Made with in India
Made with in India
Back from yet another cycling trip are we? This one was one of the recent best. Inspired by recent events of aimless discovery, we planned to go to Vipasana Pagoda and obviously detours. This time we were 3 people. Thadu, an energetic , super entu junior from BDes course and guess what, he has the guts to carry a full framers while cycling >100k . So, as a story of our trips. We had a planned a route that we missed. I had bought pebble specifically for these activities. Only to discover that Google maps does not push notifications to pebble anymore !! Duh Anyone has options? I am all ears. Anyways Endomondo works great and we averaged 2:50 min/km on most roads.
So, the route was meant to be we take eastern, till Thane and then Fountain Chowk (yes! time does get dilated here), then beat some ghats and then go to Pagoda without going through the creeks and comeback from Versova after covering Gorai and Uttan beach. Much of it was inspired from this amazing cycling blog by Ashutosh.
But it did not end up like that.
We did took Eastern and cycled till Fountain Chowk. Here is a selfie at the chowk. This was probably the fastest sprint. Averaging around 2:15/km . But the roads were bad we you go down hill and without the front shocks you cant do some cylobatics. But we made it, I had my dogs-after-me moment too. Somehow I attract Dogs randomly. At least this time I did not fall.
We somehow ended up in Borivali after that and had to take a ferry to cross the creek. CHECK
But as we moved towards the port, we could see the Pagoda in its magnificent brilliance inviting us.
The next part of the journey was great. We visited Pagoda. Attended their 10 min Meditation session in the north pagoda.
The entry was magnificent and we felt as if we are at a film set or a slice of alternate reality embedded in our space .
Entry
As Dinojh says the gems on the top were imported from Brazil. This is a greenish one captured from his monocular.
The walls of the pagoda were all painted in golden color. Felt royal. The doors were made from wood imported from Burma. On the top of the Pagoda were some parts of the holy remains of Lord Buddha.
There was this huge bell, all casted with the name of the cast-master engraved on it .
It sounded nice
The inside of the pagoda. But only seasoned people are allowed inside.
After the Pagoda, we had planned for Gorai, but thought we would cycle till Uttan beach and visit a great church there. Cycling till Uttan was an experience, the grade was a bit too much in the noon. But the Church was amazing, Worth it.
We also saw, a giant statue of Mother Mary with a classic Mediterranean feel and color palette. We could see the lighthouses around too.
Cycles at Uttan Beach. Almost got washed away as the sea transitioned from Low to High tide as we were exploring the beach
Dinojh Stuntworks Pvt Limited
Crossing the Beaches Dinojh Style. So, this will be interesting. We had to see Gorai, because from what we could see it was far more happening than Uttan. Now, we could take the road, that was too much grade or cross from beach to beach. But High Tide. What a bystander suggested, “Your cycles are good, maybe you could carry it over the rocks?”
Me, “Carry? Cycles? They cant be classified in a logical set together”
Dinojh,” Come fast guys, I am already up here!”
Damn.. It was difficult to carry the cycle on the slippery rocks and stuff. Thanks to Dinojh, who helped me a lot. He actually carried it for most of the time. From now on Gorai beach was renamed, Dinojh Beach. #SuperManh
Gorai Beach
From Gorai we cycled endlessly till we reached the port and then ferry > Borivali > Western
Then
Cycle punctured by apparently what looks like a fish-bone. BTwin tubes are super bad. They just cant be fixed. Needs replacement of the tube. This is the second time this is happening to me. Bad BTWin.
We did not continue on Western as it was too hot and we took, the Aarey colony road till Powai and then reached IIT.
Phew. I just crashed after reaching, only to wake up 2 hours later with tons of assignments in my bad waiting to be started and a lingering taste of the adventure of the day resonating in the background.
Until next time.
さよなら
再见
Cheers,
Rohit