Land of the rising sun - The invite

It was an extraordinary day in my life. I was checking my email from home early in the morning, and was ecstatic to see an invitation to visit Japan, the land of the rising sun.

My close friend and past colleague Jay had relocated to Japan just a year back. Before he moved to Japan we had worked together on building a new business unit. We travelled together on business visits and had discussed several plans for growing the business over the wee hours of night after the business meetings were over. Jay had moved to Japan in order to build his career, however a part of his heart was still with us. We used to exchange emails regularly, and I used to provide him updates on the progress of our plans that we built together. Phone conversation was very expensive and not financially possible.

As I was already aware, homes in Japan are really small, and it is very difficult to host visitors without making some arrangements. Jay’s neighbour and his colleague in Japan was visiting India along with his family during a particular week, and his apartment was available for stay. Before inviting me Jay had talked to Navin about sparing his apartment, and Navin had agreed wholeheartedly, without thinking even once. 

If I could plan my trip exactly during the same week, it was possible to stay with Jay.

I had never thought of visiting Japan. There were many difficulties. Staying and eating in Japan is very expensive, and a trip using the normal tourist way of travelling would have been out of my reach. Very few people in Japan know English, or any other language I knew, and learning Japanese was very difficult for me. I had heard horror stories about Japanese food, and getting Indian food in restaurants was out of question.

Jay solved all my problems.

“You can stay with us, so you don’t have to pay for accommodation. Dinner will be at home and you can carry packed food for breakfast and lunch. Radhika will be very happy to cook for all of us. I will plan for all of your visits, I have visited these places before and I can give you very detailed instructions to complete your every day trip, without knowing Japanese. It is a summertime, it will not be very cold, and if required we have a couple of extra jackets. Only thing that remains is the cost of travel, if you can pay for the flight from Mumbai, and a JRail pass for a week, you are all set.”

There was enough time to plan the trip. The first thing I did was to check with my wife, she was very excited at the thought of visiting Japan. She knew Jay and Radhika very well and did not have any hesitation to accept their invitation to stay with them. Next thing was to check the business calendar, since I was planning well in advance, the calendar looked pretty clean during those days. Same day I talked to my manager in the office and applied for one week leave. The manager was very supportive. Our daughter was very young, and we were pretty sure that she would not enjoy the trip. My parents agreed to take care of her for a week.

I called up my travel agent, and checked the price of flight ticket and a JRail pass for a week.

And it was “Clear to go”.

Invitation letter, tickets, visa, purchasing yens everything was just a formality, which was taken care of, except the JRail pass, which is a separate story altogether.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 8 and 9 - Yet another nice experience

The target for next halt was Satara. It was just eighty kilometres away. Given the long and tiring journey completed yesterday, it would have been impossible to travel more than that. It was about noon, when we reached Umbraj, and turned left towards Pune. At that time the Mumbai Bangalore highway was only two lanes, and we faced a lot more traffic. Most of it was trucks.

I remember counting down every kilometre as we crossed a milestone.

Based on the experience yesterday, we caught up with a rickshaw driver near the ST stand. We were asking for a place like a temple where we can stay overnight.

“You will not be able to stay in a temple. This is a city full of temples, but they will not let you stay.”

We had a key that could open many doors, we showed our I Cards. 

“Oh you are from COEP? Engineers? Take this small road on the left and go straight to the district collector’s office. Many engineers visit that office, they will help you.”

He had logic, and he was confident. But we were not convinced. 

“Why would the collector office help students on the road?” I said to Sandesh.

We thought for a few minutes.

“Anyway it’s worth trying. My father is a government servant. We can use that connection if required. Maybe we can find someone to help.”

We went straight to the collectors office, we showed our I Cards to the peon, and told him we want to meet the collector sahib. He asked us the reason. We waited for about fifteen minutes, and then were called inside. The officer inside was not the collector, but must be someone with authority. We explained to him about the trip and the reason for the trip as an educational excursion.

“You cannot stay in the government rest house. Satara is a central place and the rest houses are always full.”

He did not sound like he was showing us the door, so we had a ray of hope.

“There is another place, where revenue officers visiting the collector office for office work stay overnight. It is not a government rest house. It is run by the revenue officers club. Everybody staying overnight contributes rupees ten per night. I will send someone along with you, so that they will allow you in.”

“This will be better than the rest house, sir. Thank you for your help.”

We couldn’t believe our luck. The place was very nicely maintained. There were a couple of others staying there, they did not bother much about us, they were busy with their own plans of entertainment.

The fun will be over tomorrow. We thought as we slid into our beds for a good night's sleep.

By now we had got into the habit of getting up very early. Like a routine we started. The road was mostly flat, the ghats were pleasant as it involved sliding down. Around two pm, we reached Pune and somewhere before Swargate, stopped at a south Indian restaurant for lunch.

“It’s finally over.” was the thought as we gulped idli and dosa. 

“Bye. Bye. Don’t expect to see me in college, at least for a week. I will need that much time to recover. I hope Anil and Ajay have reached safely by now.” 

I turned left toward my room and Sandesh turned right towards Hadapasar.

The story of an incredible journey - Rest of Day 7 - Pleasant experience

It is hard to say how long we were lying down. After a seemingly long time, a fleet of road repairing machinery and a bunch of trucks crossed us slowly. We got up from the lying down position, some of the labourers in the truck recognised us and started waving their hands, we waved back in response.

As the road became empty, we realised something for the first time. A significant time had passed without any other vehicle crossing the road. With the repair crew gone, there was no one on the road. We were not able to trace any vehicle lights all along the road that we could see. It was just the two of us, on the bicycle in the middle of the jungle, and we did not know how far we had to go before finding a suitable place for rest.

“We need to get going. We don’t know whether it is safe to hang out in the open.”, 

“Agreed, let’s go.”

The road ahead was quite nice and sloping downwards. The efforts required to push were relatively low,  It was about an hour before we could see any sign of civilisation. “Koynanagar” was the name of the place. The town was a little bit inside from the main road. We decided to try our luck in the town. We went to the bus stand, found one rickshaw driver and enquired about a place to stay. He pointed us to the government rest house.

At the rest house we were received by a middle aged caretaker.

“Yes, you can stay here, I have a room available. However if any government officer shows up, you will have to vacate the room.” he replied.

“It is already late in the evening and a chance of anyone coming up is really low, but it’s my duty to keep you informed of the rules.” 

“We don’t really need a room, we can sleep here in the veranda.” We were trying to save some money. We showed our college I Cards.

“No. You can't sleep here. It is unsafe to sleep in the open. Also as per the rules you have to register and pay for the room.” He was quite firm in his response.

“The rooms are very cozy, you will get hot water. I will prepare dinner for all of us, come back in half an hour.” He opened one room for us.

The room was large, good for an entire family. We were getting more than what we asked for. We filled our hungry stomachs, after a hot water bath. 

“We will be leaving very early in the morning.” Sandesh said to the caretaker as we paid for the room and the food.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 7 - The mistake

While all other friends were still sleeping, myself and Sandesh got ready for the return adventure. Sushil's parents were awake, and his mother prepared a cup of tea for us. When we started the air was a little warm and humid, and full of smell from the sea shore. The normal morning sounds were yet to start. As we moved from Ratnagiri to Hathkhamba, we were facing east but there was no sun to face because we crossed the eastward journey before sunrise. By the time we turned left on the Goa highway toward Mumbai, we had caught up a nice rhythm and good speed.

The journey towards Chiplun was faster than we expected. It was just the two us, and both of us were energised with the three day rest. By now we were used to the highway travels and the truck drivers that crossed us at a high speed. The roads in Konkan are narrow, and a bicycle in the left lane meant a bit of irritation to the drivers. To overtake us they had to take extra caution, and also had to lose speed sometimes. Understanding their difficulties we were cooperating with them as much as possible, allowing them to cross maintaining their speed, but it was not always possible.

Wasting very little time for breakfast in between, we reached Chiplun just before noon. As per the plan Chiplun was our destination for today.

“What are we going to do for the rest of the day?”,

“We have travelled only 90 kilometres so far, we can definitely go a little more before we call it a day.”

It is hard to say who was saying it to whom, but it looked like both of us were thinking on the same lines.

While we were having lunch in a roadside shop we evaluated our options. One was to go north towards Mumbai. The next possible place for an overnight stay was “Bharana naka” or Khed which was about 30 kilometres. The other road was going towards the East. We could have crossed the Ghats within 40 kilometres. We decided to take the new route. There were several advantages. We could have crossed the ghats on the first day itself. As we were fresh and energetic, it made sense to travel the difficult part first. We could have travelled through a different region, seen different places, and yes, without thinking much, we decided to take the new road.

The road before lunch was covered with trees, also it was early hours in the morning. As we turned right, the situation changed completely. Since the direction of travel changed towards the east, shadows of the trees refused to cover the roads. With a full stomach and hot sun and tired limbs, we started to feel the difference. After a journey of a few kilometres, the ghat started. The road to Koyananagar is also known as  the “Kumbharli Ghat”. It is a fairly long ghat covering more than thirty kilometres in length.

Something completely unexpected was waiting for us just around the first bend.

“Loose gravel and a smell of molten tar”. Yes, the road repair work was in progress. “My God, this is going to kill us.” 

Hot sun, loose gravel (khadi) on the road, boiling hot tar on the surface, wood fire that was used to boil the tar and the smoke added to the steep upward slopes. Initially there was a hope that once we cross the repair zone, we will be OK. The repair zone did not seem to end. The work was going on simultaneously at multiple places. There were zones where it was just impossible to paddle the bike, that required us to walk and push the bicycles along with us, making sure that the feet did not slip off the chappals and touch the ground. We did sympathise with the labourers who were working all day and in many cases bare feet.

We reached the top or the place called “Ghat Matha” exactly at 5 in the evening. Now a days you will see a small shop selling tea / coffee etc, at "Ghat Matha". Many years ago there was nothing. The moment we noticed the downward slope in front of us, we literally threw away our bicycles, and jumped on the ground lying flat. The support from the ground and whatever little grass that was there, was feeling like a 'Thai massage' to our feet.

The day was not over yet, but there was no more energy left. It will be prudent to take some rest and get started again in some time.

* For comparison, Khopoli is 61m above Lonavala is about 622m above MSL, so the Khandal ghat is 541 meters difference. Travel distance is roughly 15 km. 

Whereas Chiplun is at 7m above MSL, and Koynanagar is at 897m above MSL. That is an 890 meter difference and the on road distance is 30 kilometres. So it was like climbing Khandala ghat two times. That was after cycling 80 KM from Ratnagiri.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 4, 5, 6 - Local sightseeing

“Let’s go around Ratnagiri today, we will visit some nearby places tomorrow” proposed Sushil.

This was a bit of a relaxed day, we caught up with the sleep, got up a bit late and took enough time to finish morning rituals.

Our feet were still reminding us of the last three days. The only way to keep them quiet was to make them do some more work. We went around the small town and visited a few places. After a quick stop at Lokamanya Tilak’s birth place, we followed on to the Bhagwati Bandar, fort and the Lighthouse. We tried to use our COEP, I Card to get entry inside the lighthouse. It was very light cycling, some part of the travel was through loose sandy areas.

By the time we were back, Sushil’s mother was waiting for us, and she served us a very delicious food. The non-veg lovers really enjoyed the fish and the sea food during those three days. The kind of fish prepared and served was something unique to the place and was not available in Pune. At the time I was a vegetarian and missed all the fun. Sushil’s mother had to cook separately for me. Today I can appreciate that, but during college days I was very shy, and did not say anything to her, or thanked her for her extra efforts.

In the evening we went to Thiba Palace, a place where Thiba, the king of Brahmadesh and his family was stationed for many years under the british rule. On the way back we visited the sea shore once again.

During the next couple of days we went to Pavas and Ganpatipule by bus. Yes, we were too tired of cycling. Also the coastal road between Ratnagiri and Ganpatipule that exists today was not there. It required going back all the way to Goa Highway and taking a different route to Ganpatipule. These were more or less tourist-like activities, though we enjoyed the days and the travel, nothing special worth mentioning happened.

On the third day in Ratnagiri, when we returned from our tourist excursion in the evening, a surprise was waiting for us.

“I am not going to go back to Pune on bicycle.” Ajay said something that got everybody to jump on their feet.

“The ride is very interesting, but very tiring too. My bicycle is not in the best shape, the journey towards Pune will mean more climbing and less descent. I will go by bus.” 

Well there was a point in what he said. Also he sounded well decided. 

“Oh my god!”

Before I could understand the implications, Anil joined Ajay. He was thinking on the same lines. 

“Well then, it’s only you and me” Sandesh said to me without giving much choice to me. “I am sure we can make it through.”

“Ok, that’s it then, I think I can make it back, but if not we have the option to get into a bus from anywhere in between.”

While Ajay and Anil relaxed, Makarand and Sandesh started packing their sacks, and Sushil was tasked to book the return bus tickets.

* The return journey by bus was mostly uneventful. It was an overnight ST bus (rat rani) from Ratnagiri to Pune. Ajay’s bicycle was further damaged in transit, and he had to get it properly repaired after returning to Pune. Ajay says that the money he spent on repairs was more than the cost of the entire trip.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 3 - We made it !

Some time must have passed, I felt someone was trying to wake me up. Knowing about the policeman's visit, I got up quickly and reached out to my sack searching for my I Card. 

“It’s already four Makarand, and we need to start moving.” This time it was Sandesh. 

“Oh is it? I thought it must be the policeman.” I was still trying to keep myself awake. 

“He did come sometime around midnight. He wanted to wake up everyone, but when he saw my I Card with the name College Of Engineering, Pune on it, he was satisfied, and changed his mind.” 

Instantly we recognized the power of our I Card. We had to use that power a few more times later.

There was no one on the road as we approached the highway to start our southward journey again. 

“Sangameshwar 45 KM, Hathkhamba 75 KM” read the milepost as we reached the highway and left Chiplun. 

One third of our onward journey still remains. Today we were feeling tired, but also relaxed at the same time, because we knew we were going to make it today. The roads were still hilly, but much more greener now and the slopes were steeper. Averaging just about ten kilo meters per hour, we reached Hathkhamba a little after noon.

Hathkhamba is the place where you turn right towards Ratnagiri, straight road goes to Goa and the left turn will take you towards Amba Ghat, Pawankhind and Kolhapur. We are very close to our destination, only twelve kilometers to go. 

“Sushil was going to meet us here in Hathkhamba” Anil was about to say when he realized that Sushil is not seen anywhere. 

There was no place to hide as there was nothing around. We could have started rolling towards Ratnagiri, but there was a risk in it. What if Sushil was waiting for us somewhere there? There will be absolutely no way for him to know that we have crossed the junction.

We were getting restless as thirty minutes passed without any sign of Sushil. 

“How long can we wait?, if he is here he won’t be hiding for that long.” Agreed everyone and we started moving towards Ratnagiri. 

“How can we find his house? Hope he is famous in Ratnagiri, and we can trace him by name.” I kept my thoughts to myself, so as not to demotivate others. How stupid it was to not carry address of a place we were visiting!

We were almost there and just a couple of kilometers before Ratnagiri, we saw a figure approaching us from the west. With the evening sun behind him, it was difficult to recognise who it is. He must be Sushil, I guessed. We started shouting with joy and waved frantically at him. It was easy for him to notice the four bicycles, and he was looking for more. He was also shouting and waving his right hand. We could see it clearly that he was very very happy as well as surprised. 

“You have reached long before I had expected. I thought you would reach by late evening. Well done guys.” Sushil was talking as loud as he could while he took the U Turn. Now it was a team of five.

As we entered Tambat Ali, everyone was staring at us. We had become an item of presentation. Not that they were new to people from Pune, but it was our appearance after a three day long bicycle journey. Sushil’s parents welcomed us whole heartedly.

The next three days were going to be full of fun in the new place, the delicious food at night was just an example of it.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 2 - The testing times

The second day started very early in the morning. There was no need to take a bath. We quickly finished our morning rituals and breakfast at home. Yesterday we were moving towards the West, today we started moving towards the South. Avoiding the street dogs, we soon reached the Mumbai Goa highway (oops! It was the Bombay Goa Highway that time), NH 17. Our feet were still aching from the tiredness of yesterday, but the only way to get rid of the pain was to move. The road was more or less flat now, and the air was cool. We crossed Poladpur and reached Kashedi Ghat with an uneventful ride.

The road between Poladpur and Khed was somewhat familiar to me. When I was in primary school, I used to travel from Dapoli to Pune by ST bus via Mahabaleshwar, once every year. The hairpin bends in Kashedi Ghat were quite well known. For larger vehicles it was not possible to manoeuvre those turns in one go. It required some juggling to make a turn. My observations of that juggling helped me later to quickly pick up the ‘K’ type U turn when I was learning to drive. However on a bicycle, those turns were pretty trivial. The vertical white stripes on the sidewall of the last turn were a sign of relief as it ment end of the Ghat while going up. All that fun will vanish soon as newly built tunnels will remove those turns and slopes.

“Hey Makarand, stop, I don’t see Sandesh and Ajay anymore.” Anil shouted. 

On the downward slope we had caught up a good speed, and thought that the remaining two must be following us. In a few minutes both of them appeared, looking tired. Ajay’s bicycle had a flat tire, and Ajay was riding for some time without realizing the damage. There was no repair shop in sight. A solution appeared rather quickly. 

“Ajay, you ride double seat along with me, and let Makarand carry your bicycle in one hand.” 

Looks like Sandesh had prior experience of cycle trips, and that helped. The ghat was mostly over and it was possible to travel double seat. We had to travel about thirty kilo meters that way before we could get some help.

As we reached “Bharana naka” we spotted a repair shop which came to our rescue. The bicycle tube was severely damaged, and required replacement. That was a serious drain on the resource Ajay did not have much. Also we lost time that was crucial.

Just after the ‘Bharana Naka’ the road towards Dapoli turns right. The familiarity ended. We continued straight towards Ratnagiri. As I figured out later ‘Bharana Naka’ at one time was a toll booth for vehicles carrying forest goods. For us it was just a small road side market place. We also had some food, call it breakfast or brunch. For the first time since we started we were spending some significant amount of money from our pocket.

The road between Bharana Naka and Ratnagiri is full of ups and downs. There is no end. You will not find a stretch of hundred meters that is straight or flat. But that also meant half the time we were going down and not paddling. That was fun. The Mumbai Goa highway had some traffic. In the ghats we had to watch carefully and avoid trucks. 

Learning from the earlier experience, we all tried to stay together as much as possible by keeping an eye on each other. Option was available to cling on to a truck by holding the chains that hang out on the rear. It can be unsafe, but very useful, particularly when you are going up the hill. More than the thought of safety, my pride did not allow me to do so. I wanted to finish the journey on my own efforts.

Since we started a bit late and spent time repairing the bicycle, it was almost dark when we took a slight detour from the highway and entered Chiplun. A helpful hand at the junction pointed us towards the “Bhairi Temple”. 

“That’s a usual spot of stay for stray visitors”, he mentioned. 

“Keep your I Cards ready, as a police man will visit at night. Don’t pay him anything, and don't be scared. Just show your I Cards and you will be good. Also take care of your belongings, you don’t know who else will be stopping by at night.” 

We were getting more advice than we asked for. But he was right, it’s better to be prepared. We had very few things to worry about, but that was all very essential things required during the trip.

“Bhairi” is a short name for “Kalbhairav” in konkan, it is the name of god Shankar. And a Shankar temple will always have some form of water around it.  In the temple campus, there was a nice large well with plenty of water, and the facilities to draw it out. That’s all we needed at the moment. The temple area was surrounded by many hibiscus bushes with large red flowers. A few birds were chirping around. We were thankful to the unknown people who had made the arrangements. 

We were still carrying some food with us, and that was enough to serve the purpose for tonight. “Let’s finish it off. Anyway we will reach Ratnagiri tomorrow, and won't need it anymore.” A comment by someone was very encouraging, we needed all the energy we could get.

When the food was over, everyone was tired, and there was nothing else to do. In a small town in Konkan, which is surrounded by tall coconut trees, it gets dark soon after sunset. The best choice was to get into a bed. All of us were carrying a light bedsheet, good enough for one person to sleep. Maybe there were some mosquitos around, but who knows?