Bike Expedition




Was all groggy about 2 hours before the show was set to begin. I was going with a college friend of mine...we were running late and had we not rushed we would have been left out.Parked my a** on his bike promptly and I demanded that we reach SOOOOON !!! He had one look at my near-hysterical stance and (wisely) decided to reach the meeting spot ASAP. Reached old madras road.couldnt miss the big gang of royal enfield bikers.Joined them and roll baby roll…..wow………….dont even ask how good it was…..26 bikes thumping on the road……..nothing beats a royal enfield for sure…………was quite a sight…..Well, amid roving eyes and rolling heads we made our way to Horsley hills. The place was not that great but the ride would beat anything anyday…….Awesome fields….coconut trees…..hills……and the breeze hitting your whole body…………I wanted to take the helmet off but that was one of the very strict rules……helmet on at all times…One thing that really struck me was that things were so streamlined and orderly and safe.In the beginning I was feeling a lil uncomfortable with the helmet and the way the bike was moving but then became used to it and was sitting on the bike with a big grin and my arms stretched out, feeling the wind hit my skin…………Reached after 3 hours or so…..took a few breaks on the way…there were already 30-40 madras bulls (Chennai bikers club) there….The place, Horsley hills wasnt too much to write about.. Maybe because I enjoyed the ride way too much..I reached..got the room and crashed as hadn’t been able to catch much sleep the night before….Woke up ..got out of the room…and wow!!! What a sight it was…..some 70 royal Enfields lined up …….By the end of the evening there were about 80 bikes from Chennai and Bangalore…………Must admit all the bikers were very good…They're an extremely talented bunch of guys. Got to know that some of them have around 6 to 7 bikes and few have 10 to 12 bikes….and they keep upgrading the bikes with all sorta gadgets and techniques…. ….was quite interesting…and most of them have the full biking gear ,jackets with spinal cord padding..elbow padding…helmets with phone space and ...this and that..felt like a zany with no knowledge whatsoever about these things….In the evening,the guys set out with cutting cakes for madras bulls(it was a celebration of their third anniversary) and then alcohol and music…Most of them had been in the clubs for more than 2 years….had been on rides to kerela,ladakh,north east and all sorts of places….Heard quite a few interesting stories……Must mention about the seen-never-before, super cool male bonding…….they were all buddies…shaking hands ..yelling abuses..hugging..kicking..drinking..cracking jokes only they could understand… dancing like crazy…….Watching all this was quite entertaining for me thoughNext morning…….woke up. walked around a bit..took a few pics (Biking Expedition Folder at http://photos.yahoo.com/onlyiampreeti)and then time to get on the bike…..was so looking forward to it…The bikes started….synchronously beating up the rhythm…sometimes they kinda drummed alternately, like a contest , and finally it would reached a crescendo when there would be a long empty stretch of road and everybody would change gears and accelerate incredibly fast, Blasted the living hell outta me!!

JAPAN - HAKONE


Hakone is a beautiful mountain town in theSW of Tokyo. My trip to Hakone was the closet I got to Mt. Fuji while in Japan.I had seen Mt. Fuji umpteen times from the bullet train travelling to and fro from Osaka,Tokyo and Nagoya but this was the day I decided to get up early and get close to Mt. Fuji. Oedo-sen opens at 6:30,I had to wait for gate to open. To Shinjuku (¥170), found Odakyu-sen (at South Gate),I still had time for breakfast, went out Southwest exit to Yoshinoya 吉野家, got 1 納豆定食 (natto ¥340), surprisingly, it was pretty good! Perhaps I had finally gotten used to the taste. (Natto is the acid test to be able to eat anything irrespective of its appearance and smell..the smell of rotten socks and white sticky slimy substance oozing out of the delicacy!)
So far I have been very impressed with the train system here in Japan. Not much time is spent waiting around for trains and the Shinkansens(bullet trains) are plentiful and very fast. Sometimes they can seem too fast since none of my train trips have been over an hour yet. I am enjoying this while it lasts, as I know the transportation in the countries to come will pale in comparison.
Rode 7:30 Romance car to Hakone,arrived at 9:02, switched to Gora tozan densha 強羅登山電車 platform 4, up to Miyanoshita 宮ノ下, out and took a small walk (早川(堂ヶ島)遊歩道) down to the river. Nice and quiet, no one else came down here, strange thing about the traffic on the main street though, nobody would stop to let u cross the street!
Took the next train up to gora 強羅, soooo many people! I saw Onsen Manjuu at the shop right outside the gates and I bought 1 for ¥105, turns out if I had walked outside first, other shops were selling them at ¥105 for 2!! !
Took the Hakone tozan cablecar up to Sounzan 早雲山, nothing to see or do here except for the stamp. There is a slow train that takes you from the bus stop to the tram and cable cars that take you to the top of a small mountain and then on to Lake Ashi. The small mountain had great views of Fuji-san and it also had some volcanic activity. H2S steaming out and smelling up the place. They cook eggs(which come out black) in the steaming pools and sell them.
Hakone ropeway to Owakudani 大涌谷, famous for their ﾞBlack eggs" 黒たまご, it was about 3pm and I was hungry, bought sweet bun, こんにゃく, milk (¥640) and 6 black eggs (¥500). Trust me,these eggs are really black and they are sold on this dormat volcano.There is still lots of sulphur around and therefore you can see the sulphur fumes all over the place and distinct smell of the same.
Rode ropeway gondola down to Togendai 桃源台, then pirate ship to Hakone machi. It was already 5 and I thought a wise decision would be top head back to Tokyo but coming all the way to Hakone and not getting into an Onsen,hot water spring would have been a shame.I went for a quick onsen as I was very tired. Took the tube back to Tokyo and slept all the ay back.Woke up at 9:30, reached my station Myoden.Enjoyed the left over black eggs and crashed.The trip was hectic but the snow clad peaks of Mt Fuji made it all worth it.