More than 100 orgasms - Part 2

16^th or 17^th 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.

17^th 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.

18^th Jan,

The day was not drastically different than 17^th 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 17^th 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.

19^th 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

More than 100 orgasms - Part 1

More than 100 orgasms

Imagine u r at it for few hours. Non stop!! 

That constant lingering pain around your groin is bordering hurt but never crosses that line. 

Pain. Oh so sweet!! 

U shift a bit and d release is heavenly!!  Orgasmic!!! 

D regular bumps elevates it for few seconds n then it settles, only to escalate sweetly when the next one comes. 

Ur body and soul believes that u hv reached ur peak but when d next one comes u can't imagine the high. You can't believe that u hv been riding this for almost 2 hrs. 

N every 2 hrs u tk a break, u unlock urself, let the body breathe and it feels so soothing. Blissful!!!

The release is soul jarring. Nerve wrecking. The endorphins released want to put u in this eternal fantasy zone. 

N then u start again, believing that this one's gonna b smooth n easy. 

But hey, it's not. 

U repeat the process, endure it again. U want to, coz the pain is so sweet. 

Up and Down!! Up and Down!! 

The slight moan, the tiny knots - rising up from ur lower half, enveloping ur body and soul. The thumping under u is so rhythmic. 

Body perspiring, legs hurting, arms straining but still enduring. All becoz it's so sweet. 

U reach a point where u can't take it anymore but the problem is u can't stop yet. 

U try to divert ur mind. 

After all, pain is more to do with the mind. 

U succeed. 

Only for a little while. 

But then ur body has this unique way of reminding you that there is this wonderful, enveloping pain that u can't ignore and let go.  

Imagine 10 hrs up and 10 hrs down. And few more hours here and there as u explore. Over 30 hrs of action can really drain u. 

A 100 orgasms can be soul numbing - imagine u just got a lot more!!!

                                                                                                                                   -Saint Diezel  Glax

Yes you read it right and let me assure you that it is not a porn write up ;) Those were the lines by Glactin aka Glax to express the feeling we riders get after every long ride :).

It all started with Glax and Samir’s plan to attend India Bike week 2014 in Goa on 17-18^th Jan. Earlier they both were planning to go by bus to the event.  I decided to join them but going to India bike week by bus didn’t sound appropriate to me. I suggested that we should go there on bikes and both of them agreed immediately (after all better than 1000 orgasms wali feeling ka sawal tha :P).

There was a minor problem though, except me, both of them didn’t have the bikes. In fact both of them had not ridden in ages. But as they say, a friend in need is a friend indeed. Glax borrowed a Bajaj Avenger from our common and kid at heart friend captain Nandu Chitnis and Samir borrowed a Royal Enfield classic 500 from one of his friend. I was on my RE electra 350.

Both Glax and Samir got their bikes in condition. In fact Avenger had just completed her running in period. I had done a major servicing recently. We and our bikes were ready to go but as the day was nearing the clock was moving slowly. The good part was that it never stopped and finally the day of the ride arrived J We decided to meet up at Samir’s place at 5:30 am. Gonna describe the ride as it happened here on.

16^th Jan

4:25 am: I got up 5 mins before the alarm and waited for it to go off.  Whatsapped (wow new word for the dictionary) Glax to check if he was running on time. He was up before me and he was having his chaay. I got up and got ready in no time. All the packing was done previous night. I just had to load the saddle bag on the bike. Kissed my sleeping prince and said bye to wifey.

5:05 am, Park Street Parking: The gear was loaded onto the bike. Took the starting kilometer reading as I always do before all my rides. The odometer read 10241 kms in the parking. Cranked the ignition and after couple of minutes of idling I squeezed the throttle.

5:50 am (10270km) Samir’s place NIBM road: After getting lost couple of times finally I was at Samir’s place. Glax and Samir were waiting for me at the gate. We quickly shuffled our luggage. I tied my camera bag with 70-200mm f2.8 on the back seat. Now I had a comfortable backrest worth 1 lac for myself :p 

6:00 am (10270km): Our ride towards Goa finally started from the small lanes of Kondhwa. Samir was leading the way and I was tailing. Soon we were on Pune Bangalore highway. That was a familiar territory for me as I have driven/ridden numerous times on that road. It was still pretty dark. Samir and Glax were going a bit slow than my expectation. Doing moderate 60-70kmph. I was thinking to myself that we would take more than 12 hrs at this speed but I would get an awesome mileage :p The basic rule of the ride is that the group should go with the comfortable speed of the slowest rider. Since both of them were riding after years, I decided to enjoy the cruising at their speed . It was colder than my place in Wakad and the wind was hitting the bones through the thick riding jacket, but it was awakening all my senses. That is such a great feeling when you ride which you would never get in the cage.

6:41 am (10296km) Petrol Pump Khed Shivapur: We reached the regular petrol pump after Khed shivapur toll plaza. A group of Harley riders was already there. For a change the count of motorcycles outnumbered all other vehicles present at the petrol pump by a huge number. After tanking up our motorcycle tanks we decided to top up our tanks too at Mcdonalds and Café coffee day. I forgot to mention that captain Nandu Chitnis was generous enough to give his HD GoPro to record our riding videos. God bless good friends J We mounted the go pro on my helmet and the remote on the fuel tank. We were ready to hit the road again. Waved good bye to all Harleyans (and suzukians and hondians) and started riding again. Samir was again leading and I was tailing. I started recording the videos using the remote. Soon Samir and Glax found their comfort zone and started to rip the bikes. Soon we were doing 80-90+kmph on the almost empty NH4. I was thinking to myself  that we would take less than 10 hrs at this speed but the mileage of my bike would be f****d up :P Soon we reached Khambatki Ghat. I decided to record the entire stretch, however at one point Samir could escape the traffic jam. Glax and I got stuck in the jam for good 10 mins.

8:10 am (10352km) somewhere on NH4 after Mahabaleshwar Surur Phata: After the traffic jam, Glax and I started ripping. We saw Samir waving at us and pushing his bike to the corner.  We stopped near a tractor garage. Samir and bike were looking ok with no sign of having a fall. Apparently the battery cover lock broke and the battery got loose. Samir was trying to tie it somehow with a copper. Meanwhile Glax and I seized the opportunity to have a cup of tea. Many riders were zoom passing by. One onlooker asked us, “ aaj kaay special aahe. Sakal pasun bharpur bikes jaatayt” (whats so special today, seeing so many bikes since morning). I wanted to tell him that there was a motorcycle temple in Goa and we all were going for darshan but while telling him I replaced motorcycle temple with bike temple and used plural of bike which totally changed the meaning. I told him that govyaat baaikaanch mandir aahe tikde jaatayt sagle which literally translated as there is a ladies temple in goa and we are going there :p

After 20-25 mins Samir could somehow tie the battery and start the motorcycle but his headlight was not switching on. We decided to get it fixed in Goa. That was the only hiccup we encountered during the entire trip.

9:52 am(10450km) somewhere on NH4 near Karad: A quick break to answer the nature’s call.  I wanted to have one more chaay but it was not available there. We decided not to waste time and started riding again. Near Kolhapur there were mamu log waiting to catch the prey but they didn’t stop any of the bikers. I am sure they would have checked few bikers who rode early in the morning and did not find anything to extort the money J For a change they were stopping the cars when we crossed them.

After Kolhapur the traffic became lighter. We were doing 90-100+ after Kolhapur but the Harley guys were overtaking us quite easily. They were easily doing 130-140kmph. Soon we entered the Karnataka border.  We were to take the diversion at Nipani towards Aajra sawantwadi. Unfortunately the GoPro battery had died when we stopped to answer the nature’s call. It was getting charged in Glax's tank bag with the portable charger since our last stop. Glax was tracking the trip with google 360 so that the people at home could locate our position whenever they want and I was making notes on the route with youposition it app. Man, you gotta love the technology for offering so much on the go J

11:20 am(10549km) Hotel Goa ways, after Nipani: This was our planned stop for having lunch. Apparently that was the sync up point for Harleyans too. There were lot many bikes parked in the parking lot. People were admiring these sexy machines parked together in a row. We decided to have chicken masala and rotis and we were told that lunch will start at 12:00 pm. Finally we ordered the breakfast items for lunch. Poor Samir!! He hates eating veg :p

After our lunch (sorry brunch), we waited there for some more time. Replaced the GoPro battery and the bikes were ready to roar again. The road was getting narrow and winding. I personally love winding roads. Riding that RE on the winding road is so blissful. The bike handled well even on the bumpy road. Didn’t feel the tiredness.

12:45pm (10590km) Aajra: Samir’s fuel indicator lit up so stopped for fueling in Aajra. There was one babe who was riding a Harley who had stopped there. The Harley tyre was bigger than two car tyres put together. The bike weight would be at least 15 times more than the rider’s weight :p

1:56 pm (10626km) Amboli water fall: Much needed break for the bikes after doing the ghat section. We decided to take this opportunity to rest, have chaay and click photos. Though we were carrying three SLRs and countless lenses with us, we decided to stick to our mobiles for street photography :D Here are couple of pics near the fall. We stopped there for good 45 mins and started again.

3:30 pm (10675km) Maria beer Shop, Patradevi: No we did not have beer there. We had slice and chips J Do not drink and ride is another basic rule of the riders J

4:12 pm (10700 km) Duler near Mapusa: Stopped to repair the headlight of Samir’s bike. As expected the Chinese HD bulb lived up to the expectation of Chale toh chand tak nahi toh Shaam tak. The bulb had gone kaput and the same bulb was not available. We then put the old faithful yellow bulb and started the journey.

Met Samir’s friend Tomson in his shack on the calangut beach. Samir made a mistake of taking his bike in the sand and got stuck J Glax and I stayed back. We then had to push Samir’s bike back to the safe area. Missed clicking pic of the drama though J

6:45pm (10720km) Some lodge, Calangut: We stayed in this place for next three days and didn't even bother to check it's name :). There was one king size bed with no scope to put additional bed. We three had to share the same bed for next three days (rather nights). Don’t let the horses of your brain go wild, we still managed to sleep without touching each other for three nights :P The bikes were parked for the day. We parked ourselves at Tomson’s shack. Clicked some pics of the sunset (again with the cell phone), had food, copied the videos and didn’t even realize when we slept off. The long day of 16^th Jan finally came to an end.

  

Holi hai!!!!

It’s been a while (more than a year)since I updated this blog. Not that I did not do any rides or did not take any pictures but it was sheer laziness that stopped me from updating my motography blog. I kept updating pictures on my facebook regularly but I was not moving my ass to type the travelogue for those pictures. Since my last post I sold my Honda vtx 1300 cc and bought a Triumph Sprint ST 1050cc. I already did couple of real long rides on them but the post that I am going to write is not a recent one. It happened in 2006 on the Holi day.

We had a holiday on the holi day. It was in the middle of the week so I decided to stay back in pune instead of running to Mumbai like every Friday. Wifey had been to USA on an assignment about a month back. I decided to sleep till afternoon but my colleagues had a different plan on their mind. One of them had bought a new bike about a month back. He was done with his running-in period and wanted to take his bike somewhere. He convinced couple of others too and finally everyone except me wanted to go somewhere. Being a lead of the team I did not want to break the enthu of the team (oh yes, that is one of the rare project where the lead was welcomed in extracurricular activities ;), so I decided to join too.

I suggested them to ride till Mangaon via Mulshi Tamhini and come back. We decided to meet at Chandni chowk in the morning. As usual I was the first person to reach there, but to my surprise everyone gathered within next 10-15 mins. Couple of them came without the helmet. I sent them back to get the helmet. Meanwhile we decided to have the breakfast and play chutkibhar sindoor holi there. After about an hour both of them came back with their helmets and we started our ride.

The ride while going towards tamhini was very good. We passed through the small yet beautiful towns of pirangut and Mulshi. Stopped at a few places to click pictures near the Mulshi lake.
When we reached tamhini ghat, everyone wanted to get their photos clicked in front of the awesome scenery of the ghat. They kept on passing one by one through different sections of the ghat and kept clicking the pictures.

I was feeling hungry so I wanted to go back and have something. We decided to drop Mangaon and head back home from Tamhini itself. Rest of the team was happy clicking pictures so we decided to break into two groups and meet at the restaurant in Paud. So four of us decided to go and reserve the table. Three of them were still not satisfied with the pictures and they decided to join us within 15 mins.
So we came to Paud. The restaurant (forgot the name) was full of colorful people. As the restaurant was full, we decided to wait for the remaining three. We waited for almost an hour but they didn’t come. Unfortunately the cell phone network was not good during those days so we couldn’t contact them. I started fearing for the worst. We had signals in Paud so I asked couple of them to wait there and find out the contact #s for local police and ambulance. I headed back with one of the colleague. I saw a big group gathered near a village between Mulshi and Paud. I was praying that my worst fear should not come true. I stopped and immediately went there. There was one bike standing in broken condition. The headlights were broken and there were some scratches on the bike. I recognized the bike. It was from our group and people were beating the rider. I immediately went there and tried stopping these people from beating him. I think I was the only person that time who knew the local language. Somehow I managed to calm them down.


Apparently they kept clicking pics for a long time. He was riding carefully through the village and kids were throwing the water balloons on him. To avoid getting hit from them he sped up and suddenly one little girl came in front of him. He managed to brake but he still hit her and she fell down. It was just a gentle push and the girl was fine without any scratch. However people saw this happening and gathered around him. They broke his bike and started beating him. That’s when I reached there. Luckily I reached there on time.

I started talking to the mob. Somehow I managed to calm them down. Now they were talking. I was shit scared. Now these people wanted money to treat her. Following was the rough conversation that I had.

One of the villagers (V): We need to take her to the doctor. Give us Rs. 5000 for that.

Me: but she looks fine. She doesn’t even have any scratches.

V: She got hit internally. She is feeling dizzy since the impact.
She looked scared but not dizzy in any way.

Me: In that case lets take her to the doctor together. I will bear all the expenses even if they are over Rs.5000.

V: Why do you want to waste your time on this? Give us the money and go. We will take care of it.

I wasn’t simply ready to give the money. For the matter of the fact that we did not have 5000 on us that time.

Me: No, that’s fine. I will come with you.

V: Today is holi. No clinic will be opened. Give us the money and we will take her to the doctor tomorrow.

Me: I don’t have that much of money. Let’s take her to some hospital in Pune that case. There I can pay by the card.

Now they started getting irritated.
V: Give the money and go otherwise we will break all the bikes.

Me: Look whatever has happened has happened. If you want to go to the doctor, I will come with you and pay for the entire treatment. You won’t get anything by breaking our bikes and beating us. If that happens then you won’t be able to treat her. Bla bla bla…

V: Then let’s call police.

Me: Fine. Let’s call police. If police comes, then they will take money from you and me too and still you wont get anything.

V: Give us whatever you have with you and go. Otherwise we will break your bikes.

We all got together. Since the girl was not injured and didn’t really need a treatment, there was no point in calling the police. We would have spent even more there. Also there was no point in getting our bikes broken. One was already broken. We decided to give them money. We gave them some Rs250 and left from there. Luckily there was no damage to the engine of the broken bike. It started and ran without any issue till home.

By the time we reached home it was 4 pm and I was very hungry. I ate lunner (lunch+dinner) together and slept at 5pm. I got up only on the next day to go to office.
Lessons learnt
1. Never ride on a holi day
2. Never argue with the locals
3. Never break the riding group unless it is absolutely necessary.

Bragging about the Fort Bragg ride!!!

My darling motorcycle was angry with me and refused to start. Joy and I explored all possible blogs/forum about Honda VTX 1300 to go to the root cause. Tried all possible solutions like jump start, changing the spark plugs, push start etc etc but no luck. Finally Joy found that the vacuum line from the petcock had fallen off. We put it back and voila, it started again :) I think she was angry because I did not take her for ride during the week, so I decided to take her for a long ride on the weekend.

Joy/Priti and Piyush decided upon a place called, fort bragg around 200 miles from the bay area. We met at Joy's place on Saturday morning. Joy's friends Vaibhav/Pooja made awesome omlette and coffee for the breakfast. Unlike my earlier rides, this ride did not start at 6am so I was quite happy :) Finally we left home around 10:30 am. Vaibhav Pooja and their cute daughter Simi joined us in their car. Joy/Priti were on their honda Goldwing (1800cc), Piyush was on his honda VFR(800cc) and I was on my honda VTX 1300S (1300cc). It was a happy honda family :)

Ride on 101 was quite boring. Actually freeway rides are boring as there is nothing else to do than steering the handlebar. High speeds on freeway used to provide some thrill initially but not anymore. Now I was riding at 90 mph and not feeling anything. Because of the high speed riding, my spark plug compartment cover fell off and by the time I could ask the other riders to stop, we had already covered half a mile. Decided to ride like that.

Soon we ended our journey on 101. Had to take a lots of breaks due to the small capacity of my fuel tank :( I can go only about 150 miles on a full tank :( I was filling after every 70-80 miles as I wasnt sure if I ll find the gas station in ghat sections. We finished lunch and started our journey on twisties of hwy 128. Piyush decided to zoom past us and soon disappeared. We gathered at a point for a photoshoot. Here is the group shot taken. The earlier shot was taken at the same place.

After riding for about 240 miles we reached to the motel in fort bragg and checked in. The place did not appear great to me. Moreover Joy/Priti were not sure if she wanted to stay there, but finally we decided to check in there. The guy put a cross on $65/night and made it $45/night when Priti told him that the guy told $45 on phone when she had called previously:) Well even though there was nothing exciting in that motel, I still managed to find something interesting :) Here is the shot of the side stand of a harley davidson :)

We did go to the glass beach in the evening, but the only glass portion that we could find on the beach was in the form of a beer bottle. After a quick photoshoot we came back for dinner and crashed in our rooms. The rooms were quite comfortable but I still couldnt sleep, thanks to Joy's snoring machine :)

Next morning we decided to take a different route back home, but first it was time for some heavy breakfast. We hogged like anything and started back home. The new route was full of twisties. We rode for about 15-20 miles in the shade of tall pine trees. We stopped at a nice place for photoshoot. I checked for my tankbag to takeout the camera but it wasnt there. I had left it at the restaurant. :( Rather than going back on my bike I decided to go on twisty master Piyush's bike. Luckily I found back my camera in the restaurant but we wasted about 40 mins in the process of finding it :(

On our way back Vaibhav/Pooja decided to take the direct route home but we bikers decided to take different route to ride more :) On our way back we stopped at clear lake state park. After clear lake we swapped our bikes for next 60 miles till Napa. I was on 1800cc, Piyush was on 1300 cc and Joy was on 800 cc. We had fun riding each other's bike.

Ride after Napa was quite uneventful. There is nothing boring like riding motorcycle on freeway. Reached home about 8:30 pm.

I am yet to process the photos and dont know when I ll be able to do that as my laptop with photoshop is giving some problems :( Photo credit for these photos goes to Joy and Priti :)

Total distance covered was 525 miles over two days.

Pinnacles pinned down :)

Pinnacles national monument was the venue decided by Joy and Priti. They were planning it on Saturday, but I had my carom practice session on Saturday. They decided to go on Sunday to accommodate me
It was decided to meet at their place at 7 am sharp, that means I needed to leave home at 6:15 am, that means getting up at 5:45 am at least, that means no sleep on weekend in short . I got up at 5:45 and exactly at 6:20 am left the house. I stopped at the gas station to fill up. I was filling up the gas and noticed that the gas tank was dusty. I had not washed her in a month . Suddenly petrol came out of the nozzle and tank. It had over flown at least by 0.5 gallon and washed the tank. It also washed the foot rest and some part of the engine. The nozzle did not stop automatically. Now I was too scared to start the engine. I got hold of a rough cloth and wiped every drop of the petrol. Waited for 10-15 mins to dry it. I was getting late, so decided to start it. I was still sh*t scared to start it. I prepared myself to jump off. Luckily nothing happened and I started cruising @90mph on 880. There was hardly anyone on the freeway. It was feeling like I had rented this freeway for myself for a day

I reached at Joy’s place at 7:15 am. One of their friend was supposed join us along with his family. We headed to his house. This person, Arup is an amazing photographer. For a change there were three people who were interested in photography and can go to any extent to get a good shot . We headed to Pinnacles around 8 am. Joy was leading the way, I was in between and Arup was following us in his van. After around 50 miles we took a break.

When we started again, Joy wanted to switch the bikes. He was kind enough to let me ride is goldwing aka airplane. Initially I was skeptical about its weight(450kgs) and its size, but then thought what the heck and decided to ride it. Mannn!!! it was an amazing experience. This was easily the best vehicle I had ever driven/ridden in past 11 yrs (before that I did not know driving/riding). It has amazing control over curves. It is much easier to ride compared to my 1300CC VTX. In-spite of having 1800CCs it is so silent that you can barely hear it. It has a reverse gear and a CD changer. Here is a beautiful picture of it.


After reaching the park, we had to park our bikes and van at the entrance as the parking near the trails was already full. Then we hiked about 2.5 miles, took lot of pictures. There were three camera enthu people so we stopped at every possible opportunity. I won't bore you by writing what we did there, instead just look at these pictures.






Ride back home was quite uneventful. Rode back home with couple of photoshoot stops. Here is one of the interesting shot on our way back. I know we should have removed our helmets but that's a big PITA. Need to remove the gloves, keep them somewhere, need to unbuckle the helmet, keep it somewhere, remove the skull cap keep it somewhere and while going repeat all that process again. Removing the entire gear just for the couple of shots is next to impossible. Now I know why Joy and Priti had their helmets on in most of the shots of their 30 days coast to coast and back trip :)



The total distance covered home to home was 220 miles. Here is the link to the other photographs of the trip. I will add the photographs as and when I process them :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pappupp/sets/72157623611887987/

Life at 150kmph

Got up early on Saturday to cheer for Mumbai Indians. Rajasthan Royal and Kolkata Night Rider match was in progress. I got a ping from Joy about the Goldwinger's meet in next couple of hours. I was in double mind, whether to watch Sachin Tendulkar's batting or go for a ride. Sachin hit Stein for 3 consecutive boundaries and that made my choice more difficult, but Sachin himself made my choice easy by getting out soon :)

Wore my gear and got ready. Wifey was still sleeping, told her that I was going to leave the house for good and she said ok :) Started the motorcycle and zoooomed to the meeting venue. Parked my Honda VTX 1300 cc in between two 1800 cc goldwings. It was looking very tiny.



Joy and Priti were already there. After a brief round of introduction, we headed towards the Mt. Hamilton. The group was full of enthu people. Almost all goldwings were equipped with a CD changer and a GPS. Few of them had radio communicators integrated within the helmets. A lady called Susan had the most colorful goldwing on the planet earth. Here is her photo with her motorcycle. Kiran, now that's what I call a car on two wheels :)



It was an amazing sight to watch 10-12 goldwings crusing at almost 100 mph in staggered formation in a lane. I decided to stay in my limit and followed them at 90-95mph. Cars in our lane were making a way for us. After riding for about 10 miles on freeway, we started riding in mountains. That reminded me my Pune-Mumbai-Goa ride. The twisties were similar to Kashedi and Parshuram ghat. I had a lot of fun taking those turns on my 300+ kg motorcycle.

After about 25-30 miles, our leader stopped. We took a quick photo-break. There were a few horses around. Goldwingers started feeding the horses.



It was a funny sight to see the owners of 120 horsepower feeding 4 horses and 1 horse power was smiling :)

We started again. The road was getting narrower and there was a lot of loose gravel on the road. Everyone was crusing at 25-30 mph now. We rode for 25 more miles in the mountain. It was quite a beautiful sight to watch 10 riders taking turns in a line in front of you. We stopped near a restaurant. It was my first time to answer the nature's call with riding gear on. I unzipped my riding pants and started searchin for you know what;) Then realized that I need to unzip one more layer :)

I was wearing the bikenomads t-shirt (which was very tight for me). This photograph is for you my bikenomad friends :)


Joy and I started early from there to shoot the other bikers. We stopped at a place and clicked the bikers.

After riding for about 65 miles we reached at the top of mt. Hamilton. Clicked a group shot. Joy and I decided to part from the group to do some more photography.

Here are the some more photos from the trip
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pappupp/sets/72157623660591012/


The total ride for me was about 115 miles with over 80 miles in the mountains.

P.S. Even thought the previous post said last post, I decided to add posts related to my rides here, hope you enjoy it :)

Pitaare se!!!!

When I dont have anything to post, I post from my Pitaare se :) These pics are taken @ Bushkill falls, PA :)





Location: Bushkill Falls, PA
Camera: Nikon D80

Grand Canyon Waste!!!

Nope, thats not a typo. Grand Canyon West was a wasted trip. Perhaps this is the one place that I ve seen in USA where you can get cheated in broad daylight and that too officially. First of all the approach road of 14 miles to the canyon has nothing but the stones and sand. The car runs on the road as if it is running on the snow. In fact, we saw a car skidding. Luckily no one was injured. Then the parking lot is 2-3 miles away from the canyon. From there you need to take their bus for which they charge almost $50 per head (just for to and fro 4 miles). This is mandatory. The food is expensive. The helicopter ride (10 mins), boat ride and back will make your pocket lighter by $180. Thankfully it is optional. To go on the skywalk you need another $30. You can not carry your own camera and need to pay extra $20 to have your picture taken by them. In short, one photograph on the skywalk will cost you $100. There are no safety railings at the cliff. You can go till the edge of the cliff. It is too dangerous.
We reached there in the afternoon. The landscape was overexposed. They had native red indian dance show and red indian village nearby. Here are some photographs taken @ Grand Canyon West.






Location: Grand Canyon West, Arizona
Camera: Nikon D80

Murde ki Jaan khatare mein!!!!

Well not trying to make fun of all those dead people with the title but wanted to give some chatpataa one to this post. 

The initial plan was to visit Yosemite early in the morning but couldn't make it due to some reasons. I was too restless and wanted to click something. I pinged Joy and he was ready to accompany me. The initial plan was to have lunch in Annapurna restaurant and head towards SF for some street photography. While driving to SF, Joy suggested to visit Golden Gate Cemetery.  I agreed.

We parked our car and started shooting.  I liked this place (but I m in no hurry to go their permanently :)). I can shoot for hours at this place. There are so many permutations and combinations possible of those headstones to capture in the camera.  You are sure of getting good pictures in any weather. 

Here are some of the snaps that clicked that day.

BTW Chan, here is an life element as per your request. ZINDAA HOO MAIN...;)

Location: Golden Gate Cemetery, San Bruno, CA

Camera: Nikon D80

Berkley Botanical Garden and bird photography

I knew that I was bad at macro photography (not that I am any better now) and wanted to improve my macro photography skills, so when Prakash asked me to join him at Berkley Botanical Garden, I decided to join him. Also I wanted to use the new tripod too :)

I got up at 6:45 am (that too on Sunday) and got ready. We reached the garden at 8:45 am and waited for the garden to open. It opens at 9:00 am. I was feeling sleepy. I wished I could have slept for those 15 mins at home. There are lots of phool paudhe in the garden. They have put a description for each phool paudha. In fact many places just the description was there but no phool paudha:)

It was quite disappointing trip though as there weren't lots of greenary and did not get any photographs the way I wanted them. Here are some of them.

This post was in saved state for a long time. I had been to Stevens Canyon Creek park in Cupertino for capturing a few birds in my lens after that. I did not get a good shot that time. Finally found this jodi on my patio only :)

Location: Berkley Botanical Garden and my patio, CA

Camera: Nikon D80