[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