THE ROAD TO THADIYANDAMOL

So, where was I last time, lemme give it a check…. Yup, we all got into the traveller and here we are ready to take the vehicle to the wonderful hill tops of Coorg. There was a sigh of relief from everyone that we were finally on our way – and if I remember right, it sounded “Phew”… [Frankly I don’t remember if they even sighed, I remember I did, and this is the sound that I think I am making when I make a sigh].

The van first skirted through the deserted streets of Bangalore! I remember seeing such deserted streets only twice before – once on my return from the Dandiya dance [at Palace Grounds] and the second time on the way to Nandi Hills. So, it is a sight that I can’t relate to too much, but I am sure all of you will agree [or at the very least pretend to], when I say that it feels good to drive @ 30kmph through these roads. It will be a wonderful ride for the snails. I am sure they’d be going… WHHHEEEEEEEE. However, we were too tired and we weren’t snails [please see the order thanks to Bangalore traffic]!

That’s when we decided to take a small nap and I don’t remember what happened until I woke up. But, I do remember that prior to my going to sleep, I was hearing some stuff that Bihari was telling everyone which was plain scary!!! Thankfully, none of it bothered my sleep. I woke up feeling fresh and as usual HUNGRY!!! My cribbing started about stopping for food.

SITUATION WHEN I WOKE UP
-> Baba deep asleep
-> Bihari still going strong about his antics in Patna
-> Arijit not speaking [oooh what a surprise]
-> Ajja laughing @ Bihari’s antics and adding his input
-> GeeZee asleep
-> Khada Limbu asleep
-> Chintiman sleepin uncomfortably and waking up and laughin @ Bihari’s antics
-> Gol Gol – NO IDEA!!
-> Dodda busy talking to the driver and pondering if he has a Hutch n/w following him
-> Kalyani asleep or cribbing about his seat
-> Aadu totally flat after getting stoned the previous night!!
-> Mamu getting up every now and then and giving his input and his laughter catalyst @ Bihari’s antics

We reached Mysore and went to Hotel Siddhartha. This was the very same hotel I had been to in Mysore, when I had gone to drop my bum chums – Sid, Fart and Gautam in Infy. So, got in there and had some dosas. I had a butter masal and some pooris and some Onion dosa. Topped it off with Orange Juice! Yummy.. [smacking my lips]. Continued the journey onward. I was getting ready for my next bout of sleep after losing my seat. Oh that reminds me – I forgot to mention the seat phunda in the bus!!

We were 13 people and there were 13 seats. The arrangement was like this – Single seat on the left side and two seaters on the right [look from the back of the bus]. The rear end was 4 seats together. All the seats except for the rear seats were push back. The single seats were the most comfy! The rear seats were the crappiest especially once the driver turned on the CRAPPY sound system of his with a sadistic level of base setting. Whenever the base blared, it was like a thousand earthquakes happening at your bottom [Please note that I have carefully eliminated the use of the term “vibration” for I know there are enough people out there to make a crappy inference outta it].

So, yeah, I had lost my side seat, which I had stolen from Bihari and was pushed back! But, as usual, wherever Baba, Aadu, Amit and me are there, we will make that place alive. The journey moved onward with us singing and trying to forget the tremors happening underneath us!!

The roads were beautiful – and the best part was that we had shocks going on underneath us. Bad roads were never a problem now, were they ;-)! The van ambled on until lunch time and were reached a place called – Damn, I forgot!! Lemme give a call to Arijit and ask him. Yeah it was Virajpet. So, there I had meals at an Udupi sorta place.

VIRAJPET!!

What can be said of Virajpet other than it was here that Baba and Bihari wanted to get chicken to be made @ the camp fire. Me being a vegetarian, decided to fill my stomach with food. Oh yeah… Another point that I noted about that li’l town. It probably has the HIGHEST density of bars and wineshops in a city I have seen. Bangalore may have the highest number, but the density of wine shops in that li’l town is underrated. I mean every alternate shop is a wine shop. I wonder if those guys have heard about something called “business competition”!!

Me, Limbu, Ajja, Kalyani, Dodda, Gol Gol, Mamu, had lunch @ the Udupi restaurant. Chintiman and Geezee had lunch @ a bakery. We were wondering what Bhokcho was doing. The guy went and had a healthy hearty meal of Chicken Biriyani somewhere far away and reached in time to board the bus. Baba n Bihari bought chicken and mineral water, washed the chicken with mineral water, and apparently getting stares from all the people around them and reached the bus, laden with some dead chicken and some water and a bottle of Sprite.

Meanwhile, Dodda – the only Kandu with us, managed to communicate with the police there and got a “shortcut” to Tadiandamol. It would save us about 18 kilometers of journey. We were quite excited at the news – I mean who wouldn’t be, when your destination is only about half an hour away from you.. Unfortunately, Murphy’s law played! More on that on the way to Kakkabe!

From there, we proceeded on our way to Kakkabe, in b/w was Tadiandamol!

THE ROAD TO KAKKABE

So, we finally started from Virajpet and proceeded to the supposedly 22km road that will take us to Tadiandamol. But, then again, Murphy’s Law plays so well in our lives! The shortcut turned out to be the longest way possible. For one, the driver didn’t know the road. For two, Dodda didn’t know the place. For 3, we were all guys, and as guys don’t like to ask people direction, the driver didn’t bother to ask fore directions!!

End Result – Continous going up and down some roads, going round and round some other, retracing the paths during some others and well, you are gettin the gist of it ;-)! So as the paths we tread were retreaded, we, rather Dodda noticed there was a sign that said “This way to Tadiandamol peak”. Still not sure, we traced that route till “Coffee County” – a cottage where Dodda and Gol Gol asked a foreigner if this indeed was the place that we wanted to trek. Hehe, I don’t think it would have mattered at that point, which peak we wanted to climb, as we were all rearing to go! We were like an army of ants at sugarland!

WHERE THE ROAD ENDS….

There was an interesting thread of conversation that happened in the bus. We were wondering from where we should start the trek. We had heard that we could take the vehicle till about 2/3rds of the way up. Baba gave his pravachan – “from where the road ends mate”. Well, as luck would have it, with most of Baba’s pravachans, we were told that we should start the trek from where the road ends!!

More on this on PART 3!!

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