The land of beaches, fenny and fish - By Rajiv Shah

You need a passion to ride the bullet and what more do u need if you are with the inddiethumpers, the Mumbai bullet club. There was a time I used to dream of riding places. And then came the time for dream come true when I joined InddieThumpers. The latest trip being Mumbai - Goa. Had never been such a long trip. It was me, Daman, Shweta, Rasik, Rachna, Bruce and Vijay. All packed and excited, left office at 5:45 PM. We were supposed to meet at Vashi toll naka at 6:30 PM. Reached there at 6:34 PM just to find myself alone. Called up Daman and he nicely replied that we are still at Andheri waiting for Bruce to turn up. As usual ... IST stands for InddieThumpers Standard Time (atways late by atleast 2 hrs). These guys turned up at 8:00 and without wasteing any more time we set off for Goa. The plan was to take a halt at Chiplun around 250KMs from here. We were expecting rains. Till Panvel it was not much of fun due to traffic. Once we hit the NH17, Mumbai-Goa highway, it was time for throttles to open. Our first stop was at Vadkhal naka. Everyone was hungry and couldn't resist hot vadas. Started off from there at around 9:30 PM. With not much traffic on the roads, we started for Chiplun enjoying the night ride. Ripping the roads at 90 - 100 KMPH. Reached Mangaon at around 11:30 PM. Decided to take a halt for dinner. It had rained a bit making the roads wet. We decided to stay at Mangaon. Next day we started from Mangaon at 5:30 in the morning. The roads were amazing. Reached Chiplun at 8:30 in the morning. The bikes were hungry and so were we. Refilled the tanks and few meters ahead was a nice restaurant. They were just opening up for the day and we were the first ones to get in. Had a nice breakfast and then we set off. Then came the sad part.

After crossing Ratnagiri, my piston jammed. There was smoke comming from the engine .... and oops ... we have a seized engine. My first thoughts were .. shit ... the worst thing to happen. Bruce and Rasik were next to me. We stopped. As Bruce examined the engine, his first words were ... your engine is gone. Will require to open it. Waited for few minutes to let the engine cool. Then started the bike trying to analyze the loss. There was a mild sound comming. Bruce told me not to exceed 70. They waited for a smoke and I started riding. We still had a long way to go. Riding at 70 - 80 we reached Panjim at around 3:00 in the afternoon. Rasik and Bruce were way behind and they didn't knew that we are breaking for a lunch. So these guys moved ahed. Rachna guided us to a restaurant. Had our food. In the mean time got a call from Rasik saying that they are waiting for us at Monginis cake shop about 10KMs before Madgaon. We started off from Panjim. Reached Monginis cake shop in an hours time. Couldn't speed thru due to rains, speed limits and traffic. Found these guys waiting for us. Honked in our usual inddithumpers style. These guys came out and then we started towards Leela. Asking everyone where is this place. Believe me .. we got nuts finding the Leela. Its like at one end of Madgaon. It was as if a never ending road. We had booking of 5 and total were 7. Rasik had arranged for 3 at his UTI guest house. So Rasik, Rachna and Vijay started back for Panjim.

Everyone was quite tired. Had drinks and dinner and off to bed. Next 4 days were going around Goa. Enjoyed a lot. Daily doing Panjim - Madgaon route. Very difficult to write down that experience :) We were supposed to leave on Tuesday morning and suddenly while having lunch Daman said lets stay for one more day. Very difficult for me to do that. Called up my office and had a talk with my Manager. Said that my bike engine has seized, would like to increase my leave by one day. Manager did say yes but with a tone of "Do I have an option". That night Rasik said I am riding with you in the morning and we fixed the program. I was supposed to meet him at Panjim at 6:00 AM. We set off for Leela that night. On reaching Leela, I got a SMS saying that he has a problem with his knee so he won't be able to ride. He is taking a flight back. Vijay will ride with me and Bruce will get back his bike. Vijay had already left Panjim to come to Leela. After abt an hour Vijay reached Leela. Celeberated Bruce's birthday with some wine and a cake specially arranged by Prem. Next day morning got up a bit late .. and my reaction was .. shit ... late ho gaya ... woke Vijay and Bruce. All ready and packed we left the room.

Daman's bike had ran out of fuel so I left the room asking Vijay to join in quickly. Woke Daman up. Took some fuel from my bike and transfered it to Daman's bike. I was all ready to go, with the bag packed and tied on my bike. Vijay and Bruce came together. Bruce had already brain washed Vijay. He came and said ... lets not go today. I was like .. what the heck are u saying. We are all ready, bike started and at end moment u say lets stay. And now even Daman and Bruce started to convince me to stay. Couldn't resist staying for one more day but at the same time a bit worried abt the work load. But then I thought ... "Every thing is valid.. I am on holiday" a quite famous statement ;-). Unpacked and back to the room. But it was a good thing we stayed back. One more exciting day at Goa. Next day morning we started off for Mumbai at 6:00 from Leela. Daman's bike was making some noice. We stopped at Madgaon to check it out. It was comming from Engine. Nothing could be done. So we again started off. Reached Panjim at around 8:00AM. Daman was feeling very sleepy ... and we had already left Panjim.

So we took a turn for Mapsua. Had a nice breakfast. Mapsua is big market. Thought we do some shopping. While we were shopping, Daman took a nice nap. Started off from Mapsua at 9:30 AM. And the first halt after 150 KM at some village (sorry forgot the name) that too cause we needed to make a call. That 150 KM we covered in 105 minutes. It was an amazing ride. The calls were made and messages given to concerned people that we would be late by a day. The bikes needed re-fill. So went in the first Petrol Pump we saw. Everyone topped up their tank. After filling the tank, my bikes pickup came down. I started wondering whats the problem. Just few km before Chiplun we took a lunch break. There I asked that why has my bike's pickup reduced. Bruce said its because of the petrol. Even his bike was not pulling. Had a very good lunch and then started off again. By the time we could reach Chiplun, Daman's bike started making a lot of noice. We all stopped to examine that. It looked as if the floating bush was gone. Bruce opened up a bolt to clean up. Topped up the oil and again back to road. No sooner did we cross Chiplun, it started raining heavily. What a fun that was driving in rains on empty road :). Keeping the speed 60 - 70 we reached Poladpur at around 6:30 PM. Took a break for tea / snacks. Mumbai was another 200 KM. Filled up our tanks again, and started off for Mumbai at 7:00 PM. The sun had already set and roads wet and no sign of rains stopping. Everyone was wet inspite of wearing a wind cheater. We hitting the roads and rains hitting us. Riding thru we reached Panvel at 10:15 PM and were home by 11:00 PM. One of the best rides I had .... :)