Why the name Urban Riders?

Back in 2012. during the monsoon was when, our riding journey had just started. It stared out with two guys who had a die hard passion to explore new places and the love for bikes. Back in the start we used to go on small trips in and around the city of Mumbai. Initially it was just Cletus's impulse in our group, I did not have a bike so, I used to borrow bikes from some friends for going on trips. Later in the mid of the year my cousin lent me his pulsar 150. The bike was old and gray but it was my own and I felt really good about it, I did not have to borrow from anyone anymore. But as the bike was very old it could not keep up with our trips. The year passed with another passing semester in college and with just one long trip in our completed list. Then in February I asked my sister to buy me a bike on my birthday. Well she is the best Sister in the whole wide world, so on 10th Feb 2013 I got my very own bike, the love of my life, my Fazer. It was the best birthday gift I could ever wish for! Post this our trips just started getting bigger and better. We had a group in whatsapp for discussing and planning our trips. The name of the group was "Trips" (Common! we could come up with a better name!). The name of the group was boring so I renamed our group to Overhaulin Trips. The name came form the show Overhaulin' as I was a big fan of that show that time (I still am a big fan of Chip Foose). So that's how we got our very first name.

Overhaulin Trips consisted of five friends (riders and loyal pillions), Allan (That's me!), Cletus, Cleon, Zeyn and Vishal. There were also a few other friends in college who joined us for some of our trips. Our first trip of 2013 was to Igatpuri (a small town on the way to Nashik, Maharashtra) and after this we went to Durshet, Malshej Ghats, Mahabaleshwar and many other places.

Igatpuri

This day, it was almost a years and a half from the time our riders group came into existence. Many great trips were done to the most desired destinations in Maharashtra. Everything changed one fine day, when our engineering journey came to an end. I guess engineering was like a glue that stuck us together but now we were out of stock. A new phase of our lives had started, not only for us, but also for our riders group. The members of our group were scattered across the globe now. Cletus was going to the US for masters, Cleo and Vishal were in Mumbai and me and Zeyn were in Mysore for training and later moved to Pune for work.

Sinhagadh, Pune

We did not go on any trip for quite some time. Our lives had become a cycle of, Eat Sleep Office Repeat. Then one day Royson (Roy ma Buoy) got a pulsar 150 from his uncle and things fired up with our trip from Mumbai to Pune (It was Roy's first ride with us!). Like me and Zeyn, even Roy had the passion for exploring the world around. We were finally, finally coming out of the "No Trips" phase and our riders group was back in action. The only difference was now our group had new members. Our group consisted of four members Allan (me again), Zeyn, Royson and Aldon (Bishop).

Rajmachi, Lonavala

Lavasa

Lavasa

With the blessings of Aldon (Bishop) we started out with some small trips near Pune (Sinhagadh, Lavasa, Lonavala, etc) and we had already lined up many trips for the future. In mid 2015, I thought that I should start a blog about our travel diaries. I told Roy and Zeyn about this and they were very supportive. Roy suggested "we need a new name for our group", Zeyn added "we should also make a new logo for our group". So we got together one day and started thinking about a name for our group. Even after wasting an entire day we could not fix a name. Fixing on a name was like the toughest work we had to get done with. Wandering here and there in my mind, I stared looking around the room for some inspiration (that is how I had come up with a name for my gaming profile Minion Bogessi [Minion form the movie and Bogessi was my wallet brand]). What came to my view was my Lee Urban Riders jacket, my sister had recently gifted me this jacket. I stared at my jacket for some time, thought about it in my mind and then when I made up my mind I shouted out loud "Urban Riders, the name of our groups should be Urban Riders". Roy and Zeyn asked me, "Why Urban Riders?". I was still looking at my jacket and when they asked I pointed towards it. When they looked back and saw what I was pointing towards, they told me I was crazy, but eventually even they got tired of thinking and agreed to my idea. We laughed a lot on how we had come up with our group name, but that is it, it felt right. And that in how Urban Riders became the name of our riders group.

Goa Trip - Part 3

We wasted almost half of our second day because we did not wake up early, so not to repeat the same mistake this time we all set alarm(s) on our phones before sleeping and we were up early for an awesome third day in Goa. Today we had planned to visit Bom Jesus Church, but we also wanted to check out Chapora fort. One of my friends had suggested that Chapora fort is a must visit, so that's where we went first. From Mapusa it took us around 15 minutes to reach the fort. It was a very hot day, thus we made sure that we parked our bikes under the shade of a tree. We trekked to the top of the fort in no time, the fort was easily accessible. The fort had nothing special (That's what we thought when we entered), it was a barren land with a small architectural structure at the center. 

Chapora Fort, Goa

It is when we started exploring the fort that we found a special place from where we could see the waves hitting the shore and marveled at its beauty.

The View!

We wrapped up by clicking a few pictures and then we were back on the road en-route Bom Jesus Church. When we reached we parked our bikes and entered the premise of the church. There were so many huge trees which helped us to catch our breath and recover from the hot sun. This was the second time I was visiting the church and it was still a magnificent experience coming here. We entered the church and prayed for some time in silence. It always feels good to just sit in church in the silence and think, so that is what I was doing. 

Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa

Casket of Saint Francis Xavier

The Alter

Once we were done praying, we came out in search for some water. So we reached this restaurant opposite to the church to have some water. Granal suggested that we have lunch here, everyone agreed because it was very hot to go somewhere else. Somehow it just did not feel right to me. While we were having water I quickly searched for a place to eat on Zomato (a very handy app to have in such situations) and this is when I found the restaurant where we had the best food in our foodie expedition in Goa, "Edwards Yard" one restaurant I will always remember to visit again when I am back to Goa. The food here is exceptional. We tried out a lot of dishes mainly sea-food and it was yumm! Everything we ordered was delicious. The service was awesome and the best part was that in the end the bill was very reasonable. We ate here for almost four hours and when we were almost done it started raining. So we waited here for some more time talking to the folks who run this amazing restaurant, they were really happy to serve us and we thanked them much for the incredible food. The restaurant has a bunch of amusing posters on the wall that are an eye catcher.   

Mashed Crab, Edward;s Yard.

Later we went back to Baga to return the bikes. At this moment it felt like we should have had some more days in Goa (That's always the feeling when we are on a trip!). We came back to Mapusa by bus. We explored the market and then shopped for some bebinca, cashews, sausages and wine to bring back home. We boarded the bus in the night and the next day we were all back to our regular lives in Pune. This trip was the one we longed for and it exceeded our expectations. Until next time...  

Goa Trip - Part 2

The second day in Goa started with something we all are best at "Laziness". Well we almost wasted the entire morning sleeping and by the time we got ready to leave it was already afternoon. We had some jira masala bun and samosa's for breakfast (both of which were lovely and very light on the pocket) from a small shop in Mapusa market. Our day was going to be awesome now that we had bikes! We filled petrol in Mapusa itself as we were unsure of getting any gas stations on the way (And yes there were no gas stations on the way!). 

Avengers assemble!

Today's destination was fixed on Arambol beach in the morning followed by Baga beach in the evening. We started our ride towards Arambol beach and in about an hour we reached our destination, how I wished our ride lasted much longer. The roads were narrow, sometimes with trees on either sides or some hill's on one or both sides or besides the sea and sometimes through some houses, the roads here in Goa were just incredible for passionate riders like us. 

On the way to Arambol beach.

As we closed in on the beach we had to pass through a narrow path to get to the beach. The path had different kinds of shops on both sides with many fascinating items to attract the tourists. As we got closer we saw many bikes parked at the sides, even we parked our bikes here. Arambol beach was marvelous, with its clear water and white sand. There were so many things that were happening around us, people were swimming, surfing, playing beach ball, enjoying the sun and we just kept watching. 

Arambol Beach, Goa

I being a photo enthusiast started clicking pics of the sea, the water hitting the rocks and of the shell crabs on the seashore, after which we also clicked some pics of us on this wonderful beach. 

Dog on the beach.

We walked further to explore the beach and in our expedition we found a shack. The shack was at the far end of the beach from where we had entered. 

The view from the shack.

On one side of the shack was the sea and on the other side was a hill from which some were parasailing. We were also interested in sailing but due to lack of wind we were unable to. 

We had lunch at the shack watching over the beauty of the sea. I don't remember the name of this shack but I certainly remember the splendid food we had here. The ham spaghetti and golden fried squid were the best (It is a must try if you visit this shack). 

Ham Spaghetti.

The crew here were very friendly and at our service a 100%, I guess because we were the only group dining here at that time. In our view from the shack there were also two foreign tourists enjoying the bright sun on the beach. Roy and Zeyn wanted to take a pic with them, so they got up to ask them. It’s funny because when they asked the tourists, they denied them saying "Our Embassy has told us specifically, not to click pics with anyone". Haha! So with their heart broken, Roy and Zeyn came back. It felt really pleasant dining here and it felt great that our foodie expedition in Goa was getting better and better. 

When we left from here it was already five in the evening. We headed back home to get refreshed and dress up for an evening in Baga beach. When we were back home, Zeyn was feeling a bit low, he seemed to have fever so we went to get him checked to a nearby doctor. The doctor prescribed some medicines and suggested him to take the day off and rest at home. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant (Spice Goa) and then as the doctor had suggested, Zeyn was resting at home and we went to Baga beach (we are such awesome friends!). We were at Baga for an hour and then we got back home to rest for another fresh day in Goa!

The Urban Riders!

Stay tuned to hear the tale of our last day in Goa, the day we ate at the best restaurant :)

...to be continued

Goa Trip - Part1

One day before the trip “Me: The time has come to shift gears, step up the accelerate, for adrenaline fueled entertainment...!” I was really excited for an amazing bike trip to one of the best destinations in India, Goa. But this time the trip did not start with the sound of our key’s clicking and the grunt of our bikes, instead it began with boarding a bus at midnight. It was 7 in the evening when Zeyn and I were travelling to Pune from Mumbai when the decision of a bike trip all of a sudden changed. Granny and Roy had second doubts about going by bike as it was going to be a long ride. I was really disappointed at their decision of going by bus. Wait! I am forgetting one friend here in all this discussion, Aldon [Bishop] who chose to be a neutral party in this argument. After a long discussion the bus tickets were booked and this my dear readers is how the trip to Goa began for the Urban Riders. 

Day 1:

All the disappointments aside, we boarded the bus [Paulo Travels] at 12:30 AM from Wakad. After a good night sleep we reached Mapusa bus station a little after noon. We stayed at Aldon’s house here which was just 10 minutes’ from Mapusa market. Mapusa was a beautiful town to stay in and the market here is known to be one of the best in Goa.

We reached home and without wasting any time we freshened up, changed into the something comfortable and got out to get the feel of Goa. We walked back to the market and asked around if we would get bikes for rent here. We found many shops here but there were no bikes available as all the bikes were already rented out. We asked in one of the shops "Bikes kidar milega abhi?", they replied back saying that we will only get bikes at Baga beach now. To reach Baga we had to take a bus and as there was no direct bus to Baga at that time we decided to go via Panjim. It is not at all hard to find a bus to Panjim. As soon as we reached the bus station we could hear the conductors shouting, "Chalo! Chalo! Panji direct, Panji direct". It took us around 20 minutes to reach Panjim and by this time it was way past afternoon and all of us were starving for some food. Back in Pune when we were planning for the trip to Goa we had decided that we would try out the best delicacies in the best restaurants in Goa. 

So we got down from the bus and started searching for a restaurant on Zomato (The best app in the planet to search the best restaurants with user reviews and ratings). It took us some time to search a restaurant but finally we did find one and believe me it was marvelous. So our first dine was at Viva Panjim. I personally fell in love with the ambiance from the moment I set my sight on the walls, so many awards, paintings and antiques, wow! 

Viva Panjim, A hundred and fifty year old ancestral home converted into a restaurant.

The wall full of awards.

Not only had the objects on the wall, but also the chairs and tables felt antique and appealing. The food was amazing and the best part was it was very light on the pocket. I am sure to visit again on my next trip to Goa. 

Cheers!

After having some mouthwatering lunch, we walked back to the bus station and took a bus to Calangute/Baga. As soon as we reached we started asking around for bikes, but even here all the bikes were rented out. We asked if we could get bikes somewhere else but they said that we would get bikes tomorrow and not today. We decide to go to Calangute Beach and on the way to the beach we did some shopping and had some refreshments, then we rested on the beach for sometime. The beach was crowded with so many tourists. We just sat there looking around and admiring the beauty of the sky's changing color with every passing minute. 

Admiring the beauty of the sky at Calangute.

The Urban Riders

It was dark now, so we thought that we should head back home. We walked to the place where we could get a bus and found out that after 8 we wont get a bus from here, so we thought that we should stay back and witness the night life at Baga beach, just another spontaneous plan! We walked a lot on this day, we kept walking and walking and we owe it all to Roy and Granal, then while walking towards Baga beach I saw a house in which two bikes were parked and in small it was printed “Bikes for Rent”. Yeah! We got bikes. We rented the bikes for all the days we were going to be in Goa. We had dinner at O’Pescador where we enjoyed some karaoke music along with delicious food and wine and then after dinner we headed back home.

...To be continued

We finally made it to Bhandardara!!

Bhandardara is a village located in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra about 185 km from Mumbai. 

It had been almost 3 years since the first time we planned to visit Bhandardara. But every time due to some or the other reason we always missed out on this trip. Even during our previous Trip to Nashik we were much close to Bhandardara but we still did not make it because we were to lazy to get out of our Ac room and ride in the hot sun. After multiple attempts to visit and witness the beauty of Bhandardara, today we are finally here!

Splendid view of Bhandardara

This road trip was a little bit different from our previous trips. All our trips till date always started from Mumbai, but this time we stared  off from different destinations just to be united into one as “Urban Riders”. 

The Urban Riders

We all geared up for our ride. Our gears consisted of long pants, jackets, shoes, riding gloves and the "must gear" Helmet. For us these gear was a must for a safe ride in all our trips.

[Tip: Always wear long pants preferable something rugged like jeans, shoes and Helmets because your safety is Paramount]. 

There were four riders from Mumbai and one from Pune and we had decided to unite at Murbad which was the best connection according to google maps.

From Pune: [Just me and my Bike!!]:

My ride started-off about the same time my buddies started from Mumbai. The route for me was Pune-Lonavala-Khopoli-Karjat-Murbad. According to google maps my lonely-ride was going to be 136 km long and the time to reach the destination was about 2.5 hours. My ride through the National highway 4 has always been fast, but today I was stuck between huge trucks finding a gap to slip through this never ending fleet of trucks. I was wondering what had happened all this time I was fighting through this chaos and when I reached the end of this chaotic traffic what I saw was really disturbing. There was a horrible car accident that had taken place. The Sight of this accident gave me the chills and it took me a while to digest the scene of the accident. After taking a break I continued my ride towards our meeting point @Murbad. The route till Khopoli was easy as I was accustomed to these roads from my regular journeys from Mumbai-Pune. After that was a road new for me to uncover. The roads after Karjat were truly amazing,. The road was in the middle of a dense forest area with small towns at regular intervals along the way. To be honest it was too creepy riding alone through the forest but there was no turning back, we had to make it to Bhandardara this time!! The moment I arrived in Murbad I saw Cletus riding towards me with the others following him, now that’s called perfect timing!!  And after this it was no longer a lone ride for me #finally.

From Mumbai [Cletus, Cleon, Zeyn, Param and Selwyn]:

From Mumbai the trip started at 6 30 Am. The fastest route to reach Murbad for my fellow riders was to ride through Thane and Kalyan. As always the ride from Mumbai is always the same, hectic and time consuming riding through the bumper to bumper city traffic. When everyone were at Murbad all were surprised at our arrival as we had arrived at the same time even though we started from different locations.

Chai-Vadapav Tapri

We all halted at Murbad to have breakfast. Our eyes were just searched for what a Mumbaikars loves the most “hot vadapav and garam chai”. After eating some delicious vadapav’s we loaded maps on our phones and set out towards Bhandardara. The roads from Murbad to Bhandardara were a bit bad and had many potholes. Riding on such roads usually gives the feeling of an off-road ride.  We halted at many places just to stare a glance at the beauty of nature and sometimes or I should say most of the times we just halted to click pictures to capture the moment.

Clicking pictures is always fun and it also helps to remember the new memories we make together. At one point on the way we just waited to click some pics of all of us one by one banking our bikes on on curve.That was fun!

It took us much time to reach Bhandardara dam with all the amusement we had on the way. Once we reached the main city area, we stopped to have some lunch at a decent restaurant.

After the stomach filling lunch we asked the localites the way to Bhandardara dam and with that we were on our way in the direction pointed by them towards the dam. The Dam was huge and was very beautiful with abundant green trees and shrubs in its vicinity. We visited Bhandardara almost at the end of the season, thus there was not much water in the dam. Even the umbrella falls here was all dried up.

Bhandardara Dam

The view in-front of the dam

Next we took the guidance of some locals who guided us to a waterfall not far from where we had halted. It was really good to see the waterfall. The best time to visit Bhandardara is during the monsoon is what we had heard but still we were here almost after the monsoons. But that’s fine, the main intention was to be at Bhandardara together and that was certainly achieved, thus no regrets. Hehe!

Finally we all made it to Bhandardara after all. It was a really jolly trip. We are sure to visit again, but this time we will plan on visiting during the peak monsoon season so that we see the same water fall with five times the strength. We all left together from Bhandardara and the way back all of us were on our paths to Mumbai. The way back we always select the easy path, thus we got back through the Mumbai-Nashik highway. We do not end our trips “most of the time” without a nice meal. Thus following our tradition we all sat don’t at Mira-Dahisar Mc Donald’s and had an awesome meal.

I guess I have never mentioned this, the reason we dine after the trips is just so that we can decide when? and where? the Urban Riders will go next. Thus with all the fun and the new memories we all said our goodbyes and were back home!

Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I’ll miss you, until we meet again!!

One last ride…..is it?

We were finally here!! Counting the final days of our four year long journey struggling to become an engineer. In the midst of this comfort there was also a grumbling feeling in the heart thinking about the future and of the fact that our paths were going to be different after this. In this dilemma of mixed feelings all we needed was a final trip before we, the "Urban Riders" set on different paths. This was going to be the final ride for us as Urban Riders, at least that’s what we thought! Hence we decided to spice things up and make this trip special. This trip involved just me and my three biker buddies Cleon, Cletus and Zeyn on our two favorite bikes, the Hero Impulse and the Yamaha Fazer.

After a brief whatsapp session and some phone calls back and forth we decided to trip to Nashik and Bandhardara. Now Bandhardara was a destination we were planning to visit from almost a year now and the irony is we missed it this time as well!

"The time has come to shift gears, step up the accelerate, for adrenaline fueled entertainment, its full throttle ahead for the fast and the furious, here we go!"

I used to love stating this before the start of all our trips alarming my friends that it was time for us to leave for our destination. Our trip began at 6:00 AM sharp as we had decided. Cleo and I left from home towards Andheri station and found Cletus and Zeyn waiting for us there. The joy on our faces exclaimed how excited we were for this trip, we left at once sporting an expression on our faces which said "Let's do this!"

From Andheri we left towards Thane and then connected to the Mumbai-Nashik Expressway. There is always some traffic in the island city of Mumbai!! No matter how early we leave, we always get stuck in the city traffic. It took us quite some time to reach the Expressway. Before connecting to the Expressway we took a pit stop to have some breakfast at one of the roadside dhabas. It is always fun to have food at such dhabas. The Expressway is a part of the National Highway 3 segment, hence once we connected to the Expressway the roads were smooth right up to Nashik.

                                                                                          Infant Jesus church

    

We reached Nashik at around 1 PM. On reaching we visited the Infant Jesus shrine and prayed for some time. Our initial plan was to check-in to the rooms at the Infant Jesus church, but stay was not available for us as only family accommodations were allowed here. Like we weren’t family already!
Thus we went out for the search of pocket friendly rooms for the night. In the next 15 minutes we found a guest house and after some negotiation we checked in to the rooms. The rooms were really spacious and comfortable for us all to stay. We had opted for a non-AC room at first, but then due to the excessive humidity we upgraded to an Ac room. We rested in the confines of our rooms for some time and the set out for exploring the Nashik city and headed towards Sula Vineyards.

                                                                             Sula Vineyard

From our guest house it took us around 45 minutes to reach the vineyards due to poor roads in the vicinity of the Vineyard. On entering the vineyard you will see a beautiful architecture which is surrounded by abundant grape farms. On reaching the building area we we were guided by the guards towards the bike parking. Near the main entrance there were many showpieces that were kept for the visitors to glimpse upon. 

Once we entered the building all we saw were wine bottles stacked everywhere! The main building has two sections, one reserved for wine tasting and the other on the first floor for the visitor to relax and register for a tour of the vineyard. It was a splendid view from the first floor which opened towards the grape fields. We clicked lots of images here waiting for our turn to tour the vineyard. We waited for around 30 minutes as each batch for the tour lasted for around 45 minutes. 

The tour inside the vineyard was marvelous. It started with the guide explaining us about the grapes seasons, the soil, water and climate requirements for farming grapes. The tour continued to the inside of one building where there were many machines for different purposes. First the grapes pulp was extracted and the peel was separated in a extractor. The machinery were in sets of two, one for producing white wine and one for red. After this the extracted pulp was transferred to a very huge steel container where the crushed grapes were to be left in the container to undergo fermentation by adding yeast to the extracted juice. Thus the grapes were fermented in this container into the beverage we call “Wine”. 

The tour continued further to the place where the fermented grape juice was stored. The cellar was maintained at a constant temperature which hosted a large amount of wine in large wooden barrels. At regular intervals water sprinklers would go on in this room to keep the barrels cool all the time. 

The tour of the vineyard concluded with us entering the wine tasting room. Here we tasted four normal Sula wines and two premium ones with a combination of red, white and sparkling. The person who served the wine was demonstrating on how each wine had to be consumed for the best tasting experience. Visiting the vineyard, taking a tour on how wine is made and the delightful wine tasting was yet another overwhelming experience for us.

After the heartwarming visit to the vineyard we decided to head back to our rooms as it was becoming dark. We had some dinner in the vicinity of the hotel and then headed back for a well-deserved sleep (Haha). In the morning our plan was to check out and go to Bandhardara, but as we all were too lazy to travel in the hot sun we decided to rest in the cozy air conditioned room. I think after being adventurous in our previous trips, this was unlike us. But we didn’t care at all. We were just some engineering students who wanted some rest! We left from Nashik at around 3pm and reached home taking the same route we had taken to get to Nashik.

All in all this trip was a really awesome experience for all of us. We all enjoyed a lot. Although we missed Bandhardara, there were absolutely no regrets.

As I said earlier we all thought that this was our last ride as Urban Riders…but it was not! We still have to make it to Bandhardara together!

Until next time...Cheers!