Final stop Wayanad

Its an inland area in about the middle of Kerala, mostly plantations of different sorts, very sparsely populated. In Bangalore, most of the guys wear pants. Down here, almost none do. They wear what we would think of as a skirt, or a sarong, that just wraps around them and is tucked into itself. It extends to their ankles, but most of the guys wear it folded up on itself so it lays above the knees, like a miniskirt. And they fuck with it constantly, always retucking it, refolding it.
Its been raining since Bandipur, sometimes in monsoon downpours. When the rain gets so bad the visibility drops to near zero, we'd pull over and wait it out a bit.
It was a long one day ride, started at about 4:30am and we get into Wayanad at about 3pm (they use the 24 clock here in India, but I'll spare you the 1500 jargon). We stayed at a coffee plantation on the side of a densely jungled hill. The tent I stayed in was pretty large, and had an outhouse of sorts behind it. The canvas was treated well and although it was pouring down rain it didn't get wet inside. I was totally beat when we got in so I crashed for a 3 hour nap. When I woke up, it was twilight (no Bella and Edward, just a setting sun). I looked up and saw the largest spider I've ever seen in my life, tarantula excluded. It was on the inside of the tent canvas right above me. Its leg span was over 6 inches, and its body was pretty big. I definitely did not scream like a terrified school girl and run from the tent like it was on fire. Definitely not.
Calmed down, had a couple beers with the others, and went back to the tent for the night. Well, turns out, there was a Wayanad monkey who possessed a terrible combination of abilities; expert level user of tent closure zippers, and a wicked and cruel sense of humor. Goddamn I hate monkeys. Animals are not supposed to have a sense of humor. Anyway, through most of the night I would be woken up by the slow, deliberate unzipping of the tent flap. I would yell “HEY!”, and the little spawn of Satan would screech in laughter and run up to the top of the tent. I would then get up, zip the tent closed again, and lay back to sleep. I would drift back into sleep, thinking of the cruelest, most violent, most efficient ways to kill a monkey, only to be startled back to consciousness again by a slowly unzipping zipper. If it were actually possible for a human to catch and kill a monkey, I would to this day still be wearing that little shit as a cape.
We got going early the next day, with the intention to ride up a nearby mountain. It was still raining very hard, but as we climbed the winding mountain, a thick fog set in, reducing visibility to absolutely zero meters. Unfortunately, the truck drivers winding up and down the mountain didn't feel like a dense fog was reason enough to slow to under 80km/h, so they were tearing down the mountain road with reckless abandon. It was just way too dangerous, and I'll admit I was the first to finally just pull off and say “fuck this, I'm not going further”. With just a little argument, it was agreed to just start the long haul back to Bangalore.
The ride back was uneventful, fast, and dangerous. Lots of bus dodging at 105km/h, lots of wet windy roads.
Everyone made it back alive, me with a sore ass, a sunburn, and a temporarily satiated sense of adventure.

Next leg, Bandipur

So, I don't have photos of this leg of journey as it started pouring down rain so I didn't pull out my camera. Others along for the ride have pics so when I get them I'll edit this post. Anyway, after mysore the highway ends and becomes a fairly standard India 2 lane road. The quality of the pavement degraded quickly and the next challenge of the ride really kicked in; avoiding huge pits in the road. There were of course still unmarked speed bumps. And, now, there is wildlife to contend with as well. The road from mysore turns and heads into the Bandipur forest. Bandipur is a national wildlife reserve, full of water buffalo, wild cows, elephants, and tigers. The road quality is very good, apparently the national parks get more money for road improvement. It was winding as well, so very fun to ride on a bike as you can countersteer and lean into the turns. The guys I rode with had given me very stern warnings about the wild elephants as they are very dangerous if they have a baby to protect, as they will charge and gore. I only saw one elephant and it was pretty deep in the forest so it didn't turn out to be an issue. In heavily forested areas like this, there's really no chance of seeing a tiger, you just know they are there to eat you if you doddle. My main tank did run out of gas through the forest, but I had a full reserve tank so a very quick stop and a restart I was once again on my way.
Save for the rain, this was a very beautiful stretch and the most fun part of the ride. The Bandipur forest ends with the border crossing between Karnataka, the state I live in, and Kerala, the state to the south west. I was a bit worried about the border crossing as I don't have an Indian license, but it was no big deal, just a sleeping cop next to an open gate.

First Stop, Hotel Rolex

The first leg of the ride was through Bangalore, then down the Bangalore-Mysore highway to Mysore. The Bangalore-Mysore highway is a modern highway, two lanes per side, divided. The road quality is good, there are few potholes. There are two major differences between this highway and one my American readers may be used to (besides the whole driving on the other side of the road thing). The first difference is that occasionally and with no warning there will be large speed bumps across the road. Usually a series of bumps in a row, sometimes just one large speed bump. These speed bumps are larger than any speed bumps we have in the US, are often unmarked, and truly require you to slow to a near stop to go over. As you can imagine these keep your eyes attentively on the road ahead of you. The other major difference also keeps yours eyes active and on the prowl; the fact that everyone drives like a complete fucking maniac. Its a bit like everyone just got infected with the 28 days later infection, I believe it was called the Rage virus, jumped into a little car, a huge WWII era truck, an old bus, a tractor, or a motorcycle and drove to Mysore. Everyone drives as fast as they can, swerves randomly around, ignores lanes, squeezes three or four vehicles wide in two lanes, all the while honking.
Traffic was light at the start of the ride. Which is good, as it was still dark, and everyone drives with their highbeams on, so you have no night vision whatsoever as you are constantly blinded by oncoming cars.
We drove through to Mysore, then a few km further and stopped at a roadside 'hotel' (restaurants are called hotels, I don't know why, couldn't get a clear answer) called the Hotel Rolex for breakfast. Breakfast was green pea curry and paratha (a flaky south Indian flat bread). The Hotel Rolex was not clean. I've attached a few pics. But, the service was fast, albeit served barehanded to your plate.
I've also included a pic of the Hotel Rolex toilet, a fairly standard Indian toilet, so anyone visiting India in the next month or so wont be surprised by the provided accommodations.







View bangalore to mysore in a larger map

August Trip (in September)

My August trip actually ended up being in the first weekend up September. I just got back from riding with a group of local guys down to the jungles in Kerala, the southern most state in India. Rode down all day Saturday, leaving at 4:00am from Bangalore, slept in the jungle in a tent, and rode back today. It was exhausting, scary, exciting, stressful, and lots of other things and I'll write all about it in the upcoming days.