Day 3 - The Maoist Zone

22-12-2014

594 KM

At around 5 AM, we started hearing loud bell rings. We were surprised to hear, as our alarm never sounded that loud. Ahh!! we slept in a church dormitory last night. As usual, we snoozed the bell :). I mean, we just waited for the bell rings to complete and slept for little more, while to wake up at around 6 AM. We did also realize, that we had covered up ourselves with the bed sheets, which were meant for beds. The dormitory, which was quite warm at night had become cold by morning, for which I had told Satish last night to use sleeping bags and he was quite confident with his technical understanding on Fluid Mechanics Heat Shrink concepts. We quickly picked up the camera and phone, which we had put for charging. Packed the only bag, which was removed out of the carrier and started getting down towards the bike for continuing our journey. 

We did see our friend Jijo, who had helped us for the stay in Church last night. Also we wanted to have a snap with our beloved father George. During the conversation with father George, we realized that he had been to Australia few months back and he was very unhappy with the culture here back in India. He was worried about using casteism for political benefits, which is very much true and we agreed to the same.  We all gathered together to get multiple snaps. There was few funny moments out of confusion with Jijo, where we asked father's name and he replied his biological father's name. When I started asking father's contact number to make a note in to our diary, suddenly he realized and he shouted "No No it's Father George". Satish and myself looked at each other and some how killed our laugh inside our empty stomach. But it was a good comic topic for the entire day.

With Father at St. Sebastian Church

With Jijo at St. Sebastian Church

With Father at St. Sebastian Church

With Jijo at St. Sebastian Church

With Jijo at St. Sebastian Church

Just after see off, we got our bike down to the road and headed towards the near by store to check, if we can have a nice breakfast. To our surprise, the shop was still not opened and with a disappointment, we headed towards Mananthavadi for our onward journey. From Mananthavadi, we took left diversion towards Sultan Bathery. 

We are now having our breakfast at a small hotel, on the way to Sultan Battery. This is the first experience of Kerala breakfast for us in this trip. Kappa (made out of crushed tapioca after seasoning with some Indian spices and herbs), Appam with Fish curry and Kadla curry are making a very good combination to experience. While Satish is enjoying his breakfast with the fish curry, I am planning to take an interview of a person about the alcohol ban issue in Kerala. Though we had a good start with a tummy full satisfied breakfast, the motor cycle real mud guard tyre rubbing issue is knocking our attention since yesterday. Satish and myself finally decided to spend some time at a workshop at Sultan Bathery to fix this issue, even if we have to compromise with our today's journey. With this in plan, I am putting my pen down and starting towards Sultan Bathery.

Breakfast Point

Yesterday it was a church for the night halt and today guess what, we are inside our tent at a temple premises. Right after the breakfast point on the way to Sultan Bathery, I just noticed the famous "Dr M V Prasad Clinic", where Ayurveda treatment is quite successful to cure diabetics permanently. I stopped by to get some information about the diabetic treatment for my mom.

By the time, i returned back from the clinic, Satish had already caught hold of a Bulletier Monoj, who gave us the reference of "St. Xavier Motors", which is an authorized service center for Royal Enfield. After reaching there, we had to remove luggage from motorcycle, as it was tough to locate the issue with the carrier. Along with the mechanic, we quickly removed the carrier to locate the issue. After a detailed check, we realized, how could Royal Enfield made such a stupid mistake and never bothered to rectify the issue in any of the sold Royal Enfield Classic motorcycles older 2014 models. The issue was that a nut holding the mudguard was touching the tyre, when there was load on the back seat. Of course, our Shakila was little heavier than normal and this issue was little annoying during the turns with the rubbing noise. We had already realized that Royal Enfield was just for the name it had earned during earlier years, but the quality of the bike are really pathetic now. This incident made us both not to go or suggest for any Royal Enfield motorcycles to our friends. One good thing is that the tyre rubbing issue is now resolved in latest model of Classic by replacing the nut with the flat allen key screw.

After fixing the problem at R E Workshop, Sultan Bathery

After a warm see off from "St Xavier motors", with a smile on our face for fixing one of the major problem, we started rushing towards Gudalur. The heavy breakfast in the morning made me so sleepy, I did switch the steering to Satish and decided to go for a quick nap at the pillion seat. We reached Gudalur soon to find another bulletier, fully equipped with tent, in the signal trying to figure out the way to Thrisshur. After some local enquiry, we got the route to Palakkad. We were stopped on the way by the same buttleir to have a quick refreshment. During that quick break, we understood Rajeev is a cinematographer and is heading towards Thrishur to attend his friend's wedding. We had a good discussion about our travel plan and we continued with our own pace of journey, where as Rajeev disappeared throttling high.

Eating Toddy Palm at Gudalur

Eating Toddy Palm at Gudalur

The journey from Gudalur to Nilambur was amazing with curvy wide forest roads, though there was some small bad patches. It was becoming too late for lunch and we just stopped at Nilambur to settle down our stomach. At the lunch table, we heard about the last night moist attack and realized we had stepped in to the wrong zone. The local police officials and some people suggested us to leave the place and reach Palakkad as soon as possible, before the day breaks. So there was a disappointment, which carried us along until we found a place to stay tonight. Our friend Angitha arranged for a stay in her friends estate at Neliampatti, which was further 20 KM away from Palakkad. But we were low in stamina and energy after riding quite a long with heavy traffic coming from the front with high beams. We decided to stop for the day, as we realized Palakkad is further 70 KM away and it would be too risky to ride in the dark knowing maoist infested area. It was then, we sighted a temple at Allanalur and never hesitated to try our luck. Wow, we were lucky enough and the priest "Anian Namboodri" gave us a go ahead to put tent near the temple. It was in next 20 minutes, we finished building up the tent and moved all luggage inside. We never even bothered to know the details about the temple as the only thing, we are looking for now is to sleep. There are couple of people in front of the temple who are discussing now about our tent and also about the maoist attack, which had happened the day earlier or last night. But they are so helpful in instructing us, what to do when some one approach us in the night. Right after setting up the tent, we finished our dinner at a near by hotel. It was very difficult for me to finish today's write up, as I have no stamina left with me. Satish already slept, while I was giving a finishing touch to the write up. Now it's time for me to switch of the tent light. Good Night.