Yesterday we found out that the Pune Ride has been cancelled. That really sucked since we had been looking forward to that for a while.

Venkat and Ashu came over to my place and we looked at the map for locations we can ride besides the obvious choice... Lonavla. I noticed Kelva beach, which seemed to be a decent ride. 70km on the highway and another 50 through winding mountain road. So we called everyone, except Abhilash, whose phone could not get signal, even if it was welded onto a transceiver.

Venkat, Ashu, Bruce and some of the guys headed off to the Bombay Aces/Roadshakers party (?) at Marve, which Tricia and I not to attend, since it would be 4 years the next day of us dating.... Yes! Tricia still wants to celebrate that. We went to Mainland China for dinner where we ran into other friends.

Back to Sunday:

We woke at 5:30am. I called Ashu, Sushil and Venkat. Venkat would not answer his phone. His excuse was that, he was in the loo... Oh well. We all know Venkat's excuses.

Met up with Ashu and Sushil at Apna Bazaar and rode off to the highway. Soon three Jap bikes overtook us. These were possibly part of the ride we were originally supposed to be on.

We headed north towards Dahisar Check Naka, to catch up with the rest of guys. Ashu peeled off to pick Bruce up, which for some unexplained reason took him over half hour. At this time Tricia reminded us that it was Venkat's (Rabid Dog) birthday. We wished him and demanded that he pay for lunch, like the good friends we are. At 8am, we decided not to wait for Stephanus any more and we rode off. Tricia was already hungry and we decided to look for a restaurant. The highway was nice and empty. We pepped up north.

The road was in great shape. The sky was severely overcast, which was a good thing, since it made the ride even more pleasant. Halfway through the ride, we found a decent restaurant, this was 2 kilometers before the turn, off the highway.

Inside we sat down and ordered the usual fare of Idlis, Dosas and the scariest breakfast in the world "Missile Pau". For the longest time I have convinced many people that is actually called Missile Pau because by afternoon, missiles will launch in your loo. It is, in all seriousness called MISSAL PAU. I have no idea what it is made of, but I'm not brave enough to find out.

At the restaurant I went to the manager and asked him for the directions to Kelva beach. He gave me a very non committal answer and walked off to greet another guest. As always, I was pissed off. I guess large prides of bikers (like lions) aren't the most respected, but HEY! So I walked up to him and threatened him with dire consequences... And pat, came directions to the T.

As we were getting ready to mount our steeds, we noticed a monkey chained to a a metal railing. The little monkey, while playing around had entangled the chain to the railing, which was about 5 feet high. If the monkey had jumped to the ground it would have certainly choked. I was at my greenpeace best as I pulled out my wire cutters to free the monkey. Tricia talked sense into me, saying that we need to speak to the establishment. I went spoke to a few people and someone came back to untangle the chain. Unfortunately we had to leave the monkey there. I will call PETA to find out if they can keep a monkey in captivity like that.

We got back on track to head towards Kelva. A few minutes down the road we took the turn, and headed towards Manor, Palgarh and eventually towards Kelva. Almost immediately we started climbing hills. The road was a little wet, so we kept our speed at 60-70. Tricia pulled out the camera and got some excellent shots of Chief, Abhi, KT, Venkat and Rashmi.

We were almost at the beach, when the rain gods decided that we need to pay our respect to the local economy. We stopped at a small eatery. We were promptly directed to the family room, which was meant for a family where the father would be a pimp. Each of the strobe lights on the ceiling was a different colour of the rainbow. We sat around and promptly Venkat started on his favorite topic. Bruce bashing. So to distract everyone, from the bashing, Bruce pulled his gadget out. Nope, it's not what you think. He pulled his PDA/Phone out. Venkat made fun of it for a few seconds till he saw it... Then he was all over it. Tricia got a video of me scratching my belly, very classy, you should see it.

That place was a Chinese restaurant with the menu in Hindi... They had Singhapur Flied Rice... mmmm yummy. I just cannot wait to dig into this. We left that place as soon as the rain let up a little. Some of the boys, jumped on their machines and rode off... In the wrong direction. :-D We had to send a rider after them to bring them back.

We got to the beach after a few wrong turns and once completely missing the turn off. As we got to the beach we realized that we had to (could) ride another 2 kilometers through a sparse palm forest, which had very dense undergrowth. The path was only 6-8 inches wide and our feet were cutting through the grass constantly, but we pepped through that too. At the end of the myriad of paths, we got to the beach head and promptly headed down to the beach, where all of us rode for a while and I decided to head back the way we came, to park on hard ground. But the sand was too soft to climb.

Mandar pointed out a different spot a bit down the beach where it would be a little easier. So I rode down leaving the rest behind. There was a steep incline, which took some doing on my part since my clutch was a little... iffy. As a got to the top, I saw a couple engaged in some activity, which should best be kept out of blogs like these, but the guy clapped for me, since Mandar, Abhi & Sushil had gone before me and had disturbed their peace already. I believe Mandar was also doing the rodeo thing with going up, jumping off and pepping up...

We went down to the beach after that. But the sun had come out in all it's glory. So we quickly took cover. In 30 seconds flat, Tricia and KT found a good spot and took a nap. We sat around and chatted for a while. Rashmi, Bruce and I took our cameras out and spoke at length about the shutter speed we should use, aperture, film pushing etc. Rashmi was playing with Bruce's tripod, then also asked him if it became any bigger. Lots of tongue in cheek at that point. I found a little pennensula, which I dubbed the "Maharashtra's pubic mound".

It turns out that Sushil and I are connected by the follicle. He used to shave a girls head. That's girl's brother was my housemate who to help me when I used to be skinhead. It was quite amusing to realise how easy it is to find people who know each other.

Mandar, Abhi and Venkat rode the 10 minutes to the village to pick up beer. I took the seat off my bike so Tricia could be a little more comfortable. We finished our beers (Tricia and I decided against it) and got back on our bikes and started the ride back home. After we crossed the village, Venkat rode alongside me and said something I did not get over the thumping of our bikes. Thinking it was not important, I rode off. KT, being the team player that he is, rode off very fast, we had no way of catching up with him, unless we wanted to break away too. Another 10 minutes of riding and Venkat came back, next to me. We turned our engines off. He told me that Ashu went to the village to buy some stuff. Immediately, Tricia wanted to head back to the village too ;-)

We rode hard through the mountain, taking the turns low without hitting our brakes. A good ride. We stopped at a random bus-stop, Venkat immediately parked INSIDE it. Ashu and Bruce caught us with us a few minutes later, when we rode off again. We reached the highway, and started looking for a loo for Rashmi. The closest one was 20 kilometers away. Venkat/Rashmi & KT/Abhi rode hard. I was keeping up, but I could feel my bike start to overheat, so I slowed down and stopped for 5 minutes. Sushil and Mandar caught up with us. Ashu/Bruce were left far behind. They had problems with points again.

After 5 minutes, we started off again, and I realised that I was in reserve. Needed gas... ASAP. Had about 20-25 kilometers left in my tank. Rode at asteady 60kmph pace and found a gas station right next to where the other guys stopped for food and bladder release.

We ordered omlettes, after 3, were told that, the establishment had run out of eggs. So we got a few mix veggie bhajji (fritters) plates. Suddenly we realised that it was still Venkat's birthday and picked him up and kicked him till he was screaming for his mommy and his family doctor. He still owes us a few rounds of drinks for making this a very memorable birthday. Mandar had to leave early due to family festivities.

We rode back to Bombay, where Sushil, Ashu/Bruce and Tricia/yours truly kept pace. Bruce told us he lives parallel to the highway, it took us 20 minutes to ride to his place, inside Borivali, through the processions that slowed us down dramatically. As soon as dropped Bruce off, Ashu's bike died. After a half hour, his bike finally started and we rode back to Andheri. Ashu and I lost Sushil for a while. Riding was a little difficult since my cluch was not working well at low speeds. So I was pepping through traffic. After a very full highway, we got back on the streets that took us home.

Got back, took a shower, put our clothes to wash and had noodles for dinner.

All in all a good way to spend a day celebrating 4 years together.