16th or 17th Jan
Some hrs late in the night: There was a fridge next to the bed on which we had kept the cellphones for charging. My cell phone fell from there on my head and I got up. Noticed that Glax and Sameer had occupied 75% of the bed. First time in my life I thanked god for making me slim enough to occupy the remaining 25% and yet not touching them ;) I tell you there is no sad feeling than sharing the same bed with two more guys. Somehow I slept.
17th Jan (didn’t keep the track of kilometers and time)
Glax did not want to miss his daily exercise routine. He got up and made Sameer to join him for the exercise. Both of them went to Calangut beach for jogging. Which means now I had the entire bed for myself ;) Man I tell you there is no happy feeling than getting the entire king size bed for yourself ;) I slept nicely for two more hrs J
Finally I got up and got ready. Had cold chaay given by the guesthouse Aunty and went for the breakfast in Baga. Had sumptuous breakfast looking at the sea (also read as looking at the babes sunbathing). We were ready to explore the IBW venue now. We reached there before 11 am and got our bands to enter the venue. We took our bikes inside just to notice that the stalls were being put up. The IBW was running on IST schedule. They promised us to set up a locker area to keep the helmets in 10 mins however it was not done for next two hrs. Meanwhile Sameer did some jugaad with media folks and we kept our helmets in the media tent.
We explored the venue for various events that were to be happening over next two days. They had planned for many competitions like tyre burn, loudest bike, biking stunts etc. They had kept some vintage bikes and some awesome bikes on display. They also had some biking related movies in the theatre. A few well known international riders were invited to the event.
Glactin and I got our cameras ready and clicked a lot of candids. Soon they will be seen on Glactin’s blog. It was almost 1:30pm and nothing had really kicked off other than keeping the bikes on display and getting (way to expensive) eating joints ready. Apparently they were waiting for 1000+ Harleys to roar into the venue. They had a separate parking for Harleys and separate stall setup for Harleys. Later I learnt that the event was all about Harley and Harley only. There was sort of no respect even for bullet group too. It was like paying to get insulted L No wonder RE didn’t even care for arranging a ride from various locations to the event.
Finally those 1000 harleys entered. You could hardly hear what the person next to you is shouting. Slowly and steadily the monsters rested themselves in their designated rest area and the event actually begun. We decided to go out and have lunch around 4pm. Had pathetic North Indian food at some junk hotel near Vagator. Now I can’t even recollect the name of the place.
Anyway, long story short, we came back to the event after lunch and found out that the gravity defying stunts were about to start. Man those two guys were awesome. Watching these type of stunts on TV and watching them in person are totally different experiences. The ramp was erected on lose sand. I would think hundred times before speeding my bike beyond 30kmph on that surface and these two guys were going so fast that after hitting the ramp they were going at least 7-8 stories high in the air. No matter where you were standing in the venue, you could still see them in the air. Every time they landed on the other side of the ramp, my heartbeat would skip. They executed those stunts to perfection. They had GoPro mounted on their helmets while doing the stunts. The GoPros are made for these type of bikers and not for us :p
After those death defying stunts it was time for our desi stunts and boy after watching those our desi stunts were appearing so amateurish. Nothing against them but couldn’t watch them for more than 20 mins and I came out.
Rest of the evening spent listening to music, clicking pics and roaming around the venue. Came home and took the back up of the photos and slept off.
18th Jan,
The day was not drastically different than 17th Jan except I made a quick visit early in the morning to my sasural. Yes, my sasural is i Goa (yes, I can hear some J voices :P). After coming back from there we participated in the rally to promote the safety while riding. The rest of the day was similar to 17th Jan. We went to vagator beach to have lunch looking at sea (and looking at the….. yes, you are right, you guys are getting smart ;)).
There was a FCC event that was happening today. FCC stands for full contact championship. They had put up a WWF style boxing ring. One babe in half chaddi was commencing the start of the round with the round 1 board. There were about 6-7 fights and couple of them were good.
In the evening there were four DJs mixing awesome music and people were dancing. Spent about 2+ hrs listening to them. Finally I pulled Glactin and Sameer who were engrossed in dancing to go home.
19th Jan,
Started the day at 9:30 am with quick bread omelets and masala pot tea( who said masala potty??), tanked up the bikes and headed towards Pune. The ride back home was quite uneventful. Did the similar stops on the way back. It was fun to ride but slowly the cushion in our seat was getting converted into nails. We decided to go our ways from khed Shivapur toll plaza. Towards the end we were like, ab aayega khed shivapur, ab aayega khed shivapur.. saala yeh khed shivapur aata kyu nahi…. I was getting unbearable itch in my head. I tried scratching the helmet but it didn’t help. Finally I overtook Glactin and Sameer and made them stop. Removed my helmet and scratched my head. Aha, what a relief. Had one maza there and left. Soon we were on our own ways.
Last 20 kms were dead slow due to heavy truck traffic and the nails in the seat were getting bigger and bigger. But finally it all ended. I was in the parking exactly at 9:31pm and 11342kms on the odometer. The ride of 1101 km was pure bliss (ok may be except for last 20kms ;). The bike performed well and all bones stayed together :)
You can check the awesome pictures at Glax's blog https://diezelglax.exposure.co/a-giraffe-rode-a-goat
If you are my wife who is reading this then the travelogue ends here, others can keep scrolling.
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Hope to do many more rides like this. If you are my wife who managed to reach here, then it proves another thing that wives never listen to their hubbies :p
