girl…. You will know what I mean if you know Bangalore. These women have no animal instincts!

Well there’s always good news after bad news – I met the German girl from Munich again. They tried to tell me how we got separated but again I could not understand her completely. I ask her of where could I get a reasonably cheap hotel to stay and they suggest me a cool hotel. It appears these girls know more of goa than me.

We bid farewell and I go to andy’s to get a tattoo. Tattoo is something that needs a lot of research. You need to know what you are getting into. Let me tell you of an example; About 13 years back one of my friends in a hurry chiseled a pic of George Michael on his back. Poor Straight guy – has to live by that 1 minute of bad decision. Rajesh finds my bike parked outside the tattoo studio and we are reunited yet again.

So I say good bye to andy’s place and we both head to chapora fort. Chapora fort is made famous by the movie dil chahata hai. The idea was to take our bikes up to the fort and post the same way amir khan, saif ali pataudi and the other guy posed. And take photographs of it.

We try some cool photography stunts before we collide with the sets of the forthcoming hindi movie – “Coffee Shop”. The hero and heroine are average – if you guys are reading this, we bikers from Bangalore wish you the bests and yeah yeah we will watch coffee shop when it debuts on the silver screen or a pirated DVD - whatever.

We then head to vagator beach for sunset pics. We take our bikes off-roaring down to the beach. Again where there’s light – where there’s beach, there’s photography.

There can’t be a night in goa without adventure.So we head to bagha beach and get into titos. Titos was suggested by the british biologist babe. Rajesh gives me the look and asks me are you sure? I say yeah and we get in. I see a firang guy with a tilak , looking like richard branson, playing the guitar and singing. The crowd is mature. So I look at rajesh and he says he hosted an average part to 4 of his friends and paid 4k last new year. That was good enough reason for us to scoot.


We then walked downtown and tried to crash into the barricades set up by the management of a cool night bar. Apparently we were not allowed in as we were single. I see two babes asking for directions of some ice bar. So I barge in and offer to help them. Well I knew - I knew shit about ice bar but I needed their help to get in.

Me : Hi, ice bar is down the corner
She: Oh cool.
Me: Listen, we are not being let into this bar as its for couples only….. so do you think.
She: Who ?
Me: Just me and that guy on phone over there.
She: Hmm, let me go to ice bar and see if I can join you on the way back.
Me: Oh Sure !
The Other Girl: Our husbands are waiting for us, we will be back. (? With them – naaaah!)

Me – Tongue like a hockey stick - With the W.T.F Look – some things can’t be explained

I then find out that Goa has an election that day and the next and the bar is not serving liquor. But restaurants at bagha beach are serving liquor. So Wining and Dining again.

After dinner we rush to anjuna beach where I bought 26 bottles of Port Wine (number #7), loaded it on my metal carriers and had another dinner and wine before I crashed out.
I had to leave to Bangalore the next day!

[Chak De Goa !] Day #2

November 2nd 2007

7am: I woke up the next day, the wine is still generating complex chemical formulas in my head. As I pass on the series of restaurants on the beach, I notice one with a few sun bathing beds and an umbrella. So I eat dinner (I could not each much last night) and watch the beach.

10am: The crowd starts to pull in, and rajesh also turns up. We don’t do much but talking to some firangs. I head to a place called Sun Downer. Now Sun Downer is in the other end of Palolem beach. I get two women from munich returning from the place.

Me: Oh, hows it going
She: Oh just ok, ze waterz deep over zhere.
Me: did you happen to see the cool place with rocks out there.
She: What ? zhure letz go.
Me: Ladies first
Both: Koward!
Me: No ways! I am right here to watch your backs

These women are chirping out of their brains I just could not understand what they are trying to communicate with me or which language was it. Going by body signs, I guess one was saying something like I give great head. Well Before it was long, I think they left me, I don’t know – I could not figure that one out. Anyways if there is something I really miss not having brought, it’s my monopod.

Rajesh turns up after some time, he goes ape, starts climbing up the rocks. I felt it would be great to have a photograph of us - two bikers on the rock. I see 2 firangi women again and think of handing them my camera but then memories of saif and christine from the dil chahata hai fame prevented me from doing so. We bump into Satya from Sun Downer, Goa and he gives us some tips that we don’t think needed. But whatever maite – you are fun J


The evening is about photography – Babes, Beach and Booze. Rajesh and me try some beach side running before we go to the Cuba Restaurant, have a short eat and then move to some other restaurant for a drink.

As we are planning to go to anjuna tomorrow we sleep after our “Fishing and Wining” session.Good Night, Goa!

[Chak De Goa !] Day #1

November 1st 2007

It’s Karnataka Rajyothsava Day (I guess it’s the day Karnataka was incorporated as a state). It’s notoriously known as a boring day with autorikshaws plying around sporting the yellow and red state flag. All the pretty Bangalore women stay at home. There is total security at malls, like the forum. The streets echo with rattling sounds made by cheap silencers fitted on rx-100’s. Now imagine, COOL GUYS like us in Bangalore on a day like this!! It’s can’t be happening!

We have been planning this ride for almost a month. And my busy schedules made sure that today just arrived in to time at all. Rajesh met me last night and we drank merry at the club till about 10 at night. The ride plan of 5 am looks definitely jinxed. I wake up this morning at 4am and call my partner. It’s amazing to hear my call being answered after 6 pegs of rum lodged in his head. I load my luggage, tools, spare parts on the metal carriers mounted on my bike. A clear visor is very essential for a ride without much of light. I wipe my visor using waxpol (a wax polish). We meet at Jewels De Paragon at 4:45am and leave in a bit. The ride is on as per schedule.

Bangalore – nelamangala – tumkur bypass is a wonderful highway. I am not pushing my bike too much. In my view, It is more of a relaxed photography oriented ride.

We have breakfast at tiptur in a place called kamat hotel. Average food, with a heavy stomach (big mistake), We ride on.

This ride is all about photography, and I had an opportunity to practice a lot of my photo tricks here. It is here, I did learn of one BIG thing - DONOT trust the protective-cover of your lens with anyone. I asked Rajesh to take a snap of me riding and he placed the lens cap on his bike. I then asked him to ride around – the cap was somewhere in the cane fields. We spent a good 30 minutes finding the cap.

We stop over at the entrance to jog fall and capture the breath-taking scene of the Sharavathi river.

Lunch was supposed to be at shimoga, but the mad riding to cover up on lost time due to searching and photography made us have our lunch at honavar. At honavar I topped up my fuel-tank paying a crazy 51+ rupee rate for fuel. I should have just filled in what I needed; GOA! was just nearby with a fuel price of 44 rupee per liter!

I enter the coastal town of karwar and try to photograph a very cool scene of an establishment called Project SeaBird. The security guards stationed there prevented us from doing so. So I stop over at the end of long bridge over River Sharavathi,for some awesome night photography of the sea. I notice atleast 8 bullets parked at the park next to the bridge – it’s the Karwar Bullet Club (KBC).

I head to the goa border (just a few miles from karwar). Rajesh was waiting for me for some time now. We then head to Palolem beach (Also called Canacona).
We check into the rainbow beach resort for about 400 bucks per day. The idea is to ride into anjuna and bagha tomorrow at 11.

So that’s the end of the ride to goa. What starts now is the night life at goa J

Rajesh and Me are quick to order Port Wine (Number 7) and prawns platter. In goa, the kitchens display crabs, prawn and squids in the raw form for you to order. The form of cooking is normally tandoori (meat baked in an earthen oven). After downing a few glasses of wine, rajesh decides to test his super man-kind of strengths by climbing a coconut tree. I can’t be left alone right? A few tries, a few ups and downs, we both become masters at climbing the tree. Now, how about that as an alternate profession!

Tired, we move to casa-de-sol for a late night drink. This place is open 24 hours. I notice a very funny talking firang who compares Indians with Thai’s and black-skin-men with Eskimos in a very loud voice. Gosh how I wish I could crash a beer bottle on his head.

The barman was a tamil speaking macha with just his 3/4th’s on. Pulling his stomach in , trying hard to build up his abs. The company I had was a French woman and that loud-mouthed asshole at the back… call it beauty and the beast.

Detecting I could be drunk very soon and probably would face the same fate as saif-ali khan in dil chahata hai, I head back to rainbow with the kind help of an Israeli lady. The dogs of the restaurant found me and are wagging their tails and then I saw the familiar coconut tree. Its then I knew I was home ! When I get in I see rajesh sleeping with all his 4 legs up. Crash – good night goa!

Route: Bangalore – nelamangala – tumkur bypass – gubbi – tiptur – arsikere – kadur – tarikere – bhadravathi – shimoga – sagar – honavar – kumta – karwar – palolem

Kilometers Clocked: ~680 km