The mountains are calling

We had to stop at a Hero Service Center as Jason’s accelerator cable had conked off. Unfortunately the buggers didn’t have the spare part. We found a small shop on the way to Mount Abu which did have the cable but though the problem was something else and we had to ride with the problem unresolved.

It was only later we came to know the problem was a faulty cable and nothing else! Aargh noobs! Anyways, we continued riding and soon hit the ghat section. Here we realised we could have done this at night as the lanes are well marked. But riding in the day time, ensured we stop at every possible location as we had all the time in the world to reach Mount Abu.

But stopping on the ghats has its perils. Every other car passing by would slow down to have a ‘dekho’ at the aliens with MH number plates in Rajasthan. We were been checked out more than the monkeys around! While this was unnerving at times, we got used to it! I have always loved to ride and for me the ride is what matters more than the destination. The road from Abu Road to Mount Abu is pure bliss. Loved the roads, the corners, the twisties and the ghats! Excellent and well maintained I must say!

After posing around and a few clicks we were on our way to Mount Abu. Was stopped at a check naka but after assuring the cop I was carrying luggage on my bike, they let us go without any checks. We entered Mount Abu.

Paid the entry and vehicle fees and were guided by a hotelier to come check their hotel. We obliged. Didn’t like the rooms and were on our way to another grand hotel search. Checked out a few places including one very very expensive cottage which cost the same as the amount spent in the entire trip! Finally found a hotel – Hotel Swastik. A room for just Rs.550 and a verandah to park, we wouldn’t be so lucky elsewhere! Ok we were lucky at Abu Road and were pleasantly surprised to find good parking space here as well! The owner was particular interested in our steeds and we had a good chat with him on our rides and our experience so far riding through Maharashtra, Gujarat and to Mount Abu.

We eventually went to our rooms after all the bakar bakar (which we didn’t mind really), freshened up and ordered for breakfast. Food was nice and the room service was so darn good. The guy was very helpful in letting us know places to visit, things to do, best restaurants in town and was generally very chatty which we didn’t mind REALLY!

Our first stop was the usual, Nakki lake followed by ‘Asia’s largest Aquarium’ and then proceeding to Toad rock and from there on Guru Shikhar, the highest point in Rajasthan. Yes, we did the usual touristy things but we missed the temple completely!

Nakki Lake

The aquarium was a disappointment! Most tanks didn’t have any fishes and the water looked muddy!

The fishes looked like they would die anytime now! Very unprofessional but we didn’t expect a modern aquarium either!

The best part of the Nakki lake visit was the water snake we spotted! It disappeared soon after the snake spotted us!

It was getting hot here and we decided to go to Guru Shikhar. Now the ride here was nice. It got cooler as we proceeded upwards and I can only image how awesome it would be to ride this small stretch in winters!

Some beautiful scenes were bestowed upon us and this short ride seemed more and more fun! We didn’t eventually go to Guru Shikhar, only went till the point where vehicles were allowed but the scenes were breath taking from here as well!

Nice Rock

Found a nice piece of rock on the way and Jason went all the way up to pose on this ‘raj loves Rani’ rock. Another great view from here meant our trip to Mount Abu was only becoming more and more fun! We returned back to Mount Abu after a sojourn in the mountains and the exotic views, we were back in the heat. So we made our way to the ‘child bear’ shop and bought ourselves an Indus Pride – Indian beer made for proud men. Ok I made up the tag line, but it really was a nice beer! Beer followed lunch at a popular restaurant here. Forgot the name, but the food wasn’t worth remembering either. Headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before we did another touristy thing.
Yes, this was a visit to the sunset point. And it looked like everyone in Mount Abu, hell every in Rajasthan wanted to be at the sunset point.

The sunset was pretty nonetheless though we quickly made our way out of the crowd and back to Nakki lake where we chilled for a while. Discussed, life, riding and even indulged in conversations with other tourists. One guy even asked me for a test ride of the CBR which I had to politely decline. He was amazed that I had earlier seen him ride a black Pulsar and backed off after knowing the little piece of knowledge I possessed! Hmm..fishy.

Day 2 ended with us visiting most of the touristy places in Mount Abu and that left us thinking about what to do the next day. We were short of ideas and time so decided to go to Udaipur. Now Udaipur wasn’t in the original plan and this on the fly plan excited us. A quick chat with the hotel owner, and he told us about the wonderful NH76 that will take us to Udaipur in a maximum of 5 hours! Now, a distance of 150 kms, in 5 hours – Jason and me looked at each other and smirked.It was going to be another good day tomorrow.

Slept off with some drinks and good chicken tandoor. The best part of the room was that it had a balcony for us to enjoy the food and drinks and wind up the night! Day 3 promised a lot! Stay tuned.

Fast forward to September 2011 when it struck me that a 4-day long leave was on the anvil from 6th – 9th October. Having asked around, Konkan was finalised along with routes and destinations. But going solo isn’t my cup of tea, not yet. The trip held promise but not until a gentleman named Jason Bourne (ok added the Borne for cinematic purposes!) showed up and told me about his Mount Abu plan. Now this became my plan. Quite a turn around this but as it turned out it was one of the best trips I have ever done!

So we headed out precisely at 5:45AM from Dahisar check naka to our destination Mount Abu on 6th October. Have never ridden on NH8 this early and the fog was just so mesmerizing. It was a dream world and I slowed down to enjoy riding in the fog as long as I can! It was eerie though sometimes as all I could see was a faint glimmer of a vehicle, mostly a truck, in front of me. We didn’t stop to take pictures here which was perhaps our greatest mistake during the entire trip!

We had decided to halt at 10AM for breakfast. But the sign boards kept egging me on to ride more. We reached Manor. Decided to halt at Charoti. Reached Charoti, decided to stop for breakfast somewhere at the border of Gujarat. This game continued and I realised later how much my partner, who was on a ZMA-R, loathed this idea of riding till hell breaks loose. And ride we did. Reached Ahmedabad in 7 hours flat. Now we had to stop. Made the mistake of going into the city thus we lost precious time negotiating the traffic and in turn, getting lost! Finally found a way out and we were out of Ahmedabad and the first hotel we saw, we stopped for lunch.

Now the roads from Mumbai to Manor are average and get better up till Charoti Naka beyond which the roads are a 6-lane bliss all the way till Vadodara. It was a pleasure cruising at 120kmph effortlessly! The two-lane NH8 from Baroda t0 Amdavad is a thorough disappointment. We did cover it in good time but a 4-laned highway would have been so much nicer! The expressway next to us didn’t help as cars zooming past was a sore sight!

Jason, by now, was not only famished but also didn’t like the idea of riding with me. I prefer to keep riding while his style is to stop, relax, ride – in that order! Two conflicting riding styles but one thing for certain was that we covered a good distance in good time! Now it was time for lunch and we hogged on some vegetarian food – paneer and mushrooms! Meal was good and the price wasn’t much which was great as throughout the trip, I was going to be spending a lot of money on fuel!

Left from here at around 2:30PM and next halt for us was Himatnagar. A heavy lunch reduced our speeds drastically and we took our sweet time to reach Himatnagar. Just 80kms away, but we reached there in around 1.5 hours! From here on, we were cruising leisurely taking stops regularly to keep ourselves hydrated. So while the first half of the journey today was according to my style, the second half was according to Jason’s so that everybody is happy! I must say that really awesome roads helped cover distances quickly and at the same time, allowed us to drive leisurely whenever we pleased to!

First click after 650 kms

At one point on the Major District Road 49, we stopped for a good 45 minutes to just chill. From here on, Mount Abu was still a good 150 kms away and we realised we had driven pretty darn slowly. Picked up pace and we were off again! Stopped finally at around 20 kms before Abu Road to confirm directions. Finally reached Abu Road by 7PM. Spent the next one hour searching for a hotel. We found a few cheap ones, but bike parking was an issue and I did not want to park the CBR on the road especially in Abu Road where everyone was hankering over to have a glimpse of the bike!

Finally found a hotel – Hotel Durga – got a room for Rs.800 and called in a night! We realised we were tired the moment we hit the sack! Day 2 was going to be full of fun and we were already looking forward to going to Mount Abu early in the morning.

The route taken on Day 1 is here.


One such is Ribbons & Balloons. Well, not exactly located in the by lanes but it does stock some really cheap and delicious snacks! one such is the Chicken Quiche. Doesn’t exactly look like a Quiche but it is for just Rs.20 and full of chicken. If I had to chose between a sandwich and this quiche, it would be the latter simple because for Rs.20, it doesn’t get any more filling than this! Chicken cubes stuffed between fried exterior, the quiche is pretty heavenly!

Heck, even my cat loves it! And if she does, this has to be a pretty damn awesome product!

The latest entrant in this online space is ShopWiki. Traditionally, online retailers have retailed products only from those who pay for a placement on their portal. ShopWiki intends to change that by giving access to 1000s of retailers from across the globe! ShopWiki has a range of products under the hood going from automotive to kitchen to household equipment! With over 30,000 sellers listed on the portal, the consumer, that’s you, has a wide range of choices with the ability to go bargain hunting which is not the case with other online retailers!

One of the more interesting areas at ShopWiki is the kitchen square where consumers are not just shown the best bargain products but also on how to purchase one! Take an example of the wine glasses section. Isn’t is worthwhile to know more about the bowl, stem & the foot of a wine glass? Isn’t it worth your time to know whether a narrow glass is a good buy for white wine? Is that wider rounder bowl more friendly to red wine? So many questions need to be answered before the purchase of a simple wine glass! However, Once you know the answers, the purchase becomes a fairly simpler process. And to add to that, with a wide range of prices & sellers available, it is the consumer who always gets the best product available at the best possible price!

I recently scanned through their coffee maker section and was astounded to know about the different types of coffee makers available! If you love your coffee get the automatic drip, says the website and they are absolutely right! I have one at home (thanks to my girl friend) & it makes excellent coffee each & every time!

So go on, give ShopWiki a try & you will not be disappointed!

One of the best ways to have an organized kitchen is to buy racks and none better than Enclume Racks. While Enclume has many varieties available one should look at the Enclume pot racks. These are excellent for hanging utensils et al. An Enclume pot rack is useful to organize the most used utensils while making food. Also, don’t forget to check out the lighted Enclume potracks. These are excellent in beautifying your kitchen and at the same time are very practical as well.

The Enclume freestanding pot racks are another excellent addition to the kitchen and one can easily work store their veggies and fruits in the multiple baskets provided with the Enclume pot racks. Don’t forget to stock up on accessories for your prized Enclume pot racks as well. So go on and organize your kitchen and get on with your cooking!

Cafe Lalten is an innovative name and goes well with the ambiance of the cafe. The decor is chic though very homely at the same thing. A make shift library adorns the walls on one side of the restaurant while the other side is stacked with Cafe Lalten mugs and bottles and other accessories. One can pick up any book and spend hours reading and subsequently forgetting about hoohalla outside. Infact, while we were seated there, we had enough of priv … Read More

via Travel and Food

A make shift library adorns the walls on one side of the restaurant while the other side is stacked with Cafe Lalten mugs and bottles and other accessories. One can pick up any book and spend hours reading and subsequently forgetting about hoohalla outside. Infact, while we were seated there, we had enough of privacy along with a sense of tranquility that resulted in us losing track of time and reaching home late!

We were sitting in the AC section while most of the crowd was in the non-AC section probably for the WIFI available here. Probably that was the reason for the enhanced privacy, if I can say so. Oh my friend also noted that a lot of people who come to Lalten areaantels (slang for intellectuals) probably for the awesome ambiance and the WIFI.

Anyways, back to Lalten, we ordered for Watermelon Juice and Shaadi Walli Coffee. The watermelon Juice was fresh and extremely refreshing in this hot and humid weather. The coffee, besides being very frothy, wasn’t much different than a normal Nescafe coffee.

We also ordered for a Chicken Kebab Sandwich and an almond brownie. The Sandwich was fresh. It tasted fresh. The veggies were freshly cut, the bread felt fresh (and not microwave reheated bread) and the chicken was soft and tender. One single sandwich made me a fan of Cafe Lalten.  Nevermind the great ambiance and the WIFI and the hours and hours one can spend here chitchatting. The almond brownie was a first for me! And they were very liberal with the almonds which truly made it an almond brownie and not just a brownie with a couple of almonds attached.

The food was good, the drinks were refreshing and the ambiance was pleasing. The pricing isn’t too bad either and easily affordable. Lalten also serves Chaat items which is what I really wanted to try but couldn’t as the counter was closed that day! Probably will keep it for my next visit!

We had it is ice cream and it went quite well with the cold vanilla ice cream. The pastry itself was warmed up just a bit which, in my opinion, really bought out the flavours! Thumbs up to Costa Coffee for bringing out the Chocolate Melange – an excellent dark chocolate treat!

On a side note what is up with Costa Coffee and Pheonix Mills? There are three outlets in the same damn mall! Can never miss Costa Coffee if you are in Pheonix Mills!

It isn’t so difficult to write a travelogue of a certain place but it is so difficult to actually pick out five of your best/favourite photos from a whole bunch of pictures! Come to think of it, travel photo folders in my computer are competing with each other for a place in this blog, as we speak!

That line from Pringoo is so true. Have seen such ‘fast’ travelers who wants to see everything but ends up seeing nothing and more importantly ends up being a lonely traveler without any experience to share, without any experience to enrich their soul!

Shot this picture at Juhu Beach. Had gone during a weekday thinking it won’t be as crowded as it generally is but was proved wrong by the thrones of burkha clad or dressed to go to a shaadi women! A fair was held at the beach with people thronging the make shift shops to buy accessories, household items and anything and everything else with the sea as the back drop. Come to think of it, even the Anjuna Flea market doesn’t offer this kind of view! Saw this balloon guy who tried to sell those balloons to everyone and anyone but if you did not have change (Rs.5), he wouldn’t sell it to you! Ironic in some ways but funny all the way! Sir buy balloon? Only Rs.5 sir. What? you do not have Rs.5. I no sell you balloon!

The dude in the centre got an earful from his supervisor and he kept pleading he did not do no wrong. After sometime another supervisor comes and says some things in a South India language (I think it was Tullu) and you could sense the tension between those two. Once the guy left, the worker was back to doing his job but his eyes said more than what he could possible say with words to his supervisor!

Found this lonely log at Diveagar Beach, Maharashtra. What was intriguing was this erstwhile tree was so close to the sea that I wonder how old it must have been? There were many shrubs growing a little further away but this was different. The footsteps in the background add to the mystery of this photu!

Clicked this at Bhandardara, a hill station in Maharashtra. Bhandardara is popular for its lake, known as the Arthur Lake and fed by the Parvara River. We were here just before the onset of summer so the weather was cool, the water was clear and the sky was blue! This small abandoned hut makes for the best view of the lake no matter what time it is. Imagine getting up in the morning and gazing at the reflection of the sky on the calm waters of the lake. Not many sights come close to this!

This picture is one of my favourites. Clicked at Manori Beach, Mumbai. This was also perhaps the first time when people were clicking me instead of the scenery. Why you ask? Well for starters, I was flat on the ground when taking this picture and onlookers were bemused at what I could be clicking from that height that I couldn’t click standing up. Well, it was the sea shells, which look humongous from this angle!

Hope you enjoyed reading through!

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So when craving for sizzlers, we thought of crashing the party at Kobe’s to try a new restaurant!

Before ordering the sizzler we went through the usual ritual of getting ourselves a few drinks. This included an Ice Tea and Fresh Lime Soda. This was the first time an Ice Tea actually tasted like an Ice Tea. I could taste tea in there, for a change. It was an excellent coolant and could have done with another one too!

The fresh lime soda was the usual fresh lime soda!

Next up was the sizzler! (blame the ice tea for the long wait!). We ordered for a Chicken Sizzler with boiled vegetables. The sizzler was cooked well without burning the underside. The chicken steak was tender and veggies were boiled well. The french fries included were humongous! Thankfully there was no rice included or else we would have fallen asleep at the restaurant itself. The sizzler was excellent in my opinion.

Kobe has strangely gotten bad reviews at Burrp.com but I for one only have good things to talk about the place. The ambiance is no frills but the food is excellent! The Ice Tea was super and so was the sizzler. Pricey though it is, the food makes up for it.

Overall Ratings are:

Price: 3/5

Food: 4/5

Drinks: 4/5

Ambiance: 2/5 -(it isn’t the most well maintained place and one can notice seepage in certain parts of the wall)