Saturday, August 29, 2009

Day 173 - Aug 28 - Trichy to Tanjavur

Aug28 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Travel Community

60KMs TripMeter 24863 KMs

With the parts arriving at by 11 and bike to be delivered late noon. We thought of visiting the Srirangam Temple in the morning. It was hot but after my stay in Delhi, any place feels bearable! We catch a rick cross the kaveri and into the Srirangam town. As we get near the temple, the imposing huge colorful front gate can be seem. Its only gets bigger and bigger as we near. Have seen these temples only on TV and now we are there. This is a busy temple with lot of life around. Seven gates till you get into the sanctum sanctuary. Each gate is an opening through the rectangular perimeter. Ok not sure of the exact design. Just writing what i observed. The first 3-4 gates had a lot of shops and civilization. Huge stone temples inside. Ofcourse there were lots and lots of people. Got into the Q and took us a good part of the day before we were through the Darshan. The 1000 pillar mandap was closed for some reason.

Caught a rick back to the hotel and had lunch. Got to the KRT Service center by 3 pm and the engine is back to the shape and about to be mounted on the bike. Looks like i can ride out in the evening. And still keep my plan to stay at Tanjavur. So that i can visit the Tanjavur temple with out worrying about the luggage on the bike. Went to the room to check out and by the time we were back to the service center the bike had gone for test ride! Wow that was fast!

I received fantastic and fast service from the cheerful and helpful staff at KRT HeroHonda showroom at Trichy. After riding for 24800 kms i thought i had to take my bike back to bangalore on a truck. But the helpful staff there understood my situation and made sure that my journey would not end with a engine Breakdown. Thanks to them i was able to continue my journey right from the service center and started towards Tanjavur on the same evening.

Here is my heart full thanks for the timely help, support andprofessional work from the staff at KRT HeroHonda showroom at Trichy, for helping in continue my journey.

Had a small photosession at the showroom before leaving. Bid byes to Mani as he left for coimbatur and rode towards Tanjavur. It was just 56 KMs. It was hot and i had been having too many cold drinks and i had caught throat infection in the morning. It was getting bad. I know how the drill goes. Going to be sick tomm. The night traffic not really helping. The HID is very much missed. Any way make it to Tanjavur by 7.30. Not as small a town as i imagined. Saw the Big temple's center tower light up in the night. After a bit of hunting found a room at Hotel Tamil Nadu. Kinda expensive at 650 bux but its hard to find parking with reasonable price. So take the huge TTDC room. TTDC hotels are nice and airy with huge premises with a legacy look. Worked a bit on my logs.. Err a lot and slept late with a early wake up tomm morning.

Me and Mani on a rick ride to the Srirangam Temple...


The rick cockpit...


The huge front gate of the temple...














The second gate...


Nannari Sharbat to beat the heat...


One more gate inside...


Huge temple structure...


Paintings in one of the sub temples...





Quite an architecture...





Satellite image of the temple...


The wall of one of the perimeters...


Huge pillers...


Mani and me..


Its not a white gate, but painting work in progress...


Thats a 1000 pillar mandap...


Amazing carving in other part...








err... i was just... err...


Kinda graphic carving there... can see the weapon stabbed into the other person!


Ladies performing small individual ceremonies inside the temple complex...


Market in the temple...


City busses are chrome!!


The bridge across river kaveri...





Mani and our rick...


The rick is not 'For hire' but ..... :D


Chrome busses again...


Caught ourself in the reflection...


The engine almost back to shape...


Forgot the name of the place...


The room there...


we are leaving...





Bike ready to roll out of KRT Service center...


Mr Arun, Mr Albert, Mr me, Mr Shivakumaran and Mr Ganesh from right to left :)


Ready to ride out. Cant believe would be riding so soon after the engine breakdown!


Elephant on the move...


On a truck....


Road towards Tanjavur...


The main tower of Tanjavur Big temple...

Day 172 - Aug 27 - In Trichy

Heard the bang on the door in the middle of the night. What? where am i? whose it at this time? Well its Mani. Salem is just 5 hours away. It was great meeting him after years. We chat back to sleep. Its reality check in the morning. In a way i am kinda happy with the forced rest. Take our time and get to the Service center by 9.30 am. The people at the service center were impressed and and happy to work on my bike. They were waiting for us as they could not remove the seat. It was stuck under the saddle bag which was again the panniers. Any way got that out. And they assigned two mechs Shivakumaran and Ganesh dedicated to work on my bike on priority. In no time the engine was out and it was going to be disassembled. In a few mins the engine was all over the table and the damage checked out.

The broken bearing has taken 3 gear cogs along with it. The balls were all over the gear box. Since not much Karizma's around here the spares have to be shipped in from else where. The KRT service center had the required bearings but the gear cogs had to be sourced. Mr Arun the manager contacted his network of HeroHonda service centers in Chennai, Salem and Nagarcoil and the spares from different places will arrive the next day by 11 am. And i was promised to give me the bike up and running the next day. Were the spares available the bike would be ready the same day. Any way i am not hard pressed for time. Mani was also free for couple of days and he would stay with me in Trichy till bike was ready. So there is nothing that can be done till the next day. So can as well relax and catch up with old time.

Thought of hitting the room, freshening up and check out a movie for which we had a couple of hours. But whats stopping us from getting high at noon? ;) Settled at 12.30 boozing and chatting and living up our child hood. Went on and on and soon we were late for movie. Who wants movie :D continued. And was only 6.30 we got out and had not realized how the time went! Went to the service center and the parts would most definitely arrive the next day. Albert and his from the service center join us for early evening dinner and you know what :) It was great catchup up with their enthusiasm.

And what do you know had a hang over by late evening. And were even out of it before we crashed for the day!!

The the prettiest drain i have ever seen!


Flowers!


A cycle with a big bell!


The engine's out!


Its opened!! Not clear in the picture, but could actually see a couple of bearing balls at the bottom.


The culprit....


Engine all over the table... Ouch that hurts!!


The broken fifth gear cog!!


Crank and the pistons doing fine...


Ring sealing was kinda ok i guess...


Thats all the riding i could do for the day...


Thats Supervisor Albert, Mechs Ganesh & Shivakumar and Mr Arun the Manager, from left to right. All very enthusiastic on getting my bike fixed.