TripCycle (just wanted to give some simple word similar to "LifeCycle" - which describes the each stage about a particular thing.)

> Where to go?
> The Super Sevens...
> Onward journey in bike
> Top of the Hill - A Tough Target
> Chilling moments atop
> Coming down the hill
> Back in Bangalore

Where to go?

these were the conv went between me n my friend Thiagarajan...
thursday night
9pm
thiagu: We can go for some trip this weekend right?
me : ya thala... there should not be any problem with that..
(we just spoke this very casually, not giving much attention to it. and only these two sentences, nothing more about that trip.)

friday night
9pm
thiagu: Where can we go tomorrow?
me: i haven't checked anything about that thala. office work u kno.. lemme check it now and get back to you
thiagu: sure. how abt sivaganga?
me: thats nice place thala... lets look for some more options also... how many are likely to turn up?
thiagu: 6 for sure.
me: thats cool... get back to you soon...

11:30pm
me: thala... how abt this place called 'Skandagiri Hills" thala? u might have seen few pics in forward mails, where a guy stands above clouds kno... this is that place only thala. check out these pics in this link ..
thiagu: wow... this is cool place. how far is that from here?
me: this is abt 65 kms thala.. and we need to be there at the top in early morning to witness the beautiful sunrise. which means, we need to trek in the night and they call this as "MoonLight Trek" thala. we can start from here on saturday night. this is fine???
thiagu: np.

thus the place got fixed. And we had just half day to prepare for this, but nothing specially to get ready. so, all set for a gud trekking trip.. :)

The Super Sevens...

We were Seven of us.. Anbu, Harish, Prabhu, Me, Shankar, Thiagarajan n Thilak... The Super Sevens...

Onward Journey in bike:

We all met at Shankar's house, located in BTM 2nd Stage, at around 9pm yesterday. all went to have dinner , except shankar who returned from treat, to Akshaya Bhavan. As usual, it was crowded nd delay in service, which made us to choose Friends Restaurant. Had dinner there. Meanwhile, me n thiagu went to nearby shops to get Water n snacks (britannia slice cakes n some chips). Had dinner and assembled for the onward journey at around 10:30. We made sure that we dont carry excess money and are not carrying any credit/debit cards, as our journey is in night. Better be cautious, than feeling sorry... discussed and decided not to go beyond 50kmph nd halt after every 10kms. Thiagarajan n Me in his CBZ bike, Prabhu n Harish in prabhu's Discoverer bike, Shankar n Thilak in Shankar's Flame bike and Anbu in Boxer bike. We decided to take this onward journey a leisure one, not pughing much. So, few re-checks on the fuel levels, bike's health, few snaps and gear one at 11:10pm.

To give an overview about the route, Jayadeva flyover - MG Rd - Hebbal - Devanahalli - Chickballapur - Skandagiri Hills.

Pretty simple route is it. ya.. it really was. just a straight road from BTM till Chickballapur. we took our first break at around 17kms from BTM, just few kms after Hebbal. As we were in the NH, we could experience the change in the blewing air temperature. Theory 1 -"distance covered and air temperature is inversely proportional" proved. It was getting colder and colder. i want u to have in mind that, most of us weared two/three t-shirts nd a jacket to cover it all and still felt our skin getting frozen. gr8 driving guys... second halt near the completely dark Air Force Base near Yelahanka. Got a glimpse of the new airport from far, after few kms from there, the road turned from better to bad, four lane to single line. Our third halt at an road side Shri Swami Dhaba, where we could get Hot Tea, which was to most necessary thing that needed that time. And belive me when i say that, the Tea got colder within a min as we holded it our hands. few more halts and there we reached chickballapur.

As said earlier, it was straight road (but a bumpy one) till now. We just stopped at left cut, some odd instinct to most of us. when we inquired in an nearby, thats the cut we need to take to go to the hills. sometimes, these insticts really prove benificial at the prompt time. If we had not taken this cut, it might have turned into some route hunting competition to all of us. Shankar was the one who inquired in the nearby cycle repair shop, and came back saying "there will be police station, take right after that, u'll hit a circle, take left there..". As we were discussing abt this, there came two police men and said something in kannada, all we could get from their tone is that we have to start our bike right now. If you are planning to visit there anytime, to identify which left is that, here is the description abt that cut - Once u reach chickballapur, in less than 2 km after SJC Institute of Technology, you'll come across this small Shri Balamuri Ganapathi Temple at the road side (left) and a small Vishweswaraya Statue just at the entrance of that left cut. We took that left, in few mts passed the police station, took right at the dead-end of that road, aftr 50mts from there we again got the same instinct again. this time it was a junction of four roads (and here by "roads" i mean street mud roads, very narrow ones). is this the circle which the local guys mentioned??? full confusion, and we decided to go straight as we could see something like a circle in another 100mts.

Only after reaching the other circle, enquiring the local guys there, we came to know that, the four-road-junction is the one which the cycle shop guys referred as "circle" (And there are different meaning for this word, but in the same context. different ppl refer diff locations in different places). came back to that junction, took left there (with lots n lots of doubts in our mind), went abt 100mts, gained confidence that this should be the right way, but still hacing doubt somewhere in our mind, drove for abt 3kms in the road which runs right thru the small water body and reached a small village. Just to make sure we're in the right track, we called up one of the local guy (whom i could get in touch when planning for this trip) named Madhu, who said he lives in a village called KalawaraHalli Bhetta, which lies right at the foothill of Skandagiri. As we were talking with that guy, we saw a sign board welcoming us to the hills, which gave us a big relief that we're finally goin to reach our target hill. in few mts, met Madhu and thanked him for being awake for so late and helping us to reach there. In another 5 mins, we reached the Papagini Temple, which is right at the start of the hill and this is the place where we should park our vehicle. A big satisfaction to all of us, finally we have compelted the first quarter of our trip successfully.

The whole incidents which i described in the last two paragraphs, took place at 1:30 am to 2am sunday. all the inquries (where we couldnt get anyone out in street at that time), confusions, doubts, happened in this odd hour in the sunday morning.

Top of the Hill - A Tough Target

After 10 mins of relax, we realized that we never bothered to take Torches with us. Oops. All we've got with us was this gadget which spends most of the time with us than any other person/thing in the world, our Mobile phone. And Madhu gave strong instruction to us that dont go for any guides at that place to reach the top, as there are lot of painted arrows, to show us the right path to reach the top. We kept his advice in mind and started to follow a group going ahead. did i tell you that, there were lot of vehicles parked in that parking place, who has already gone to the top, and the count was increasing as the second hand ticks. Glad that i had a SE mobile, and it proved really worthy now, as it lit our way much more like a powerful torch. everyone haveing nokia switched on the video recording to get atleast some light out of their mobile. As we started climbing up, we got ourself caught with a big chunk of ppl, which we didnt like at all. So, we took rest for few mins to let them go ahead of us.

Followed the arrows which guided us and after some time we could find those guys taking rest, we going ahead of them, afterwhich we just thought we will keep ourselfs ahead all thru the way. The path was rough and we were literally blind. the first person leading will have my mobile to get a good view of the way ahead and give instructions nd cautions for the rest of the followers. Remember me saying that we got water and snacks, yes... that proved very very vital now. As after every 10 mins of walk, walk is too simple word to describe, i would use climbing, even climbing is too simple word.. ok.. whatever it may be, every 10 mins, we take rest in the rocky place on the way. As soon as we find the other group catching us, we continued to climb. this interval of 10 mins is during the initial few mts. As time passed, and as we got closer to top, the interval timings came lesser nd lesser. And even here the "Theory 1" holds true. This time its not distance Vs temperature, now its height Vs temperature.

This is about the trip which i went exactly a month ago.

this is just the continuation of the previous post "Episode 1"...

Day One:

Eventhough lot of people felt sleepy, since we reached the house at Magundi at 6:30am and didnt have proper sleep last night, none was interested to have a nap. On seeing the Greenery around the house, everyone started shooting. not with the gun, but with their Cameras, at all the places around the house, like backyard, swing, small hut, Tree house and didn't leave the wooden elephant statue in the hall too. Then we found Frisbee disc from the kit which the CAPTURE guys has got for the trip. Thiagarajan n Pradeep started playing in the path in-front of the house. I haven't touched Frisbee disc before. so, to be in safe side, i got N73 from Thiagarajan. Then what, Click Click Click.. After a long time i hear that sound from camera instead from computer mouse :) . On seeing these two playing, everyone got inspired and joined the game. So, we went to the large open space in-front the house. We divided into two groups and the fun began. The max people of the other group were of Tech Team. And unfortunately, Anbu came into our group n he was the only Tech Team guy in our group. So, most of the throws from the other group ended in Anbu's hands. That too the throws from Swathi n Shruthi always went into Anbu's hands. When any of these two takes the disc in their hands to throw, we all start chanting Anbu's Name, and surprisingly, all the throws went to anbu ONLY. After an hour of fun, we heard someone saying "Breakfast is ready". The next moment, half the crowd were at the dining hall. And i think by this time you would have guessed who would be the first person.. its me, ha ha ha... We had a good Breakfast with hot coffee/tea. While we're having breakfast, parry told that since there is only two raft (at max only twelve people can go) we have to go in two batches and the first batch will start right after the breakfast n the second batch after the lunch.

Awesome White Water Rafting Experience:

Thiagarajan, Pradeep n Me opted for the first batch along with seven other members ( we decided to go as ten in one batch and eleven in the other). While we were getting ready for the rafting, the second batch members started playing cricket. we started in the bus and stopped at the main gate waiting for the raft to come. They said that they will be bringing the rafts in a jeep and the bus will follow them to the starting point which is around 11 km from here. so everyone was predicting that the vehicle which come next will be the raft-vehicle. In the meanwhile, pradeep, utilized golden oppurtunity to sleep and slept in the bus and we got down and started another photo session there. (wherever we find time, we start clicking). So finally after almost half-an-hour wait, the jeep carrying the rafts arrived and we followed that jeep to the starting point.

Once we reached the starting point, we all got down from the bus and asked not to carry any valuables with us during the ride. those who had their camera and mobile left them in the bus and went near the jeep. The trainer then told that we need to carry those two rafts to the banks of the river which is around 100m from the road. Even tough it was not heavy, it needs at least six people to lift that to the banks. Finally, the most awaited moment was just minutes away from us. We were given a life-jacket , a helmet and a paddle. On wearing this we looked like people jumped out from the Halo game. Of the Eleven people there, only Parry and Sowmya had previous experience of rafting. We divided ourself into two groups, 6 members in one raft and 5 members plus one CAPTURE guy in the other. Each raft had one trainer taking care of that raft and most importantly the 6 members in that raft. Before stepping into the river on raft, One of the trainer gave instruction of how and where to sit on the raft, hot to hold the life-line rope so that you wont fall into the river and how to row forward, backward, etc. Once this 5 minutes session about the raft and the procedure to be followed is over, we jumped into the raft and went into the river. I was in the first raft with Parry and Thiagarajan in the front, pradeep n me right behind them , shruthi n sowmya behind us and the trainer at the last controlling the direction of the raft and giving instructions.

The first thing that the trainer told us was "This is a team event. Co-ordination and synchronization is very very important in this". So, he will be giving the instructions to do a forward stroke, backward stroke, stop rowing, right forward left backward ( those poeple sitting right to him should do forward stroke and those at his left should do backward stroke. basically to steer the raft leftside), etc (all the permutations and combinations of these different things)... but the most important thing here is, whatever the stroke may be, we have to do a stroke on each count of the leader. Our leader here was parry. so on hearing each count from him, we do the stroke, just to maintain the sync. Wow... this is the real Team Event... After his instructions we started rowing. After a minute of rowing, the first rapid ( A rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient causing an increase in water flow and turbulence) was in our sight. So we charged ourself towards that rapid just like a tiger attacking its prey. we're right on target and the water splashed on us. Wonderful experience. and then we were in the calm section of the river where there was literally no rapids. Our Trainer told that we have to hold the life-line rope when we are not rowing as that rope is so important that if by chance we fall into the river, we can get hold of that rope so that we wont go away from the raft and its dangerous to get into water. And he also added that if by chance we fall into the river and are not holding that life-line rope, because of the water current we would move away from the raft where we cant reach that person by our hands. He said that in that case, there's a rope bag, where there is a long rope. so even if we move far away from the raft, he would throw that rope towards us so that we can get hold of that firmly and he'll be able to pull us towards the raft and rescues us.
After all the explanations on how dangerous it is to get into river, we asked whether we can, by any chance, get into the water. He immediately said "everyone can jump into the water now". We all were shocked. Everyone had doubt that he's serious or jus kidding. We again asked it. He said "you can". the next moment everyone jumped into the water. And the catch here is only me and shruthi know swimming. so, we were able to move away from the raft and enjoyed the freezing waterride. rest of them holded the life-line rope so that they wont go away from the raft. Everyone were floating in the water. Thanks to the life-jacket. After 10 mins of fun in the water, we're back on the raft (the fact is we couldnt get into the raft by ourself. He literally pulled everyone onto the raft). After this refreshing experience, we targeted the next rapid. and after sometime we faced another rapid too. After this 10 km journey in raft, our trainer told that we're just a km away from our destination ie the house. all of us were discussing about our experience by jumping into the water. when we were discussing about it, our trainer told that "you all can jump into water again now". this time no one asked any question further to him. the next moment all were in the water. Eventhough i asked thiagarajan n sowmya to leave the life-line rope and try swimming or atleast float on water without holdin anything, they refused that time. this time, being the last opportunity, they dared to leave the rope and enjoyed freely floating in water. After few minutes, me and thiagarajan went far away from the raft and thiagrajan said he's not able to come back on his own. so he holded on to my life-jacket and i pulled him to the raft. that was an spectacular experience for both of us. to reach the house, we need to take a hard "V" turn against the flow of the river. Somehow, we all rowed hardly together and reached our destination. from that bank, the house was about 10 mins walk. and we need to carry the raft few meters into the bank of the river. The river bank was so muddy, my legs was completely into the mud. wonderful experience for me and my shoes too (which was completely filled with mud) :)..
And since we all were completely wet, we couldnt capture those wonderful moments into pictures. :(

Initial Plan:

This trip was planned and organized by the TECH Team of our Oracle Business Accelerator Group. Its was a part of their Team Outing for this Quarter. So, the entire plan was made by them. Especially, this was an initiative taken by one of the TECH Team Manager, Parikshit Khisty ( we call him Parry). So, my thanks to him for giving us this wonderful oppurtunity. This was planned one month before by him. The plan details were: Two Days trip ( Starting by friday night and Back on Sunday night) which includes White Water Rafting, Night stay in Tent and Trekking... The plan is wonderful.. isn't it??? and to add to that, the cost of this entire trip was Rs. 2800. wow... this plan was so nice that i dont want to miss this great opportunity. This plan is arranged with one of the adventure trip organizing group called "CAPTURE"... One week before the trip, we got a registration form from CAPTURE along with the Do's and Dont's while this trip and what all we should have with us for this trip ( a pack-list)... We all got ourself ready with those things mentioned in the pack-list in advance. So all set for the trip on Friday... ready for rockin...

Travel to Chickmangalur:

Initially this trip was planned for only 18 members... but due to the over-whelming response, on saturday evening we had the count of 21 members ready for the trip. since it was planned for 18 members, the CAPTURE guys arranged for a Mini-Bus with a capacity of 19. so, the last two to board the bus didnt have seat for them.. and it was Parry and Simon... Oh.. forgot to mention the names of the members for this trip.. here it is, in alphabetical order... Abhishek, Adithya, Anand, Ananth, Anbu, Asit, Bhanu Singh, Jyothi, Hemanth, Mallikarjun, Parikshit, Pradeep, Pralin,Prithvi, Ritesh, Me, Simon, Shruthi, Sowmya, Swathi n Thiagarajan.

We started from our office at 9:30pm ( actually we were asked to be ready at 8:30pm to start). The enjoyment started right from the driver started the engine... The engine sound was nothing when compared to the Chorus-sound we made as soon as we started moving... And that Friday was an working day.. so many of us were working till that time and didn't have dinner. So we stopped at a Dhaba called "Chandu Dhaba" at around 11pm.. They were about to close. Luckily we managed to convince the dhaba guys to prepare some roti's ( i think the count was around 60), few channa masala's and chicken masala's. And even though i already had lunch, i couldnt resist myself by not having those roti's there.. the same with all those people who already had dinner.. almost everyone had dinner twice that night.


That was just a 10 min break. Then everyone continued what they were doing before the break, nothing other than sleeping and we 3 continued our chatting. And Since the music system was turned-off in the Bus, Thiagarajan played some pleasant songs with his Nokia N-73. It was very pleasant to listen to those Tamil songs after long time and chat something not related to daily office work... everything was going fine till we had 2 hour journey left to reach our destination. wondering what went wrong!!!!!! nothing went wrong.. we just experienced road-rafting.. thats all.. It was so bad that we couldnt see any smooth surface which we call as "Road". And it was made worse by the recent rains. It was drizzling when we were travelling. Pradeep was trying to sleep atleast for sometime, till we reached Chickmangalur. And the place where we're going to stay is Magundi, around one hour journey from chickmangalur. So, we had a second Tea session around 4:30am at chickmangalur. And by the time we reached chickmangalur, the drizzles has transformed to a Rain Drops.

From Chickmangalur onwards, we could able to find something called "Road" and we can even call it as "smooth road"... so, finally Pradeep got chance to sleep... he had around half-an-hour sleep.. then we woke him to see the beautiful sceneries at the road side... Wonderful morning time, lot of tall trees covered with Mists. it was so pleasant to our eyes, which gets to see something other that computer monitor. So, finally we reached our place at around 6:30 am.

Let me begin the Blog with the Quotes of Jawaharlal Nehru .. "We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."

There are lot of people i have met, who always likes to stay at home, not willing to hang out with friends and not interested in traveling... I'm not of that kind.. I always like adventures. Adventures of any sort. And i still remember a line i studied in my 12th Standard....


I always keep that in my mind... inconvenience is part of our daily life and we cant avoid it... it just conquers us right from the first thing we do when our day starts, like, i wait in the bus-stop for more than half-an-hour for just 10 mins journey to office. And the worst part in that is, till then there will be lot of Auto-rickshaws passing without passengers. After waiting for half-an-hour, i'll decide to go by auto. From that moment, i wont find any empty autos. Finally, i'll end up going by walk to my Office. But lot of new events and experiences happen in that 45 mins walk to my office.

And working in an IT industry, its always the routine life. we spend two-third of our day in work and remaining one-third in sleep. Everyday doing the same things again n again and also in the same order. And this makes life a very boring ... the only way to make life interesting is by doing something adventurous with our friends, thereby keeping us always energetic and fresh. I accept that we experience lot of new adventures at our work, but these are all small adventures. The one way to experience adventures which stays with us forever is by traveling.

Travel may be a lonely journey to your home-town or a tour to some far-away places with friends. We could meet lot of new people during our journey and also will get to know more about the people with whom you travel. and always get lot of adventures, even while planning for the journey.

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.

And the wonderful thing about travel with friends is, it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.

I dedicate this blog just to share my travel experiences, with few tips for safe, enjoyable and adventurous travel.