Diwali Getaway to Ahmedabad – Mount Abu..

Good rides come planned, great rides happen by surprise!

When I packed my bags to get out of the Noise and Air pollution that Delhi would be swallowed by during the Diwali weekend, I did not anticipate the amount of fun that was in store. I was thinking of having a quieter diwali with my friend Leo (@startonomics ) at Ahmedabad, where we could spent two days discussing entrepreneurship, our individual quests of knowledge, indifference to religion and the world in General..

We met up with @netra at the chocolate room, had great fun discussing the power of human networks,

did some harmless bitching about twitteratti and as we rode back to Leo’s house in his Pulsar 150, we decided “let’s go to Mount Abu’ !!

Interestingly, we had discussed several options as places to goto before we concluded, that there was actually not much to do in Ahmedabad on a Diwali Weekend..and being a familiar city to me as well. It was not really going to surprise me that easily (though I wouldn’t rule that out)

So we have an early dinner, and crash at an early 00hrs. With an Alarm set for 3 am.

This was my first long trip on a non-bullet with a pillion (and as pillion too as we took turns riding) And there are very few people that i can sit pillion for even short rides. Leo’s pulsar however, was well behaved and racy. His riding, just as good. So We covered the first stretch to Mehsana in about an hour.. The air was chilly and oncoming lights blinding, but the roads were straight from the heavens!

I took the reins from Mehsana, to Palanpur. The all down gearing of the 150 took a while to get used to, but once I got the hang of it, the Pulsar took my side like an old friend. Quite a capable babe she Dude he was, (Leo says it’s a He! The name is Arjun!! )given her his 7 years of age. The Roads were a revelation, and the ride was breathtaking. After breakfast at Palanpur, We switched till Abu Road.. with me going pillion again. Upma for breakfast done. Leo went pillion for the climb up to Mt.Abu

The climb to Mt. Abu (about 30km) was not really a climb as such. Just a little hill! but the roads, again were very well maintained, and the scenery was inspiring.. with the morning traffic still not so thick. We hit the town at 9.30

We then took a leisurely pedal boat ride at Nakee Lake

Had some chilled beer and chicken tikka with spicy chana masala at She-E-Punjab hotel and took off to the crocodile lake at Traver’s park in Delwada, with a peek at the Jain temple for seasoning

An hour and a half spent there, a crocodile spotted, we head back to Mout Abu town.. and crash at a Coffee Day with a view to the polo ground. And dozed off in their couches!

My Hunger had us going for a quick bite at hotel Arbuda.. which I would advice you not to even look at when you are at Mount Abu. “Shoddy service” is a complement to them! We then, start back..

Post the descend through roads like this..which Leo rode

I got to ride on the spectacular highways like this.. till Palanpur

After a few short breaks, dinner at Siddhipur and one fuelling up later. We reach Ahmedabad at 10.45.  We had 510Km under our belt, in about 20 hours from start to finish. 10 hrs of pure riding shared between the two of us. 6 hours spent exploring every touristy thing in Mount Abu, The rest four hours being in between breaks.. For me this counts again as one of those great roadtrips though short. And leo’s pulsar just showed its mettle as a very responsive and tightly handling piece if machinery. I missed goddess though..

The trip however had one more day of fun left. @spmenon joined us from Baroda for a meetup of the #nishku group that we proudly (and to the irritation of many) are part of on twitter.. A few hours of hanging out in Ahmedabd malls checking out latest gadgets at Croma, and some photography and bike maintenance gyan shared, I caught my Rajdhani home..

Slowly realizing that the weekend was not just a weekend away from Delhi, but one that poured in a lot more of energy, enthusiasm (a lot of infected from Leo)in to my life a little reminiscing about College days as @SPMenon is from my Engineering College too..  One of the coolest weekend getaways ever..  Did I just find one more touring buddy?

I’m Back to “my” city of joy

Posting this as I have breakfast.. I can see the mountain of work that I have to climb now. But hey, Like after every hard day’s ride.. I am energized to take it on. See you on the other side of the post then?