Woke at 6 today, checked my sleep band – close to 3 hours of deep sleep of 7 total – much higher than it’s been in quite some time now. It’s a sign.. you lose sleep, go take a long ride, break your back, and you will start sleeping again !
Had a quick granola bar, paid for last night’s dinner and checked out. Mounted the luggage and raced to the highway by 7am.
Excellent weather, heavy fog, super cold temperatures – ideal time to get the revs going. Today was a more confident-inspiring 3 figures, given yesterdays experience with the bike. I’ve had this paranoia with bikes ever since I lost two bikes to engine seizures – both were two stroke bikes.. that was then, this is now. Stopped by for some super hot tea, since I stopped feelings my fingers through my gloves due to the cold.
The bike was doing very well all along, me not so much.. I added another layer of shirt to my attire and moved on, continuing to do 100-120 throughout, and gobbling up miles.
A note here – the state transport bus company “owns” both lanes. Long wheelbase ? No problem ! Just swerve the steering immediately (like an auto rickshaw!) when you want to change lanes, every man for himself here. This happened plenty of times and I just didn’t let it bother me after some time. The truckers were much more well behaved here..
Stopped at a ghat section for Vada pav breakfast ! Now this is despite needing antacids early morning today – thanks to the ‘low spice’ kolhapur chicken for dinner last night..
The roads were fairly good so far but once I reached Pune and crossed it, things started looking downward, especially since the expressway does not allow bikes ! Not happy.. I had to crawl my way through the cities on the old highway, and finally made it to the outskirts of Bombay. Was plenty happy now that the destination was only an hour away.. But apparently I wasn’t done yet.
The Panvel expressway doesn’t allow bikes either. I went past the toll booths onto the expressway and nobody stopped me. There I was, the only bike on the freeway, cars zooming buy with everyone trying their cars max speeds. I stopped, waited for a few minutes to see if any bikes go by. None did, and I wasn’t going to take a chance with my outstation bike and the cops in this place. Turned back, drove along the edge of the freeway – ‘wrong side’ for the entire mile that I had crossed so far, backed up in to the suburbs, hunted for the regular drive thru and finally got back on track. Took me about 3 hours of traffic and humid heat to finally reach the hotel, where another surprise awaited.
The security at the main entrance gate wouldn’t let me in with my bike, and I had almost lost it by then.. Told him I need to check in, and he kept insisting that I head towards the parking in the basement instead of going to unload luggage at the main porch.. He finally let me in…
Next road block – the guys at the baggage scanner said I cannot park my bike there. So I gave him an earful, told him I will take my time to unload the bike right there and then go park it wherever the bike parking is – not like I had parked it anywhere it was blocking other vehicles, it was just behind the other ‘luxury’ cars waiting to be valet driven away. Anywho – this was the JW Mariott hotel – and I will wait for their feedback form to come along now.. But I did take a comfortable ten minutes to unhook the luggage and then parked the bike where I was supposed to..
The rest of the process went on smooth, got showed to a nice big room , dumped my luggage, freshened up and headed out with my sister .. Where ? To eat junk food 🙂
Bandra Carter’s road was the place of choice.. kababs, Dr. Bubble, shawarmas, and I don’t even remember what else.. then a long walk on the beach front, and then food again..
Came back to the room late night, and crashed !
