Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Few handy functions provided by Enum class

Suppose we have a following enum class :

public enum Weekdays {
MONDAY("Monday",1),TUESDAY("Tuesday",2),WEDNESDAY("Wednesday", 3),THURSDAY("Thursday",4),FRIDAY("Friday",5),SATURDAY("Saturday",6),SUNDAY("Sunday",7);

 private static HashMap<String,Weekdays> hm = new HashMap<String, Weekdays>();


static {
hm.put(MONDAY.getName(),MONDAY);
hm.put(TUESDAY.getName(),TUESDAY);
hm.put(WEDNESDAY.getName(),WEDNESDAY);
hm.put(THURSDAY.getName(),THURSDAY);
hm.put(FRIDAY.getName(),FRIDAY);
hm.put(SATURDAY.getName(),SATURDAY);
hm.put(SUNDAY.getName(),SUNDAY);
}

int val;
String name;

private Weekdays(String name,int val) {
this.val = val;
this.name = name;
}

public int getVal() {
return val;
}

public String getName() {
return name;
}

public static Weekdays getByName(String s) {
return hm.get(s);
}

//Test Class
public class TestEnum {
public static void main(String args[]) {
TestEnum t = new TestEnum();
t.badWay();
}

public void badWay() {
Weekdays w = Weekdays.getByName("Friday");
System.out.println(w.getName());
}
}

And, we are interested in finding required enum by name or val. What usually comes to mind is creating a static hashmap and use above function like getByName. This might be fine if you need to do fast lookup quite often.

Enum provides some handy functions like values and valueOf instead. findByVal below illustrates a alternative approach using these function :


import java.util.HashMap;
public enum Weekdays {
MONDAY("Monday",1),TUESDAY("Tuesday",2),WEDNESDAY("Wednesday", 3),THURSDAY("Thursday",4),FRIDAY("Friday",5),SATURDAY("Saturday",6),SUNDAY("Sunday",7);

int val;
String name;

private Weekdays(String name,int val) {
this.val = val;
this.name = name;
}

public int getVal() {
return val;
}

public String getName() {
return name;
}

public static Weekdays findByVal(int i) {
for(Weekdays w : Weekdays.values()) {
if(w.getVal()==i) return w;
}
return null;
}

}

//Test Class
public class TestEnum {
public static void main(String args[]) {
TestEnum t = new TestEnum();
t.goodWay1();
t.goodWay2();
t.goodWay3();
}

public void goodWay1() {
Weekdays w = Enum.valueOf(Weekdays.class, "FRIDAY");
System.out.println(w.getName());
}

public void goodWay2() {
Weekdays w = Weekdays.valueOf("FRIDAY");
System.out.println(w.getName());
}

public void goodWay3() {
Weekdays w = Weekdays.findByVal(3);
System.out.println(w.getName());
}
}

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Funny thing about Java thread

Other day, I was trying to store a thread reference which could be started whenever needed. To surprise, it threw IllegalThreadStateException. After searching I figured out that threads can be started only ones..rightly as javadoc says "It is never legal to start a thread more than once. In particular, a thread may not be restarted once it has completed execution."

So you have 3 options :
- Use thread suspend/resume
- Do not allow it to end, use Thread.sleep(time)
- Create new thread as needed

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Trip to Leh

Trip to Leh


It was long…

It was tiring…

It was a spectacular journey…

It started with initiation from my batch mates Neeraj and Sanchit. Soon Sanchit’s brother Naman joined the gang. At first, I was not keen, as getting 2 weeks of holiday was difficult. But in past, I had been to Kedarnath/Badrinath trip and since then mesmerized by Himalaya’s eye catching beauty. One day, I was just surfing through blogs on Leh and came across Pangong Lake. Seeing the pictures, I knew that I had to go…I have to see this lake.

Next day, I talked to my manager and managed to get vacation leaves. I knew this trip was gonna be hectic and best enjoyed with close friends. So all set, we studied lot of blogs and chalked out places of interest. Schedule was tight but kept 2 days for buffer.


Let’s start from Day 1: (28th May)

All 4 of us met in Jammu. Sanchit and Naman came from Delhi via bus, while I and Neeraj came by Malwa Express from Indore. The weather was bad. A day before it had rained and now dusty sand storm prevailed. Even at 4pm sky got dark and dangerous. Took an auto and managed to get a descent hotel in jewel chowk. Next day, we had plans to leave early morning for Srinagar. But at night it rained a lot. We talked to locals and at Srinagar tourist center and got to know that in last 2 days it had rained heavily. Usually, May end is supposed to be hot and rains was a bad surprise. Travel agents said Srinagar-Kargil road will not be open and therefore there was no point in going to Srinagar. After talking at numerous places, we concluded that reaching Leh was out of question. Therefore, we started thinking of 4-5 day treks in and around Srinagar or in Himachal. After discussing a lot, we planned to visit Vaishno Devi in next 2 days and see if roads get open later. Else, just do Vaishno Devi and go to Himachal Pradesh.


Day 2 (29th May)

Got ready by 7 and headed towards taxi stand. While bargaining for taxi, Neeraj fumbled saying what the rates for Srinagar are, and hence added to the chaos. After bargaining for half an hour and finalizing the destination, we kicked off for Srinagar. Jammu-Srinagar distance is 300kms and 8-10hr drive. Journey started with a handful of monkeys along the road till Udhampur. After that, Ghats started and began ascent till highest point on the way Patnitop(2500m). It began to rain thereafter and weather got cooler, a relief from Jammu’s hot weather. Along the way we ate lot of cherries, kubani and strawberries. After that we passed through Jawahar tunnel. Another surprise was waiting here for us. The road was closed in part and we had to take a de-tour through the Kashmiri countryside. This was an experience in itself. We finally reached Srinagar by 5pm. We wanted to stay close to the Dal Lake and bargained a house boat. It had rained a day before and weather was just awesome. After quickly occupying the house boat, we set out for a 3 hr shikara ride. First went to floating garden and had hot yummy pakodas. Sight was just spectacular.

On one side, you can see ice caped gulmarg with shades of sunset, on other side mountains with dark clouds hovering and in between Dal main road market. You can also see the Srinagar palace nested on top of a plateau, at a distance. Wonder what amazing locales our Maharajas lived in. For me it was one of the most beautiful lakes ever seen. Later while in the shikara, we bought pashmina shawls and kesar. 3 hr boat ride felt too short for such a beautiful lake, but finally went off to sleep in our house boat.


Day 3 (30th May)

Got ready by 6 and off the house boat. After lot of bargaining on taxis, we set out of for Kargil. It is 220kms and an 8 hr drive. Roads had just opened a few hours back (just in time for us to go through!) and we drove off on a high note. Around 11 we reached Sonamarg. Throughout the way to Sonamarg, Sindh River coursed beside us. Because of recent rains, we saw fresh glaciers. Small village settlements amidst mountains and mountain sheep along the way added to the delight.




We had our lunch at Sonamarg. Road from Sonamarg to Drass is one way and opens around 12-1. We waited till 2.30 when we finally got a clearance. We would have travelled for just half an hour, when all cars had to halt again at Zojila pass. Military men told, because of rains land slide had occurred. Got stuck there for another 2 hrs and finally resumed around 6. Luckily we carried some chocolates and chips as there was nothing to eat. Sunsets around 8, so we still could see the view around. Soon we passed Amarnath base camp, and Captain Mode. Captain Mode is one of the most dangerous and breathtaking road I had ever seen. With snow on both sides, it is definitely ‘A must watch’. It got pretty cold and darker. We were passing through 10m high snow walls on both sides which reminded us of song ‘Ye ishq hai’ from Jab We Met. We wanted to stop and play in the snow, but it was very late and we had to move on. Finally, reached Kargil at 12:30 in night. It turned out to be a hectic 18 hour journey. An uncle was travelling with us in our shared taxi. Luckily, he had a guesthouse already booked and helped us get a room there. Exhausted we all went to sleep without having any dinner.

Day 4 (31st May)



Beside our guesthouse muddy Suru River flowed. We had negotiated with the same taxi for our Kargil-Leh Trip with same uncle accompanying us. He had travelled a lot in this region and briefed us throughout the way. Trip was again a distance of 230kms and an 8-10hr drive. With some local bread and tea we kicked off our journey. Soon terrain changed from green ice capped mountains to brown and barren Rocky Mountains. Sindh River flowed along with us creating a small lush green patch on both of its side. Wheat and Sarson were the main crops of the region. It seemed like a running oasis besides us, amid a lifeless dessert. All of us couldn’t stop praising the greatest architect ‘The God’ for such a striking contrast of varied colored Rocky Mountains, river with a hint of greenery and snow atop. It seemed God had taken brown, orange, red, green and black colors in a palette and mixed it to produce all shades of mountains. I called it ‘The Barren Beauty’. We passed through Namkila (because of salt like white deposits) and Swarana (truly golden in color) mountains and ‘Foatula Top’ (13479 FT) the highest point in Srinagar Leh road. Towards the end, we entered an enormous plateaus region and roads became just fantastic. By 5 we reached Leh. We felt a sense of victory (but for me journey was still unfinished, as I was till eying on Pangong Lake). We got a very nice homely guest house named Siala in old fort road. Guest house owners were really very hospitable and gave us every bit of information about the city.

Even being in remote location, Leh seemed to be highly commercialized place with almost everything available in market. In evening we had a nice dinner in hotel Lamayuru and explored the city.


Day 5 (1st June)





Next day, we went for local sightseeing to Leh palace. Trying a shortcut, we went through local streets and finally managed to reach the entrance. It was 8 in the morning and palace usually opens around 10. We managed to find the person in charge and asked him to open the doors. He escorted us to the main temple room. It was beautiful and we sat there for a while. Rest of the palace was mostly dilapidated. We went till the top and had an awesome view of the Leh city. We could hear soothing Tibetan music being played in city market Gompa and a cricket match played in distant small stadium. Even at 10am we could see the moon visible. Surrounded by Rocky Mountains with a tinge of snow on them, sun and moon overhead, view of the whole Leh city was a pleasure. While returning, saw some cute furry dogs and donkeys. I must say, Leh dogs are the most adorable and at the same time laziest. Few of them woke up from one side and lay down on other side of road under the sun.

Next, we hired 2 bikes Thunderbird and Avenger and did booking for Pangong Lake next day. With tanks filled, we roared off for the monasteries. First, we went to Shey. Climbing few stairs, we talked a bit about Buddhist rituals from the priest and explored around. We could see lot of beautiful stupas along the way. Next, we went to Thiksey. Presiding over a small hill, this monastery is really picturesque (looks similar to what we see in Hollywood movies or imagine Lhasa). There are lot of temples and paintings inside. We spent a quite a time relaxing there. Then we went to a restaurant nearby and had native Tibetans soups and main course. Suddenly the weather became rainy and we sped to our last destination Hemis monastery. Driving the ascent, through magical terrain was one of a lifetime experience. We went through small villages and saw mountain goats and Yak for the first time. Finally, browsing through the terrain, we got hold of Hemis monastery at a distance. It is really a beautiful tranquil settlement. Inside, we saw group of monks dancing to the hymns. There is a large museum inside, containing priceless possessions from Buddhist culture. I was flattered to see a book containing sacred text written fully in gold. Even the constitution and amendments were written in gold on silk cloth. Some of the artifacts were from 3 AD and is definitely a must watch. Finally, we returned to Leh city and explored more of Tibetan food for dinner.






Day 6 (2nd June)

Finally, my dream was going to be true. Yes I was going to Pangong Lake.

It is 150kms and roughly a 5 hr drive. On the way, we stopped at ‘Chang LA’, the world’s third highest pass at a height of 17,586 FT. Our hopes of running and playing in snow were finally fulfilled, which we missed out in Srinagar-Kargil road. With 30kms away, Sanchit got first glimpses of the Lake - A patch of blue like snake. Finally when we reached, I could only say ‘Wow’. Different shades of peacock blue color and seagulls’ swimming around were something to die for. 40% of the 160km lake is in India and rest in China. We went up till last point ‘Spangmik’ which is the highest latitude in India where civilians are allowed. This is also where concluding part of ‘3 Idiots’ was shot. I called it ‘Phunsuk Wangdu’ point. Finally yay, my mission became complete. I put my fingers in the lake, only to realization that my fingers went numb. We could not stay there for long as we had to return back same day. Lake is supposed to change color as the day passes. I could see the change in color from dark blue to lighter shade by the time we started off. Had a lunch by lake side, and returned to Leh by 7. While returning we saw a rare animal of this region, ‘The Himalayan Marmot Phiya’. They were damn cute and looked like bear cubs. We went to sleep early, as some of us felt symptoms of AMS and exhausted.



Day 7 - 8(3rd – 4th June)

In the morning, we had Ladakhi breakfast at our guesthouse. We had planned to leave from Leh on 4th to Manali. But luck was little bad and roads to Manali had not opened. Also taxis to Srinagar started at 4pm instead of morning. So, we decided to leave the same day. 3-4 hrs to leave, we explored Tibetan and main market and did some handicraft and souvenir shopping.

Journey to Srinagar is a 16hr cannon ball run. Left around 6, we first went to Magnetic hill. Got down and evaluated the optical illusion behind it. Later, we reached Drass at 2 in the morning. Drass-Sonamarg one way opens around 4 in the morning. Suddenly around 6am, we were in zojila pass near Amarnath base camp when a tragic thing happened – fuel over. Amid cloud and rain, we were freezing inside, when driver left us in agony for fuel in a passing taxi. After one and half hours, he finally came back with 10 liters of petrol. At 11, finally we reached Srinagar. Weather was rainy and delightful. In the evening, we went to Lal Chowk and bought variety of dry fruits.


Day 9 (5th June)

We started off for Jammu from Lal Chowk around 9am. Tired we slept most of our way reaching Jammu around 7. We went straight to railway station and had some food. Boarded our train to Delhi around 9pm.


Day 10 (6th June)

Explored South Delhi and Noida after a long time.


Day 11 (7th June)

Flew back to Bangalore, with fantabulous memories of Leh trip.


In a nutshell, this trip gives you a lifetime experience. You get a combined experience of Venice (Srinagar), Switzerland (Srinagar-Kargil),Grand Canyon (Kargil-Leh) and much more. This one is a mandatory road trip. If you are flying in and out of Leh, you just haven’t seen it all! Truly worth going!



More pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/Chandra.Pratyush/TripToLeh

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Bike trip to Wayanad

Planning phase:


When software professionals get 3 consecutive long weekends, what do they do? Some workaholics go to office even on weekends, some go to their native places and the rest surrender themselves to the God of sleep. But there are a few restless species of this breed who hate to spend their weekends passively. Two species of this breed, Prat and Kaps decide to spend one of these 3 long weekends doing something adventurous since the other 2 weekends are already packed with some other plans. This long weekend falls on 26, 27, 28th Sept 2009, 28th Sept being Dussehra. So, starts the most hectic part - planning phase. Prat and Kaps being the initiators, have to take the responsibility of this stupendous task. Since almost all from Kaps’ friend circle have already planned to go their respective native places, Prat is left with the task of gathering a group of people from his friend circle. But his friends decide to go for Coorg (which we had already visited), while we decided for Wayanad (which they had visited).


Now what would the leftovers, Prat and Kaps do? Spend the whole weekend like normal software professionals? No way !!!! In the evening of 25th, Prat proposes his older idea of bike trip to Wayanad. Kaps is a bit hesitant about this idea, his bike being bought quite recently and is supposed to follow the speed limit. But he has to accept this idea, the only other option being spending the whole weekend like normal software professionals which his mind wouldn’t approve of. Kaps is also hesitant since there’s no plan in place, but Prat manages to convince Kaps that not much planning is required. Prat and Kaps go through a few blogs about Wayanad tour and it is decided that they should leave early morning on 26th, reach Wayanad in the evening, spend the next day in Wayanad and start the return journey in the morning of 26th to avoid riding in the evenings. It is decided that packing of the bags, taking printouts of the blogs will be done on the same day before going to sleep so that they can leave very early in the morning. Both of them are dead tired after a hectic office day and both hit the beds without packing and printouts, promising each other to get up at 5am the next day. Quite expected!


General info about Wayanad:


Wayanad is not a town or a city. It is the name of a large district with more than half a dozen towns. In all probability you would be heading to one of its three major towns, Sulthan Bathery, Kalpetta or Mananthavadi. There are three routes to reach Wayanad from Bangalore. In any case, one has to reach Mysore and from then onwards, the routes differ.


Route A : Bangalore - Mysore - Hunsur- Nagarhole - Kutta - Mananthavadi (Wayanad)


Route B: Bangalore - Mysore - HD Kote - Bavali - Mananthavadi (Wayanad)


Route C: Bangalore - Mysore - Gundulpet - Munthanga - Sulthan Battery (Wayanad)


From Kaps and Prat’s experience, one should never take route A and B, the road conditions being pathetic for almost half of the whole journey. Route C is the best deal. If one wants to bypass Mysore city (to avoid traffic), there is a bypass road that appears on your right after Srirangapatna town. This is the road you need to take to reach KRS (Brindavan Gardens) and Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary located near Mysore. Take the road towards Gundulpet, in other words National Highway 212. One can also get to NH 212 from the city centre (palace area).

Day 1:

In the morning of 25th, after a lot of alarm snoozing, Prat and Kaps wake up at 6 am. They hurriedly pack the bags, take the printouts and withdraw some cash from ATMs. They finally manage to leave the place by 7:15 am. Kaps is on his new Pulsar 180 and Prat is on his Apache RTR 160. Both of them set their respective trip meters to synchronize with each other (thanks to the digital speedometers both the bikes have). The engines start roaring and the not-so-planned journey begins. They start from Forum towards City Market to reach Mysore road. They take a wrong route near Corporation Circle and then after a couple of gyrations around corporation circle, they finally manage to touch the Mysore road. They decide to ride the bikes within the visible distance from each other, but the traffic on the Mysore road (it being the Dussehra season, and Mysore being famous for Dussehra celebrations) sets them in and they keep losing the track of each other and have to constantly make phone calls to each other about their whereabouts. They decide to visit near WonderLa and there they decide to ride independently and meet each other every 25 kms (this is where the trip functionality in digital speedometers come handy). They spot a deadly combo on the Mysore Highways: A Petrol pump and a McD.

They refill the empty petrol tanks and equally empty stomachs. Getting energized with that refreshment, they cruise towards Mysore (top speed attained 118kms). On the outskirts of Mysore, after asking a couple of local folks (which confuses them even more), they take the road inside the city. The drama of losing the correct route and asking the local folks continues and finally the duo manages to get on the correct way towards Nanjangud i.e. NH212. Mysore city to Nanjangud is about 23 km (little rough road) and Nanjangud to Gundlupet (amazing road) is about 35 km. The road is in a decent shape. It takes around 5 hours for the Bangalore - Mysore - Gundulpet stretch, including a couple of breaks in between. It’s well past the usual lunch time and the duo is dead hungry. At Gundulpet, they decide to take lunch at Hotel Pathan’s International. The restaurant is a decent one at reasonable rates. As they exit the town, the highway makes a right turn. The road at this junction goes toward Ooty. But to head towards Wayanad, one has to take the right turn. The duo had to ask the local folks since there was no direction-board at this junction. By this route, the duo will be entering Wayanad through Suthan Bathery. Gundulpet to Sultan Bathery distance is about 50km, mostly through the forest. Just before entering the forest, they spot a small Tourist Centre on the left side of the road. There they meet a really helpful person, Tipu, who hands them over a detailed map of Wayanad, suggests them a rough plan according to their schedule and also gives them contact numbers of various hotels in Wayanad. In about 15 minutes after leaving this place, the duo is about to experience what Kaps called an awesome ride of his lifetime. Imagine a dense teak forest with a curvaceous road laid out in the most improbable locations offering breathtaking sights and bird calls. The Bamboo shoots are rubbing each other and whining. It takes anything up to an hour till one crosses the forest. One should watch out for wildlife crossing the road. Inside the forest there are some rules

- No parking, no Picnic, No horn etc.



A small river and a short bridge across it mark the Karnataka-Kerala border in the middle of the forest. There’s also a battery of check posts as they cross the forest. They also spot lots of typical Kerala style tea shops along the way. The whole ride through the forest on a well-laid road is unforgettable.

Somewhere at the end of the forest, they see an entrance to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. But they decide to head to Sulthan Bathery right away. As soon as they reach Sulthan Bathery (around 3:30pm), they make calls to various hotels that Tipu had suggested and guess what! All the hotels are fully occupied. This is the last thing one expects when one rides all the way from Bangalore to Wayanad in a single day. After a lot of searching here and there, they finally manage to get a room at Hotel Mint Flower. They check into the room, freshen up and grab a bite as they take some time to savor the fact that they rode continuously from Bangalore to Wayanad. They discuss with the receptionist about the places to visit. There they come to know that most of the tourist spots in Wayanad get closed by 5 pm and open only at 9 am. Since it’s already 4 pm, they are advised to visit Edakkal caves which is the nearest place from their place of stay. They have to rush since they need to get to the place before it closes.

After half-an-hour of hilly road riding and awesome scenery (gave a name sky grass point), they reach a place where onwards personal vehicles aren’t allowed. One has to rent an official Jeep of do a trek. It’s already 4:30pm and the Jeeps have stopped going up since it’s nearly the closing time at the caves. After a series of unsuccessful requests, the duo has to go back to the hotel and retire for the day. Not at all a good way to end a dead tiring day!

Day 1 journey: Bangalore-Mysore-Gundulpet-Sultan Bathery (Wayanad)+some more inside Wayanad (Edakkal caves)~300kms for the day

Day 2:


The plan for the rest of the days is as follows: Visit Meenmutty falls (highest waterfall in Wayanad), then Edakkal caves, come back to hotel around 3 pm, freshen up, check out of the hotel, grab a bite, head towards Pulpally, get some hotel there and spend the night, visit Kuruva Island early next morning and head back to Bangalore as early as possible by route A.

The event # 1 for the day is Meenmutty falls. Leave the hotel at 8 am after shower and breakfast. Head off for the Meenmutty falls. Tea gardens galore! Coffee plantations (Nescafe and Nes Tea) aplenty! Rolling hills covered with tea and coffee, interspersed with rubber trunks.


Entered Tamil Nadu after crossing a toll gate! Ghat road with small cottages and log cabins in isolation shows up and leads them into another, and now forgotten fantasy. Wrong Road !!! Had to go back a few kilometres and take the right diversion to a muddy dirt track. Reach a spot where bikes cannot go any further. A trail of unexpected events follows. One has to hire a Jeep to cross this 1.5 km of hell of a road. One can’t even imagine taking a bike on this road. Mud, potholes (much bigger than those on Bangalore roads), incline, boulders. Reach a place whereon one has to pay Rs. 300 for a guide for a group of upto 10 people to get through a 2 km of terrain trek. The duo is certainly disappointed since nobody had furnished them this info before. Keeping all the disappointment aside, they decide to go for the trek with the brand new clothes and shoes. The trails start and after a while the cursing about the terrain also starts. A muddy, slippery, rocky descent amidst dense forest. Thank God, they have a guide to lead them. A few slips here and there and they can hear the sound of Meenmutty water falls in the distance. As they get closer and closer to the falls, the terrain gets dirtier. After immense toil, human will triumphs and they emerge to a most intoxicating sight called the Meenmutty falls. Whoila! A rainbow at the bottom of the falls. That’s heck of a view (just like you watch on discovery channel). Water streams falling all over you (we were literally drenched), Kabani River falling in full force with a deafening sound, water gushing down the hilly rocks and you are at the bottom of the falls. All the efforts throughout the trip, totally worth it.

After spending a few golden moments at this heavenly abode, to go back is a worse torture than ever imagined. Breaks are taken every now and then. It takes more than double the time to go back than the onward trek. Amidst all this torture, they get a view of Chembra peak on their way. They had heard that Chembra peak is the highest peak in Wayanad and trekking to the Chembra peak is one of the risky tourist endeavours. Kaps decides to surpass this endeavour some day. Finally the destination is visible. Water is consumed in large quantities. Take jeep back on the hell of a road again. Spent almost 3 hrs on Meenmutty falls. Next, we take the bikes and cruise towards the next destination - Edakkal caves. The same spot that gave them a miss, the other day. Reach the bottom of the caves whereon one has to hire a Jeep to reach the top. Even on reaching top there was too much rush. The gates were closed to avoid any unfortunate event due to an unexpectedly large crowd. The crowd was thicker than the one in Forum on weekends. Prat almost gives up and pleads Kaps to give this place a miss. But Kaps wouldn’t budge and finally manages to get the tickets amidst the filthy crowd a la Mumbai locals. The rock walls of caves contain some interesting carvings, which represent human and animal figures and objects of human use and symbols. The very next day’s TOI has this news.

After having seen the caves and their awe and terror inspiring geography, the duo heads back for the hotel. They manage to check out of the hotel within the stipulated time. The next destination for the day is Pulpally (20 kms from Sultan Bathery). No sooner had they covered 2-3 km from Sulthan bathery towards Pulpally than it started raining quite heavily. This 20 kms stretch was again a thick forest area, resided by Elephants. We are stuck in dilemma as to go back to Sultan Bathery or continue onward journey to Pulpally, as it was raining hard and getting dark.
They take shelter in a dilapidated hut for some time and when rain appears to have lessened, they start their cautious ride to Pulapally. It also turns out to be an awesome ride among the lovely woods, sweet bird chirps, nicely laid curvaceous roads and a tree house!

It has almost fallen dark when they reach Pulpally. They start searching for the hotels right away. It turns out to be a very small town wherein people hardly know foreign languages. As an evidence of how Indian travel industry is growing, there is apparently no hotel room available even in this small town. After a lot of hunting and a small debate, the duo decide to take a shelter in a yatri nivas, the conditions wherein are far from all the comforts. When they go for dinner at a hotel, people look at this foreign duo quite curiously. It took them all the skills of dumb charades to explain to the waiter to get some rice-sambar. Prat is a bit uncomfortable and not at all happy with the luxurious yatri niwas and the curious looks that people bore. Never mind, hit the bed and go to sleep.

Day 3:

Get up early in the morning at 7 am and cruise towards Kuruva Island. Take a right turn from the highway and a muddy, filthy horrible 3 km road welcomes them. Praying all the time to God not to get the bike tyres punctured, reach the destination at 8:30 am only to come to know that the place will open at 9:30 am. After crossing the river on a bamboo raft, we reach the island, 950 acres of ever green forest on the tributaries of east flowing river Kabani. Far away from the disturbances of city life lies this heavenly place amidst a dense forest, rare species of birds and herbs. Prats uttered “From rush to lush” in ecstasy.

Did some nature photography and sat by Kabini river. Spend approx an hour at this heavenly place and started the return journey (planned via route A). Once again we pass the 3 km patchy road. What a nightmare! Kept asking local folks about the directions to Mysore. Have a breakfast at a bakery and ride on. Oops, that’s route B. Go back a few km, take the route to Kutta. The road condition is pathetic. Reach Kutta after a lot of cursing and ask for the route to Nagarhole. Holy shit! Two wheelers are not allowed to enter this route (gave us a heart attack). Can you imagine the feeling of riding back on that holy crap called a road? The feeling literally shudders the duo. Then comes the rescuer. A good-hearted human being tells them an alternate route to reach Mysore. The route is of course longer than the planned one, but the duo is ready to take any route except the one just travelled. Ride on a not-so-good road and finally reach a highway. Conclusion: Never take route A and B. Guess what! The duo is in some part of Coorg (110 kms still to mysore). Thank God, the road condition is good. Cruise towards Mysore on this lovely road among woods. The duo has almost forgotten about the hunger, thirst. The only aim is to reach Bangalore before dusk. After riding on horrific roads, these highways seem like a piece of cake. Cruise at 110 kmph. Took a stop at Mysore, grabbed a couple of chocolates and some water, took a bypass around Mysore city. Seeing the crowd going towards Vrindavan gardens, it being the Dussehra day. Cruised on the Mysore-Bangalore highway. Started imaginary races with other bikers. Took a few breaks here and there and finally reached Bangalore around 8pm. The body is sore after such a hectic day. Took shower, grabbed some food and surrender to the God of sleep.

Day 3 journey: Kuruva Island – Kutta - Mysore – Bangalore including lost ways ~ 320km.


Total journey : 746 Kms



The Duo that rocked Wayanad!


Twenty years hence if I wonder if I lived my life to the max, this trip will be on the list for sure.

Prats