Off late I have not been posting as much on the blog, I have pending blog post for sister’s visit, bike trip and burning man. But for now I want to make sure I blog about my recent bike trip to Vancouver.

With advent of summer and good weather there is nothing like ride a pretty country side. I have been trying to ride to Vancouver for past few years, but one thing or other led to not getting across the border. Well I guess third time is the charm!

Day 1: We started mid-day (2:30pm) on Friday (July 8th) from Redmond and got to Mt. Vernon covering about 65 miles. For this day I used the directions from recently release Google bike maps and validated them with the Cascades.org’s RSVP ride!

Day 2: We started bright and early on Sat, around 7am and took a straight shot at border after a yummy breakfast in Bellingham and some shopping for forgotten garments.. I must say every time I stop by in Bellingham I feel this place has a calling for me, very relaxing and no frills town! As always the Canadian border folks quizzed me on why I want to go to Canada and yea, do you remember the time when you where sent back from the border since you didn’t have a valid visa – look. Anyways, the ride in to Canada was not as scenic but definitely involved a lot of route finding! We tried to cut up straight and go past Hwy.1 so that we can get on Hwy 7A which is more bike friendly. I loved the water view ride on Barnett (Hwy 7A). Covering about 95 miles we arrived just in time to get a good dinner in Vancouver downtown!! And Congratulations to the real Canadian (Heidi) for making it to her home country on a bike!

Fig 2. Great food & the scenic ride!

Unlike other bike rides this one had a relaxing day in Vancouver where we went over the downtown, and indulged in arts, crafts, and foods like all Canadians too at the Granville island! May be one of these days I should start a Ten thousand villages franchise in Seattle.

Fig 3. Granville Island!

On the way back we took a scenic Amtrak ride back to Seattle, and in addition to views saw an interesting design weirdness on the restroom locks, you get extra points if you point out the defect in the comments..

Fig 4. Views on train ride from Vancouver to Seattle

Fig 5. The restroom lock puzzle

Please note I have posted a detailed bike route, feel free to compare notes. Next time I think w’ll take the direct Frazer Hwy in to Vancouver.

I’ll keep today’s post really short but want to let you guys know it was epic! We did almost 130km starting to go on highway NH47 but later decided to take the coast. The traffic on highway was horrible and the coast had bad roads, but it was amazing biking day. We ended up biking an hour in dark and reached Kovalam at 8pm, got an amazing Keralan dinner at the beach and for a change there are no loudspeakers or horns around our dwelling!!

In Kerala the first thing i noticed is Mamooty replacing Rajnikant on the hoarding and CPM replacing BJP in the rally fliers competition!!

More to come as I get time!! Looking forward to pleasant, commotion less beach now that my pilgrimage is over!

I’ll keep today’s post short since its already past 11pm. We started early this morning from Rameshwaram taking a bus to Tiruchendur. After discussion last night our plan was try to gain a day so that we can splurge it in Kerala and at the same time make sure we get good biking.

We put all our stuff on the bus at 7am. It was raining pretty hard then and we were glad that we chose to bus out, but by they time bike were on the top of the bus myself and Rahul were totally drenched! Afterwards i left some of my clothes drying in the bus (well, I had laundry from last night too, which i cleaned before we decided to start super early).

Anyway as per the plan we got to Tiruchendur at about 1pm and were impressed by the timings, to make some more room we went an hour ahead and the bus driver dropped us in time for about 60km ride in to Kanyakumari. After a short break and lunch we started our ride at 2:45pm and where in Kanyakumari at about 5:40pm. To be short, this was an awesome ride!! A perfect riding weather with amazing views and a not so busy decent road — what else can we ask!! It was breathtaking!!

After getting in to Kanyakumari (well yet another temple town full of tourists), we got checked in a hotel with a great sea view and got ourself some Thali dinner. Rahul and Tulika headed to rest and i’m still punching keys.

Tomorrow we head to Kovalam and we will be in another state — yay! Kerala!!!!

Today was a full day! We did about 110km to go she the holi — Rameshwaram!

I started at about 8:30 from Parampudi so that I can meet Tulika and Rahul in Ramnathpuram at 11:00pm. Well i got there at 10:00am but they already arrived there at 9:00am! So about 45km done was a great start! After a short breakfast we started for Rameshwaram, the Trio together the first time!

We crossed through the Rameshwaram bridge at about 1:00pm. I was just beautiful.

We reach Rameshwaram at about 2:30 pm but by the time we finished checking in to hotel and showering it was 4pm. We couldn’t go to Dhanushkodi as the checkpoint closes early and the jeeps wont take us there — well we always had the alternative of Kanyakumari to see the Ocean’s mingle . We then went and payed our homeage to the Rameshwaram temple and infact in the true Hindu spirit i even did a holy bath! I guess all my wishes are going to come true .

As soon as the bhojshala’s opened at 7pm we had dinner and then decided to check out the bus schedule so that we can figure out our next day plan. After a bit of discussion we decided to head to Kanyakumari tomorrow part bus and part bicycle! We will gain a day and also have  a good ride!!

Early in the morning I took a train from Vidhyachalam to Madurai, this was a bit of shift in plans so that we can be on align schedules and ofcourse finally fulfill my desire to see the Meenakshi temple! After the saga of the missed train and my in general mishandling of pulic transport the trip to Madurai was very pleasant. Infact i got some sleep in the AC2 compartment and the TC didnt haggle about me carrying a bike. I stowed the bike in the electric compartment at the end of the boggie.

I reached Madurai at break of the dawn and checked in Hotel West right across from Meenakshi temple. After a short nap, I got to the temple at about 11:00pm. The temple was super busy and i had to use the green power to upwards of Rs. 150 to get quick darshan of Meenakshi and Shiva. It was very interesting experience reminded me of standing in Sai Baba darshan line for hours (except this time I had a VIP Rs. pass).

The temple is really ornate and as they say it is the “Taj Mahal of the South”. I loved the open spaces (which are characteristic of south Indian temples). I sat in the courtyard of Meenakshi temple for a while and tought about a lot of things! Every once in a while I would see the gopurams gazing all over. The 12 ornate gopurams are really the life of this place!

I was also contemplating about story of Meenakshi. She was very beautiful but has three breasts and the prophecy was that the third breast would go away as soon as she meets her husband. Well the third breast went away when she bowed to Shiva, and guess what Shiva was the lucky husband. Every year there is elaborate ceremony where Meenakshi is made ready to mate Shiva infact they even remove her jewels! There was also a thought in background which i learnt at Aurobindo Ashram that Hinduism or Vedanta’s preach creativity not austerity, which sort of rightfully fits the God behavior here.

Anyways – at about 1pm at started my ride for the day. I had to meet Tulika and Rahul in Tondi but with such a late start there was no way i can go 130kms. So instead i took a different highway which reach Rameshwaram (NH-49) faster than NH-33. I decided the cut short at Parampudi after covering about 80km in 4 and half hours. I passed a lot of villages on the ride and was pumped by cheering and curious kids and teenagers!

Tomorrow i meet Tulika and Rahul for lunch in Ramnathpuram (40kms) and then we head to Rameshwaram (55kms)!!

Looking forward to Sri Lanka!

PS: Do feel free to suggest what you would like to read in my trip reports and tweets. I was considering doing a quotes series and also sticking to thoughts, philosophy or flaura fauna in my ride reports.