Namdroling journey

A bike gives u an un-paralleled sense of freedom ... and now that I have one, I can capitalize on the "I want to get lost" feeling sometimes...

It was on such a whim that I decided to journey to one of the largest tibetan settlements in India ...Namdroling ....

So that I can remember how much I used to act on whims when I'm older ...

1:45 am : Feeling down and out ...
1:46 am : Remembers Korrapati and Gokul talking abt Tibetan Monastery
1:47 am : Google maps ... "Tibetan Monastery, Karnataka" .... 2 results... "Show all results"..... 60+ results.... most are in a spot near Kushalnagar in south western karnataka....
1:50am : Get directions A: Forum Mall, Bangalore B: Kushalnagar .... distance 239km apprx travel time (by car) 4 hours 18 mins .... oooookkaaaaayyy ....(gulp)
1:52: OK ... set alarm for 5:30am ... draw route on piece of paper....
2:10 am: sleep...
5:35am : Go

Fact : The bangalore-mysore highway is simply AWESOME ... its like ...

Stretch of four lane road in front of campus x n times
Bougainvillae growing on the divider ... cows eating the flowers, thorns, leaves and all ... looooong and winding curves .... banked in places .... 100kmph turns are easy here... Speed bumps are there of course to bring u back down to earth (sometimes quite literally)


Stopped after abt an hour of continous riding to take a few snaps of a jasmine farm ...

Got lost near Mysore ....ended up in Infosys Campus (the grey building DOES look space age)
Fortunately, couple of northi IT professionals were there to point me in the right direction (albeit in choppy english :P)

Having left the famous highway .. I was apprehensive abt the condition of roads the rest of the way ... My fears proved grossly misplaced ... SH88 was just as good as Sh17 (just 2 lanes tho .. 4 wuldav been overkill ... traffic is virtually nonexistant...) .... blazing on I reached my destination in just over 31/2 hours ...

I knew i was in the right place coz every which way .... there were tibetans ...

Took 30 mins more to get to the monastery ... deep in the settlement ....