First long drive with my new bride 'suki'

It was a sad thing. I had no other choice.. I had to move on... i agree that she had been a good companion to me all throughout for 9 years, but she was too urban type. She would start crying if I tried to take her on a long drive towards the countryside. She also hated the highways. She would start shivering if I tried to speed up on highways. Though I loved her a lot, I had to move on....

The day had come. On March 1st 2010, I brought home my new bride 'suki'. I had to shell out 68k as dowry :( And as the age-old proverb goes, "10 men can stay together happily under a roof, but 2 women can't stay peacefully ", I had to handover my first love to my uncle.
With a heavy-heart, I handed over my bajaj-boxer to my uncle, who paid me 8k as compensation. Hmm.. one has to move on in life...
I had already bored my new bride Suzuki GS150R a.k.a suki for one full week by taking her all along in the city. In contrast to boxer, my suki hates city traffic and loves the countryside just like me. With 6 speeds, shes' made for the highways. She can be a bit troublesome in the cities while changing gears as she has 6 of them. Can't help it "Love ke side-effects"...

She was continuously persisting for a long drive. On 6th March, took her on a long drive to SRS betta (Sri revanasiddheshwara betta). Karthik, who also owns a GS150 joined me along with his friend Varun. Infact, it was after driving Karthik's GS150R that I had decided to own it.

Man.. my suki was so smooth on the highways, that I sometimes dozed off while driving. I felt it tough to keep her under 60kmph. She was still in the break-in period and I was not supposed to run her more than 4.5k rpm.

SRS betta is around 50-55 kms from Bangalore, near Ramanagara. To reach there, one has to go to Ramanagar, take the road on the left going towards Kanakapura. After about 10kms, theres an arch indicating the road to SRS betta. The hill is only a couple of kms to the right from that point.
Left home around 9am, met Karthik and Varun on the Mysore road - Ring road junction. Had tatte idlis at Bidadi enroute and reached SRS betta by 11:30am. Though the road upto Ramanagar was dry, it was a different world from there on upto the SRS betta. It was greenery all around. Too many lakes and well irrigated fields dotted with cranes.
SRS betta, like many others of its kind is one of the highest monolith rock in the surrounding areas and ofcourse is a religious place. The hill has a renuka devi temple below and the revana siddheshwara temple is inside a cave on top of the hill. The climb is short and steep. Steps are carved all along the hill (without which climbing it would've been really exciting) and railings are provided. There are a couple of water ponds on top of the hill to collect rain water, which are in bad shape now. The zenith has 2 small mantapas. Further down one can find the cave temple. Looks like monkeys rule the place. After all, it is "Rama" nagara. View from top is amazing. Greenery and lakes everywhere even during this dry season. Another strange thing we saw was, some "tayita" kind of thing tied to all the trees enroute the hill with plastic bags. Looked like an eye-sore amidst the wilderness.
We were done by 2pm. Heard there was prasada provided at the "dasoha bhavana" below. But, we were full with liquid diet (3 tender cocunuts each). Summer heat.. feel like drinking more than eating. We decided to postpone our lunch till we reached bangalore. We took the route via kanakapura to reach bangalore. We were back to Bangalore by 3:30pm.

My suki loved this drive :)