Nature, Friends, Strangers, monsoons and Rain all the way

Couple of months ago we went for a bike and hiking trip to kemmangundi in the chikmagalur district of karnataka, nearly 50kms from chikmagalur town with 15 kms of ghat road.We went on 4 bikes from bangalore, 2 bikes with pillions and 2 bikes with luggage tied to it.On the way shyam withdrawed cash from the ATM, he was only one carrying cash and we all were just going along.

We reached kemmangundi in the dark and it was raining heavily we had near skid and fall driving on the crazy mud and ghat roads.All dark clouds came out of nowhere and were lashing rain, it was really tough to drive uphill in that narrow muddy roads.Our worst fear was once of our friend shiva was driving a "passion" in both feeling and bike make, we had 2 apache's so we were better.

Once up we realized that one bike was missing which we thought was ahead of us, so we didnt care to check them at the back. It was shyam and narendrans bike which they took all the way to chikmagalur, due to some miscommunications. Now no way they can return to kemmangundi as its dark and road is not good, after some hot debates and blame game we decided that they will spend the night in chikmagalur and we will spend night in kemmangundi and catchup next day morning.

But you know what is the funny thing we had no cash, we just had 200 change and we need to get a hotel, food and some stuff and spend the entire night there.Here we were left in a remote village with hardly single digit homes and no cash, ATM r u kidding? so, this article is about how we survived that day.

First we enquired about the food near a shop,always food first :-) they told it will close in an hour.Now we had to find a room and eat the food within an hour else stay hungy.Finally,after some enquiring and searching We found some rooms at the top@600/per room, the hotel guy was man named "puttappa avare", we took him aside, myself and mani explained the situation to him and convinced him that our friends down will be back tomorrow morning and then we can pay him the money.I am not quite sure what made him listen to us may be "kannada" or visible survival insticts and fear.We were ready to promise anything and everything.This made my long held belief even more concrete, i always think "if its a human, we can convince him in any matter and in any way [sama, dana, bedha and danda==Chanakya]".

Decent Room 600 bucks

What a view and rain

Now as room is set, we need to find food. Again our very own "puttappa avare" came to the rescue, we went to the food shop ordered all we want including some soft drinks, and told that "puttappa avare" will take care of the bill. They called him and he assured them with so much confidence that even we were
shocked.So that night we had good food, warm sleep.

Now that we had survived the night, then we chaged the mode from "anyhing and everything" to "lets think abt it". Instead of our guys coming all the way up and gng down immediately [shyam was having a back pain, so we thought it didn't worth all the effort up the hill], they will get cash and meet at an intermediate point.Mani found a co-tamil guy called jagan anna, and spoke to him regarding the issue. He suggested us to meet at some village down the hill, and asked us to deliver the cash to his uncle there, once he recieves the cash jagan will deliver the cash to "puttappa avare" who in turn have to give the cash to shops locally.Again out of blue "puttappa avare" agreed to this plan, man he trusts too much.

So, next morning after having a stomachful breakfast at ganesha locally(it was ganesh chaturthi) which is tamarind rice with sundal/senagalu myself and prasad went to Z-point, lazy shiva and mani stayed down.After that we started down and met our guys and delivered the cash to the jagans uncle and all process worked well.

Eating tamarind rice with sundal courtesy ganhes

Top of Z-Point

Reunion and cheers

Our Missing bike and guys

Our Transporters

But can you imagine this in 21st century, such a trust where we even doubt if a person is too good to us, why is he so good to us? Good to see Men like "puttappa avare" and jagan are till there and they did this without any expectation.Once i couldnt even convince the bus conductor that i have 1 rupee short of the ticket, i had to get down the bus walk to next stop and boarded another bus.

It was really a fantastic experience.