Safety gear is an inseparable part of motorcycling. Riding without helmet is akin to climbing hills without ropes, jumping heights without parachute. Sure it will give you thrills till it goes on, but that one mistake will be enough to put a full stop to any activity, or perhaps life itself, if safety is not…

In March 2011, I and my wife Nandinee completed a motorcycle tour to Kerala, Kanyakumari and Kodaikanal. This was our longest trip ever, on motorcycle or otherwise. The 18 day trip, from 12 March to 31 March 2011, was as much entertaining as it was educating. Touring in the state with highest literacy rate, the…

We had modified the itinerary on the go, because of hectic rides. The final itinerary that we followed is this: Day 1 – Ernakulam – Alapuzha Day 2 -Alapuzha – Kollam Day 3 – Kollam – Kanyakumari Day 4 – Kanyakumari Day 5 – Kanyakumari – Trivendrum – Veli – Shangumugham beach Day 6 –…

The day’s destination was Kodai Kanal. This was added to the itinerary at the last moment, looking at Google maps. As Munnar was 100 kilometers from Periyar as well as from Kodaikanal, we thought of going to Kodaikanal and then take the route shown by Google map to go to Munnar. We learnt a valuable…

The next day, we started out for Kanyakumari at around 9.00 A.M. The day’s plan was to reach Kanyakumari by evening, but the moment we joined the every busy highway, the difficulties in the plan started popping up. It was hard to keep up speed on the road, with the constant company of towns across…

We had this tour in mind for a long time. Perhaps more than a year or so. On 18  September 2010, the opportunity presented itself, and we grabbed it fully.These eleven Marutis (Hanuman Idols) were set by Saint Ramdas Swami around 440 years ago. They are considered as one of the religious circuit of Maharashtra.…

There is a road from Karad that leads us to Masure. The road is in good condition, and one can easily do 60-70 KMPH safely on this road. There is another big temple in the Masure village, but we continued inside to go to the Samartha Sthapit temple.

We woke up early, and surprising even us, we were ready to roll at 7.15 a.m. The road was wet by yesterday’s rain. The first stop of the day was Bahe Maruti. We rolled on, stopping to ask directions from time to time. The roads soon left Karad city, and entered beautiful country roads. We…

It was somewhere in early 2009 that I saw a booklet by some travel company, advertising their tours. I love such books, they give you ideas to plan the next tour. In that book, I stumbled upon ‘Samartha Sthapit akara maruti tour’ (Eleven Marutis by Samartha Ramdas Swami). This was the first time I ever…