Some Stuff: A Hell of a Ride – My Second Visit to Kodaikanal!

Yup, the title "Hell of a Ride" describes my exact feelings during this trip. A ride filled with Fun, Thrill, Craziness, Fear, Luck and Memories that will bring smile on my face for a long time to go!

When I took up a Job at e-Business International (Vagus Technologies) in Trichy, I had decided that I will explore as many places whenever time permits. Since I was staying alone here, I had ample time to go around. For this very reason apart from daily commute to office and Mansion, I had brought my bike (Bajaj Discover 100T) from Mysore all the way riding 350+ kilometers. However, my idea of exploring on Sunday’s took a back seat due to lack of friends who were willing to join me on my rides! Every time they had one or the other excuse which “no doubt” was pissing me off (talk about similarities between Trichy and Mysore!).

Even though I do enjoy traveling alone (like my visit to Ajmer), I was not comfortable here as I can hardly speak Tamil Language. This was not a major problem had the following incident not taken place. I had lost one set of copy of my bike documents including the only good surviving copy of my driving license in an accident around 4 months back (My HR had taken my bike on that night as he was in a hurry and one of my colleague who was completely drunk had taken my bike from him (of-course without my knowledge) and rammed into the road divider at high speed. Luckily he survived with few injuries, however the damage to the bike was substantial and somehow the documents were lost. The police had registered an accident case and released the bike on same night! I had to go back to Mysore to bring another copy of bike documents and the only surviving copy of my Driving License {the document looked like it’s from post-independence day era} as my original DL was misplaced somewhere. This was very critical as I had to go to RTO to get my DL renewed and until then I can’t risk another loss of documents). I wouldn’t have specified this incident had it not played its role during this trip.

Nevertheless, I visited many places before Kodai with couple of good folks from across India

Kallani dam {on second attempt with Rohit (Movex Developer, a mumbaikar), my first attempt failed as me and Swapnil (Movex Project Manager, another mumbaikar) started late}
Puliyonjolai at the foothills of Kolli Hills {with Winston (Movex BD, a chennaite) and his Mansion mates (from across Tamil Nadu) along with Jude (the HR! and the Local Trichy Hunk!!)}
Tanjaore {Jude, Balaji (Metastorm Senior Developer and a fellow Mysorean), Hari Babu (Movex Senior Developer, a Hyderabadi)}
Brahma temple, and temple in Srirangam, Cauvery Bridge etc.,

At times, I did start towards Rameshwaram or Velankanni or Kodai or Pondicherry or any other place that I was able to locate on map every Saturday but pulled back mostly due to the scorching sun (temperature here reaches over 40 degree celcius) and fear of explaining the story about DL to policemen in Tamil if they ask about the condition of the document!!

Anyways, let us come back to Kodaikanal Trip. Kodaikanal (Kodai), sometimes referred as “Princess of all Hill Stations” or when translated from Tamil Language, its literal meaning “Gift of Forest” is a place to behold. Kodai, a beautiful city in Dindigul district will give any nature lover a breadth taking experience. My first visit to Kodai was in the year 2008 with my whole family and I had decided that I will revisit Kodai pretty soon. However due to other commitments, I was not able to make time to revisit this nature’s gift to Mankind.

As specified earlier, plans to visit Kodai started when I realized that the proximity of this hill station from Trichy (nearly 200 kms), I decided that one or the other weekend I will go on a ride either solo or with anyone who is willing to join me. However, the plan of the trip was put in motion after one of our colleague Rajesh (Movex Developer, from Orissa) left Trichy on 6^th September. Myself, Balaji and Jude went to see him off! That evening Balaji was alone in the mansion and obviously feeling sad and getting bored. When I went back to the mansion, he was desperately waiting for the Pizza that he had ordered. During the next 5 minutes of conversation, I checked with him if we can go around somewhere and suggested him Velankani. He told me that he will let me know in next one or two hours. Anticipating a negative answer, I left for my room. As expected around 10:30 pm he called me to update that early morning is not possible but we can go after 2:00 pm. I was still very sure that he will cancel this plan.

Next morning (7^th September), I was very uncomfortable for not being in Mysore on Dad’s Birthday. Around 11 am, I met Balaji and again as per my expectations, he cancelled the trip. He gave me a genuine reason (he had to attend a very special call from soon to be very special someone if everything fell into its place). All said I really wanted to break free and get lost, so around 4:00 pm I just took the bike and hit the road. I had no idea where I will go but vaguely I thought I will go to Tanjaore. I was so lost enjoying the ride not knowing where I will stop or what I will do that instead of Tanjaore road I took a wrong turn and I had hit the Madurai road. Going aimlessly, watching the sunset at a distance I came across a group of peacocks, later few boys playing cricket, few lakes and many dry lake beds. There was only one incident when a small bird (size of a crow) brown in color and having a purple neck line flew right across my face. At around 6:30, I decided to return back to the mansion again stopping occasionally staring at the stars or two/three aircrafts flashing their lights at the backdrop of moon. The scenes were breath taking, however I soon got tired and started back in full speed. This trip had a toll on my health as I caught cold and fever for the next whole week to come. Infact, the fever had not subsided when we started for Kodai!!

Thursday (Sep 11): I had booked my train tickets to travel back to Mysore; I was pretty much excited as I was visiting m family after I missed Dad’s Birthday. I received a jolt back in the afternoon, when my Boss asked me to cancel the travel as Winston had an emergency back home. Even though I was mentally prepared for this as Winston was missing from few days, I had a tough time explaining myself to cancel the visit to my family. Not left with any choice, I updated my wife and dad. There were few more shocks for me which I better not specify here. This killed my mood completely!! To get out of this I again decided that I will hit the road on first occasion when I remembered that Balaji had enquired a day before regarding Velankanni trip on coming Sunday (Sep 15). I went ahead and gave him the confirmation that Velankani is ON. Jude updated us that it would be very crowded owing to festivals and it is better we go to Kodai. Thus the plan for Kodai was confirmed. It was re-confirmed on Friday and Naveed (BD from Anbakkam Metals, a Gujrati) confirmed to join us.

Saturday (Sep 13) 2:00 pm: While having lunch at office, Jude asked again if there is any change to the plan. We decided that we will leave at 3 am (intervening night) to Kodai and booked a room. Soon the guys changed the timing to 9:00 pm same day. Now the only concern was with respect to the bikes. We were four guys Jude, Balaji, Naveed and Myself. Jude has a Bajaj Pulsar 150 (2014 model), Naveed has a Hero Honda Passion (2007 model) and my faithful (Bajaj Discover 100 T 2013 model). Due to the earlier accident with documents loss, lack of oil, problem with chain sprocket and my bike being registered in Karnataka, I was confused whether or not to take my bike for the journey (night journey can call unwanted trouble from cops in night beat). When we checked with Naveed, he confirmed that his bike was in very good condition and his bike came from maintenance recently. This gave us the confidence that we can go on Passion and Pulsar. With this I particularly sealed my fate! Had I known earlier that I am going to sit in something like that; I would have insured my life heavily!! (No offense meant!!)

Saturday (Sep 15) 8:00 pm: I left office and reached mansion. Balaji informed me to get ready and meet in the mansion room where we generally assemble. After few minutes, Jude reached the room and Balaji came to my room to check if I was ready or not. In other cases, I usually pack for two day’s (just in case) but here I didn’t want to be laughing stock. I rechecked with Jude and he was more or less in terms with me to carry an extra pair or two. Now we were waiting for Naveed who arrived to the mansion at around 9:30 pm. Jude had asked him to bring a backpack so that we have two bags for pillion riders!

The Thrill Begins:

Saturday (Sep 15) 10:00 pm: All packed, we started from the room sharp at 10:00 pm. The scene was reminding me of the Hollywood flick “Hangover”!! I named each of us with these characters and more or less, the characters had many similarities with our experience. For my readers I would like to reiterate these

Vaseem: Doug (who will surely fear for his life atleast once)
Balaji: Dr. Stu (like Stu, Bala is a Metastorm Developer and not just a Developer!!)
Jude: Alan / Phil (a combination!! He was our guide on this trip, Hence he was like Phil and Alan because, well what to say, have you ever heard him sing the song from “Om Shanti Om” – “Aankhon mein teri, Ajabsi Ajabsi…”? If yes, I am sure you will agree!!)
Naveed: Phil / Alan (again a combination for keeping the flock active most of the time and Ahem!! For his riding and especially for the fact that he told a lie about his bike!)

By the time we got down the four floors towards the machines, we decided that Balaji and Jude will be in Pulsar with Bala riding and Jude in Pillion (for those who know Jude, this would be a shocker). In Passion, Naveed will be the rider and I will be riding pillion. I told Naveed that we will exchange when we hit the Hills. As with any other ride, the first thing was getting fuel for the bikes. So within first 10 minutes, we stopped at ATM’s and at Fuel Station. My first fear came true when we realized that Pulsar has zoomed ahead of us and they are nowhere to be seen! The first call started and we were updated that they were actually still at the fuel station. As soon as we reassembled, I told them to stick along. As Naveed was from Gujrat and I am from Karnataka, we hardly knew any Tamil except for few words like Poda, Vango, Macchi, Tambi, Polama etc., I have had experience during night travels, when police will be extra cautious and it would be difficult for us to explain ourselves as both Tamil speaking guys are on one bike. They agreed and within 5 minutes we lost them again!! This time, Bala had received a call from his dad and Jude informed us to wait near Maxx Showroom. After 10 minutes, they went cruising by us informing us to follow by hand signal.

All this while, me and Naveed were getting acquainted. So the next few minutes we were discussing about various topics when we both realized that we lost the Pulsar again!! Naveed was at slower speeds of around 50-60 kmph when an ‘idiotic-no-good-asshole’ blew the shit out of us from the sudden burst of god knows what kind of horns he had installed on that bus!! Naveed in one jerk moved towards left and allowed the bus to pass by and I was swearing on the bus driver deep from my heart. I asked Naveed to increase the speed and the reaction was immediate and the bike was touching 80 kmph. I had to tell him to slow down as the road was full of pot holes and there was a deviation coming right ahead and we didn’t know where to go! He wouldn’t listen and I realized the meaning of Vibrations!! Thanks to the potholes, we were able to catch up with Pulsar, Bala still happily riding the bike. The look on his face was a clear indication that he was happy; however Jude’s look were indicating that he was already sleepy!! Soon the road was clean with lanes marked clearly and reflectors beaming due to lights from the bikes. We were cruising at around 70 kmph and I was lost in Sky which was very clear on this night. The stars were glaring extra bright and Moon was right over our head. The dim light on the road was enough for anyone to ride without headlights on!

It was around 11:00 pm when our stomachs started grumbling begging us to feed them. Jude said that there will be a town coming and we can fill ourselves over there. No sooner than we discussed, we came across a roadside hotel. This is a typical roadside hotel which you find in this part of the world. Four walls of mud with a roof of tin sheets and a tandoor style of stove over which a hot tava is placed. Nothing was getting cooked was an indication that the hotel is almost closing the business for the day. Naveed was bit skeptical to eat there and he was nagging about the cleanliness and quality, lucky for him the hotel was indeed closed for the day and he gave us directions to one more hotel which was around 3 kilometers on the highway where we were heading. Some business ethics, redirecting to the competitor!!

Within 5 minutes, we reached the spot. We had to actually leave the highway and enter the by-pass road. One good thing here is that when a highway is entering a town or a village, the road gets elevated and all you can see is the roof of the houses! We entered the service road, passing under NH 45 and reached the Hotel that was referred to us. This was nowhere better in infrastructure than the previous one but this hotel had tables and chairs right outside giving you the “Highway on my Plate” experience. When we checked the menu, the only available items was Dosa (also Utthapam: another variety of dosa) and Omlette (here Egg is very common). Not having much choice we started filling ourselves. The dosa was quite tasty and I can easily give 8/10 rating. Then came the tea and smoke part! We were so involved in the dinner that we did not realize that it was already 11:45 pm and we had just travelled around 40 kms of our 200+ kms journey. Hurriedly we started back our Journey.

As expected, Pulsar vanished once again with Balaji riding and Jude behind. We had decided that the next stop would be Dindigul which lay straight ahead and about 60 kms travel. Naveed and I were enjoying the ride at moderate speeds of 70 kmph. I was glad that I was in pillion as there were many hill-locks on both side of the road creating a picture perfect scenario. The almost full moon looked like a football hanging on the sky with little stars twinkling their magic. This scene was no doubt the Photographer’s delight. I was just admiring the view when I noticed that Naveed was looking here and there rather than on the road. It was not a concern as there were only few night creatures like us on the road, with occasional one or two vehicles passing by! I spoke out on how beautiful the road may look just before sunset and he echoed my words. He started talking to me again regarding the coconut farms, the hills and the stars that we are crossing when I noticed that the toll post was just 1 km ahead and clearly visible from where we were. Naveed was turning back when he was trying to communicate with me and the second jerk of the ride. A maruti car started moving ahead of us and entering the NH from left. The no-good asshole did not even look at the road and entered as if he owns the road. It wouldn’t have been a shocker if Naveed was looking ahead. I was expecting the car to connect to the lane just when we are crossing it and I called out to Naveed. He turned and the bike jerked when he applied sudden brakes. Nope it was not Naveed’s fault, I blame this on the car driver as he was entering the NH from left side and he was on service road. He should have stopped and moved ahead. We were travelling at speed wherein sudden movement would have been fatal. Anyway, thanks to this incident my inner senses woke me up asking Naveed to give the bike to me. Had this incident not taken place, Naveed was in no mood to slow down the bike even while crossing toll gate! After we crossed the toll gate, I asked Naveed if I can ride for which he said OK but guilt overtook me that I doubted his riding skill and I just told him that after Dindigul I will take over.

Since Bala and Jude were nowhere in sight, I concluded that they might have reached Dindigul without waiting for us. We had reduced the speed considerably after crossing the toll gate when a truck overtook us and slowed down. This time Naveed interpreted correctly that we have encountered another idiot and he is turning left without any indications! Another round of hard breaks and bike was in standstill mode! After the truck passed, we started at full speed to catch up with Pulsar again to stop after few kms as Pulsar was waiting amid the puff of smoke coming out of smoker’s mouth! Finally they were waiting for us to arrive and as soon as we stopped, started shouting at us for being too slow. We counter attacked them telling that they were crossing over 100 kmph and no-way a Passion can touch that speed!

We were arguing on this, when I noticed a hoarding with directions to travelers on the other side of the road leading from Dindigul to Trichy. The sign said “Kolkatta – 2084 Kms”! Who on earth will indicate a 2000+ place on the direction? I guess there are lot of Bengali Babu’s in Dindigul! I ran with my mobile to click this and the guys started making fun that I was looking like a thief running with a bag after stealing! Nevertheless everyone else joined and started clicking the photographs, thus beginning the photo session of this trip. After this break, Dindigul was just few minutes of Journey and a sharp left on another highway (my guess is leading to Madurai) and we were on the elevated service road and another stop for Tea/Smoke! While Bala and Jude were waiting, we bypassed them ignoring their signals just to tease them but after few meters took a U-turn and returned back. This is the place worth mentioning as I finally decided that I will take over the ride from Naveed. One thing I noticed here that Naveed was extremely fond of “Kadle Mithai” (Peanut sweet) and he was enquiring about it with the shop owner without success. After getting refreshed, we started back our Journey towards Kodai. We had to maintain on the service road as we had to take another right to rejoin the highway towards Kodai.

Sunday (Sep 16) 1:00 am: There was no change in Pulsar but in Passion I was riding the bike now. As soon as I started, I understood what Naveed meant when he said that the bike was in perfect condition! The clutch was very hard (a gym owner could use this kind of break to exercise the forearms), The breaks were hanging on there, headlight was as dim as the light from a very old Indian single seater moped “Luna”! I was literally taken aback by the condition of this bike and for the first time felt that my bike was in much better condition than this one! Thanks to the wonderful moonlight combined with streetlights, I had no difficulty seeing the road ahead until we had to take a right on the under-bridge of the highway. The first jolt was when I was unable to slow the bike on a road hump and then knocking the bike off after that hump. However I kept on going until I found the place where I had to turn right. Pulsar was waiting for us and we entered the highway to kodai (guess it is Chennai-Theni Highway). The first 4-5 kilometers were good enough; I was trying to keep up the pace with Pulsar when the road turned nightmarish. I was hardly able to see anything of the road, no reflectors or indication on the road along with hell lot of potholes. My brain went blank and all I could see was two bright headlights of a truck straight ahead of me. I was not able to judge whether the truck was straight ahead of me or was it on my left side which means that I have got down of the road and that too on the opposite side. I was totally confused and not knowing whether I am on road or not or whether I should turn right or left, I just hit the break as hard as possible and the bike came to another hard stop and I knocked the bike off again. I was expecting the worst when the headlights passed by me.

Enough of this, I thought! Naveed was laughing hysterically sitting behind me. I was totally embarrassed by the way I rode those few kilometers and to kill it, I acknowledged that no one but Naveed can ride this bike and got down. The truck driver who was honking at me stared at me and passed us from our left side! Soon I was riding pillion again and trying to justify to Naveed who was still laughing that I am not that bad rider! To my surprise, the road was back to normal again. Cursing myself I started scanning the road ahead to get a glimpse of Pulsar when we reached a town. They were waiting for us when I waved at them to stop to tell them what happened. Naveed was still laughing at me when two Policemen on two bikes came right behind us and asked us to stop!

They appeared angry! Asked us who we were and what we were doing at this time. Jude in his half pant and carrying the heavy bags of the two got down of the vehicle and started explaining them that we are headed towards Kodai and where we work etc., Balaji was totally serious without any face expression. He just removed his driving license and showed it to one of the cop where as Naveed still in his jovial mood showed his DL to the other cop. Soon the cops became friendly asking me and Naveed if we know Tamil and then wishing us safe and a pleasurable journey they moved on. Jude was having his smile on his face but Balaji was dead serious! This is where I revealed them my secret and was totally glad about the incident that happened few minutes ago where I handed over the bike back to Naved. I was not carrying my driving license and had the cops caught me riding, well it is anyone’s guess. We would have been forced to shell out a minimum of 200 bucks!! This incident coupled with the earlier incident proved me that I have to be just Pillion rider on this whole journey.

Soon we were on the road again and Pulsar vanished once again. Naveed soon was back in his jovial mood singing songs and I was lost once again in the sky, the stars, the moon, the hill locks and the moonlight which was shining the road ahead better than the headlight of Passion. We crossed certain places of worships with colorful idols of deities visible on either side of the road. We were cruising like this for few kilometers when we entered another town. Naveed instinctively slowed down the bike. This town was little abuzz with public. Not much, but we can see few heads here and there. We noticed that the road was ending straight ahead with a perpendicular cross road heading left and right. I started observing the mud on the road to determine the most common turn in this occasion and my guess was Right turn. I reasoned that the left turn should take us to Madurai. This is when we noticed few more policemen standing on the corner of the right turn. Without anything I asked Naveed to go and ask the cops on the direction. The cops were more than happy to help us find the direction and as I guessed, they asked us to turn right. This is when Jude called me asking us where we are stuck and I was trying to explain him the area. I don’t think Jude understood where we were and within a minute, we came across the Pulsar. Again they were caught in the checking! Our third contact with the law. However the cops did not ask us to stop but anyhow, we had to take a U turn to reach our comrades. By this time, Jude had sweet talked the cops and again we were shown the road and the journey resumed.

Taking cue from this and cursing and swearing at us, Pulsar finally slowed down and they were moving just ahead of us or few meters behind us. Me and Naveed became so much involved in the ride that we both started singing at the loudest of our voices, saluting anyone passing us or just stretching our legs as drunkards do! We knew that there was another deviation in the road when we came across fourth Check Post. This was again a directional stop and within few meters we came across the deviation. However due to the speed and the over joy of night ride kicking in, we overshot this turn by few meters and took a U-turn and corrected ourselves. Now the cold was setting in and we stopped the bikes to wrap us with warm clothes. The funny thing was, except me no one had warm clothes!!

I took out the jacket that I had brought and wrapped myself in the cozy jacket. I was wearing the winter cap, when Bala finally spoke that he is feeling cold! Since my jacket had an extra head cap, I shared my winter cap with him (the least I could do to him that cold night). Jude who earlier said that wearing a 3/4^th is cool and had teased us about our jeans was also wondering about the cold, when I offered him the extra Jersey I had carried and he gladly wore it. So much for the guys, who said that they don’t feel cold!! Looking at us, Naveed removed his winter wear, a Blazer!! We couldn’t control but laugh which had no effect on our fun loving creature Naveed. He was the funkiest of the lot when dressing sense was compared that Night. He was wearing a light color blue jeans with worn out design and a yellow Collared Tees, to cover it up he had a brown color blazer and a Golf cap (flat cap). At this point, I teased the boys by telling a story about a man eating tiger and to imagine a tiger just across the meadow when Balaji asked me to shut up. After our dressing session we started and stopped again within 5 kilometers to have coffee. Now we were directly at the foot hills. There were few shops on the left side selling dosas, tea and coffee. We took the coffee and started enjoying the cool breeze when people around us were staring at us with awe. I believe they were laughing internally looking at the four civilized creatures on the night prowl.

Sunday (Sep 16) 2:15 am: We started again towards the destination. No sooner than we started, we were talking loudly and I don’t know what over took me, I just screamed “Woo Hoo” at the top most of my voice. This had a tremendous effect at the last check post we were to encounter that night! After my screaming episode, we might have travelled hardly a kilometer when we saw another check post and a policeman asking us to stop the bike. As usual, being the law abiding citizens we stopped the bikes. As soon as we stopped, we instinctively knew that trouble was brewing. The cop was drunk to the core and he was angry. I believe my scream scared the shit out of his drunken sleepy ass. He started asking us in a very rude way about who screamed and then he asked us for bike documents, license and also made us open our bag packs while constantly asking who screamed. As like any criminal, we declined having woke him up but he was adamant. Finally Jude acknowledged that it was us (or poor me!) and Thank to the God, he did not create any other trouble and asked us not to scream! After satisfying himself with our bags and documents, he let us pass by. Even though the cop at this checkpost was drunk, he did his duty in a way that it should be done without spoiling the name of the cops. After this check post, we were sure that cops will not be an issue till we reach Kodai and we started again.

Well, the moon was brighter than ever and all the stars were glowing like little white lights providing us crystal clear view of the road ahead of us. The road was getting elevated at an angle of 45 Degrees and soon we hit the first curve which was turning left. Thanks to my passion about man/animal conflict and reading Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson’s adventures, I was on a look out for any animal we may come across. This we got lucky very soon. At one curve we found a Stag standing on the right hand side of us. However due to the speed we were not able to stop the bike and the deer simply vanished in the undergrowth of the hills. Naveed became very excited and asked me if I saw what he saw. This is when I decided to test the waters with Naveed and started talking about accidents on hills, evils, wild carnivore animals etc., He was not a weak hearted guy but he got pissed off when I talked about accident and asked me to stop. We found the pulsar waiting for us on the elevated road with couple of visible zig zag’s but not any curves ahead. The hill was rising on our right side and the slope was on our left. Even thought the trees were abundant, the light from the moon and stars had lit the road in good way. As I specified earlier, my passion for wildlife was driving me crazy that a leopard might be lurking around and I told the guys to watch out as this is the forest area. Again they asked me to shut up!

Naveed was still riding and after some initial curves and losing Pulsar again, I lost my patience. I wanted to ride on this mountain and I again forced Naveed to hand over the bike which he obliged gladly. As I started the bike, I slowly said a prayer so that I don’t make myself a fool again and started. The first curve, then second, then third and the pleasure of riding the bike began. Within no time we came to a stop as Pulsar was waiting for us again. Jude asked me to switch the bike and he started riding the passion while I was made to sit behind Balaji. Bala was in no mood to ride pillion that night. Grudgingly I obliged and the ride began again. Now for the first time since the ride, we changed positions and I was speaking with Bala in Kannada. Jude zoomed passed us teasing me and Naveed that he can ride any bike faster and it is the riding skill and not the bike condition which was slowing us down. Even though it pissed me off, I had to agree by the way he was riding the bike. Now it was the turn of Pulsar to chase the Passion! Within No time, Passion had vanished out of our sight and very rarely a dim light during U-turns was indicating their position to us. After few minutes, we found them again waiting for us. Another Break to adjust over clothing to manage the terrible cold that was making our bones shiver. At this point, Jude acknowledged how terrible the bike condition was. He jokingly said that a candle will give more light than the headlight of this Passion! As I said earlier, the night was bright and hence he was not facing much difficulty riding the bike. However, he requested me to exchange the bagpacks. When I lifted the other bag, I blankly refused the idea. That bag was double the weight of my bag and I had no plans to lift that weight on my shoulders. Jude also told about another incident where they encountered 2-3 deers that night and how they narrowly avoided hitting one big animal. From their description, it was no less small than an ox!

Sunday (Sep 16) 3:00 am: We were passing across many small villages at curves. Because of the chills, I decided to untie my head cap and re-tie it a little tighter! This I did but to my horror, I soon started to choke on it. I had tied the knot pulling all the available string on back after circling it around my Neck! I tried to losen the knot but I was not successful. With each passing second, I was finding it difficult and finally I broke the word to Balaji and asked him to stop the bike and help me with it. With typical Balaji style, he started his lecture and tried to open the knot from behind my neck. Now my eyes were getting filled with tears and I was feeling a lot of heat building up. Frantically I was also trying to loosen the cap but without success. The more Balaji was trying to pull the knot, the tighter it was becoming. This is when I realized that I can unzip the cap and remove it from the jacket. I informed Balaji and he immediately removed it. After those agonizing minutes, I was free of the knot but not from the lectures I was receiving from Balaji!

There was one brief stop for a cup of Tea when we noticed a very hot and beautiful woman standing next to the Tea shop. She looked like a tourist and only a car was there. We thought that she might be with her husband. However that was not entirely true. She hugged one of the guys from the car and moved on to hug the next one still in the car. Jude guessed that she might be a prostitute going to Kodai with these guys. Those guys, no doubt looked like shit by the way they were dressed!! The next stop was at the toll post while entering to Kodai. It was nearly 3:30 now and Passion was waiting for us. This toll is in close proximity to Silver Cascade Water Falls. As soon as you enter the toll, the road bends right and one can hear the roaring sound of gushing water falling from the hills. The beautiful scenario, the chilly morning breeze, the gushing water sound made us stop there for few minutes and click few selfies before we moved on. Finally at around 4:00 in the morning we reached our destination and the herculean task of finding the hotel where we had booked the room lay ahead.

Sunday (Sep 16) 4:15 am: We had just entered the roundana (circle) and took left where we could see Dominos Pizza. The road leads to the main bus stand, when we encountered a gentleman offering us to take us to a cheaper hotel instead of the one we had booked already. The boys readily agreed and we started moving with this gentleman. He asked us to follow his bike and after two stops at different hotels, we found one on the same stretch of the road that I just described. After about 300-400 meters descend, the hotel was on the right side. Hotel Kodai Crystal! Except for the door of the hotel which was of a re-enforced glass, I did not like it. However when I saw the room, I felt that it was decent enough to spend few hours and we decided to take it for 1000 rupees for one day (with 24 hours checkout time). The manager insisted we pay 1200 rupees (200 additional as advance). My silent and tired protest of not paying full amount was unheard of and we soon entered into the room.

It was around 4:45 am now and Naveed was taking a video of the room as he was amazed that there was no Fan inside the room. They also wanted to go out to check if they can get some tea and cigarettes. However nothing was available at that time. We finally succeeded in finding a small shop selling just cigarettes and other stuff. The boys purchased a packet, 4 soaps (breeze) on Jude’s insistence and a bottle of hair oil (to act as a moisturizer again on Jude’s insistence!!). We reached back to the room and the first to hit the bed was Mr. Jude George Tomlinson. Jude was totally down and no matter how much Naveed tried, he slept off. Naveed was teasing us that we have not come on honeymoon and we should go out and start exploring. After an hour of watching TV, slowly I slid under the bed and dozed off leaving Balaji and Naveed to do whatever they wanted (explore Kodai or watch TV I mean!!).

What happened next - - to be continued in Part 2