Xploring Maharashtra through Vader Travels and Razor Lens

This was written for Xbhp.com hence ID has been used to address people.


Rider: Razorblade(Goopi) & Darthvader(Anup Abraham)
Rides: RTR & HH Ambition

Here goes the story!!!

After the Kashid episode there were many plans for a G2G in the month of March and the dates came (15th March) and went by…it got postponed to 22nd March but then as the days came closer so did the Xbhpians came with better excuses….Sorry folks!!! I can understand that work and family etc comes first and then comes the rides….

Well!!! I know many of my friends are going to kill me now…

By far one of the best ride. There was everything right from the beautiful roads to dangerous NH3 to the State highways some off roading, zooming past villages to talking to people and understanding the village life and their culture. So many things! So here we go…..

It all started when meisrossi and motionfreak said that they cannot make it for a ride to mahabaleshwar due to priorities. I wanted to do something and something that atleast I can be proud of, but riding alone is something that only Darthlucifer can do, I would die of boredom. 4 days of holiday and I spend 2 days sitting at home. As Good Friday ended I get a call from Razorblade and he tells me that he wants to ride. It was at 6 pm, I was taken in for a surprise and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to ride. I told him to start backpacking there were so many things to get done with. My Bike was not serviced either. Place also was not yet decided. I told razorblade “Ellora” he also oked it in a go. No idea how to go where to go, then I did what anybody else would do “Outsource Work”. Shaiju was with the internet and getting razor print outs of the road map. I was pestering Lucifer with some calls and enquiring on the best roads and places to stay etc.

Now that we were all set “ Bikes Serviced, tank full, Bags Packed, Carried Electoral, Red bulls etc etc….called razor and told him to be ready by 4 am and start riding to Thane and be here at 4:30 am we will ride to Nasik first and have our breakfast. This was somehow transmitted to Lucifer and he called me and told me about the harrowing NH3 roads. We postponed it to 5:30 am departure from Thane cover most of the beautiful roads till Sahapur which is 60 kms from thane till sunrise and then we can have the bright sunlight to show us the bad roads.

Day 1:
Well Razor was on time the next day I was so eager that I got up at 4 am and was watching television, did some exercise, bathe and got ready listing to some Talvin Singh….oh yeah peaceful sound in the morning…as it was my turn to be on the road I waited under the flyover for razor to show up..boy o boy was he there on time…I was so happy that at least this Xbhpian shows up on time…we discussed on the riding pattern and who is to lead and what speed to keep and how many distance to cover…once this was decided we started……

In the beginning, it was razor who took the lead. Better headlamps. cruising at a speed of 70 – 75 kmph…getting the rubber heated up, engines to have a feel of constant moving of piston inside her moving..; )

We crossed Sahapur in no time and far away we saw the sunshine, wasn’t it looking beautiful from up there on the mountains. We took some photos and smoked our second cigarette here.




There was a pulsar with florescent green alloys that was speeding and trying to catch up with us and also temp us a couple of times to drag with him but we had our cool and let him go by… on and off we were overtaking him then he used to come back at us….once the sun started to shine we rode fast and fast as in 90 – 100 kmph and this time the pulsar never seemed good to catch up with us…we left him way behind..

The next stop was abruptly taken after 20 min of riding just because the hills. NH3 lots of work are going on. The government is drilling on the hills probably for wider roads or may be mining…but somehow the hills are disappearing.



We did not stop as we wanted to reach Nasik by 8 am and our target Ellora was to by 1:30 pm max.

Almost 90 more kms to go to reach Nasik and almost 6:45 am we felt that its time to ride steady and safe and cover the distance at our target time.. And yes we were at Nasik at 8 am. It was nice to visit Nashik..It had signboard written everywhere “Welcome to the land of Pilgrimage”. We rode to one small restaurant that was open at that time “Hotel Welcome” had Dosa, Poha and Misal Pav. I had a cup of tea while razor went in to catch some snaps. Here are a few…



We left Nasik and we were on the lanes and small roads that would lead us to Aurangabad. Those roads were bad..actually I guess work is going on in the entire state of Maharashtra..there was no potholes its just that the roads are yet to be tarred.. it was a boring and a slow ride, however no complains it was just the beginning of the ride and we were all pumped up… It was such that our machines where undergoing some shocks…and we were worried as the RTR is still only 5 month old baby and I have a 5 yr old grandmother that can pass away anytime…we wanted to keep these safe.

Well after the grueling ride and crossing Niphad, Yeota, Vaijapur, took a bypass towards Devgaon and reached Ellora... We had bypassed Aurangabad in this run only because we were running in late due to the bad roads. We stopped suddenly since razor was whining about the bee which stung him. There was this one guy who appeared in another rtr, and claimed his top speed was 140kmph. We tried explaining him that `meter karab hua`. We don’t know how he took the words and he was insisting very hard to drag. We reached at Ellora by 2:30 pm...that was one hour late thanks to the on going road repair work... “Somewhere I had in my mind Lucifer saying that these caves shut by 5:30 pm” We quickly checked in at hotel kailas Rs 400 for a day..that was a cool deal…



Freshened up and quick grub and there we were at Ellora caves at 3:30 pm.



There was this auto walla who promised us to show us all the caves of ellora for jus 100 bucks. We thought that it will be a good idea since bikes were not allowed inside.



He took us to the first cave, told us to roam around the cave for 30mins and look all the beautiful sculptures. Since he specified the time “30 Mins” I had a suspicion, and there it came true when he disappeared. He went to load other customers. Darn! We were waiting for about 10mins for him. We waited for him about 10mins in all the caves!


^^took this photo while waiting!!

Huge monuments and structures….those people were really crafty at their work…looking at the size of each and every structure amazed me 15 15 feet statues and that too it was crafted to perfection. Here are some pics…..




^^dog fish found in a pond inside the cave.

the caves are representation of three era and three religion…so there was this section that was build by Hindu King….had lots of Lord Shiva Statues and other Hindu Gods….
then there was King Ashoka who build some caves with Buddha Statue in them…
Jain King got some Mahavir Statue in some other caves…



The Monolithic excellence,



There must have been some definite competition that each king got in and got his men do these amazing work..whatever it is…it’s the best place to be at….plus a feeling of fear when u are alone inside the cave and bats making the squeaky sounds..damn…..all and all it was fun….Hope these photos do justice….



We gave our auto walla / tourist guide 80 bucks and he accepted since he himself knew tat he had made us wait for a looooong time :P

When we finished the last cave and during the return walk to the hotel, found an interesting number plate,



and an interesting board which says “NON HOKERS ZONE”



We returned to the hotel then. We heard someone playing guitar and razor went to check that out. One of them was preparing an espresso outside his room.



He said “HI” and we enquired to find that they are a few Swedish bikers returning from Goa, who are on an Indian road trip. They had 5 English born thumpers.



It was 6:15pm and all we could think of is how to get booze…it was a dry day “Holi” and the hotel didn’t serve…we took our bikes in search of locals and people who knew where its available….guess corruption is here to stay…we found it and took some that should be enough to quench our thirst after a day long ride….we had our dinner and went of to sleep…..

Ok now do u think that I can do that……here’s actual story we got 2 McD for me and 2 Cannon 10k for bro Razor…got into this small Dhaba and ordered Some nice Spicy chicken Starters. It was so damn neat that we had 3 plates of those..


^^ our dhaba chef!

While relishing this I didn’t realize that I am almost done with mine…and I wasn’t even getting high….we went back again and this time around I got a bottle of the Monk….boy Monk….(previously he said no monk available here hence settled for McD)…anyway this time we decided that we should head back to hotel before its too late anyway it was around about 9:30 – 10:00…rode back real real slow and reached Hotel which was very near…then came out the monk and the beer…chicken that was taken as parcel and also we had got some Pickle parcel too…..It started to drizzle at round about 1 am and we were at the corridor sitting on the chair and looking at the sky talking nonsense and drops of water falling on my face, that was a pleasant experience….it started pouring heavily and I was getting drunk all the more…I told razor that I am off to sleep and he could enjoy the rain and the beer…he actually did that…I realized this when after getting so high I was unable to sleep and my stomach churning wanted me to throw the waste material out….i ran to the corridor and puked my intestines out…..it was a great relief for me….i was happy to see razor fooling around at 2:00 in the night at the corridor…he had 3 chairs lined up and was resting on them as he wanted to enjoy the drizzle…



At last slept by 2 am…



Day 2:
It was too late for us to get up in the morning plus hangover…10 am and I was still on the bed.. I knew that we had to head back and we require only half a day to do that 360kms is not much….so I was in a relaxed mood….Sunday…we apparently decided lets go to Ajanta atleast and check it out..now that we were just 100kms away we could finish off Ajanta in 5 hrs and then head back..my body was ok mind was saying no…hangover u see….called up Lucifer again and asked him if we should do that…he said no..as it was getting late and he also said that “ if u”ll had a day in hand Lonar was a worthy trip but anyway” and the line got disconnected…we were thinking for a while…Lucifer u ass hole u tempted us to Lonar….then we made a couple of calls to our Boss….It was actually true…we left Ellora late also because of heavy rainfall in the night and I didn’t want to ride on watery road surface….We left for Lonar thinking that 190kms will hardly take any time…later did we realize that the roads were Pathetic…seriously…no roads at all..i was standing most of the time just to avoid the stress on my spines….it took us almost 7 hrs to reach this place…it was our fault..we had time in our hands and also we knew the road…its just that we wanted to visit the villages and the village roads…
just to check em…so we took the inroads…..



This was a heaven in disguise when we found this road after a heavy off-roading. So we decided to celebrate it with a smoke and clicked few snaps.



After this again the hell no-road drive. It was almost 3:00pm and we were hunting for a place to eat. We enquired the people for a decent dhaba.



Atlast found a dhaba where we had darn SPICY|MIRCHI Chicken n Mutton curry and roti. We were sweating due to the spicy of the curry! We said thanks for making us cry to the chef and had a group photo



It was almost sunset and we touched the MTDC resort…here is the most amazing sunset that u may have seen..



The cottage was a beautiful abode….the resort was also very beautiful…



We missed going to the crater as it was already dark… It was 7 pm and we had nothing to do.. We asked the keeper if there is anyother place to visit, he tld us about a temple 1km away….we decided that we will walk as we were tired of sitting on the Bike and backs were aching…so we hiked to the temple..did some prayer and retured…in time for the moon rise…here are some pics…its breath taking…



We chatted around a bit with the locals and time for dinner…

At the dinner, the keeper tells us that there was a group of 40 bikers that had come on this weekend from Mumbai, Pune, Hydrabad etc…wonder who they are…the guy says there was lots of Ganja and the women were smoking in style..i loved the way he said this….lol

Anyway the dinner was ok…not that gr8 but enough for us….we went of to sleep and snored the night away..


^^found this cute little dog at the resort

Morning it was time to do a 500km run back home…thinking about it in itself was tiring..it was the 3rd day and I was feeling so lazy that I didn’t get up till 7:15 am…Razor was all ready….I got ready in 15 mins..



visited the crater and look what we found…..Peacock….



And then we rode back….rest would be narrated by Razor…

** Thanks Darthlucifer for the idea and for reading lonely planet for all of us. Thanks for all the suggestions and guide.
** Motionfreak & Meisrossi no hard feelings man..Peace!!! next ride I hope u all are in.


As said by Razorblade:

Day 3

The crater panaroma pic




After visiting the crater, since the breakfast was not available in the resort, we went for a chai to yet again “Welcome Resturant“




We settled the bills and came to know that we just had few hundreds and there were no ATM’s nearby. On the way back we stumbled on this AXIS ATM.



Thanked GOD for saving us from famine.. Darth went and bought a Maharastra Map which will be helpful for us to head home. I was telling him, letz take the Pune route since the roads will be good.. He said it will add up another 100+ kms and it will be really late to reach home. We came to a conclusion that we will take the same Nashik route. We headed towards Aurangabad.

Lonar->Sultanpur->Bibi->Sindkhed Raja->Jalna->Badnapur->Aurangabad

We reached Aurangabad by 2:00pm. Fuelled our tanks full and headed towards Nashik. It was just the ride and nothing else.. few breaks after 80-100kms..
Out-of-energy we stopped to grab a sugarcane juice..



a looong way to go,


We rode, rode and rode.. reached Nashik at around 5:30pm and we didn’t want to stop since we thought of crossing the ghats before the sunset..
But the ghats never came.. It was 6:30pm then. We stopped for a sutta and a redbull. We saw this Bike from a far distance..



all we could see is “Triumph” and I said to darth “Oh yeah TRIUMPH.. he must be a funny guy”..

Then cant believe my eyes after a close look at its engine, it is a real “Triumph”..



Surprised and Shocked. Took the camera and clicked few pics..



It is a 1952 English built thumper. 350cc and its too powerful so that he uses it to pull cars and vans.. He owns a “Maruti Garage”, just before the ghat starts. It has a mono suspension too..

We asked him `if offered a price to buy the bike, how much would you expect?` he said “I do not wish to sell this.. its my antique collection, but if offered 3lacs I will.” And he speaks good English. J

Then we crossed the ghats very slowly as the sun was down and alternative sides of the road were closed for work. It was a single lane road all through the ghats. We maintained 60-70 until we reached out. It was around 7:45pm that time. The board read, 46kms to Thane.. we rode hard and reached Thane at around 8:40. We stopped at the place where darth bid me good bye. We had a smoke and checked the odo, which clocked 1074kms. YipeeeEE one thousand kms J we rode around 540 kms that day..

So when I reached home, the total on trip meter was 1096 kms..

day1 - 360kms [mumbai->ellora]
day2 - 196kms [ellora->lonar]
day3 - 540kms [lonar->mumbai]

Darn good experience we had.. We rode safe all the time and at few instances we rode real fast, sometimes real hard.. Not even a minor accident, no tyre punctures or any problem with the rides.. overall it was a clean, neat and a memorable ride..