Munnar .. 650 km .. Never again

I spent quite some time pondering over the title to be given to this post and I came up with the above one .. looks like some Telugu movie title with also a tag line attached to it.Well I would surely welcome some glorious titles from my esteemed friends who have made this all a reality for me.
This was yet another journey which cannot be erased from my memory unless something extraordinary happens to screw up my brain cells.
There was a beginning which was rather shaky, then there was this awesome middle-section and the end was a adventurous note.
I always get to try the worst on menu equipment and this was no exception this time.The machine I drove had been suffering from a few extrinsic[..no kick rod dood :(.. pheww] and many intrinsic problems.We had to run around to patch them up and Chennai gave us a depressing adieu with a rain and a jam.Well we crossed it all early using all our fundaes of getting past a choking traffic and then we were on road to Kodaikanal.Though a 6 lane express highway welcomed us we were still new kiddos and couldn't touch hundreds and there's this rain detracting our concentrations continuously.Managed to get across 120km in some 4 hrs with forced pit stops that sustained for couple of hrs.It was still raining and we took a hotel and the most obvious thing to follow is the aqua vitae and as expected it followed the proceedings.
It was Thursday morning and we had to cover it all till Kodaikanal by that evening , as we previously planned.Though hard to travel all over 400 km in a single day we managed to put up the show.My machine never let us travel in high spirits and it was pursuing excellence in bringing down my level of enthusiasm.I got really pissed-off of it at Trichy,I dumped it.I burned my ass for 325 km on it and later I took a bus to the hill along with Vamsi.It was quite boring on the bus and we reached there too early than rest of our friends.They followed us after some 2-3 hrs.
Though very cold at night the day at Kodai was bright and warm. The valleys were beautiful and awesome,but I dinn get the feel of 'real ' nature underneath the places except at one place where the it was a direct 90 degree 'slope' to the bottom and the depth was in km's and more importantly it had this ruggedness .
My perspective of nature is it should be raw and be fiercely beautiful.Munnar would truly satisfy it.
I came down from Kodai on a bike[..we rotated the chance for a boring bus journey to all those who dinn have their bikes].It was very quick .. we came down at an average speed of 40-50 kmph and then drove till he foot of Munnar in less than 2 hrs.It was 120km drive from the base of Kodai to the base of Munnar.We stopped at the foot of the ghat road and it was a refreshing break. We had the guns to smoke and plans made out to conquer.Not knowing the difficulties laid ahead us we spent laughing at the mundane lives of some of our friends back home.We started off and it was night 11 o'clock then.
The ghat road was real frightening .. with steep rocky slopes and no boundary walls for the roads that were being laid only then.The roads deceptively took us to huge heights in no time and we were expecting an early finish to the journey. The wind was blowing so hard against us that we were forced to stop and wait till it calmed down.The wind was so powerful that it managed to bring down the parked bikes off their stands.Fcuk man &*#$@ ! can we go ahead ?!.. we gotto move ahead ! We started to move and we reached a check-post after traveling for an hour.It was chilling then and we killed some time fagging there.The roads from there were really breath taking . There was a mixed feelings of anxiety,fear,thrill that were continuously tickling us from inside our stomach.
The very recollection of the events there brings a new lease of life into my routine.I bet none of my friends[..back home] ever had such an experience and in-fact I am proud of myself having one.No one would have traveled in the jungles[ at a ht of around 1km from msl] en route to a hill-station at times like midnight 1 o'clock..The dark and obscure nature around us really kicks the fears sleeping deep inside anyone.It was goddamn thick vegetation around us and the noise of a distant waterfalls is really a moment for the lifetime.The real fix was there was literally no human life in our surrounding for a radius of 10km at every point in the forests and valleys all the way up to the destination.
At one location we saw this waterfall which virtually looked like flowing down from the sky.The milky color of water flowing at night was real breath taking moment.And within a few minutes we were at such a height that the clouds were beneath us and there was nothing above us.[...My personal feeling was it was one of the most romantic spot I had ever been to.The timing was immaculate and it was around 2 30 in the night when we parked there.Any girl would fall for you if u were able to simulate that moment for her.U would get a feeling of disentanglement from the world you were living in.You would suddenly feel that you and your partner are the only two lives on this mighty place.. but unfortunately I was with Gigs rather than my dream woman]
Suddenly we were surrounded by mist and we couldn't travel as it was not giving us anyway for us to see the road.From there a long ride through the jungles and tea-estates we reached Munnar.
The return from Munnar was quite fast and except for a break at the waterfalls we hadn't stopped anywhere till we reached the highway to Chennai.Surprisingly we came down at an avg speed of around 50kmph when we drove up hill at an avg of around 15kmph.The daylight did all the help of course.
The place was a real beauty and nature was at its best in this place.No wonder they call this state as Gods own country.I am very much glad and feel contentment for having had this experience but deep down I am pretty much sure that I would never ever get another chance for such a wonderful journey.I feel very much excited mentioning it as journey of lifetime.
A little Trivia:
The men who were part of this were Me, Vamsi a.k.a Oral, Uday a.k.a F2, Harish a.k.a Tanker, Krishna a.k.a Kittu, Ramprasad a.k.a Rapi, Sanjay a.k.a Gigs and Saia.k.a Macho.
Tanker and Vamsi were the poor guys to be sick dicks in the tour.
Rapi was the cleanest one inside out.
I jumped off the bike of sanjay when I felt he would ultimately fall into the rocky valleys and in pursuit of saving my life had to do that selfish act.
Krishna and Sanjay fought for the max poses for the photos .
Sai tried to put up maximum fight to be adventurous when femmes were around and leaving apart a few exceptions he was successful.
Uday and Tanker went missing in Munnar , though we dinn give a serious search for them but wanted them back as it would be more fun only then.Finally it was co-incidence that we were re-united.