Trekking in Muthyala Maduvu

Muthyalamaduvu may be tongue twister for many but going to this place from Bangalore is very easy and all you need is one half of your one day. Muthyala Maduvu or you can say ‘Pearl valley’ is only forty two kilometers from Marathalli. This Saturday, I thought of exploring some new places around Bangalore and after reading a blog I decided for this bike trip. At nine thirty morning, I started from home with my cousin. Driving bike in morning is always fascinating and now after having so many newly constructed flyovers on outer ring road and the ten km long Electronic city toll flyover, driving was a great experience. It took us one and half hour only to reach there with a break in between. After the end of the toll, we reached up to Chandapur where we took right and drove ten more kilometers to reach a small town Anekal. From Anekal we drove our bike amid number of sheep herd on a village side road for around five kms and reached the Maurya Nisagra restaurant which is just above the valley and facing the great landscape.

The first impression of this valley was incredible as I was not expecting much. We parked our bike there and moved down with our camera. At start there are hundreds of stairs to reach the first falls. The falls here is like small stream of water only. After having few shots and pictures on rocks we moved inside forest for a trekking. After climbing up, we realized that there is another falls too and for that we had to trek again for one kilometer. There were few people around like us exploring the forest. After a small trekking and so called rock climbing, we reached to another falls. This falls is again a small stream. Here we tried to see why it is called pearl valley. What I felt is; due to small stream when it falls on the rock, it splash and give a feeling of pearl to the viewer. But it is more like when you start feeling you will get a feel. What I was sure is it was a fantastic and great view. This great view of valley was captured again from this point. We had some time for breathing before starting back. So after spending two good hours in valley we reached back to restaurant. We were totally tired and sweat and so had cold drink the first thing. This restaurant is simple but well maintained. Before starting for Bangalore at two, we had good snacks there. Overall this trip was more than my expectation and this place is good enough to explore.

Roaming in Kolkata

I have been in Kolkata before for a number of times in last ten years and one thing I always pragmatic about is that this city is not at all moving. The old buildings, the wooden bus, chaos on roads, Old Trams and filthy Metro; always come in my mind. This Monday I was in this city again with my wife and had whole day as leisure as our flight was in night only. We decided to visit few places and roamed around for the day. In morning we started for Bellur Math which is at bank of holy Hugli. The Math is the legacy of swami Vivekanand and a very quiet place to spend few hours. From there we hired a taxi to go to the Victoria Palace. Taxi took the bypass road which is very long in comparison of going through chaos roads of Howrah and Kolkata city. In whole route, I tried to compare the development happening in this capital city of West Bengal with rest of the country and can easily say that it is lagging significantly. Considering the population and size of the city, I hardly saw any new infrastructure coming up.

When we reached Victoria, it was full day. The museum and inner premises of Palace were closed. Not sure if it was due to Monday or some maintenance work going on. Though Palace was not in its best state but premises and garden are well maintained. We spent an hour there and started for our hotel which was in Dharamtalla street. A number of lanes and sub lanes are numbered in a very complicated means and so it took some time for us to find our hotel. We had a good lunch then and rest before starting for the airport. The yellow taxi making lot of jingle and shaking reached the airport in time. This whole day was joyful for us. Few years back, I read a book “City of Joy” about Kolkata written by Dominique Lapierre. Hope Kolkata will be the joy city one day.

Rain wash out of Gokarna Trip

It was raining from two in morning. We woke up early, checked out the hotel and reached the Kundapura railway station before seven. Train was at eight and half and of course we had to wait. The morning was beautiful and cool. There was no hurry and sitting on this small railway station had something very unusual from our daily hectic life in Bangalore. Train was late for one hour. At ten, the train arrived and there was huge rush as it was the only train to Madgaon on Friday. We had to go to Gokarna for a day out and rain was still in its flow. Phones of different resorts in Gokarna were not working so I thought of going to Namaste Café resort directly. In between we crossed through Murudeshwar and I could see the Lord Shiva statue and gigantic Gopuram which was miles far from station. The route to Gokarna was very scenic. It went through a number of long tunnels. After one, we reached to Gokarna Road station and rain was at its peak. I hired a taxi and reached the Café at OM beach in next half an hour. Rain was pouring down like it will never come again. We were complete wet even under an umbrella. The restaurant of this café was just at the beach and it was the best place to chill out. As we were wet, we went to reception and got a cottage. The room was very basic, facilities were minimal but as it was cheap so that make it worthy in addition to its location on the beach itself. Now it was not possible to go back to restaurant and even up to eight in night we were confined in our cottage. At this time rain got slowed down for a moment. We went the restaurant which was full of foreigners having beer around and gossiping. It was dark and I could not have a photo of beach. We went back to room and felt sick of this non ending rain. So we decided to go back to Bangalore without visiting any place if rain will not stop in morning.

Rain was still in its best even in the morning, so we packed our bag and went to bus stand. Gokarna doesn’t have good bus or train connectivity so first we took bus for Kumta and from there we had bus for Shimoga. What I realized about Gokarna is that it’s a very lazy town and perfect for a hang around place. Though we could not visit any beaches but it has splendid beaches and one will love sitting idle and walking along it. In route to Shimoga, bus stopped at a place for lunch. A signboard nearby was telling me that Jog falls is only two kilometers far, which was in my original plan but I could have regret only. I just thought of making trip to Jogs some another time. The rain got stopped after thirty six hours and sun was out now before reaching Shimoga. Again we waited for six hours at station as we reached very early and train was in night only. This trip was a complete rain wash out. The only good thing happened in this trip was that we attended a marriage and visited Kodi beach in Kundapura previous day. We also had very good time in Murudeshwara last day. This was the second time I visited this place and it has everything to make you revisit here. Hope I can also make to Gokarna again.

Visit to Hogenakkal

After reading a number of blogs on Hogenakkal, it was always in my must to visit list. So on second Saturday of this month I visited Hogenakkal falls with my wife and relatives. I booked a Tavera from Geo Travels in Marathalli and service from them was very good. Our cab was arrived at time and we started from our house at seven in morning. After two and half hour of drive, we took our break and had tea on a roadside stall preparing tea in a boiler stove. Just before Dharmapuri we took right and after that the road is picturesque. At ten and half we reached Hogenekkal and then the real fight begun for hiring a boat.

Bargaining with the boatman was tough as they started asking for a four hundred fifty and some how agreed for two and fifty per person. Hogenekkal is having a number of falls and you have to go for a long distance in the local made boat called coracle. The flow of Kaveri river is huge here and surrounding hills and forest makes this place a beauty. The boatman will take you upto waterfalls where you will get wet in drizzle coming from falls. At most of the places, water from falls hit the rocks below and comes out as smoke. In between all of this, we had lunch which we took from home.

After this, we went up to main falls and had some awesome photoshots there. The main falls is one of the beauty and scary in itself. After that we started for going back. The only thing which was not good about Hogennakal is its designated bathing area is worst and so its better you have bath in the river somewhere else. So we also went in river near main falls only and enjoyed a lot in water. There is also a hanging bridge and with some minimal charge we had a different view of falls from there. The full day for us was for boating, falls and feel of river running. At three we started back for Bangalore after having a very good and memorable trip.

Team outing to Guhantara

It was again the team outing time of the year and we were looking hard to decide a good place to go around. Under all constraints and possibility, DNC suggested the Guhantara Cave Resort in outskirt of Bangalore which I was skeptical about but got agreed upon.

Last Sunday, we with our family visited Guhantara Cave resort. First thing I observed is that this is not a cave at all but you can try to feel that you are in a cave in deed. Also it is very crowded during lunch and dinner. This is like a big basement hall with cave architecture and a scenic falls, a good place to have some good pictures. As this has some indoor and outdoor game facilities available, so it makes a good fascinating destination for people. We enjoyed beach volleyball, cricket and swimming; and ladies tried their hands in archery. We tried tug-off war and French cricket too. Few of us also enjoyed the rain dance. We had a whole good day and we wrapped it up with a good Tabla performance by Aditya.

A hot day in Delhi

Fifteenth July was one of the hottest day of the season and we were in the capital after a visit of Shimla. This was a sudden change of at least fifteen degree temperature and for a Bangalorean it’s too enough to say no to go anywhere. I was in Delhi before, stayed here for a year but never visited any place so thought of visiting few this time. Seema was in Delhi for the first time but it was hard to convince her to go out.

We visited three places and Akshardham temple was the first one. Just situated near the Commonwealth Khel Gaon, this newly built temple is a jewel of Delhi and must to go for any one coming to Delhi. Security there is very strict and even a photography is not allowed.

It has very big campus, catching ambience and marvelous temple. We might have spent some more time but due to hot we left soon from there.

The next place was Humayun”s tomb. This is again very good and shows the Delhi’s Mughal history. The architecture of this palace is same of Tajmahal. This place is well maintained and visited by local as well as foreign tourists in large number. From there we went to Maharauli to see Qutub Minar. We read about this in our text books in our childhood and now had a chance to see it.

The next and final stop for us was a shopping mall GIP in Noida. Here we felt very good as it was air conditioned. In whole day, this is the only place where we felt cool. We had shopping and left for my brother’s house by splendid metro train.

Honeymoon Inn Shimla

Don’t be disappointed when I say that this post is more about Shimla than my honeymoon. Shimla is too beautiful to deserve a post in each blog. We visited Shimla in second week of July and it was a very sudden plan. My friend booked a hotel “Honeymoon Inn” for me and this is one of the best hotels in Shimla to stay. This is having all the luxuries and comfort, very quite and far from rush and noise. This is situated right in The Mall and is at some height. You need to walk to reach there but once you are there, you can get a panoramic view of Shimla as well as the hills around. Well furnished, courteous staff and delicious food makes your money worthfull. Shimla is cold, even in July. We spent the first day just for rest.

Only in evening we went to roam on famous Mall Road. We started our second day with a morning walk on the Mall road again. This is having all good shops, governmental buildings and full of tourists roaming around.

On second day, we visited Viceregal Lodge and Kufri. Viceregal lodge was built by English for Viceroy and is a splendid example of British architecture. This is well surrounded by gardens and lawns. Guide informed us about the historical significance of the building. From there we started for Kufri. We went through Green Valley which is having great natural scenery, a good spot for photography. We had a shot in local attire here.

We reached Kufri in one hour, left the cab and have horse ride to reach at peak as there was no road for vehicles ahead. This was the first time I ever had a horse riding so I was little bit uneasy but after few minutes it was alright. We got disappointed after reaching at the peak point. There was a temple and a fun park there, nothing of any interest. Nearby Indira park and zoo are also not of any worth. We felt the Kufri trip as waste of the time only. From kufri we headed towards Jakhoo temple. This temple is situated at one of the highest peak and drive to this is very steep and breathtaking. After a visit to temple, we got back to our hotel.

We started for Tattapani on third day.

In between, we stopped at Naldehra and had horse ride again to go up to the peak. Once again it was waste of time and money as it doesn’t have anything different. Yeah you will get a view of one of the oldest golf course of India. We reached Tattapani after two hour of drive. This drive is again breathtaking and with great natural scenery. Tattapani is 60km far from Shimla and situated on the bank of Satluj. This is one of the best places to visit around Shimla. This place is hot in comparison of Shimla but the water is very very cold. River is having huge flow and you can hear its sound very clearly. This is excellent place to have some good shots. From there we started for Shimla railway station to catch the toy train “Shivalic Delux”.

The station is one of the old and marvelous structures. The narrow gauge railway line among Himalayan peaks with small bogey of train creates some excitement. The journey to Kalka is damn good. We heard and read about this train experiences a number of times and it is worth of that praise. This line is having very sharp turns, goes with a huge number of tunnels and old style of stations. This is one of the best examples of excellent engineering and a trip of Shimla without this train experience can not be planned. So if you are planning for Shimla, stay in a good hotel, travel in train and enjoy the great Himalayan landscape around.

Three years with GE

I still remember the day; Alok Nanda rendered me the offer letter. Getting a job offer from GE was like a dream come true which I never dreamt of before that night. On 4th June 2007, I joined GE with a great sense of delight, fulfillment and expectations. Today I completed three years to be part of it. Now when I look back into these three years, it was a wonderful journey in deed. It was full of challenges, lot of learning and good exposure of global experience. John F Welch Technology Centre of GE in Bangalore is one of the beautiful campuses of this country and this centre has a great pool of human resource. You can get a number of experts of any field or work domain.

I met a number of people who are so good in technical as well as in other skills. I am fortunate that I learnt few things from these people and still doing it. Apart from good work buzzing around, you will always see people in football ground or on Snooker table or in gym or in a book review or just sitting near lake. So it will not be exaggeration if I will say that it’s a great place to learn and a great palace to work.

In last three years I had a lot of learning for my professional growth as well as for my personal traits. I would like to share three of those. Starting the career is very decisive occasion for one. This is one of the transition phase where one should start shifting the gear of thought process to “Love what you do” from “Do what you love”. My General Manager had a better example to convince. Marry a girl whom you love but love the girl whom you got married. One should not get carried away with “change the job” syndrome but try to build a career. We should help us adapt ourselves to any given situation and so increase our comfort zone.

One of the other learning is to – “Go with the solutions than the problem”. Whenever we get a problem or got an issue, use all our resource, do whatever we can but go to your manager or technical leader with few possible solutions rather than problem itself.

This will bring a confidence in leadership for one’s ability and build a better rapport with the team.

Third one is the one which I value a lot and that is – “One extra degree effort”. There should be completeness in our work. No matter how much one is hassled for early finish or on time delivery or productivity or any other management tool or process itself; quality of work is supreme. This is the first and most important aspect of work and without which it will never get acknowledged.

It was very easy for me to inscribe these things here but still I am trying hard to execute these standards in my work. No matter how easy or difficult it is but it is a must and will bring a paradigm swing in the way we work.

Steam at 212

Few years back someone shared the philosophy of ‘Steam at 212’ with me. It is still very close to my heart. The 211° Belief is originally shared by Mac Anderson in his book “211°: The Extra Degree”.

What happens when you believe something with all your heart? Belief fuels enthusiasm, and enthusiasm explodes into passion. It fires our souls and lifts our spirits. “212°: The Extra Degree”, It’s gotten great reviews from around the world! If you haven’t read the 212° gift book, here’s what it’s about:

At 211° water is hot.
At 212° it boils.
With boiling water, comes steam.
And steam can power a locomotive.
It’s the One Extra Degree that makes all the difference.

This is a very simple but very powerful concept, because when you think about it, it’s that one extra degree of effort in business, and in life, that so many times separates the good from the great. One of the beauties of “The Extra Degree” concept is in its many applications : 212° Service, 212° Attitude, 212° Leadership, 212° Kindness, 212° Commitment, 212° Belief, 212° Focus and 212° Perseverance.

That’s what Mac explained and it’s so true also. As my professional experience is growing, I believe in this Belief much more than when I first read it. 

Today, in this so tough competitive world, we all are doing best and making none ending effort to getting our work recognized, but this one extra degree effort is the real differentiator. I would take two examples from my work in last week. I was preparing a presentation for a team meeting and thought of adding some photos for each slide to make it more interesting for audience. I put some time to select suitable photos and it came out so well. Before sending it to my manager I looked at it ten times as it was so catching. I was satisfied and it get noticed & recognized too. As manager said that it was a great pitch and even he mentioned that colors were very soothing. The other example is related to a question asked to me for a design related issue. The answer was Yes but why. I knew but not hundred percent sure. Assuming that the concerned person needs no explanations, I replied in a Yes only rather than taking pain of confirming the reason. No surprise that it came back to me and I did rest of the job this time. These two simple examples show the effect of one extra degree effort. In real life every one of us sees this daily at numerous occasions. This “One extra degree effort” is one of my biggest learning in last three years of my small career.

I work for Steam Turbine business of GE and here the project of the month award is named as Steam@212. The award name itself recognizes this belief. I got opportunity to go and present there for six times and I won this twice. Now what you would like to say, I put one extra degree effort two times or didn’t put this for rest of four. I leave it to you guys !!!

My Udupi Visit

After a lot of talk in last three years, finally I got the chance to visit Udupi. When Daya informed about his wedding date, we immediately booked the tickets. A week before the journey, I explored the available information about Udupi on internet and I was stunned to know that this is so interesting place to go around. Finally on last Thursday, we started for Udupi. We left the office at six and took the Volvo for Kempegowra bus stop. Before that we had dinner at Adiga's. We had bookings in Airawat bus for Udupi and this is very luxury to start with. I was besides DNC whereas Vignesh, Deepak and Seeni were seating in back rows. Journey to Udupi was very comfortable. I had good sleep in bus. Before I got awake, we crossed Mangalore and were near to Surathkal. It was cool inside bus and I was under blanket. Outside was little cloudy and even after six, sun was nowhere. I saw the dawn just before reaching Udupi.

Day1

Just after coming out of bus, I could feel the humidity in air. We asked for our hotel “Durga International” and reached there in ten minutes by walk. The town is very clean and also calm. In last three years, I found that most of the second tier cities of south India are very clean and so this town too. There is no sense of hurry in people around there and life is slow. OK so we checked in our hotel. Shridhara reached there on last evening only. We had a little sleep and got ready in next two hours. 

We headed towards Krishna temple. It’s very old and identity of this town. You have to put off your shirts and banian before entering the main temple and we did so. The main statue is inside a closed room and you can see that through a window only. You can see an elephant there, who will bless you on giving some money. There is Madhwa sarowar and other temple in the same premises. Outside of main temple, some gold chariots are there, and we had few photographs with those. A nearby shop was selling masks for Yaksagana. After this we looked around for Tiffin. We went to ‘Mitra Samaj’ and had Dosa & Idli. It was not good not bad. From there we started for Katapadi for Daya’s marriage.

It was the first time; I attended a marriage of someone from south India. Traditions are very different here and it’s not very long too. We went to mandap (stage), had photo with the new couple and greeted them with best wishes. Food there was cooked in coconut oil but as I was hungry so I liked it. 

Now it was the time to go for the beach. We took a local bus, reached to Malpe port in half an hour. From there its one to two kilometer walks to reach the place where you will get the ship. Seeni was too lazy to reach there on time and we missed the ship for St Mary’s island. Then we had to wait for one hour to catch the last ship at four thirty. Ride on ship was so good and if you are at the deck it’s awesome. The ups and downs of ship in sea will make your stomach crazy. It was half an hour ride to reach near Island. We got moved to another boat to reach and get down at the island. It was a rocky beach and waves are very strong here. We entered in water though it was slippery. We went to rock inside water and had photo there. But when I saw crabs there, I just ran away from rocks. When we came back to port, it was late and so we decided to go back to hotel.

Day2

This was the best day of our trip. We booked a Tavera from nearby Karnataka tours agency and this cab was so good. Deepak was proud to say that this car is by Chevrolet, so comfortable. We started for Murudeshwara, though it was not in the first plan. Road to Murudeshwara is along the sea and you will cross a number of rivers which make the scenery around the road so beautiful. You can stop anywhere and have few good shots if you are interested in photography. We stopped in Kundapura and had our breakfast there. After Kundapura, we crossed the Maravantee which is sandwiched between Arabian Sea and the Satuparnika River. At about eleven and half, after three hour journey from Udupi, we reached Murudeshwara. The first thing we noticed is the gigantic long Gopura. This is 249ft high and one of the biggest gopura. We paid twenty rupees there and by lift we reached at the top. Top is not very open, so you will not get a feel of height but its excellent position to take some good shots. Our photographer DNC was good enough to take a number of photos from there. You can see a great view of Arbian sea shore from here and of course the highest Shiva statue. The statue is 123ft high and one of the modern marvel.

After visiting the temple, we went to beach. Beach there is so nice and it’s not very deep near shore. We were able to go very far in sea. Thrilling YamahaWater bikes were waiting for us. We had a lot of fun in driving this in deep sea. After spending a long and good time in the beach, we left for lunch.

Now we started for Kollur to visit the Mookambika temple. I got tired and slept in cab. In Mookambika, again you have to put off your shirt to enter into temple. After a pray there, we had tea nearby. We started for Udupi now and reached to Malpe beach at nine. Walking at beach in so late night is very good and feels some freshness in you. It was so peaceful there. We had camel ride also. With all these tiredness, we had a good dinner and slept in our room with a great sense of joy and excitement for next day.

Day3
Starting of this day was not so good as the travel agency sent a Sumo in place of Tavera. Today we started for Singeri fall. It went through ghats and journey at some points are breath-taking. Traveling on hilly section comes with natural scenery and so it is too. We reached Singeri around twelve and there we realized that fall is actually in Sirimane not in Singeri. This fall is so good.

Not very big but flow is huge. We had a lot of fun in water. We went up on hill to have better feeling of falls and we enjoyed a lot. All our tiredness just went off after coming out of it. From there we started for Surathkal. Our driver was not very aware of the routes, so we couldn’t make up a visit to Kaup beach and DNC’s Alma mater. We reached Mangalore at five, had late lunch there and moved to Panambur beach then. It was full of crowd. 

I and Vignesh went for a walk along sea & Deepak and DNC went to opposite directions to have some good photos of beautiful girls around. Seeni got excited to reach here. This is one of the best beach in Mangalore and atmosphere here is like some picnic spot or some fair. It was seven and late for us to catch the train. We reached the Mangalore central just five minutes before train started. We had to start for Bangalore now for our usual life again. I missed few more beautiful beaches but I will visit again with some more leisure.

The paisa wasool show IPL

Its only one day left and I was still waiting for the tickets. I called the customer care and got the reference number for courier. Finally at four in evening, tickets were in my hands. Yeah the tickets I am talking here is of IPL only. 

The IPL match between Bangalore and Delhi which was scheduled on twenty seventh but got preponed for twenty fifth due to BMP election. I had some other meeting clashed with this time too. Mukil agreed to take care of this, so I left the office at one. At two, me and Amit started from our house and reached to Chennaswami at about three.

The road around Chennaswami stadium was completely packed and parking was a tough job. There were some parking zone arranged for match including the Cubbon Park but getting up to there was difficult. So we parked our bike in a nearby lane. From there we walked up to gate number seventeen. The ambience there was very festive. I can remember some mela of my small hometown in my childhood days. Some vendors were selling t-shirts of RCB and DD. Few were doing jobs of painting your cheeks with your favorite team or player names. A long queue was waiting for us. Security was tight but it was not a problem for viewers. We entered the stadia through ground floor gate only so that we can get a close view of field. And for our surprise we managed to get seat near cheerleader’s stand. In the first row of our stand G, mild lathicharge by police was happening because of crazy people, so we took seats in third or fourth row.

It was still sunny and seating there was not easy and particularly on stairs is not good. Crowd was cheering for players who were practicing on net near our fence. Before the match will start, Deepika Padukon had a round on a motor bagghi and we saw her from very nearby. I must say she is a beauty. Then comes the cheerleaders and crowd went noisy. Cheerleaders are really professional and they entertained the crowd with a great energy. Its really a tough task and they must get appreciation for this. Finally a toss happened and match got started. We came to support the RCB but it got lost. But the best thing about IPL is you will always win. This show has everything to make you love it. And why you, everybody is a winner here. It’s a real paisa wasool show.

A Trip to The Big Banyan

After sleeping at two am its very difficult to get up early morning, but still I managed to wake up at five and half. I was excited for a trip on bike, which I planned sometime back. It was not very far from Bangalore but The Big Banyan tree at Ramohalli and Manchinabele Dam somewhat forty five kilometers away. So we met at six thirty near Staples to start a wonderful trip. We were seven; I, Deepak, DNC, Mukil, Vishal, Satish and Vijay, as Praveen just cancelled on last night. It was a beautiful morning though it was cloudy. As Satish's bike got punctured after little distance, he just went back. We decided to stop at Kengeri, have tea and restart. I and Mukil were together but got confused in outer ring road and reached at Kengeri check post little later. Still weather was cold. We had tea and went nearby Ganesha temple on Mysore road. DNC took some photos as nothing can be a better start then a photo session with Ganesha.

Now we started again and all of six on four bikes were following each other. At dental college we took right turn and came on a small but good road. Nursery on both sides was making the scenery more beautiful. You can just put your bike on forty and enjoy watching. At eight thirty we reached The Big Banyan tree. Though it was not so big what we thought but its worth coming here. We parked our bike nearby and entered the premises as it is fenced. We looked for the root of the tree and climbed on one thick branch. We had a couple of shots from DNC's camera. After a round of the big Banyan we came out and decided to go for some Tiffin. There were few dhabas there. We went in one and had Idly. It was delicious but charged very high.

It was time to start for Dam. We asked for road to dam and reached there in fifteen minutes as this was hardly ten kilometers from there. Reservoir is a beauty and is surrounded by hills. We had a round of reservoir. At one place we took some photos too. At nearby few young guys were enjoying in water so we parked our bike there. We changed to shorts and entered into water. We had fun in water and photography is always by default there. After having a good time in reservoir we started back for Bangalore. In between when we reached the big banyan tree, we saw a number of people who reached there to visit the big banyan.The roads were really good and driving your Hunk is full of fun. It was a good trip except I got caught by traffic policeman for entering into wrong lane and paid a hundred rupees.